Cannabis is one of the most innocuous substances known to humans. Safer than Advil, a little (or a lot) of weed has never killed anybody, nor is it known to induce the kind of violent behavior linked to, say, alcohol. What's more, marijuana shows great therapeutic promise. It has been proven to reduce nausea associated with several ailments and chemotherapy, help cure post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), slow the progression of multiple sclerosis, and protect eyesight from glaucoma, among other medical benefits.





1. 55 Years in Prison for $350 of Pot





As Judge Paul G. Cassell pointed out, Angelos got more time
than he would have for hijacking an airplane (25 years), beating
someone to death in a fight (13 years), or raping a 10-year-old child
(11 years). Making matters worse, the father of two didn’t even have a
criminal record: he was a first time-offender.





2. Cops Pose as High-Schoolers and Ruin Kids' Lives





So when the undercover cop told Justin how much she loved weed, and begged him for a connect, Justin relented, even though he didn’t smoke himself. He refused the $25 his crush tried to give him, and told her the pot was a gift.





4. Snatching the Weed-Grower’s Children





According to police raided their 38-plant garden and
seized another 56 plants from inside their home. The bust came just
three weeks after agents conducted a "compliance check,” ensuring that
the couple, who are medical marijuana patients, were following the legal
guidelines to grow pot. Bram says officials assured them that
everything was fine. Regardless, Bram and Wals were later charged with
eight felonies for marijuana and child abuse.





7. Puppycide





Shooting the "stash” (or family) dog is standard in
SWAT raids, the chaos of which also often includes flash-bang grenades.
The Whitworth family’s experience was especially sad.





Ironically, it was Whitworth –– the victim of a violent raid on his
home, including shots fired –– who was charged with child endangerment.  





9. Life in Prison for the Middleman





Investigators uncovered no physical evidence –– pot, cash or anything else –– linking Young to trafficking. The testimony of co-conspirators cooperating with the government was the only evidence against him. Nonetheless, in 1992, Mark Young was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Young had never been charged with drug dealing, and had no history of violent crime.





~~~





The government spends more than $7 billion annually to enforce marijuana prohibition, but has not successfully deterred marijuana use. In fact, more teens now smoke pot than cigarettes, but our relentless pursuit to punish marijuana users nonetheless continues apace.





http://www.alternet.org/drugs/156061/life_without_parole_for_pot_10_worst_cases_of_cruel_and_unusual_punishment_/?page=entire

Quoted:




When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.



When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.



When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.



When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.



When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".



That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:
When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.

When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.

When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.

When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.

When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:
When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.

When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.

When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.

When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.

When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:
When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.

When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.

When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.

When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.

When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:


I'd offer you something to take the edge off, if I indulged it such things.
 

Quoted:

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:
When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.

When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.

When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.

When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.

When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:
When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.

When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.

When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.

When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.

When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:
When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.

When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.

When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.

When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.

When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:
Is it not obvious to you that the crimes you mention in relation to ILLEGAL pot are due to the fact that the pot is illegal?  Surely this does not escape you.  Does it?  

Quoted:
When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.

When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.

When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.

When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.

When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:
Is it not obvious to you that the crimes you mention in relation to ILLEGAL pot are due to the fact that the pot is illegal?  Surely this does not escape you.  Does it?  

Quoted:




When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.
When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.
When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.
When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.
When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".
That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:







Don't get me wrong. If somebody creates the Perfect World where the libertarian in me can ignore what substances others may choose to ingest AND the various legions of crime and tragedy necessarily attendant magically cease, sign me up. But I'm the father and brother of recovering drug addicts, so forgive my strident objections...as both started by just smoking a little reefer.

Quoted:







The reality is that the way the government would go about the legalization of weed would practically guarantee the illegal trade in weed would continue.  People bootleg cigarettes and they're legal, they do it to avoid paying the ridiculously high taxes.  Even the proponents of legalization say "legalize it and tax it" but they don't think it through.  

Quoted:
When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.

When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.

When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.

When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.

When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:


I was a cop way too long to accept that drug-related crime is any longer stemming solely from illegality. The drug trade is violent due to commerce enabled by corruption.


Tell you what - let's compromise.

Make all controlled substances legal. Attach a rider to that bill that makes me held harmless in my homicides against any who sell it to kids.

Off to load my magazines.

Quoted:
Follow the law and you won't have those problems

Might as well get that one out the way before the idiot Drug Warriors™ say it in a serious manner.

Quoted:
When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.

When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.

When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.

When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.

When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:


Don't get me wrong. If somebody creates the Perfect World where the libertarian in me can ignore what substances others may choose to ingest AND the various legions of crime and tragedy necessarily attendant magically cease, sign me up. But I'm the father and brother of recovering drug addicts, so forgive my strident objections...as both started by just smoking a little reefer.

Quoted:


Excellent post.

Quoted:
When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.

When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.

When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.

When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.

When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:


I was a cop way too long to accept that drug-related crime is any longer stemming solely from illegality. The drug trade is violent due to commerce enabled by corruption.


Tell you what - let's compromise.

Make all controlled substances legal. Attach a rider to that bill that makes me held harmless in my homicides against any who sell it to kids.

Off to load my magazines.

Quoted:
When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.

When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.

When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.

When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.

When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:

In practice I think crime in the drug business would still go on because the government would tax the shit out of it to the point where the illegal drug trade would still exist.  I can't believe very many people would pay $5 for a joint just because it was a legal alternative.  It's the same argument behind gun free zones.  Criminals by definition break the law.  

Quoted:
When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.

When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.

When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.

When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.

When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:
Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time.

Complaint line starts on the right.

Aloha, Mark

Quoted:
Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time.

Complaint line starts on the right.

Aloha, Mark

Quoted:


I was a cop way too long to accept that drug-related crime is any longer stemming solely from illegality. The drug trade is violent due to commerce enabled by corruption.


Tell you what - let's compromise.

Make all controlled substances legal. Attach a rider to that bill that makes me held harmless in my homicides against any who sell it to kids.

Off to load my magazines.

Quoted:


Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time.



Complaint line starts on the right.



Aloha, Mark

Quoted:
When the makers of Advil start digging in punji sticks around their plant and shoot trespassers in parking lots.

When the pharma companies start beheading each other with chainsaws on video.

When Bayer tortures and hangs the bodies of Tylenol employees from highway overpasses.

When Canada's .gov is so , and thoroughly corrupted by manufacturers of asthma inhalers that provincial heads of state are slain along with their families and North Dakota needs the BP manpower assigned to Texas.

When the marijuana-smoking community finally admits the medical benefits of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol can be ingested in a form that doesn't create a "high".

That's when I'll buy into legalization. Go ahead now and tutor me in why legalization would negate all I've just described, the disparity/dichotomy of Prohibition in contrast, and the assault upon freedoms caused by me not wanting anybody selling my kids any fucking dope.

Quoted:


Excellent post.

Quoted:
Follow the law and you won't have those problems

Might as well get that one out the way before the idiot Drug Warriors™ say it in a serious manner.

Quoted:




Hmm, I take it that the OP supports legalization? This sheds much light on the timbre of GD lately....

Quoted:
Two different arguments. If one wants to argue about whether MJ should be legal or not, that's one thing. However currently it is illegal so I don't see anything wrong with the sentences handed out, given the law as it stands today.