Legalise some drugs, outlaw others?

[DB008]

This one seems to be doing the rounds.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard: Re-legalise & regulate Cannabis for personal, medical & industry use in Aus

The illegal drug industry is a multi-billion dollar a year industry, all of the profit going to criminals and dangerous organizations. If cannabis were legalised and regulated, the cannabis black market would be entirely eliminated and the immense expenditure on both the war on drugs and the sale of drugs could be turned to far more practical applications like the health & educational systems.

https://www.change.org/petitions/prime-minister-julia-gillard-re-legalise-regulate-cannabis-for-personal-medical-industry-use-in-aus?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=url_share&utm_campaign=url_share_after_sign

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

On the west upper verandah of the hotel here in South Townsville, when we get the sea breezes, you don't even need to buy it.

It just requires a deep inhale.

Full 90% of folk in ST must be smoking yarndie. It's become a basket weaving suburb now, with the rich able to smoke it not just on pension day, but everyday.

It should be legalized, like cohibas.

gg

 

[sydboy007]

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert Einstein

i think it was Pablo Escobar who said it didn't mater how much of the cocaine he sent to the USA was interdicted. he received the same amount of $ whether 100% ot just 0.01% of his product made it across the border.

I'm 50:50 if we need to change the laws.

I definitely believe the warnings about drugs need to be made in a more realistic manner. A lot of it is just not, well it's based on the 1% rather than on the harm minimisation that needs to be at the forefront of thinking.

AFAIC if Alcohol and Tobacco are legal then probably small quantities of other drugs should be decriminalised too.

IF you look at how the gay community handles the issue - don't be afraid to get help and just be honest with why your friend is sick

Compared against a lot of young "main stream" people who are too afraid to get help until it's too late.

I'd say dabbling in drugs has been around since gunga was discovered, fermented fruit was eaten, and well it seems like teenagers will always feel invincible.

Prohibition for alcohol was a complete failure, and it's been a complete failure for any other type of drug.

personally i think the Govt would be better off making some of it themselves, selling quality pharmaceutical grade product at a highly taxed price, along with some form of mandatory counselling and drive out the shoddy dealers peddling lethal product.

Yes, take responsibility for ya actions, but I'd prefer it wasn't lethal or permanently life altering.

nb: I've dabbled in the illegal side of the fence, had my fun and moved on. Always say it can be fun, but NEVER EVER think it's REAL!

 

[DB008]

CNN Article

More and more Americans want pot legal

(CNN) -- Last week, my op-ed in favor of cannabis legalization ran on CNN.com. This week marks three years since I first wrote that marijuana should be legal. I'm amazed at how the debate has changed in just a few years.

I was inundated with messages from readers, and was humbled by some of them.

Here's one from a Southern Baptist church pastor: "I have seen firsthand the heartache caused by America's prohibition against marijuana. I have visited young men in prison, who I knew in my heart should not be there ... It is time for us to speak out and tell the truth about marijuana ...

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/16/opinion/nathan-comments-on-pot-column/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

 

[sydboy007]

CNN Article

I believe in California the State Govt is going to legalise it but then leave it up to the counties to decide if they will allow the sale of it and to what extend they will tax it.

Considering California's debt is over 10 times the Aust Fed Govt's I can see the $$$$ signs sparkling in some county officials eyes.

 

[prawn_86]

I still fail to see how/why a state can have a legislatipon that directly goes against federal laws. Does this occur anywhere in Aus?

Not that i am against it, the US legal system is just baffling

 

[DB008]

Saw this and thought that it was interesting and related to this thread.



Canadian Liberal Party webpage

Getting smart on crime and cannabis

Conservatives have failed.
Liberals know the difference between being tough on crime and being smart on crime.

Stephen Harper keeps fighting a failed war on drugs that only benefits organized crime and increases gang activity. Harper is protecting their profits while failing to deal with the negative health and social impacts of drug-related crime in communities across Canada.

We need successful policies.
The billions spent have shown little results – and now as Harper spends more of your money on mega-prisons and plans to lock up marijuana users with hardened criminals, even U.S. Republicans are warning Canadians not to adopt failed American crime policies.

