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Tuesday, March 04, 2008
U.S. Senator: Marc Emery Will Make You Sell Your Children
It was Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa), and he didn't refer to Mr. Emery by name. What he did do was reply to a letter that (according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) someone sent him asking him why medicinal marijuana is still illegal.
So Sen. Harkin wasn't talking about Marc Emery specifically. But if pot can do what the Senator suggests, then it's quite likely Mr. Emery is at least partially responsible for the sale of many children.
From the letter:
...the number of marijuana related emergencies has nearly reached the level of cocaine related emergencies. As this statistic indicates, marijuana use often has fatal consequences.
...
The victims of the drug war are many - the small child whose parents are so addicted to illegal drugs that they sell everything including perhaps their own children to obtain a fix; the police officer's family which must now learn to cope with the loss of their loved one as a result of a violent drug bust gone awry.
Remember that the letter was asking about the legalization of medicinal marijuana. I'm sure there are many parents suffering from bone cancer just waiting to sell their children in order to relieve the pain.
In addition, I'm sure removing laws against the use of marijuana will only increase the number of times a police officer's family will have to "learn to cope" with the aftermath of a violent drug bust. Because, you know, pot smokers would look for cops to kill, even when their habit was no longer prohibited by law. They're violent like that.
Wonkette sums the letter up best: "Harkin knows the routine: smoke up, eat gyro, play Legend of Zelda, sell children to pirates for more pot, repeat." Click the link for the full letter.
UPDATE:
In this interview Marc Emery gave to the Western Standard, the noted pirate describes at length his efforts to buy American children in exchange for marijuana seeds.
Posted by Terrence Watson on March 4, 2008 | Permalink
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Comments
The Senators response would be comedic gold if he had meant it as a farce on drug warrior hysterics who don't have the first clue about marijuana (this isn't to implicate the thoughtful drug warriors who have seen the studies, take them seriously, and care very much about what will cause the least amount of overall damage to our liberties and the general welfare).
Posted by: P.M. Jaworski | 2008-03-04 2:48:50 PM
Jaws,
I think it's still comedy gold.
"Oh, Senator, can I please have some marijuana to relieve the crippling pain of my cancer so I can say goodbye to my children without my jaw clenching shut from the pain?"
Harkin: "NO, you hippy! If I give you pot, pretty soon you'll sell your children into SLAVERY! And you'll probably kill a cop, too. No pot for you, tumor-man."
Posted by: Terrence Watson | 2008-03-04 2:53:04 PM
Pot is a non-addictive weed.
If it were legal it would cost so little that neither children nor anything else would have to be sold to purchase it, if the smoker didn't grow their own stone rather than buying it.
Conflating pot with other drugs is an old piece of anti-pot propaganda. Slavery is another old canard for the drug warriors.
Do a large percentage of alcohol users sell their children for beer?
No.
Are the prohibition supporters going to care if Harkin's argument is absurd?
No.
Are the drug warriors going to relent, legalize marijuana, and let the public see what monsters prohibitionists been all these years?
No.
Posted by: Speller | 2008-03-04 3:02:16 PM
This is the kind of misinformation that makes smart people crazy.
I have smoked pot on and off since about 1965. I have never been addicted. Anyone who claims to have been addicted is just excusing their desire to indulge in the pleasant euphoria of the drug. It is relaxing and is an effective analgesic.
Now that I am old and experience joint pain, I may consider growing or buying (if I can find a reliable source) some pot for the evenings when pain makes sleeping difficult.
If I decide to grow some, I will likely offer some to my friends who are also older and experiencing pain.
I don't give a shit what senators or parliamentarians say. I have a human right to look after my health and well-being anyway I see fit. I don't expect anyone to care about me or look after me. I am capable of making my own decisions.
It's my body and I'll smoke if I want to.
The government system and it's socialistic advances in our once free society has already sold my children into tax slavery.
Posted by: John West | 2008-03-04 3:58:05 PM
What a crock! It is because it IS illegal that there are so many problems associated with it. Anyone who thinks otherwise has not done their homework.
Posted by: TM | 2008-03-04 3:58:41 PM
I have ADD and take Concerta to even out my perception of time and basically to make my whole dopamine system work right. (btw I was off it for a day or two and easing back which is why I'm posting like a squirrel on crack).
Most folks out there with ADD take cocaine, illegal risks, or jump from job to job for stimulation in an attempt to self medicate their under-stimulated brain core. (I thank God that all I ever did was play lots of video games and keep my house distraction freee with a boring Ikea decor before I got a diagnosis and real meds) That's a huuuuge over-generalization but here's my point...
