How do you think your life -- and society in general -- would have benefited if, during your admitted past drug use, you were subject to the same criminal penalties as other Americans?
(Or, if your fig leaf is "I was in England, man!," then replace the last two words with "...other citizens of the selected-drug-hysteric country where you toked, snorted, gobbled magic mushrooms, or whatever.")
"Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts
to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime
out of things that are not crimes."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.
563D
"A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which
our government was founded."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.410A
Because I will take the pothead in the dark alley any day of the week.
This was the question asked and the response by President Obama skirted the issue. As far as your comment, is it also NOT a priority to put an end to 72 years of documented failure? The drug war is not working, quite the contrary. It is the problem. As far as cannabis not being able to provide jobs and revenue are alsdo false. The same government also keeps telling us that cannabis ius the largest cash crop in the US and that argument is a welcome one when it comes to special interests and the prison business asking to ratchet up this idiotic failure. Cannabis is here to stay and the time for reform is now. Not another seven decades of waste and failure from now.
Any other pearls of wisdom you can fit in one line?
Idiot
Actually, we now make a common behavior a crime, and lo and behold! A lot of black center city youths get rounded up, are labeled with a criminal record, are denied employment and can't vote to change the system.
We even make using cocaine a much less severe crime than smoking crack, so the penalties are less severe in the suburbs than in the city.
then looky here: http://www.veryimportantpotheads.com/index.html
(Meanwhile, Obama is huffing the nicotine.)
Obama and Clinton on Drugs: Just Say No. . . Sometimes?
We have now had two Presidents in a row, who used drugs and if they had been caught and tried and convicted would have had a felony conviction which undoubtedly would have precluded their election as President. I like Pres. Obama but it is hypocritical for him to answer as he did when he is President and many no less innocent than he is are in prison or have a criminal record.
posted Mar 27, 2009 at 17:24:26
I posted this on Huffpost yesterday. Do I deserve a nod?
gdebs
to certain drugs,or they create an addiction, that needs the use of Health Services, cops, courts and
Politicians have vested interests not always the same as an individuals.
The fact that people think Urban users are street people who need to go to jail, and Suburban people with better lawyers are just self medicating and need a Vacation shows uneqaul treatment by justice system.
What about a defense fund (NORML could do it maybe) that people can donate to a la barackobama.com to put money into hiring top attorneys to defend people in simple possession cases?
If prosecutors knew they were going to consistently face top lawyers and likely lose a much higher % of their cases, they and the police will have to stop wasting resources on it.
Obama's refusal to follow the science here is very disappointing.
Obama is very quickly losing his chance to be more than a Clinton caliber president.
It would be political suicide . . . but apparently it is the #1 most important issue in the minds of a majority of his supporters . . . and it would greatly help the economy if he legalized it because it is the #1 cash crop in America . . .
It seems like some people stay stuck in a political tarpit of their own making.
so taping the president, presumably secretly, is not something that a "friend" would do.
George W Bush is a frat boy, and when he was in college, cocaine and marijuana use were rampant among frat boys in colleges across America. Yale was no exception.