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War on THC comparable to war on apples

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By Zach Gould | New Mexico Daily Lobo
Last updated: 03/08/10 11:22pm

Prohibition of any kind doesn’t work, and that is because prohibition is a regulation of morality. It isn’t finding justice, saving money or even keeping people from hurting themselves. Prohibition is the censorship of morality and any government body cannot be successful in that pursuit. The Temperance Movement was a religious movement to drive out the evils of America. At the time that evil was alcohol — people weren’t just opposed to alcohol but also to apples — which were almost exclusively grown to make alcohol. People started taking axes to apple trees all over the country and a campaign was waged against the “devil’s fruit.” Luckily the war against apples was never taken as far as the war against marijuana. I am going to cover the reasons given why marijuana is illegal.

Marijuana is bad for your health, that’s why it is illegal.

Dr. Leslie Iversen has published a new book titled The Science of Marijuana. Dr. Iversen, from Oxford University’s department of pharmacology, said in his book, “Cannabis is a safer drug than aspirin and can be used long term without serious side effects.”
In his book he said he found that many of the “myths” that surround marijuana use — such as links to mental illness or infertility and extreme addictiveness — are not scientifically supported. In fact, Iversen found cannabis was far less toxic than other drugs like heroin, tobacco, cocaine and even alcohol. Iversen writes, “By any standard, THC must be considered a very safe drug both acutely and on long-term exposure.”

He also found that “stoned” drivers posed less of a danger than drunk ones. Iversen said the side effects of cannabis are as follows, “cannabis does not cause structural damage to the brains of animals as some reports had claimed, nor is there evidence of long-term damage to the human brain or other, than slight residual impairments in cognitive function after drug use is stopped.” He also said the notion that long-term cannabis use is harmful should finally be put to rest.

He said that a lot of the negative effects that come from marijuana are a result of smoking the drug. Cannabis itself does not appear to cause cancer and poses almost no threat of mortality. Even compared with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory compounds, otherwise known as aspirin — which reportedly kills upwards of 16,000 people annually according to the American Journal of Gastroenterology — marijuana kills zero annually — according to the Department of Justice.

Iversen is a member of the prestigious Royal Society, or the UK’s national academy of science, and his book is more than certainly going to force the British government to reconsider the legal classification of cannabis.

Marijuana is an evil that must be vanquished at any price.

Most people don’t know how much that fight really costs America. The 2008 FBI Uniform Crime Report stated that 44 percent of all funding for the war on drugs is devoted to possession of marijuana and 6 percent is devoted to cannabis cultivation and sale. The total cost of the war on drugs for 2008 was $13.7 billion, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The current request for funding the war on drugs for this fiscal year has increased by 3.4 percent, or $459 million. So about half of all funding for the war on drugs, or about $6.85 billion, increases every year and is devoted to stopping marijuana possession, cultivation and sale.

In contrast the Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman has led a group of 500 economists from Cornell, Stanford, and Yale in a combined effort of calculation. They have estimated that legalization of marijuana would generate about $6.2 billion a year in revenue even in the current economic recession.

Marijuana legalization is only favored by drugged-out hippies and nonfunctioning members of society.

Support of legalization of marijuana is no longer favored by a small minority. A new Gallup poll shows that approval of the legalization of marijuana is at an all-time high, with 44 percent of America in favor of legalization. In the last 10 years, approval has steadily climbed by more than 13 points. The poll also detailed that people who would self-describe themselves as liberal favored legalization by 78 percent.
The government has made marijuana illegal for a reason; it was a thought out and well-researched decision.

This may not be as true as once, thought. Richard Nixon started the war on drugs. He commissioned a report on the dangers of cannabis to give scientific data in support of making marijuana illegal. This report was called the “The National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse.” The commission, which was published March 22, 1972, concluded, “Neither the marihuana user nor the drug itself can be said to constitute a danger to public safety.” The commission’s official recommendation was that the possession of marijuana for personal use should no longer be considered an offense and that distribution in small amounts should no longer be considered illegal. Even though Nixon had commissioned the report, the president and Congress completely ignored the report.

Later, voice recordings came out of Nixon talking with former Gov. Raymond Shafer of Pennsylvania, who chaired the 1972 marijuana study. The recordings indicate that the president tried to “convince” the governor to reject the commission’s findings, saying, “You’re enough of a pro to know that for you to come out with something that would run counter to what Congress feels … and what we’re planning to do would make your commission just look bad as hell.” Nixon in other conversations had linked cannabis to the downfall of society.

