Marijuana has been decriminalized in Colorado and Washington state. Should Georgia follow suit?
Georgia Campaign for Access, Reform & Education (Georgia CARE), a project of the Georgia Taxpayers Alliance, Inc., seeks to change the state's laws on marijuana, eventually leading to a complete legalization of the drug.
The group claims this would unburden our criminal justice system, which is laden with marijuana-related crimes and arrests.
Georgia CARE has published a "Blueprint to Reform" (attached to this article) that outlines how it perceives marijuana reform and eventual legalization can happen in Georgia.
For example, CARE advocates making marijuana a Schedule II drug and allowing medical prescription of cannabis.
Following this, the state should remove jail time for those caught with less than four ounces of the drug, and release and pardon people currently incarcerated or on parole or probation for a similar offense.
Finally, the group believes Georgia voters would be open to passing a referendum to legalize marijuana and have it taxed federally, similar to the laws now in force in Washington state and Colorado.
Actually, I don't buy all this "medical marijuana" stuff...just another excuse created by smokers to give their product of choice some credibility. In the end, it's probably no worse than all the folks going out for a drink at their local watering hole then driving home.
Nobody ever said that pot smokers were smart.
The best way to keep it away from kids is to legalize/regulate/tax. Now, it's easier for kids to get cannabis than alcohol. Why? Drug dealers don't check ID, and nobody thinks it's profitable or worth the risk to sell alcohol to juveniles. Legalization would get rid of drug dealers. Their main demographic marketshare are white, middle-class, suburbanites with disposable income. Those folks would much rather buy it legally than illegally. If dealers lose the BULK of their income source (kids don't have a lot of cash), they will go away. Consider the alternative: The *rest* of the country moves towards legalization, so the black market will go to states where it's still illegal & PROFITABLE to skirt laws and sell, illegally. Drug dealers will flock to GA in droves, if we're still dragging our feet. Strict penalties, more risk. More risk, more profit. We'll be a target. Cannabis shouldn't be illegal, anyway. There have never been ANY cannabis overdoses, while alcohol kills 20k every year, cigarettes 400k. And contrary to what others have said, it actually does work as a medicine. Fights cancer, alzheimer's, parkinson's, glaucoma, arthritis, PTSD, etc. Look up patent 6630507, a documentary called "What if Cannabis Cures Cancer?" and all research about the endocannabinoid system. Not a joke. Seriously, just google it. Cannabis is a viable medicine that Nixon only demonized to prosecute minorities and Vietnam protesters.
As for the lung cancer, pot smokers actually have lower rates of lung cancer. google "marijuana lung cancer Donald Tashkin." Not that it is necessary to smoke marijuana, anyway. So you really didn't have a point, anyway.
The American Medical Association testified before Congress that there was no evidence that marijuana was a dangerous drug and no reason for the law. In response, the committee told the AMA to shut up and leave. The only other "expert" to testify was a psychologist named James C. Munch. His sole claim to fame was that he had injected mj directly into the brains of 300 dogs and two of them died. When they asked him what he concluded from this, he said he didn't know what to conclude because he wasn't a dog psychologist. He also testified in court, under oath, that mj could make your fangs grow six inches long and drip with blood, and that it could turn you into a bat. He was the only "expert" in the US who thought mj should be illegal, so they appointed him US Official Expert on marijuana where he served for 25 years. You can read all about it in the short history of the marijuana laws at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm I am with you all the way, Robert. We have a terrible problem with turning into bats and we have to get it under control. The marijuana laws make so much sense, don't they?
As for those drugs not worse than alcohol -- that would be just about all of them. Alcohol causes more problems in society than all the illegal drugs combined, and the comparison isn't even close. If any drug should be outlawed because it is dangerous then alcohol is by far the most obvious choice. However, we tried that, and it was an absolute disaster. It didn't solve anything and a lot of problems got worse - incuding the biggest teen drinking epidemic the US has ever seen. See http://druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults.htm Alcohol is legal for one reason only -- because prohibition is worse. Prohibition is not control. Prohibition is the complete lack of control. The more dangerous you assume a drug to be, the more important it becomes to treat it in a non-criminal manner. Making it a crime only drives the problems underground where it is harder to deal with them.
Jack Herer (RIP) was a friend of mine and a great guy. But his conspiracy theory leaves a bit to be desired. Among other problems: -- Hemp was such a fading crop at the time that even the hemp farmers didn't protest when it was outlawed. When the law was passed they still had their hemp crop from three years earlier sitting in the warehouse, unsold. See the many resources at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/taxact.htm That page includes the full transcripts of the congressional hearings, the report of the 1934 hemp crop, and other related materials. -- DuPont made most of their money from explosives, not fabrics. -- Hemp is not really a competitor with DuPont's synthetic products. The biggest synthetic product at the time was nylon stockings and no woman was going to replace their nylons with hemp stockings. -- Jack's idea doesn't explain why mj was already illegal in 30 states before Anslinger came to the FBN in 1930. and so forth. You can find the largest online collection of historical research on the cannabis laws at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer You can find a specific discussion of this idea at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/hemp_conspiracy.htm It contains links to original sources. You can find another discussion of the subject at http://moderate.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/debunking-the-hemp-conspiracy-theory/
According to the CDC, alcohol kills 80,000 people every year in the U.S. while marijuana kills none, and marijuana's addiction potential is only about that of coffee. Since marijuana is significantly milder, safer and less addictive than alcohol, we could prevent a lot of the harm that alcohol causes by letting people choose marijuana instead of alcohol. We need to put the safety of our children FIRST and legalize marijuana like beer and wine.