cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Activists Read Too Much Into Question 2





Marijuana Activists Read Too Much Into Question 2
Posted by CN Staff on February 13, 2009 at 05:14:28 PT
Editorial
Source: Patriot Ledger
Quincy, MA -- Marijuana activists are blowing smoke when they say laws against public use of the drug are a smack in the face to the voting public. Question 2, which garnered support from 65 percent of voters last November, did not legalize pot.Voters simply decided there are bigger crimes in life and that those caught with less than an ounce of the illicit drug didn’t deserve to go to prison. Instead, they should face a $100 civil penalty. But as communities throughout the region consider laws that would make public pot smoking a crime punishable by a $300 fine, the hyperbole has kicked into overdrive.
“We voted ‘yes’ on Question 2 to end this reefer madness witch hunt,” wrote Chris Foye of Quincy in a recent letter to the editor. “By even trying to pass these ordinances, they are ... undermining the majority vote and the electoral process.”“It’s a new era,” adds letter writer Richard Blaikie of Quincy. “Most everyone has been exposed to marijuana use and sees it as harmless.”John Leonard of Hingham criticized state Attorney General Martha Coakley for refusing to accept the public mandate for decriminalizing marijuana. (It was Coakley’s office that drafted the model ordinance and the $300 fine for public marijuana smoking.)“This was a landslide vote, and she is doing an end run,” Leonard said of Coakley.Not so fast, guys.The law, which took effect Jan. 2, clearly states communities can adopt bylaws or ordinances prohibiting public use of pot.Anyone who sees these laws as a form of persecution needs to sober up. Even the most popular recreational drug – alcohol – are covered by laws banning public consumption.Voters said they didn’t think people with less than an ounce of pot belonged in jail. They didn’t say it was OK to smoke it outside Tedeschi’s.William C. Newman, director of the Western Massachusetts office of the American Civil Liberties Union, was quoted in The Springfield Republican as saying “You're asking police to make a priority out of something that voters said wasn't a priority.”That’s not true. Communities are simply making it clear that the decriminalization of pot is not a blanket protection for what is still an unlawful activity.Yes attitudes are changing about marijuana.A dozen states have softened their pot laws and a dozen more are considering similar legislation.Even some of Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps’ corporate sponsors deemed his marijuana use a “non-issue.”But it doesn’t mean, as some activists seem to think, that smoking a joint is as acceptable as drinking a can of Red Bull. It’s illegal. And enacting laws against public use is a fair deterrent.Source: Patriot Ledger, The (Quincy, MA)Published: February 14, 2009Copyright: 2009 GateHouse Media, Inc.Contact: editpage ledger.comWebsite: http://www.patriotledger.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/ITcMIghiRelated Articles:A Simple Law Goes One Toke Over The Linehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread24395.shtmlNew Marijuana Law Shouldn't Pose Problemshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread24394.shtml
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Comment #8 posted by mykeyb420 on February 14, 2009 at 10:12:35 PT
oh what BS!!"
Mirkarimi, who at 47 was a little young for the 1967 Summer of Love, has no problem with pot per se; he supports the dispensing of medical marijuana and the decriminalization of weed. And he does not want to run all head shops out of the neighborhood. Ross Mirkarimi,,is a BIG BS artist who says he is for MMJ,,,but he is SOOOO against it. He is the biggest NIMBY supervisor SF has had in many years.
 We are in such a pickle because of him and his GUNG HO attitude regarding MMJ. BTW 
 He is from IRAN !!
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Comment #7 posted by OverwhelmSam on February 14, 2009 at 05:51:52 PT
Talk About Hyperbole
Did I hear somebody scream SUE! Yeah, waste the states money in court. They have to be made to pay dearly for their stubbornness.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on February 13, 2009 at 11:50:11 PT
San Francisco Weighs Ban on New Head Shops
Since they decriminalized marijuana in my state back in the 70s they haven't allowed head shops. A marijuana offense is minor but if you get caught with a bong you might go to jail. You have to go to an x rated shop to get a High Times if you want one. February 13, 2009URL: http://www.telegram.com/article/20090213/APA/902131891
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Comment #5 posted by BGreen on February 13, 2009 at 06:21:25 PT
Red Bull? Interesting comparative choice
But it doesn’t mean, as some activists seem to think, that smoking a joint is as acceptable as drinking a can of Red Bull. It’s illegal. And enacting laws against public use is a fair deterrent.Drink enough Red Bull and you'll feel like your heart is trying to escape from your chest. It has landed kids in the hospital and it and other energy drinks have been implicated in some deaths.Let's compare cannabis bud to the legal Bud because both, unlike Red Bull, are to be consumed by adults.I can go to any one of six stores within two miles of my house and buy enough legal Bud (Budweiser beer) to kill myself and several other people, and nobody would bat an eye.I could also possess cannabis, in fact just the seed to grow cannabis, and I will go to jail. I could possess 100 pounds of cannabis and, no matter how hard I try, that cannabis could not and would not kill me.So kids can purchase and die from the legal Red Bull, and although they aren't supposed to drink booze, kids are dying by the hundreds every year from the legal Bud.Nobody has ever died from the illegal cannabis, so keep your lame Red Bull comparisons to yourself because it just shows your complete ignorance of this subject.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on February 13, 2009 at 06:12:22 PT
The GCW 
Thank you. I voted.
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Comment #3 posted by potpal on February 13, 2009 at 06:12:01 PT
vampires
Pure and simple. High way robbery, sorry for the pun. Maybe not as acceptable as drinking a can of Red Bull, but safer.
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on February 13, 2009 at 06:04:41 PT
POLL
Do you think marijuana should be decriminalized in Texas? 
Yes for everyone 
 Yes but only for medical use 
 No 
 
http://www.theranger.org/(so far there is 0% voting no)
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Comment #1 posted by HempWorld on February 13, 2009 at 05:33:45 PT
"Yes attitudes are changing about marijuana"
Really? And, if so, why is that?Is it because of recent research and the availability of this research on the internet? Is it, that science in far away countries, that are not stuck on marijuana, shows us what is going on?Or is it the FACT that people are realizing they've been lied to for 70+ years?Or is it a combination of both?Isn't it time that the US Govt sticks to science and FACTS for a change? Marijuana prohibition is a luxury in a fascist state, that we can no longer afford thanks to the SEC and other incompetents in the US Govt that have led to this world-wide DEPRESSION!Thank you USA!
On a mission from God!?
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