The total cost of cannabis, staying classified as illegal, is increasing annually. So why have we decided to spend so much time and money on a plant? The more you start to research the prohibition of pot the less things make sense, that is, until you look at other things that have faced prohibition in America. Alcohol was drunk in the form of hard apple cider in early colonial times because the fermentation made it safer to drink than potentially dangerous well water. Cider was consumed not just in the afternoon but also with breakfast. In early America, there wasn’t much that was more American than a pint of hard cider. But through the process of prohibition of alcohol we see why marijuana is illegal. Because someone decided it should be, and a few politicians have made careers of attacking this “threat.” Like Nixon and those after him, when evidence surfaced that cannabis use has no real negative effects they spent money to fight it. We are now using an extensive amount of our tax dollars on a war to fight a new “devil’s fruit,” in a war that doesn’t make much more sense than one against apples.

Published March 8, 2010 in Columns, Opinion

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31 comments

Dr. Lou Jellyfinger

March 9, 2010 at 12:03 AM
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but it’s not medicine right? Great article.

woodbutcher

March 9, 2010 at 3:58 AM
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This plant has saved so many people so much suffering It is toatally insane and down right spiteful that any drug no matter the potential for abuse be denied to ANY ONE who would benifit from it.The whole notion that people who are suffering should not have releif from a plant because some people may abuse it is insanity and inmany peoples opinion it is immoral.People die from using opiate based anelgeasics every day no one would ever suggest that we keep them from people who need them cannabis on the other hand has never killed any one ever in 5000 yrs of use has any one ever overdosed from this plant. and in 1974 our own DEA shut down and destroyed all data from a study at the medical college of virginis tat proved that cannabis compounds can destroy brain cancer tumors and may hold a cure for the disease .And if any of you think that what would jesus think look up genisis 1-11/12 -29-30

Jillian

March 9, 2010 at 4:39 AM
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7,000 people were murdered by the cartels last year because we in the US kept marijuana illegal. This year they’re on track to kill at least 9,000. Who supports keeping it illegal?

The Only Solution!

March 9, 2010 at 7:13 AM
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LEGALIZE GOD’S! BAN MAN’S! Why did God, or Nature for you atheists, create goatheads? What real purpose do they serve but to step on them, carry them into your home, and then step on them with bare feet? Then you when you walk your dog, they step on them too. Can you eat them, make a tea, what? I have a theory on their usefulness. Hundreds and thousands of years ago when we lived in camps, slept on the ground with one eye open in fear of an attacking animal, the only defense that would stop a sneaky coyote, mountain lion, wild dogs, are goatheads that are planted surrounding your camp. When they dry you gather them up and take them with you.

Why did God, or Nature, make Marijuana, coca leaves, peyote, poppies, and mushrooms? Did man create these? NO! What are their uses and purpose? When and who discovered their effects? How many people are in drug treatment centers from the use of these above mentioned plants? Aren’t 99.9999999999% of those being treated FOR MAN MADE HIGHS LIKE HEROIN, ALCOHOL, CRACK,
COCAINE, AND LEGAL MEDS?

Read more …

The worst of MAN-MADE HIGHS is alcohol since it effects everyone in the family of the abuser and the families of those affected by domestic violence, DWI, and vehicular homicide. Cocaine and crack users are less violent except when they rob and steal to pay for their habit. (Obama admitted in his book that he was a “heavy drug user.” My question never posed to him is how he paid for that habit since he didn’t have jobs to pay for college and living expenses. USUALLY “HEAVY DRUG USERS” HAVE TO SELL DRUGS IN ORDER TO SUPPORT THEIR HABIT! So is that what his “community organizing” standing on street corners really was? Yes, George Bush also snorted. Bill Clinton though, “didn’t inhale” but they sell it to support their habit? I guarantee that Obama, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, was a HEAVY DRUG DEALER AND OF MAN-MADE DRUGS OF THE WORST KIND! DID HE SELL TO KIDS TOO? WHY HAS HIS COLLEGE ROOMMATE DISAPPEARED FROM PUBLIC VIEW AND REPORTERS? OH, OH, OH, THE STORIES HE COULD TELL!!!!!)

Pope John Paul II drank COCA tea when in South America. COCA leaves are sold in markets and are chewed on like chewing tobacoo. I heard in a documentary that they found traces of COCA in the EGYPTIAN MUMMIES. Since COCA is only grown in South America, the Egyptians had to travel there to get it unless South Americans brought it to them in a trade. COCA gives you energy and the pyramid builders surely needed that but was COCA also a reward for work? Doesn’t COCA enhance your sex drive?

