Drinks A Lot Of Alcohol But Won't Legalize Pot

[Ganjarden]

Members of Congress like to guzzle the booze, but when it comes to the questions of drugs and states' rights, don't ask them for a friendly ear.

That's the overriding message carried by Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul on a Friday night appearance with Stephen Baldwin on CNN's Larry King Live.

Paul, who appeared on the show with Baldwin apparently on short notice, at first appeared ill-prepared for the topic. Guest host Joy Behar, having played a clip of Olympian Michael Phelps' public apology for the infamous photo of him holding a water pipe, asked for the congressman's thoughts.

"I'm sorry, over the what?" Paul asked.

"The photo," said Behar. "The Michael Phelps photo. What was your reaction to all that, what happened with Michael Phelps? I mean, he basically lost a lot of his endors ..."

"Oh!" Paul exclaimed. "Meh. That whole thing is a mess. I think it's outrageous. We're getting carried away with the War on Drugs. That's how silly the whole thing gets."

Arguing from a self-titled "faith-based, conservative perspective" was Stephen Baldwin. The choice of Baldwin is particularly odd considering he's appeared in so-called "stoner movies" before, such as Half Baked, where he played the "MacGyver Smoker," and the attempted comedy Bio Dome, where he co-starred with similarly famed actor Pauly Shore.

Calling his efforts part of "two very popular marijuana films," Baldwin even acknowledged his filmography as a point of credibility to bolster his argument that "marijuana leads to doing worse things."

"That's just a fact," claimed Baldwin. "I don't care what anybody says. What the debate is. If you smoke marijuana at a young age, that'll usually lead to alcohol abuse and harder drugs."

Paul dismissed his concern as "silly."

"The most addictive drug in the country, in the world, is nicotine," he said. "Nobody talks about nicotine being a gateway drug, so there's no sense to that. And besides, [marijuana] is not nearly as addictive as alcohol. If you're a consistent person and you think the government should be regulating personal behavior, you should be in favor of prohibition of alcohol."

Attributing the earlier prohibition for the creation of "the Al Capone's," he drew a clear connection between current prohibition policies in the US and the escalating cartel war in Mexico.

"You know the people who benefit most by these laws?" he asked. "These are the drug cartels. They lobby to keep these laws in place because they can't exist without them."

On the next point, medical marijuana, Baldwin suggested alternatives such as "lots of pain relieving practices that people can study." But, he also seemed to bear a tolerance for terminally-ill patients smoking marijuana as prescribed by a doctor.

But, Baldwin insisted, legalizing marijuana would drive up the number of impaired drivers on the roads, resulting in untold deaths "just so we can tax it."

"I understand there's a few people who smoke marijuana already," said Paul, laughing. "And, how many times have you seen someone arrested for driving under the influence of marijuana? I mean, I've never heard of it! Driving under the influence of alcohol ... That is dangerous."

Paul attributed current laws to a widespread fear of political retribution in Congress, among many members who "drink a lot of alcohol" at that.

"Are you saying that there are a lot of alcoholics in Congress?" asked guest host Joy Behar.

Paul backpedaled. "I said there's a lot of people in Congress who drink a lot of alcohol."

"They won't vote to legalize it," he added with a laugh.


News Hawk- Ganjarden http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: The Raw Story
Author: David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster
Contact: The Raw Story
Copyright: 2009 The Raw Story
Website: Congress Drinks A Lot Of Alcohol But Won't Legalize Pot

[greenmonkey]

i do agree with baldwin's statement of marijuana being a gateway to other drugs, mainly because of its legality. some dealers who sell weed will also have their hands in other illegal drugs. im not saying smoking a joint one day will lead to doing hard drugs the next day, but the mear proximity to other illegal drugs because of its illegality is what creates the gateway.

[CharlieMopps]

My newest theory is that all this cartel violence at the border to mexico is a direct result of mmj prohibition. Even my history professor agreed with me that alcohol prohibition created the American mobs and Al Capone.

[trueblu8]

"The most addictive drug in the country, in the world, is nicotine," he said. "Nobody talks about nicotine being a gateway drug, so there's no sense to that. And besides, [marijuana] is not nearly as addictive as alcohol. If you're a consistent person and you think the government should be regulating personal behavior, you should be in favor of prohibition of alcohol."

Ron Paul is the best. Man what he said right there just makes me love and respect the man all that much more. He just makes so much god damned sense. He makes the hypocrites, and critics seem like fools, which they most certainly are. And this is coming from somebody that hasn't even smoked weed in years thanks to being on probation and having to provide clean drops. But somehow or another, drinking and smoking cigarettes are okay in our society. How screwed up is that?

[Dirt Farmer]

I wrote this a few years ago but it's still applies.

Ok, regardless of which side of this particular fence your on...take a moment to think about things a little differently.

First on the pro-legalization front, pot is widely known to help sufferers of chronic pain -this, whether the govt supports it or not is obviously true, as millions of pain sufferers will attest to, so, no reason to even go any further on that.

On the anti-legalization front, one of the largest arguments one hears is that pot is a "starter drug" that will invariably lead the user to harder drugs, but what you don�t hear in this argument is why pot is a starter drug.

First I'll comment on the original statement, is pot a starter drug?
Yes, without a doubt, purchasing pot and using it as it as done currently will MOST likely lead the user to at least have opportunities to do harder drugs, and probably be pressured to do so.
Now as to why this is the case..... Simple, its illegal.

Really, that�s the ONLY reason pot is a starter drug.
How many alcoholics do you know that HAVE to go and buy their booze from people that are risking everything they own and criminal prosecution, just to provide them with the booze?
None.
The people selling pot are on average are going to be selling other drugs as well and it seems that often, particularly in larger cities to be their main source of income, therefore its in his best interest to get his customer into the harder and more expensive drugs, this is his job, this is what he does for a living, we can assume he�s pretty good at it.

Ergo drug dealer.

Now, take pot off of the streets, and put it in the ABC store or pharmacy where it can be purchased safely without fear of arrest ,or grown in your home for personal consumption, then it is no longer a starter drug, because you no longer have the exposure to other drugs
unless its by choice.

So there�s that argument fairly well busted, next we have the people that simply think that pot is bad for you so you shouldn�t do it.

What happened to personal choice?

As has been previously mentioned, alcohol is widely thought of, and statistically supported to be a much more dangerous drug in ALL areas, level of impairment, long term organ damage, death rates in automobile accidents etc etc..



Millions of dollars a year are spent, both privately, and through taxpayer dollars on alcohol related training, healthcare, deaths, insurance rates etc etc....

BUT alcohol also puts huge amounts of money into the govt's coffers to fund all the pork they try to pass off as "governing".

Simply put, pot is a much less dangerous drug than alcohol, or 90% of the things you can get over the counter at your local drugstore or hardware store(The other 10% being band-Aids, bottled water, and camera film).

People are going to get high, the question is is the govt. going to continue to suppress it and spend millions of dollars annually combating it and prosecuting its users, or are they going to start listening to the people en masse and put things like marijuana on a ballot and let the people be heard.


What we are seeing today in our inner citys with gang violence, murder rates, homelessness,robbery etc are no different than
Al capone and all the others like him that smuggled alcohol during prohibition, the gangs have to fight the law, as well as each other.

"A government for the people, by the people" is what we are supposed to have, "A government for the government, by the government" is what we have today, and until people start thinking with the compassionate parts of their minds instead of the "me" part, that�s what "we" shall have.