Time to End the War on Pot - Period

[Jim Finnel]

Momentum is building to legalize medical marijuana in Wisconsin. State Rep. Mark Pocan, a Madison Democrat, and state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, a Waunakee Democrat, have authored a bill that would make it legal for doctors to prescribe marijuana as a pain reliever for various injuries or illnesses. Gov. Jim Doyle has said he would sign the bill into law.

The time for Wisconsin to become the 15th state to allow patients to use pot to make their lives a bit more comfortable is long past due. My own father, who was suffering mightily from the pains of pancreatic cancer, found some relief from marijuana I was able to illegally purchase for him in the last weeks of his life.

That was more than 30 years ago and politicians still balk at allowing sick people the relief that marijuana can provide some of them. The Bush administration had a policy to arrest and prosecute folks using medical marijuana even in the states that have legalized it. Fortunately, the Obama administration has said it will cease doing that.

Madison's Gary Storck, who has been pushing for decades to get the Legislature to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, put it bluntly the other day: "We're not criminals, we're just trying to get on with our lives."

Storck says he has been using marijuana since 1972 to treat his glaucoma and arthritis.

In the latest edition of the Hightower Lowdown, editor Jim Hightower, the Texas gadfly, proclaimed that America's drug war is doing far more harm than marijuana itself ever will. He suggests that the nation would be better off legalizing all marijuana use.

Hightower insists that even the most conservative estimates say the outlay from taxpayers now tops $10 billion a year in direct spending just to catch, prosecute and incarcerate marijuana users and sellers. And that doesn't include the costs of militarizing the border with Mexico to stop pot imports. Even the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources this year asked deer hunters to look for pot growing in the woods so, presumably, wardens could go out and nab some farmers.

Some 41,000 Americans are in federal or state prisons right now on marijuana charges and that doesn't count the thousands more in city and county jails.

Plus thousands of law enforcement people are diverted from serious crimes to pursue someone smoking pot. That includes agents from the FBI, the Secret Service, Customs, and the Drug Enforcement Agency. Yet Congress refuses to change the long-outdated laws that cover the use of marijuana.

Hopefully, the Wisconsin Legislature will act quickly to legalize medical marijuana at the very least. Meanwhile the time has come for Congress to end the war on pot - period. We've got far better uses for all the money and resources.


NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Capital Times, The (WI)
Column: Plain Talk
Copyright: 2009 The Capital Times
Contact: tctvoice@madison.com
Website: Cap Times
Author: Dave Zweifel

 

[Caber1]

The other day I read a story of a mentally ill guy who killed his kids because in his mind he thought his ex was sexually abusing the kids and he just wanted to save them.
This is exactly what our government is doing to us. How many lives have been lost? How many families destroyed by these mentally and morally weak so called leaders?

 

[Purple Goose]

What I am truly bothered by in all the Governments who are persecuting the use of marijuana and all the claims of how bad it is and the health problems caused by it! But one thing they mention but never seem to realize is a far greater health concern then the actual plant itself is the numerous people who Doctor the buds to increase weight ( some people use lead dust in water sprayed on the plant to increase weight ) or the people who use highly addictive drugs to make there customers come back more often for more.

I feel that by simply legalizing and regulating the sale of cannabis we would be able to make it far more difficult for minors to attain it while many say oh if its legal then kids could get it easier I believe that these are the same people who dont lock there liqour cabinets and there kids steal it. They fail to realize that minors only get access to alcohol by parents who fail to secure there liqour from there children or by them having an older friend or even strangers buy it for them. It would be the exact same thing with cannabis minors would not be able to access it as easily as they do now as the retailers would not wish to lose there licence have to pay high fines and risk possible prison time for selling to a minor the same as liqour stores. And as far as having older friends buy it for them well at least the number of youths using cannabis under the age of consent would drop to the same levels as minors who drink alcohol while underage, otherwise the only factors that will stop youths from purchasing cannabis will be how much money they have and availability which so far the police and federal law enforcement have done very little if anything to lessen.

