A big week for pot legalization

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 03/14/2021 - 11:49pm

Gov. Pete Ricketts (R-NE): “If you legalize marijuana, you’re gonna kill your kids.” pic.twitter.com/Un9DN2yhtT

— The Recount (@therecount) March 12, 2021

I'm wondering how someone can be killed with pot?
Does one beat someone to death with it?

Fortunately, people have stopped listening to these people.

The report’s finding is also consistent with previous studies, including one from the Cato Institute in 2018 that determined that state-level cannabis legalization “has significantly undercut marijuana smuggling.”
“Based on Border Patrol seizures, smuggling has fallen 78 percent over just a five-year period,” the think tank found. “Because marijuana was the primary drug smuggled between ports of entry, where Border Patrol surveils, the value of the agency’s seizures overall—on a per-agent basis—has declined 70 percent.”

An end-of-the-year report from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in 2019 seems to substantiate the idea that legalization is having an impact on marijuana trafficking, noting that while federal prosecutions of drug-related crimes increased in 2019, cases involving cannabis dropped by more than a quarter.

A separate U.S. Sentencing Commission repot showed that, for the 2017 fiscal year, federal drug cases overall were on the decline, driven by a sharp drop in marijuana prosecutions.

The Virginia Legislature approved adult-use marijuana legalization Saturday in a historic vote marking the first state in the Old South to embrace full legalization.

The House passed the measure in a 48-43 vote, and the Senate approved it in a 20-19 vote. Not a single Republican voted for the bill in either chamber.

Tags:

legalization

Vote

Comments

Submitted by mimi on Mon, 03/15/2021 - 12:07am

If you are going to legalize murder, you save your kids

or something like that. I should smoke some pot. May be then I understand the logic.

PS: I look for my old avatar image. have lost not only my mind over it, but all my data. I feel destroyed without my old avatar image.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by janis b on Mon, 03/15/2021 - 2:40am

Hi mimi

@mimi

I hope you can retrieve your old avatar. It was always my favourite of any.

I looked through google images and found this one, which is close, but maybe no cigar ...

Submitted by mimi on Mon, 03/15/2021 - 2:48am

You are my bestest sweetheart !

@janis b
Thank You. It is the one, a little wet and washed down, but what is not all wet and washed down in the HI islands these days. Thank You.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by janis b on Mon, 03/15/2021 - 2:51am

I'm glad it was found

@mimi

I prefer the wet and washed down one that is back in your place.

Submitted by on the cusp on Mon, 03/15/2021 - 12:14am

Instead of being considered the gateway drug (Nixon), it might be the palliative drug that prevents heroin, meth, and cocaine use.
Pot never caused the havoc the other drugs have caused.
Good job, Virginia!

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by ovals49 on Mon, 03/15/2021 - 4:30am

According to Ehrlichman,

@on the cusp

"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."

[my bold]
Link

—

“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024

Submitted by Blue Republic on Tue, 03/16/2021 - 4:33am

Devil in the details...

Sounds like a step in the right direction for VA, but MJ legalization schemes, even most of the ones with Republican support mostly tend toward the bureaucratic, over-taxed and over-regulated.

Took some looking but was able to find an article about the 2014 proposal by a Republican, Evangelical Texas legislator simply deleting all Texas laws that criminalized marijuana - effectively giving it the legal status of tomatoes or pine trees. Said it wasn't proscribed in the Bible so it was wrong to criminalize it. Pretty straightforward, no?

Pro-legalization politicians are all about 'tax and regulate' - but why? This is the same sort of thing that the Whiskey Rebellion was all about (not all of us have admitted defeat on that one) and is still killing people today - the NYC killing of Eric Garner was over his allegedly selling single cigarettes from packs lacking an excise stamp...

Fortunately not all Republicans are as recalcitrant on this as VA legislators appear to be - in other states they are participating and in some cases leading decrim/legalization efforts. This Republican-advanced proposal for Missouri isn't perfect, and unfortunately doesn't seem to be typical, but is among the most libertarian-ish and common-sensical:

Republican Rep. Shamed Dogan, chairman of the House Special Committee on Criminal Justice, said earlier this year that he wants “to regulate marijuana as closely as possible to the regulations we have on alcohol, tobacco and other products.” His proposed constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana, House Joint Resolution 30, would would require no special licensing for businesses “beyond that which is applicable for the cultivating, harvesting, processing, manufacturing, packaging, distributing, transferring, displaying, or possession of any nontoxic food or food product,” according to language of the joint resolution. Home cultivation for personal or medical use would also be allowed, with no specified plant limits or other restrictions.

The proposal reflects a popular libertarian view that the government should not interfere with how people use the cannabis plant. It echoes a 2015 proposal from a Texas Republican who said marijuana be regulated under “whatever laws apply to tomatoes.”

So far, however, the proposal hasn’t found traction in Missouri. Introduced at the beginning of the legislative session, Dogan’s bill has yet to be scheduled for a hearing.

from marijuanamoment.net

2021 Sees Republican Lawmakers Take Lead On Marijuana Legalization In More U.S. States

Anyway, too much bureaucratic BS and taxation will just squeeze out small producers and bring back the black market...

Submitted by CS in AZ on Mon, 03/15/2021 - 11:20am

No!

@Blue Republic @Blue Republic

Said it wasn't proscribed in the Bible so it was wrong to criminalize it. Pretty straightforward, no?

