A majority of Americans favor legalizing marijuana, according to new polling from the Pew Research Center.
Fifty-two percent of respondents say they support legalization compared to 45 percent who oppose it. That’s a 12-point swing in just three years. In 2010, 50 percent of Americans opposed legalization compared to just 45 percent who supported it. Going back further, a whopping 84 percent of Americans opposed legalization in 1969 – compared to just 12 percent who supported it.
Talk about an issue whose time has come …
FITS has consistently argued in favor of legalizing marijuana – and other drugs. We’ve also railed repeatedly on the federal government’s costly, dangerous (and failing) “War on Drugs.”
Of course “Republicans” – who are supposed to support limited government and expanded individual freedom – still overwhelmingly oppose legalization. According to the Pew study, 60 percent of GOP voters oppose legalization compared to 37 percent who support it.
Yet another sad commentary on the party of “personal responsibility …”
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96 comments
Legalize it, tax the beegeebers out of it and slam dunk anyone caught DWH.
Legalize it, tax the beegeebers out of it and slam dunk anyone caught DWH.
I personally think it’s idiotic to legalize it (mainly for health reasons – immediate and some long-lasting), but where do we set the “minimum age” for legal use? 11? 14? 18? Or, do we repeat the idiocy of 21 like we have booze & beer?
Or, do we do like Oklahoma did many years ago, and have a “minimum age” for girls at 18 (for 3.2% beer) and one for males at 21?
Smoking it you can argue is idiotic, but making it illegal has been a gigantic clusterfuck from the get go. We waste too much money shutting down illegal operations and jailing people for being caught with it. It does no good to fight it, there’s too many social problems it makes worse and not many it improves to do so.
21 is an acceptable age, it should be treated in the same way as alcohol is. Kids will still smoke it, they do already though.
But when it was “legal” without any restrictions prior to the mid-1930s, then “legal but taxed” by the “Marijuana Tax Act” of 1938 (if I remember correctly – small registration fee for transferor and transferee, but $100.00/oz. tax to transfer), nobody paid any attention to the fact they could get it legally, and everyone who ‘used’ just did it anyway, rather than spend the $$$. Much like us upcountry folks that liked to drink corn whiskey from the Jocassee area before it was all flooded (‘shiners didn’t collect the liquor tax).
I rather doubt that if it is soon legalized and taxed again, that anyone will want to pay the tax, and it still will consume law enforcement effort to enforce the “unenforceable” against what seems to be a very large scofflaw populace.
ADD: Possession and use only became illegal in 1971 with the “Controlled Substances Act” which placed marihuana in Schedule I – however, “synthetic marihuana” capsules (a “legal” tetrahydrocannabinol) are Schedule III and are prescribable as any other controlled substance.
In the end it all comes down to that. Why should I have to pay for someone sitting in jail over it? How often do potheads rip out copper while you are at work in order to pay for their habit? I can’t remember that happening. So what’s the threat and why am I paying for it?
A kindly reminder:
Like all other past and futile attempts at curbing a person’s desire to self-medicate or alter his consciousness, marijuana prohibition is rooted in hate, paranoia, racism, misinformation, half-truths, and outright lies —It’s your right to disagree, just please try to remain factual..
There is no debate: Marijuana is absolutely safer than alcohol, tobacco, and all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, while Prohibition, a costly nightmare that enriches both criminals and corrupt politicians, is a threat to us all.
Legal or not, millions of citizens are already using marijuana. What many sane people are now proposing, is to take the criminal aspect out of it, collect revenues from its sale, and instead of spending billions of precious tax dollars on doomed-to-failure enforcement, put it’s ‘taxable income’ to work for the whole community.
Here’s a documentary about marijuana curing cancer. There are 7 parts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjhT9282-Tw
I certainly hope Youtube is not the only “well-recognized” medical journal you consult… perhaps you should add Readers’ Digest.
