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 OneMoreRobot3021
punky jewster
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 56,521
Loc: new york shitty
Last seen: 15 hours, 37 minutes
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 ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!)
#7247443 - 08/01/07 12:46 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Nice! A major mainstream news outlet taking a look at this vital issue. Huge article. Other news outlets will race to put up similar stories thanks to news being a business based on competition. Next up, I'd imagine, would be feature spots on shows such as Primetime or 20/20.
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3433693&page=1
Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided?
Critics Contend the Government Is Fighting Pot at the Expense of Battling Meth
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
Aug. 1, 2007
A Drug Enforcement Administration agent hands a freshly-pulled marijuana plant off to another law enforcement officer as they work to clear a patch of the weed near Entiant, Wash., Sept. 20, 2005.
Since the Marijuana Tax Act — the first anti-marijuana federal law — was signed by President Roosevelt 70 years ago Thursday, the debate over the drug's effects, dangers and criminalization has raged unabated.
The Bush administration has made marijuana its prime target in the war on drugs, spending billions of dollars on education campaigns and law enforcement activities. Critics, however, contend that the war on pot has allowed for the proliferation of other more dangerous drugs like methamphetamine and crack cocaine.
Unsurprisingly, much of the criticism of federal law comes from pro-marijuana lobbying groups that believe the drug should, in some instances, be decriminalized.
More surprisingly, however, is criticism from politicians and law enforcement officers, in areas ravaged by meth use, who say the government's war on marijuana is being fought at the expense of the battle to rid the country of methamphetamine.
As security at the nation's borders tightens, more marijuana busts are related to domestic growing operations — illicit businesses that are increasingly hidden in suburban homes, called "grow houses."
A spate of large-scale busts in recent months from South Carolina to California has allowed John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, to reiterate the government's position that marijuana is extremely dangerous and a gateway to more deadly drugs.
There were 322,438 kilos of marijuana seized in federal operations in 2006, up from 283,344 the previous year.
"Marijuana is the only illegal drug where we have to try and explain to people that what we've found, and what the statistics [show] and what the consequences are, are worse than they think," Walters told ABC News. "Nobody thinks [methamphetamine] is a soft drug. Nobody talks about heroin or cocaine as 'OK, we can just tolerate it.'"
"We understand the disease of addiction in a way nobody understood it in the 1970s, the 1960s, even the early 1980s," Walters said. "Science, investments in brain imaging, and millions and millions of dollars of study have helped us understand what happens here."
It is just those sorts of statements that rile marijuana advocates. The effects of marijuana pale in comparison to the dangers of other drugs and federal policy, they say, should reflect those dangers.
"The folks running drug policy in the Bush White House are pretty clearly obsessed with marijuana," Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, told ABC News. "Officials from ONDCP [Office of National Drug Control Policy] have more than once said it is the most dangerous substance. It is, however, vastly less dangerous than drugs like methamphetamine."
"Marijuana is mildly toxic compared to most recreational and pharmaceutical drugs, and yet there has been this all out demonization," Mirken said.
Senator and Police Want Action on Meth
Perhaps the most surprising critic of the Bush administration's marijuana policy is Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley is chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. In 2005, he sent a letter to the White House, urging the Bush administration to spend resources to combat meth rather than marijuana.
"While we agree that any drug use is harmful to users and those around them, the problems associated with marijuana are not comparable to methamphetamine in terms of cost to society," Grassley wrote to Walters.
"We know that different drugs have different rates of use. Marijuana is a much more popular drug in terms of the number of people who use it," Grassley wrote. "However, methamphetamine causes much more destruction in a much shorter period of time than marijuana."
"We believe that reducing drug use is not just about reducing the number of users of a drug, but reducing the overall harm to society caused by the drug."
Iowa has been one of the states hardest hit by methamphetamine. Local police say more money and manpower is needed to fight meth and not marijuana. "Marijuana is old news," said Bob Doran, a spokesman for the Iowa Association of Chiefs of Police and Peace Officers.
Doran dismissed the ONDCP claim that marijuana is a gateway drug that leads people to harder, more deadly drugs.
"The longtime argument has been that marijuana is the first step into drug use, but I think that argument has gone by the wayside," Doran said. "We're finding many kids skipping the pot and going straight to meth."
Doran added that meth was particularly dangerous, not only because of the effects on the user, but from the dangers created in its production. "With marijuana, we're concerned with sale and use, not the manufacture. The toxic effects are nowhere near those of meth production."
The federal government, for its part, maintains that fighting meth and fighting marijuana are two separate battles. The money and resources used to combat marijuana is different from those used to fight meth.
"All the criticism of policy winds up being a grab bag of ideas and conspiracies," said Tom Riley, an ONDCP spokesman.
