Marijuana legalization passes in Colorado, Washington
It is interesting that the citizens put on the ballot to legalize the recreational use of Marijuana and it passed
Earlier this year, the legislature put into effect a law that limits a physician from prescribing more than 120mg of Morphine ( or equivalent) unless the pt is being consulted by a pain management specialist.
Of course, The Washington initiative calls for a 25% tax rate imposed on the product three times: When the grower sells it to the processor, when the processor sells it to the retailer, and when the retailer sells it to the customer.
Folks, we are talking about a easily cultivated WEED
My personal opinion is that all of these drugs should be legalized… if all of these drugs were legalized.. the price would drop, tax revenues would go up… all the cartels south of our border would not have a market to sell to… The DEA could be dismantled.. and the billions that we spend every year.. chasing after those in cartels could be put to better use.
We have started a whole new bureaucratic program NPLEX in many states to track the sale of PSE… to prevent the production of meth… when 80% of the meth sold in this country come from south of the border.
When the truth is told… four out of five shipments from South America gets through. The cartels have advanced to building and using submarines to transport product.
It has been reported that nearly all currency bills at or above $20.. will test positive for cocaine.
The war on drugs is chasing after that 5% of the population that will abuse some substance.. most/all have undiagnosed/untreated mental health issues… unless, as a society, we want to open untold number of mental health hospitals… these people are and will remain in a downward spiral. Legal or illegal these people will find some substance to abuse.. not much we can do about it… we have been trying since the Harrison Narcotic Act (1914) was passed… nearly 100 years ago. 3-4 generations later… not much has changed. Most dogs that chase their tails eventually get tired… maybe the war on drugs is like the Energizer Bunny.. it just keep going.. and going… and going..
The war on drugs… is really a war on the mentally ill and in turn we are also having a war – of sorts – on those who suffer from chronic pain.
Filed under: General Problems
Am inclined to agree to the concept of self-perpetuation, as well as lobbying efforts. What else can one conclude when hearing how sentences are meted out? The ‘system’ has its grappling hooks into the unfortunate petty criminals?
No better than Nicholas Nickleby, nor the British supply of opium dens on the back alleyways of San Francisco around the Gold Rush days?
But, at least we have an obligation to help and support those with mental illness and not push them further along societal denigration. And, at least ‘it’ is said that nicotine habituation does have an out-of-sight pharmacological rationale for those with schizophrenia.
It is a ‘hypocritically bad’ message to society for government to seemingly support recreational use of unhealthy and addictive chemicals, when on the other hand pouring money into campaigns supporting healthy lifestyles, and railing against the costs of subsidizing the obesity-makers..
Hah! I guess if all our priorties wre aligned properly, we miight be cited for an expensive propaganda exercise, like the Brown Shirts helping little old ladies across streets?
I concur with you that law enforcement does not want to eliminate drugs on the street. The big money maker for the police is the war on drugs. They get more money. Subsides from the federal government. Money from the confiscation of property from the people they arrest, and more money from local governments. It is boom times for law enforcement. Just look at the automobiles they drive. You don’t see old automobiles. You don’t see police departments skimping to save money.
Look at the war on drugs from the national level. Tons of money flow into the federal agencies that are, supposedly, fighting this war on drugs. What has happened after all these years of ‘war’? We have bigger drug cartels in Mexico that murder people at will. They are shipping ever more drugs into this country.
Legalize the drugs! Have we tried this? No, we have not. What we are doing is not working, so lets try something else. Did you know that a long time ago, morphine could be bought without a rx in the US? We should have learned over the years that there is a certain percentage of the population, and Steve, you mentioned 5%, which sounds about right to me, that abuse drugs. No amount of law enforcement, new laws, more stringent drug regulations, monitoring of pharmacists and physicians is going to stop it. Everytime the government has taken an otc drug and applied restrictions to it, to stop the youth from trying it, they have found another recreational drug. What have we gained? What have we gained by all the controls on PSE? The only thing I can see is more laws, more restrictions on the people that are doing the right thing, and more money being funneled into trying to control these drugs.
