[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
Health See other Health Articles Title: Recreational pot now legal to buy in Colorado; the nation is watching to see results Recreational pot now legal to buy in Colorado; the nation is watching to see results Sunday, January 05, 2014 by: Thomas Henry (NaturalNews) The state of Colorado has become the first state in the nation to open its doors to the retail sale of marijuana for recreational purposes. Two referendums passed in the November 2012 elections in both Colorado and Washington state have effectively legalized marijuana, officially allowing for the recreational use and sale of pot - shifting significant momentum to the decriminalization and legalization of a drug that has put millions behind bars in America over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries. Washington state is expected to begin retail sales a few months from now. Reports from Denver are flooding the news wire with accounts of celebratory crowds and long lines legally purchasing for the first time the controlled substance that had already become a mainstay of youth culture for its mild psychoactive effects - despite existing drug laws prohibiting its use and sale. Marijuana has also been increasingly recognized for its medical value in treating symptoms including pain, nausea, appetite loss, glaucoma, arthritis and even seizures. Some 16 states have already decriminalized marijuana possession for individuals (under a certain amount) while 20 states (plus Washington, D.C.) have passed laws allowing for medical marijuana, with California becoming the most notorious, springing up a culture of retail dispensaries where patients, who apply for medical ID cards, can buy an array of products containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Many are now watching to see how Colorado's exit from prohibition and entry into marijuana legalization - which includes retail sales but does not allow users to grow their own - will develop and influence changes in laws in other states. Many states, particularly those bordering Colorado, have cautioned users not to bring back marijuana, warning that it would be in violation of the law. Some in Colorado have also decried the potential rise of "pot tourism" in Denver after legalization, which has become a mainstay of travel in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Police in Denver and other parts of Colorado cautioned recreational users to be knowledgable of the law's finer points, which prohibits public use as well as its transportation to other states. Driving under the influence also remains illegal and can carry the same harsh punishment as drunk driving. Back when the Colorado and Washington initiatives scored an electoral victory, Feds responded immediately with jurisdictional challenges, suggesting that the focus on federal drug laws would likely supercede state laws. The DEA issued a statement shortly after those initiatives passed in 2012, stating: "In enacting the Controlled Substances Act, Congress determined that marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance. The Department of Justice is reviewing the ballot initiatives, and we have no additional comment at this time." While part of the cultural shift has come with a sitting President who not only admitted to using marijuana, but quipped, "Yes I inhaled - that was the point," the crackdown on even legal dispensaries has remained a significant part of the War on Drugs under Barack Obama's presidency, despite a campaign pledge to respect state medical marijuana laws. The DEA, under the federal Justice Department headed by Attorney General Eric Holder, has repeatedly raided numerous popular medical marijuana dispensaries in California, drawing criticism. The United States puts more people behind bars per capita than any other nation in the world, with the vast majority locked up for non-violent drug offenses. The large number of arrests and sometimes harsh sentences have frequently backed up advocates of decriminalization and calls to signal an end to the failed and often racist War on Drugs. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, more than 750,000 people were arrested for marijuana-related offenses nationally in 2011, and that accounts for about half of all drug-related offenses. 86%, or 663,032, of those arrests were for possession only. Marijuana prohibition dates back to the 1930s when the Commissioner of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger, and various notable business figures, including William Randolph Hearst, pushed for marijuana laws after driving sensationalized publicity campaigns demonizing the drug and exaggerating claims of its harm. The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 officially began its regulation at the federal level, while both state and federal control ramped up over the years. Learn more: www.naturalnews.com/04340...ijuana.html#ixzz2pcE8RjeS Poster Comment: I knew a guy in Florida who was smoking pot, supposedly to help his eyesight. I do not think he would want to move to Colorado. ;) Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 7.
#2. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
Florida is one of the states where citizens are working to establish a medicinal cannabis law. Not sure of its current status, but momentum is building all over the US. The tipping point for nationwide relegalization is now in sight.
Who cares? This will just add to the drunk drivers already on the roads. You do realize why the states and feds are doing this, don't you? To grow a larger fed. They want the sales tax. It's not because pot is harmless.
Millions of Americans who now suffer from the toxic side effects of pharmaceutical drugs, for one. Millions more who have been unjustly incarcerated for possession of this plant, for two. I've never seen any evidence to support the notion that relegalized cannabis will increase drinking or driving while intoxicated. If you have seen peer-reviewed studies which do support this please post links to them. I'm always open to changing my mind when new facts become evident. In most cases so far, relegalization has been a growing trend in the populous since the 1970's that has finally begun to reach critical mass. The states which have enacted medicinal status or relegalized have done so because the people have forced them to do so. End users of medicinal cannabis do not pay taxes on their purchase. Recreational users do ( as do those who purchase alcohol or tobacco). A necessary evil of living under this ZOG, as are any new federal regulations spawned from relegalization. It's not because pot is harmless. Life cannot be lived without the possibility of harm. But unlike alcohol, tobacco or pharmaceutical drug use, there has never been one single death attributed to smoking or vaporizing cannabis.
Thank you!
There are no replies to Comment # 7. End Trace Mode for Comment # 7.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest |
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|
||