Rocky Mountain High

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

(cbsnews.com)

Yesterday, in Breckenridge Colorado, 72 percent of voters in early returns voted to make up to 1 ounce of marijuana legal for adults over 21. The measure is largely symbolic — pot possession is still against state law — but supporters said they wanted to send a message to local law enforcement to stop busting small-time pot smokers.

"We believe this a signal to the state of Colorado and the nation as a whole," said Sean McAllister, a Breckenridge lawyer who pushed the decriminalization measure. McAllister said the vote shows people want to skip medical marijuana and legalize pot for everyone. They're saying, We've seen this drug war, and it has failed.

A few other cities, including Seattle and Oakland, have laws that make marijuana possession a low priority for police. A dozen states, including Colorado, have decriminalized possession of small amounts but still issue fines. Denver approved a similar decriminalization in 2005. (usatoday.com)

Last September the Alaska Supreme Court upheld a previous ruling that allows adults aged 21 and older to use and possess up to four ounces of marijuana in the privacy of their homes, and not just for medical use.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for an open debate on legalizing and taxing marijuana. A recent Field Poll showed that 56 percent of Californians support taxing and regulating marijuana as a way to address the state's fiscal crisis.

James P. Gray, a retired Orange County Superior Court judge, applauded Schwarzenegger's openness. "Once people allow themselves to discuss the issue of treating marijuana like alcohol, the result is pre-ordained. Today marijuana is fully available for anyone that wants it, expressly including our children, so why not regulate and control it, and tax it as well? That will reduce the violence in its distribution, and bring in needed revenue for government," Gray, now a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, told the Huffington Post.

Prison Planet

The United States has 4.6% of the worlds population and nearly 25% of the worlds prisoners......what's wrong with this picture?

In 1983 Corrections Corporation of America founded the private corrections industry. Despite having been outlawed nationally for over a century, private prisons have been turned into a money making proposition. Traded daily on the stock exchange, the profit for prisoners business is growing by leaps and bounds, incarceration rates have soared. Should this be a for-profit business?


The continued prohibition of legalized marijuana provides a convenient source of fodder for the prison-industrial complex. An American is arrested for pot every 38 seconds. Since 1965, more than 20 million Americans have been arrested for marijuana offenses, 90 percent of them for simple possession.

Keith Stroup, Executive Director of NORML said "In fact, the war on drugs is largely a war on pot smokers. This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that should be dedicated toward combating serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism."


And despite baby boomers being in charge in recent years, annual pot busts have tripled since the non-inhaling Bill Clinton took office. The total number of marijuana arrests far exceeds the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

It isn’t only marijuana consumers who want to see weed legalized. (None other than William F. Buckley was for it.) Ending prohibition is also a popular cause for at least 10,000 cops, narcs, judges, and others who make up the membership of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.


From LEAP’s down-and-dirty perspective, prohibition exacerbates rather than ameliorates America’s drug problem. Prohibition not only diverts resources from the pursuit of more-serious crimes, it empowers criminals and enhances black-market incentives. Money spent fighting what adults seem to want could be better allocated toward education and rehab.

It is well known that alcohol and tobacco related health effects and deaths by far eclipse any detrimental effects of occasional recreational marijuana use by adults. Common sense would tell you that, if anything, alcohol and tobacco should be prohibited and marijuana should be legalized.


The benifits of legalizing pot would be a double-triple-whammy in that it could create a substantial amount of wealth for farmers and industry, increase revenue through the regulation and taxation of hemp and marijuana sales, it would free up much needed police and judicial resources, put a significant dent in the income of criminal black-market forces, it would keep non-violent consumers out of jail, and create a sustainable resource that could replace many of the items now made of plastic.

The Marijuana Policy Project advocates taxing and regulating the possession and sale of cannabis, arguing that a regulated industry would separate purchasers from the street market for cocaine, heroin, and other hard drugs. You can't legislate morality, adults should be allowed the freedom to pursue their ideal of happiness as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Legalizing marijuana would be a fabulous way to "Go Green!" There's no reason we shouldn't legalize pot, it's just a plant.

(excerpts from Kathleen Parker and skeptically.org)

"Mad As Hell"

Just when it seemed the angry town hall meetings had ended, a group that's still mad as hell rolled into Saint Paul Wednesday.
The group of touring physicians, called the "Mad as Hell Doctors," held a rally at the state capitol.

