Oh, and about legalizing marijuana, I am all for stopping prohibition of all drugs. The same social effects that occurred in the 1930's is happening today, but much larger, richer, and much more deadly. It would be better to bring them out of the shadows, especially the entrenched corruption on our side of the border; the pols, cops, jails, and corps who feed off the profits of it all. Our police would no longer need to be militarized, and should go back to keeping the peace -- and not entrap and steal the assets of low-level drug users, while taking away their freedom and stigmatizing them for life. ITS BEEN MORE THAN 70 YEARS OF THIS, AND PROHIBITION HAS FAILED MISERABLY: STOP THE STUPIDITY, PLEASE.
Allow the Americans, Canadians, and the Mexicans to compete in an open and regulated cannabinoid market, with price and quality controls. The quality and cleanness of even the 'ditchweed schwag' would improve, creating more low-cost/high quality domestic products, not just drugs (hemp will become cheap to produce, it grows like a weed, and is easy to clone and cultivate).
This would force South (and North!) of the Border 'manufacturers' to make a better, lower cost product, and defund the more hidden criminal trafficking and violence that that illegality of the market spills like blood and tears onto our streets.
It would also create much-needed jobs on **both** sides of the border, and the eventual result of a freer market (since so many people will do it anyway, regardless of its legal status) will make the socially desired plant, fungus, root, seed, cacti, extract, or derived chemical less available to children, less time-stealing fodder for our jails and courts -- freeing up the police time and court dockets for more violent crimes.
You can't legislate the appetites of mammon, any attempt will fail every time; however you can punish those who make poor choices with what they take/use/abuse regardless of what it is.
I don't favor taxing hemp (marijuana/cannabis) at all; I happen to believe like the late Jack Herer's last public speech. I think those who were wrongly convicted by this near-century scam of lies and profiling should be compensated, and those who willfully advanced the breakdown of our rights and property, i.e., the federal and state proponents of the drug war, should be jailed, or pay reparations.
There will always be someone trying to skirt taxation, and a different kind of black market would surface. Look at the cigarette market, for example. If anyone anywhere can grow it (most won't beyond the first few years of repeal) then there is no huge illicit profit margin for cartels or congressmen to get fat on.
Sales tax increases hit the poor the hardest -- and the number of poor and working poor is increasing all over the country, here too. I support education, art, and music programs for our region's schools; I think our bigger-picture problem lies in the halls of the state Congress, and the office of the Governor.
It wasn't right for them to hold a gun to our student's and teacher's heads for the voters to fix their inability to account for their piss-poor management of our state's resources and programs.
Although my children are near the top of their classes, I think we should vote no and make the Congress make a better budget **with** the schools and parks prioritized, tax the rich their fair share, and stop this right/left crap theater. The time for BS is now over, and it's time for them to get to work or they should be kicked to the curb.
I say vote no, and strongly tell Congress to do it over, without the special interests.
We really don't need more cops if it takes EIGHT of them to bust a kid for pot - while a bank robbery is going on a few blocks away. Or, when six cruisers hang out at a high school (nothing going on at the school) for hours... We have too many cops as it is.
If any of you have any sense, don't vote for this pig, and finally get rid of all incumbents, they are not doing their jobs.
That's what makes our local government tick... Reverse Robin Hood tactics to pay for their inability to budget fairly, reasonably, and responsibly.
Such a shame. I thought Uhlich was for the people; she's become just another bought-and-paid-for political hack, after the trash fee fiasco, where/when she bailed on the public who put her in office the first time. We all should have seen the way she would play from then on.
When will we stop this infection by the 'Corpirates' that destroys our way of life for their profit? When will we finally put those in office who truly listen and do the will of the people and not just the people with big money - which has become OUR very hard-earned tax money in their pockets - and a profit-tainted agenda?
