cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Should Remain Illegal





Marijuana Should Remain Illegal
Posted by FoM on November 22, 2000 at 07:26:01 PT
By David Taylor
Source: Duluth News
Pro-drug-legalization advocate James Bovard slapped a huge amount of insultingly blatant misinformation into one pro-pot opinion piece as part of a pro-con feature in a recent issue.He uses the pro-legalization organization NORML as a source of his information, which is like getting tobacco statistics from Philip Morris. Bovard minimizes the seriousness of drug use and simplistically trivializes the law enforcement role as ``punishing people for politically incorrect habits.''
Politics has nothing to do with the facts of marijuana. Besides lost human productivity, Bovard has conveniently failed to mention the memory problems, countless diseases (especially of the lungs), permanent, irreversible brain damage in sperm and egg cells, fetal impairment, school failure and drop-out correlations, boosted depression and schizophrenia rates, compromised immune systems and the broken hearts and shattered dreams attributable to marijuana use.Lenient drug policy, such as that in the Netherlands, has fostered crime associated with increased drug-use levels. When drug incarceration rates were lowest during the 1970s, drug use levels soared. It is drug use that results in higher crime rates, not drug laws. Locking up drug offenders reduces property crime... things like theft, vandalism and burglary that impact regular folks like us.According to R.E. Peterson, author of ``Drug Enforcement Works,`` ``Marijuana traffickers make up 1.3 percent of the prison population and marijuana possessors constitute less than a half of one percent of all prisoners.'' That is hardly overcrowding our prisons with occasional marijuana dabblers.The legalizers are fully aware of the Pandora's box that would be opened with the legitimization and legalization of marijuana. They must not succeed.David TaylorMinnesota delegateDrug Watch, InternationalCo-chair, Drug Watch Duluth, Minn.Source: Duluth News-Tribune (MN) Author: David TaylorPublished: November 22, 2000Address: 424 W. First St., Duluth, MN 55802 Copyright: 2000 Duluth News-Tribune Contact:  newstrib duluth.infi.net Website http://www.duluthnews.com/ Related Articles:Column: All Drugs Should Be Legal in America http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7702.shtml
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Comment #14 posted by brittani on April 05, 2001 at 08:04:39 PT:
dont smok it
hey all u I think u should't smoke marijauna I have been for 1 day and it sux.
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Comment #13 posted by Stephen on February 11, 2001 at 16:17:25 PT:
What the H*ll are you talking about, Taylor?
  I happen to be 18 years old. I have been smoking marijuana on a fairly regular basis for 6 years. My SAT score totaled at 1510, my GPA is at 4.3, and I smoke over an ounce a week. Most of my friends regulary smoke weed, and they are doing as well if not better then I am. Frankly, I refuse to accept that marijuana in itself destroys lives. That there are some negative side-effects I have no doubt. But this blatant inistence that will bring down and destroy anyone who dares to smoke the dreaded plant is so much uninformed bulls**t. 
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Comment #12 posted by Walter Gourlay on November 26, 2000 at 00:45:42 PT:
Legalize it
Mr. Taylor is another one of those paranoid puritans who doesn't really know the whole truth about marijuana. He sounds like a real conservative who just loves imposing his values on other people's lives. By ignoring the entire truth about marijuana he is unintentionally bearing false witness. Taylor sees what he wants to see and probably ignores any deep consideration of the other side of the coin. He should try marijuana and see for himself. Maybe he wishes secretely he could try it but is too afraid. Sounds too like he doesn't think people should make their own choices. Maybe he thinks he knows better than other people about what is good and what is bad. He sounds like a dictator and I think people should contact the Duluth paper and let the editor know what they think of puritanism and prohibitionists in general. 
