Cannabis News DrugSense
  One Soccer Mom's Take on the Drug War
Posted by CN Staff on June 28, 2006 at 08:53:02 PT
By Jessica Peck Corry  
Source: Denver Post 

cannabis USA -- I hope my daughter will never smoke marijuana. Regardless of whether she does one day, I know one thing for sure: Keeping it illegal can only harm her future.

Since 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy has spent more than $2 billion in taxpayer dollars on twin advertising campaigns seeking to discourage marijuana use. The first speaks to parents, calling them the "Anti-Drug."

It fails before it begins. Good parents are going to talk to their children about drugs. All the feel-good ads in the world aren't going to get indifferent parents to engage in such an awkward but essential dialogue.

The second campaign fails as well. In these, youthful but sophisticated graphics tell kids not to use marijuana. If there is one sure way to get adolescents to smoke pot, tell them that the government and their parents don't want them to. In fact, a recently published national study indicates that after viewing commercials for this campaign, young people were more likely to exhibit positive responses about the drug.

Politicians whisper quietly behind closed doors about the insanity of the drug war. Neither party, however, has had the courage to take a stand against prohibition publicly. Just imagine if the $2 billion invested in these ads - or the billions more spent prosecuting peaceful marijuana users every year - had been diverted instead into tuition grants for needy students or back to taxpaying parents who could directly invest in college funds.

Snipped:

Complete Article: http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_3986708

Newshawk: Global_Warming
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Author: Jessica Peck Corry
Published: June 28, 2006
Copyright: 2006 The Denver Post Corp
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com

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Comment #33 posted by Wayne on June 28, 2006 at 20:59:33 PT
words of wisdom
--"I hope my daughter will never smoke marijuana."

I hope that someday, my kids will be able to decide for themselves, regardless of what I think.

Since there was talk of scripture earlier, I'll offer a simple prayer I just thought up: "Lord I pray, deliver us from the evil drug warriors. Forgive them, for they know not what they do. Allow us to use the brains You blessed us with. Amen."

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Comment #32 posted by cannabliss on June 28, 2006 at 16:23:08 PT
Mixed reaction
On the one hand, it's good to have a mainstream-seeming person come down against prohibition.

On the other hand, given that she "is a public policy analyst with the Independence Institute, where she specializes in civil rights, higher education, and land use policy," she is more of a lefty quasi-intellectual, not a "true soccer mom" (if there even is such a thing), and I would actually expect a stronger argument from her.

I also get frustrated everytime some anti-prohibitionist argument has to attach the disclaimer "all drug users are losers" or some variant.

I'd like to ask her - do you "hope your daughter never uses alcohol?" Or maybe that her date uses it and doesn't know how to take "no" for an answer? There are a hell of a lot of drugs more dangerous and abusable than cannabis - alcohol and nicotine being the two most obvious.

I hope that nobody abuses any drug, but if they were to, cannabis would have the least deleterious effects.

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Comment #31 posted by Hope on June 28, 2006 at 12:35:43 PT
They can't because
they are too arrogant.

Pride and self-righteousness blinds them.

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Comment #30 posted by Hope on June 28, 2006 at 12:34:27 PT
Hate
I sure didn't hate my kids when I "lied" about Santa. But it definitely broke one child's heart. It hurt him. I didn't foresee that and I sure didn't want that to happen. But it did. So, although there was no apparent "hatred" in my "lies"...they hurt him terribly and I did him, and our relationship, a wrong by that.

It's a shame the prohibitionists can't accept what they've done and try to correct it and try to alleviate all the harms they have caused to so many people.

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Comment #29 posted by Hope on June 28, 2006 at 12:25:40 PT
Another one...
"Lying lips hate those they deceive."

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Comment #28 posted by whig on June 28, 2006 at 12:10:13 PT
lombar
This is so wise.

170

See it as a bubble, see it as a mirage: one who regards the world this way the King of Death doesn't see.

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Comment #27 posted by lombar on June 28, 2006 at 11:58:14 PT
Found it!
Dhp176

The person who tells a lie,

who transgresses in this one thing,

transcending concern for the world beyond:

there's no evil he might not do.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.13.than.html

I was having a hard time finding this in the huge collection of writings. It is an excerpt from the Dhammapada. Perhaps the 911 movement is opening more peoples eyes to the ongoing deceptions but its old hat to the anti-drugwar activists. The prejudice, hypocrisy, and deception concerning drugs, now a global propaganda campaign against cannabis using the UN and collusion of mainstream media, is based in lies. Those who lie can do any manner of evil.

It's not as though that is unique to buddhism.

"Thou shalt not bear false witness."

Prohibitionists 'bear false witness' everytime they speak in support of cannabis prohibition. They use false bugaboos, twist facts, ignore evidence, studies, and continually condescend to us. The UN study is a joke and now, so is the UN.

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Comment #26 posted by FoM on June 28, 2006 at 11:46:25 PT
Off Topic: Flooding
Back where we lived years ago is really flooding bad now. I hope all our east coast people are ok.

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Comment #25 posted by whig on June 28, 2006 at 11:37:22 PT
I should have titled that....
Santa Christ.