AYFKM? No, no, double no! The Bible has *nothing* to do with what is or isn't "wrong" -- nor should it have any influence whatsoever on what is legal or not.

Where is Fishtroller when I need a Bible Expert? We need a quick list of things that would have to be immediately outlawed (shellfish, clothes made of mixed fibers...) and what should be legal (slavery, rape, mass murder...) Seriously, this person is nuts and that any elected politician at any level says this out loud and no one bats an eye is ridiculous.

I am strongly in favor of full legalization and the removal of all the stupid bureaucratic hoops and restrictions. I completely agree on that. But even so, I would never support using the bible as a justification for the legality (or lack thereof) of anything. This is a dangerously stupid idea.

On another note, despite all the relatively good news on legalization, I am also quite irritated that in Trump's last "pandemic relief bill" in December, in addition to our $1200 they also slipped in a provision to prohibit the USPS from delivering vapes or any vape-related products to private addresses/individuals. They have effectively outlawed being able to simply buy a nice vape pen from any online retailer.

[Edit to add: also, FedEX and UPS are "voluntarily" also refusing to deliver these products, and the new law requires that any private company that chooses to do so will have to follow extreme regulations, including collecting and reporting the names, ID, and signatures for any delivery, and also recording and reporting the name, ID and personal info of the delivery person!]

So in effect, the only way now to obtain a vape pen or battery will be to go into a local store to buy one, if such a store exists anywhere near you, and just take whatever they have. Effing ridiculous!!! With all the bloody talk of getting the government out of our private lives and remove barriers and regulations, republicans (right along with democrats) cannot stop finding ways to clamp down on and control every damn thing we do. Grrrr.

I am happy we have legal weed here in AZ now, I bought some for my recent birthday, age 62. For the first time in my decades of using this nice plant, I finally bought it legally!!! hahaha, yes that was fun, and weird to experience.

But then I read that congress slid in this new restriction nationally that will put online vaping supply stores out of business and significantly limit (or eliminate) consumer freedom and choice. That was some real piss in my cheerios, so thanks for nothing Congress!

Baby steps at the state level are good, but not good enough! We need full legalization at the federal level, and we need congress to stop finding ways to screw with things like passing this dumb and hurtful new law just to keep their boots on our necks.

Sounds like a step in the right direction for VA, but MJ legalization schemes, even most of the ones with Republican support mostly tend toward the bureaucratic, over-taxed and over-regulated. Took some looking but was able to find an article about the 2014 proposal by a Republican, Evangelical Texas legislator simply deleting all Texas laws that criminalized marijuana - effectively giving it the legal status of tomatoes or pine trees. Said it wasn't proscribed in the Bible so it was wrong to criminalize it. Pretty straightforward, no? Pro-legalization politicians are all about 'tax and regulate' - but why? This is the same sort of thing that the Whiskey Rebellion was all about (not all of us have admitted defeat on that one) and is still killing people today - the NYC killing of Eric Garner was over his allegedly selling single cigarettes from packs lacking an excise stamp... Fortunately not all Republicans are as recalcitrant on this as VA legislators appear to be - in other states they are participating and in some cases leading decrim/legalization efforts. This Republican-advanced proposal for Missouri isn't perfect, and unfortunately doesn't seem to be typical, but is among the most libertarian-ish and common-sensical: Republican Rep. Shamed Dogan, chairman of the House Special Committee on Criminal Justice, said earlier this year that he wants “to regulate marijuana as closely as possible to the regulations we have on alcohol, tobacco and other products.” His proposed constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana, House Joint Resolution 30, would would require no special licensing for businesses “beyond that which is applicable for the cultivating, harvesting, processing, manufacturing, packaging, distributing, transferring, displaying, or possession of any nontoxic food or food product,” according to language of the joint resolution. Home cultivation for personal or medical use would also be allowed, with no specified plant limits or other restrictions. The proposal reflects a popular libertarian view that the government should not interfere with how people use the cannabis plant. It echoes a 2015 proposal from a Texas Republican who said marijuana be regulated under “whatever laws apply to tomatoes.” So far, however, the proposal hasn’t found traction in Missouri. Introduced at the beginning of the legislative session, Dogan’s bill has yet to be scheduled for a hearing. from marijuanamoment.net 2021 Sees Republican Lawmakers Take Lead On Marijuana Legalization In More U.S. States Anyway, too much bureaucratic BS and taxation will just squeeze out small producers and bring back the black market...

Submitted by Blue Republic on Tue, 03/16/2021 - 4:41am

Let's see.

I wrote:

the 2014 proposal by a Republican, Evangelical Texas legislator simply deleting all Texas laws that criminalized marijuana - effectively giving it the legal status of tomatoes or pine trees. Said it wasn't proscribed in the Bible so it was wrong to criminalize it. Pretty straightforward, no?

to which you responded:

AYFKM? No, no, double no!

So, it's not enough for someone to agree with you but they also have to do it for what you deem to be the right reasons?

Mmkay...

Submitted by CS in AZ on Tue, 03/16/2021 - 2:16pm

So let's see...

@Blue Republic

You and at least 3 other people here (so far) think that the Bible should be the basis of our laws.

Wow. Just wow. That is really ... something. Never expected that one.

For me, secular government and the separation of church and state are core principles that I very strongly believe in.

And no, I do not just toss that out or abandon my principles for expediency. I am disappointed that you and at least three other people here have a problem with that.

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