Seven reasons to vote against Amendment 64

[Gizmo42]

i knew better and said it then, here, and was teased by the bullies

"They called me tasty cakes and they would beat me and stick pine cones in my ass."

[SamFromCO]

They all looked like old women back then. Now they all look like cute young things. I can't figger that out.

I resemble that remark.

[DaJudge]

States Legalizing Marijuana Will Violate Federal Law, Trigger Constitutional Showdown: DEA, Drug Czars

The Huffington Post |
By Matt Ferner
Posted: 10/15/2012 3:13 pm Updated: 10/15/2012 10:04 pm

On a Monday teleconference call, former Drug Enforcement Agency administrators and directors of the Office of National Drug Control Policy voiced a strong reminder to the U.S. Department of Justice that even if voters in Colorado, Oregon and Washington pass ballot measures to legalize marijuana use for adults and tax its sale, the legalization of marijuana still violates federal law and the passage of these measures could trigger a "Constitutional showdown."

The goal of the call was clearly to put more pressure on Attorney General Eric Holder to make a public statement in opposition to these measures. With less than 30 days before Election Day, the DOJ has yet to announce its enforcement intentions regarding the ballot measures that, if passed, could end marijuana prohibition in each state.

"Next month in Colorado, Oregon and Washington states, voters will vote on legalizing marijuana," Peter Bensinger, the moderater of the call and former administrator of the DEA during President Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan administrations, began the call. "Federal law, the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court decisions say that this cannot be done because federal law preempts state law."

Bensinger added: "And there is a bigger danger that touches every one of us -- legalizing marijuana threatens public health and safety. In states that have legalized medical marijuana, drug driving arrests, accidents, and drug overdose deaths have skyrocketed. Drug treatment admissions are up and the number of teens using this gateway drug is up dramatically."

Bensinger was joined by a host of speakers including Bill Bennet and John Walters, former directors of the While House Office of National Drug Control Policy; Chief Richard Beary of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP); Dr. Robert L. DuPont, founding director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and who was also representing the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) and several others.

In response to the drug warriors calling out Holder again to take a strong public stance against these marijuana legalization measures, Mason Tvert, co-director of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, the group behind Colorado's Amendment 64 said to The Huffington Post:

We believe anything claimed by participants on the call today needs to be taken with many grains of salt. These people have made a living off marijuana prohibition and the laws that keep this relatively benign substance illegal. The nation wastes billions of taxpayer dollars annually on the failed policy of marijuana prohibition and people like Bill Bennett and John Walters are among the biggest cheerleaders for wasting billions more. The call today should be taken as seriously as an event by former coal industry CEOs opposing legislation curtailing greenhouse gas emissions. They are stuck in a certain mindset and no level of evidence demonstrating the weakness of their position will change their views.

This is an election about Colorado law and whether the people of Colorado believe that we should continue wasting law enforcement resources to maintain the failed policy of marijuana prohibition. Our nation was founded upon the idea that states would be free to determine their own policies on matters not delegated to the federal government. The Controlled Substance Act itself acknowledges that Congress never intended to have the federal government fully 'occupy the field' of marijuana policy. We hope the Obama administration respects these state-based policy debates. If Amendment 64 is adopted by the people of Colorado, there will be sufficient time before any new businesses are established for state and federal officials to discuss the implications.

[SamFromCO]

But I thought that since our next President, Mitt Romney, is such a strong advocate for states rights that he will overrule the Commerce Clause and allow MJ that is grown and consumed in CO to be exempt from federal prosecution. Or not.
This paragraph is almost a list of high level Prohibition pimps:

(Peter)Bensinger was joined by a host of speakers including Bill Bennet and John Walters, former directors of the While House Office of National Drug Control Policy; Chief Richard Beary of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP); Dr. Robert L. DuPont, founding director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and who was also representing the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) and several others.

[scottycards]

Bensinger is a quack-a-doodle nut job.

Zero credibility.

And Beary, from the IACP? Lolz, I was at their conference in San Diego just a couple of weeks ago. Same organization that's completely anti-2nd.

Zero cred.

[Colo.TJ]

Bensinger is a quack-a-doodle nut job.

Zero credibility.

And Beary, from the IACP? Lolz, I was at their conference in San Diego just a couple of weeks ago. Same organization that's completely anti-2nd.

Zero cred.

This when this is stated:

and drug overdose deaths have skyrocketed.

Since no one ever since the beginning of time overdosed using marijuana. More people die of overdosing on water than MJ every year. Yep you can OD on just about anything including water. But MJ in it's natural state is physically impossible to OD on.

[scottycards]

I was gonna chime in on that comment as well, but wasn't sure, as he didn't specifically mention MJ.

MJ has no lethal dose.

You might crawl under your couch and eat M&M's all day if you get too high, but it ain't gonna kill you.

[Colo.TJ]

I was gonna chime in on that comment as well, but wasn't sure, as he didn't specifically mention MJ.

MJ has no lethal dose.

You might crawl under your couch and eat M&M's all day if you get too high, but it ain't gonna kill you.

I agree that they didn't specify MJ and drug deaths but we ARE talking about legalizing MJ NOT other drugs. If they are some how trying to correlate legalizing MJ to increased hard drug usage which results in death I'd like to see the evidence as they haven't legalized it yet anywhere and NO data exists to indicate as such.

[CherryokeeXJ]

I have so much hatred regarding the school funding subject. And being that I work for the school district I can't vent properly without fearing that the wrong eyes will read it.

[ttim]

Can you vent improperly? I'm kidding but I like to see as many opinions on this as possible