cannabisnews.com: War Against Marijuana is Crackpot 





War Against Marijuana is Crackpot 
Posted by FoM on April 12, 2002 at 09:53:39 PT
By Deroy Murdock 
Source: Montana Standard
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has become the latest leader to gain prominence for having smoked marijuana. On April 9, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws unveiled a $500,000 ad campaign that highlights what Bloomberg said when New York magazine asked him last summer if he ever smoked grass: `` You bet I did. And I enjoyed it.'' NORML's ads lampoon the War on Marijuana, a big-government debacle that deserves to be laughed into oblivion. 
Fittingly enough, many politicians grin at their own marijuana use. Ex-president Bill Clinton famously yucked it up when he revealed that he smoked pot, `` but I didn't inhale.'' As the April 9 New York Daily News noted, Gov. George Pataki, R - New York, said, `` yes, I did inhale,'' after he and some Columbia Law School pals toked up. Previously, they had eaten baked beans cooked with marijuana. Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, R-Calif., quipped on `` Politically Incorrect'' that in the 1960s, `` I did everything but drink the bong water.'' Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, R - Ga., told The Economist that he smoked pot while studying in the 1970s. To do so, Gingrich said, `` was a sign that we were alive and in graduate school in that era.'' Despite drug warriors' claims, marijuana does not necessarily demolish young people's life prospects. In fact, Americans evidently can smoke grass, then wind up in governors' mansions, the U.S. Congress and even the White House. Bloomberg, who was a multi-billionaire media tycoon before Gotham's voters sent him to City Hall, recalled his zany days at a Johns Hopkins University fraternity in the early 1960s. As he explains in his autobiography, `` Bloomberg by Bloomberg:'' `` Maybe all that enjoyable 'wasted' time had long-term benefits after all.'' While politicos chuckle at their own `` youthful experimentation'' with marijuana, it's no laughing matter for many Americans who conduct such `` experiments'' today. They often suffer, though less from hemp than from handcuffs. The NYPD's arrests for possession and/or public smoking of marijuana have swelled from 1,362 in 1993 to 50,830 in 2000, equal to 15 percent of that year's total arrests. (NORML correctly prefers citations and fines to apprehension for public smoking.) In 2000, 734,498 Americans were arrested nationwide for breaking marijuana laws, 646,042 of them for mere possession. Using U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics data, the Marijuana Policy Project calculates that 37,500 federal, state and local inmates were imprisoned for cannabis violations in 1998, 15,400 of them for possession alone. At an average cost of $20,000 each, government spent $750 million to incarcerate these offenders. The project estimates that the War on Marijuana costs taxpayers $9.2 billion annually. This shopworn policy devours scarce public resources, even as authorities struggle to prevent future airline hijackings, bioterrorist attacks or even the detonation of a `` dirty nuke'' in Times Square. Every law enforcement asset arrayed against non-violent potheads is one less asset that can be deployed against al-Qaeda sleeper cells. Officials high and low should accept a simple fact: U.S. adults enjoy marijuana. Some 69.7 million Americans over 18 at least have tried it, while 19 million adults say they have smoked pot within the last year. And why not? Marijuana can enhance music, fine dining and long walks on secluded beaches. If consenting adults wish to spark up and watch `` The Simpsons'' inside a private home, that should be as lawful as doing so after sipping red wine. Naturally, those who light up, then head for the highway should be prosecuted for driving under the influence. Ditto those who operate heavy machinery while stoned. But when it comes to policing grown-ups at leisure, the War on Marijuana is sillier than a weed-fueled giggle. The same government that permits Americans to soften the edges of modern life with Xanax, Tylenol PM, Lotto and Jagermeister immediately should put a match to the entire anti-pot project. If marijuana amuses the mayor of America's premier city, it should be available to entertain adults in Anytown, USA. Source: Montana Standard (MT)Author: Deroy Murdock Published: April 12, 2002Copyright: 2002 Montana StandardContact: editor mtstandard.comWebsite: http://www.mtstandard.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/NORML Ad - Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/ad.htmDecriminalize Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12507.shtmlSome Politicians Fess Up To Smoking Weed http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12501.shtmlGrassroots Campaign Neededhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12486.shtml 
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Comment #7 posted by DdC on April 12, 2002 at 23:02:54 PT
Prohibition Inc...War on Drugs Bush Doesn't Sell!
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/politics/media/37/37825.gifThe Nobel Prize-winning US Economist, Dr. Milton Friedman who stated around 1990, in a PBS interview, that: Our US Drug War causes 10,000 extra US murders every year; has doubled the number of US jails and prisons and (thus...) the number of US incarcerated people...Slave Labor Means Big Bucks For U.S. Corporations
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=233.topic
UNICORE 
http://www.unicor.govThe Washington Post news article from about two years ago, whose author discusses a 1988 New York City Crime Study. 
 This 1988 NYC study found that *at least 37.5% of ALL 1988 NYC murders that occured that year were directly caused by our War on illegal "drugs"Free the Prisoners of WoD
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/politics/media/37/37460.gif
I LOST MY FREEDOM Linx    
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionlinx.showMessage?topicID=22.topicThe US War on Drugs - which it is important to note, is mostly a Marijuana Prohibition - directly causes about 1,400,000 extra US Burglaries each and every year - that's a WoDs-caused US Burglary about every 30 seconds or less occurring throughout the year...Cannabis Eradications 99.28% Hemp: Nonpsychoactive schedule#1 narcotic ROPE!
