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1. 

   Chalkie  j    said, over 3 years ago

   Prohibition is an act of treason.
2. 

   Chillbilly said, over 3 years ago

   Marijuana prohibition exists for two reasons:
   1. To satisfy the need of perverted zealots to control other peoples’ personal lives.
   2. To create a large and thriving market for anti-drug materiel which is sold to local police departments and private prisons at taxpayer expense.
3. 

   Jase99 said, over 3 years ago

   “Change a few words and you describe Obama care.”
   
   I’d ask you to explain what you mean in detail, but you’ll either ignore it or just rattle off some pseudo-conservative talking points that have no basis in fact.
4. 

   rpmurray said, over 3 years ago

   They should make gun ownership legal and then tax it. Gun crime would vanish overnight.
5. 

   Respectful Troll said, over 3 years ago

   Marijuana is illegal because drug makers and alcohol distillers do not want it to cut into their profits. Marijuana has been proven to be a better treatment for PTSD than many of the drugs being prescribed, and it is many times more healthy and beneficial than liquor/beer, with many fewer negative effects.
   In addition…
   Drug cartels make a great deal of money from the sell of marijuana. AND….
   Corporate prisons have found that people arrested for simple possession are very docile workers and will not cause problems while working in prison factories at very low wages.
   Legalizing marijuana will not only lower the number of people in prison, but it will free up over 6 billion dollars a year used to enforce anti marijuana laws. This will enable law enforcement to divert resources to more dangerous drug abuse such as meth amphetamines, heroin, and cocaine.
   Don’t bogart that joint my friend. Tax it over to the state.
   Respectfully,
   C.
6. 

   Jase99 said, over 3 years ago

   “Obamacare exists for two reasons:
   1. To satisfy the need of zealots to control other peoples’ personal lives.
   2. To create a large and thriving bureaucracy at taxpayer expense.”
   
   Yup, you just rattled off some pseudo-conservative talking points with little to no basis in fact.
7. 

   Chillbilly said, over 3 years ago

   @Respectful Troll

   If it’s not cutting into their profits now I can’t see why they’d worry about it tomorrow, but since you’re one of the more lucid posters here I’d like to follow up on your comment if I may …

   
   I think that tobacco and alcohol companies would be delighted to have another multi-billion dollar market to participate in. And I wouldn’t mind being able to buy weed at a liquor store along with my Bushmill’s. It would be at least as convenient of any of the ways I get it today.

   
   The problem is that very good pot is easy for average people to grow—the only problem being concealment of the grow operation. You can’t do that with liquor and (I suppose) tobacco.

   
   I’ve always believed that if we learned dandelions cured cancer that big pharma would lobby congress to declare cultivation or possession of dandelions a felony so that they could synthesize the active ingredient in a lab, patent it and sell it back to us at a huge profit.
8. 

   Respectful Troll said, over 3 years ago

   @Chillbilly

   Your follow up is excellent, Chillbilly. And you may have noticed I did not include tobacco as I know families who would love to grow hemp, with or without thc, on the same ground where they once grew tobacco. I’m sure the tobacco factories between Richmond and Petersburg Virginia would love to put marijuana cigarettes into their inventories.
   ^
   While I agree cannabis is easier to to grow than wine/beer/liquor is to make, I have also known some very talented people who make delicious versions of those spirits in their garages and basements.
   ^
   Your thought about dandelions has already been proven when India in 2009 open sourced all the information they had on the curative qualities of Indian herbs and plants because US drug companies were seeking to copyright those millennium old remedies.
   ^
   The only sentence with which I have concern is your first one. Not the part of me being a lucid poster, I hope so, but I do try to be a respectful one. There was a story when Oregon was voting on whether to legalize or not back in the ’80s. Some of the lobbyists and industry people interviewed showed a real concern that use of marijuana would cause alcohol purchases to drop by at least 15%. Pharmaceutical companies were even more concerned that sales of sedatives and anti psychotic medicines would take massive hits. The only industry more active in donating money to politicians who were against legalization were drug dealers themselves. Money was funneled through third parties to help the campaigns of people who were against it.
   ^
   NPR did a series of stories after 2005, perhaps in 2008, about PTSD in returning troops and how Ft. Kit Carson was dealing with it. This was when the military was deciding whether to even be willing to treat PTSD as an illness rather than a weakness in an individual. Doctors who refused to go on the record said marijuana was a better and safer alternative than some of these medications who have as part of their side effects, suicidal thoughts. But soldiers who treated their PTSD with marijuana lost their benefits. Drug companies have made a lot of money medicating returning soldiers.
   Also… in Mississippi, the state of my young childhood and where many summers were spent among loving grandparents, the state can now FORCE people to take prescribed medications, a law pushed for HARD by pharmaceutical companies.
   ^
   Thank you again for you kind reply and your insights. We need more folks who set the tone you do.
   Respectfully,
   C.
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