That's what I'll call them from now on.

Santa Christians.

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Comment #24 posted by whig on June 28, 2006 at 11:36:02 PT
Santa vs. God
Think about this.

What's our actual, National Religion.

They call it Christianity. Sure.

But it's Santa Claus.

It's not different when they change his name and call him Jesus.

He's still Santa Claus.

You better not shout. You better not cry. You better not pout, I'm telling you why. Santa Claus (or Jesus Christ) is coming, to town.

Same message.

Same message said by the church and the state.

Different words. Words are metaphors. Saying the same things.

What's the underlying concept of God? What does Christ mean? What do we really believe? These are describable with words only imprecisely. We use words with the intent to convey what we think but more importantly how we think. When I post in a stream of consciousness like this I am relaying my entire flow of thought as well as I can stop and record it and put it down for others to follow.

When we speak of Christ here, when we speak of God at all, we speak of Love, we speak of Oneness. We have words which reveal our actual idea. Our idea is the thing, not the labels we give it.

So when the Santa Claus Religion uses words like Jesus and Christ and even God they are using labels but you should pay attention to the idea behind it. They speak of Obedience, and Salvation (Gifts). They are talking about Santa Claus.

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Comment #23 posted by FoM on June 28, 2006 at 11:35:25 PT
Strategy of Republicans
I watched Joe Scarborough last night and he is a Republican. He brought up this point. He said if his child is obsessing about something he says hey look over there and distracts the child and he said that's what Republicans do. The Republican Strategist on the show said yes that is what we do. That's politics he basically said.

Cannabis is not heroin or cocaine. Always understand what their motives are. It's money and control that's all.

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Comment #22 posted by Hope on June 28, 2006 at 11:29:42 PT
Aye, FoM.
I really resent and despise govenment trying to usurp my position as parent.

That piece of scripture means a lot to me, too.

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Comment #21 posted by FoM on June 28, 2006 at 11:24:25 PT
Hope
This scripture always fascinated me.

Raise up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart.

There is a very big gap between being a child and getting old. That says that only in the end will wisdom guide them. That means we will see failures with our children but in the end they will be ok if we teach them well. We don't need government people raising them for us.

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Comment #20 posted by Hope on June 28, 2006 at 11:17:06 PT
Comment 18
That's a good way to put it.

It's about being whole and free and learning personal responsibility.

Children like being respected like that. It increases respect and trust all the way around.

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Comment #19 posted by Hope on June 28, 2006 at 11:14:38 PT
Ooooh...
That "lie" was crushing to my son, too. He won't let me forget that we "lied" to him about that to this day!

It disappointed me, too...but when I was old enough to know...I got to help be Santa for the younger children, so that was fun, too.

My son took it all too heart so much, though. He was devastated when he learned that we had deceived him. That was worse to him than finding out the truth...that we had actually deceived him and "made a fool" of him.

I regret it and I did change my Holiday traditions.

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Comment #18 posted by FoM on June 28, 2006 at 11:11:05 PT
Hope
What my parents were doing was giving me enough rope to hang myself and hoped I didn't. In a way that made it nice and I felt good that I listened because they trusted me.

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Comment #17 posted by Hope on June 28, 2006 at 11:08:34 PT
Whig and FoM
You are so right about the alcohol situation.

Give us our families back! Give parents back their rights and responsibilities!

The government was not intended to be our parents or nannies.

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Comment #16 posted by whig on June 28, 2006 at 11:07:35 PT
Hope
Funny thing. My parents actually did have a locked cabinet for their liquor, and they didn't even keep it a secret from us where it was. We weren't supposed to go into it, of course, and we weren't allowed to let our friends into it ever. But by making it an "open secret" within the family there was no need to sneak around about it.

I like that approach a lot. It promotes trust. I think the worst thing that parents can do is lie to their children and being sneaky is also not good. It may seem funny, but the one really crushing thing for me as a kid was when I learned my parents had not told me the truth about Santa Claus, because I always believed everything they said until then.

I don't want to ever lie to my kids.

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Comment #15 posted by FoM on June 28, 2006 at 11:03:01 PT
Whig
I agree with you. I had this idea in my head that I would never get away with it so I just didn't do it. My parents wouldn't have hurt me but the frowns and hands on hips and saying we are so disappointed in you was something I just didn't want to hear.

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Comment #14 posted by Hope on June 28, 2006 at 11:00:46 PT
"cabinet full of different types of whiskey"
Many liquor cabinets have locks and keys.

There is no reason why we couldn't have lockable cannabis cabinets or even lockable drug cabinets. It's not that hard to imagine such safeguards being created and used.

Probably, right now, there are drugs of one sort or another in most homes. A lockable cabinet for them is not unheard of.

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Comment #13 posted by whig on June 28, 2006 at 10:58:54 PT
FoM
In my family we were allowed to have a sip of wine when our parents were sharing a bottle, probably from about age 14. Not enough to have much of an effect but it was something to teach us about what it was and I think it removed a lot of the forbidden fruit kind of desire that a lot of people seem to have as adolescents regarding alcohol. We learned that it was just what it was, and not a big deal but not something to be used irresponsibly.

