cannabisnews.com: Big, Big Government 





Big, Big Government 
Posted by CN Staff on January 31, 2007 at 07:25:25 PT
By John Stossel
Source: Town Hall.com 
Washington, DC -- Two weeks ago, U.S. drug agents launched raids on 11 medical-marijuana centers in Los Angeles County. The U.S. attorney's office says they violated the laws against cultivation and distribution of marijuana. Whatever happened to America's federal system, which recognized the states as "laboratories of democracy"?
According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, 11 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) have eliminated the penalties for physician-approved possession of marijuana by seriously ill patients. In those states people with AIDS and other catastrophic diseases may either grow their own marijuana or get it from registered dispensaries. But the U.S. government says its drug laws trump the states' laws, and in 2005, the Supreme Court agreed. This is not the way it was supposed to work. The constitutional plan presented in the Federalist Papers delegated only a few powers to the federal government, with the rest reserved to the states. The system was hailed for its genius. Instead of having decisions made in the center -- where errors would harm the entire country -- most policies would be determined in a decentralized environment. A mistake in California would affect only Californians. New Yorkers, Ohioans, and others could try something else. Everyone would learn and benefit from the various experiments. It made a lot of sense. It still does. Too bad the idea is being tossed on the trash heap by big-government Republicans and their DEA goons. Drug prohibition -- like alcohol prohibition -- is a silly idea, as the late free-market economist Milton Friedman often pointed out. Something doesn't go away just because the government decrees it illegal. It simply goes underground. Then a black market creates worse problems. Since sellers cannot rely on police to protect their property, they arm themselves, form gangs, charge monopoly prices, and kill their competitors. Buyers steal to pay the high prices. Alcohol prohibition in the 1920s gave America Al Capone and organized crime. Drug prohibition has given us South American and Asian cartels that finance terrorism. Even the government admits that the heroin trade bankrolls terrorists. Prohibition's exorbitant black-market prices make that possible. In the United States, drug prohibition spawns gangs that are sometimes better armed than the police. Drug prohibition does more harm than drugs. The war on drugs hasn't even accomplished what it promised to do. Drugs are abundant and cheaper than ever. "ABC News" reported last month, "marijuana is the U.S.'s most valuable crop. The report, 'Marijuana Production in the United States,' by marijuana policy researcher Jon Gettman, concludes that despite massive eradication efforts at the hands of the federal government, 'marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the national economy.'" The destructive failure of the drug war is why it makes so much sense to let states experiment, which 11 of them have done with medical marijuana. Legalizing only medical marijuana brings its own problems. For one thing, it invites state authorities to monitor the practice of medicine to make sure doctors don't prescribe pot promiscuously. But government officials shouldn't be the judges of what is and isn't medicine. That should be left to medical researchers, doctors, and patients. The effectiveness of medicine is too dependent on individual circumstances and biochemistry. One size does not fit all, so politicians and bureaucrats should butt out. More fundamentally, why should only people whom the state defines as sick be able to use marijuana? This is supposed to be a free country, and in a free country adults should have the right to ingest whatever they want. A drug user who harms someone else should be punished, but a peaceful user should be left alone. Despite my reservations about medical marijuana, the states' experimentation is still better than a brutal federal one-size-fits-all crackdown. There is no role here for the federal government. If the people of a state want to experiment by loosening drug prohibition, that should be their right. Washington should mind its own business. The feds and rest of us should watch. We might learn something. John Stossel is an award-winning news correspondent and author of Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel--Why Everything You Know is Wrong. Source: Town Hall.com (DC)Author: John StosselPublished: Wednesday, January 31, 2007Copyright: 2007 King Features SyndicateContact: info townhall.com Website: http://www.townhall.com/Related Articles & Web Site:NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/Medical Marijuana Raids are Criticizedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22536.shtmlDEA Raids Medical Marijuana Centershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22535.shtml 
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Comment #19 posted by Toker00 on February 01, 2007 at 03:22:52 PT
I wonder...
Will there be another book added to the Bible in the future called the Book of Beatle? The songs of the prophets John, George, Paul, and Ringo? Maybe not. After all, they were just four lads from Liverpool. Just like you, just like me. They were just a spark of what we ALL can be.Toke.
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Comment #18 posted by FoM on January 31, 2007 at 20:27:51 PT
John Tyler 
You said it all!
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Comment #17 posted by John Tyler on January 31, 2007 at 19:51:19 PT
Beatles' spirituality
The writer of the article slamming the Beatles has no idea what God or spirituality is. He sounds so foolish. Conventional Christian theology like this guy is spouting is OK, but it is so limiting. You read the Bible and wear nice clothes when you go to church and sing hymns, pray some and be “good”. You are just going around counting the trees in the orchard. Taste the fruit. Taste the fruit and the trees will have a different meaning. You can talk about God until the cows come home, but it won’t do a thing for you. Have an out of body experience where you merge with God and become one with the universe and you will think about God and stuff in a larger context. The Beatles sang about love so much because they saw love as the driving force of eternity. Eternity is forever. God is love. All you need is love. Remember how happy you are when you are in love. Don’t be jealous of the Beatles’ spiritual achievement. Go and have some spiritual achievement yourself and see for yourself. Every hippy I ever knew, knew this. When Jimi Hendrix asked the musical question, “Are you experienced?” this is what he was talking about.   Sorry to go so about this.  