So lets get smart finally and make changes to the laws wich will lessen to a great degree the number of teens who are using cannabis, and even if they do get it while underage at least parents can rest easier knowing there are no substances that will cause illness or deadly contaminents and hard drugs added to what there children are able to obtain, as presently when anyone who buys cannabis has to weigh wether they can trust the person they are buying from over there wish to get high and as we all know teens mostly think they are invulnerable. Regulation would at least make it so that if a teen is able to get cannabis at least that will be all he/she is getting so the risk of accident death due to poisoning or overdose due to the additon of substances that are not part of cannabis's makeup.

When will the Govt finally realizes that by taking there prohibitionist stance towards cannabis they are the ones who are actually making it profitable for dealers and cultivators to Doctor there cannabis either by adding to it to increase weight (lead dust) or adding Other drugs to make it addictive (pcp comes to mind here as back in the 80's there was some pot in this area going around laced with pcp). All I know is something needs to be done to make sure that things like this dont happen and without regulations and inspections there is no way that the trend of Doctoring cannabis for higher profits will continue unabated . Also if the C-15 bill passes the govt of canada is essentially passing a bill that will do nothing but increase the profit for the people who are growing in huge amounts of plants as the penalty for the big time growers remains the same so they will be taking no more of a risk then before but they will make more money. It almost makes you think that these people who would pass a bill like this are just trying to muscle out the little growers so they wont grow personal any more but have to buy from the big time dealers again so that they only would have to worry about simple possession.

 

[Caber1]

numerous people who Doctor the buds to increase weight ( some people use lead dust in water sprayed on the plant to increase weight

Please explain where and how this is done. While I believe there are some scuzzy folks I don't think a process of this nature would be worth the effort.

As far as I know lead is heavier than water and would be a real pain to mix.And how about availability?

You also do our community a disservice by painting us all with the same brush.

 

[Purple Goose]

Please explain where and how this is done. While I believe there are some scuzzy folks I don't think a process of this nature would be worth the effort.

As far as I know lead is heavier than water and would be a real pain to mix.And how about availability?

You also do our community a disservice by painting us all with the same brush.

Okay for the lead as it is an ultra dense substance a very small volume weighs a great deal as I understand it 30 grams of lead is a pile of dust about the volume of one of those small dime bag ziplocs what they do is pour it into a mixture of alcohol and shake itup and then mist over there pot then they compress it into brick form so when you break it up the pot also becomes that shitty dusty shake so you cant see the greyish discolouration of the lead. This is all best guess all we know for sure is my best friend bought some weed down in toronto took it home and as he eats it he made up some cookies and after eating the third one he got really sick went to the hospital and his blood test came back as lead poisoning they asked him about where he worked etc but couldnt come up with where he could have come into contact with so much lead after further discussion he was asked if he used marijuana as there had been a few other cases of this happening in the past month in 3 other hospitals outside the Greater toronto area. He asked the Dr if it could be because of where the plant was grown and the DR said that as far as they had been able to determine a plant would be incapable of carrying this much lead from its growing enviroment as it is deadly to humans it is also deadly to plants and animals. What makes it worth them doing it is lead is also so cheap you can buy 10 pounds of lead for less then 5bucks so here is another prime example of why not to buy any bud that is compressed obviously this wouldnt work with prime buds as the colour would be distorted by the greyish color of lead and it is also being done by street level hustlers selling dime bags to anyone who passes by. So never be surprised by what people will do for a fast buck its like the scumbags in the late 80's who were making cut for hash out of sawdust petroleum jelly and coca-cola syrup it becomes a brownish puttty like substance that will burn at almost the same rate as regular hash so they mix this crap at about 2parts hash 1 part cut only way to tell that its got something in it is to burn the hash on a cigarette tip and see if it burns to a nice light ash if it turns into a black crunchy piece of coal its got something wierd in it. All I can say never trust those guys who will sell to anyone they meet basically the DRive thru complex dealers.

 

[Warbux]

Methinks my Brother to the north hath wizdom, Great explanation Cateros..Thanx for the lowdown.