I Almost Forgot
By John Cole August 11th, 2010
I’ve been so consumed by hippy-punching, I forgot to promote this worthy venture from the Jane Hamshers of the Left:
Just Say Now is a project of Firedoglake and Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Our campaign is working to support marijuana legalization efforts across the United States.
Go sign the petition!
Signed, sealed, delivered…
August 11th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Maybe the fact that Mexico is crumbling to the ground will lead to the US moving a couple of inches in the right direction re: drug policy. Maybe.
August 11th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Wonder what kind of poutrage I can get when I got my smoke on.
Also, I bet dollars to donut that no matter how stoned one is, Grover Norquist is a turd in punchbowl.
Out.
August 11th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
When I click on that link to the justsaynow page, there’s a picture of Obama giving me the finger.
Figures.
August 11th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Speaking of hippy punching…
Progressive Democrat embraces right-wing framing. Again. Film at 11.
And remember, TRUE Progressive Russ Feingold has already touted his support amongst the Teabaggers. I guess he’s working on those bona fides.
August 11th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
I think we finally found something Jane is good at.
August 11th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Up until now right wing Mexican president Calderon has been vocal in rejecting suggestions of legalization or decriminalization of small quantities for personal use. To admit he will consider such a debate doesn’t mean that it is likely to happen, but it does mean that the drug war situation and the political momentum are now forcing him to publicly admit the possibility.
Again, if we don’t take these steps as the main market for Mexican, Central American, and South American narcotics traffickers, no amount of repression, spraying, and other useless bullshit will keep Mexico stable or prevent what I see as the likely spillover of paramilitary super-violence by Mexican narcotics armies.
August 11th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Mary Jane is a Gateway drug. You’d better be high to justify buying a Gateway.
August 11th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
also, too, sarah can have a ounce, how ‘bout the rest of us?...
Alaska #
Alaska Supreme Court and lower courts have ruled that personal possession of cannabis is protected by state constitution’s privacy clause. As recently as Sep 14, 2004, the AK Supreme Court refused to overturn a unanimous Appellate Court decision that police were not allowed to enter a home simply based on smelling cannabis smoke outside. See Pot vs Privacy, Oct 2003 and Alaska Supreme Court chooses privacy over pot, Sep 2004 and Eric Sterling’s Response. The Alaska Legislature passed a law banning cannabis, but a judge struck down the law in July 2006: Judge rules against Alaska marijuana ban law, Jul 2006, AP. ACLU Press Release July 11, 2006
———————-
and support your local glass artist!!
http://www.glasspipes.org/
August 11th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
@El Cid: ... making Arizona republican fantasies come true…
I’m from LA (the other LA)... the region is fucked unless sane drug policy is implemented.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
@Cliff: I’d have to be stoned or drunk or sedated somehow to make it through an Alaska winter. isn’t it dark for six months or something?
August 11th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Jane Hamsher’s for it?
Aw, fuck that then. She could tell me the sky is blue on a sunny day and I’d deny it.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Medical marijuana is legal here in Colorado; there’s some reefer madness stuff going on among politicians who see it as a horror, but it isn’t going away, and a lot of the cities that are allowing the “dispensaries” are really, really benefiting from the taxes they generate and they haven’t resulted in a wave of crime. So I guess it’s a question of whether you want it legal and safe or in the hands of the Mexican cartels.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
@John Cole: Nope.
Most of Alaska is south of the Arctic Circle.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
@El Cid: It’s interesting that a rightwinger like Calderon thinks he can have it both ways—keep drugs illegal because God says so, and CONTROL the criminals trafficking in them.
Yeah. Right. That’s worked SO well so far.
I think marijuana trade is just not that important to this discussion. Once it’s legalized here (and it WILL be), the price will plummet and half the people will just grow their own in a spare bedroom or closet.
It’s the heroin and coke and meth trade that fuels the killing fields, doncha know…
August 11th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
There’s a lot of movement on this front just below the surface. For example, the VA has been directed to accept medical marijuana for those vets with a legal prescription. The VA won’t be writing those scrips, but no longer will you be kicked out of what ever service you were trying to obtain because you failed the piss test.
It’s a defacto legalization, through the back door.
This November is going to be the big F’n deal though when CA legalizes. This will bring the entire matter to a head – will the Feds sue? Will they still engage in raids on marijuana grow sites in a state where they are legal?
I’m betting lots of hot air, but the Feds will eventually cede the ground, and when they do, other states will quickly follow CA’s lead.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Sorry, can’t do it. I support the cause but I don’t doubt Hamsher’s ability to fuck things up in some way or the other.
