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| Conservative Magazine Goes To Pot |
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Posted by FoM on August 22, 2001 at 09:30:42 PT By Don Feder Source: WorldNetDaily 
If you're looking for a good pot party on the right (Edmund Burke meets Cheech and Chong), check out the pages of National Review. Legalization of marijuana is founder William F. Buckley Jr.'s pet cause. (Mr. Common Touch has admitted to toking on his yacht in international waters.) Senior Editor Richard Brookhiser thinks marijuana is medicine. In the Aug. 20 issue, Editor in Chief Richard Lowry weighs in with "Weed Whackers: The anti-marijuana forces and why they're wrong." The article reads like a memo from the desk of George Soros, the legalization movement's sugar daddy. Lowry writes, "Marijuana is widely used, and for the vast majority of its users is nearly harmless and represents a temporary experiment or enthusiasm." He snorts at the gateway theory – that pot leads to more potent narcotics. "Since marijuana is the most widely used and least dangerous illegal drug, it makes sense that people inclined to use harder-to-find drugs will start with it first." It's not that the high from marijuana disposes users to seek more intense experiences. For Lowry, inclination exists in a vacuum. When legalization skeptics note that roughly 100,000 enter rehab programs for marijuana each year, Lowry counters that most are ordered into the programs by the courts, as punishment for possession. And who orders them to go to emergency rooms? According to the University of Maryland's Center for Substance Abuse Research, in 1999, marijuana accounted for 79,088 emergency-room visits, slightly more than heroin. In 1998, 60 percent of juvenile arrestees in the District of Columbia tested positive for pot. Here again, Lowry reverses cause and effect. Teens don't get into trouble using marijuana, he insists. Troubled youth are attracted to the weed, it being one more way to rebel. But parent after parent has told me: "My kid was normal (studious, well-behaved) until he started smoking pot. Then his personality changed overnight." Analyzing data collected from 1994 to 1996, the National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse found a direct relationship between marijuana use and "delinquent/depressive behavior." Of those who used marijuana one to 11 times in the previous year, 7 percent were on probation, compared to 20 percent who used it at least weekly. The behavior tracked included "ran away from home," "physically attacked people" and "thought about suicide." In each instance, percentages involved in pathological behavior went up as frequency of use increased. Lowry doubtless would say it's coincidental – that moderately troubled teens are somewhat attracted to pot and very troubled teens are very attracted. He claims the Dutch experiment with decriminalization shows just how nearly harmless the weed is. According to one of the drug-lobby sources he quotes, "Removing the prohibition against possession does not increase cannabis use." Actually, the Dutch experience refutes this. In the early '80s, Holland decriminalized possession of small quantities of the drug. Now, over 800 coffeehouses are licensed to sell various cannabis products. In a May 9 editorial, The Wall Street Journal reported the nation saw a 250 percent increase in adolescent pot use following legalization. Between 1991 and 1996, the Dutch Ministry of Justice reported a 25 percent rise in violent crime, at a time when crime rates fell in the United States. The Dutch wish someone would wake them from the nightmare. In a poll by Eramus University in Rotterdam, 61 percent said all drugs should be illegal and 75 percent disagreed with the police policy of only arresting addicts when they cause a public nuisance. Why are some conservatives, like the National Review crowd, taking the magical mystery tour? Beating the drums for legalization makes them look cool – or so they think. It's a way of gaining acceptance in a culture whose institutions are controlled by the '60s generation. In its first issue, the editors of National Review said they intended to stand athwart the course of history, shouting, "Halt." Now, they're standing there with a joint in one hand, a copy of High Times in the other and a Beavis and Butt-head grin, asking, "Heh, heh, what's happnin', man?" Don Feder is a columnist for the Boston Herald and the author of "Who is afraid of the Religious Right?" and "A Jewish Conservative Looks at Pagan America." Source: WorldNetDaily (US Web) Related Articles: Legalize With Caution Weed Whackers Canada Goes To Pot - We Should Follow Court Should Cancel Prescription for Marijuana Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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Comment #14 posted by kaptinemo on August 23, 2001 at 07:01:04 PT:
