cannabisnews.com: Pot Legalization Could Be Part Of Overhaul










  Pot Legalization Could Be Part Of Overhaul

Posted by CN Staff on March 28, 2009 at 16:54:19 PT
By Ryan Grim 
Source: Huffington Post 

USA -- Sen. Jim Webb, fresh off his passage of an historic expansion of the GI Bill, has found a new issue: the criminal justice system. And when Webb, a Virginia Democrat, sets his legislative sites on a priority, his colleagues pay attention.On Thursday, Webb, along with the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), introduced a bill to create a commission that would undertake an 18-month study of the criminal justice system and come back with legislative recommendations.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Webb said that everything should be considered. And he means everything."I think everything should be on the table, and we specifically say that we want recommendations on how to deal with drug policy in our country. And we'll get it to the people who have the credibility and the expertise and see what they come up with," said Webb.What about legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana?Webb paused. "I think they should do a very careful examination of all aspects of drug policy. I've done a couple of very extensive hearings on this, so we'll wait to see what they say about that," he said.So it's on the table? Webb flashed a wry grin, laughing mischievously.The last government study group to look at drug policy, the 1972 Shafer Commission, recommended that President Richard Nixon decriminalize marijuana. He didn't.This commission will have a broader mandate, said Webb. He expects a "pretty broad range of legislative priorities to come out of it [covering] not just incarceration but the entire panorama of criminal justice."Webb's bill, he said, is backed by Judiciary Committee chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) as well as Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) -- the chairman and ranking Republican of the Crime and Drugs Subcommittee. It has a powerful list of cosponsors, including the top four Democrats, Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), Durbin, Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.)."We've got a good chance to get this done this year," said Webb, suggesting that the "dramatic" growth of the prison population makes it an issue that needs to be addressed. See the charts Webb brought to the Senate floor.Webb cited "the exponential growth of incarceration since 1980," saying that "a huge percentage of that growth has been nonviolent crimes associated with drugs."Webb, a decorated Vietnam veteran who was Secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan, has as much military cred as any Democrat. "I'm very concerned about the issue of gangs and transnational gangs and I think a big piece of that -- not all of it -- a big piece of that is the movement of drugs. So that's a huge piece of this," said Webb.The growing prison population has bipartisan roots, which I explore in a book be published soon, This Is Your Country On Drugs. Throughout the 1980s, Democrats in Congress and state governments around the country increased prison sentences for drug offenses, coming down particularly hard on crack. In 1986, Congress instituted mandatory-minimum sentences for powder and crack cocaine. To trigger the powder minimum, a dealer needed to possess 500 grams. For crack, just five grams. Two years later, the law was extended to anybody who was associated with the dealer -- girlfriends, roommates, etc.In 1991, Michigander Allen Harmelin argued that his life sentence for possessing roughly a pound and a half of cocaine is cruel and unusual. The Supreme Court ruled that it is neither. California enacted its three-strikes law in 1994 -- three felonies equals a minimum of 25 years -- and the feds one-upped the state, declaring a third felony to result in life without parole. Twenty-three more states enacted three-strikes laws by 1995.In 1984, just over 30,000 people were in prison for drug crimes; by 1991, the number had soared to more than 150,000. The Department of Justice found in a study of the prison population that the average length of a federal stay drastically increased between 1986 and 1997. If you walked into prison in 1986, your average stay would have been 21 months. In 1997, it was 47 months. For weapons offenders, the rise was from 23 to 75 months, and for drug offenders, it was from 30 to 66 months. Not all criminals could expect such increased time behind bars, however: A bank robber could expect 74 months in 1986 and only 83 months a decade later.Three-strikes laws and lengthening prison sentences explain what appears to be a contradiction: U.S. crime rates are falling while U.S. incarceration rates are rising. It stands to reason that if fewer people are committing crimes, then fewer people should be locked up. But locking up fewer people every year and putting them away for much longer mushrooms the prison population.The result is that more than one out of every 100 Americans is currently in prison. If you're a black male between 20 and 34, there's a better than one in nine chance that you're imprisoned. To keep all of these people behind bars, states spent a combined $44 billion in 2007.Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said he's open to working with Webb. "It'll be interesting," Cornyn, a former prosecutor, said of the coming debate. "I would be open to ideas that would take certain first-time, nonviolent offenders and try to give them a shock probation or something like that which would encourage treatment but then would go serve their time if they didn't fully cooperate," he said.Complete Title: Pot Legalization Could Be Part Of Criminal Justice OverhaulSource: Huffington Post (NY)Author: Ryan GrimPublished: March 27, 2009Copyright: 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, LLC Contact: scoop huffingtonpost.comWebsite: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/XYCy146FCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 