I just can imagine her funding counterproductive advertising – the kind of ads that might appeal to firebaggers but to nobody else – or something like that.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Sorry, can’t sign on to anything that supports Hamsher and the sniper brigade.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
@John S.:
Oh he gets a pass, he’s a liberal.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
@Redshirt: And I bet the Fed keeps their Marihuana Tax Laws on the books—just to reserve the right to lord it over the states, even at some mystical time in the future when pot becomes the Demon Drink all over again, if it happens. No entity willingly gives up power, even if it’s unpopular or irrelevant.
But nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Just heard on my local news in nyc:
‘Will school children now get days off for Islamic holidays?’
August 11th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Carping cavilers of cyberspace?
August 11th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
My guess is that Hamsher’s doing this to get some cred for being a “hippie,” so that when people talk about hippie punching everyone knows they mean her.
I mean she’s on going on her 6th year of trying to be relevant to SOMETHING outside the besotted imaginations of her love-crazed groupies. At least she picked a worthy cause for once.
And it’s been so nice how she’s shutted the fuck up about everything else lately. Maybe she’d even have kept it up until after election day. But noooooo, Robert Gibbs just HAD to go open his big fat MOUTH…....
August 11th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
@jeffreyw: Better than whingeing whiners of the world wide web.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
@jeffreyw:
heh. I saw that too.
FDL post clawing Ruth Marcus’s eyes out coming in 3….2….1…...
August 11th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
My son’s high school just sent home a packet of forms to complete for the upcoming school year. One of them is an authorization to have your kid regularly drug tested. (you have to write an extra check).
So, am I supposed to sign a petition to legalize drugs while simultaneously having my kid policed at school for drug use?
Just curious.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
@jeffreyw:
oh wow…she called them deranged.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
@Redshirt:
I’m wondering that as well.
I’ve called Ammianno’s office and asked them to make sure they have a full-scale decriminalization bill waiting in the wings for November. The idea is to have the legislature pass a full decriminalization bill (including decriminalizing home growing) immediately after the proposition passes. That way the legislature has political cover and even if the proposition is struck down, the bill will be on the books.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Well Obama isn’t fighting hard enough for marijuana legalization, so why should I bother?
August 11th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
I’m all for legalization and I support the SSDP, but no way am I putting my name on anything associated with firebaggers.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
@maye:
Yeah, why not? There’s nothing wrong with follow a stupid law while its law and working to oppose it.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
@maye:
I wonder if the parents would be willing to also allow their own regular drug tests? We really have gone mad. How about regular strip searches, after all you might not use one of the drugs tested for, or maybe alcohol. Better add home searches also. Just to be safe don’t you know.
Also curious – what benighted hell hole do you live in? Not that it couldn’t easily be any of the 51 I can go to without a passport but I am wondering.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
@Nick: whatever happened to teaching kids to exercise judgment and experience the consequences of their actions? Is that just gone with the wind?
August 11th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
They sent a letter to the Prez last week!
Dear President Obama,
Please legalize marijuana. If you did that maybe you wouldn’t suck so bad. Kthxbai.
love,
Jane & Grover
August 11th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
@maye:
What happens if you don’t sign the authorization and refuse to write the check? Do they leave your kid alone?
And is this a private school or a public school? Is this the kind of crap I have to look forward to when my kid is old enough for his peers parents to be freaking out about the fact that their kids are doing things that they did when they were kids?
Jesus – back in my day my parents said “don’t let me catch you doing drugs” and in the schools Nancy Reagan told me to “just say no” and somehow it was enough. Nobody insisted that I piss in a cup before being able to go take my Geometry test.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
@BR:
Obama in white face?
August 11th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
@Alwhite: I live in an affluent community in Southern California where the school district has all the money in the world.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
@NonyNony: It’s optional – like joining the PTA.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Dan Rostenkowski is no longer with us.
Expect the undeserved accolades from various pols of both parties. Can’t speak
illtruth of the dead and all that nonsense,August 11th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
@mr. whipple:
God…I had forgotten about that. Yeah, Hamsher is an idiot.
August 11th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Better suggestion – visit the official site for the proposition and sign up there:
http://www.taxcannabis.org/
Cut Hamsher out of the equation and still support the cause.
August 11th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
@maye:
I don’t see how this flies in the face of that
August 11th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
I pay close attention to this subject, and the matter is bursting at the seams everywhere. Under an ounce decriminalization has spread to many states; obviously, Medical Marijuana has taken off in many states, with little to no bad press; I know in Maine they are aggressively expanding the Med. Marijuana infrastructure with a new government backed licensing scheme.
