New Mexico Daily Lobo
URL: http://www.dailylobo.com/index.php/article/2010/03/pot_laws_create_criminals_squander_public_resources
Current Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:27:36 -0700
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Pot laws create criminals, squander public resources
Editor,
Regarding Zach Gould’s March 8 column, I would like to comment that the drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2008, there were 847,863 marijuana arrests in the U.S., almost 90 percent for simple possession.
At a time when state and local governments are laying o police, re ghters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not necessarily lower rates of use. The U.S. has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. An admitted former pot smoker, President Obama has thus far maintained the prohibition status quo rather than pursue real change. Would Barack Obama be in the White House right now if he had been convicted of a marijuana o ense in his youth? Decriminalization is a long overdue step in the right direction. Taxing and regulating marijuana would render the drug war obsolete. As long as marijuana distribution is controlled by organized crime, consumers will continue to come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like meth and heroin. is “gateway” is a direct result of marijuana prohibition. Students who want to reform marijuana laws should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy at SchoolsNotPrisons.com.
Robert Sharpe
Policy Analyst for Common Sense
for Drug Policy



6 comments
slowhike
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I agree with decriminalization of marijuana OR we could consider prohibtion and Elliot Ness- like law enforcement.
J
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Maybe Obama could consider what legalization and taxation would do to organized crime (ouch) and the budget/deficit (pay it off before this country & it’s government collapse under the weight of greedy, self-serving hypocrisy – and then use the new tax base to eliminate personal income tax…) Imagine the benign ganja monster no longer being the “gateway” drug to the ones that do the REAL harm…
No, this is not a pipe dream – I stopped smoking pot over 7 years ago. It’s a realistic, practical, creative alternative to the current ineffective, money and resource wasting “War on Drugs”.
Elvis
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Chavez of Venezuela is supporting USA-Mexico border violence, this is one of his vehicles to demonstrate retaliation and objection to the USA. Government officials understand this, it’s just that Obama has been concerned about other matters, and 5000 murders in Mexico is not a big deal for him.
Socialists Unite!
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Chavez and Obama are Socialists and they will do their Internationalist duty of supporting each other.
Obama was taught from a young age the virtues of Communism. In he book, he wrote of “Frank” being his mentor as a young boy in Hawaii. “Frank” turned out to be Frank Marshall Davis, a member of the Communist Party USA!
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During his Columbia years, he associated with known Communist front organizations and wrote a letter in the Columbia Sundial about them. GOOGLE OBAMA SUNDIAL 1983.
During his sitting in the pews of a hater of America, Rev. Wright, he learned about BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY which Wright learned from the Soviet KGB program of Liberation Theology in Central America. But BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY IS RACIST AND OBAMA AND EVEN OPRAH SAT THERE WITH OBAMA IN THIS RACIST CHURCH FOR TWENTY YEARS! Rev. Wright was to give the invocation the morning of Obama’s announcement of his run from President but the Rev. was removed only hours before due to stories of his sermons. Even after the most racist and hate America sermons were exposed, Obama called him “an Uncle.” He had to get rid of this liability so Wright gave a speech probably written in concert with Obama which Obama could then use to drop Wright from his inner circle.
During the 80’s, universities were taken over by Communist front organizations including here at UNM. The main group then was the UNM Peace Council traced to New Mexico Peace Council whose leader was also the head of the NM Marxist Educators for Socialist Action, then to the United States Peace Council run by the Communist Party USA, and finally to the World Peace Council which was run by the Soviet KGB! UNM TO THE KGB?
This Circle of Communism was at almost every major university and large city but they had a Peace Council in every state along with national Peace Councils around the world.
Hillary, Bill, Bill Richardson, Obama and his inner circle, were products of this COMMUNIST/SOCIALIST CONSPIRACY TO TAKE OVER AMERICA!
SO ELVIS, all of the above have supported Fidel, wore Che T-shirts, and now they support the march towards Socialism around the world but especially in their support for a COMMUNIST takeover of South America by Chavez and Central America by Daniel Ortega and our Communist Party USA!
When President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras was ousted by his own party and Supreme Court, Hillary and Obama came to his defense. Chavez, and the regions COMMUNISTS, were there to aid Zelaya.
In the 80’s, UNM was used to raise funds for a COMMUNIST rebel group, the FMLN, in their attempt at the violent overthrow of the government of El Salvador. HILLARY CLINTON gave $15,000 to the FMLN REBEL GROUP but millions were raised, including at UNM, to send to the rebels. ILLEGAL?
THE FMLN REPRESENTATIVE WON THE PRESIDENCY JUST LAST YEAR AND HILLARY WAS THE HIGH RANKING U.S. OFFICIAL AT THE INAUGURATION!
SOCIALISTS UNITE! The Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall fell but our AMERICAN Communists/Socialists were the most bitter but now that they are in control of the U.S. Government/Congress/White House, they will dismiss the lessons of the gulags, loss of all freedoms, political murders, innertubes, etc… that the Eastern Europeans suffered under for decades, and the continued suffering of the Cuban people, TO TURN ALL OF AMERICA INTO THE SOCIALIST UTOPIA THEY LEARNED TO LOVE IN THE 80’S BY THE SOVIET KGB!
Oh brother...
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Gee “Socialists Unite”: What a load of bunk. But you are entitled to your revisionist claptrap. Enjoy!
Don Halladay
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