The American states of Colorado and Washington voted to legalize cannabis, and Massachusetts became the eighteenth state to approve cannabis for medical use. See 2012 vote for cannabis. Prohibition, your days are numbered!
Youtube link. See lyrics. "The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made." - Jean Giraudoux. French diplomat, dramatist, & novelist (1882 - 1944).
Why did U.S. Republicans get their asses handed to them in 2012? Well, besides their idiotic rape comments, maybe it is because their support for "freedom" was a sham. For example; at the time of the election very few Republicans had cosponsored H.R. 6335 (see section on cosponsors). That bill would not have done anything more to legalize marijuana or medical marijuana; it would simply have allowed medical marijuana centers operating legally under state law to continue to do so. It would have amended the Controlled Substances Act so as to exempt real property from civil forfeiture due to medical-marijuana-related conduct that was authorized by State law.
He recently expressed displeasure with the current direction of the GOP, telling National Public Radio that he has become "less conservative" as the Republican "crowd of lunatics" became increasingly "goofy."
"Earlier this year, the Colorado Democrats announced their support for marijuana legalization in their 2012 party platform. On June 9th, the Texas Democrats endorsed marijuana decriminalization. Last weekend, the North Carolina Democratic Party added resolutions supporting medical cannabis and industrial hemp. ... Also worth noting, on June 2nd, the Washington State Democratic Party built upon their earlier endorsement of their state’s legalization initiative, I-502, by adding support for full marijuana legalization and medical cannabis as planks in their party platform."
Youtube link. See lyrics. "The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made." - Jean Giraudoux. French diplomat, dramatist, & novelist (1882 - 1944).
Romney is a wimp and a fanatic at the same time. He said he would fight marijuana "tooth and nail". He means it. Most people grow out of early religious militancy, and moderate their views. Not Romney. From the article, The Wrath of Grapes, April 21, 2012 by Timothy Egan of the New York Times:
We know from a rare personal admission that Mitt Romney experienced a faint whiff of alcohol, a long, long time ago. “I tasted a beer and tried a cigarette once as a wayward teenager,” he said last November [2011], “and never tried it again.”
Concerning Obama, or any President. Federal prosecutors (U.S attorneys) are appointed by the President and serve 4 year terms. They are responsible for the crackdown on medical cannabis dispensaries in many states. They are independent and the only way to stop them is for the President to fire them. If a President fired a federal prosecutor over medical marijuana, his political opponents could say that he is subverting federal law. A President can suggest that they not prioritize federal resources going after medical cannabis users, and dispensaries following state law. The President can not change federal law though, and so federal prosecutors can do whatever they want.
Quote from the New Hampshire event in late July 2012 (emphasis added): "The idea of medical marijuana is designed to help get marijuana out in the public marketplace and ultimately lead to legalization of marijuana overall. And in my view that's the wrong way to go. ... I'm opposed to it, and if you elect me president you're not going to see legalized marijuana. I'm going to fight it tooth and nail."
"I would not legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, and the reasons are straightforward: As I talk to people in my state and at the federal government level about marijuana and its role in society, they are convinced that the entry way into a drug culture for our young people is marijuana. That marijuana is the starter drug, and that the idea of medical marijuana is designed to help get marijuana out in the public marketplace and ultimately lead to legalization of marijuana overall. And in my view, that's the wrong way to go. And I know that other people have differing views. And if you'd like to get someone who is in favor of marijuana, I know there are some on the Democratic side of the aisle who will be happy to get in your campaign. But I'm opposed to it, and if you elect me president, you're not going to see legalized marijuana. I'm going to fight it tooth and nail."
Romney Really Doesn’t Want to Talk About Medical Marijuana. Article and video. By Jon Walker. May 11, 2012. Just Say Now. "While in Colorado, local CBS Denver reporter Shaun Boyd asked Mitt Romney about his position on medical marijuana and the candidate was not happy. Romney became visibly upset about the question. He repeatedly interrupted the reporter and chided her for even asking him about it. ... When Romney did finally get around to answering the question he said that he does think marijuana shouldn’t be legal in this country and that he believes it is a gateway drug. ... With 77 percent of the country believing medical marijuana should be allowed Romney is in a tiny minority on this issue. If I were a politician and my position on a particular issue was extremely unpopular, I, too, would hate being asked about it."
"I'm not in favor of medical marijuana being legal". Oct. 6, 2007. In New Hampshire Mitt Romney responds to a man in a wheelchair with muscular dystrophy. Romney refuses to answer the man when asked if he would arrest the man and his doctors. Youtube link. See here for closed-caption version. Don't forget to hit the [CC] button to activate them if you don't have them enabled by default (or click the button for interactive transcripts - it's to the right of the flag button).