If there will be money-grabbing photo radar at all our intersections, whats to stop them from eventually putting cameras in our homes and neighborhoods to 'catch more crime' without a public vote? Do you all want to be watched 24/7 everywhere you go, whatever you do? Just like the UK? Fight the Beast!
Stand up Tucson! Together we can change the rules that we are 'governed' by. The super-rich, since they have the most money and holdings should also have the highest tax rates and fees accordingly.
Even your Bible says you should not prey on widows and the poor, or you will be destroyed.
Shameful! Incompetent!
I am also amazed and saddened that it was not many, many more than 500 residents at that meeting.
Mr. Hoffman has a grip, and a fairly good one. He's right. It's the prohibition that creates the black market and the crime that goes with it.
I'm a Vietnam Vet too, and there is no 'moral' question here concerning legalization of drugs. Taking them out of the alleyways and ghettos, and putting them in stores with clean and controlled doses - and providing medical care when someone can't handle them.
What *is* immoral is continuing the same failed policies for 70+ years and expecting to still control drugs on our streets when we cannot even keep them out of our highest security prisons. Where does it end?
How many more millions must we put in prison? Who's going to pay for their care in prison?
Make the cartels deal with a legal market - their product must be pure, fresh, of a certain, constant strength - just like alcohol regulations keeps most of the 'rot-gut' out of our stores. It makes sense, and its about time to stop the madness, reefer or otherwise.
I usually enjoy your eclectic articles, Catherine, but wow, someone needs a nap and some quiet time.
The 'potheads' you know that you rail against were probably stupid and obnoxious before they did pot.
The worst problem with drugs has always been and shall always be the prohibition of them.
Some people will get their kicks from almost anything, so wouldn't it be better to have them be able to freely contact a doctor for treatment if they develop issues, instead of criminalizing their lives, filling our jails, and destroying their families? Don't fear the reefer. Awaken from the madness!
We have a thousand Al Capones right across the border from us now, and many more than that inside our country -- the true result of prohibition -- because it is insanely profitable. The violence, the killings, the corruption of our government and police forces, gangs, guns, and no-knock-shoot-first raids have ravished our liberties and turned our neighborhoods into DMZ's.
What we've done for the last 70 years is the opposite of what we should have been doing about drugs and abuse.
You would be surprised at how many people in this city and many other cities across the nation use pot. It surprised me, and keeps surprising me at how prevalent it is. You cannot get rid of it; its even in our maximum security prisons(!) so we all should minimize the damage it causes in society by bringing it out of the alleys and slums.
Hemp is supposed to be a healing herb, not a drug. It should be utilized medicinally instead of recreationally, but there will still be those who seek to get high... at least an 'overdose' of pot won't kill them.
RE-Legalize and regulate hemp products, and the real danger of pot will soon subside.
Recent Comments
Allow the Americans, Canadians, and the Mexicans to compete in an open and regulated cannabinoid market, with price and quality controls. The quality and cleanness of even the 'ditchweed schwag' would improve, creating more low-cost/high quality domestic products, not just drugs (hemp will become cheap to produce, it grows like a weed, and is easy to clone and cultivate).
This would force South (and North!) of the Border 'manufacturers' to make a better, lower cost product, and defund the more hidden criminal trafficking and violence that that illegality of the market spills like blood and tears onto our streets.
It would also create much-needed jobs on **both** sides of the border, and the eventual result of a freer market (since so many people will do it anyway, regardless of its legal status) will make the socially desired plant, fungus, root, seed, cacti, extract, or derived chemical less available to children, less time-stealing fodder for our jails and courts -- freeing up the police time and court dockets for more violent crimes.
You can't legislate the appetites of mammon, any attempt will fail every time; however you can punish those who make poor choices with what they take/use/abuse regardless of what it is.
I don't favor taxing hemp (marijuana/cannabis) at all; I happen to believe like the late Jack Herer's last public speech. I think those who were wrongly convicted by this near-century scam of lies and profiling should be compensated, and those who willfully advanced the breakdown of our rights and property, i.e., the federal and state proponents of the drug war, should be jailed, or pay reparations.