Look at all MAN-MADE HIGHS AND THE PROBLEMS THEY CAUSE! BAN THOSE AND DON’T GIVE ME THAT CRAP THAT THEY TRIED THAT ALREADY WITH PROHIBITION! COCAINE TOO IS MAN-MADE FROM NATURAL GOD, OR NATURE, COCA LEAVES! HEROIN MADE FROM NATURAL PLANTS! WINE IS MADE FROM GRAPES BUT MAN HAD TO MAKE IT! TEQUILA IS MADE FROM A NATURAL CACTUS PLANT!

LEGALIZE MARIJUANA! BILLIONS IS SPENT ON BUYING IT, TRANSPORTING IT, HIDING IT, GROWING IT, ETC…!!!

WARS ARE BEING FINANCED FROM THE SALE OF MAN-MADE HIGHS!!!

MILLIONS HAVE DIED DUE TO MAN-MADE HIGHS!

LEGALIZE GOD’S! (OR NATURES!)

BC

March 9, 2010 at 8:41 AM
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let’s just keep it simple: stop spending my tax $$ on the war against marijuana. The cops want to keep it illegal since arresting pot smoking kids is much safer than curtailing gang activity, lets face pot smokers don’t shoot cops.

Ocheck

March 9, 2010 at 9:02 AM
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They don’t want to make it legal because its an easy way to take away your Fourth Amendment right. A cop pulls over a car full of young adults all he has to do is say he smells stale marijuana and his search is legal. Just happened to my cuz a couple days ago and the funny thing is no one in the car had anything illegal but the cops are allowed to do that anyway. REVOLT REBELL DOWN WITH THE CORRUPT COPS!!!!

Mark G.

March 9, 2010 at 11:40 PM
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Um… I forgot what I was gonna’ type. Heh… cough… oh yeah, have you ever noticed how blue the sky sometimes is?

Jody

March 10, 2010 at 9:46 AM
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Obviously, marijuana needs to be legalized. Anyone who smokes it will do so even if its illegal. I don’t really smoke and making it legal wont entice me to use it more. Its safer than alcohol both in its immediate use and the long term health effects. We might as well gather taxes and standardize it!

My only beef with your article is that driving under the influence of anything is just plain stupid.

Mark

March 10, 2010 at 9:54 AM
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Oh yes the legalization issue. Wow you people have nothing better then to talk about this and compare marijuana with beer or any other substance that you can get your hands on.

First the car thing the cop smells marijuana in the car and for all points it is legal now. Marijuana is a hallucinogen and impairs motor skills therefor you get to go to jail because you are suspected under the influence and driving the new DUI. End result the outcome is still the same.

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The Drug War started long ago before our parent were alive. This was the Opium Wars that cost the lives of thousands of European troops and tens of thousands of Chinese.

The establishment of illegal and legal is always a matter of opinion. Its illegal to be a cannibal but if you and your dead buddy are stranded on top of a mountain and you have no food are you not going to try and save yourself? Well maybe you will both die since most people are a bunch of pansies that act tough but in the end faint at the sight of blood.

Marijuana is illegal due to its inability to be regulated and traced in Holland you will be arrested for possession of an illegal substance carrying marijuana across the border. How can that be its legal? Its because of the strict controls and paperwork to maintain a safe crop in circulation. The United States doesn’t have the means to create a regulation system to keep the populace safe you see these growers on TV they get inspected every day to maintain no bad chemicals. If the borders were suddenly opened we would have every tom dick and harry selling the stuff and would you know if it was grown in sewage or in a clean environment.

This is why its illegal not because the man is trying to keep you down but because the man is trying to keep you safe. I see sometime in the future marijuana being legal but it will take time. I mean come on we can’t keep out tainted meat, vegetables and terrorists so how can we protect your weed.

ajryan

March 10, 2010 at 10:35 AM
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“This is why its illegal not because the man is trying to keep you down but because the man is trying to keep you safe.”

Then why can’t I grow my own legally?

Mark G.

March 10, 2010 at 11:18 AM
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Once I ran to you (I ran)
Now I’ll run from you
This tainted meat you’ve given
I give you all a boy could give you
Take my tears and that’s not nearly all
Oh…tainted meat
Tainted meat

white cloud

March 10, 2010 at 1:02 PM
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how can you compare eating humans with ganja. That is ridiculous. Stay out of our issue. And it isnt a hallucinogen either. It is about policing people’s personal preferences.

ThankU

March 10, 2010 at 3:25 PM
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Thank you for writing such a well thought out and researched article. Everything you say here is legit. The only reason it is still illegal today is becuase decades of our polictians lying to us and telling us they are protecting us and making it a platform so they can get elected. Period. Unfortunately people have been so stupid that they believe this instead of doing thier own research and making up thier own minds..Instead the majority of americans are sheeple..

