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Pat Robertson Backs Legal Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on March 09, 2012 at 19:04:58 PT
By Daniel B. Wood, Staff Writer
Source: Christian Science Monitor
USA -- Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has become the lightning rod for a fresh, national dialogue over legal marijuana. He says the government’s war on drugs has failed and so marijuana should be legalized and treated like alcohol.“Folks, we've gotta do something about this. We've just got to change the laws. We cannot allow this to continue. It is sapping our vitality. Think of this great land of freedom,” he said last week as host of “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network based in Virginia Beach, Va.
Marijuana advocates, not surprisingly, are applauding the move while antidrug groups are attacking Mr. Robertson’s credibility, saying he has made several “strange remarks” in the past five years about prayer, tornadoes, and homosexuals.Robertson’s status as a high-profile conservative, however, makes his remarks symbolically important and indicative of wider shifts, say some academic observers. “He’s wrong about many things, but the fact that he is someone who usually represents the extreme conservative point of view makes the coming legalization debate more wide open now,” says Robert MacCoun a professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, who follows marijuana laws.Noting that Colorado and Washington have ballot measures this fall that would allow people under 21 to possess a small amount of marijuana and allow for commercial pot sales, Professor MacCoun says the Robertson comment helps break up polarized discussions.“We can now have a more grown up discussion about what are the tools in the tool box – rather than just hyperlatives hurled at each side from the extremes,” he says.That could include current politics. “It will be interesting to see how the tea party and presidential candidates will treat what Robertson is saying,” says Robert Langran, a political scientist at Villanova University in Philadelphia. “Depending on what Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum say and do, this has the potential of creating another rift in the Republican Party.”Noting that America makes up 5 percent of the world's population but 25 percent of jailed prisoners, Robertson said: “We've said, 'We're conservative, we're tough on crime.' That's baloney. It's costing us billions and billions of dollars. We need to scrub the federal code and the state codes and take away these criminal penalties.”Antidrug groups take issue with Robertson's judgment. “Clearly he is ill-informed about the drug war,” says Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation. She says in 1978, 58 percent of high school seniors had used an illicit drug in the past year, compared with 28 percent in 1992 – more than a 50 percent drop.The numbers have crept back up to 40 percent, a trend she attributes both to the 16 states and Washington, D.C., which have legalized the medical use of marijuana, as well as the big push in California last fall to legalize recreational use through Proposition 19.But she adds, “We are still well below the 1978 usage rate, hardly a complete failure.” For Paul Armentano, deputy director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the recent trends relate to a bigger picture. Polls have been shifting for three decades, showing that voters of all ages and both parties support regulating cannabis like alcohol, he says. At least 70 percent of Americans support legalizing medical marijuana, he says.“When a person like Pat Robertson realizes that the immorality of jailing nonviolent marijuana users, keeping medicine away from the sick, and contributing to murder and mayhem in Latin America is far, far worse that the supposed immorality of using marijuana, we have reached a positive turning point in the debate," adds Morgan Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project in an e-mail. “We are starting to see more people's moral judgments aligning themselves with the realities of marijuana prohibition.”Critics, however, worry that Robertson's comments only hurt antidrug efforts. “If you work and live in the world of addiction, a world where you have your sleeves rolled up and are dealing with the true impact that drugs have on society, you just may have something to say to people like Pat Robertson, who so cavalierly come out with a statement like this,” says Richard Taite, founder of Cliffside Malibu, an addiction treatment center, in an e-mail.Adds Robert DuPont, president of the Institute for Behavior and Health: “I think he’s acting out of his sense of compassion and thinks he is being reasonable, but that he is drinking the Kool-Aid of the pro-marijuana forces.” Recently, Robertson said that God could have stopped the tornadoes that swept the Midwest if more people had been praying. He also said in December that homosexual people can "un-acquire" the lifestyle. Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)Author: Daniel B. Wood, Staff Writer Published: March 9, 2012Copyright: 2012 The Christian Science Publishing SocietyContact: letters csmonitor.comWebsite: http://www.csmonitor.com/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/NJix1kvvCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #22 posted by ekim on March 15, 2012 at 14:03:00 PT
thank you museman
http://freedomactivist.net/hashbash.html
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Comment #21 posted by museman on March 15, 2012 at 13:48:17 PT
ekim - link
truncated.Fixed with tinyurl...(the link on the michiganmedicalmarijuana site is not copy-able, you have to r-click 'save link address as' -or something similar.) the video;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rpY-8u8_Iwand the article
Hemp can save the world
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Comment #20 posted by ekim on March 15, 2012 at 12:11:44 PT
good going Museman
 http://www.naturalne...l#ixzz1p8vglVMm 
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Comment #19 posted by museman on March 15, 2012 at 11:53:23 PT
also appropriate
 I wrote this almost 30 years ago, in a different age. When very few could relate to the words. Then, I viewed the future we have arrived at with hope and faith without really thinking that what is happening now would actually occur. But I still had to try, even then.******************Callin' You***************The love of Solomon has slept too long,let the earth awaken, and begin to sing her song. 