"It is an interesting public policy discussion, but what does that discussion have to do with local law enforcement?" asked Riley. "The money used to go after heroin in Afghanistan isn't the same money used to go after marijuana, and the money for marijuana isn't the same money needed to go after meth."
Is Pot Really A Gateway Drug?
The ONDCP, which sets the nation's drug policies, is literally an office in the White House. Some experts have raised questions about the impartiality of an office so linked to the politics of the executive branch.
"The ONDCP is not a neutral office that rationally evaluates the drug war," said Matthew Robinson, a criminal justice professor at Appalachian State University, and co-author of "Lies, Damned Lies, and Drug War Statistics: A Critical Analysis of Claims Made by the Office of National Drug Control Policy."
After examining the office's annual national drug control policy report for seven years, Robinson said he "found a consistent effort to manipulate data to make marijuana seem more dangerous than it really is."
Robinson added that when crunching ONDCP's numbers, he found inconsistencies, claims that did not jibe with the office's data, manipulation of statistics, reliance on anecdotal evidence and a failure to recognize other independent research.
"What they say simply doesn't match reality," Robinson said. "They claim it's a gateway drug. — They say we have to stop people from using marijuana. — But the vast majority of marijuana users don't go on to use harder drugs. The typical drug user uses marijuana for a few months and then gets over it."
"People who go on to other drugs start with alcohol and tobacco, not marijuana. They can't say that, because then people would question why they're going after marijuana."
The ONDCP says it expects people to come after it, challenge its research and accuse it of playing politics for one simple reason: People like to get high.
"There are lots of people who are not enthusiastic about drug policy," said Riley. "There are 15 [million] to 20 million marijuana users in the U.S., and they don't like the idea that their drug is illegal."
"Everyone knows meth is really bad and coke is really bad," said Riley, "but marijuana is a more serious drug than most people realize. But, there isn't an activist group that is pro meth or pro heroine."
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The Drug Policy Alliance  Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
"The psychedelic experience - it has a tremendous force to revivify the spirit, particularly because it is not an ideology. It is not something someone 'figured out.' It is an EXPERIENCE. And this is important to bear in mind." - McKenna.
"We're not mad, we're just doing what we want. You rigid thinkers can't recognize the healthy sanity of that." - Harlan Ellison, "Crackpots"
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TTT
True
Registered: 08/07/06
Posts: 283
Loc: None
Last seen: 1 day, 13 hours
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
#7247464 - 08/01/07 12:53 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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 1d10t3k
the grand wazoo
Registered: 02/06/04
Posts: 14,702
Loc: on the bus
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
#7247502 - 08/01/07 01:07 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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It's a step in the right direction. Any mainstream exposure of this sort is good.. especially since it sheds some light on the inconsistencies of the federal government's views on marijuana.
Several states have decriminalized it, or recognized its medicinal value.. how can the federal government justify its position that it belongs on the Schedule I list? 
Too bad our country is largely populated by people who eat drug propaganda out of the fed's hands and believe it religiously.
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OneMoreRobot3021
punky jewster
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 56,521
Loc: new york shitty
Last seen: 15 hours, 37 minutes
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: 1d10t3k]
#7247506 - 08/01/07 01:08 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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I hear the propaganda dealers have been flavoring their product with Strawberry to make it more appealing to kids, too!
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The Drug Policy Alliance Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
"The psychedelic experience - it has a tremendous force to revivify the spirit, particularly because it is not an ideology. It is not something someone 'figured out.' It is an EXPERIENCE. And this is important to bear in mind." - McKenna.
"We're not mad, we're just doing what we want. You rigid thinkers can't recognize the healthy sanity of that." - Harlan Ellison, "Crackpots"
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1d10t3k
the grand wazoo
Registered: 02/06/04
Posts: 14,702
Loc: on the bus
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
#7247584 - 08/01/07 01:26 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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The ads they run on television are so blatantly retarded, and yet people still tend to believe them or not even think twice about the validity.
Makes me sick.
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xpl0de
ḆṻЯŇ_őǖŦ
Registered: 07/14/07
Posts: 515
Last seen: 1 day, 11 hours
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: 1d10t3k]
#7247603 - 08/01/07 01:31 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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finally someone steps up 
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The Crow
Registered: 04/03/07
Posts: 1,774
Loc: giving birth
Last seen: 6 months, 27 days
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
#7247650 - 08/01/07 01:41 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Isn't NORML for legalization of all drugs?
I know NJWEEDMAN is pro-coke and pro-heroin in the sense he doesn;t believe the feds have a right to tell people not to use them....
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Boutang
AKMC
Registered: 01/25/06
Posts: 223
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: The Crow]
#7247667 - 08/01/07 01:44 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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I don't think so...I hope not....I doubt it.
