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Ythan
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ


Registered: 08/08/97
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Portland voters strongly endorse pot legalization [ME] 1
#19093609 - 11/06/13 01:14 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Portland voters strongly endorse pot legalization bangordailynews.com
PORTLAND, Maine — In a vote that marijuana advocates hope is a preview of a statewide campaign in 2016, Portland residents supported by a wide margin a measure that will legalize marijuana possession in Maine’s largest city.
With all 12 of the city’s precincts reporting just before 10:30 p.m., the legalization referendum held a 9,921-4,823 advantage. That represented more than 67 percent in favor of the measure. The Bangor Daily News called the race just after 9 p.m. Tuesday.
“We’ve had dozens of volunteers on the street today, going into neighborhoods, [handing out literature], finding voters, bringing them to the polls,” said Portland City Councilor David Marshall, one of the key organizers of the legalization effort. “We had heavier voter turnout than expected in Portland … which was a really good sign, because our whole goal was to get the people who generally don’t vote in these off-year elections out to the polls in order to support this.”
The referendum was watched closely not only across the state of Maine, but across the country as well, as supporters sought to establish an East Coast beachhead after successful pot legalization efforts in Washington state and Colorado.
David Boyer, Maine political director for the national Marijuana Policy Project, has said he hopes Portland will play a similar role here as Denver did in Colorado. The passage of a local measure legalizing recreational use of marijuana in Colorado’s largest city in 2005 was seen as a harbinger of the statewide legalization last year.
The Portland effort also comes as the tide of public sentiment nationwide appears to be turning in favor of marijuana legalization. National polling company Gallup reported late last month that 58 percent of Americans surveyed favor legalizing recreational use of the drug, a jump of 10 percentage points over a year’s time and the first time a majority signaled support.
Medical use of marijuana was legalized in Maine in 1999, and larger-scale dispensaries of medical cannabis were newly allowed in 2009.
The proposed Portland ordinance change, which would remove local criminal penalties for possession of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana, was put on the ballot through the citizens’ initiative process. A coalition of organizations — Portland Green Independent Committee, Marijuana Policy Project, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine and the Libertarian Party of Maine — collected nearly twice the 1,500 petition signatures necessary to force the referendum.
Proponents of the legalization measure have argued prohibition of the drug is ineffective, drives use of the substance underground and unnecessarily ties up law enforcement resources.
Opponents of the move, including the Maine Chiefs of Police Association, argue that the step would exacerbate substance abuse problems that feed other crimes, and that overseeing regulation and distribution of pot would be an expensive and time-consuming task for overburdened state agencies.
The Maine Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services has argued that marijuana today has more than double the mind-altering chemical THC that the pot on the market in 1983 had, making it more potent and addictive, and that teenagers may be more likely to experiment with the drug after hearing legalization advocates downplay the danger.
In Portland, police officials have stated they will continue to enforce state laws prohibiting possession of the drug, but that marijuana has long been a low-priority enforcement for them. The U.S. Department of Justice has told Washington and Colorado it will allow recreational pot laws to go into effect in those states as long as the drug is heavily regulated.
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downlowfunk
Retired Festival Veteran



Registered: 09/25/04
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Re: Portland voters strongly endorse pot legalization [ME] [Re: Ythan]
#19094164 - 11/06/13 06:17 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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More Government Cock in their mouths. Bend over Portland tokers.
Repealing laws is the only way a freedom fighter should vote. This asked for more government in the form of age limits, and taxes.
What if a child needs marijuana extract for epilepsy (Still illegal in Portland, This includes state medical marijuana laws.)
Ask Colorado how wonderful "Legal Marijuana" is.
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Absent Minded



Registered: 04/13/12
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Re: Portland voters strongly endorse pot legalization [ME] [Re: downlowfunk] 1
#19094266 - 11/06/13 07:43 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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I think it's a step in the right direction... how could you not?
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Beats More Beats sheekle: fuck peace love and unity sheekle: death despair and misery sheekle: is where it's at
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downlowfunk
Retired Festival Veteran



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Re: Portland voters strongly endorse pot legalization [ME] [Re: Absent Minded]
#19094719 - 11/06/13 10:20 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Absent Minded said: I think it's a step in the right direction... how could you not?
Independent Moonshiners, V.S. Big Liquor lobbies. Need I say more?
BTW the anti marijuana laws have ruined so many lives, how could any government ask for a tax from a population that has been tormented for 80+ years.
The U.N. Drug war has killed more people than the Socialist Nazi Party of Germany.
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Lord_McLovin
mad scientist on shrooms



