Which will be the second U.S. state to legalize pot?

[quarky]

This is very weird.

Less than an hour ago, i received a phone call telling me that a friend and neighbor of mine was busted today for having a few hemp plants on his land.
In context with my posts (and attitude) above, this really busts my ass. A helicopter landed on his garden, to unload several military-cop-like authority figures, bust him, and remove his few reefer plants. last time I saw this guy, we witnessed a third person accidently drink some 30% H2O2, thinking it was water, and we had to do the 911 thing.
The e.m.t. boys called for the chopper to transport the guy to a big-city hospital.

This helicopter ride cost $15,000

Today's helicopter ride, the one to bust him, should have cost even more, because it was on the ground much longer, and came further. It will get passed on to the tax-payers. My harmless pot-smoking friend will go to jail, at a cost of 30-plus grand/year, and his neighbors will have the added work of taking care of his goats and dogs and all, while he's repenting or getting bitter in jail.

I haven't focused on this issue in ages, because it hasn't been in my face...and now it is.
And I'm annoyed.
I'm annoyed that non-pot smokers aren't pissed that their taxes will have to cover the cost of the helicopter, the prison, the welfare that his family will need while he's away, etc.

The issue of legal pot may not be resolved without some type of massive protest, complete with law-breaking acticvities, that simply overwhelms the police force.
In your face union activity. You can't put 20,000 people in jail at the same time in a city of less than a million. Yet, folks are too scared to do that. We talked it up 40 years ago. It went nowhere. The economics are such that pot makes money move as an illegal commodity. Growers and dealers sure as hell don't want it legal. Cops and narcs that make their living from investigating and busting people; they don't want it legal.
Church ladies and school marms and Mormons and barbituate addicts don't want it around.

Who does that leave?
Me?
I don't care about it. I'm miles from nowhere.

Which is why it needs to be addressed as an unecessary tax. That will piss-off the bible-thumpers.

Stone the White House!
Million man stumble!
Drunks and junkies welcome!

 

[Barsdamian]

100 per hour??????? cmon that cannot be true.
dont have cops alot to do? why do they waste their time with this stuff?

This is why at the start of 2008 more than 1 in 100 US adults in was incarcerated. Simple cannabis possession charges account for MANY of those.

Why do police bother? In a word...money! Its easy, safe work (cannabis users are rarely violent) that generates arrest stats and photo ops that look great when they are begging for budget increases. "Getting drugs off our streets" sells real well.

The DEA is a great example of this. Every year they trumpet how many cannabis plants they have destroyed and how much devil weed they have prevented from making it to the street. But what they don't often admit is that every year several hundred thousand of the plants they destroy are feral hemp plants growing in ditches around the midwest. This feral industrial hemp contains almost no THC and if smoked will only give the user a headache. It is of absolutely no threat to anyone for any reason and yet the DEA spends untold taxpayer dollars ripping up the same patches year after year while claiming they are winning the war on drugs. Cha ching!

the only trouble i ever had with the police in regard to MJ was when a cop saw us sitting on the stairs of a church rolling up a J. and i had like 20g Hash on me. we had a debate about MJ and alcohol for about 15 minutes, then they left us alone.....

Are you white by any chance?

Not picking on you but cannabis possession laws are disproportionately enforced on visible minorities and the poor. Its been that way from the start of prohibition. In fact, the very first prohibition ordinance was passed in El Paso, TX as a response to the growing number of Mexican workers in the area. Since most of the migrant workers smoked the plant it gave the city a tool to control them. Police still use minor cannabis possession in much the same way today...as a means to deal with 'undesirables'

 

[Bob Blaylock]

I am not in favor of legalizing marijuana or other “recreational drugs” (except the one I enjoy, alcohol), but this is an area in which I am convinced that the federal government has far overstepped its bounds.…

fixed...

Please don't put words in my mouth in that manner.

As it happens, I have never consumed alcohol, nor have I any desire to do so. I'm convinced that it, along with marijuana, and other “recreational drugs” are destructive to the person who uses them, to those around the person who uses them, and to society as a whole, and that it would be better for everyone if nobody used them at all

In any event, your pathetic attempt to slander me is irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

 

[Praktik]

Well sorry about that, I figured you were either a teetotaller or someone who didnt consider alcohol a recreational drug (but thought pot and other illegals were).

Im glad we got it ironed out.. I really did think I could have been wrong and that you were universally against alterations of the mind derived from drugs of any kind.

I guess we're on complete opposite ends of the spectrum you and I - while I've seen the destruction you speak of first-hand I have also seen the ways in which drugs of many different kinds serve as social glue of a positive sort.

It cant always be a bad thing...

 

[DC]

This is why at the start of 2008 more than 1 in 100 US adults in was incarcerated. Simple cannabis possession charges account for MANY of those.

Why do police bother? In a word...money! Its easy, safe work (cannabis users are rarely violent) that generates arrest stats and photo ops that look great when they are begging for budget increases. "Getting drugs off our streets" sells real well.

The DEA is a great example of this. Every year they trumpet how many cannabis plants they have destroyed and how much devil weed they have prevented from making it to the street. But what they don't often admit is that every year several hundred thousand of the plants they destroy are feral hemp plants growing in ditches around the midwest. This feral industrial hemp contains almost no THC and if smoked will only give the user a headache. It is of absolutely no threat to anyone for any reason and yet the DEA spends untold taxpayer dollars ripping up the same patches year after year while claiming they are winning the war on drugs. Cha ching!




Are you white by any chance?

Not picking on you but cannabis possession laws are disproportionately enforced on visible minorities and the poor. Its been that way from the start of prohibition. In fact, the very first prohibition ordinance was passed in El Paso, TX as a response to the growing number of Mexican workers in the area. Since most of the migrant workers smoked the plant it gave the city a tool to control them. Police still use minor cannabis possession in much the same way today...as a means to deal with 'undesirables'

im white, but i doubt that has a real influence in switzerland. it depends far more what cop you are talking to.

 

[Praktik]

This is very weird.

Less than an hour ago, i received a phone call telling me that a friend and neighbor of mine was busted today for having a few hemp plants on his land.

What a tragic story. I hope your friend gets leniency - think there's any chance of that where you live?

What a senseless waste.

 

[Barsdamian]

im white, but i doubt that has a real influence in switzerland. it depends far more what cop you are talking to.

My apologies then. I assumed you were an American from the topic of the thread (and your avatar may have influenced me also).

 

[DC]

My apologies then. I assumed you were an American from the topic of the thread (and your avatar may have influenced me also).

no reason to apology, by further thinking about it, actually i have no clue if it would make a difference. it would be an interesting observation if a white one gets away with it while a black guy or a foreigner would get away with it.

there are indeed alot people having huge prejudice against black imigrants.

 

[ServiceSoon]

... I am not in favor of legalizing marijuana or other “recreational drugs”...

I have to say, after reading some of your other post, including the majority of this post, I'm disappointed in you. Not that I am anybody to you