While I am not in favor of children having any kind of unsupervised use of alcohol or cannabis, I do think it's something that parents should be responsible for educating about, and it is better to learn some things in the home than elsewhere.

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Comment #12 posted by FoM on June 28, 2006 at 10:49:50 PT
rchot
That makes sense to me.

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Comment #11 posted by FoM on June 28, 2006 at 10:47:30 PT
Fearing Parents
When I was growing up my parents had a cabinet full of different types of whiskey. They told me never to touch anything in that cabinet and if I wanted to try drinking when I was 21 I would be an adult and the decision would be mine. I never touched anything inside that cabinet. I feared the wrath of my parents and just didn't risk it.

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Comment #10 posted by Hope on June 28, 2006 at 10:46:53 PT
rchot
Trouble is, they aren't about actually helping citizens.

They want those arrests. All the better if it's children. They rack up "incidents" that way and can use them to get more funding, buy "fun and exciting" cop toys, and grow their propaganda machine.

They want incarcerations so that can get more money to incarcerate even more people and keep the prison and enforcement industry as rich as possible.

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Comment #9 posted by Hope on June 28, 2006 at 10:41:54 PT
Comment 7
That's sensible.

Unfortunately, sensible isn't part of the drug's warriors' plans.

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Comment #8 posted by rchot on June 28, 2006 at 10:40:04 PT
Underage smoking
I believe if a child is caught smoking by the authorities they should be taken home and their parents should be notified. Then the *PARENTS* can properly discipline the child as they see fit. If caught twice then the child should be subjected to a civil fine just as an adult would if they were caught smoking in the public.

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Comment #7 posted by FoM on June 28, 2006 at 10:12:09 PT
Cannabis Prohibition
I believe that if the laws are changed on Cannabis and if a underage person gets caught using Cannabis that the penalty should not be worse then if they are caught drinking a beer at a party. That would be the largest part of the whole drug war being taken down.

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Comment #6 posted by Hope on June 28, 2006 at 10:03:41 PT
A few years ago
I followed the lead of the original Mothers Against Prohibition I. I had a huge day-glo banner down both sides of my car that read "Save the Children! End Prohibition".

Someone at a drive thru takeout window asked me what that meant. When I told him, he didn't say a word...just slammed the window on me.

Ending prohibition will indeed "Save the Children".

It'll save all the misled and deceived children and bring true information, safety, and regulation, and it will "save" all the "children" that they throw in the slammer as soon as they are old enough.

Ending prohibition will save families. It will keep people like Linda and Jerry together and will end the wholesale incarceration of so many Americans.

Ending prohibition will channel wasted funds into something more productive and useful to us as a nation.

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Comment #5 posted by FoM on June 28, 2006 at 10:01:53 PT
Hope
I know what they are doing. It's a typical republican way of changing the subject. It's guilt by association. The republicans use this spin all the time on issues that can't stand on their own merit. We lost because of cocaine and Reagan made sure about that. The logic is if they were able to make cannabis evil and it was cocaine causing the problems and citizens don't know the difference they win again.

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Comment #4 posted by Hope on June 28, 2006 at 09:56:30 PT
FoM....problem is ...prohibitionists are now
spreading the message that cannabis is as dangerous as cocaine and heroin. That's another really bad "message" from them.

What in creation are they up to? Their "messages" are "crimes" unto themselves.

It's about more than drugs. It's got to be.

They are trying to marginalize huge amounts of people and incarcerate and kill them in the name of eradicating drugs and drug use and at the same time, enrich the pharmeceutical companies and the prison industry and governments.

There's a thread of something that's rankly insiduous going through every prevarication and outright lie they utter.

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Comment #3 posted by Hope on June 28, 2006 at 09:48:44 PT
Hopefully, the people that need to will hear her.
Jessica Peck Corry (Jessica@i2i.org) is a public policy analyst with the Independence Institute, where she specializes in civil rights, higher education, and land use policy.

Good job, Jessica!

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Comment #2 posted by FoM on June 28, 2006 at 09:42:16 PT
kaptinemo
If mothers understand then the war can be won. Most women could care less about politics but they care about the future for their children. If they understand that marijuana isn't like cocaine or heroin maybe things will change.

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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on June 28, 2006 at 09:39:37 PT:

It was the Moms of another era that ended
alcohol Prohibition. It looks like it will the Moms of this era that are the vanguard of ending drug prohibition. And for exactly the same reasons.

What you have just read here is the vindication of an idea: when the children of the middle class are threatened by the penalties of laws meant for the subjugation of the lower classes, the laws change. It happened the last time in the 1970's with waves of decriminalization legislation, and it is now happening again.

Many parents who toked back when weed was both cheap and carried minimal penalties for possession have never realized just how Draconian the laws have become. And because of the harsh laws, the urgency to ward off possible future-destroying problems for their offspring who might someday become ensnared in them becomes even more obvious.

Especially if those kids are college-bound; Souder's Law has handily consigned many to future underemployment thanks to not being able to afford college, needing a loan, and having that application denied because a drug conviction.

One more example of the DrugWar rubber meeting the reality road. In most cases, it's usually the rubber that gets shredded.

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