Headed out to vote

[Thumper]

Gots to agree P-hole. We have a huge problem with "pill mills" down here and all the news coverage refers to them as an "epidemic". I know a guy personally with Crohn's Disease who is so addicted to pain pills, he eats them like candy. He could easily go on disability, but he works full-time and has a very good paying job. He takes so many pills, his prescription runs out WAY early and he has to buy them "on the street". He has NO problem at all getting a different "doctor" to give him an additional Rx to fill his "need".

Some of the biggest contributors to the fight AGAINST medical marijuana down here were pharmaceutical companies! Another major contributor is the alcohol and beer companies. I wonder why?

[DeputyDog]

Same thing here with the pill mills. I guess my thoughts on legal weed is, say it is currently costing you $X per ounce from your illegal dealer, does anyone honestly think that legal outlets will be able to sell it cheaper after the government gets their tax cut out of it? If that's the case, why would I buy it from a legal dealer when I've been buying illegally for years and can continue to do so cheaper?

The one of the biggest problems we have is with the synthetic shit that was legal. It really messes people up. They definitely aren't sitting in the corner all nice and calm with a smile. They are paranoid and usually hallucinating, and a real handful to deal with.

[BarryBobPosthole]

the synthetic shit shouldn't be legal.

and what you are saying about legalizing pot is the same thing they said during prohibition. That didn't work either.
BKB

[Buckrub]

Inevitable as gay marriage:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politi...-dc/ar-BBd6rCX

[Thumper]

Yep Deppity ... illegal is illegal. I don't know much about the synthetic stuff you're talking about ... bath salts maybe? You're comparing apples and oranges.

Alcohol is legal and taxed to the hilt. That doesn't mean I can't buy from a bootlegger. Rx pills are legal, with a Rx ... that doesn't mean I can't buy 'em on the street. How many felons have guns?

A law abiding citizen would pay the price ... a crook is a crook. I'd like to see the law expand a bit. You can make beer/wine for personal consumption ... I'd like to have a pot plant for personal consumption. If you have a 55 gal drum of homemade booze, you go to jail. If you have a 50 acre field of pot growing, or 100 kilo's in your "personal" stash box, you go to jail. Drive drunk, go to jail. Drive stoned, go to jail.

[LJ3]

Jimmy there's a legal type of weed that is NOT like real weed. It's legal in some states, anyway. People that smoke it seem like they're doing much harder drugs than regular weed.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Thumper, there's some synthetic pot that kids here started using a few years ago. There's been some OD's and such and for a time I think it was even sold in some convenience stores. I thought they'd closed the legal loopholes on that stuff here in Oklahoma because it was dangerous. I don't really equate any synthetic pot issues with legal weed though. There are some real issues that Colorado is facing, edible products for one, that I think have to be worked through. Its no different than somebody drinking 180 proof alcohol though.

BKB

[Thumper]

Yeah, I think it was around here also ... I thought that was bath salts or incense or some silly thing like that. I'm not up on this stuff.

[LJ3]

I think bath salts make you want to eat peoples faces and what not.

[Buckrub]

I pick Marie Osmond.

[Thumper]

I guess to set the record straight ... I'm ONLY referring to natural, off a frigging bush, cannabis here. This post is morphing into designer drugs and synthetic crap which has nothing to do with the legalizing weed movement. People can eat Draino on their Cheerios for all I care ... it has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

[Thumper]

I think bath salts make you want to eat peoples faces and what not.

Eeeewww! So if I were around that nerd Donnie Johnson whom I called a puss-face in the 4th grade ... that means I'd want to .... naaaaa!

[LJ3]

So, are you requesting we get back on topic? Did you have bath salts for lunch?

[DeputyDog]

That's the stuff I was talking about. It's called spice or K2. It's not legal here any longer, but it easy very hard to get it that way since if a certain chemical compound was listed, the makers just changed the ingredients to get around the law. The bath salts are a whole other topic. I'm referring to the synthetic marijuana.

I'm not sure that Prohibition is a valid comparison since booze was legal, then it wasn't but people kept drinking. Weed's never been legal. I don't see a bunch of "law abiding" people starting to smoke weed just because it's now legal.

Saying just because we can't stop people from doing it isn't a good reason for making it legal. Everybody speeds so let's do away with speed limits, then we can eliminate a lot of the highway patrols since their main job is traffic enforcement and they are very expensive to pay and equip.

[Buckrub]

Here's the truth. I sadly admit it.

I don't even know what bath salts ARE.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Its what's left in the bathtub after you pee in your bath water and then let it all evaporate.

Isn't it?

BKB

[BarryBobPosthole]

And Deppity, weed was legal and it was legal for a long time after prohibition. there's no reason on God's green earth that weed should be classified as the same kind of drug as heroine.

And this isn't like speeding either. This is exactly like prohibition. It's basically making a law against something just because some people don't like it. We have a lot of folks in prison for pot. and it ain't right.

BKB

[Thumper]

I'm not sure that Prohibition is a valid comparison since booze was legal, then it wasn't but people kept drinking. Weed's never been legal. I don't see a bunch of "law abiding" people starting to smoke weed just because it's now legal.

Well, to be honest, I'm not up on the history, but yes, it WAS legal ... up into the 1900's in fact. I think it was sometime around the Depression years when the U.S. Gov't actually taxed the stuff ... then it was later banned. Heck, even Coca-cola had cocaine in the formula until sometime in the 1900's. (I don't know that whole history either, but I think I'm close)

[BarryBobPosthole]

1937.

BKB

[Buckrub]

COCA
Cola

cures headaches, they said.

GIVES me one, I'll tell ya.