I personally think it’s idiotic to legalize it (mainly for health reasons – immediate and some long-lasting), but where do we set the “minimum age” for legal use? 11? 14? 18? Or, do we repeat the idiocy of 21 like we have booze & beer?
Or, do we do like Oklahoma did many years ago, and have a “minimum age” for girls at 18 (for 3.2% beer) and one for males at 21?
Smoking it you can argue is idiotic, but making it illegal has been a gigantic clusterfuck from the get go. We waste too much money shutting down illegal operations and jailing people for being caught with it. It does no good to fight it, there’s too many social problems it makes worse and not many it improves to do so.
21 is an acceptable age, it should be treated in the same way as alcohol is. Kids will still smoke it, they do already though.
But when it was “legal” without any restrictions prior to the mid-1930s, then “legal but taxed” by the “Marijuana Tax Act” of 1938 (if I remember correctly – small registration fee for transferor and transferee, but $100.00/oz. tax to transfer), nobody paid any attention to the fact they could get it legally, and everyone who ‘used’ just did it anyway, rather than spend the $$$. Much like us upcountry folks that liked to drink corn whiskey from the Jocassee area before it was all flooded (‘shiners didn’t collect the liquor tax).
I rather doubt that if it is soon legalized and taxed again, that anyone will want to pay the tax, and it still will consume law enforcement effort to enforce the “unenforceable” against what seems to be a very large scofflaw populace.
ADD: Possession and use only became illegal in 1971 with the “Controlled Substances Act” which placed marihuana in Schedule I – however, “synthetic marihuana” capsules (a “legal” tetrahydrocannabinol) are Schedule III and are prescribable as any other controlled substance.
In the end it all comes down to that. Why should I have to pay for someone sitting in jail over it? How often do potheads rip out copper while you are at work in order to pay for their habit? I can’t remember that happening. So what’s the threat and why am I paying for it?
A kindly reminder:
Like all other past and futile attempts at curbing a person’s desire to self-medicate or alter his consciousness, marijuana prohibition is rooted in hate, paranoia, racism, misinformation, half-truths, and outright lies —It’s your right to disagree, just please try to remain factual..
There is no debate: Marijuana is absolutely safer than alcohol, tobacco, and all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, while Prohibition, a costly nightmare that enriches both criminals and corrupt politicians, is a threat to us all.
Legal or not, millions of citizens are already using marijuana. What many sane people are now proposing, is to take the criminal aspect out of it, collect revenues from its sale, and instead of spending billions of precious tax dollars on doomed-to-failure enforcement, put it’s ‘taxable income’ to work for the whole community.
Here’s a documentary about marijuana curing cancer. There are 7 parts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjhT9282-Tw
I certainly hope Youtube is not the only “well-recognized” medical journal you consult… perhaps you should add Readers’ Digest.
So Marijuana smoke doesnt bother the lungs like cigarettes?
1) Tobacco is cancer causing largely because it delivers specific carcinogens such as NNK and NNAL that are not present in cannabis. Not all “tar” is created equal, and tobacco has some of the most carcinogenic types of tar known to science, whereas cannabis does not.
http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/91/14/1194
2) Cannabis (marijuana) use is associated with a DECREASE in several types of cancer… potentially even providing a protective effect against tobacco and alcohol related cancer development.
Donald Tashkin, a UCLA researcher whose work is funded by NIDA, did a case-control study comparing 1,200 patients with lung, head and neck cancers to a matched group with no cancer. Even the heaviest marijuana smokers had no increased risk of cancer, and had somewhat lower cancer risk than non-smokers (tobacco smokers had a 20-fold increased lung cancer risk). Tashkin D. Marijuana Use and Lung Cancer: Results of a Case-Control Study. American Thoracic Society International Conference. May 23, 2006.