Registered: 04/09/11
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Re: Portland voters strongly endorse pot legalization [ME] [Re: downlowfunk]
#19095101 - 11/06/13 12:18 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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The "socialist nazi party"?  Never heard of that.
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downlowfunk
Retired Festival Veteran



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Re: Portland voters strongly endorse pot legalization [ME] [Re: Lord_McLovin]
#19095133 - 11/06/13 12:27 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Lord_McLovin said: The "socialist nazi party"?  Never heard of that.
 National Socialism (political movement, Germany) -- Encyclopedia ... www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/405414/National-Socialism
National Socialism, German Nationalsozialismus, also called Nazism or Naziism, totalitarian movement led by Adolf Hitler as head of the Nazi Party in Germany.
Edited by downlowfunk (11/06/13 12:29 PM)
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Lord_McLovin
mad scientist on shrooms



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Re: Portland voters strongly endorse pot legalization [ME] [Re: downlowfunk]
#19095384 - 11/06/13 01:23 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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The correct name is "nationalsozialistische deutsche Arbeiterpartei", short NSDAP. There was nothing socialist about this party, it was a collection of social-Darwinist, Jew-hating, fanatic men torn apart from the inside by world war I and in deep grief about it. In fact, the entire name was a giant lie: They were not socialist, they were not in favor of their country (or they would have recognized that another war wouldn't help the country), Hitler wasn't even German and they were definitely not in favor of the working class, but abusing it more than any predecessor.
I also highly doubt your claim that the war on drugs cost more lifes. Just have a look at the insane number of people murdered on the battle fields of Europe, the ones exploited and murdered in concentration and extinction camps and of course the "civilian causalities". The war on drugs has been affecting and has severely harmed a lot of people, but it is not even comparable to the utter disgrace of world war II and the holocaust.
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downlowfunk
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Re: Portland voters strongly endorse pot legalization [ME] [Re: Lord_McLovin]
#19095462 - 11/06/13 01:43 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Easily more deaths in the drug war. It has been going on longer than the official German Nazi Party. Of course if we count Nixon, the Bushes, Clinton's and Obama the Nazi party have never really gone anywhere... (Hillary Clinton in reference to Ghadaffi "We came we saw he died.", (Barack Hussein Obama in reference to signing off on drone strikes "I'm good at killing people.", "George Bush "A New World is coming into view.") Of course you probably didn't learn about that in your education center so that is of course a lie much like Detonation of Twin Towers and World Trade Center Building 7.
Stick to your script. NoAGendaShow.com ITM
Kitty want some pot for that potty mouth?
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Lord_McLovin
mad scientist on shrooms



Registered: 04/09/11
Posts: 3,071
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Re: Portland voters strongly endorse pot legalization [ME] [Re: downlowfunk] 1
#19095478 - 11/06/13 01:48 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Yeah, you're right, I'm really stupid for talking to a .
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Celestial Traveler
Random Observer



Registered: 03/03/11
Posts: 7,639
Loc: Idaho
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Re: Portland voters strongly endorse pot legalization [ME] [Re: Lord_McLovin]
#19098052 - 11/06/13 10:17 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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It may be ironic to you, but I can empathize with downlowfunk on this issue.
I understand we're all really eager to get more legalization breakthroughs - any breakthroughs - that we can get, but in our eagerness let's not kid ourselves into thinking that this isn't bullshit. A 25% tax on cannabis is bullshit. Some of the blood concentration driving limits that some states (such as Washington) are trying to enact for THC are bullshit.
And while this is all without doubt better than full-on Prohibition, it's still not acceptable, and it's going to be hard to progress past these points because the Prohibitionists will say, "You've had your legalization and now you want more? You'll never be pleased."
I'm not saying that voters should vote yes or no on these types of hyper-restrictive "legalization" proposals, but I'm saying that there's at least some cause for concern as downlowfunk has expressed, and in our excitedness to get legalization passed, let's not kid ourselves about the reality of these laws.
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bryguy27007
Cosmonaut



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Loc:
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Re: Portland voters strongly endorse pot legalization [ME] [Re: Celestial Traveler]
#19099023 - 11/07/13 04:57 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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So how bout that potstuff...
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