I wonder how many people use ANY drug to self medicate for any of a thousand possible undiagnosed illnesses? Wouldn't it be great if we as a society helped each other figure out why we do what we do before we jumped all over each other and tried to enforce normal (and then fougt over the right to redefine normal) before determining why "they" aren't like "us"?
Personally pot smells kind of armpit-skunky to me and it makes some folks way too extroverted for me to enjoy a conversation, but otherwise I could care less as long as your pot doesn't come with an army of bikers.
Posted by: Pattern Recognition | 2008-03-04 4:10:59 PM
>"Wouldn't it be great if we as a society helped each other figure out why we do what we do before we jumped all over each other and tried to enforce normal (and then fougt over the right to redefine normal) before determining why "they" aren't like "us"?
Personally pot smells kind of armpit-skunky to me and it makes some folks way too extroverted for me to enjoy a conversation, but otherwise I could care less as long as your pot doesn't come with an army of bikers."
Pattern Recognition | 4-Mar-08 4:10:59 PM
Thank you, Pattern Recognition, for telling "us" why you aren't normal.
Posted by: Speller | 2008-03-04 4:20:47 PM
You're welcome, Speller.
Can't win elections without empathy!
Posted by: Pattern Recognition | 2008-03-04 4:39:29 PM
I know that I should just leave well enough alone, but...
Is there any place on earth (nation) where marajuana is legal? I should narrow that to "any place" which isn't totally "third world" backward.
If so, how long has that been the situation in that country and what have been the results?
In other words, is there a successful example of the policy of legalized marajuana?
Posted by: Conrad-USA | 2008-03-04 5:54:00 PM
>"In other words, is there a successful example of the policy of legalized marajuana?"
Conrad-USA | 4-Mar-08 5:54:00 PM
Alaska.
But don't worry, they've already sold all of their children before they wandered off the edge of the permafrost and drowned in the muskeg looking for their next fix.
Posted by: Speller | 2008-03-04 6:09:29 PM
Well, Conrad-USA, pot was legal in Canada and the United States for an awful long time. It was made illegal in 1937 in the U.S., and probably shortly thereafter in Canada. That gives us a mountain of evidence to work with. I doubt you'll find much in the way of trouble back in those days when it came to marijuana (and the reasons for marijuana prohibition are really, really bad--which we should not confuse with the current reasons for why it's illegal, since there may be good ones).
Amsterdam also gave marijuana decriminalization a shot. The result? An initial increase in pot use, with a steady and significant drop over time. I believe they re-criminalized it because of tourists, but don't quote me on it.
I see no reason to keep this stuff illegal.
Posted by: P.M. Jaworski | 2008-03-04 11:33:48 PM
Good for you John West.
I have cronic pain that could probably be helped with pot, but I drive a lot. I discovered many years ago that I can't drive very well when I smoke. I also do quite a bit of math, and pot makes me lose track sometimes. If and when I retire, these things won't be a factor.
As for now, I'm pretty well hooked on prescription pain medication. I pop one and go to the gym. I pop another before I drive any distance. I pop another to get to sleep. Sound familiar anyone? I usually de-tox once a month. It feels like a truck ran over me for a couple of days. My doctor laughs when I mention medical marijuana. He knows I'm (sort of) joking.
My kids don't smoke, or use any drug. Not even alcohol. I'm pretty sure that if I started smoking for medical reasons, they wouldn't immediately start mimicking their old man. Think about it, if it's medicine will kids really want to try it?
Posted by: dp | 2008-03-05 9:04:24 AM
I was in Amsterdam this summer for 2 weeks. This was the third time I have spent 2 weeks there. Their drug policy works much better than ours here in the US. Basically MJ is not LEGAL...it it TOLERATED. It is the lowest priority for the police. It has not been made illegal because of tourist. If they did that they would ruin their economy. They tax the sale of it and benefit in huge way. The dutch treat drug problems like they should be treated...AS HEALTH PROBLEMS, not criminally. It your body and what you put into it is your choice..Just dont expect them to take care of you for your bad choices..IE HARD DRUGS. The dutch are smart people. Mushrooms and Pot NEVER killed anyone..What kills people is there bad decisions while consuming these NATURAL ENTHEOGENS. Long live the Dutch.
Posted by: JonLiberty | 2008-03-05 9:33:38 AM
Obviously I'm quite stupid to persist in such a discussion.
