Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I have heard it a thousand times:
Democrats are just as bad about marijuana as republicans.....republicans couldn't do it without Dems, etc...etc...etc...
Fact is republicans ARE virtually totally to blame for marijuana STILL being illegal.
Why marijuana is STILL illegal has absolutely, positively NOTHING to do with why it was made illegal to begin with. Americans have been trying to correct this disaster for well-over 40 years.
Marijuana is STILL ILLEGAL because republicans want it that way.
Nixon started it. Plain and simple. Chiseled in stone. Not open for debate.
Ronald Reagan escalated it and King George the 1st also continued it. This should not even need a link.
Clinton....did NOTHING about it except set records for marijuana arrests.
King George the 2nd took us into a grand new era of reefer madness and broke Clinton's arrest records, even with 9/11. Marijuana prohibition is SO important even the war on terror doesn't interfere with clamping down on the relatively harmless, extremely useful plant.
Obama...... continues it. He says he's "all for debate" but give up hope for any change on the issue.
The history bears out the fact that Republicans wage the war, hold the war dear to their hearts and they consider it Holy Canon of their 'superior' beliefs.
I don't want to waste time with lengthy regurgitation of the moutain of tedious facts about which nobody care and just want to present 2, up-to-the minute examples of Republcians ACTIVELY working to keep America hobbled with this insane, expensive, counter-productive/useless policy (that many Dems seem to think has some sort of merit).
Both these stories come from AlterNet which does an outstanding job keeping the fight for marijuana regulation (your talking point) in its proper place: frequently frontpaged like the real news and issue it is.
Mitt Romney (R)
First up: Mitt Romney Patrols the Beach Near His House for Pot Smokers although it is a repost from the Booman Tribune
Mr. Romney and his wife take regular walks around La Jolla, exchanging pleasantries with fellow strollers and occasionally enforcing the law. A young man in town recalled that Mr. Romney confronted him as he smoked marijuana and drank on the beach last summer, demanding that he stop.
The issue appears to be a recurring nuisance for the Romneys. Mr. Quint, who lives on the waterfront near Mr. Romney, said that a police officer had asked him, on a weekend when the candidate was in town, to report any pot smoking on the beach. The officer explained to him that “your neighbors have complained,” Mr. Quint recalled. “He was pretty clear that it was the Romneys.”
I used to live in Venice Beach, which is a grittier lower-class beach community. But you don't go up to somebody smoking a joint at the beach and scold them. It's part of the culture. If any ordinary citizen complained to the cops about someone smoking weed on the beach, they'd be laughed out of town. I mean, if it were on Romney's property, that would be different.
This is a republican religion.
They are crosseyed in their fixation on keeping marijuana illegal, with a foamy-mouthed fervor. (Yes, plenty of republicans smoke the evil weed, thanks to their endless supply of utter hypocrisy.)
Democrats don't really do this, though Diane Feinstien is happy to regurgitate GOP talking points about it. You know what they say: if you're not part of the solution.....
Senator Dean Skelos (R)
Next bit is a far better example of just how reefer mad these nutjob republican are and is a great example of just how STUPID one sounds when they believe this horseshit: NY Sen Skelos is Against Pot Law Reform, Too Worried About People Carrying "10 Joints in Each Ear".
This piece is about the ongoing effort to limit the impact of racially-motivated profiling by the NYPD.
First they detain you, then the N.Y. police trick marijuana users into getting arrested: they say they have to frisk you and that marijuana in their pockets that is 'just a violation to be there is then suddenly out in the open and boom: it's a misdemeanor for marijuana to be out in public view.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana in public view to help curtail the egregious and highly unpopular tactic. (Link is to a Color of Change post with petitions to assist)
As an exemplery republican, Skelos foams and the frickin' mouth about people walking around with 'joints behind their ears'
despite widespread support for the legislation, including from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissione Ray Kelly, whose policies are targeted by the proposal, New York Senator and Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R) is speaking out against bipartisan plans to remove the 'in public view' loophole. He is worried that people with giant ears may carry massive amounts of weed behind them:
“Being able to just walk around with 10 joints in each ear, and it only be a violation, I think that’s wrong,” Skelos told reporters. But for someone so concerned with marijuana in public view, Skelos has not spoken out against the wide disparities in the law's enforcement. New York City accounts for about 50,000 of the 53,000 marijuana arrests annually, and white, suburban kids who hold weed in public seem to get away without any kind of charge.
To be fair and balanced, Skelos does seem to be that the stop-and-frisk change from 'violation to misdemeanor' is grotesquely unfair
“I think we can work on that,” said Skelos,“That is wrong. It should be a violation. You’re following the policeman’s order.”
However, he remains committed to marijuana remaining needlessly illegal because that is what republcans are devoted to.
Plenty of Dems, including Barney Frank, have been working to introduce legislation to end this travesty but Dems are weak, even in a majority, too often losing sleep at night about being called "soft on crime". It makes no sense whatsoever, but that is politics.
This can go on all day, but people get tired of this, they don't really care about the facts so I am highlighting the political parts of it.
An opposition party would and should want to really damage this nonsense and take this away from their opponents, especially when PLENTY of Americans have been ready for a change for decades.
At least one would think.....