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Boutang
AKMC
Registered: 01/25/06
Posts: 223
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
#7247689 - 08/01/07 01:48 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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My mom thinks cannabis use made me schizophrenic. I think the ads they run played some part in this, and how they are trying to make marijuana penalties the same or more harsh as methamphetamine here in AK.
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xaeviax
Registered: 03/18/06
Posts: 388
Loc: An altered state of mind
Last seen: 11 hours, 24 minutes
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: The Crow]
#7247710 - 08/01/07 01:53 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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NORML stands for National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
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Im a man with dank in my plan. Ive got an irie scent rolling off my veins.
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The Crow
Registered: 04/03/07
Posts: 1,774
Loc: giving birth
Last seen: 6 months, 27 days
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
#7247771 - 08/01/07 02:13 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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I know, but that doesn't mean they don't support legalization of other drugs. It depends on their standpoint, really. Do they want to legalize weed because its not that bad, or do they want to legalize weed because the government has no right to tell people what they can and can't put into their own bodies? If they follow the secong logic pattern, then they should logically also for the legalization of all drugs. See what I'm saying?
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Jadian
Ninja
Registered: 07/07/05
Posts: 6,466
Loc: Fishy Island
Last seen: 6 hours, 8 minutes
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: Boutang]
#7247987 - 08/01/07 03:19 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Boutang said:
My mom thinks cannabis use made me schizophrenic. I think the ads they run played some part in this, and how they are trying to make marijuana penalties the same or more harsh as methamphetamine here in AK.
Medical Marijuana is legal here, and up to an ounce of personal in your home is decriminalized. Allowances for larger amounts of pot are on the ballot every election year, what are you talking about?
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LNC's official Alaskan stoner
 
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dedjam
Electro Penguin
Registered: 12/14/05
Posts: 2,138
Loc: Moralton, Statesota
Last seen: 2 months, 9 days
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: The Crow]
#7248000 - 08/01/07 03:22 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Its not the governments job to control what people put into their bodies in any sense. Its good to see steps in the right direction, but the reason for legalization should be on Constitutional grounds, no other excuse should be necessary.
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The Crow
Registered: 04/03/07
Posts: 1,774
Loc: giving birth
Last seen: 6 months, 27 days
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: 1d10t3k]
#7248023 - 08/01/07 03:29 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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VERY well said dedjam. 5 shrooms for you!
Oh and AK is Alaska, right? Is it the only state with decrimized up to an ounce? Are the attitudes of the general public different up there on pot or not?
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Zaw
Stranger
Registered: 07/31/07
Posts: 10
Last seen: 3 months, 13 days
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: The Crow]
#7248298 - 08/01/07 04:48 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Pot is a bit more socially accepted in Alaska than the rest of the U.S. But you still don't want to be caught with it outside your home.
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weephar
The Consultant
Registered: 05/03/05
Posts: 154
Loc: Atlanta, GA
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: The Crow]
#7248568 - 08/01/07 05:55 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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I believe that NORML is only for marijuana...but there are groups that are for all drugs such as The Drug Reform Coordination Network(drcnet.org)...because the gov't shouldn't have the right to say what I can and can't use...most of the problems with drugs come from misinformation and their illegality. I don't think people should bother with drugs like meth, coke, opiates, etc...but I don't really care if they do...I have tried some of these and I am fine and actually found them boring especially compared with weed and psychedelics. Most drugs aren't that much more dangerous than drinking alcohol excessively, except for the fact that it is nearly impossible to get a safe pure supply. Hell, if a heroin addict used pharmaceutically pure heroin for their whole life, they would do less damage to their body than someone who is an alcoholic for their whole life. However try getting pharmaceutically pure heroin and you will probably be out of luck unless you are a terminal cancer patient in the UK.
I do think that NORML is against people getting arrested for doing the substance of their choice, but one of their arguments for the legalization of cannabis is that it would allow police officers the time to pursue other drugs, so basically I think they do not care about other drugs.
Personally, I think idealistically all drugs should be legal...but that is almost impossible at this point, so we should try some harm reduction such as education on drugs that doesn't use scare tactics and treatment rather than just throwing people in jail, which just leads a lot of people to a cycle of doing drugs and going in and out of jail, until if/when they get bored and decide to get out of the cycle (or die). Treatment is 7 times more effective than jail time.
I also can not find a single valid reason why cannabis is illegal and I should be able to go to a convenient store and buy it like a pack of ciggies or a 6-pack. This article is a step in the right direction...I hope that more stations follow suit.
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Life is good!