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Comment #42 posted by FoM on March 30, 2009 at 17:27:16 PT
Webb Crime Bill Gets Unlikely Support
March 30, 2009URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/30/webb-crime-bill-comes-get_n_180791.html
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Comment #41 posted by fight_4_freedom on March 29, 2009 at 17:34:37 PT
LOL Had Enough
They knew that if they included females on that list, they would be opening a whole, new can of "reefer madness".
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Comment #40 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 16:19:21 PT
Had Enough
I know that is how it has always been. Hopefully soon we will see reform with Senator Webb out front on the issue.
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Comment #39 posted by Had Enough on March 29, 2009 at 16:05:22 PT
It seems….
It’s never a big deal when the elitists and their own kind get caught up in the prohibitionists ‘War on Drugs’It’s only a ‘War on People’…the people who are not wealthy or ‘well connected’I wonder if the White House is going to smirk, laugh, and make funny over this???At the time of the Bush incident people were being sent to prison for less that what she got caught doing…She gets rehab, and violates those conditions, while others get locked up…Harry Brown publicly called on Jeb Bush to release everyone in jail who had been sentenced for doing the same thing… of course the only response was…Its’ a ‘Private Matter’Rush (pill head) Limbaugh got away with it too!!! No outrage from the drug warriors at all…No…But try to get pot re-legalized and you hear ‘liars spew’ everywhere from sending messages to the children, brain cell killer, lung cancer, to enlarged breasts on males…I’ve always kinda noticed how they always said males, and left the females out of the picture…:)
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Comment #38 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 15:36:18 PT
Had Enough
I bet this time it won't be a big deal since reform is in the air. Al the right wing conservative people aren't in charge anymore. It will probably just go away quietly I would think. 
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Comment #37 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 15:22:45 PT
Had Enough
I read that this morning. It doesn't surprise me at all.
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Comment #36 posted by Had Enough on March 29, 2009 at 15:16:16 PT
Interesting
It appears that someone says they have a videotape of Joe Bidens daughter snorting cocaine, and is trying to sell the tape to the media.I certainly don’t want to be a mule for mis-information propagandists, but if this story turns out to hold water…things could get interesting, since Joe Biden has a reputation as a ‘dyed in the wool’ drug warrior.I remember when Jeb Bush had a similar experience while he was Governor of Florida…His daughter was caught trying to pass forged prescriptions for Xanex, and I think Vicodin, around four different times or places. For the charges against her, she was sentenced by a judge to time in a rehab, and while returning from an afternoon leave, she was caught trying to sneak crack cocaine back into the facility using her shoe to hide it. Someone in the rehab called the cops and by the time they got there the evidence of the crack was not available, the other patients said they saw it, while the administration of the rehab said they could not divulge information about the incident. The judge again was seemingly preferential and said to her to finish her stay there. Jeb Bush when asked about the matter by reporters responded to the effect of…It’s a private family matter.************A few cuts from the article…A "friend" of Vice President Joseph Biden's daughter, Ashley, is attempting to hawk videotape that he claims shows her snorting cocaine at a house party this month in DelawareThe anonymous male acquaintance of Ashley took the video, said Thomas Dunlap, a lawyer representing the seller.Dunlap and a man claiming to be a lawyer showed The Post about 90 seconds of 43-minute tape, saying it was legally obtained and that Ashley was aware she was being filmed. The Post refused to pay for the videoThe video, which the shooter initially hoped to sell for $2 million before scaling back his price to $400,000, shows a 20-something woman with light skin and long brown hair taking a red straw from her mouth, bending over a desk, inserting the straw into her nostril and snorting lines of white powder.and…The camera follows the woman from a few feet away, focusing on her as she moves around the room. It appears not to be concealed. At one point she shouts, "Shut the f--- up!"The woman appears to resemble Ashley Biden, 27, a social worker for a Delaware child-welfare agency and a visible presence during her father's campaign for the white HouseThe dialogue is difficult to discern, but the woman makes repeated references to the drugs, said the lawyers, who said they viewed the tape about 15 timesand…"At one point she pretty much complains that the line isn't big enough," said the second lawyer, who declined to identify himself. "And she talks about her dad."and…Biden has been an outspoken crusader against drugs, coining the term "drug czar" in 1982 while campaigning for a more forceful "war on drugs."more…Click to see…http://www.nypost.com/seven/03282009/news/nationalnews/friend_of_bidens_daughter_shopping_tape__161772.htm
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Comment #35 posted by Hope on March 29, 2009 at 13:16:05 PT
Well, we need some yankees to get in there...