Let the world continue on it’s death-race run,but it can’t last too much longer,‘cause Love already won,and she didn’t use a gun, and he was not the only one,and they’re waitin’ just for you. 
Now there’s a light that’s shinin’ on the chamber door,just what all the children have been waitin’ for,and the love that’s there is forever more callin’ you.
 Wake up and hear O’ Israel!Remember you were never lost before you fell.Let the world deny you of your own true light,But the dark just won’t survive when Love is burnin’ bright,And she’s wakened from the night,And he’s standin’ in the right light,And they’re waitin’ just for you. 
Let the Holiest of Spirit reveal their crown,Descended from the sky, still sleeping on the ground.Don’t let the world deceive you of your destiny,claim it with the truth, don’t you know love was always free,and she’s all that life could be, and he’s all that life
 
could see,and they’re waitin’ just for you.
 
 Now there’s a light that’s shinin’ on the chamber door,just what all the children have been waitin’ for,and the love that’s there is forever morecallin’ you. Callin’ you. 
It’s callin you.***********I do have a recording, but It's not the best example. It was done at the beginning of my recording days, and I didn't know much about that at the time.But if you must, it is here;
 
Callin' You
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Comment #18 posted by museman on March 15, 2012 at 11:21:11 PT
related to last post
This song really says it;
Zombie -The Cranberries
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Comment #17 posted by museman on March 15, 2012 at 10:52:44 PT
Hope
It is much easier to fall down and complain about how hard it is to stand, than it is to actually stand. Gravity, entropy, and friction are more than happy to oblige.At the core of all this corruption is a false premise.That premise is based on the fear, loathing, and mistrust that is exemplified, justified, and amplified in war.War is the religion of the wealthy, because it is the ultimate use of power. The ability to wage war is the validation and verification of power. The association of 'honor' to war and it's bloody destruction is one of the many twists on human nature realigned and assigned to false pretexts. War is the #1 game of choice -still for most young men. The most popular games in history are all based on war, conquest, dominion and the rulership of the conquerors.The association of our government and its many minions and supporters (support for lies exists in every form of system that is linked to the funding from government, like public schools, including 'higher academics') of the concept of war to almost everything, kind of negates the possibility of humanity (at least in amerika) to get a correct foundation of ideology and belief.If we believed in "One Nation Under Yah (god)" "Liberty and Justice for all" "In Yah We Trust" "All men are created equal." and so many other ideological phrases used to confuse the young and confound the wise, then such an idea as "Lets give medals to our heroes" -even the 'heroes' of our movement- would never be thought of except by idiots. But since the nature of the confusion is to create a nation of middle-of-the-road idiots who support lies and all the corruption of a non-benevolent government, the waters of clarity and truth are majorly obscured by such ignorance.There are no heroes in war, just casualties.There is not one element -in truth- of war that has any benefit except to the ones who create it, and that is all about wealth and power. Wealth and power, if you take away the foolish worship of the population and their misplaced belief in the weights of measures of conquest, war, and it's war-controlled and war-based economics, the power of the rulers disappears.Such a catch 22. We are literally one thought away from true liberty and freedom, but we can't see past the well designed fears intrinsically embedded in all of our 'systems.'There is coming a day when "A man will not teach his brother saying 'Know YHWH' because all will know Him, from the least to the greatest."That is when all this unreal, created fear becomes abolished from our consciousness, and we can get down to life and what we should have been studying and learning for the past 10,000 plus years that we have been enthralled by the rulers and their game of war and wealth.That time, I believe is fast approaching. Regardless of the loudness, and intensity of the denial, there just is no stopping the inevitable.All the willingness on the part of the lazy (who are content to fall down and stay there in their comfort zones of compromise with the lie and error of war, wealth, power, and all it's attending BS) will gain nothing for anyone.True change takes courage to step out of the status quo system and embrace reality. I really don't see all that much. But there sure is a lot of hot air about maintaining the status quo.The political system has no hope for us. And those who mistakenly believe that we can somehow set right the many wrongs done through this power of rule, only drag out the inevitable, because Love has won. Even if 50% of the population chooses to remain blind and continues to support the