***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[rillo561]

Prison unions too, apparently this administration is ready to being back private prisons.

2017 we still talking about weed as a gateway drug

 

[dathbgboy]

And, most of the idiots still see marijuana as a gateway drug to harder things like coke, meth, etc.

I have always thought that weed is a gateway drug when you are purchasing it off the street.  My reasoning was that throughout my life I have found that the guys I buy weed off of are usually the ones that introduce the 'harder' drugs.  I think if weed was purchased legally, the smokers would not have that gateway to the other drugs. 

I could see the logic behind that but others think that it's a gateway drug because they think at some point you won't get as high as you once did so you'll seek out harder drugs to get that high....Most times it's a gateway to eating though

I never once heard somebody say that they tried coke because weed didn't do it for em anymore.

 

[harlemtothebronx]

 

And, most of the idiots still see marijuana as a gateway drug to harder things like coke, meth, etc.

I have always thought that weed is a gateway drug when you are purchasing it off the street.  My reasoning was that throughout my life I have found that the guys I buy weed off of are usually the ones that introduce the 'harder' drugs.  I think if weed was purchased legally, the smokers would not have that gateway to the other drugs. 

Or just maybe, you can say no when your dealer offers something stronger. I don't buy into this gateway theory. Anything can be a gateway, it depends on the willpower of the individual.

 

[rillo561]

Sounds like the "laced weed" theory too

 

[John Wick]

that whole gateway talk is nonsense to keep it illegal. I could say alcohol is a gateway drug too right?

 

[osh kosh bosh]

Replace plan being floated out there.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/...-plan-would-cover-fewer-people-blowback-grows




I really hope they try this **** to see the chaos that ensues.

 

[rillo561]

Definitely, I've done more stupid **** drunk than I weed. It's anecdotal evidence but still.

 

[cards93]

Or just maybe, you can say no when your dealer offers something stronger. I don't buy into this gateway theory. Anything can be a gateway, it depends on the willpower of the individual.

just my thoughts. The street dealer provides a level of access to 'harder' drugs that you wouldnt have if purchasing weed in a legal store.

 

[mister friendly]

Alcohol is the real gateway drug.

 

[gry60]

the problem is non-cannabis users think cocaine, heroin and, now, pills are in the same discussion.............to quote juelz from pulp fiction, "it ain't even the same sport, it ain't even in the same ****** universe."

They are in the same discussion from a legal and policy stand point. Cannabis and those other narcotics, that you mentioned, are illegal on the Federal level (certain pain medications are legal with a prescription but for those who are poor or of color, those prescriptions are almost impossible to get, no matter how much pain you are suffering).

The whole notion of imprisoning people (or forcing them to be "rehabilitated" under the threat of imprisonment) because of what drugs they choose to buy, possess and consume is absurd.

Trying to carve out a special niche in the War on Drugs for cannabis is not a winning strategy because the war on drugs was never about promoting health or preventing addiction in the first place.

IDK my man. It says that the %60 of US support legalization

http://www.gallup.com/poll/196550/support-legal-marijuana.aspx

That still means that two out of every five people want to imprison you for what you put in your body.

When it comes to the policy discussions about drugs, the whole premise of the war on Drugs needs to be torn down instead of trying to persuade the public of how healthy cannabis consumption might be. The war on drugs was not started to promote good public health outcomes. The war on drugs exists as a pretext for policing the lives of certain political and demographic groups of people.

This.

 

[harlemtothebronx]

Alcohol doesn't need to be a gateway drug. It can ruin your life all on its own.

 

[rillo561]

It kills you.

 

[John Wick]

Alcohol doesn't need to be a gateway drug. It can ruin your life all on its own.

Exactly, I want to hear the reason the GOP is still against it? are there any valid arguments to keep fighting to legalize it?

we have states who been legal since 2012 and haven't seen any bad news after legalizing should be a good enough example to support it.

 

[gry60]

Replace plan being floated out there.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/...-plan-would-cover-fewer-people-blowback-grows




I really hope they try this **** to see the chaos that ensues.

