In this video, Bill Maher asks Senator Chris Dodd for a "good reason" why marijuana should be illegal. Senator Dodd says he supports some legalization.
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Anyone in jail for a marijuana offense is a POLITICAL PRISONER in my eyes.
Up here in Canada we always get some US diplomat or a DEA spook making veiled threats in the local press whenever the issue of decriminalization comes up.
In Vancouver our "safe injection" sites for addicts really brought out the US threat machine.
We should decriminalize all drugs and shift wasted taxpayer money into addiction treatment. Provide free drugs free to addicts so they aren't driven to commit property crime to feed the habit.
To read about Vancouver's "Four Pillars" Drug Strategy please go to
http://www
The only problem with Vancouver is that I don't get to live there. Such a beautiful city.
Global Warming kills brain cells as well as 95% of life on Earth.
Smoke a joint.
Most of my friends were die hard Republicans until Bush came along and also gun nuts to boot. Heck I own two guns and will be getting a third maybe this weekend at a gun show if I feel like splurging on a Shotgun or maybe even an AK before they become illegal down here.
Anyway, all of my friends regardless that they were Conservative Republicans who voted Republican for years all smoke pot and all believe it should be legalized because truthfully there is not a single reason that it shouldn't be legal and regulated like alcohol. The only reason it is still classified as a Schedule 1 Drug is because the Feds are still trying to claim it doesn't have any "Medicinal" properties when scientists have proven that it has many. But just like how Bush ignored the intel that showed contradictory evidence to his stance on Iraq, so the Feds will continue to ignore the massive evidence that marijuana has medicinal properties so they can continue to try to keep it illegal for Corporate greed and lobbyist reasons. Hell pharmaceutical companies have even synthesized THC into pill form but the problem is most of the people who use pot for pain relief as well as to increase hunger due to nausea have a very hard time keeping down pills so the synthesized version does them no good and also they have to pay out the butt for them when they could just be growing it themselves for free. There is also the fact that smoking pot causes different reactions than eating pot and I've never gotten a case of munchies from eating pot but always get them from smoking it.
"Most of my friends were die hard Republicans until Bush came along and also gun nuts to boot."
Ironically, as a lifetime liberal who used to think the 2nd Amendment was arcane, it's the Bush administration that has convinced me that the unfettered personal right to keep and bear arms is not only desirable but necessary. Previously I'd never dreamed I would see unabashed tyranny in my lifetime in light of all the other checks and balances in the Constitution.
Quotation from Frederick Douglass:
" . . . the liberties of the American people were dependent upon the ballot-box, the jury box, and the cartridge box."
I think if you can grow it you should be able to have it (including marijuana, opium, and cocoaine), but only for personal use. You can't traffic or refine it.
Illegal plants! You can kill yourself with a few leaves of any number of wild plants. Government control of popular herbals is nothing but moralistic nannyism and corporate protection.
"I think if you can grow it you should be able to have it"
In Bill Maher's "Victory Begins At Home" HBO comedy special, he HILARIOUSLY HIGHLIGHTS our "legalized Medical Marijuana" predicamen
"This country was built on stupid compromises. An example: In those states where the voters have passed the right to have medical marijuana, the Feds don't recognize that. So...it is legal to possess it, but not to obtain it. You can have it, you just can't get it. I'm not kidding! It's illegal for a doctor to write a prescription, you can't buy it, you can't transport it, you can't sell it. But if some of it falls out of the sky and into your mouth...yo
HA, HA, HA!!!
Stay safe, healthy and happy,
Love, Loretta
Is it me, or does it seem that the people who could really use a good fattie are the ones who are most adamant about keeping it illegal?
BINGO! You nailed it. FEAR is ever and always the real enemy of the people.
I was afraid you were going to say that!
Marijuana was originally criminalized for purposes of controlling the Mexican population. Now you know.
No, marijuana was criminalized to protect Hearst's profits from making paper from trees. Read the book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes". They used the term marijuana because it made it appear to be a Mexican product, a distortion.
Actually Connie, you are both correct. In the 30s, when the dust bowl in the midwest put many farmers out of business, they had to compete with cheap mexican labor. It was really a racist beginning, and all mexicans were blamed for, corrupting our youth by bringing this evil weed across our borders. Harry Anslinger made pot illegal in 1936. He did it by the same means that made machine guns illegal. You had to have a marijuanna tax stamp in order to legally possess pot, but you had to have the pot first in order to get the stamp. A real catch-22 if I ever saw one. They did the same with automatic weapons, you had to have a tax stamp to possess them, but you had to possess them first in order to get the stamp. I just gave myself a headache.
Let's face it, conservatives equate marijuana with 1960's style radicalism. They can't support legalization because they're afraid that their base will see them as sympathetic to "liberal values". The apolitical symbols of 60's radical culture are still anathema to them 40 years later. Even men sporting long hair is somehow seen as still too radical.
