Oregon to put recreational use of mary jane on ballot

[Sooner5030]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48100409

I don't like the fact that the state gets so much control but at least they are moving in the right direction. I never understood why the pubs haven't jumped on this and let their libertarian wing own the legalization fight.....instead they will prolly allow the dems to push for it which will result in union and government controlled production and distribution.

[SanJoaquinSooner]

is oregon voting on becoming a sanctuary state for pot smokers?

[okie52]

The downfall of society as we know it.

Officers will have to be trained on driving under weed.

Seriously?

[Curly Bill]

Let's just legalize it nationally. It'll take the one subject pot smokers know how to talk about off the table, then we'll never have to hear from them again.

[badger]

Take stock in Frito Lay, there's about to be severe cases of munchies in America! ;)

Seriously though, just don't smoke it in public. Don't smoke it while driving, don't smoke it around children, don't smoke it where I can see it.

Actually, it being illegal has kind of made people be all private about it. Would be unfortunate if legalizing it brought it out for second hand smoke among the rest of us :(

[BillyBall]

Take stock in Frito Lay, there's about to be severe cases of munchies in America! ;)

Seriously though, just don't smoke it in public. Don't smoke it while driving, don't smoke it around children, don't smoke it where I can see it.

Actually, it being illegal has kind of made people be all private about it. Would be unfortunate if legalizing it brought it out for second hand smoke among the rest of us :(

To quote the article...


Under the proposal, marijuana possession would be decriminalized although public pot consumption would be prohibited and subject to a fine of $250. The initiative, if passed, would take effect on January 1..

[KantoSooner]

Whatever will they do with the empty prisons and idle cops?

[badger]

Whatever will they do with the empty prisons and idle cops?

If this would empty prisons, California should take this up asap, since they've been ordered by the Supreme Court to stop their crazy-bad prison conditions.

[Bourbon St Sooner]

Last dance with mary jane
One more time to kill the pain

[KantoSooner]

If this would empty prisons, California should take this up asap, since they've been ordered by the Supreme Court to stop their crazy-bad prison conditions.

Subtract the number of people in jail/prison in Cali for pot offenses from the total prison pop. Would it 'empty' the prisons? I don't know the Cali figures, but it would improve the situation. And you'd have cops freed up from meaningless prohibition enforcement (and who among us would have any trouble buying pot right now if they had to? so it's not like the time the cops are spending now is effective or anything.) along with judges and prosecutors.
Sell it in liquor stores with a hearty tax.
Yadda, yadda, we've been through this before. We're getting close, but I don't think the votes are quite there, yet.

[badger]

I am an outsider, but from what I've seen and read, Cali prison laws are setup to incarcerate as many people as possible to make the members of the prison unions as indispensable as possible. I'm referring to the "three strikes and you're locked up forever" law. Alas, while this has had the intended (by unions) effect of filling up the prisons, it has not resulted in new prison facilities, but rather, a bloated pay budget for the guards themselves. As such, you all the nooks and crannies crammed with bunk beds.

This used to be a prison gym:
http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-AY311_PRISON_G_20090612163149.jpg
This appears to be beds inside and outside prison cells:
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2010-06/54285090.jpg

[C&CDean]

Whatever will they do with the empty prisons and idle cops?

Ah, the old "the jails are full of potheads" misconception.

Wanna know who's in jail? Criminals. Go ahead and look it up. While you're at it, look up the folks who are convicted only for simple marijuana possession; but are spending hard time. There's so few of them that if we take these folks outta jail you won't even notice it.

The jails are full of drug addicts for sure. 90% of crime is a direct result of drug/alcohol use and those needing the means to get their next buzz on or those who commit crimes while under the influence. If we could get people to quit doing drugs then the jails would be empty and the cops would have much less work to do.

Legalizing weed won't even make a miniscule blip on cops/criminals/prisoners.

[KantoSooner]

You might be right Dean, but you cite no source for your ''90%" number or your assertion that pot offenses have no impact on the criminal justice system.