“We’re not going to send an IRS agent out to chase you down and make you buy health insurance,” said Representative Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican who’s a medical doctor and head of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health. “If the numbers drop, I would say that’s a good thing, because we’ve restored personal liberty in this country.”

Bout to start pushing my own brand of Liberty pills. $100 a piece.

"Can't guarantee they'll cure you, but at least you got more freedom!" (Insert used car salesman smile here).

 

[the qbz]

I really used to respect republicans
For having a different opinion and fight


Now they look really soft dodging town hall meetings. Own up to your plans and lead

 

[wavy daddy]

I have always thought that weed is a gateway drug when you are purchasing it off the street.  My reasoning was that throughout my life I have found that the guys I buy weed off of are usually the ones that introduce the 'harder' drugs.  I think if weed was purchased legally, the smokers would not have that gateway to the other drugs. 

I mean....they are 'drug' DEALERS, they want you to get hooked on the hard stuff so you can give em more money.

 

[jape]

Alcohol is the real gateway drug.

nah. weed is. 

alcohol and weed are the same to me. ok in moderation.

 

[rillo561]

alcohol and weed are the same to me.

How? One is literally poison, the other isn't.

 

[John Wick]

How? One is literally poison, the other isn't.

idk how he came up with that conclusion. maybe he has a valid argument on why they are the same

I mean....they are 'drug' DEALERS, they want you to get hooked on the hard stuff so you can give em more money.

yea and you still have the willpower to say naw bro I only came for the bud. Its the idiots who are into trying new drugs like that mess called Krokodile :x who get hooked then want to play the blame game. No one forced you to put that needle in your arm in the first place

 

[rolaholic]

Last week Trump asked his economic advisors to cook the books,this week he wants the FBI to lie for him

@cnnbrk:
Sean Spicer on White House request to FBI: "We didn't try to knock the story down. We asked them to tell the truth." http://cnn.it/2mi7MWj

Trump also crapped all over them for not lying for him in his tweets earlier...

Yes, continue alienating the intel community

Nixon also tried to get the FBI to stop a certain investigation in his day and we all know how that worked out for him...

 

[RustyShackleford]

While I don't want to speak for Rex, I share my own similar views on marijuana reform.

The discussion should not be on whether it is safe or not, or whether it is a gateway drug or not.These are not the major questions that we should be debating in regards to this topic to decided if it should be legalized. We have to discuss how marijuana has been used to imprison (and in turn ruin the lives of) many people, especially people of color.

No one finds it disgusting that there are dudes that got their lives ruin by a lil weed charge, that now have to walk by dispensaries that sell all kinds of marijuana products to middle and upper middle class? Or that there will still be dudes sitting in prison while that goes on. Or that maybe in your state you can buy legally, but in other states black and brown bodies and still being plundered to feed to private prisons. Even in states that decriminalized it, the fines are still used as a way to tax the poor and brown, a different way to break the backs of lower class minority communities.

Why do stoners get to to skip having the thing they care about go through the long arduous process of legislative reform, while their drug of choice has been weaponized against groups that are already so marginalized?

Furthermore, to make it more insulting, we hear these "the money is gonna be used to fund schools" talk from the weed community. Like really, if that was such a big concern among stoners then why don't they protest how local taxation leads to under funded schools, or the race to the bottom state level business tax breaks. And stop to think that the state lottery was suppose to fix the very same thing decades ago, yet it is now just used as a way to tax the poor. You hardly hear this brought up, because most don't really care, they are trying to buy votes to get a ballot measure passed.

There are way more important and pressing public policy issues that surround recreational marijuana reform besides the usual "is it safe or not" conversation. Btw, if you're a smoker enjoying recreational weed, y'all won't like me. If I could wave a magic wand, no one gets legal weed until serious act is take to stop and undo the damage our previous drug laws have done to the country.

I just accept that the ballot measure game was giving a lil relief on the issue, so I supported them.

