By Manifesto Joe
Testifying before Congress last summer, the chief scientist in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Dr. David Murray, reportedly said that the medical use of marijuana had sparked violence and robberies in California.
I suppose I've seen too many silly old movies like Reefer Madness. I envisioned, in grainy black and white, wild-eyed, pot-crazed cancer patients, knocking over convenience stores to get at the Milk Duds stash.
More seriously, this season's leading Republican presidential candidates seem to be toeing the White House line on this issue. The Democrats, characteristically, have been more open-minded. But they all seem to be trailing the American public.
As long ago as 2002, a Time/CNN survey found that 80 percent of Americans support the use of marijuana as medicine. And in the same survey, 72 percent said nonmedicinal users should be fined, not thrown in the hoosegow. In other words, they favored decriminalization.
Here's a video sampling of what some of the candidates, current and former, have said about medical marijuana.
From Barack Obama, who admits having inhaled his share as a young man:
From Mitt Romney, evasion and swill:
Here's Hillary Clinton. At least she answered the question:
Now John McCain. He makes one thing perfectly clear -- he's opposed to incarcerating the dead:
This from recent dropout John Edwards. Even with some problems, I'm sad he's not still in the running:
Last, but not least, heeeere's Ron Paul. True to 19th-century American values, he's for states' rights on the issue:
That's all we have time for today, folks. Until next time, 2012, don't get diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
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4 comments:
Medical marijuana, like war, is one of those issues where our leaders swear that the public doesn't know what's good for us.
Europe is way ahead of us, as usual, on this issue. In Spain, for example, even cocaine possession is permitted, for personal use.
This contrasts to cases that I saw first-hand here in the U.S. as a police beat reporter. I once saw an 18-year-old sentenced to 99 years without the possibility of parole, for carrying a small amount of cocaine. And I had reason to believe (but could never prove) that the coke had been planted on the suspect by an openly racist cop. I suspect this sort of thing goes on a lot more than most of us would be comfortable admitting.
Americans love to boast and brag about how "free" we are, compared to other nations. But the fact is, that we have an incredible 2.2 million people behind bars in this country; the biggest prison population on earth.
By contrast, Japan, with a population of 127 million, only incarcerates around 70,000 people. If America incarcerated at the same rate, we'd have a prison population of around 150,000 (rather than the 2.2 million who are currently locked up).
I was gonna say something, but I forgot.
Oh yeah, weed is...
Damn!
Your fellow Texan,
LD
Excellent compilation, Joe. Wally is impressed, and is going to link to this post. Thanks.
In regards to Hillary.....watch her body language, and listen to her speech patterns peppered with 'uhhhhs'. She is lying through her teeth.
I'm with you on Edwards, it's a shame he's out.
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