Happy 4/20!
Today is 4-20, a day celebrated by stoners the world 'round. As 420 is one of the symbols of stoner culture, it is only fitting that potheads, tokers, and occasional weed smokers celebrate on this day; no government will ever make a marijuana holiday, so we may as well pick one ourselves ;-)
Happy 4-20 from The Straight Toke. Here's to another good year of great bud -- let's all blaze one in honor of our brothers and sisters.
Your Brother in Peace,
Julius
If you liked that post, then try these...
The Recent Upgrades on September 9th, 2007
Site Optimizations on October 13th, 2007
Site Downtime / Updates on February 8th, 2008
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April 21st, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I come before you to assure you that we are the generation that is finally going to reform marijuana law. This is because unlike our grandparents and even our parents we know more about the risks, more about the benefits, and more about culture of marijuana than they ever could. This is because we were all born during the start drug war in the 1980s. We have grown up with it. We have seen its ineffectiveness first hand. We are currently College students. We know more responsible users who choose to engage in the social phenomenon of MJ than any other generation in our country’s history. We have seen how it can benefit us Mentally, Spiritually, and for medical patients…physically. It is an engrained part of our culture..in music, in film, and in life. We know for a fact that MJ carries with it no physical addiction potential, no possibility of overdose, and plenty of medical benefits. We also know for a fact that there does not have to be any NEGATIVE bronchial effects as long as the MJ is eaten or vaporized. I encourage you, the generation most educated about marijuana to encourage debate, to voice your opinions, and to vote for change in the future. If you don’t like how the Government handles MJ with its current legislation and its “WAR ON DRUGS” I want to remind you that YOU the people ARE the government and YOU can reform MJ law.
1.WHY I’M HERE: To show that there is NO WAY that the “war on drugs” could EVER eliminate recreational MJ use in the U.S. and that the ONLY way for the government to adequately handle MJ is to legalize it and regulate it’s distribution and sale:
2.LET’S take a second to SEE IF WE’RE WINNING THE DRUG WAR:
Drug War costs $20 billion dollars federally and another $10 billion in state funding per year to eradicate MJ…yet it’s consistantly the #1 cash crop in the United States earning almost $40 billion per year.
MJ use has not declined in the 28 years of Regan’s drug war, but the government has spent more than $400 billion trying to appease these old concerned baby boomers who started the Drug “war” based on false, “reefer madness” propaganda in the late 1930s when there was a complete lack of medical research.C”MON FOLKS! The ENTIRE Vietnam war only cost us $180 billion before we ended what most of us KNEW to be an unwinnable war. HOW much more money are we going to waste on MJ? ARE WE NOT IN AN ECONOMIC RECESSION?
Over the last decade, the street price of Marijuana has dropped while it’s quality has only risen. IF THIS IS THE CASE, THEN WHERE DOES THE DRUG WAR FUNDING GO? I’ll tell you where it goes… It goes to towards the capture, prosecution, and detainment of non-violent minor marijuana offenders which make up a huge percentage all federal inmates. It certainly has not curbed supply or demand.
Q1)As long as MJ is illegal, it’s strength and purity is in the hands of street-level dealers. Obviously this is dangerous, especially in urban communities where cases of overdose from narcotic laced marijuiana are not uncommon.
Q2)Also as long as MJ is illegal all of the money made from taxing it’s sale stays out of the hands of the government and does nothing to help our currently struggling enonomy.
Q3)AND as long as MJ is illegal there will be a continuing burden on our federal prison system which is the most crowded in the world holding 1 in 100 Americans. In the 20 years of the war on drugs between 1980 and 2000 there has been an 300 percent increase in the number of MJ arrests with around 740,000 people arrested in 2000. 88 percent of these or about 646,000 were for minor possession charges. HOW MUCH DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR POCKET?
A1)Ending the drug war against MJ would allow Governmental control and regulation. Cigarettes are taxed and come with warning labels. Alcoholic beverages are marked with health risks their concentration. Currently legal prescription drugs which are almost all more harmful than MJ contain a listing of all active and inactive ingredients. MJ could be sold legally with marked species, warnings and THC concentration levels clearly marked. With the government in control of MJ, there would not be the same money to be made with it causing street distribution to fall..making it HARDER for minors to obtain it. We all know when we were in high school it was easier to get a bag of pot than a bottle of liquor.
A2)Ending the drug war against Marijuana would not only save around $30 billion annually by not chasing, prosecuting, and jailing minor possession offences, but according to Jeffery Miron, an economics professor at Harvard University, if the federal government taxed MJ at a rate comparable to cigarettes and booze, then a revenue of at least $6.2 billion would be made. He found that Georgia would receive approximately $19.2 million of that revenue in it’s state budget. And the study doesn't even take into account additional economic benefits, like jobs created or the growth of related industries (you know… bong makers). AND there are many other economic opportunities that come with a legal hemp trade. Hemp is the #1 producer of biomass per acre in the world and requires far less crop rotation than corn or wheat…this means the answer to biofuel. It also means a multi billion dollar industry…and thousands of jobs.
2. So where do we go from here? How do we STOP THE MADNESS?
We have to accept the fact that the war on drugs is ineffective at stopping the U.S’ marijuana use.
We have to deal with the network of people in power who benefit from having a war on drugs.
AND we have to create an alternative. There is an unspoken and unquestioned assumption that the alternative to this war is DEFEAT and no one likes that word…especially now in the middle east…but this is a social war which we are fighting against ourselves. This alternative is legislative reform and substance abuse programs for those who would benefit from them.
I’M GOING TO GO OUT ON A LIMB HERE…if you have or do smoke pot would you be proud enough to stand on these steps with me….for those of you who are not up here, I want to ask you: DO YOU THINK THESE PEOPLE ARE CRIMINALS? [NO!] Do they deserve jail time? [NO!]…well then go out and raise debate, voice your opinion, and vote for change!
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:17 am
Someday we will win the war and the world will be free at last.