kicking in family doors, shooting dogs and...

Oh.  Wait.

nonsensical and draconian laws we have. As progressives we should be fighting to end the wasteful spending of the drug war and use that money on things that are more important. Imagine the tax dollars the federal government could make and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that would be created by legalizing and allowing people to create market for it. Hemp also has many many many uses that could save trees, be used as fuel, used as food, doesn't cut into the food supply, and is renewable every 3 months. If we would get the stuff off the black market that is one less way gangs can fund themselves and also drug cartels.

"Damn stoners!  This place is lousy with them damn stoners!"  -John McCain

Marijuana is not really harmful at all, particularly is it is ingested using a vaporizer.

In fact, alcohol and commercial cigarettes are both far, far more harmful.

There are millions of deaths that are medically attributed to the use of tobacco and alcohol.

There is not a single solitary medically documented case of death directly tied to the use of marijuana.

On a side note, I find it to be the height of hypocrisy when professional sports teams punish athletes for smoking pot, when their entire industry is built upon the sale and promotion of a product far more deadly.

To get back to the topic of this diary - pot vs. violence, let me put this spin on it:

Have you ever seen someone crash their car and kill an innocent family because they were stoned from pot? Sure, people that are high may forget where the hell they are going (GPS: best invention for stoners evaaaar), and they might sometimes drive under the speed limit, but they aren't killing people.

Have you ever seen someone smoke a bunch of pot and then proceed to beat their spouse? Sure, a stoned individual may not hear everything his or her spouse is saying to them, or forget some chore that he/she was supposed to do, but as opposed to alcohol, that's about as bad as it gets.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not condemning drinking. It's just that if there ever was a gateway drug, that would be it.

Legalize it ....

Don't criticize it.

-Peter Tosh

Rec'd!

I think reforming drug laws is, and has been for a long time, a sleeper issue that someone should pick up.  I recall seeing polls claiming that maybe 70 % of people think that non-violent drug offenders should be given a slap on the wrist.  But I can see two good reasons not to go this route, one political and one philosophical.

The political calculation is that while people say they don't want "non-violent" drug offenders to be put in prison, it is very easy to make people look much more menacing than they are.  Or to make people who live in a tough environment seem to be acting violent for drug-related reasons, when it's more socioeconomic.  It's very easy to exploit this for political gain.  So while almost everyone thinks their son or daughter (or themselves) who has the occassional, uh, experience should be given leniency, a lot of these people would have a difficult time seeing past the media-generated menace posed by those other people.  This would just be so easy to exploit politically.

The philosophical reason for maintaining stricter controls on non-violent drug offenders is the "broken window" theory.  Sure, the vast majority of drug offenders are non-violent, but living in an area with rampant drug use definitely gives people the sense of lawlessness and mischief.  I realize that bars and casinos are probably by far the largest source of lawlessness and mischief, but is the solution really to create more of that?  

I know the "broken window" theory has been debunked by some, including in the book "Freakonomics".  But there is some rationale to it.  Malcolm Gladwell, in "Tipping Point" calls the broken-window theory one of the most liberal, humanistic approaches to law enforcement.  This is because it pre-supposes that people are basically good and that if you provide people with an environment mostly free of crime, their better instincts will take over and they will be good citizens themselves.  Crime, in this case, is very broadly defined and may even be called "tomfoolery" or "mischief".

ugh.  i hate thinking about this.

P.S. Snolan, phantom rec for your diary!

I don't have a problem with dope smokers.

But in this case, the package was 32 lbs of mariuana.  Only a dealer would ask for that much.  Some dealers can be laid back and cool.  Others armed to the teeth and dangerous.

And from what I saw on CNN, the police had a warrant, but they didn't have "no-knock" permission.  The controversy is over the fact that they barged in without knocking and used such overwhelming force.

I did a speech about legalizing drugs for a class years ago, in the mid 90's I think, and at that time approximately 75% of the federal prisoners were non violent drug offenders and half of them were for marijuana. I am sure it has not improved in the years since.

In my work I have seen some of the worst violent offenders either getting off with slaps on the wrist or minimal sentancing. I know a man who stabbed his girlfriend 27 times and he served three years and is walking around today a free man. This is insanity. We are spending huge amounts of time and money to imprison Americans for a health issue, while violent offenders roam our streets.

And do not get me started on the loss of our Constitutional rights as the DEA and the Forest Service both have the right to now search your home without a warrent. One is looking for drugs and other is looking for fish and venison that you should not have. Insanity. Oh and I have not even mentioned the Patriot Act and all the rights we have lost through that facist piece of shit.

Great diary - I agree with you wholeheartedly

I know someone very, very close to me, who used to get a prescription for Marinol for her glaucoma. One months script of Marinal costs her insurance $1600.00, but she is not allowed to use the free or nearly free marijuana that actually works to relieve the pressure. Did I forget to say that Marinal doesn't really work. Oh and Marinol made her so high she couldn't really function for hours.

Smoking allows one to dose it better and safer. But that would be wrong.

Wonderful fucked up country we live in.