Mitt Romney confronts a cannabis user in the summer of 2011 on the beach in La Jolla, California. See Gothamist article. Romney impersonates police officers in high school and college. Romney leads a pack that forcibly cuts off the long hair of a bullied classmate in high school. See ABC News article, and Washington Post article. See 2007 and 2012 videos from New Hampshire where Romney discusses and opposes medical marijuana.
Newt Gingrich (see his Wikipedia article) proposed a bill in 1995 to give the death penalty for importing 2 ounces of cannabis. He introduced it in 1996 as H.R. 4170 (Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996) to the House of Representatives.
Gingrich on Marijuana - See the discussion of H.R. 4170 and importing "100 usual dosage amounts." Life imprisonment without parole for the first offense, and the death penalty for the second offense.
Photo to the top right: Newt Gingrich at West Georgia College (which later became the University of West Georgia). According to his Wikipedia article Gingrich was professor there from 1970 to 1978. He left when he was denied tenure. The image source says: "That's not Austin Powers dressed for a job interview... it is Newt Gingrich as a young professor at the University of Georgia." Lol. A comment says: "Short sleeved shirt (?) and a suit : not a good look....."
He reserved special ire for Republicans, most recently calling former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell "aliens, not conservatives. They never met a bloated police state they didn't like."
"The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made." - Jean Giraudoux. French diplomat, dramatist, & novelist (1882 - 1944).
See Wikimedia Commons: Category:Government propaganda. Note the "glorious mission" or "glorious war" nature of much propaganda. Like the Republican-ledHoly War, the "War on Drugs". See Wikipedia: War on Drugs. It is really a war on some drug users. This particular glorious war was reinvigorated by the cult leaders, Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Ronald Reagan is still worshiped like a God by some segments of the Republican Party. "The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made." - Jean Giraudoux. French diplomat, dramatist, and novelist (1882 - 1944). Share link.
USA: Over 7.2 million persons on probation or parole, or incarcerated in jail or prison, at yearend 2006. About 3.2% of the U.S. adult population, or 1 in every 31 adults. Larger chart with detailed source info: [1]. Latest data: [2]. See template.
Incarceration rates for adult males in U.S. jails and prisons by race and ethnicity. On June 30, 2006, an estimated 4.8% of black non-Hispanic men were in prison or jail, compared to 1.9% of Hispanic men of any race, and 0.7% of white non-Hispanic men. Image and data sources. More info: The Drug War causes the high U.S. incarceration rates. See template.
Cigarette Ingredients - Chemicals in Cigarettes. Tri-County Cessation Center. "The list of 599 additives approved by the US Government for use in the manufacture of cigarettes is something every smoker should see. Submitted by the five major American cigarette companies to the Dept. of Health and Human Services in April of 1994, this list of ingredients had long been kept a secret. ... While these ingredients are approved as additives for foods, they were not tested by burning them, and it is the burning of many of these substances which changes their properties, often for the worse. Over 4000 chemical compounds are created by burning a cigarette – 69 of those chemicals are known to cause cancer." See: Wikipedia: Tobacco harm reduction.
"In October 2008 the American Association of Public Health Physicians (AAPHP) became the first medical organization in the U.S. to officially endorse tobacco harm reduction as a viable strategy to reduce the death toll related to cigarette smoking." [10][11]Joel Nitzkin: "So if we can figure that the nicotine in the e-cigarettes is basically a generic version of the same nicotine that is in prescription products, we have every reason to believe that the hazard posed by e-cigarettes would be much lower than one percent, probably lower than one tenth of one percent of the hazard posed by regular cigarettes." [12][13]
Quotes in the image to the left (and in the text below) are from the U.S. government's landmark 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. The full text of the report is available for free online at the above link, and is searchable. The table of contents by chapter is on the right side. Quotes below are followed by their references. Emphasis added.
Page 109: "Indeed, epidemiological data indicate that in the general population marijuana use is not associated with increased mortality. 138"
- 138. Sidney S, Beck JE, Tekawa IS, Quesenberry CP Jr, Friedman GD. 1997a. Marijuana use and mortality. American Journal of Public Health 87:585—590.
Page 107: "When heavy marijuana use accompanies these symptoms [amotivation], the drug is often cited as the cause, but no convincing data demonstrate a causal relationship between marijuana smoking and these behavior characteristics. 23"
- 23. Chait LD, Pierri J. 1992. Effects of smoked marijuana on human performance: A critical review. In: L Murphy and A Bartke, Editors, Marijuana/Cannabinoids: Neurobiology and Neurophysiology. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Pp. 387—424.
Page 119: "There is no conclusive evidence that marijuana causes cancer in humans, including cancers usually related to tobacco use."
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Compare the IOM report quotes to this quote about tobacco:
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