Posts tagged marijuana

Ballot Watch: Marijuana

39
8 months ago
by Monotreme in

Sup­port for mar­i­juana legal­iza­tion: atti­tudes chang­ing over time (Gallup 1970–2011, top) and region­ally (Zogby 2009, bottom).

Wel­come to Bal­lot Watch. Today is the sec­ond in the series of arti­cles on the upcom­ing bal­lot ini­tia­tives and some key local elec­tions. Some of these will cover top­ics in com­mon with mul­ti­ple states, while oth­ers will look at a state level.

Pres­i­dent Obama has dis­ap­pointed many left-​​wing and Lib­er­tar­ian sup­port­ers by reneg­ing on his pub­lic promises regard­ing enforce­ment of mar­i­juana laws. Many of the laws on the list which fol­lows will cre­ate a legal quandary: while many social con­ser­v­a­tives sup­port the 10th Amend­ment when it comes to their pet issues, they’re not nearly as keen on the same pro­vi­sion in the Bill of Rights when it comes to same-​​sex mar­riage (arti­cle Thurs­day) or med­ical mar­i­juana use.

In this, our sec­ond install­ment in the Bal­lot Watch series (Unions First!), I’ll exam­ine mar­i­juana legal­iza­tion or decrim­i­nal­iza­tion ini­tia­tives, state by state.

 

(more…)

Hemp of Your Garment

24
11 months ago
by Monotreme in

Matthew David Stewart

On Jan­u­ary 4, 2012, mem­bers of the Weber-​​Morgan [Coun­ties, Utah] Nar­cotics Strike Force attempted to arrest Matthew David Stew­art, 37, a for­mer Army sergeant and Iraq war vet­eran. Hold­ing a valid “knock and announce” war­rant, they broke down Stewart’s door in a quiet neigh­bor­hood of Ogden, Utah and a shootout ensued. Stew­art allegedly shot six police offi­cers and killed one of them, Offi­cer Jared Francom.

Accord­ing to the war­rant for Stewart’s arrest on mur­der and attempted mur­der charges that ensued, Stew­art fired on Strike Force offi­cers from a

con­cealed posi­tion at close range with a Beretta 9 mm semi-​​automatic pis­tol … Agent Gro­gan was struck in the face and went to the floor. Agent Derek Draper returned fire as he was fired upon … Agent Kasey Bur­rell [was hit] at least twice and [Stew­art] mor­tally wounded Agent Jared Fran­com who was struck six times. … Stew­art shot Sergeant Nate Hutchin­son sev­eral times as he engaged the sus­pect and helped wounded offi­cers evac­u­ate … the sus­pect also shot Agent James Van­der­warf … Stew­art advanced on offi­cers as they were try­ing to evac­u­ate … and con­tin­ued fir­ing at offi­cers as they moved away from the home … the sus­pect shot Offi­cer Roun­kles twice as he entered the home … Stew­art moved to the front door of the res­i­dence and con­tin­ued shoot­ing into the street and front yard at the already wounded agents and fel­low agents … Police returned fire caus­ing the sus­pect to retreat … and exit the north­east bed­room win­dow into the back­yard … entered a small stor­age shed.

The cause of all this car­nage? Allegedly, home-​​grown marijuana.

Stew­art was suf­fer­ing from post-​​traumatic stress dis­or­der and was attempt­ing to self-​​medicate with pot he grew him­self, his father claims. (more…)

Solving the Obesity Problem

11
1 year ago
by Logarchism.com in

Pauly spends a lot of time swim­ming around in his pond, pon­der­ing the prob­lems of the world. Being a par­tic­u­larly per­spi­ca­cious polit­i­cal platy­pus, he is a problem-​​solver par excel­lence. Pauly’s lat­est offer­ing is one of his very best. Our platy­pus pro­poses a solu­tion to the obe­sity prob­lem in Amer­ica: legal­iz­ing pot!

It turns out that fatty foods stim­u­late the same chem­i­cal releases in the brain as mar­i­juana, which is why it’s so hard for you to eat just one potato chip. So, Pauly argues, it fol­lows that if pot is legal, every­body will forgo the fatty faux-​​chemicals and go straight for the real thing (which is non-​​fattening.) If legal pot is prop­erly taxed, it could solve the deficit, obe­sity and sky­rock­et­ing health care costs, all in one toke… er, stroke.

Pauly accepts your grate­ful acco­lades with his usual grace and humil­ity. “Aw shucks, t’aint nuthin’,” he mur­murs shyly, twirling a webbed toe in the mud.

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