Comments on: America Desperately Needs A 21st Century Update Of The Shafer Commission

By: Florida Flower Shops

Florida Flower Shops — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:56:41 +0000

Florida Flower Shops…

Please share more….

By: dars23

dars23 — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:07:20 +0000

My Father died of cancer and I am HIV positive. Our lives could have been and may still be filled with less pain if the correct laws and amendments are made…

By: GDog

GDog — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:08:18 +0000

Well, put that in your pipe and smoke it! I agree with Dane!

By: Dane

Dane — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:58:35 +0000

Burn the Declaration of Independence! America is at a crossroads. While we celebrate the victory and the making of another infamous day in American history by electing the first African-American President our own ignorance restrains us from achieving greatness. The government needs to take a final unified stand on the legalization of marijuana. Is it, along with all of its marvelous natural byproducts illegal or not? If it is, then ban it. Ban it completely! Burn the Declaration of Independence and all other things hemp (it would be hypocritical to not). Remove its reference from history books, and teachings in schools. Afterall, we are already getting pretty good at that. Facts such as Washington’s, Jefferson’s, Franklin’s affiliation with it, the U.S. Army’s own involvement with the “Victory for Hemp” campaign during WWII, and the fact that the very sails on the ships that sailed our ancestors here were made with the same product. Make a wholehearted effort to allocate even more billions of dollars to finally thwart the production and use of marijuana in the United States once and for all. Institute capital punishment for anyone caught with it or near it. Create and fund an elite military branch dedicated to this sole task. Do whatever it takes to make it happen!
On the other hand, if it should be legalized let’s do what we do best as Americans-let’s capitalize on it! Become the world supplier and be the best at it. California is already close. Eliminate wasteful, ineffective spending on the fight against it and take a fraction of that money to instead invest it on education and research. How far does this have to go? We are constantly trying to achieve the next great discovery of a sustainable and renewable product that is eco-friendly. How much more efficient a plant do we need to try to ‘discover’, I ask? It grows faster than most any tree, and is useful earlier, takes up less space, grows in a vast array of normally unusable conditions, is more recyclable, and it’s use over wood means there are more trees for oxygen production. And these are only a few of the things we have been able to determine through suspect research because its study is still considered controversial and all findings are immediately discarded as such. Aids the sick, helps the poor, is superior to cotton textiles and its production in many ways, is vastly nutritious, and these are merely a few of its many benefits. Who knows what potential lies within? Out of the 400 unidentifiable elements found in cannabis our government has decided to blindly focus its concern on just one-THC. Sure marijuana has its negative effects and potential for abuse, but what doesn’t? Alcohol (big business), tobacco (big business), pain medications (big business), even household glue and paint (big business) are being abused daily. How many deaths are linked to the above mentioned abuse? Now let me ask how many deaths occur from marijuana? Even the U.S. Drug Abuse Warning Network can’t cite a single case where marijuana alone was shown to cause an overdose death, ever.
How many of those newly graduated chemistry majors out there do you think would be willing to make a name for themselves with the help of a government grant to be the next George Washington Carver of the marijuana plant? Hmm, wasn’t he an historical African-American as well? The only difference is that instead of just three hundred uses for peanuts there is a speculated potential of over 20,000 uses for hemp! Jimmy Carter understood the value of peanuts. George W. Bush can have his oil fields. We’ll take our chances with cannabis sativa. So much awareness is being generated about “Going Green” the term sort of begins to take on a new meaning now doesn’t it?
Depression and stress/anxiety related medical conditions are skyrocketing every year to greater numbers. How many friends and family members have to go to jail or have to risk losing their already unsecure jobs? How many more people need to die because of illnesses we have no way to currently cure or treat? What’s the dollar figure we have to reach before we finally make a decision?
This commentary has already gone longer than I intended so I will close with this thought. The space program has value but how far away from our own planet do we really need to get? Instead, shouldn’t we be focusing on the people living on this one? End starvation, create a healthcare program that actually works, help to eliminate poverty. Sort of sounds like what our forefathers had intended. Something like:
“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation. We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…”
Or something similar to that if I remember correctly. While this consideration could perhaps be weighed a ‘light and transient cause’, it nonetheless is a valid and pressing issue that needs its due attention. So, Mr. President-elect, you are to be sworn to one of the most powerful and influential positions in the world, now what are you going do with it?

Side note: the Declaration of Independence is noted as making up one-third of the Charters of FREEDOM, sharing its place with the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights. The very plant that helped make the sails for the ships and subsequently the discovery of our own country possible and the fabric that retains the intent of our forefathers is now criminal, unlawful, illegitimate and unwelcome here. How’s that for irony?

By: Julian

Julian — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:59:22 +0000

This is the time to reform marijuana laws.

But how do we accomplish this?

Has there ever been a conversation to have an UNofficial national vote to legalize marijuana? There would have to be many voting booths and media campaigns to promote it, but if there were millions of people voting to change marijuana laws then wouldn’t the presidency HAVE to form a new commission to investigate the subject of marijuana?