Of course, "liberty" is always their mantra when it comes to guns, tobacco, and alcohol; and "free enterprise" is always their mantra in response to curbing industrial pollution, promoting consumer protection or providing universal healthcare.
It's all pretty damn silly. Sure, marijuana use has its risks, but no more than brandishing a gun or drinking booze, or driving an automobile for that matter. But the taint of "radicalism" that conservatives associate with marijuana is the only thing that stands between them and consistency with their own values on this issue.
Face it, the "conservatives" you're talking about have never held any consistency in their "values". Brain-dead is not, and never has been, a viable political stance.
As has been indicated in this post's comments a great many actual conservatives can use their brains and have advocated accordingly.
On the one hand it's good that someone's asking about this. But why Maher? The guy's not funny at all. Does HuffPost really want somebody like that in a major role like this? Why not get wild card questions from others?
Just because you personally don't find Maher funny doesn't mean that millions of other folks don't. He's beack for his umpteenth season on HBO for crissakes. Does that mayber answer your stooooopid question?
Why does the person asking the question have to be funny? Bill Maher is just a person willing to ask the question millions of people want answers. He's not running for office, so he can ask honest questions. We have a War on Americans in our own country, we are destroying families around the country, throwing family members in jail for mere possession. Yes, it's an important question. No wonder Americans let this administration start a war of aggression against a country that did not attack us, but has oil. I wish more people asked the questions, ALSO.
This all comes down to freedom and personal responsibility.
Marijuana should be legal as this creates MORE freedom in this country. Abuse of marijuana and any harm to an idividual for smoking marijuana should go down as a personal responsibility issue. Any harm done by those under the influence should be prosecuted, again, as a personal responsibility issue.
People under the influence of pot are feeling too good and mellow to do anybody harm.
I think the point is the hypocrisy, once again.
If alcohol is legal, then why is pot illegal?
It doesn't make sense.
Think of the $$$$ those poor Pharma cos sould be making off the dope
correction, I think it should read "Farma" companies.
K-street could be one giant hydroponic farm. Invest now, folks.
Its more like how much they would lose if folks could grow their own meds...I'v
Also..a couple of tokes in the evening keeps my blood pressure down.
They can't make money off it because you can't patent a plant. That's why it's illegal.
Aren't roses patented?
Get government the hell off our backs! Funny the conservatives love the phoney war on drugs and the most progressive candidate Kucinich sees it as unncessary and counterproductive.
Just read the posts from the leftie loons who still think its the 60s.
Bobobo, you gotta stay off the drugs. You DIDN'T read these posts, you just thought you did. Many of them are citations of medical journals.
"Leftie Loons" is that the best you've got! No facts just spin and name calling. Now that's the problem, no facts, just little people name calling. "Leftie Loons"-I'll bet you support a war of aggression against a country that did not attack us. You probably think the Geneva Convention is quaint and we don't need the Constitution.
One definition of a conservative is "Somebody who hates the 60s".
Which posts might those be? Got any example?
"Just read the posts from the leftie loons who still think its the 60s."
- BoBoBolinski
Troll, oh Troll,
How your posts do stink
Of someone lacking a brain,
Thus no means to think.
Randy
Cute, it's been a while since I blogged, I forgot about the trolls. After Springer I stopped blogging.
The politicians are addicted to marijuana prohibition, both for its usefulness for posturing to the electorate as "tough on crime" and for its proponents' campaign contributions.
makew it legal, make cocain and heroine legal too
all the stoned out liberals will then exterminate themselves
problem solved
With such rational logic dcotter, you've just exterminated yourself.
Great! Try it! See what happens! Clever in theory, but unlikely in practice.
When William F. Buckley wanted to see what the excitement was about, he went out past the 3-mile limit on his yacht and had one of his crew "find" some for him to try "legally". His reaction? Not bad, not worth going to jail over. Big wup.
Actually, the Larry Craig types want the "evils" banned to keep themselves from sinning. Doesn't work. I have right winger/gun nut kin who would like nothing better than legal pot. At least they're honest about it.
Stewart Brand said 40 yrs ago that MJ would be the drug of choice if not so smelly and bulky. Can be used to "cure" heroin addiction if you want it to.
Not to change the subject, but does anybody know if it is possible to quit crack? I heard that the big revenue source for the downtown vendors was not local crime but lads from the 'burbs, dabbling. That doesn't fit the media/law enforcement stereotype.
Crack is cocaine, right? Earlier studies(those before gov't intervention) showed that cocaine 'addiction' is psychological, not physical like opiates and barbiturates. In other words, cold-turkey will not harm you. And your body will not convulse trying to kick it.
you wish. But, hey, legalize it!
Don't care if you hate us, just agree to legalize. Thanks
Another fascist early morning drunkard slurring his bullshit.
Don't you ever get tired of showing everyone what an absolute idiot you are dsot?
BTW dsot, pot is great for hangovers.
Chronic drunks like you should have some on hand at all times. Just trying to help.
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First Posted: 09-13-07 09:42 AM | Updated: 03-28-08 02:45 AM