That sixty five percent that must still be asleep today. It should be northerners, at least, if not other Bostonites or Bostonians...I'm not sure. There is a lot of Boston in there, and it's a kind of ugly I don't deal with well. It's almost foreign. Like I can't speak their language. They don't like "Rednecks", and because I am one, their arrogance would overwhelm me and I would be useless.
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Comment #34 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 12:55:43 PT
Hope
We can lead a horse to water but we can't make him drink. Fighting shows ignorance. Fighting shows vanity. The time when the horse will drink is when he becomes thirsty.Change is coming and being patient is hard but what choice do we have? Fighting and calling Obama out on what he said shows me there is a lot of vanity around these days. I was as respectful as I could be about Bush. I usually said nothing. Maybe I just respect the office of President. It's a job everyone seems to think they can do but they wouldn't have a clue if put in that position. Patience is a virtue.
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Comment #33 posted by Hope on March 29, 2009 at 12:45:59 PT
A sense of passive resistance.
I'm having a hard time maintaining my sense of passive resistance and careful progression to a better way. Peace and Love and tolerance and understanding.I keep thinking about how "Blunt force trauma" upside their heads,might be an aid to increasing those guys understanding.Is that what they want? 
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Comment #32 posted by Hope on March 29, 2009 at 12:38:36 PT
There's some really ugly comments
over at the Boston Herald pertaining to the "Joint resolution: Taxing pot just makes cents" article.Like, "pot smoking maggots".
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Comment #31 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 11:54:09 PT
Sam
A simple state sales tax on an ounce of marijuana when the prices drops won't be something I would mind either. I don't know for sure if medicinal herbs are taxable or not though.
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Comment #30 posted by Sam Adams on March 29, 2009 at 11:50:50 PT
taxes & legal bribery
On the "taxation and regulation" issue I think the simple state sales tax is enough. I don't like proposals that foist enormous taxes on cannabis either. Standard sales tax revenue by itself would be an enormous amount of money.All excessive taxes will do is continue to force the market underground. Just as every tax increase on cigarettes increases the black market trade in tobacco.
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Comment #29 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 11:47:01 PT
HempWorld
I know that something major could happen on that day but I want to live like we don't have much more time. I am not afraid either. What will be will be. 
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Comment #28 posted by HempWorld on March 29, 2009 at 11:43:55 PT
Messed the link up lol!
www.xfacts.com
On a mission from God!
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Comment #27 posted by HempWorld on March 29, 2009 at 11:41:17 PT
OT According to new information that came to
me today, the real reason that cannabis is to be kept illegal:Scientific fact: We are the only species (on this earth) that are using only 10% of their brains. Using only 10% of all the synapses that are in our skulls; 90% is supposed to be unused; this is where cannabis comes in … When you use cannabis you are starting to unlock portions of your brain you never used before! And the US Gov’t doesn’t want you to do this, just as LSD gets you to use different synapses in your skull! Oh, yeah, and then there is the Mayan calendar, Dec. 21, 2012, will be the last day for most of us.Obama knows this information and he has strict orders to keep the most useful plant on our planet, illegal.
On a mission from God!
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Comment #26 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 11:34:31 PT
Sam
Maybe bribery has been the way of Washington but we don't need to believe it's the way to do it. That's up to each one of us and our own value structure in my opinion.
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Comment #25 posted by Sam Adams on March 29, 2009 at 11:30:51 PT
bribery
lol....I don't like bribery either....but appealing to the politicians' sense of fairness and decency hasn't been working too well so far!
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Comment #24 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 11:26:27 PT
Sam
Made me think of a song.Bob Marley - Get Up, Stand Up (Live)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zTxUxFjLB0
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Comment #23 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 11:24:11 PT
Sam
I don't believe in bribing anyone for anything. Our worth and opinions aren't negotiable in my opinion. Get Up Stand Up For Your Rights!
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Comment #22 posted by Had Enough on March 29, 2009 at 11:20:29 PT
Poll in comment #11
Joint Resolution proposed!!!Should marijuana be legalized and taxed?77% - Yes 20% - No 3% - Not sure 
Total Votes: 870 http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1161864
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Comment #21 posted by Sam Adams on March 29, 2009 at 11:19:37 PT
taxes
I'd be against taxing herbs for sure, don't know whether that's liberal or conservative in this case.I think many reformers like the idea of presenting cannabis as a taxable item because we have no money and this is the only way we can bribe the politicians, and bribing them is the only way to get laws passed in the US today.
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Comment #20 posted by Garry Minor on March 29, 2009 at 11:15:09 PT:
