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Speakers Debate Legalizing Marijuana 
Posted by CN Staff on April 24, 2013 at 07:39:04 PT
By Maggie Livingstone, Senior Staff Writer
Source: Brown Daily Herald
Rhode Island -- Two leading experts on marijuana legalization squared off Thursday on the implications, merits and economic effects of legalizing the substance in a debate hosted by the Janus Political Union Debates, a sub-group of the Janus Forum. Alex Friedland ’15, fellows director of the Janus Forum, moderated the debate and began by asking the two speakers to present 15-minute opening remarks.Aaron Houston, executive director of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and decade-long proponent of marijuana legalization, said illegality has created a stigma around marijuana use. He said the majority of marijuana users in the United States are “silenced,” but the country is now at a “tipping point” for discussion about legalization.
Houston repeatedly said young people are being “locked in cages” for marijuana possession, an aspect of the criminal system that needs reform.Houston also cited the benefits of being able to regulate the market for marijuana if the substance were legalized, adding that the underground market is currently largely controlled by drug cartels.“We can tax it, regulate it and control it, like alcohol, and take profits away from those people,” Houston said.Kevin Sabet, former senior adviser to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and Houston’s opponent in the debate, agreed that the criminal processing of marijuana possession needed improvement, but said legalization is “a step too far.”Though “controlling something in the black market on its face sounds appealing,” the feasibility of this would be “a lot more complicated and scary,” Sabet said. If marijuana were legal, it would become cheaper and therefore easier to obtain, especially for young people, he said. Because marijuana is much easier for vendors to grow than alcohol or tobacco, these dealers could more easily avoid paying taxes on the substance, he said.Sabet also emphasized the capitalization and advertising market that would stem from marijuana’s legalization. He compared the potential marijuana advertising industry to that of tobacco in the 1980s, when companies’ advertising campaigns directly targeted youths. He added that there are “eight times as many liquor outlets in poorer communities of color,” and these groups would be targeted as well.Friedland asked Houston to discuss health concerns, pointing to studies that link prolonged marijuana use from a young age to lower IQs and schizophrenia.Houston said alcohol and tobacco were much more dangerous than marijuana and questioned the validity of marijuana’s connection to schizophrenia.“The (Drug Enforcement Administration) said in 1989 that marijuana is one of the therapeutically safest substances known to mankind,” Houston said.Thirty minutes were allotted at the end of the debate for questions from the approximately 30-person audience. Audience member Benjamin Koatz ’16 asked Sabet why he thought a black market for marijuana would be less harmful than a legalized, regulated market.Sabet responded that if marijuana were legalized, the black market would exclusively target young people. He added that “when a drug is normalized,” it is more difficult to conduct education and prevention programs.Audience members posed questions to both speakers about how personal liberty fit into the discussion around marijuana legalization.Houston said the continued war against marijuana use has been an “assault” on personal liberty. He reiterated that many young people are arrested and — in rare cases — charged with felonies for small possessions.Sabet emphasized that “when your behavior affects other people,” the drug is no longer safe, citing a statistic that confirms driving under the influence of marijuana is the second highest cause of car-related accidents in the United States, after incidents caused by driving under the influence of alcohol.Sabet said the vast majority of marijuana users are not arrested, and less than 0.1 percent of inmates are in state prison for smoking marijuana. Because the use of marijuana may affect other people, not legalizing the drug does not infringe on personal liberty, he said.Maya Manning ’14, an audience member, said she supported legalizing marijuana use before attending the debate, but after listening she is now the “closest” she has been to “swinging the other way.”“The psychological aspect of doing something that is illegal concerned me initially, so I supported legalization,” Manning said. “But the idea of capitalism and advertising taking a hold of this is horrifying.”Source: Brown Daily Herald, The (Brown, RI Edu)Author: Maggie Livingstone, Senior Staff WriterPublished: April 24, 2013Copyright: 2013 The Brown Daily HeraldContact: editorials browndailyherald.comURL: http://drugsense.org/url/1PCQJeTxWebsite: http://www.browndailyherald.com/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #9 posted by afterburner on April 24, 2013 at 19:50:40 PT
FoM - Watch Neil Rock Out
Bobfest rehearsals for Bob Dylan 30th 1992 Eric Clapton George Harrison Neil Young Tom Petty - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AdQ7OiXFcs
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on April 24, 2013 at 18:10:23 PT
Medical Marijuana Renews Hope for Epileptic Kids
Washington Post Video: http://drugsense.org/url/dxlREAfv
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Comment #7 posted by mexweed on April 24, 2013 at 17:54:59 PT:
Sorry no one confronted Sabet with these:
1. After legalization it will be easier to conduct EDUCATION (about dosage reduction: 25-mg single tokes instead of 500-mg joints) and PREVENTION (of lifelong health-destroying nicotine addiction, 6.000.000 deaths a year, because cannabis will be available for kids to try INSTEAD of tobacco cigarettes).2. "The vast majority are not arrested"-- but 800,000 a year is a pretty vast minority, and each such arrest is an intimidation, a stigmatization, an excuse for other parties-- school, employer, parents-- to attack and punish, and a device for taking more Democrat voters off the rolls.3. Car accidents caused by Hot Burning Overdose Monoxide joints (easier to hide, more "convenient", etc. due to prohibition) are being attributed to cannabis itself rather than to the faulty administration procedure.4. "Marijuana advertising industry"? After legalization, when vapes and one-hitters are legal, millions of present-day users will use LESS herb; it will be legal to teach beginners how to economize and miniature; yes everybody, there will be LESS profit and LESS tax revenue and LESS basis for an "advertising industry" when everyone knows about herb from the lady down the street growing a couple of plants.