The comments and insights all revolve around how beneficial and medicinal and harmless marajuana is and adverse aspects are noted and then responsibly avoided (e.g. difficulties driving).
I've never heard of a bunch of teenagers sitting around eating apples, or taking vitamin tablets.
The point is that the stuff is an intoxicating substance and immature individuals cannot grow up properly-normally if their free choices are eclipsed early in life by evil people who might take advantage of them (and pervert-destroy the rest of their lives).
So this stuff must be kept away from children "by society" (instead of just by the heavily burdened parents) because it is IMPOSSIBLE to raise a family in the middle of wartime Bhagdad or other Hellish places where every street corner is "owned" by people who make their livlihood harming innocent or defenseless people.
Your shit-head "luminary" Marc Emery SELLS this crap!
Johnny Appleseed went around sowing apple tree seeds for free.
I must be arguing with a bunch of teenage bad boys rather than actual men.
Wake up! Grow up! We've got nations and civilization to save.
Posted by: Conrad-USA | 2008-03-05 10:33:37 AM
Conrad, you're the one arguing a stale argument like so
many ignorant prohibitionists.
Read what John West wrote. He's right on.
Posted by: John-Canada | 2008-03-05 11:02:57 AM
>"So this stuff must be kept away from children "by society" (instead of just by the heavily burdened parents)"
Conrad-USA | 5-Mar-08 10:33:37 AM
So, Conrad, make it a criminal offense to give it to minors like so many other things that are legal for adults but are criminally prohibited from "contributing to the delinquency of a minor".
Your problem is that you think adults should be treated like children by the government when the government hasn't proven that they themselves can act like adults.
The government exists to serve me as an adult, not to be my mother or jailer.
Check out Alaska.
Marijuana has been legal there a long time.
The Alaskan State legislature just legalized, in law, up to just under 4 ounces, 1/4 pound, of marijuana per adult person for personal possession.
In Canada and most places where marijuana is illegal, possession over 2 ounces constitutes absolute grounds for a charge of trafficking.
There are in law "sentencing cliffs" that force judges to give a stiff minimum jail term for "possession for the purpose of trafficking" whether the defendant intended to traffic or not Proving intent is unnecessary if the defendant simply possesses a any amount above 2 ounces.
The Alaskan Supreme Court says the Federal Law prohibiting marijuana is void and of no effect.
Is Alaskan society unravelling like a cheap sweater?
No.
Are they selling their children or wandering off to die in the frozen wilderness or shooting each other with the ubiquitous guns most Alaskan's have?
NO.
Alaskans pride themselves on being individually responsible.
Posted by: Speller | 2008-03-05 2:16:44 PM
should read
~whether the defendant intended to traffic or not.
Proving intent is unnecessary...>
Posted by: Speller | 2008-03-05 2:19:16 PM
Why is cannabis sativa illegal?
Cannabis, aka mexican loco weed marijuana, the "pot" of black maids and jazz musicians who sleep with adled, high white women, has been known to make white people sell their children to asians who eat them.
But the worst thing is makes black men think they are as good as white men, and bold enough to step on whitey's shadow.
Thats why cannabis is illegal. Most likely, your congressman thinks this way.
Now how do we stop mexican sage, that heathen brown skinned salvia?
Posted by: Titus Curandero | 2008-03-05 2:59:57 PM
Speller -
You know one Hell of a lot of things that I don't.
I didn't question you on your post when you first cited Alaska as a place with legalized marajuana.
Actually I didn't want to be embarrassed by revealing that I didn't "get" the joke (which I thought that perhaps it was - as in the photo-shopped picture of the Bushes fishing at New Orleans).
But now I realize this is/was factual....
And it hit me. An answer to a question that I'd long ago forgotten about. Way back when several guys I knew went up to Alaska !!! ??? !!! when they could (and some of us did) travel anywhere on earth.
These guys are the ones who I am still aware of, who are absolutely abysmally utterly screwed up and just in terrible situations (living in "half-way" houses - all the way in Hell), etc. They were the big marajuana guys who I knew.
Anecdotal, stupid small sample size, etc. But I know them (and knew them as kids-teenagers) and it has been a long long slow motion catastrophe.
Posted by: Conrad-USA | 2008-03-05 3:10:10 PM
Reasonable people can reasonably disagree, I think, on heroin and cocaine prohibition. I find it to be more and more difficult, on a daily basis, to reasonably insist on the prohibition of marijuana. But let's not give short shrift to the arguments, since Conrad has repeatedly raised similar arguments that I, and others, have tried to address. Let's review:
Conrad is worried about children, not adults. That's a fine perspective to take, and one that offers good grounds for objecting to marijuana legalization. But why don't you find the response (namely, do with marijuana what we do with cigarettes and alcohol--make it illegal to sell to minors) persuasive, Conrad?
