Medical Marijuana

The laws recently passed in Colorado and Washington contradict federal laws concerning sales, possession and usage of marijuana. This isn't a matter of antiquated stupid laws on the books at a local level that haven't been removed from the books. Federal laws need to be changed in these areas. Then, states, counties and cities can pass their own regulations regarding local sales and usage, just as they have done with alcohol since the end of prohibition.

nevermind.

Gate-way drug? the biggest gate-way drug is alcohol, talk about losing friends. How many people have died from pot? All drugs are bad even most perscription drugs are over-used. Don't even get me started on smoking cigarettes. What people want to do to their own bodies, I say let them, otherwise we should regulate weight gain, we will throw you in jail if 30 pounds over-weight, bring it on big brother!!!

And while we are at it, let's throw all idiots into jail- life would be so much enjoyable.... Of course, who would judge just who qualifies as an idiot? We could start with the current administration, for I am sure that the non idiots among us would agree on that starting place.

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Great , we have drunk drivers causing death and destruction, many over and over again , and now we will add to the mayhem :




Significantly more drivers pulled over by police in Washington state are testing positive for marijuana since legalization of the drug's recreational use took effect in January, according to figures released this week by the Washington State Patrol




In the first six months with pot legal in the state, 745 drivers stopped by police tested positive for the drug's psychoactive ingredient, THC, in their blood, the data show.

Over half of those were over the state's new legal limit of 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood.

By contrast, in each of the last two full years, about 1,000 drivers who were pulled over tested positive for THC.

The increase comes despite the fact that recreational-use pot stores will not open in Washington state until next year.




Washington State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins said the findings, while preliminary, indicate more people may be driving impaired than was the case before Washington and Colorado in January became the first states to legalize recreational use of the drug.

Some 20 states and the District of Columbia allow medical marijuana use.

Calkins said that, in the first half of the year, the overall number of people pulled over by the State Patrol on suspicion of driving under the influence, whether of alcohol or drugs, remained roughly on par with figures from the last two years.

The State Patrol arrests about 20,000 people a year on suspicion of impaired driving. A similar number of arrests are made by other police agencies around the state.

Whether people are driving under the influence of pot, alcohol or prescription drugs, Calkins said, "It all comes back to a bad decision to drive while impaired."

Kevin Sabet, co-founder of Project Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group that opposes its widespread use, said the results are troubling but not surprising.
"People are getting the impression that marijuana use is okay," he said. "Even before one recreational store opens in Washington, we are already seeing the effects."

Douglas Hiatt, a Seattle-based criminal defense lawyer and marijuana advocate, said the state's new "stoned driving" standard wrongly encourages police to pull over more drivers on suspicion of marijuana use.

Hiatt, who opposed Washington state's pot legalization law in part over concerns about its driving provision, pointed to the zero-tolerance standard for drivers under age 21, which he said makes teens vulnerable to police officers looking for easy arrests.

"It's like shooting fish in a barrel," he said. "It hits the kids of color the hardest." (Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Gunna Dickson)

Bob

My best friend has been a pot head all his life. He has a college degree but could never get a decent job at a decent company because he loves weed. His wife left him years ago because he chose crap work over quitting. He's had at least four car wrecks but he rarely drinks so he's never had a dui conviction. The past ten years talking to him is like talking to a piece of burnt toast. His memory is shot and he has a poor quality of life but the first thing he spends his unemployment money on is more weed. He occasionally uses meth and even cocaine because that's what every serious loser pot head graduates to eventually. It has ruined everything about his life and yet it is all he has left. He lives in Colorado, so he now feels empowered to continue the useless life he leads. Such a waste. Thank you liberals and your bright ideas.

Bill Gates, George W. Bush, Rush Limbaugh, Sara Palin, Barak Obama and Oprah all smoked pot. Serious Loser Pot Heads I tell you. Nanny State Republicans who want to waste taxpayer's money jailing their neighbors for choosing a different drug than their preferred alcohol...are the biggest Hypocrites of all. Do you want smaller government and less regulations or not? Let the people choose not you, not the Government. Anti Drug laws just empower the drug gangs and criminalize personal choice... You probably never would have heard of Al Capone if it weren't for prohibition..

Hard to imagine someone with albeadle33 in his life unable to bear a day without a resorting to a powerful psychoactive drug.

Well, . . . DonDiego finds some of these here laws a mite strange, . . . but he'd tend to agree that anyone owning, say, 7 dildos has at least one too many.