Polls
 I wonder if all those opposed to legalization knew that cannabinoids and THC destroy tumors with no negative side effects whatsoever, promote the growth of brain cells, are a superior inhibitor of the plaque that causes Alzheimers, kill MRSA, and that cannabis safely treats autism, epilepsy, chronic pain, migraine, arthritis, nausea, asthma, emphysema, diabetes, depression, tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis, fibromyalgia, anxiety, anorexia, lupus, MS, ALS, ADHD, OCD, alcoholism, muscular dystrophy, herpes, Parkinsons, Huntingtons, Tourettes, Crohns disease, and more, and that it's seed is the single most nutritionally complete food source on Earth, reintroduced to our diets could alleviate many of the above mentioned diseases and help end world hunger, and that anything made from oil, coal, timber, or cotton could be made ecologically friendly with cannabis hemp, helping to save our environment and "kids" from all those harmful petrochemicals and toxins, if they would still say that it should be illegal for adults to possess and our farmers to grow?It's up to us that do know these things to educate these poor people! They have been censored of current events and history, filled with lies and propaganda, and therefore literally brainwashed to believe that the most useful plant on the planet is evil! They don't even have a clue as to what has happened! They don't think about it. They don't realize the destruction that this prohibition has created. I know I didn't! I took a flowcharting class for computers back in the 70's and one thing I learned was the term GIGO --- Garbage In Garbage Out. It's true.The leaves of the Tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse.
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Comment #19 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 11:13:59 PT
Sam
I have a question for you. The right leaning people (conservatives) are against taxes more then the left leaning (liberal) people are. Why is taxing important for an herb?
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Comment #18 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 11:10:52 PT
Sam
I don't know. I don't watch CBS and rarely CNN. When I watch news it is MSNBC between 8 and 10 weekdays. 
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Comment #17 posted by Sam Adams on March 29, 2009 at 11:08:10 PT
funny
FOM - the "why don't we talk about...." question was a rhetorical question for CBS, not Cannabis News! there's enough to cover here as it isMy concern is with CBS, who obviously rushed to get this negative poll out immediately after Obama started taking heat for his callous laugh-off yesterday.It looks to me like the networks including CNN have become apologist lapdogs for the federal government.
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Comment #16 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 11:03:32 PT
Sam
I am only looking for polls on marijauna. I am not following other news closely at all. I have a very busy life within my family these days and I can only really keep up on our issue.
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Comment #15 posted by Sam Adams on March 29, 2009 at 11:00:43 PT
Polls
also, if we're going to talk polls, why don't we mention the $2-3 trillion dollars in "bailouts" that have all been imposed over the objections of about 70% of the population.Guess the "polls" didn't matter much for that, did they?
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Comment #14 posted by Sam Adams on March 29, 2009 at 10:58:56 PT
c*BS* news
Polls are nice, but for punitive laws on consensual behavior, they are informative only. There's no reason that people who enjoy cannabis should be bound by the opinions of their neighbors.Also, what does it matter what "The Empire" thinks? Gay marriage sure as hell isn't supported by the US popuation, should Massachusetts and Connecticut have to strike down their laws? Would the US population approve inter-racial marriage right now? I'm sure some states would ban it if they could. I think some states might even ban alcohol if it was put to a vote.Personally, I"m sick and tired of being lumped in with Redneck America. My region of the country supports legal marijuana, so does the West Coast. We also happen to be a state that pays WAY more in taxes to the Feds than we receive back.So we're stuck in the ridiculous situation of paying the redneck states while simultaneously having their moral laws imposed on us.And of course any pollster that wants to skew a national MJ poll can just make all the calls in redneck states.
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on March 29, 2009 at 10:44:00 PT
Comment 4
Lol!
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 09:55:03 PT
Poll: Americans Reject Legalizing Taxing Marijuana
Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & ResearchMarch 28, 2009(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Few adults in the United States think that the use of marijuana should be made legal, according to a poll by CBS News. 63 per cent of respondents disagree with this idea.In addition, 58 per cent of respondents reject a proposal that would allow state governments to tax the sale of marijuana and use the tax revenues to pay for state and local projects.The use of marijuana is illegal in the U.S. except in some regulated cases of medical use. The amount allowed for such purposes varies depending on the state. Some states have passed laws to reduce law enforcement for possession of small amounts of the substance.On Mar. 26, U.S. president Barack Obama dismissed the legalization of marijuana, saying, "I do not think that is a good strategy to grow our economy."Polling DataDo you think that the use of marijuana should be made legal or not?Legal
 31%
 