I do. If the response is that it makes it easier for children to get a hold of pot, then I say that that's just empirically false. It is easier to get marijuana in highschool than it is to get alcohol and tobacco. Yet the latter two are legal.
There's more, but let's take things one at a time.
Posted by: P.M. Jaworski | 2008-03-05 3:21:12 PM
P.M. Jaworski -
Children mimic their parents first, then they branch out and mimic - seek to act like - adults.
If something is OK-acceptable for adults in the general population, then it is just "incomprehensible" to a precocious child or an unsupervised-insufficiently supervised child or a rebellious child, et al, that it should not be acceptable for him too.
We have so much to do in the world, but right in our own homes and neighborhoods, that it is just sad to focus on anesthesizing ourselves. We each have great capacity for good. I am very disheartened by profound changes in societal conditions relating to formation and supportive maintenance of the natural human family. These changes have reduced the prospects for rewarding satisfying valuable lives for my own children (and my kids are blessed blessed blessed by God, certainly, because their Dad was obviously a dope). ; - )
Posted by: Conrad-USA | 2008-03-05 5:01:23 PM
Conrad,
Unsupervised children have a plethora of ways to harm themselves by mimicking or modeling adults.
From taking an unsupervised drive in the truck to using the table saw, disobedient children harming themselves should not be used to as a justification for imprisoning adults who can behave with adult knowledge and prudence.
>"We have so much to do in the world, but right in our own homes and neighborhoods, that it is just sad to focus on anesthesizing ourselves.
Conrad-USA | 5-Mar-08 5:01:23 PM
Most people who use recreational drugs do so not as a focus in life but as a reward, much as some people would have a bowl of ice cream or a hot bath.
Marijuana is not addictive.
People who smoke it really can delay enjoying it until circumstances are appropriate.
The bottle of beer or 2 tokes on a pipe isn't the focus in life for marijuana smokers, but a side benefit of a richer existence.
I don't want my existence made meaner by unnecessary restrictions and I don't want the penalty for breaking those restrictions to be locking me up with a violent sociopathic career criminal that I have to live with day by day.
Please, Conrad, if it isn't genuinely necessary to imprison me for a beer, or imprison Susan down the street for selling me a beer at the bar or the liquor store or a licensed restaurant where people take their children, why is it necessary to imprison me when I don't even have any children if I were to smoke some marijuana at home or in my hotel room or on a hike in nature?
Posted by: Speller | 2008-03-05 5:38:20 PM
Speller -
You know I have great admiration for you. I think it is our duty to do certain things or forego certain things for the benefit of society (as obviously you believe also).
At this point I cannot think of a better way to accomplish my goal of ensuring safety in society with respect to this particular problem. But I'm still young.
If you can raise the money and do the campaign leg work, I would be glad to run for and serve in the office of "The guy who takes a shotgun and blasts the heads off of anyone and everyone who gives marajuana to a person under the age of 21 years" provided that you can also get a law put into place which would bring that world government office into existence.
Posted by: Conrad-USA | 2008-03-05 7:37:11 PM
Alcoholic beverages are legal,
so if you feel you become addicted you can ask a doctor for help.
Tobacco products are legal,
so if you feel you become addicted you can ask a doctor for help.
Chocolate and sugar coated donuts are legal,
so if you feel you become addicted you can ask a medical doctor for help.
When marijuana becomes legal,
then if your wife or your husband or your child becomes addicted,
then you can go to a medical doctor for help
with out shame.
Marijuana only leads to harder drugs because a person has too much shame to ask for medical help.
Take away the shame and make marijuana legal
so people can ask a medical doctor for help if they feel addicted.
Anyone can become addicted to anything, you can become addicted to sex, to over-work, anything
because we are all human beings,
and that is the nature of human beings.
Give people equal protection under the law to not be prosecuted and punished for using substances and products that are equally dangerous or less dangerous than other legal products and substances.