We've tried as a nation, for at least the last 110 years, to elminate pot use in this country. We've tried reasoned dialog. We've tried enraged rants. We've tried appeals from the pulpet and threats of eternal damnation. We've fined, locked up and placed lifelong legal penalties on people. None of it worked whatsoever.

More or less the same number of people smoke weed today as ever have. And neither our society nor our economy has collapsed as a result. (Though I will admit that the enforcement measures are not helping out the economies of many of our states.)

Whatever the impact on the criminal justice system, it would be, by definition, positive. If only one case/investigation/convict, that would be one less than the system is dealing with today.

Since prohibition has utterly failed, I'd like to try a different approach.

[C&CDean]

The only source I have is my mother. She has run the Salvation Army soup kitchen for over 30 years (retired now) and did/does prison ministry several days a week. She's 79 and still preaching in the prisons in Florence, Douglas, and Tucson, AZ. The two main reasons damn near everybody is in prison is: 1. Some woman (wife/mother/girlfriend) and 2. Drugs. Not drug offenses, but being on drugs or getting money to buy drugs.

[olevetonahill]

I dont personally know Anyone who is prison because they smoked Pot. I do know a few who are in prison because of things they did tryin to score and or under the influence
But usually those were done after using much worse than Pot

[KantoSooner]

Okay, by that reasoning, drug free countries should have no crime. We can look at the historical record and see this was not true for European or any other society back as far as records allow. So, it doesn't seem to hold for the dominant ethnic groups in our society. We can also look at other societies today that have low or no drug abuse and they still have crime.

With all due respect to your mom, do you think that she might be a bit biased, considering that people who smoke dope tend to be a bit less involved in religion?

[C&CDean]

Okay, by that reasoning, drug free countries should have no crime. We can look at the historical record and see this was not true for European or any other society back as far as records allow. So, it doesn't seem to hold for the dominant ethnic groups in our society. We can also look at other societies today that have low or no drug abuse and they still have crime.

With all due respect to your mom, do you think that she might be a bit biased, considering that people who smoke dope tend to be a bit less involved in religion?

Methinks you missed the point. "Drug free" countries still got wimmins, right? As long as there's wimmins, there's gonna be prisons full of losers. Also, everybody in prison is religious. It's amazing how those who are deep in **** all of a sudden discover God. Especially if they're fixin' to die, or if faking it will help them get out sooner.

[Ton Loc]

If there was a bet for which was legal across the country first - Gay Marriage or Pot Smoking - I might have to put my money on gay marriage.

One day we'll all look back on these two retarded issues and wonder why so much time and effort was spent on two completely inconsequential topics.

[Midtowner]

The only source I have is my mother.

If cruiser can be an expert on the innerwebs, your mother sure as hell can.

This is a little dated, but a 2004 study called Drug Use and Dependence, State and Federal Prisoners, 2004, stated that at the time, 1:8 federal prisoners were locked up for marijuana. States will probably be a lot lower. The feds don't put folks in prison a lot of the time. It's mostly the DEA and drug running operations which get folks hard time.

Oklahoma's laws are extremely harsh when it comes to marijuana. Your first offense is a ticket... it's no big deal. Your second offense lands you a mandatory 2 year stay in the penitentiary, of which you'll do some of and up to 10 years. You may have heard of the Spottedcrow case which was a simple possession case which landed a mother 10 years to do.

Last year, the legislature (I can't believe I'm complimenting this legislature) did some very positive things. They require drug and alcohol screenings as part of sentencing. They also require folks who are released to have at least a nine-month probationary period to decrease recidivism.

I do think we spend entirely too much locking these folks up and not damn near enough treating them. That may be because I have to deal with a lot of these folks on a daily basis, so I see them as human.

[yermom]

tax weed. geez.

it grows in the damn ground. it's virtually impossible to police that ****.

you aren't exactly going to be the most productive person if you are baked every day, but you aren't exactly a danger to others either

use some of that time and money to go after the real drugs. it's probably just a lot easier to subdue a pothead than a methhead. you get more volume too.