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Comment #11 posted by Dan B on November 25, 2000 at 15:08:07 PT:
Re: Russelwhat
Grow up. Those of us who support marijuana legalization aren't in it to look "naughty" or "cool." We are in it because we realize that our rights are being stolen in the name of zero-tolerance, and we are unwilling to sit idly by while the world becomes one big police state. In short, your inane, mostly incoherent jibberish reveals a basic contradiction: you use the Internet to promote what amounts to pissing on a wall in your rather weak attempt to claim superiority over those who use the Internet to better society. I'd say those of us spreading a positive message via the Internet (regardless of whether we are from America or not) have a greater claim to superiority than do mere ruffians like yourself.Dan B
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Comment #10 posted by russelwhat on November 25, 2000 at 04:05:57 PT:
SAD SAD
Hey gimps it's me again!!so how have u been?!?!the usual playing on the internet writing really 'cool' statements to each other about Marijuana and the sheer naughty idea of...ummmmm...i can't say it......legalizing it!!oooo aren't i naughty!!n e way u all need to get out more and stop going on the internet and i bet that all of you sad w***ers in here are american!!!!later Russel
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Comment #9 posted by devohawk on November 24, 2000 at 16:18:39 PT:
LTE
I also responded to letters duluthnews.com as this kind of propaganda needs to be ended.The letter by David Taylor, published on 22 November, shows a lack of understanding and facts, the man is ignorant. He believes NORML should not be trusted rather than showing facts that prove his point, which is why one uses references. Perhaps he could give the source for his belief that marijuana causes "irreversible brain damage in sperm and egg cells or fetal impairment" because their is no scientific study which proves his point.The misinformation seems to be coming from David Taylor. The Netherlands has far less murder, manufactured drug use, marijuana use by youth, marijuana use by adults, and crime associated with drugs and marijuana per capita than the USA. The Netherlands actually tends to show that having a lenient drug policy does work. The Netherlands also does not have to waste vast amounts of money on drug testing, jails, police and courts; money that could go to schools and teachers. Perhaps this could explain why their children score better overall than children in the USA at graduation time from high school on standardized tests in math and science. They also have a lower infant mortality rate than the USA.According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports we arrested over 620,000 people in the USA in 1999 for simple marijuana possession which does clog our police departments, courts and drug testing centers. He mentions producers and processors but I fail to see the prison numbers for consumers directly or indirectly such as those who are on parole who fail a piss test which does help to clog our prisons.His belief that politics has nothing to do with marijuana being illegal seems to go against common knowledge. Most drug arrests are for marijuana and if we legalize it, we will need less police, jails, courts, prisons, parole officers, and groups like the drug watch. They will all see funding shrink as arrests drop and the funding will be given to education, rehabilitation, and teachers. Big Tobacco, Big Alcohol, pharmacies, tree loggers, the oil industry, pesticide/fertilizer producers, and drug testing companies all have a political interest in keeping marijuana illegal because it will cut into profit and it's all about the money.God put marijuana on this earth(Genesis 1:29) for a reason though I do not believe it is so that we would arrest people who use it. I want my God given right to put a little marijuana in my salad and people like David Taylor are repressing me and millions of other people because that is their job, it's all about the money.Peace and LoveThink Devo
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Comment #8 posted by Fank on November 23, 2000 at 07:13:55 PT
Stop Lying About Holland
I take exception to the comments about the Netherlands. I have traveled to the Netherlands several times. The Netherlands is very progressive. The rates of drug addiction are very low there. If you are found with hard drugs there a doctor and social worker are assigned to your case with the philosophy of help not punishment. In the Netherlands the government wants you well, in America they want you in prison.A citizen of the Netherlands has a longer life span than a U.S Citizen.The children of the Netherlands score 2nd in mathematics and science in the world.The infant mortality rate is much lower than the United States. The crime rate is Much lower that that of the United States.Marijuana is legal for personal use and the country has not fallen apart.The illusion that the United States is #1 in all categories is just a myth sold to people who don’t know any better and have never been anywhere else. 
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Comment #7 posted by Sverdie on November 23, 2000 at 02:01:36 PT:
Amazing...
HAhahah!This is the kind of article that make me *really* happy*that I du (some) drugs, such as weed and shrooms. It suremakes it impossible to become as retarded as that writer...He proves to me that smoking weed makes you smarter and morecompassionate. What kind of life can he have, how much funcan he have, being so locked up by his own delusions?// Sverdie
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Comment #6 posted by anonymous on November 22, 2000 at 11:45:01 PT
My LTE
I tossed the following to letters duluthnews.com:David Taylor's letter, published on 22 November, shows that this man is unable to write a single paragraph on his chosen subject without making false statements.He compares using NORML as a source of cannabis information to using Philip Morris as a reference for tobacco facts. If NORML were a business earning billions of dollars annually from marijuana sales, this might make some sense.He claims that "Politics has nothing to do with the facts of marijuana." Politics has everything to do with the cannabis prohibition. Were cannabis not prohibited, the "illegal drug problem" would shrink by 90%, and the budgets of drug-fighting agencies and organizations like Mr. Taylor's would fall accordingly. The "facts" Mr. Taylor cites in the same paragraph are hogwash. We have tens of millions of cannabis users in this country. Where are the legions of brain-damaged, amnesiac, infertile, one-lunged sufferers Mr. Taylor's "facts" predict? The do not exist, because Taylor's "facts" are pure fiction.Contrary to Mr. Taylor's claim, civilization has not fallen in the Netherlands. It is easy to show that use of all drugs by adolescents has declined in the decades since that country decided to abandon the prohibition against cannabis. Likewise his claim that "Locking up drug offenders reduces property crime... things like theft, vandalism and burglary that impact regular folks like us" is utterly unsubstantiated. All efforts to prove such a link have failed.Last year nearly 705,000 Americans were arrested on marijuana charges, more than 620,000 of them for simple possession. The number of people in prison for possession alone is more difficult to come by but it surely amounts to the population of a fair-size city. It's unclear where Mr. Taylor's prohibitionist source gets his figures for the prison populations of cannabis users and dealers. Probably he made them up (a favorite tactic of such people).