Cris Ericson http://crisericson.com
Posted by: Cris Ericson | 2008-03-06 3:23:19 PM
Hey folks just doing some reading on the net here and happened by this quaint conversation for the masses to behold. I find some of the comments here very viable and others very disheartening (to say the least). To some that say marijuana has no harmful side effects, it does: such as perceptual debilitation, distorted perception on time, hightened heart rate, and other assorted happenings as seen in some tests that can be found easily on the internet. But this is not to say that marijuana should be illegal because look at the side effects of say alcohol, which is very legal for those over 21: include perceptual debilitation as shown by the thousands killed in drunk driving accidents every year, and distorted perception on time, and dehydration that can be deadly pending on how much you drink in, which again, thousands die every year due to drinking too much alcohol, it causes massive mood swings and leads people into a hysteria sometime in which they beat their family members or do something extremely erratic and dangerous. Now someone smoking marijuana may do something erratic as well but marijuana has been tested to show (in the limmited studies) that it does not give people the dramatic mood swings and anger seen as with alcohol. And also, YOU CAN'T OVERDOSE ON SMOKING WEED! The only thing that could happen is one passes out from lack of oxygen to the brain due to too much smoke in the lungs, which could happen with anything that decrease oxygen intake like working out too hard, or smoking to many cigarettes at once. And for children copying their parents, just look as the facts for tobbaco use. The use of tobacco products as dropped dramatically in young adults while things like coke and heroine and meth addiction rise. This is due to multiple things. One is education, a lack of on "drug" products other than alcohol and tobaccot, and on the product of tobacco; and not only that but seeing first hand so more frequently than other intoxicants the damage tobacco does. Someone sees it gives their mom cancer and the mother dies, and niether the child nor their friends or family or anyone who knows her then smokes, or at least tries to quit, understanding more fully the ramifications of their actions. Knowledge is power, but there are so few REAL tests on the use and abuse and withdrawl and daily effects of marijuana because you just cant get anyone legitimate to fund a real expedition into this realm of "TABOO". Its really sad to see someone who preaches for the freedom to raise their child the way they see fit and then say that I can't raise my own child or myself for that matter the way I see fit by denying my education on the matters that affect my life and my choices. Marijuana harms those it comes in contact with on such a small basis in comparison to alcohol and tobacco use, even just recently there was a study published stating that while marijuana may contain more carcinagens that tobacco, the fact that they are not man made chemicals, that the build up of tar affects the upper respiratory system more or less cutting the risk of getting something as common as emphysema down to virtually nothing. Now is this true, more than likely because the particles of natrual decent in marijuana are too big to enter the small aveoli which act as the oxygen co2 transfer centers for the body, but if there is no more clinical trials done then it is one test done by one company just like when tobacco was marketed, the limited tests made it alright for EVERYONE to smoke. Now could somone get say cancer or another type of terrible debilitating disease from smoking, it's possible, but the world is now so overly polluted with man made chemicals in the air that you can be born with debilitating diseases in places like China and right here in the US in bigger cities. But again is there any conclusive evidence that smoking marijuana can cause cancer and such NO! But if I can walk aroung in a big city and be worried of getting asthma from the smog or from second have smoke from tobacco (which has happened TO ME) than why the hell would anyone care if a this plant is legal to use responsibly in your home or place of service such as a Cannabis Bar. Now should everyone smoke pot, NO! But not everyone should smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol or eat certain foods or over excercise for christ sake! The problem is that the war on drugs, and especially marijuana, keeps it out of the realm of actuality and in the realm of im a bad ass black market dealer and a bad ass black market buyer which makes kids want to try it so much worse. It makes the preasure so much worse. I should know because I lived through that, and I live in the Mid West where drug use is supposed to be minimal. The pressure is unbearable, and its even cool to smoke pot. It wasnt cool ,however, to smoke cigarettes and they are completely legal because people know how gross it is. But some still smoked because it is a Personal choice! And that is what it should be. You can't ever expect to help anyone else in the world or yourself or your child if you have to place all of your accountability in the hands of a power that wants you as a people to be uneducated and overstimulated. You can NOT work up your own hypothesis on viable, real, tangible studies that show the negatives and posotives of anything that could, can, or will be done if they aren't there. If you want to live in a responsible world you need to give the education system a boost, bring it out of the dark ages of a full forced system of child neglect, and give rise to a soceity of well educated people who can make their own responsibly educated choices on what to do with themselves if you EVER dream of raising a soceity that has the gusto, mannerisms,and insight to take on the radicle responsibility of helping anyone else outside of themselves. EDUCATE A NATION AND LIVE IN A UTOPIA OF FREE THOUGHT AND FREE WILL!
Posted by: EducationalResponsibility | 2008-03-07 12:43:30 AM
Why sell them, when you can rent them and have monthly income. Come on Iowa, think outside the box!
Posted by: Joey | 2008-03-20 2:49:07 PM
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