[badger]

tax weed. geez.

it grows in the damn ground. it's virtually impossible to police that ****.

you aren't exactly going to be the most productive person if you are baked every day, but you aren't exactly a danger to others either

use some of that time and money to go after the real drugs. it's probably just a lot easier to subdue a pothead than a methhead. you get more volume too.

As long as they aren't high while driving, you're right, they're probably less dangerous than the meth cooks. It really pizzes me off when I hear about people cooking meth in close proximity of any of the following:

1- Kids
2- Other houses/apartments/etc
3- Both at the same time.

It happens too much in the Tulsa area. You usually only hear about it after another stupid fire/explosion/etc. :mad:

[yermom]

you shouldn't drive on Benadryl or booze either

[badger]

you shouldn't drive on Benadryl or booze either

I know that there are some posters here that are convinced that everyone has done it, but I can assure everyone reading that I have never, not once, EVER driven while under the influence of drugs, alcohol, etc.

What is the etc? I have no idea :D

[Sooner5030]

you shouldn't drive on Benadryl or booze either

or lack of sleep....inadequate tread....etc.etc.

I just think we have more intervention than we can afford.....relaxing pot laws and using it to increase revenues is the low hanging fruit.

[pphilfran]

I am going to roll a big fat one and celebrate!

[KantoSooner]

"Johnnie preferred skinny girls, but he's never turn down a fattie."

[BillyBall]

Also, everybody in prison is religious. It's amazing how those who are deep in **** all of a sudden discover God. Especially if they're fixin' to die, or if faking it will help them get out sooner.

Don't you think that many of these people have extremely addictive personalities and once their usual vice is gone they pass that addiction on to something else for comfort, in this case God?

[KantoSooner]

Whatever gets you through the night,
It's all right,
It's all right...

[yermom]

I know that there are some posters here that are convinced that everyone has done it, but I can assure everyone reading that I have never, not once, EVER driven while under the influence of drugs, alcohol, etc.

What is the etc? I have no idea :D

my comment isn't that you have driven on said substances, it's that those things aren't illegal for adults to buy

doctors can't even prescribe weed, but they can give you Oxycontin or morphine

[C&CDean]

Don't you think that many of these people have extremely addictive personalities and once their usual vice is gone they pass that addiction on to something else for comfort, in this case God?

Absolutely. To many addictive types, God becomes just another drug of choice. I will say it's usually healthier than the meth or heroin though.

[olevetonahill]

Dean dontcha just love how some of these folks got all the probs of the country solved? Why Just legalize pot and our prison Pop will go way down , We will raise more money by taxin it and save a Lot by not having Cops Then ya got those Like Mid who are sayin We dont need a military just get rid of it and use all that money for other things
****in simpletons

[KantoSooner]

Not all the probs, amigo. I am interested, however, in stopping hitting ourselves in the forehead with a hammer because we have a sore knee. Our current pot policies don't work, are expensive and waste time better spent on something (anything) else. Add that to a gut level conviction that the government telling the citizens what they can eat, smoke or drink is wrong, and you've pretty much got my position.

[Whet]

So, some believe pot should be legalized because it isn't a real drug and the cops can spend their time going after those real druggies, the meth heads, or the crack heads.

will, at some point, after pot is legalized, the meth heads will start with the 'this drug ain't that bad, compared to heroin, cocaine, or LSD. We could empty the prisons and save our resources to battle the real druggies - those heroin addicts and acid freaks. Crack is the drug we should to go after....

your drug of choice should always be legal, just not those other 'real' drugs.

[SCOUT]

my comment isn't that you have driven on said substances, it's that those things aren't illegal for adults to buy

doctors can't even prescribe weed, but they can give you Oxycontin or morphine
I actually have no real opinion on the legalization of weed, but this line of reasoning strikes me as wrong. Essentially, you are saying that these ability altering drugs aren't illegal but are dangerous while operating a motor vehicle. Therefore, we should legalize MORE ability altering drugs that are dangerous while operating a motor vehicle.