Liberals stand for an evidence-based crime policy.
The Liberal Party of Canada believes in a smart on crime approach, targeting real criminals instead of our youth, to keep our communities safe. Liberals understand the need to consider ending the prohibition of marijuana and addressing the root causes of crime to see real results.

http://www.liberal.ca/getting-smart-on-crime-and-cannabis/

 

[sydboy007]

Saw this and thought that it was interesting and related to this thread.



Canadian Liberal Party webpage

Walking around Couver last October I think smoko-clock was around 4pm - same time as it became tripple high beam cold.

A few people said the police have better things to do that pick up someone smoking a joint.

 

[DB008]

Walking around Couver last October I think smoko-clock was around 4pm - same time as it became tripple high beam cold.

A few people said the police have better things to do that pick up someone smoking a joint.

4:20

Known as the 'International Standard Time' for lighting up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_(cannabis_culture)

The earliest use of the term began among a group of teenagers in San Rafael, California in 1971.[2][3] Calling themselves the Waldos,[4] because "their chosen hang-out spot was a wall outside the school,"[5] the group first used the term in connection to a fall 1971 plan to search for an abandoned cannabis crop that they had learned about.[4][6]

The Waldos designated the Louis Pasteur statue on the grounds of San Rafael High School as their meeting place, and 4:20 p.m. as their meeting time.[5] The Waldos referred to this plan with the phrase "4:20 Louis". Multiple failed attempts to find the crop eventually shortened their phrase to simply "4:20", which ultimately evolved into a codeword that the teens used to mean pot-smoking in general.[6]

 

[McLovin]

I still fail to see how/why a state can have a legislatipon that directly goes against federal laws. Does this occur anywhere in Aus?

Not that i am against it, the US legal system is just baffling

Sure it can happen anywhere where there's a federal style of government. iirc, marijuana is a Federal issue in the US because they used the very broad Interstate Commerce clause in the Constitution. Basically, if you make marijuana you might take it across state lines, which makes it a Federal issue. The state can't punish or remove a state trooper or other local law enforcement officer for enforcing federal law, but they can tell them to ignore it. Which then means the federal government needs to find its own police. Highly unlikely.

In Australia the Federal territories (ACT/NT) have decriminalised marijuana, while the states have kept it illegal. So yes, the differences do appear everywhere. If one state made it legal, I guess the Federal government here could use the same trade a commerce clause (s51 of our Constitution) to override the state's legilation.

I think people are finally waking up to what a waste of money and time the whole war on drugs is.

 

[DB008]

2 more States in the USA considering....

Hawaii - Aloha! Marijuana Legalization Bill Introduced in Hawaii

Indiana - Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Introduced in Indiana

The bill would also permit the licensed production of industrial hemp, a non-psychoactive agricultural crop used to produce a wide variety of legal products.

Smart move.

HEMP can be used in so many ways.

Paper
Fabrics
Textiles
Rope
Oils

Maybe Gillard could introduce a bill to help the farmers and allow them to grow hemp?

From what I've heard, it's next to impossible to get stoned of Hemp (equivalent of 2 telegraph poles would needed to be smoked).

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

2 more States in the USA considering....

Hawaii - Aloha! Marijuana Legalization Bill Introduced in Hawaii

Indiana - Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Introduced in Indiana


Smart move.

HEMP can be used in so many ways.

Paper
Fabrics
Textiles
Rope
Oils

Maybe Gillard could introduce a bill to help the farmers and allow them to grow hemp?

From what I've heard, it's next to impossible to get stoned of Hemp (equivalent of 2 telegraph poles would needed to be smoked).

Perhaps allow it just for boomers.

I believe the present hypo is 30 times stronger than myself and Bill Clinton didn't inhale in Little Rock in 1970. (I have the photos by the way to prove it).

For adolescents and teenagers it is quite dangerous to their developing brains.

So maybe a 50+ yo warning on the packs with proof of age required.

gg

 

[DB008]

I believe the present hydro is 30 times stronger than myself and Bill Clinton didn't inhale in Little Rock in 1970. (I have the photos by the way to prove it).

LOL.

Well, if it were regulated and open, you'd know exactly what you were getting.

THC + CBD percentages.

A quick Google search of 'Harborside Medical Center' - worlds largest medical marijuana dispensary doesn't look like the typical propaganda that is put out there by the 'Nay-Sayers'....

Tons of videos on youtube.....


GG - This one is for you....


Welcome to Harborside Health Center



Now, doesn't that look more civilized than a some doggy drug deal?