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Comment #6 posted by BGreen on April 24, 2013 at 17:30:27 PT
Beware of the black market booze targeting kids
No, really, beware of it because, like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, the black market selling booze to kids has never been seen because it only exists in the minds of adults trying to fool kids and it only exists in the minds of kids because of lying adults.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #5 posted by afterburner on April 24, 2013 at 15:27:19 PT
"To live outside the law you must be honest."
museman #4: "To be a ruler one must lie."GEORGE HARRISON - Absolutely Sweet Marie (1992) 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAkuAwv7G-c"Absolutely Sweet Marie" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released on his 1966 double album Blonde on Blonde.The song contains the phrase "To live outside the law you must be honest." 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gb8ksBq_GY
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Comment #4 posted by museman on April 24, 2013 at 12:38:29 PT
why is it..
“when your behavior affects other people,” only the wealthy elite and their ass-kissers get to claim 'effect?'The fact that countless lives have been ruined for the edification of the few and the insanity of false authority and false, unjustified 'law' is not a consideration.Some of us realize that this is and always has been about domination and control by the elite few. Lies upon lies were invented -including false religions and false materialism - to set up that dominion of 'divine right of rule,' and liars rule. To be a ruler one must lie.When people no longer need to be ruled, don't need 'experts' and other false leaders to lead them around by their noses, then we will be able to have a sane dialogue about what liberty and freedom for sovereign individuals is all about. Until then it will always be compromise to the powerful for tablescraps, and the continuing sick joke of this fascist, non-representative Republic of the Elite, by the Elite and for the Elite will continue to rule and dominate. We will continue to be punished for our use of cannabis, regardless of what 'law' we think will serve us. As long as consumerism is the National Religion, people will continue to slave away for their pittance and cable bills, continue to pay for 'services' like 'insurance' which is a blatant thievery, and 'governance' which is controlled by demonic vibration and spirit. They will continue to worship at the altar of the TV/monitor screen, and everything will revert to the rule of the lords -its already there , people just errantly believe their situation to be something it is not. It is not freedom and liberty, it is bondage, slavery, and worship of lies.LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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Comment #3 posted by runruff on April 24, 2013 at 12:04:02 PT
Yeah but Sabet!
We all have a habit, dagnabit!
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on April 24, 2013 at 08:57:36 PT
Prohibitionist Sabet's logic or lack of,,,
"Sabet responded that if marijuana were legalized, the black market would exclusively target young people."Is His thinking that when the plant cannabis is RE-legalized the black market would focus on young people because adults will have access to a RE-legalized market? -And that's one of His arguments to refrain from RE-legalization???*To supply all customers to the black market, not just young people???*Is that how it works for the booze market??? When government subsidized people have their mind set on cannabis prohibition and extermination, they compromise logical thinking.It's reassuring that a growing percentage of Americans are disregarding cannabis prohibitionist rhetoric and replacing with the truth and clear logic.Sabet's mouth helps RE-legalize the superplant.
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Comment #1 posted by HempWorld on April 24, 2013 at 08:27:14 PT
Mr. Sabet, who's payroll are you on?
"“when a drug is normalized,” it is more difficult to"imprison large subsections of society and stimatize them with a criminal record for the rest of their lives, thus creating a social underclass that also cannot vote or participate otherwise in 'democracy.' (and on and on)Time to get real folks!
Hemp Magazine
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