[LJ3]

I heard the synthetic stuff doesn't keep you as alert as the real stuff does.
6df35d68c8a4.jpg

[Thumper]

When I was researching info before voting, I ran across this article. I don't know squat about this site and it may be ultra-Liberal, I simply stumbled upon it during a net search. What I was looking for was who is putting up the biggest fight against legalizing pot. I expected it to be the drug companies. True or not, I don't know, but it did open up other possibilities I'd never considered. If nothing else, it's an interesting read if you care to take the time.

It's titled, "The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying to Keep Marijuana Illegal"

Last year, over 850,000 people in America were arrested for marijuana-related crimes. Despite public opinion, the medical community, and human rights experts all moving in favor of relaxing marijuana prohibition laws, little has changed in terms of policy.

There have been many great books and articles detailing the history of the drug war. Part of America’s fixation with keeping the leafy green plant illegal is rooted in cultural and political clashes from the past.

However, we at Republic Report think it’s worth showing that there are entrenched interest groups that are spending large sums of money to keep our broken drug laws on the books:

1.) Police Unions: Police departments across the country have become dependent on federal drug war grants to finance their budget. In March, we published a story revealing that a police union lobbyist in California coordinated the effort to defeat Prop 19, a ballot measure in 2010 to legalize marijuana, while helping his police department clients collect tens of millions in federal marijuana-eradication grants. And it’s not just in California. Federal lobbying disclosures show that other police union lobbyists have pushed for stiffer penalties for marijuana-related crimes nationwide.

2.) Private Prisons Corporations: Private prison corporations make millions by incarcerating people who have been imprisoned for drug crimes, including marijuana. As Republic Report’s Matt Stoller noted last year, Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest for-profit prison companies, revealed in a regulatory filing that continuing the drug war is part in parcel to their business strategy. Prison companies have spent millions bankrolling pro-drug war politicians and have used secretive front groups, like the American Legislative Exchange Council, to pass harsh sentencing requirements for drug crimes.

3.) Alcohol and Beer Companies: Fearing competition for the dollars Americans spend on leisure, alcohol and tobacco interests have lobbied to keep marijuana out of reach. For instance, the California Beer & Beverage Distributors contributed campaign contributions to a committee set up to prevent marijuana from being legalized and taxed.

4.) Pharmaceutical Corporations: Like the sin industries listed above, pharmaceutical interests would like to keep marijuana illegal so Americans don’t have the option of cheap medical alternatives to their products. Howard Wooldridge, a retired police officer who now lobbies the government to relax marijuana prohibition laws, told Republic Report that next to police unions, the “second biggest opponent on Capitol Hill is big PhRMA” because marijuana can replace “everything from Advil to Vicodin and other expensive pills.”

5.) Prison Guard Unions: Prison guard unions have a vested interest in keeping people behind bars just like for-profit prison companies. In 2008, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association spent a whopping $1 million to defeat a measure that would have “reduced sentences and parole times for nonviolent drug offenders while emphasizing drug treatment over prison.”

If you find any of that interesting ... try this link! http://www.republicreport.org/2012/e...-war-on-drugs/

[Buckrub]

It's one of the prime personal agendas of Peter Lewis, owner of Progressive Insurance.

[DeputyDog]

I'll bow out. I'm nowhere near old enough to have any knowledge about those sort of things and by the way, I don't know of any state in the US where marijuana and heroin are classified in the same drug class and the sentencing for them are no where close. I've never heard of anyone getting major (more than a couple years) for weed unless there was hundreds of POUNDS involved.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Classified as Schedule I drug.
Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence. Some examples of Schedule I drugs are:

heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana (cannabis), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy), methaqualone, and peyote

Schedule II drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with a high potential for abuse, less abuse potential than Schedule I drugs, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence. These drugs are also considered dangerous. Some examples of Schedule II drugs are:

cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, hydromorphone (Dilaudid), meperidine (Demerol), oxycodone (OxyContin), fentanyl, Dexedrine, Adderall, and Ritalin


http://www.justice.gov/dea/druginfo/ds.shtml

BKB

[DeputyDog]

That's the pharmaceutical designation. Look up state criminal statutes and there will be one for possession of marijuana, and a separate one for possession of a schedule 1 controlled substance. More than likely different crime classes, and much different penalties.

[Thumper]

I don't know the law and surely you know better than I, but I believe the differences in penalties is based on the amount in possession. Under an ounce, slap on the wrist. A kilo, prison time. I don't think the "class" varies. How could it?

[Captain]

Schedule VI here in NC

[BarryBobPosthole]

Any amount here in Oklahoma is subject to one year in jail and a second offense is 2-10 years and is a felony.

BKB

[Thumper]

State of Florida

Offense Penalty Incarceration Max. Fine

Possession

20 grams or less misdemeanor 1 year $ 1,000
More than 20 grams felony 5 years $ 5,000
Less than 25 plants felony 5 years $ 5,000
25 plants felony 15 years $ 10,000


Sale


20 grams or less without remuneration misdemeanor 1 year $ 10,000
25 lbs or less felony 5 years $ 5,000
25 - 2000 lbs (or 300-2,000 plants) felony 3* - 15 years $ 25,000
2000 - 10,000 lbs (or 2000-10,000 plants) felony 7* - 30 years $ 50,000
10,000 lbs or more felony 15* - 30 years $ 200,000

Within 1000 feet of a school, college, park, or other specified areas felony 15 years $ 10,000

* Mandatory minimum sentence

Hash & Concentrates


Possession of hashish or concentrates felony 5 years $ 5,000
Selling, manufacturing or delivering felony 5 years $ 5,000


Paraphernalia

Possession of paraphernalia misdemeanor 1 year $ 1,000


Miscellaneous

Conviction causes a driver’s license suspension for a period of 2 years