• Employ people - create jobs all the way from grower to user
• Tax is paid multiple times along the way (growing equipment - soil, electricity, staff if it's a big growing nursery, if it's made into an edible - staff and then the POS end of the chain)
• People know exactly what they are getting

I read somewhere that 'medical marijuana' is pulling in some very, very nice taxes for the states over there.

Just boggles my mind that if some states in the USA can do this, and normally, why can't we? Feels like we are stuck in the stone ages sometimes...

 

[Sean K]

Feels like we are stuck in the stone ages sometimes...

...frozen in fear by the brainwashed ignoramus.

 

[DB008]

Texas relaxing penalties. Step in the right direction.

Marijuana Penalty Reduction Bills Filed in Texas

AUSTIN, TX – Two separate Texan lawmakers have filed separate bills in the state legislature to relax marijuana laws in the Lone Star State, although the proposals stop short of decriminalization or the legalization of medical marijuana.

Representative Harold Dutton (D-Houston) has filed a penalty reduction bill that would reclassify possession of up to one ounce of marijuana from a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a maximum $2,000 fine and 180 days in jail, to a Class C misdemeanor, which carries a possible $500 fine and no jail time. While stopping short of decriminalization, the penalty reduction proposal would be significant for a state known to have some of the toughest drug laws in the country.

I think WA has the toughest laws in the country.

 

[sydboy007]

Texas relaxing penalties. Step in the right direction.

Marijuana Penalty Reduction Bills Filed in Texas



I think WA has the toughest laws in the country.

Ant time I've visited WA it's felt like the time tunnel

 

[DB008]

Ant time I've visited WA it's felt like the time tunnel

LOL.

It isn't that bad. Perth started to grow on me when I was living there. They still don't have Sunday shopping.....

 

[DB008]

George Soros backs Guatemalan president's call to end war on drugs

"Drug policy has endangered political stability and security in many countries, and not just in Latin America," he said, citing Mali as one of several African countries to suffer.

Soros told a press conference that austerity was encouraging politicians, even in the US, to rethink the war on drugs. "Incarceration is hugely expensive … The cost of alternatives is smaller than the cost of incarceration," he said.

The billionaire philanthropist was speaking alongside the Guatemalan president, P̩rez Molina, who announced that he would host a meeting of Latin American leaders to discuss the issue in June. The gathering will involve several groups including the Berkeley Foundation and Soros's own organisation. "Prohibition, this war on drugs, has seen cartels grow and the results are not what we looked for," Molina said. "There is a new trend towards drugs now Рnot war, but a new perspective and a different way of dealing with the problem."

 

[DB008]

Off the internet....

Dr Death: Fresh warning over the 'ecstasy' pill that kills

• Five UK people die from ecstasy containing PMA
• "You don't know what you're getting"
• Dr Death more dangerous than other pills

RECREATIONAL drug users have been warned about a highly toxic imitation of ecstasy following a spate of deaths in the UK from 'Dr Death' ecstasy pills.

Five young people have died over the past month in parts of the UK, reports the Daily Mail, after taking what they believed to be ecstasy, but in fact contained the dangerous substance PMA.

PMA, or para-Methoxyamphetamine, is a "synthetic amphetamine-type drug with both stimulant and hallucinogenic properties", according the Australian Drug Federation.

The Drug Squad says it's almost exclusively as MDMA - or ecstasy - posing a huge risk to recreational drug users.

It's more dangerous than regular ecstasy because it's known to cause death and takes longer to affect the brain - meaning users are more likely to double or even triple their dose.

Though PMA has been a problem in Australia before - six deaths were attributed to the drug being sold as ecstasy in South Australia in 1998 - experts warn that young people need to be extra vigilant.

"With any manufactured drug there is no guarantee of quality or quantity," said a spokesperson for the NSW Drug Squad.

http://www.news.com.au/national/dr-death-fresh-warning-over-the-ecstasy-pill-that-kills/story-fncynjr2-1226561826973

Simple solution.....

 

[DB008]

Marijuana Legalization Bill Introduced in New Hampshire

CONCORD, NH ”” A group of five bipartisan lawmakers has introduced legislation that seeks to make New Hampshire the third state to legalize and regulate the adult use of marijuana.

http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/15098/marijuana-legalization-bill-introduced-in-new-hampshire/