cannabisnews.com: Making a Case for Marijuana





Making a Case for Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on November 06, 2007 at 05:15:34 PT
By Lindsey Parietti, Daily News Staff
Source: Metrowest Daily News 
Boston, MA -- Decriminalizing marijuana possession could save the state millions of dollars and decrease racial profiling, advocates told legislators yesterday at a State House hearing.Legislation, co-sponsored by state Rep. Ruth Balser, D-Newton, would impose a $250 civil fine instead of criminal penalties for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.
Offenders currently receive a $500 fine, up to six months in jail, and a criminal record."People are not going to jail for possessing marijuana, but the commonwealth is using a lot of time and money to arrest people and to prosecute cases in court or settle cases in court," Balser said. "One thing that happens is that typically young people end up with a criminal record and it really interferes with them moving ahead."Although no opponents testified against the legislation, lawmakers and supporters have been unable to push it through the Legislature in previous years.Balser, co-chairwoman of the Joint Mental Health and Substance Abuse Committee that is considering the bill, did not want to speculate whether its chances had improved."The concern, of course, would be that more people would engage in risky behavior, but what the evidence suggests is that the legal prohibition really isn't stopping marijuana use," Balser said after the hearing. "We should focus more on prevention and treatment and education."Keith Saunders, president of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, or Masscann, cited a Boston University study that estimates a $24 million annual savings in law enforcement costs."The drug war is the civil rights war of our time...this is not a liberal issue," he said. "The only group that is consistently against us is moral conservatives, and they don't have much political power in Massachusetts."Saunders told legislators the same message he tells his sociology students at UMass-Lowell. "Marijuana is only cool because it's illegal."According to Masscann's Web site, 9,000 people were arrested for marijuana possession last year."Liquor, guns, these things are all legal. Marijuana has not been known to kill a soul," said Paul Thomas Breeden, president of Boston Live Magazine, who read his letter entitled "God Created Marijuana."Source: Metrowest Daily News (MA)Author: Lindsey Parietti, Daily News StaffPublished: November 6, 2007Copyright: 2007 MetroWest Daily NewsContact: mdnletters cnc.comWebsite: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/MassCannhttp://www.masscann.org/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by paulpeterson on November 08, 2007 at 09:51:23 PT
whig-thanks for noticing
That post caught me by surprise-I just had to read the article, to see what I had written, and I must say, it was a good review, and just in time for the runup to another election cycle. You see, relapse to "Conservative Affective Disorder" happens like clockwork, every other year, and even in the off-years, when there are brilliantly colored primary colored themes awash on the airwaves.Actually, I got cold-cocked last night myself, by a really new twist-Pat Robertson "endorsing" Rudi for President. At first that sounded nonsensical-since Pat is all judgemental about gay "tendencies" and "abortion" liberalism causing 911. But thanks to your timely review of the classic syndrome traits, IT HIT ME RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES, YES IT DID. Pat and Rudi are in bed all right, and together, and they aren't really "strange bedfellows" at all, because, you see, in classic development of the CAD mentality, both "subtypes" of Cad, in my best diagnostic analysis, carry with them "weighted bouys", ie: main, defining "anchor" issues, which describe the constellation of the disease pattern quite nicely, and when CAD FELLOWS are cast adrift onto the sea of electoral "primordial" stew, they almost always will find other CAD FELLOWS, to bond and bind to and with, especially when they both seek and find COMMON ENEMIES, ie: THEY BOTH ARE SEEKING COMFORT FROM THEIR TENDENCIES TO AVOID "AMBIGUOUS STIMULI".In fact, scientists tell us, tell us that the best way to avoid "CAD" latent tendencies from blooming into full-blown CAD MANIA, is to try this exercise: take an issue, any issue, for a test experiment-and try to keep TWO OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS FULLY "ONSCREEN" at the same time, ie: to balance the various points