Researchers at the Kaiser-Permanente HMO, funded by NIDA, followed 65,000 patients for nearly a decade, comparing cancer rates among non-smokers, tobacco smokers, and marijuana smokers. Tobacco smokers had massively higher rates of lung cancer and other cancers. Marijuana smokers who didn’t also use tobacco had no increase in risk of tobacco-related cancers or of cancer risk overall. In fact their rates of lung and most other cancers were slightly lower than non-smokers. Sidney, S. et al. Marijuana Use and Cancer Incidence (California, United States). Cancer Causes and Control. Vol. 8. Sept. 1997, p. 722-728.
and you’ve never smoked any dope in your life.gimme 50 push-ups…
BULL SHIT!
Few people smoke 20 joints a day, like tobacco smokers.
yeah agree,
One joint is equal to a pack of 20 cigarettes.I’m all for legalization,but hate the portrayal of dope smokers as,noble victims.Go for a 7-mile run,if you want to get high,free.
lol show me that’s static from a reputable source please ? let me help you! You cant cause none exist .Sure wish people would stop spreading bs lies around making stuff up out of the air,it’s already hard enough trying to get the dam gop to turn sides
If you’re concerned that “One joint is equal to a pack of 20 cigarettes,” then put the sticky icky in a brownnie and eat it…problem solved.
that is a good idea,but i fucking HATE pot.all you brain-dead motherfuckers;eat it,smoke it,or stick it up your ass,morons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ3XAsbHOlU
If conservatives don’t like something, they don’t do it.
If liberals don’t like something, they don’t want anyone to do it.
So Marijuana smoke doesnt bother the lungs like cigarettes?
1) Tobacco is cancer causing largely because it delivers specific carcinogens such as NNK and NNAL that are not present in cannabis. Not all “tar” is created equal, and tobacco has some of the most carcinogenic types of tar known to science, whereas cannabis does not.
http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/91/14/1194
2) Cannabis (marijuana) use is associated with a DECREASE in several types of cancer… potentially even providing a protective effect against tobacco and alcohol related cancer development.
Donald Tashkin, a UCLA researcher whose work is funded by NIDA, did a case-control study comparing 1,200 patients with lung, head and neck cancers to a matched group with no cancer. Even the heaviest marijuana smokers had no increased risk of cancer, and had somewhat lower cancer risk than non-smokers (tobacco smokers had a 20-fold increased lung cancer risk). Tashkin D. Marijuana Use and Lung Cancer: Results of a Case-Control Study. American Thoracic Society International Conference. May 23, 2006.
Researchers at the Kaiser-Permanente HMO, funded by NIDA, followed 65,000 patients for nearly a decade, comparing cancer rates among non-smokers, tobacco smokers, and marijuana smokers. Tobacco smokers had massively higher rates of lung cancer and other cancers. Marijuana smokers who didn’t also use tobacco had no increase in risk of tobacco-related cancers or of cancer risk overall. In fact their rates of lung and most other cancers were slightly lower than non-smokers. Sidney, S. et al. Marijuana Use and Cancer Incidence (California, United States). Cancer Causes and Control. Vol. 8. Sept. 1997, p. 722-728.
and you’ve never smoked any dope in your life.gimme 50 push-ups…
BULL SHIT!
Few people smoke 20 joints a day, like tobacco smokers.
yeah agree,
One joint is equal to a pack of 20 cigarettes.I’m all for legalization,but hate the portrayal of dope smokers as,noble victims.Go for a 7-mile run,if you want to get high,free.
lol show me that’s static from a reputable source please ? let me help you! You cant cause none exist .Sure wish people would stop spreading bs lies around making stuff up out of the air,it’s already hard enough trying to get the dam gop to turn sides
If you’re concerned that “One joint is equal to a pack of 20 cigarettes,” then put the sticky icky in a brownnie and eat it…problem solved.
that is a good idea,but i fucking HATE pot.all you brain-dead motherfuckers;eat it,smoke it,or stick it up your ass,morons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ3XAsbHOlU
If conservatives don’t like something, they don’t do it.
If liberals don’t like something, they don’t want anyone to do it.