Mark

March 10, 2010 at 4:08 PM
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Just a couple of points on 2 of the reasons pot was originally made illegal. It was the drug of choice of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans long ago. Making it illegal made it a convenient way to arrest those who were trying to organize the workers. El Paso was one of, if not the first, city to arrest people for pot. Then there was the whole DuPont-Hearst deal. It turns out that hemp makes a fine fabric, soft as cotton, and strong as nylon. With hemp available, why would anyone ever want to purchase petro/plastic based materials like nylon, dacron, rayon, etc. So DuPont’s good buddy Hearst used his publishing empire to create the marijuana scare. I believe they even coined the term marijuana to associate it with those “dangerous dirty mexican banditos”. I’m alway surprised that this isn’t widely known in our bilingual state. Much has changed in the last century, including the specific lobbies that continue to keep pot illegal. Now it’s mainly alcohol & big pharma who have the most to lose. One thing hasn’t changed. It’s all about the money. I shouldn’t be talking about this because it makes Darren White cry and quit his job, and I so hate making Darren White cry…

wm97s

March 10, 2010 at 10:17 PM
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“With hemp available, why would anyone ever want to purchase petro/plastic based materials like nylon, dacron, rayon, etc.”

Because the petro products do not deteriorate in the weather, and they have various other different properties. Like, for instance, the fact that nylon made wonderful replacements for silk stockings and, in that era, no woman would have worn hemp stockings. It is a bogus argument because the two products simply do not compete with each other. There would be a big market for nylon, dacron, rayon, etc., even if hemp was grown everywhere.

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Also, the idea that these products were important to the DuPont fortune is a completely bogus idea, as well. The DuPont family made its money from explosives. That period of time was a great time to sell explosives.

Also, this Hearst-DuPont idea does not explain why marijuana was already illegal in 30 states before Anslinger came to head the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930.

For a more complete history see http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm

Blair T. Longley

March 12, 2010 at 10:00 PM
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The free floating notions of morality
do not explain marijuana’s illegality.

Look to the banksters profiting from
criminalizing alcohol and cannabis,
while transforming society into
an active drug war zone too!

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Morality about that is their bullshit.

Reliance on the big bullies’ bullshit?

I barely bothered to post this, since it is too shallow.

… quotes from Iversen where what saved it enough …

Interfering in other people’s lives makes some a profit.

Morality based arguments are too misleading.

Where does feedback of power come from?

Who benefited most from criminalizing
the premier organic chemical and pot?

Who was controlling laws to
make the basic fundamentals,
the simplest and best of all
chemicals & plants, illegal?

Who benefits from psychotic lies, backed with violence,
that continue to deliberately ignore evidence & logic?

The premier answer always was “international banksters.”

Morality arguments, and Liberty arguments, are shallow.

Human ecology systems are actually
organized lies operating robberies.

Those are the ideas to explain prohibition.

Those are what really exists to be changed.

Jean-Luc Picard

March 13, 2010 at 10:20 AM
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remind me to read this while stoned, it might be more entertaining.

Just like bad Voyager episodes, or Enterprise as a whole

slowhike

March 13, 2010 at 2:35 PM
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I would comment on the issue that Mark pointed out. That marijuana has been the drug of choice for Mexicans and Mexican Americans for centuries. The issue that it was made illegal in an effort to arrest Hispanics is not a well proven fact.

I would venture to say that marijuana came to the USA from Mexico. and most will agree that the proponents of legalization of marijuana take their stance from the basis of the bad side effects created via our current position on the use of marijuana. Criminalization of marijuana has many negative side effects that I wont go into at this point. However, I would urge you to reflect upon another fact, which is that although marijuana is not particularly anymore harmful than alcohol, all agree that it is an “ambition” killer. In other words it is not only an anti-depressant- it also kills or sufficiently deminishes ones desire for success and achievment. If we compare the success and achievment between the countries – USA and Mexico, it may be that mass consumption of marijuana by a large percentage of the Mexican population for a sustained period of time may have contributed to their current “failed state” status and that of being a third world country for many successive years. This is a plausible concept and process.

Elvis

March 14, 2010 at 12:00 PM
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I really have to laugh at the naivete’ and ignorance of the argument that “marijuana should be legal because God made it”. What a riot.

THC – as shown by recent studies, reduces cognitive function and problem solving. So if you have an excess amount of brain power and want to reduce it, by all means this is a great way to go. It is shown to particularly select male intellect over female intellect for damage as estrogen appears to reduce the negative cognitive brain reductions due to thc exposure.