There will always be someone trying to skirt taxation, and a different kind of black market would surface. Look at the cigarette market, for example. If anyone anywhere can grow it (most won't beyond the first few years of repeal) then there is no huge illicit profit margin for cartels or congressmen to get fat on.
Do you agree?
It wasn't right for them to hold a gun to our student's and teacher's heads for the voters to fix their inability to account for their piss-poor management of our state's resources and programs.
Although my children are near the top of their classes, I think we should vote no and make the Congress make a better budget **with** the schools and parks prioritized, tax the rich their fair share, and stop this right/left crap theater. The time for BS is now over, and it's time for them to get to work or they should be kicked to the curb.
I say vote no, and strongly tell Congress to do it over, without the special interests.
If any of you have any sense, don't vote for this pig, and finally get rid of all incumbents, they are not doing their jobs.
Such a shame. I thought Uhlich was for the people; she's become just another bought-and-paid-for political hack, after the trash fee fiasco, where/when she bailed on the public who put her in office the first time. We all should have seen the way she would play from then on.
When will we stop this infection by the 'Corpirates' that destroys our way of life for their profit? When will we finally put those in office who truly listen and do the will of the people and not just the people with big money - which has become OUR very hard-earned tax money in their pockets - and a profit-tainted agenda?
If there will be money-grabbing photo radar at all our intersections, whats to stop them from eventually putting cameras in our homes and neighborhoods to 'catch more crime' without a public vote? Do you all want to be watched 24/7 everywhere you go, whatever you do? Just like the UK? Fight the Beast!
Stand up Tucson! Together we can change the rules that we are 'governed' by. The super-rich, since they have the most money and holdings should also have the highest tax rates and fees accordingly.
Even your Bible says you should not prey on widows and the poor, or you will be destroyed.
Shameful! Incompetent!
I am also amazed and saddened that it was not many, many more than 500 residents at that meeting.
Peace.
I'm a Vietnam Vet too, and there is no 'moral' question here concerning legalization of drugs. Taking them out of the alleyways and ghettos, and putting them in stores with clean and controlled doses - and providing medical care when someone can't handle them.
What *is* immoral is continuing the same failed policies for 70+ years and expecting to still control drugs on our streets when we cannot even keep them out of our highest security prisons. Where does it end?
How many more millions must we put in prison? Who's going to pay for their care in prison?
Make the cartels deal with a legal market - their product must be pure, fresh, of a certain, constant strength - just like alcohol regulations keeps most of the 'rot-gut' out of our stores. It makes sense, and its about time to stop the madness, reefer or otherwise.
The 'potheads' you know that you rail against were probably stupid and obnoxious before they did pot.
The worst problem with drugs has always been and shall always be the prohibition of them.
Some people will get their kicks from almost anything, so wouldn't it be better to have them be able to freely contact a doctor for treatment if they develop issues, instead of criminalizing their lives, filling our jails, and destroying their families? Don't fear the reefer. Awaken from the madness!
We have a thousand Al Capones right across the border from us now, and many more than that inside our country -- the true result of prohibition -- because it is insanely profitable. The violence, the killings, the corruption of our government and police forces, gangs, guns, and no-knock-shoot-first raids have ravished our liberties and turned our neighborhoods into DMZ's.
What we've done for the last 70 years is the opposite of what we should have been doing about drugs and abuse.
You would be surprised at how many people in this city and many other cities across the nation use pot. It surprised me, and keeps surprising me at how prevalent it is. You cannot get rid of it; its even in our maximum security prisons(!) so we all should minimize the damage it causes in society by bringing it out of the alleys and slums.
Hemp is supposed to be a healing herb, not a drug. It should be utilized medicinally instead of recreationally, but there will still be those who seek to get high... at least an 'overdose' of pot won't kill them.
RE-Legalize and regulate hemp products, and the real danger of pot will soon subside.