Change doesn’t come easily: Marijuana law – Healthcare policy

Article by John on August 7th, 2008 at 6:20 pm

Over 100 billion rolled

“Marijuana: It’s Time for a Conversation,” is a co-production of the Marijuana Education Project of the ACLU of Washington and the national ACLU Drug Law Reform Project.

You can watch the 30 minute video here.

Back in 1971 when I was in high school, I did an oral presentation in my history class regarding the legalization of marijuana.  My basic argument then was that by making marijuana illegal, a relatively harmless recreational drug becomes transformed into something mysterious, taboo and exciting.  And in so doing, it becomes like the forbidden apple or the thing your parents tell you not to do so often that as a rebellious teenager, you are driven to try it out.  In addition, it turns many people from casual users into criminals, resulting in considerable negative social consequences for those that defy the law.

As mentioned in the Marijuana Conversation video, the most dangerous thing about using marijuana is the fact that you may get caught and prosecuted under our drug laws.

But like universal healthcare in this country, this issue is talked about all the time.  And mostly it is just that, talk.  All the reasons for decriminalization of marijuana and instituting nationalized healthcare are put forth and analyzed over and over and over.  37 years later and we are still talking about decriminalizing marijuana and providing healthcare for all.   At least at the Federal level, nothing changes.

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4 comments to Change doesn’t come easily: Marijuana law – Healthcare policy

• slim nofishnonuts.blogspot.com

  August 8, 2008 at 4:28 pm · Reply to this comment

  It gets worse: Marijuana + police state = surrender your 4th amendment rights, your dignity, and the lives of your pets:

  BERWYN HEIGHTS, Md. – A small-town mayor whose dogs were killed in a drug raid was cleared of any wrongdoing after police had been reluctant to rule out his involvement in drug smuggling or apologize for the violent incident.

  Prince George’s County Police Chief Melvin High said Friday he called Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, on Thursday to say they were no longer suspected in a drug smuggling scheme.

  A SWAT team raided the mayor’s home July 29 after intercepting a FedEx package shipped to Tomsic that was filled with 32 pounds of marijuana. Officers broke down the door, shot the two dogs and kept Calvo and his mother-in-law bound for nearly two hours.

  Police now believe the drug delivery was part of a scheme that sent packages to the homes of unsuspecting recipients. The packages would then be picked up by someone else shortly after delivery. Two suspects have been arrested in the case.

  “The Calvo family members were the apparent victims of a local drug ring,” High said in a statement. “I called him to express my sorrow and regret for that and for the loss of the family’s beloved dogs.”

  High stopped short of apologizing for how the drug raid was carried out. He said the police department was conducting a review of the narcotics investigation that led to the raid. The county sheriff has said the dogs’ deaths were justified, saying officers felt threatened.

  Investigators had been tracking the package that arrived on Calvo’s front porch since it drew the attention of a drug-sniffing dog in Arizona.

  Calvo and Tomsic requested a federal civil rights investigation of the case on Thursday, and the FBI responded by launching a review. The couple says there may be a systemic abuse of search warrant powers and use of force in the county.

  “The deputies opened fire and executed our dogs the very second they broke down our front door,” Calvo, 37, said at a news conference on his front lawn Thursday. “We were harmed by the very people who took an oath to protect us.”

  Calvo did not immediately respond to a telephone message requesting comment Friday. Calvo has said he and his wife considered their dogs to be their children.

  Maryland State Sen. Paul Pinsky, who represents the suburban Washington district, said the case was a good example of frequent police action in minority communities that fails to capture the same level of attention as Calvo’s case.

• Anna feel-live.com

  February 20, 2010 at 10:20 am · Reply to this comment

  Legalize marijuana and reduce health care costs by reducing the probability of overdoses and accidental ingestion of an unintended drug through standardization of drug purity by state-sponsored production and sale.

• Angie in WA State dailykos.com

  February 20, 2010 at 8:09 pm · Reply to this comment

  For nearly forty years, ever since President Nixon requested the creation of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse and then promptly ignored their advice of decriminalizing simple possession, most rational minded individuals have known that Marjiuana is less likely to damage you than asprin, yes, common asprin.

  Of course, using Marijuana does have it’s consequences – if an officer of the law suspects that you use Marijuana, you could lose your car, your home or even your freedom. For the terrible crime of using a substance that a Commission in Richard M. Nixon’s Administration in 1972 (38 years ago) already knew, and reported to President Nixon, should be decriminalized.

  What is even more compelling:

  The National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse found that the constitutionality of marijuana prohibition was suspect, and that the executive and legislative branches had a responsibility to obey the Constitution, even in the absence of a court ruling to do so:

  While the judiciary is the governmental institution most directly concerned with the protection of individual liberties, all policy-makers have a responsibility to consider our constitutional heritage when framing public policy. Regardless of whether or not the courts would overturn a prohibition of possession of marihuana for personal use in the home, we are necessarily influenced by the high place traditionally occupied by the value of privacy in our constitutional scheme.

  Most damning of all? Harry J. Anslinger was principally responsible for global prohibition of Marijuana, via his role as, first, the Assistant Prohibition Commissioner in the Bureau of Prohibition, and eventually, from 1930-1962, the Commissioner of Federal Bureau of Narcotics – the forerunner of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). A great resource on Anslinger and his decades long pursuit of Marijuana Criminalization is the 1999 documentary (narrated by actor Woody Harrelson) Grass.

• Valeria Keet levhouse.com

  March 17, 2010 at 11:17 am · Reply to this comment

  I like the blog, but could not find how to subscribe to receive the updates by email. Can you please let me know?