failed system as if it were really something worth our time and effort.Love has won. It didn't declare the war, and it doesn't acknowledge the war, -it is it's own substance and power, that ultimately reaches so far beyond the paltry 2 dimensional nature and aspects of the current finite and limited war/fear based beliefs in the false values of money, property, and the power needed to maintain control over those things,- that all the 'established' wealth is a pitiful showing of the nature of the wealthy, and those who worship at it's false altar.For most of my life -and there are some who have also experienced this- I have had to suffer the incredible ignorance of my fellow citizens as they continue to travel down the 'road to perdition' and the worst is the defense they build to justify their internal guilt at capitulating to error. From that comes mockery, deception, obfuscation, and ...war. I have had war declared on me, personally by not a few, who have no answer for the truth except violent denial.In the past decade I have seen an awakening that perhaps has no rival in the entire history of our race.The erroneous clinging on to falsehoods; false values, false authority, false beliefs, etc. still goes on apace. The denial creates its own illusion of safety, as if by closing your eyes, and refusing to see, the truth will somehow go away. But mark this; the truth is out. The light is beginning to shine in all the places that the long-term rulers do not want thinking people to see.I intend to stay alive to see it through. I'm not a young man, yet I have great hope -regardless of the denial- in seeing the beast die. I never wanted to see the collateral damage, but to be fair, if you've been warned, over and over, then there is no excuse if you get caught worshipping mammon when you should have been worshipping Love."Blessed are the Meek, for they shall inherit the Earth."Ain't no 'meek' people in the status quo elite, or supporters. They are all doomed. Unless they make some changes RIGHT NOW.LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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Comment #16 posted by Paint with light on March 15, 2012 at 01:36:20 PT
Bennett comments
Bill Bennett is an evil man.Some of his points were;"To stay on alcohol for a moment: There are about 79,000 alcohol-related deaths each year."Versus how many for cannabis?"The Household Survey of Substance Abuse tells us that alcohol, more than tobacco and illegal drugs, is the most used and abused drug among youth. Why is that? Because alcohol is legal; drugs are not."Uh, maybe it has to do with all the billions spent on advertising, Nascar sponsorships, and all the other ways alcohol is glorified for use."Among cannabis users in treatment in the United States, 80.5% are not married, 90% have obtained an education of 12 years or less; 25% are unemployed and 46% are not in the labor force (of which 55% are students)."He answers his own question here by stating that 55% are students, therefore less likely to be married, employed, or have attained a college degree. If your parents can send you to college these days you are also likely to be able to afford an attorney to quash the arrest and/or prosecution if you go into treatment."Of the cannabis users who entered treatment services from 2000 to 2008, nearly a quarter report psychiatric problems."More likely from being arrested and having to enter the judicial system."In addition, new research suggests that driving under the influence of marijuana could double a person's risk of getting in a serious or fatal car crash."What, it only doubles? If the chance is 1 out of 1000 then doubling only goes to 2 out of 1000, which is statistically insignificant even if true. To be statistically significant the ratio has to be 5 out of 100 as best I remember. To get an accurate figure of the likelihood of getting in a serious or fatal car crash imagine your own experience. How many times have you driven and been in a serious or fatal car crash? 1 in a 1000, 1 in 10,000, or more? So if that is only doubled what is the real likelihood?"Open and unrestricted drug use cannot coexist with a free, safe and productive society."Then we need to outlaw alcohol again and take on the pharmaceutical industry. Wait that would take away Mr. Bennett's own candy."Contrary to Robertson's view, we have had successes in the fight against drugs."There are a few thousand dead in Mexico that would argue that point, if they could."According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, 700,000 fewer teenagers used illicit drugs in 2010 than a decade earlier, a 16% decline. From 2000 to 2010, current marijuana use by teens has dropped 9%, methamphetamine use by teens has plummeted 60%, LSD use has dropped 50%, and current cocaine use among high school seniors has dropped 38%."First he is quoting the DEA. We all know they have no bias, right? Most figures I have seen report that teen cannabis usage is up slightly in the last three years. As for the other substances maybe the word is out on what drug(cannabis) is really the safest.He is just a parrot squawking for the right wing crazies.Legal like alcohol. Even Pat Robertson understands that. 