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THEBats
FuturePsychopharmacologist
Registered: 03/18/05
Posts: 1,162
Loc: Florida
Last seen: 1 month, 11 days
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: weephar]
#7248595 - 08/01/07 06:04 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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be sure to click the link and vote in the poll
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EntheogenicPeace
Scholar
Registered: 10/04/05
Posts: 2,326
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
#7248614 - 08/01/07 06:09 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
"Marijuana is the only illegal drug where we have to try and explain to people that what we've found, and what the statistics [show] and what the consequences are, are worse than they think," Walters told ABC News. "Nobody thinks [methamphetamine] is a soft drug. Nobody talks about heroin or cocaine as 'OK, we can just tolerate it.'"
He forgot to add, "Nobody talks about freedom of choice & control of one's own body & mind as, "OK, we can allow it."
Quote:
A spate of large-scale busts in recent months from South Carolina to California has allowed John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, to reiterate the government's position that marijuana is extremely dangerous and a gateway to more deadly drugs.
Quote:
"We understand the disease of addiction in a way nobody understood it in the 1970s, the 1960s, even the early 1980s," Walters said. "Science, investments in brain imaging, and millions and millions of dollars of study have helped us understand what happens here."
Interesting. I use marijuana on a pretty regular basis, & psychedelics on an infrequent basis. I'm very saddened to find out that it is a scientific inevitability that I will one day in the not-too-distant future be not only a reefer addict (which I must already be), but also a junkie, a tweaker & a crackhead. It's too bad my life is fucked. Marijuana... I guess it's not as harmless as we all thought.
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"Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every pine needle, every sandy shore, every humming insect is holy... We are part of the earth and it is part of us... The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth." - Chief Seattle
"...the role our nation has taken... of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments... we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values... When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered." - Martin Luther King Jr.
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FurrowedBrow
Free yourself from yourself
Registered: 10/26/06
Posts: 1,531
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: THEBats]
#7248906 - 08/01/07 07:33 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
THEBats said:
be sure to click the link and vote in the poll
I will try to make it easier for my friends here. The more of us like minded people vote the better, i suppose. couldn't hurt the cause that's for sure.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/popup?id=3435586
The Bush administration has made fighting marijuana its chief drug policy, spending billions on education and federal enforcement. Critics argue that the focus on pot has allowed other drugs like heroin and meth to proliferate.
Do you think marijuana is a dangerous drug?
No. Prosecuting pot is a waste of time and tax dollars.
134
Yes. It's the start of a slippery slope to more serious drug usage.
22
Not sure. There should be enforcement but not to the detriment of fighting more serious drug use.
13
Total Vote: 169
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Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
We are one species. We are starstuff.
- Carl Sagan
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jewunit
The HebrewHammer
Registered: 01/11/07
Posts: 14,560
Loc: Columbus, OH/Syracuse, NY
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: Boutang]
#7249762 - 08/01/07 11:12 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Boutang said:
I don't think so...I hope not....I doubt it.
Why??
This article is good in the sense that it does bring marijuana policy into the limelight. The only problem here is coverage like this will inevitably lead to the near impossibility of legalizing other drugs in the future. People will stick to the argument of "Weed is better than those other drugs, so we can legalize that but keep the other shit illegal" or people (politicians) will end up focusing even MORE on busting other drug users/dealers instead of using the funds they would save on not going after marijuana users/dealers on other more important things.
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[quote]Madtowntripper said:
It's common knowledge that Jewunit is an umemployed drain on society, supposedly attending some university that nobodies ever heard of.
He may in fact, be a literal bum, only able to make himself known to us here by occasionally stopping into dark internet cafes to make a few quick, frantic posts before the owners force him to leave because of the stench of rotting vegetables and desperation wafting forth from his pores. [/quote]
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THEBats
FuturePsychopharmacologist
Registered: 03/18/05
Posts: 1,162
Loc: Florida
Last seen: 1 month, 11 days
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: jewunit]
#7249826 - 08/01/07 11:35 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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so far the poll is clear...
No. Prosecuting pot is a waste of time and tax dollars.
181
Yes. It's the start of a slippery slope to more serious drug usage.
22
Not sure. There should be enforcement but not to the detriment of fighting more serious drug use.
13
Total Vote: 216
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oldwirehands
freakin outsquares
Registered: 07/30/07
Posts: 13
Loc: chemist country
Last seen: 8 months, 25 days
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
#7250138 - 08/02/07 02:56 AM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Good for them.
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I make music.
-Electronic-
-Epic-
-Heavy-
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The Crow
Registered: 04/03/07
Posts: 1,774
Loc: giving birth
Last seen: 6 months, 27 days
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Re: ABCNews: Is the Nation's Marijuana Policy Misguided? (Big Article!) [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
#7250186 - 08/02/07 03:27 AM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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good for who?
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TurricaN
Grasshopper
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