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Comment #16 posted by Hope on January 31, 2007 at 19:51:11 PT
comment 15
Thank you!
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on January 31, 2007 at 17:44:17 PT
Hope
I went and found an article about Weed and New Hampshire. Here it is.http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22581.shtml
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on January 31, 2007 at 17:27:44 PT
something
This link is now one of the ones I check out everyday. I don't see much about Senator Clinton. The media makes more of it then they do.http://www.dailykos.com/
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on January 31, 2007 at 17:26:55 PT
Does anyone have any idea how
the bill in New Hampshire is faring? I haven't heard a word about it in a while.
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Comment #12 posted by Hope on January 31, 2007 at 17:25:42 PT
Don't feel that way.
If it's a fact it's a fact. It may not be true in every case...but I have little doubt that it happens. I'd think a better message than "be afraid" and suspicious, all the time of everything...would be "don't be afraid."
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on January 31, 2007 at 17:16:11 PT
Hope
I wish I didn't think that way. It's about the money I believe.
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Comment #10 posted by Hope on January 31, 2007 at 17:02:57 PT
Keeping the money coming in?
I suspect you are very right about that.It's a shame.
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on January 31, 2007 at 17:00:37 PT
Hope
Fun, looking for answers outside of a church, allowing your own spirit to guide you etc. won't make people go to church. They want people to go to church since a church needs money and a pastor is paid if he has a congregation. All the wrong reasons. A truly good person would be happy to see people being in a spiritual state of mind because at least they can learn that way. 
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on January 31, 2007 at 16:53:33 PT
The same creepy old stuff.... Looking for Boogers!
The devil made them do it. The music is devilish. We've all been led astray. They were led astray.I haven't heard any of that stuff in a long time. I thought maybe it wasn't as "popular" among those always looking for a spiritual "booger" of some kind.To me, their "eyes are full of darkness". My theory is...don't be constantly searching for a "booger"...you might find one! 
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on January 31, 2007 at 16:45:38 PT
Hope
I didn't read it word for word but I did look at it. Anything outside of the way they want people to find God is wrong. It really sounded like a hate article one that we see so often from the christian right. I think a lot of it is jealousy turned to hate.
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on January 31, 2007 at 16:41:09 PT
FoM Comment 4
Did you read that article?
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Comment #5 posted by something on January 31, 2007 at 16:32:45 PT
yep
"Too bad the idea is being tossed on the trash heap by big-government Republicans and their DEA goons."are democrats any different? you think hilary would help us? come on, get real, and be fair.
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on January 31, 2007 at 14:25:24 PT
OT: Re-Thinking The Beatles 
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idarticle=7715
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Comment #3 posted by Celaya on January 31, 2007 at 12:18:35 PT
In Sum....
"This is supposed to be a free country, and in a free country adults should have the right to ingest whatever they want. A drug user who harms someone else should be punished, but a peaceful user should be left alone."'Nuf said. 
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on January 31, 2007 at 09:12:53 PT:
The prohibs fall for it, every time
Most people really have no idea why laws such as Prop215 were written the way they were. This article is just another example of why.Prop215, which the control-freak Statists in government continually decry as 'poorly written' by not splitting every single favotite prohib policy 'hair' at least sixteen times, was actually a piece of genius.I say 'genius' because by doing what it has, it has shown just how unworkable drug prohibition is in general in this country, by eliciting that peeing-and-moaning from the prohibs. Their compalints about the difficulty of enforcement are nothing but making the same point that drug law reformers have been making for years. And causing such as Mr. Stossel to once more publicly question the wisdom of the maintenance of this prohibition. Which forces the prohib mouthpieces into the limelight once more to try to rebut people like him by regurgitating their DrugWar slogans, which the discerning members of the public have become heartily sick of hearing. Every time they do that, their credibility drops another notch...while ours rises.Keep bitching, prohibs. You are doing our work for us, carrying all the heavy weight while making these compalints, after which all we have to do is turn to the public and say, "See? We said the DrugWar was impractical to begin with. Now our opponents are validating our case for us."...all without our breaking into a sweat to do so. Sweeeeeeet...
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Comment #1 posted by doc james on January 31, 2007 at 07:40:02 PT
I couldn't
have said it better myself. Living in a state that doesn't accept marijuana as a medicine but a drug that is THE gateway drug for youth. All for the sake of the children...my arse. All for the sake of the almighty freakin dollar!
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