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on March 14, 2012 at 05:24:40 PT
Pat Robertson is Wrong About Marijuana
March 14, 2012Editor's note: William J. Bennett, a CNN contributor, is the author of "The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood." He was U.S. secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 and director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President George H.W. Bush. URL: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/14/opinion/bennett-drug-war/index.html
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on March 13, 2012 at 19:26:18 PT
AARP Where Are You When We Need You! 
Good one Schmeff! You made me laugh!
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Comment #13 posted by schmeff on March 13, 2012 at 16:20:00 PT
Ya Gotta Love A Funny Typo
"Noting that Colorado and Washington have ballot measures this fall that would allow people under 21 to possess a small amount of marijuana and allow for commercial pot sales, Professor MacCoun says the Robertson comment helps break up polarized discussions."Time for the AARP to mobilize! Only those under 21 get the kind bud? I protest. Those whippersnappers have waaaay less aches and pains than me.  ;)
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on March 12, 2012 at 15:04:45 PT
Hope
I hope we get out boys out of there. War is hell. 
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Comment #11 posted by Hope on March 12, 2012 at 11:52:46 PT
This is a very hard story to read.
Afghan recounts US soldier shooting his fatherhttp://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i7ts3x3CgbJehvY7FwHoAY7ty9dQ?docId=c38c1e2b46b1472d8c6c8aa89cb1324bThis may be a prize winning group of journalists, or, probably already are, that collaborated to write this, if true, stunningly informative piece of journalism.This is bad in so many ways. This horror is going to be magnified so many times over, I fear. Wide spread and enduring hatred. Revenge. Spite. Such terrible things turned loose on humanity.
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on March 12, 2012 at 11:50:50 PT
Hope
My nephew just returned to Afghanistan a few days ago. It is a worry. All hell could break loose. 
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Comment #9 posted by Hope on March 12, 2012 at 11:36:11 PT
Off topic... but all part of it, still.
U.S. Scrambles to Contain Fury Over Attack in Afghanistanhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/world/asia/us-army-sergeant-suspected-in-afghanistan-shooting.htmlWhat fear, and hatred, insanity and darkness... which is ignorance gets you.If it was a movie, which it's not, this would be about elements of the government, CIA probably, trying to perpetuate or perpetrate (either way works, both really)...the military industry's complex of thriving businesses, by mind washing and indoctrinating this man that did this.This isn't a joke. Dwight D. Eisenhower saw this coming.As I recall, he said "Beware".Even though he was a man of war, I felt like, and still do, he had a lot of integrity. Maybe I'm wrong. I would imagine, at the end of the second world war he was approached often about some sort of "Everybody will get rich" production scheme that someone was wanting him to endorse. But this isn't a movie, yet. These people are gone. We could have used an even greater power to "Help" them. Love. Hatred, fear, and darkness are powerful things.But they laugh at, mock, and reject the way of the one Museman calls Y'eshuah.
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Comment #8 posted by museman on March 11, 2012 at 13:35:42 PT
Paul
"To keep it dark."Yes.Wouldn't want the people to find out the truth about things like the Humanity of Y'shua. Wouldn't want them to discover that when Y'shua said "The Truth will set you free." He wasn't lying. But they are. They are a fundamental lie in the fabric of spiritual Truth and Understanding.
 
Some have even gone as far as pointing out the similarities of the Roman Church to the warnings of the 'anti-christ' contained within the the parts of written truth they were confident to release as 'The Word of God' (LOL) -sorry if the truth is offensive, but the offence is all in the perception. The revelation of Truth is never an offence except to the lie.I am one of some few sovereign believers, who listened first to the 'still small voice within' before the shouting beasts that claim all manner of power, right, and 'righteousness' over the rest of us filled up the spaces of beauty and wonder with fear and loathing -in the 'name of god.'I am so thankful I was allowed to experience the wonder and magic of creation before society, and it's preachers and teachers of mammon got in there and tried to confuse reality.I know what is real. Once I felt alone, but not any more.They can attack, scheme, attempt to find some 'catch22 law or ordinance ' that they can inflict pin and suffering, and point to the fact that it is my 'criminality'(of their description and making) that is the reason. They can give the party line of the Status Quo - "Good citizen/slave" to the point of nauseating ridiculousness, instigate and support the halfway-and-impotent measures of compromise and capitulation, and deny all they want the truth that is burgeoning up all around, but their time is ending.What is concealed in the Dead Sea Scrolls, is not as 'concealed' as the Vatican would like. The information is as available to the modern man, as it was to the 'pre-christian.' The fact that the powers that be were so in control we needed 'Divine Intervention' on the part of the personal appearance of Y'shua, and Buddha, and others history neglected (deliberately)to remember to initiate the awakening of the human race speaks volumes in itself -when one looks..."Keeping it dark." has been the mission of religion since the Pantheon of gods imposed itself upon our very distant ancestors.The original definition of "Religios" -root of 'religion' is "To constrain, or hold back." They've been doing a fine job haven't they?LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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Comment #7 posted by The GCW on March 11, 2012 at 07:20:22 PT
In Denver Post
US CO: OPED: Pot makes strange bedfellows  
 
 Webpage: http://www.denverpost.com/littwin/ci_20133853/pot-makes-strange-bedfellows?source=rss
Pubdate: 11 Mar. 2012
Source: Denver Post (CO)
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Comment #6 posted by Paul Pot on March 10, 2012 at 17:52:34 PT:
keep it dark
That's why the vatican won't release the dead sea scrolls.