Not legal
 63%
 
Not sure
 6%
 What if state governments tax the sale of marijuana and used tax revenues to pay for state and local projects, then would you think the use of marijuana should be made legal or not?Legal
 31%
 
Legal, if taxed
 7%
 
Not legal
 58%
 
Not sure
 4%
 Source: CBS News 
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,142 American adults, conducted from Mar. 12 to Mar. 16, 2009. Margin of error is 3 per cent.
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Comment #11 posted by Sam Adams on March 29, 2009 at 09:38:06 PT
Poll!
Joint Resolution proposed!Should marijuana be legalized and taxed??http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1161864
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 08:48:10 PT
HempWorld
We will work hard to bring change from the bottom up not the top down in my opinion.
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Comment #9 posted by HempWorld on March 29, 2009 at 08:44:43 PT
Pot Legalization Is The Only Right Answer ...
But our rulers and masters don't want it.So what are we going to do about it?
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 08:06:19 PT
George Servantes
I agree. Using children as an excuse to punish adults has never settle right with me.
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on March 29, 2009 at 07:54:53 PT
Another Study
Another study of the studies already done might be ok. That wouldn't take very long if they delve into it with vigor.
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Comment #6 posted by George Servantes on March 29, 2009 at 07:41:49 PT
Another study
Why another study when they don't care about advices and recommendations from so many other scientific studies?
And 18 months, how many people will still end up in jail while they study and study...
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Comment #5 posted by George Servantes on March 29, 2009 at 07:39:23 PT
FoM, kids are just an excuse 
They don't care about kids, adults and our freedoms.
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Comment #4 posted by runruff on March 29, 2009 at 05:28:00 PT
I asked my wife?
Hope said I was funny [Thanks Hope], so I said Hope thinks I'm a wit! My wife said, well she's half right anyway!"Gotta love her!
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on March 28, 2009 at 19:26:49 PT
D.L.Hughley
It was interesting to watch but it's been said so many times before and the narcotics officer just worries about the kids. Why do adults need to be hassled because of kids. Children should be guided by their parents and the parents should know where their children are and what they are doing.
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Comment #2 posted by ekim on March 28, 2009 at 19:26:44 PT
beyond a shadow of a doubt
i remember when i read links on history of cannabis prohibition from the kapt. 
the constant theme of how cannabis use causes one to become violent and insane should be of great intrest to this new commission.of greater interest would be why anyone should be jailed and found guilty of using cannabis if the prosetutor failed to prove this point.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on March 28, 2009 at 16:55:06 PT

Pot Legalization Could Be Part Of Overhaul
I like Senator Webb's ideas.
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