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| If you still don't get it, take something from an infant, frustrating him, then listen; the result is the same as the thrust of his article. In a word, it's lame. There's an old saying: The winners write the histories. This is not entirely true. It's the tame intelligentsia of the winners, willing to prostitute themselves for the Powers-That-Be in forlorn hopes of rising to the Inner Circle, who write such dreck. Feder is a perfect example; for decades, the antis have been the winners. Now they are losing...everywhere. Literally around the planet. Nation after nation leaves the DrugWar flock, incurring insults and calumnies and threats from an increasingly isolated but diplomatically impotent US. As predicted, most of the Developed World has turned away from Reefer Madness; only those client states dependant upon US foreign aid are still singing in the choir. And even amongst those nations, there is increasing antipathy by their citizenry against their own US-supported ape-ing of the DrugWar; Jamaica is the most recent example of this. If said governments don't pay heed to their own people rather than the whims of Washington, the result for them could be quite disastrous. After all, their own people have vastly more to lose that officials in Washington have to gain...and the local pols are much closer and easier to 'get to'. Much easier. So, when the DrugWar apologists for the Powers-That-Be start squealing their faux brave noises like this, I recall what Dan has just said: they wouldn't be making such noises at all if they weren't hurting. Bad. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #13 posted by Dan B on August 23, 2001 at 03:47:38 PT:
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| I write the following in full knowledge that I am stereotyping Feder and his followers. As he has seen fit to commit this same sin, but on a much larger scale and against a far-less-true-to-stereotype crowd, I make no apologies. Each time I see Feder's name attached to an article about cannabis, I know immediately that I am in for some hard-core prohibitionist ka-ka. And he never fails to deliver it, fresh and steaming from the bowels of tyranny. Frankly, I think most people place little if any stock in Feder's writing. Even in ultra-conservative Lubbock, Texas--buckle of the Bible belt--the newspaper receives Feder hate mail almost every time an article of his is published. Considering that most of his would-be following is functionally illiterate, we have little to fear from his very small mind. He has proven time and again that his only talent is parroting the prohibitionist party line, lacking any sense of originality in both content and purpose. The bottom line: an article by Don Feder, such as this one, should be interpreted as a sure sign that the prohibitionists are very afraid. He may as well have printed the same sentence 100 times: "The legalizers are winning!" Dan B [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #12 posted by observer on August 22, 2001 at 23:00:01 PT |
| Ah, such an extended and fact-free venting by Feder! Legalization of marijuana is founder William F. Buckley Jr.'s pet cause. . . . ''To attack or challenge existing policies has opened one up for charges ranging from a lack of patriotism to charges that the critic is himself part of the international drug conspiracy. . . .'' [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #11 posted by Lehder on August 22, 2001 at 21:30:06 PT |
| http://www.rnw.nl/society/html/drugindex.html Don Feder is a liar, it's that simple. He should be ashamed to call himself a Jew; he's a petzel and schmuck. A shvarts yor, Feder. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #10 posted by dddd on August 22, 2001 at 18:59:42 PT |
| ...It is really quite encouraging to see Buckley and his friends speakin' out,,I mean these guys are like heavy cats in the world of consertative commentators.
