Christian Democrats in the United States

Domestic Issues - Drugs and Alcohol

If we have not encountered these problems ourselves, all of us have known someone touched by these vices. When individual abuse of drugs and alcohol causes problems for that individual or for society at large, we advocate a compassionate response of rehabilitation rather than the brutal response of violence. As a society, we must attack the economic and moral hopelessness that leads to the downward spiral of alcohol, drugs and violence. We recognize that prisons are a breeding ground for criminality, and we support the release and rehabilitation of all non-violent offenders with no record of offenses against others, property or public safety. Because demand for drugs leads to imports that fund enemies of the United States, the government must adopt a rational approach that enables it to better control that demand within a civil, medical framework.

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009 10:31 AM

measures to tax pot are lies set up to fail

California's legislature is now considering a bill that would legalize marijuana and set up government to sell and tax pot at a reduced rate. This measure and one like it being circulated by petition are false hopes and false promises deliberately set up to fail.

Putting government bureaucracies in a monopoly on consumer goods is against everything America stands for, regardless of the fact that pot is a drug. Moreover, it's an atrocious idea to give government an incentive to market drugs to the people. Imagine if government were the monopoly on booze, and made money on it, actively pushing alcohol on psychologically vulnerable citizens, and in a position to lower the drinking age to increase the market. Besides which, though I no longer imbibe, I imagine government booze would be some nasty swill.

Floating the idea that government could make money off pot sales, because pot prices are so high, is destined to fail, so these p.r. stunts really are a way to keep pot illegal and keep the black market prices high. Meanwhile our streets are overrun with gangs paying for their guns with these artificially inflated prices, funding an illegal industry that produces drugs like crack and methamphetamine and ropes people into literal slavery as producers, mules or prostitutes.

If pot were legal to grow, it would have zero value as a drug commodity. Anyone can make chums with people who like to smoke weed. It is easy to grow and people would probably just give it away to their friends. Even the $50 ounce sold by the government under this bill might last an occasional smoker for a year... much less than tobacco. Given the argument that tax revenue is needed, where's the money in that? It's a waste of time.

Marijuana is so easy to grow that, if legal, hemp's only value would be in bulk as an industrial commodity. It could seriously compete with the timber and mining industries to make paper goods, cardboard, heating pellets, fuel, board material and plastic-like goods, but without blowing up our mountains or ripping down our forests. Like other bio-fuels produced in sunlight, it would remove carbon from the atmosphere over time because the pulp material made after pressing the oil would eventually be buried after potential use in paper goods. It doesn't take much water and it likes hot weather.

The government monopoly's "discount prices" would still be too high to make industrial use possible. Industrial use is the only scenario that might actually be good for jobs, the economy, and domestic tax revenue. Otherwise, you've got the government pushing dope on a bunch of unemployed young people, like it's soma or something to keep them in line.

Violent drug cartels and some of our major industries have common interests in big profit. Timber, mining and fossil fuel and weapons industries make or break the bulk of our politicians in legislature. The strip club taxes being floated along with these particular proposed marijuana rules are just a shakedown as no doubt many strip clubs and other business are extorted by gangs and everyone in the associated black market industry who fund their legal and secondary market weapons purchases with high marijuana prices. If marijuana really isn't all that bad, and was never bad to begin with, and is something adults can make responsible decisions about for themselves, and was in fact quite useful for making rope and other things, in this case the law only serves to fund criminals and divide society: a tool of fascist dupes. Are you a tool? It's the same racket either way - Follow the money.

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