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So while it is a bad idea to criminalize marijuana use, we can all stop with the rationales about how it’s not harmful and even “good” for you. There are a few diseases that it appears to benefit, that’s it period. Otherwise it’s just another intoxicant.

Kevin's Brother

March 17, 2010 at 2:33 PM
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Mr. Slowhike’s response of March 13 is the closest to the truth that I’ve seen posted.

If you all take the time to look up the TRUE history of the criminalization of pot, you will learn that the Government had a gay old time back propogandizing the effects of marijuana back in the 30’s. (Take Hist-101/2). They put out movies like “Reefer Madness” that tried to paint pot users as killers and rapist and totally immoral, sub-human creatons. People bought it back then – the Government would never lie to us as neither would the Hearst Publications empire who played up how vile pot is to anyone who touches so much as one joint.

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Then when all of that was heaped on the backs of “those blankety-blank Mexicans” who were coming across our boarders to defile out daughters – something just HAD TO BE done.

In the top article, the Daily Lobo states “Pot is bad for your health and that is why it is illegal.” Holey smokes what a crock of crap (sorry for my French). Marijuana is right up (or down) there with cigarettes and booze. I don’t smoke; don’t see it, but after five plus fun filled years in the USN in South America, I can and do drink rum with the best of them.

Alcohol is supremely BAD for your health! Why isn’t it illegal Mr. Daily Lobo? I would rather try and wake up with a case of the ‘munchies’ than a migraine hangover any day. THC reduces cognition and muscular responses because it is dulls the brain. It is an intoxicant that has medical uses AND could be used recreationally , just like beer and wine, running, hiking, or even SEX. please don’t start water-boarding us over those ‘vises’!

Does our society really need another tobacco or alcohol – hell I don’t know! If they were to decriminalize the recreational use of marijuana today – then regulate it – sell it – even tax it, would I use it tomorrow? I think you know the answer to that hypothetical postulation.

I’m an XGI – UNM EECS Grad. and old fart!…Kevin’s Brother…

P.S. one parting thought! Marijuana has a really bad name for itself over time. It’s a drug. It isn’t good for any Politician to come out as Pro-Drugs. In exactly the same light, masturbation and other consenting acts of sex are considered as sodomy. You are not going to find any Politician coming out as wanting to loosen the sodomy laws.
It’s all in the name.

Bob G.

March 21, 2010 at 4:37 PM
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Intoxication, by any means indicates a desire to escape or to abandon things, people, events,or moods. The question must be what and why is there a need for abandoment. The users of alcohol clearly seek escape, while those who use exotic drugs may profess being more interested in a journey rather than escape. Both are escapes, they just come in different forms.

The escape from nausea or pain is a no brainer, who would not want that escape. When people become accustom to the escape is there a problem? When escape is routine or preferred, what does that tell us about the individual.

Damian

March 21, 2010 at 9:09 PM
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If one is to declare that the government should control individual choices about drugs…then how can that same person declare that same individual ought be allowed the same “free” choices on healthcare. The same goes for those who advocate government controlled healthcare yet beg for freedom on drug choice.

These inconsistencies prove the illogical arguments made by those on the left and the right.

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Its either liberty or its tyranny, freedom or statism…you cannot have both.

slowhike

March 22, 2010 at 6:00 PM
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Damian, you typically make some pretty good points, however, an all-or-none, black or white, either-or perspetive is not one of them. I do see the incongruency of being for government controlled “this” but not “that”. Freedom to choose on everything is not freedom. It has to be that way, maybe not on health care, civilization does need law and order. Organization, law and order, discipline- these are the things that give us freedom.

Damian

March 22, 2010 at 7:04 PM
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Hi Slowhike,

Ditto to you as well my friend. Hopefully you will also do what you can to get the tyrants out of Washington this November.

Read more …

If an individual would like to responsibly waste their life away to drugs, it is their absolute right. IF someone, however, gets behind a wheel either drunk or wasted on drugs, that is where government should step in. To responsibly safeguard the rights of others, this must be limited. See, now any statist would like to decide that then, by government controlling healthcare, then they are safeguarding citizens as well.

In order to win the war of ideas, we must provide the most consistent ones my friend. And simply expose the dark evil ones. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and we provide it with consistency.

coolslayer

March 31, 2010 at 11:17 PM
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If the government truly wants to protect the citizens from themselves,they have the technology to put intoxilizers and on-site drug testers into vehicles.If it is just about making money off folks’ vices,then things will remain as they are now…….

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