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Comment #5 posted by TroutMask on November 22, 2000 at 10:24:15 PT
Time to write a letter...
Please take a moment to email the Duluth News and tell them about your feelings regarding this garbage.Thanks!-TM
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Comment #4 posted by Dave in Florida on November 22, 2000 at 09:09:26 PT
S### for Brains 
is what this idiot has.>He uses the pro-legalization organization NORML as a source of his information, which is like getting tobacco statistics from Philip Morris. Bovard minimizes the seriousness of drug use and simplistically trivializes the law enforcement role as ``punishing people for politically incorrect habits.'' And you get your information from the people who tend to be employed by or profit from the war on some drugs, like law enforcement.>Politics has nothing to do with the facts of marijuana. Besides lost human productivity, Bovard has conveniently failed to mention the memory problems, countless diseases (especially of the lungs), permanent, irreversible brain damage in sperm and egg cells, fetal impairment, school failure and drop-out correlations, boosted depression and schizophrenia rates,compromised immune systems and the broken hearts and shattered dreams attributable to marijuana use.Politics has EVERYTHING to do with marijauna. Cite your studies for this drivel"Lenient drug policy, such as that in the Netherlands, has fostered crime associated with increased drug-use levels. When drug incarceration rates were lowest during the 1970s, drug use levels soared. It is drug use that results in higher crime rates, not drug laws. Locking up drug offenders reduces property crime... things like theft, vandalism and burglary that impact regular folks like us.We are the "regular folk like us" my friend
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Comment #3 posted by MikeEEEEE on November 22, 2000 at 08:42:16 PT
Anti-Fear
> The legalizers are fully aware of the Pandora's box that > would be opened with the legitimization and legalization > of marijuana. They must not succeed.What are the anti's worried about, maybe they're worried they're losing. Watch as the evil anti's cry for help, but where were they when their victims cried for help. Should we let the anti's drown in their own crap -- of their own making. Just stay put my friends that love freedom. 
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Comment #2 posted by legalizeit on November 22, 2000 at 07:57:23 PT
Pandora's Crock
>Co-chair, Drug Watch, Duluth, Minn.Who's going to expect anything objective from someone with this title?? Shame on the Duluth News-Tribune for printing this crap.>memory problems, countless diseases (especially of the lungs), permanent, irreversible brain damage in sperm andegg cells, fetal impairment, school failure and drop-out correlations, boosted depression and schizophrenia rates, compromised immune systems and the broken hearts and shattered dreams attributable to marijuana use.Talk about the POT (no pun intended) calling the kettle black! He accuses Bovard of using NORML for his statistics, but it looks like he's gone to every Reefer Madness outlet he can for this garbage! (Of course, he works for one.) Most if not all of these allegations of harm are either false or unprovable (we already know from the tragic Peter McWilliams case that MMJ boosts, not hinders, the immune system.) And as far as "broken hearts and shattered dreams", those are the aftermath of prohibition enforcement, not pot use.And what exactly is "irreversible brain damage in sperm andegg cells"? Do sperm and egg cells have brains now? It just reflects his level of knowledge.>Lenient drug policy, such as that in the Netherlands, has fostered crime associated with increased drug-use levelsLooks like he went to the Church of McCaffrey for this bit of wisdom.>The legalizers are fully aware of the Pandora's box that would be opened with the legitimization and legalization of marijuana. They must not succeed.Yes, we are aware. A box which contains less misappropriation of police resources; the sick and dying able to take the medicine of their choice without fear of persecution; the public at large being able to choose the intoxicant of their choice instead of being limited to the VERY harmful one the government has chosen for them; no more lives ruined by 4 a.m. no-knock raids because someone heard someone saw someone with a pot plant; and our environment being improved by the free and open cultivation of industrial hemp.I'll take that box over the CROCK we are offered under prohibiton!
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Comment #1 posted by michael on November 22, 2000 at 07:55:06 PT:
Classic arrested development syndrome.
 If this isn't an article from the way back machine, then David Taylor just came out of a thirty year coma. He's probably a drinker.  
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