and counterpoints, and once this ability to keep the eye on two points at the same time, is fully "croisened" (sorry, my spelling is rusty) you are on your way to a successful avoidance of the major pitfalls of the CAD brain.Who knows, maybe Pat Robertson has just unwittingly made the first step to recovery, eh? Now he won't be so lividly salivating whenever the Pavlov dog "buzzer" and "light" of abortion or "gay rights" comes on screen, now that he has chosen to bed down with Rudi, eh? Oh, this is choice, isn't it? At the same damned time, maybe Rudi will have to soften his own approach to running for the PRESIDENT OF 911, now that he has to soften his rhetoric in light of Mr. Evangelical getting into bed with him, eh?(Now, for those of you that are having a really bad time even considering seeing those two goons laying in bed together, just visualize this for a minute, eh? Rudi grabs for the channel changer, and right then, Pat says, "hey, I was watching that porn channel, buddy", but Rudi grabs it too quick, and just as quick, in about a New York minute, OK, pal, how about if I gives you a rub in your "special place", eh? Friends for life, or at least until the returns come in, during the next election cycle? Stay tuned, sports fans, there are even more "STRANGE BEDFELLOWS" in store for our next episode of "CADFELLOWS IN LOVE, NEW YORK STYLE-the pillow talk of the new century."And for those of you'se out there in TV land that have already felt that tear of heartfelt spontaneous political emotion well up from so deep inside you didn't know you had that in you, you've just graduated from your first "THERAPY SESSION" with Dr. Paul, the new guru of late night TV pschobabble land, and thanks for tuning in, sports fans. PAUL PETERSON, and up, up and away. See you next time!
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Comment #8 posted by whig on November 06, 2007 at 23:48:03 PT
Something from our Paul Peterson
http://www.iowademocrat.net/CADFAQ/tabid/54/Default.aspxTransfats, the cause of conservative affective disorder?
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Comment #7 posted by whig on November 06, 2007 at 23:45:28 PT
Crisco oil
This stuff won't help your body heal anything, it's full of transfats and it's terrible for you.
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Comment #6 posted by whig on November 06, 2007 at 23:44:18 PT
afterburner
It is not cannabis which heals, it is the means by which the body heals itself, if the spirit is willing.
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Comment #5 posted by afterburner on November 06, 2007 at 23:41:35 PT
OT: Holy Oil
Church 'omelette' contains holy oil.
Paul Wilson.
The Hamilton Spectator
(Nov 5, 2007) 
http://www.thespec.com/Entertainment/article/277084Excerpt: "It is not the oil that heals a person," the pastor says. It is God.Are you sure that healing is not in the holy oil The Master used to anoint the sick and invite them to be healed? Is former Attorney General John Ashcroft's anointing with Cisco oil equal to the biblical anointing oil containing kaneh bosm (cannabis)?
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on November 06, 2007 at 16:36:52 PT
Taylor121 
That's right.
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Comment #3 posted by Taylor121 on November 06, 2007 at 16:31:00 PT
$250 is a lot cheaper
It's cheaper than $500, plus jailtime, plus a criminal record which affects income the rest of someone's life.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on November 06, 2007 at 16:05:43 PT
unkat27
I think that is way too high too but it is better then many states if it passes. My state has a maximum of a $100 fine for anything under 100 grams. That seems fair. I also think that when they made the law $100 could buy what about $250 can buy now so it isn't that unreasonable if I compare the time frame.
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Comment #1 posted by unkat27 on November 06, 2007 at 15:59:04 PT
$250???
F__k that! $250 is way too high, it would be almost as bad as doing time for most of us below-the-poverty-line fools. Of course, I'm quite sure that $250 would suit most of the yuppies fine, since they have almost no idea what real poverty is like. I could manage a $100 fine if they gave me 5 or 6 months to pay it off, but $250 would set me back over a year. I've already been set back too much, I don't need to be set back any more. Obviously, the people responsible for these numbers have no real idea what it is like to be poor today. Probly don't care either.
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