d [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #9 posted by boppy on August 22, 2001 at 18:00:56 PT |
| The troubled kids mentioned in this article were quite troubled before they started smoking grass. It's a shame that their ignorant parents didn't act upon the kid's troubles before their children started experimenting. I've raised three kids that turned out great so my opinion has some validity. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #8 posted by ekim on August 22, 2001 at 13:23:18 PT:
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| I go along with E'Johnson --seems like more and more schools do to. While most of the bullies around today we can do little for. Maybe in the future we can start to slow the rate of the bully concept. It must be a mind set I wonder how it gets started. I think that we will see treating each other like we wish to be treated will do the job. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #7 posted by Doug on August 22, 2001 at 12:34:26 PT |
| Why don't we ever hear that. My kid was an honor student until he discovered alcohol, and then he ended up committing suicide. Things like this are reported all the time, but no one ever uses such anecdotes to make alcohol illegal for adults. We realize such information is irrelevant, however true they might be. So why do the antis bring up such stories in regards to marijuana. (Just a rhetorical question, of course.) [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #6 posted by Charlie on August 22, 2001 at 11:51:36 PT |
| Figures lie, and liars figure. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #5 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on August 22, 2001 at 10:22:50 PT:
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| Some articles are so full of excrement that one would have to respond with a document 15 times the original length. This is one of those stench-producers. Some pundits are so constipated that they need an enema before getting out of bed in the morning. One point: In 4 days in Holland this summer, not one person I spoke to thought that cannabis users belonged in prison. Rather, there was praise all around for Dutch policies, and incredulity for Amerikan barbarism and moral imperialism. I believe what I heard, not the manufactured propaganda of an ideology that is old and tired. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by E' Johnson on August 22, 2001 at 09:59:20 PT |
| According to the University of Maryland's Center for Substance Abuse Research, in 1999, marijuana accounted for 79,088 emergency-room visits, slightly more than heroin. **** If I broke my leg and went to the hospital, and during the routine admission process they asked me if I ate macaroni last night, and I said yes, would this mean that my visit to the emergency room was "accounted for" by macaroni? This is how these people abuse statistics. They aren't interested in the truth. All they want is to exert power over other human beings. The uglist human desire that exists -- the desire to overpower someone and derive pleasure from their powerlessness. That's what accounts for marijuana prohibition. Lying bullies like this writer, who doesn't care about truth or logic, he just cares about being able to hurt someone he doesn't like. That's all he's in this for -- the pain he can cause other people. That was what really fueled the popular Russian response to Stalin, and the popular European response to the state edict to hunt witches. People under Stalin carried the purges farther than Stalin ever could have by himself. People were climbing all over themselves to name their neighbors, ex-wives or even parents or children as enemies of the state. Everyone informed on everyone else. The dictatorship had its greatest ally in the moral weakness of its own people, in their propensity to hate one another enough to give even more power to Stalin than he could get by himself. Deep down inside we all have this evil demon within us that takes pleasure from the pain of others. The marijuana laws are a direct reflection of that demon being let loose in the world. If you really weant to see people whose lives are utterly controlled by that demon -- check out the DEA. That is the land of hate and abuse right there. You can see how strongly these people are controlled by the hate and pain demon by the extremism of their position on hemp. A whole government agency, utterly controlled by hatred, to the point where they have blocked out all logic and facuality. It's a very sad thing. If we believe that love is the most powerful force in the world, then surely the DEA's days must be numbered, because they are about absolutely nothing but hatred and lust for power. They don't bring anything to the world but grief and pain. And that's all they want to bring, that's where they live, with the hate demon. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by Dave in Florida on August 22, 2001 at 09:57:02 PT |
| According to the University of Maryland's Center for Substance Abuse Research, in 1999, marijuana accounted for 79,088 emergency-room visits, slightly more than heroin. more BS from fedder.. I went to the maryland site, and it was "mentioned" it was not the cause as he would lead you to believe..
ISSUE 24 (Rev.), JUNE 19, 2000 [without chart]
*1999 figures are projected based on estimates from the first half of 1999. NOTES: A drug mention is defined as a substance that was mentioned in a drug-related episode. In addition
End of listing... [Call CESAR directly at 301-403-8329 to get a copy of this full But parent after parent has told me: "My kid was normal (studious, well-behaved) until he started smoking pot. Then his personality changed overnight." That is because the kids found out they were being lied to.... [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by Robbie on August 22, 2001 at 09:48:52 PT |
Hey Don! You and Dave Horowitz go on permanent sabbatical, will ya? And take Billy Bob Bubba Bennett with ya. Find your soul. It's a way of gaining acceptance in a culture whose institutions are controlled by the '60s generation. The 60's generation...like hippies are in control of things? What the hell have you been smoking? Do hippies go into the inner cities and arrest every young black man they find? Remember...next thing they outlaw might be right-wing Republican conservatism. I'll be there to throw your ass in the slammer (shortly before I flee to Canada.) [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by TroutMask on August 22, 2001 at 09:47:37 PT |
| In Joseph Heller's Catch-22, one of the characters liked to have a bad time because it made time last longer and thus the perception was that life was longer. Reading this stuff, I feel immortal. -TM [ Post Comment ] |
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