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Comment #5 posted by HempWorld on March 10, 2012 at 10:30:44 PT
To Answer This Question, I came up with:
Jesus used marijuana!see:http://jesususedmarijuana.com/
Jesus Used Marijuana! Yes it is true!
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on March 10, 2012 at 06:42:15 PT
Canis420,
Thanks for the link.Often people don't realize the issue isn't whether or not to use cannabis but rather whether or not to CAGE responsible humans who use the plant. Would Jesus cage responsible cannabis users? That is a very stupid question but the obvious answer is absalutely NOT.And then Cannabis is a PLANT, not a “drug” and the very 1st page of the Bible makes that clear. Yes, Gen. 1 but it's the very 1st page. And that it’s on the 1st page is no accident. I’m suspicious of people who wish to spend energy convincing people it’s a drug and never use the word plant when referring to the substance.And what about Malachi 1:6-14 subtitled SIN OF THE PRIESTS? 1 Timothy 4, 1-5? Cannabis is the devil law.We know what Jesus would do: He would not cage responsible users!So the real question to expose is: WHAT WOULD SATAN DO?SATAN WOULD CAGE RESPONSIBLE CANNABIS USERS.... and those who support caging responsible cannabis users are exposed to those who have the spirit of truth as not obeying the request of CHRIST JESUS TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER.Supporting the sin of caging responsible cannabis users seperates people from being able to recieve the "spirit of truth" as said in John 14-16.Satan doesn't want to give up cannabis prohibition. It's his creation and it serves him well.Cannabis prohibition may be one of the only things Satan created.
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Comment #3 posted by Canis420 on March 09, 2012 at 21:41:51 PT:
What would Jesus do?
Interesting article I saw on MSN...there is also a poll with a lot of participation.http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/09/10624653-pat-robertson-is-for-legalizing-marijuana-what-would-jesus-do
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on March 09, 2012 at 20:26:21 PT
CSM
Why Obama Won't Oppose Marijuana Legalization in an Election Yearhttp://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/2012/03/08/Why-Obama-Wont-Oppose-Marijuana-Legalization-Election-YearBy Scott Morgan, Stop the Drug War - Thursday, March 8 2012 Christian Science Monitor begs Obama to promote criminalization of marijuana usersThe anti-marijuana zealots at the Christian Science Monitor are at it again, pleading with the President to please, please, please help promote pot prohibition. They're frustrated that Vice President Biden traveled all the way to Mexico to lament legalization talk among Latin American leaders, yet the Obama Administration remains silent regarding marijuana legalization measures hitting the ballot in Colorado and Washington this year.   """The administration needs to step up and make a strong case against legalization in the US in order to counter a well-financed, well-organized pro-marijuana effort. One argument is that the cartels would actually welcome legalization, in the same way that US casino owners have welcomed state gambling lotteries. To drug dealers, the more addicts the better.Biden did say a debate in Latin America about legalization would help “lay to rest some of the myths that are associated with the notion of legalization.”How about he and Obama start to challenge those myths in states like Colorado and Washington? [CSM]They're not going to do that. See, it really isn't at all a coincidence that Joe Biden happened to not be in America when he made the only anti-legalization remarks of his vice-presidential career. As much as I'd love the notoriously gaffe-prone VP to spend more time discussing his dumb ideas about drugs, he actually knows better than to do that.Cont.
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Comment #1 posted by HempWorld on March 09, 2012 at 19:19:47 PT
There you go CSM...
Get a clue!
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