It’s only a matter of time. I come at this issue mostly from the civil liberties perspective, both 1. Why should the state be telling an adult what he/she can/cannot do in private, 2. The massive police overreach when it comes to the entire fiasco of the “War on Drugs”, 3. Our relations with our neighbors, and not just Mexico, CA and SA, but also Canada.
This one issue has the possibility to sweep away metric tons of BS that has clogged up our society. FSM willing, we’ll have a new dawn (again) in Nov.
I’m waiting, though, for the Repugs to fight against this, and try all they might to tie it to be illegal immigration and terrorism.
At some point, the dissonance has to break in some people. Let Johnny Teabagger try and support fighting marijuana legalization while at the same time enjoying marijuana. That might do it – it strikes close to home.
August 11th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
OT:
John, your secret is safe with us.
August 11th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Legalization is a bureaucratic maneuver. No congressional action is required.
~ Wikipedia
August 11th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
I don’t use pot, but I’d like to be able to grow it and sell at the local farmer’s market. That’s my idea of a solid retirement income.
August 11th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
I got that email from FD this morning and I nearly deleted it. HOWEVER, if she’s on my team on this, I may not like her, but I will slide on over to taxcannabis.org and thank her for her support. No more donations, tho. Saving that for people who aren’t making me embarrassed to be progressive.
August 11th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
@Gina:
Meh. Decriminalization to a level that would let you sell it at your local farmers market would depress the price of pot so much that you’d probably do better selling tomatoes.
It’s more likely that decriminalization leads a large tobacco company to retool and diversify their operation. I wonder how many heads will go a’splodey when RJ Reynolds enters the marijuana market.
August 11th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Jeebus Cripes, whether or not you think this organization’s petition is the way to go, you’d have to be an absolute idiot asshole to let some hated blogger’s opinion on legalization / decriminalization of drugs to sway your own. I hope no one on here is serious about such ridiculous apparent hyperbole.
August 11th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
@NonyNony: Rumor has it they trademarked certain terms way back.
Just in case.
August 11th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
@NonyNony: I actually would welcome an RJ Reynolds entering the cannabis market. If some company like that thought that selling pot would really improve their bottom line, then national legalization would definitely be a reality. They have clout with Representatives and the money to advertise positive messages nation and world wide-the messages that could create “yes” votes on cannabis in the Congress and in the many states.
Yes, the pot would probably me middle of the road in quality, but that’s good enough for the occasional user and the experimenter to start with. Like fine wine and premium tobacco, there will be a substantial market for the better grades of pot for those who want quality over quantity.
I think the real opposition is the prison and the security industry. Pharmaceuticals will still have profitable lines in chronic diseases, alcohol will still be sold, and rayon and other synthetics wont go away yet. Only the prison industries will have a real hit from fewer nonviolent, and fewer overall, prisoners. If we let all of the non-violent pot criminals out, and no longer were arresting sellers, just how many criminals are left among all of the other categories? Not much-we might actually have to close a lot of jails.
August 11th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
No fucking way. Not that I don’t approve of the cause, but Jane will probably sell the list to the DEA or some shit act like that.
She’s never met a group of people she’s not willing to sell out for her own goals, most
notablysolely that of promoting Jane Hamsher’s well being.August 11th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
@NonyNony: Well, geez, mine would be some primo boutique hoity-toity stuff. But you’re right, getting to that level of decriminalization would take some major corporate payoff to happen.
August 11th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
Though I believe in the legalization of all drugs (except, maybe, prescription drugs), I am sure there are many more credible and effective organizations than Ms. Hamsher’s working on this issue. Thank you for reminding me to check the Internet for them. As for signing Ms. Hamsher’s petition, a woman is known by the company she keeps.
August 11th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
@El Cid:
Man, fuck that noise. I would never work with a two-faced backstabber like Blackface Jane. Yeah, I ain’t forgot that shit. Nor have I forgot about Grover Fucking Norquist.
Fuck Jane and all her henchmen/supporters.
August 11th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
why, is hamsher running out of hallucinogens again?
August 11th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
I prefer “hippie” to “hippy.” To me, hippy means a little wide around the waist.
August 11th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Support decriminalization, not legalization. You tryin’ to take food out of my dealer’s kids’ mouths?
August 11th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
@AxelFoley: So, because Hamsher is in favor of legalization, you oppose it? Fucking seriously?
Haven’t we spent the last decade or so mocking the right for thinking this way?
August 12th, 2010 at 2:16 am