I grow it in my garage using grow lights, fertilizers, hydroponic nutrients, heat mats, and so forth I order from amazon.com. I get my seeds from a buddy who gets it from his girlfriend who gets it from her girlfriend, and on and on. No wonder republicans are losing national elections. And I’m a MD. It’s much better for you taken in moderation, with a hooka, than booze, which is harmful to the liver.
I grow it in my garage using grow lights, fertilizers, hydroponic nutrients, heat mats, and so forth I order from amazon.com. I get my seeds from a buddy who gets it from his girlfriend who gets it from her girlfriend, and on and on. No wonder republicans are losing national elections. And I’m a MD. It’s much better for you taken in moderation, with a hooka, than booze, which is harmful to the liver.
Fight Prohibition with Jury Nullification!
When called for jury duty on a case concerning a drug violation with no overt act of violence, do not convict! If the offender is non-violent, do not send them to prison! Another person in a federal or state prison for drugs is not going to make society any better or our families any safer, in fact, it WILL do the exact opposite.
* It only takes one juror to prevent a guilty verdict.
* You are not lawfully required to disclose your voting intention, ether before or after taking your seat on a jury.
* You are also not required to give a reason to your fellow jurors on your position when voting—simply state that you find the accused not guilty.
* Jurors must understand that it is their opinion, their vote. It is of no consequence If the Judge or the other jurors disapprove; there is no punishment for having a dissenting opinion.
We must create what we can no longer afford to wait for: Please Vote To Acquit!
Just got this from Jumpin’ Jean Troll….
“DON’T – TELL – THEM – THAT !!!”
In voir dire, jurors are placed under oath. Then they are asked if they can apply the law as it is written. To say that you would follow the law when your intension is otherwise is perjury.
Also, jurors are required to take an oath, once seated on a jury, to follow the law. As a juror, you don’t get an “opinion”. You get a vote on whether the State has met his burden if proof under the law.
Do you really think tort reform minded people state their true intentions during what SC jokingly
calls voir dire (especially in Gville county). I’ve got some resort property in Haiti you will absolutely love.
This applies to all law abiding citizens. Of course it excludes lawyers and politicians.,right.
thanks. that’s what i was thinking. isn’t it also true that you are required to answer questions truthfully during jury selection? such as “are you opposed to the conviction of drug offenders regardless of the particulars of the case at hand?” you could still practice what Kyle advises, but i wouldn’t admit it at any time, under any circumstances.
i agree and at the end of the trial when we vote, ill stand up and preach to them why i vote not guilty :) i don’t care what people think of me,i want them to know am screw (ing) the system :)
when’s your trial,dude?
Fight Prohibition with Jury Nullification!
When called for jury duty on a case concerning a drug violation with no overt act of violence, do not convict! If the offender is non-violent, do not send them to prison! Another person in a federal or state prison for drugs is not going to make society any better or our families any safer, in fact, it WILL do the exact opposite.
* It only takes one juror to prevent a guilty verdict.
* You are not lawfully required to disclose your voting intention, ether before or after taking your seat on a jury.
* You are also not required to give a reason to your fellow jurors on your position when voting—simply state that you find the accused not guilty.
* Jurors must understand that it is their opinion, their vote. It is of no consequence If the Judge or the other jurors disapprove; there is no punishment for having a dissenting opinion.
We must create what we can no longer afford to wait for: Please Vote To Acquit!
Just got this from Jumpin’ Jean Troll….
“DON’T – TELL – THEM – THAT !!!”
In voir dire, jurors are placed under oath. Then they are asked if they can apply the law as it is written. To say that you would follow the law when your intension is otherwise is perjury.
Also, jurors are required to take an oath, once seated on a jury, to follow the law. As a juror, you don’t get an “opinion”. You get a vote on whether the State has met his burden if proof under the law.
Do you really think tort reform minded people state their true intentions during what SC jokingly
calls voir dire (especially in Gville county). I’ve got some resort property in Haiti you will absolutely love.