 

[nazdrowie]

By ERIC LICHTBLAUFEB. 23, 2017

•  

 
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Thursday that it would continue to use private, for-profit prisons to house thousands of federal inmates, scrapping an Obama administration plan to phase them out  because of problems.

It was the second time in two days that the Trump administration reversed an Obama-era policy. On Wednesday, it rescinded a directive  that gave anti-discrimination protection to transgender students and allowed them to use the bathroom of their choice.

In a memo released on Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed federal prison officials to keep using the private prisons. He also withdrew a policy set out last August by Sally Q. Yates, then the deputy attorney general, who had ordered prison officials to phase out the use of the private facilities.

Ms. Yates’s order had followed a report from the Justice Department inspector general about safety and security concerns with the operations at private prisons, along with other issues. The private prisons “compare poorly to our own bureau facilities” in a number of areas and do not save much money, Ms. Yates wrote as she ordered them phased out.

Mr. Sessions, in withdrawing her order, said the Yates directive had “changed longstanding policy and practice” and hurt the prison system’s ability “to meet the future needs” for housing.

President Trump fired Ms. Yates  as acting attorney general last month over an unrelated matter, when she refused to defend the ban he had ordered on travelers from seven largely Muslim countries. The courts have blocked the travel ban, and the administration is rewriting it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/us/politics/justice-department-private-prisons.html

my fault if already mentioned...

 

[dathbgboy]

While I don't want to speak for Rex, I share my own similar views on marijuana reform.

The discussion should not be on whether it is safe or not, or whether it is a gateway drug or not.These are not the major questions that we should be debating in regards to this topic to decided if it should be legalized. We have to discuss how marijuana has been used to imprison (and in turn ruin the lives of) many people, especially people of color.

No one finds it disgusting that there are dudes that got their lives ruin by a lil weed charge, that now have to walk by dispensaries that sell all kinds of marijuana products to middle and upper middle class? Or that there will still be dudes sitting in prison while that goes on. Or that maybe in your state you can buy legally, but in other states black and brown bodies and still being plundered to feed to private prisons. Even in states that decriminalized it, the fines are still used as a way to tax the poor and brown, a different way to break the backs of lower class minority communities.

Why do stoners get to to skip having the thing they care about go through the long arduous process of legislative reform, while their drug of choice has been weaponized against groups that are already so marginalized?

Furthermore, to make it more insulting, we hear these "the money is gonna be used to fund schools" talk from the weed community. Like really, if that was such a big concern among stoners then why don't they protest how local taxation leads to under funded schools, or the race to the bottom state level business tax breaks. And stop to think that the state lottery was suppose to fix the very same thing decades ago, yet it is now just used as a way to tax the poor. You hardly hear this brought up, because most don't really care, they are trying to buy votes to get a ballot measure passed.

There are way more important and pressing public policy issues that surround recreational marijuana reform besides the usual "is it safe or not" conversation. Btw, if you're a smoker enjoying recreational weed, y'all won't like me. If I could wave a magic wand, no one gets legal weed until serious act is take to stop and undo the damage our previous drug laws have done to the country.

I just accept that the ballot measure game was giving a lil relief on the issue, so I supported them.

Co-sign. Couldn't have said it better my dude.

 

[everysingletime]

Man. About 95 percent of all successful ppl I knew from college did weed at one point.... People who are homeowners now, with kids, and nice paying jobs. None of them really do weed like that anymore either. We left that behind in college.

I used to have this idea that ppl who did weed are losers with no goals in life. Can't be further from the truth.



I myself, didn't particularly enjoy weed. Only used it the one time and it wasn't for me, but I've no problem with the legalization of weed. Just hope that it can be legalized in a safe manner with distributors not being corrupted and unfair and the wrong ppl caking from it.

 

[John Wick]

Man. About 95 percent of all successful ppl I knew from college did weed at one point.... People who are homeowners now, with kids, and nice paying jobs. None of them really do weed like that anymore either. We left that behind in college.

did they leave the alcohol too?