The Republican Party's Pot Dilemma

[Mog]

Anxiety, panic attacks.

Those prone to anxiety and/or panic attacks will have them with or without chemical enhancement.

 

[tv1217]

I've only ever seen that once and he was like that before he ever started.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I'm all for legalization of pot...but its also not something that's weighed very highly when I'm deciding who to vote for. It's not even in the top 10 issues I care about. Maybe in the top 50. Maybe.

 

[gundog60]

There is a huge crevasse between legalization and decriminalization. Alcohol is legal, but driving drunk is a crime. So legalizing cannabis sativa is not going to reduce over-crowded jails and prisons and it will not lend itself to taxation-the majority of pot that is grown in this country is either grown by the U.S. government or by the Mexican cartels in fields tended to by U.S. citizens. Do you think either of those groups will give up control of a BIG money making operation so easily? Medical marijuana growers must be licensed by, and subject to inspection by the government. Billions of dollars in weed sales is only countered by the billions of dollars spent on corrections and courts-which the government also has a hand in. So if the GOP wants to win 2016 give the LGBT population the same government recognition as married heterosexual couples and decriminalize pot-not just legalize it make it a medical issue and not a legal issue. Do like the Portuguese and send people picked up for possession of quantities of soft drugs over the limit to a council composed of a social worker, an attorney, and a doctor. The three members of the council determine if the person goes to rehab, requires prosecution, or will be issued a citation and fines and released. The Democrats are not as Dumb-o-crats as some folks make them out to be-they know their opponent is fractured along lines of age and values/beliefs and are making the most of it.

 

[Dean C.]

Here's the problem: It will take an enormous leap of faith for Republicans to abandon the social conservatives in hopes of picking up the financially conservative middle in enough numbers to win elections. I think it's ripe, but we're at a key moment in time, not unlike the Whig/Republican split prior to the Civil War.

I personally think that if the Republicans will denounce the drug war, come out in favor of gay civil unions or marriage or contracts that render them equal in GOVERNMENT, and will talk about defense department reduction, they will pick up enough votes to counteract the social conservatives. Do they have the guts? I'm not sure.

The drug war, however, especially as it concerns MJ, is low-hanging fruit, considering that such conservative and libertarian icons as
William Buckley and Milton Friedman are well-established on the record as against the drug war.

This guy has it!!!!! To think I almost lost hope after the property rights thread to.