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=20.topicHigh Times, April 1992, pp. 36-39, 50-51, 55 & 64
Hempseed: Nature's Perfect Food?
Modern medicine has defeated the most feared killers of antiquity like smallpox, tetanus and typhoid. Why can't it find a cure for cancer and heart disease? Is it possible the American diet is killing us? Is it true that hempseed butter can reduce the risk of cancer? Lynn Osburn, co-editor of the
Emperor Wears No Clothes searches for these and other answers regarding the nutritional potential of hempseed.
by Lynn OsbornIEN-Indigenous Environmental Network Links
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionorgs.showMessage?topicID=16.topic 
Why do YOU think they call it DOPE?
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Comment #6 posted by Kevin Hebert on April 12, 2002 at 18:10:25 PT:
My Response to the Montana Standard
Dear Editors:Thank you for Deroy Murdock's "War Against Marijuana Is Crackpot". I couldn't agree more. Numerous scientific studies (including studies done by the DEA itself) have concluded that marijuana is a relatively harmless
substance. No one has ever died of a marijuana overdose. Our laws do not reflect science; they reflect an attempt by fearmongers in Congress -- and the White House -- to use false facts about marijuana and other drugs in a pitiful attempt to gain re-election.Face the facts: marijuana is not the deadly substance it is purported to be. It is not even as dangerous as legal alcohol or legal tobacco. We should immediately put an end to jailing people for using marijuana in the resources for fighting terrorism. Now, I do not advocate drug use. However, I know that a terrorist plotting mass destruction in his basement is worse for this country than an adult enjoying a marijuana cigarette in his attic. Let's act like adults, and change this clearly failed policy.                    Sincerely,
                    Kevin M. Hebert   
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on April 12, 2002 at 15:30:30 PT
Tomato
Thanks for telling me about Tivo. Let me know when they search news programs because that is what I really mind missing. If they search for regular tv programs they might in the future search for news too. Thanks again.
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Comment #4 posted by Tomato on April 12, 2002 at 14:39:30 PT
TV Search
// I wish we had a search tool for our TV and could type in marijuana and get all the programs that it would be on but that's just a dream. Thanks again!Buy a TiVo!You can search using wish lists. I just inserted the keyword 'marijuana' and 3 upcoming shows include, Barney Miller 4/18 TVLD, Cisco Pike 4/18, and Half Baked 4/21 MYST. Unfortunately, marijuana covered in news programs and documentaries likely would never show up.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on April 12, 2002 at 11:31:00 PT
p4me 
Thank you for telling me and us what you got out of the program. There is a lot going on in late night comedy I've been told. Jay Leno did something last night. I wish we had a search tool for our TV and could type in marijuana and get all the programs that it would be on but that's just a dream. Thanks again!
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Comment #2 posted by p4me on April 12, 2002 at 11:23:25 PT
Bloomberg on Charlie Rose
You really have to be somebody to be the sole guest of Charlie Rose as Michael Bloomberg was last night. And for people that do not watch his show regularly, knows that he is up about anything big in New York. He may have some of the Yankees on after winning the World Series or he may have the Secretary of the United Nations or the curator of an exhibit at the Met. So when Charlie Rose got to talk with the Chief New Yorker he could not have been happier.They talked for about twenty minutes and Bloomberg's savy could not help but shine. He was totally impressive. He was enough to try to figure a way to get him to take over running the country because he showed nothing but competence and concern for doing good service unlike the President that we have now that I so despise(just to so you can adjust your bias control to your settings.)So Charlie Rose and Bloomberg were on a ego high I guess as they were very happy. So, Charlie Rose has a stack of about 10 black cardboard with pictures of Bloomberg on them so he can feed Bloomberg's ego and increase their mutual high. The first power feeding came with the picture of Bloomberg with New York Governor Pataki and Busch. The second picture was the NORML add. This segment ran about 30 seconds with both Rose and Bloomberg chuckling and really having a great time. The text feature on the VCR does not work for Charlie Rose so I just rewound the tape and tried to get every word as best I could. So, Charlie Rose hold up the picture and lets Bloomberg loose and then with an interupting chant wanting to know "You said...you said."Bloomberg starts out by saying someone in the campaign had asked him if he had tried marijuana. "...like I assume most people my age did in the- when I came to New York in the early 70's." So Charlie is trying to pen his words down with the you saids and Bloomberg talks uninterupted for about 20 seconds. "You bet I did and I enjoyed it. Probably did exactly that. It was quoted and now there is some promarijuana group- you know- I could go fight em - lose in court to try to stop using my picture or I can hope it just goes away. But between you and David Letterman- and it is not going away quickly."He then holds up a third picture of Bloomberg with Sean Connery in his Kilt swinging a golf club. There is a fourth picture shown with Bloomburg in a spoof for the media's benefit. CR never did get to a fifth picture as their is a lot to talk about when two New Yorkers like them converse.VAAI
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Comment #1 posted by krutch on April 12, 2002 at 11:04:47 PT:
Thank you Deroy Murdock 
You have written one of the most sensible pieces I have ever seen on this issue.I am shocked that 15% of the arrests in NY,NY where for possesion of MJ. In a city full of violent criminals the police are wasting an insane amount of time arrest people for this victimless "crime". Their is no way to justify this travesty. It is just insane.
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