An UNofficial vote across the nation wouldn’t require government support. NORML could then show Washington the results and ask the new administration to form a new commission to investigate marijuana legalization.

-Here’s to change!

By: russell bailey

russell bailey — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:58:54 +0000

i went to change.gov and told them to appoint dr. ron paul as our new drug czar. then implement a national debate on medical marijuana. i told them there are 4 reasons marijuana isn’t legal…big alcohol, big tobacco, most certainly big pharmacy, and even more so..big government. it’s a prohibitionist war, it’s even unconstitutional,but big lawyers, politicians, and most certainly lobbyists will hold one of the greatest gifts to humanity hostage for there own pocketbooks. anyone can grow it, it could not be controlled. that’s the point, it could not be controlled. norml should take the ball and run, straight to change.gov, with all it’s members, with all the “we the people” submitting to change.gov the need to change our governments false war on marijuana. we can all hang together, or we’ll all hang separately.

By: Mark O'Keeffe

Mark O'Keeffe — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:06:13 +0000

If pot were legal, here’s how much money would be injected into the economy:

In 2000, there were 734,000 marijuana arrests. This amounts to about 10% of the “open” marijuana smoking population in the USA, probably less.
By “open”, I mean those folks who are open about smoking pot, not “closet pot smokers” who keep it a secret from everyone else but their dealer because they fear losing their jobs.

So, if there are 10 million pot smokers in the USA and the average pot smoker smokes 2 grams (2 joints) per day at a cost of about $7.00 per gram, this is what would happen:

$14.00 per day X 365 days =$5,110.00 per year per person.

That’s about $511 MILLION a year.

Now you need coffeeshops to sell the weed, so you have to build them.

Amsterdam, for example has 200-300 coffeeshops.

It takes 4-8 people to build one house, or, in this case one coffeeshop. That’s 800-2,400 jobs created in one city.

Then you need staff to run those shops. That takes 4 people per shop. That’s another 800-1,200 jobs created in one city.

If only 2 cities in each of our 50 states had these coffeeshops, there would be 3,200 – 7,200 jobs created in each state. That means 160,000 – 360,000 jobs would be created nationwide.

AND WE HAVEN’T EVEN GROWN THE MARIJUANA YET!!!

By: catcawave

catcawave — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:03:47 +0000

I hear the CIA and Blackwater are filling up the body bags coming from Afganistan and Iraq with Afgani Heroin. Does’nt this just seem like a repeat of what they admittedly did when we were in Vietnam? I also hear the streets in larger cities are ablaze with the stuff. They will turn around and use this against us to prevent the Legalization of weed.
Big Changes are coming to this country. One Party looks the same as the other. Put your name where you will, but be certain that the Narcs stalk these pages.
It may be 20 years before weed is legal, and by that time it will probably no longer be an issue. We will be smoking it anyway… just as we have all along. They can’t control it and they can’t tax it. Therein lies the problem. But rest asured… this too shall pass. Most of us will be long gone, but these are the facts.
Peace.

By: Joey

Joey — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:29:56 +0000

Legalise It!!!! we as people have suffered way to long under this old battle to prohibit weed and the results have only made life harder on normal pot smoking americans. It has caused massive job loss, unjustly arrests, and people to live in fear of the law wich was suppose to be a friend of the people not the enemy and all the while this sick and messed up government has enjoyed watching people who smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol die while they sit back and probably smoke a joint a laugh ( hypocrites) and what the government don’t realise is the fact that they are trying to fight a battle that can’t be won ’cause there more drugs in the world then people and not to mention every human in this world gets high in one way or another for us its weed that we choose for others its alcohol and for others its pills and i mean every pill ever made ’cause if we didn’t need to get high there would be no such thing as weed or alcohol or pills or anything else for that matter

By: Busman842

Busman842 — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:25:29 +0000

To #10 “Watch Zeitgeist the Movie”:

Your answer is = Fear. This fear breeds the necessity for control over others. I, like you, do not understand this apparent “human nature” for the need for control. Its interesting you bring this up, because it stabbs at the heart of this problem. I have been giving this subject much contemplation over the last few years; so much thought, that I have begun a summary to write a book about it. So far, my only conclusion is that the more afraid a person is, the more control they need to exert on everyone else, whether the conciously know it or not.

#12 for Jonathan:
Yes, we do need to stop this maddness as you say. But, Obama also said “I am interested in punishing those who break the law.” This is word for word in one of his last campaign ads before the election. If he was referring to only cetain laws, then he should be more specific. To me, this mean he likes the current set of laws, and wishes to adhere to them. US laws are basd on a set of beleifs. US laws do not solely correlate to truth or fact, or even what is right or worng. If Obama stands for “real change”, then he would immediately use the bully pulpit of he presidency to give amnesty to the 30,000 to 40,000 non-violent drug offenders in this country – most of which are canabis users. But, I guess the Iraqi and Afghani people are more important than our own. I truly hope he does make a change.