This applies to all law abiding citizens. Of course it excludes lawyers and politicians.,right.
thanks. that’s what i was thinking. isn’t it also true that you are required to answer questions truthfully during jury selection? such as “are you opposed to the conviction of drug offenders regardless of the particulars of the case at hand?” you could still practice what Kyle advises, but i wouldn’t admit it at any time, under any circumstances.
i agree and at the end of the trial when we vote, ill stand up and preach to them why i vote not guilty :) i don’t care what people think of me,i want them to know am screw (ing) the system :)
when’s your trial,dude?
No problem,the Global Warming is going to kill us all anyway!
No problem,the Global Warming is going to kill us all anyway!
Damnit Fits, you have set that hot girl in the pic up to fall! Expect Lott to be at your office with warrants soon, demanding the pic and her identity so he can make another “possession of MJ by photograph” case.
Looks like she’s smoking a dildo in the photo
She can smoke my dildo anytime!
Damnit Fits, you have set that hot girl in the pic up to fall! Expect Lott to be at your office with warrants soon, demanding the pic and her identity so he can make another “possession of MJ by photograph” case.
Looks like she’s smoking a dildo in the photo
She can smoke my dildo anytime!
They graduate to the hard stuff before they get that far along.
BS. I’ve smoked that stuff for fifteen years…
They graduate to the hard stuff before they get that far along.
BS. I’ve smoked that stuff for fifteen years…
Nice pic but they really look like this.
Nice pic but they really look like this.
Plain & simple:
Legalize drugs & prostitution and have the individuals sign a waver stating after 10 years of drug use (not to include reefer), they die…….
Plain & simple:
Legalize drugs & prostitution and have the individuals sign a waver stating after 10 years of drug use (not to include reefer), they die…….
America is goin to pot and more groups want in on the action: jeffreyfadness.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/study-finds-52-of-americans-want-pot-legalized/ …
America is goin to pot and more groups want in on the action: jeffreyfadness.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/study-finds-52-of-americans-want-pot-legalized/ …
Free the WEED! free Bradley Manning
Free the WEED! free Bradley Manning
Let us see the full picture!
Let us see the full picture!
I been smokiin pot every day for the last 20 years and I ain’t hooked…
If society needs to do aNYTHING right now, it’s learn something constructive..not Smoked-up Dope heads, too F*@ked up (like FITS) to walk straight…
Also: I’m all for it. With the unemployment rate what it is: I’d love to eliminate as many losers and Dope heads as I can from the competition. Everybody I know, who smoked pot (and I know a lot) consider the eyars they smoked as WASTED years.
Hey FITS: Let’s legalize Gongarrea, AIDS and Mushrooms…the brain-dead, government-ridin’ tuned out idiots want to do that (as long as I pay for the damage they cause)…
You are a F*@kin idiot, if there ever was one…killing what’s left of the minds of the stupid, is NOT fiscally resonsible (as you so boldly claim you are)….
Oh you’ve been smoking something alright, but it sure as hell isn’t pot.
I’m betting PCP! Got laced with that once and sounded totally like a mad man…
I been smokiin pot every day for the last 20 years and I ain’t hooked…
If society needs to do aNYTHING right now, it’s learn something constructive..not Smoked-up Dope heads, too F*@ked up (like FITS) to walk straight…
Also: I’m all for it. With the unemployment rate what it is: I’d love to eliminate as many losers and Dope heads as I can from the competition. Everybody I know, who smoked pot (and I know a lot) consider the eyars they smoked as WASTED years.
Hey FITS: Let’s legalize Gongarrea, AIDS and Mushrooms…the brain-dead, government-ridin’ tuned out idiots want to do that (as long as I pay for the damage they cause)…
You are a F*@kin idiot, if there ever was one…killing what’s left of the minds of the stupid, is NOT fiscally resonsible (as you so boldly claim you are)….
Oh you’ve been smoking something alright, but it sure as hell isn’t pot.