As a society, we have become so wrapped up in laws that we have lost any season of reason and justice. A lot of folks in my area are being sent to prison for having a little marijuana. The tax payer is then footing the bill to house, clothe, and feed them and the people are not working and paying taxes: double lose. Most of the folks in prison are there because of drugs. Do we need to be sending all these people to prison? If something is not working, then it is time to fix it. It is time to try something else. Suppose we just had all drugs dispensed by a pharmacist not require a rx? I know it sounds crazy. But, have we tried it? Would this lead to worse health outcomes for more people, or less? Would more people abuse morphine, codeine, hydrocodone, xanax and etc? How do we know if we have not tried it?
The war on drugs has become a self-perpetuating industry.. One thing most people don’t realized that many prisons are operated by for-profit companies who routinely lobby the legislatures for longer prison sentences for these non-violent “criminals”.. these for profit companies are basically baby-sitting these “criminals”.. You just have to follow the money trail..
Also, don’t know about your part of Indiana, but seems like it’s a little too close around these parts, that law enforcement has been trying to dismantle meth cookers. Perhaps a majority fhe stuff arrives over the border, but there’s no shortage of ‘bootleggers’ in these Indiana backwoods.
Metro Louisville KY was one of the first metro areas to implement a NPLEX type of system years ago. The year after implementation, increase in meth lab bust was UP 75% outside of the metro area.. and inside the metro area busts were UP 50%. IMO. NPLEX is a joke..as is all PMP’s. ID fraud is the fastest growing crime. We have no way to validate the driver’s license presented has been issued by the state. IMO. law enforcement does not want to eliminate drugs on the street….it is job security. NPLEX could use a index finger reader.. no other ID needed..as long as the retailer knows that …that index fingerprint has not purchased excessive about of PSE. Hard to forge a finger print.. unlike like a driver’s license .. that we don’t even have the ability to verify. All we are doing is blunting 20% of the supply on the street which just ups the street price and dumping billions into curtailing a small per-cent of what is on and will continue to be on the street. Continue to make all these drugs illegal.. we allow the quality, quantity, where these drugs are sold … by the crooks.. while all the money exchanging hands.. is untaxed at any level. How many C-I substances are NOT readily available on the street? Just like alcohol prohibition, states started decriminalizing alcohol along before the constitutional amendment was repealed at the Federal level. IMO.. for good or evil.. we are on a similar path with C-I drugs… MJ will be the first to go.
Am totally against recreational use of drugs including marijuana, whether if called ‘medicinal use marijuana’ or hashish sold on the street corner, as well as am against sale of laudanum, jimson weed and any other anticholinergics, but not necessarily rhubarb leaves, joe-pye-weed or dandelions. I am against the societal ‘permission’ that allows rhubarb leaves, joe-pye-weed and dandelions labeled and sold in commerce for any medicinal or recreational purpose to those 21 and younger.
And, yes, there needs to be a heckuva lot more information generally available about mental illness. Of statements made at Mr Loughner’s State of Arizona sentencing, one of the most poignant was by a former teacher; to paraphrase, ‘if there was someone along the way that recognized he needed help… ‘ but, then funding for resources would have to be available as well. Too much to ask.
But, I think the matter of marijuana legalization is often considered too complexly as if it is too much to come up with some advisory guidelines, much in the way of the new affordable healthcare matter. Once law is in place we have to figure how to make the thing work decently. Let Washington and Colorado be tests before broadly spread implementation.
Is there a link between emergence of diseases such as schizo-affective disorder, schizophrenia, and habituation, and use of marijuana? Is there some reduction of antipsychosis medication side-effects and nicotine? There’s a lot of neurology that remains unknown, and still yet to discover.
I think the statement that the war on drugs … is really a war on the mentally ill, is too simple as there doesn’t seem too much that is well-known and understood about the interplay of co-morbidity of addiction in those with mental illness, yet. Whereas, the case for the separation of pain control from drug procurement and addition seems more clearcut.