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" the crowd yelled, at the group's urging, before the nine doctors from Oregon and California talked about why they favor a single-payer, government-run health care system that would cover all Americans.

"I'm mad as hell because Americans are going bankrupt because of their medical bills," Dr. Bob Seward, an internist from Portland, told the crowd.

"I'm mad as hell when I hear our country is ranked by the World Health Organization as 37th in the world, in terms of health outcomes," San Francisco family physician Marc Sapir said.

The doctors are stopping in 26 cities on their way to Washington, D.C., and they're not happy with any of the health-care reform options Congress is considering.

(read more)

California Marijuana Tax

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano will announce legislation on Monday to legalize marijuana and earn perhaps $1 billion annually by taxing it.

Quintin Mecke, Ammiano's press secretary, confirmed to SF Weekly that the assemblyman's 10 a.m. Monday press conference regarding "new legislation related to the state's fiscal crisis" will broach the subject of reaping untold -- and much-needed -- wealth from the state's No. 1 cash crop.

Mecke said Ammiano's proposed bill "would remove all penalties in California law on cultivation, transportation, sale, purchase, possession, or use of marijuana, natural THC, or paraphernalia for persons over the age of 21."

The bill would additionally prohibit state and local law officials from enforcing federal marijuana laws. As for Step Two -- profit -- Ammiano's bill calls for "establishing a fee on the sale of marijuana at a rate of $50 per ounce." Mecke said that would bring in roughly $1 billion for the state, according to estimates made by marijuana advocacy organizations.

An Appeal To Good Sense and Moral Responsibility

In these days of wartime, where we are granted nary a peaceful moment of respite from battles and conflicts, everyone is a critic of every facet of war but, in their critical stupor, they usually fail to suppose an alternative. Now, I am no fan of war by any means nor do I wish to sing the virtues (or scream the follies) of war. I am merely writing this piece as an appeal to good sense and moral responsibility. I have, after numerous painstaking brainstorms, developed a peaceable alternative to war that will save many lives and shed little to no blood. This alternative is: laser tag. In theory, I'm sure this sounds quite juvenile. "Insurgents and Americans running around with laser rifles competing for points. Yeah, right." In practice, though, the perks will shine through all preconceived notions. Think about it. We could swiftly end all bloody conflicts with a friendly, competitive match of laser tag. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict over Israel? Whatever teams accumulates the highest point sum wins the land! The battle against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban? Simply hold a tournament of laser tag in barren Iraq/Afghanistan. Each side is given a laser rifle recreated to imitate the looks of each sides respective firearms. Suicide bombers will be given an invisible plasma dome laser attack that affects a 25ft. area, ousting anyone in the radius of the invisible blast with the user being out as well. Each team will have a certain number of points that they can use to spend on weapons, upgrade infantry, upgrade armor, fortify base defense, etc. This total will be derived from the regions riches just like real war budgets would be. Invisible car-combs and IED's will litter the playing field and any squad who trips one will be out. Mortar-launching players will sit perched on top of buildings and hills, cloaked by the local landscape, decimating players and scores with a barrage of laser explosions. American snipers will do the same; each headshot is 250 points! No longer will war lead us deeper and deeper into a negative deficit clusterfuck. Real weapons can cost thousands of dollars and real wars can cost $1 million a day! Laser rifles only cost the manufacturer about $10 per rifle (this is not counting shipping and handling). Bombs and missiles only cost dollars more! This means it will cost only about $200 to outfit an entire squadron instead of thousands-millions of dollars. This would also be a great time to work for Hasbro. Possibilities of nuclear attacks got you down? Cataclysmic destruction is now a thing of the past with new Alpha-Omega Centauri Laser Nuclear Assault Missiles! Launch this bad boy in the center of a nations most economic necessity and watch the point totals drop! Fly a one-use laser plane through the force-field of a country's financial mecca and witness the utter decimation of the opposing team's player count. This novel idea will save millions, if not a bajillion quadrillion, of lives over the span of humanity if adopted. Noble citizens, write your local and national congressman begging for this alternative to violent discord. Sing its praises on local television and nationally-syndicated daytime television talk shows. Let out a mighty bellow on the peaks of snow-capped mounts expressing your displeasure with a system that utilizes war as a means of profit; that utilizes people as cogs in their death machines; that advocate slavery guised as freedom and Democracy. Murder is not Democracy! Exploitation is not Freedom! Liberation is Laser Tag!