I’m betting PCP! Got laced with that once and sounded totally like a mad man…
Can I get the chick in the picture to come over and pack my bowl?
Can I get the chick in the picture to come over and pack my bowl?
Just eating the wrong kind of food is a far worse problem than smoking pot ever could be. I”ve had to quit smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and go on a diet which are all incredibly difficult habits to change. Cigarettes are so addictive it’s just crazy. I also quit smoking weed many years ago but that is something that is not addictive, or at least less addictive than say, coffee, and something that would benefit a lot of people for medicinal and therapeutic values without the negative health impact that cigarettes and alcohol have.
Just eating the wrong kind of food is a far worse problem than smoking pot ever could be. I”ve had to quit smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and go on a diet which are all incredibly difficult habits to change. Cigarettes are so addictive it’s just crazy. I also quit smoking weed many years ago but that is something that is not addictive, or at least less addictive than say, coffee, and something that would benefit a lot of people for medicinal and therapeutic values without the negative health impact that cigarettes and alcohol have.
I’d hit that!
I’d hit that!
You are my Hero!
You are my Hero!
I’m not in favor of legalizing marijuana. I can’t even imagine the profound stupidity behind the thought process that allows anyone to think it is a good idea. Unless that person is a victim of their on stupidity from smoking marijuana and doing other drugs themselves. However I am fondly in favor of taking advantage of people that do. Somehow it escapes the consciousness of peoples mind what people will do when under the influence of drugs, including marijuana, especially young girls. Hell the girl need not even be a user if she is unfortunate enough to be the daughter of one, or both parents who are. Unfortunate for her, beneficial for me.
So don’t call me a bitter loser because I have already formulated a way to make this work for me. And the beauty of it is, I don’t have to sell drugs, I don’t have to lurk in internet chat rooms, I don’t have to hide where girls hangout. All I have to do is go about my normal day to day life and as the sickness of this fantasy spreads by random chance my path will cross with a hot sexy young girl (now you know this is true – however if not for the influence/damage drugs/marijuana use by her mother and or father have done in her life we would be nut two ships that pass each other in our respective journeys) and she will be as willing to engage in one more taboo act that she thinks will add excitement to her life.
If my comment disturbs you it is because you either have a conscious and don not support this spreading this sickness or you have none and have not considered the result of your stupidity. However the former has nothing to be concerned about. You will not do this as will by live and raise your children responsibly. The latter however will not be incapable of either.
You can chose the path you take, but you cannot chose the result of taking that path. In that case that future is etched in stone.
BeenThere done That.
I’m not in favor of legalizing marijuana. I can’t even imagine the profound stupidity behind the thought process that allows anyone to think it is a good idea. Unless that person is a victim of their on stupidity from smoking marijuana and doing other drugs themselves. However I am fondly in favor of taking advantage of people that do. Somehow it escapes the consciousness of peoples mind what people will do when under the influence of drugs, including marijuana, especially young girls. Hell the girl need not even be a user if she is unfortunate enough to be the daughter of one, or both parents who are. Unfortunate for her, beneficial for me.
So don’t call me a bitter loser because I have already formulated a way to make this work for me. And the beauty of it is, I don’t have to sell drugs, I don’t have to lurk in internet chat rooms, I don’t have to hide where girls hangout. All I have to do is go about my normal day to day life and as the sickness of this fantasy spreads by random chance my path will cross with a hot sexy young girl (now you know this is true – however if not for the influence/damage drugs/marijuana use by her mother and or father have done in her life we would be nut two ships that pass each other in our respective journeys) and she will be as willing to engage in one more taboo act that she thinks will add excitement to her life.
If my comment disturbs you it is because you either have a conscious and don not support this spreading this sickness or you have none and have not considered the result of your stupidity. However the former has nothing to be concerned about. You will not do this as will by live and raise your children responsibly. The latter however will not be incapable of either.
You can chose the path you take, but you cannot chose the result of taking that path. In that case that future is etched in stone.
BeenThere done That.