cannabisnews.com: Legalizing Marijuana Will Profit The Nation
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Legalizing Marijuana Will Profit The Nation
Posted by CN Staff on March 18, 2012 at 03:35:52 PT
By David C. Kolbe
Source: Journal Gazette
USA -- For many years there has been a “war on drugs” in this country.The phrase was itself a piece of propaganda authored by John Ehrlichman, President Richard Nixon’s assistant on domestic affairs. Integral to this “war” has been an extensive and expensive assault on a substantial portion of American society – people who use marijuana. Not only has it been wrong; it is a terrible failure.
My opinion, shared by a growing number of conservative, liberal and libertarian thinkers did not arise out of thin air.I have dedicated more than 30 years of my life to the criminal justice system. I have served as county prosecutor and defended thousands of people within that time. I have worked with every part of the criminal justice system from beginning to end. I have seen the enforcement, prosecution and sentencing of those who smoke pot.And my opinion is that criminalizing those who use pot is wrong and is a waste of time and money. Rather than branding our citizens, this state should legalize, regulate and tax pot.There are two types of crimes in the criminal justice system. The first we call malum in se. This means the crime is rooted in evil. Nearly every society throughout history has considered these acts as crimes: rape, robbery, murder, to name of few. The other types of crimes are called malum prohibitum. These are defined as crimes based upon social expectations or regulations and are often victimless. The person is not necessarily acting with evil intent. He or she is violating a regulation. This is just where pot fits in. There are other reasons why pot should be legalized. One is purely economic. Under the current scheme, illegality means drug cartels make tons of money. It is simple macro-economics.Another reason harkens back to our Bill of Rights. I contend the government has no business telling me what I can or cannot ingest on my own property or the private property of another. As long as my activity harms no one else, the government should keep its nose out of my business.The truth is that quite a number of people within the system agree with what I have said here. They are simply reluctant to speak out because of their jobs.This is also true of a number of politicians too. We can all understand their reluctance. However, I prefer to no longer keep silent. It is time to de-criminalize pot. David C. Kolbe is a Warsaw attorney and was the Kosciusko County prosecutor from 1995 to 1998. He wrote this for Indiana newspapers.Source: Journal Gazette, The (IN)Author: David C. KolbePublished: March 18, 2012Copyright: 2012 The Journal GazetteContact: letters jg.netWebsite: http://www.journalgazette.net/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/8xsgiprvCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #3 posted by museman on March 19, 2012 at 09:11:16 PT
#1-
"WIll we have a country by then?"If you mean will it have gone away, won't happen. Because to 'go away' it has to be there in the first place.But the only people who 'have a country' in the terms I believe that you meant it are the uber wealthy, and their not-as-wealthy as kissers.Its pretty easy -if you are a politician, or a lawyer, or any other status-quo 'professional' to stand up and claim they've finally 'seen the light'. There is enough record of that obfuscation in history.Its pretty easy if you are a paid lackey of the system to defend its many corruptions as if it were some kind of right way to do things, its another thing to make the kind of real sacrifices, and suffer the real pain of the kinds of 'legal' and 'economic' and social inflictions caused by those same supposedly 'illuminated' persons who now wish to get on the bandwagon. I would suspect that anyone who supports regulation and control of cannabis is profit motivated, and could actually care less about the ruin of so many peoples lives.Regulation is just more prohibition, but it gives the rich people the privilege to lord over yet another natural inheritance of man.The country belongs to the people. It was stolen first from the natives, then from the colonists, but it has always belonged to us, even before a bunch of fat, rich aristocrat bankers and merchants engineered the constitution.Thankfully there were a handful of real men amongst them, and certain fundamental premises of liberty were established.But its been one hell of a battle against these usurpers of liberty and justice to get any kind of real representation or protection of our so called 'rights and liberties.' It has never been free yet. Our country has been in the hands of thieves and malcontents for 300 years.But times are changing. Enough people are waking up to reality, realizing that this system of 'weights and measures' 'checks and balances' is fake. They are realizing that just because of factors and values intrinsic to the maintenance of corruption, their reality is bound to it only by the amount of belief that is invested in it. Many have learned that the power of 'law 'n order' is as false and evil as it possibly could be, and they have realized the logic in not investing their belief in failed systems.But there are still those who seek to get something, either money, power, or praise by continuing to support failure, and most importantly take up valuable space -that might be occupied by real people instead of posers and pretenders.Back during the Vietnam protests, we discussed (in a generational conversation - those of us that weren't on the fast track to yuppiedom) about how to really change the system. The argument was first brought forth by certain status quo figures like school teachers -particularly 'higher academics' that "the only way to change the system is from within." The gov also provided us with many imposters, infiltrators and instigators that wholeheartedly supported such a posture.Many up and comers bought into that.Now 40 years later, (or 300, depending on your perspective) one just has to ask the question; "Hows it gong with that?"The government is the problem, not the solution. As soon as enough people stop believing that some kind of patch-job on an already over-patched arterial hemorrhage of vital cultural systems is going to do anything except provide more profit for the rulers, and more suffering for the people, then those of us who have real, logical, common sense solutions to the corruption will be able to start applying them. But there is all this hot air and ass-kissing muddying up the process.The real question is, "How strong are the American people really?" Are they strong enough to do what it takes, or are they going to fall for such lines of propaganda as "The only way to change is from within?"The irony is that true change does come from within -people not systems- and the long view of the rulers thinks themselves very clever to have twisted that truth into a lever of falsehood.So what do we do with these erroneous people standing in the way and mucking up true progress?For the most part I just try to ignore them because they are fading echos and soon to vanish, but sometimes one must stand up, truly, and address the errors that are put forth as if they were something other than BS. When these people occupy positions of power, they should be treated with extreme prejudice, and their words should be associated with their deeds, and most importantly, the deeds of their own creed and political peers. When real people, instead of 'professionals' start running for office, -and get elected- then some kind of 'internal change' may com about. But, mark this, it would have only come about through changes OUTSIDE the system. It would take real people, with real -not corporate or politically sponsored platforms- to initiate change within themselves FIRST before attempting to undo 300 years of corruption.Economic collapse seems imminent. But since money and its associated power is all an invention of ancient Kings, and about to dissipate into the thin air from which it originally came, real people, who understand Creation and Natural systems, have nothing to worry about.LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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Comment #2 posted by Paint with light on March 18, 2012 at 16:38:13 PT
Another one stands up
"The truth is that quite a number of people within the system agree with what I have said here. They are simply reluctant to speak out because of their jobs.This is also true of a number of politicians too. We can all understand their reluctance."The prohibitionists have tried lies and still the truth gets out.The prohibitionists have tried economic blackmail in the form of drug testing and it hasn't stopped our movement even though it has slowed it down.If all the people that want the drug laws changed could stand up and speak out at the same time it would happen.I am encouraged by the comments after any article dealing with drugs.Most times the ratio is 80% to 20% in favor of changing things. Often it is even greater than that.We all have to keep doing whatever we can to finally win.Legal like alcohol. 
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Comment #1 posted by Richard Zuckerman on March 18, 2012 at 05:29:42 PT:
Will we have a country by then?
I believe after the election a global economic collapse will hit us. 
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