Marijuana debate continues one week from election

Interesting times in the US. It will be even more interesting if CO/WA legalize...

 

The debate rages on over Amendment 64, with just one week left until voters decide the fate on the legalization of marijuana in Colorado.

Statewide, pot possession arrests are up, even though 100,000 people can legally use medical marijuana. Also, our partners at Colorado Public News found that blacks and Hispanics are being arrested in higher numbers than whites even though they use the drug less.

Since 2007, the number of people arrested for possession had been on the decline, but last year, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation reported that number rose by seven percent.

"That's an indication of how poorly regulation has worked so far," Diane Cox with Safe and Healthy Mesa County said. Cox said that even though 100,000 people now can legally use marijuana, the stats show people still abuse the law.

"We already have a problem, it would just be like throwing gasoline on the fire, we don't need to fuel more drug abuse, we need to start addressing what we have now and try to push it back," Cox said.

But those in favor of Amendment 64 see a different side to the increase in arrests.

"We're wasting $12 million every year out of our law enforcement budgets on enforcing marijuana prohibition, just against adults, for simply using a substance that is objectively safer than alcohol," Betty Aldworth with the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol said.

Aldworth said that more startling are statistics that show in Colorado's ten most populous counties, blacks and Latinos are arrested at two and three times the rates of whites, even though she said studies show they use the drug less.

"People of color if they are cited more frequently for these simple marijuana possessions are going to have a particularly harder time finding employment and jobs in the future, that's not okay," Aldworth said.

But Cox said legalizing pot isn't a racial issue, it's an issue facing all teens.

"This is an issue that is going to cut across all racial and economic lines, drug dealers are going to be exploiting all the kids. Sixty- seven percent of the kids nationwide are in drug rehab because of marijuana,” Cox said.

Aldworth said legalizing marijuana will make for a healthier, safer and more just Colorado, saying right now the law is disproportionally enforced, while Cox said Colorado is already third in the nation for teen drug abuse, and more drugs coming in will only hurt the kids.

Our partners at the Colorado Public News reported that 10,259 people were arrested in the state for marijuana possession last year.

source: http://www.nbc11news.com/localnews/...ntinues-one-week-from-election-176531801.html

 

Colorado? Are they not pretty right wing?
Two hard-line religious right ballot initiatives (Personhood in 2007 and Parent's Rights in 1996) were trialled there because it was thought they would pass them and get momentum going, although both lost.

 

"This is an issue that is going to cut across all racial and economic lines, drug dealers are going to be exploiting all the kids. Sixty- seven percent of the kids nationwide are in drug rehab because of marijuana,” Cox said. (emphasis mine)

I honestly believe he misspoke, but this is the kind of bullshit that makes me fume.

 

"This is an issue that is going to cut across all racial and economic lines, drug dealers are going to be exploiting all the kids. Sixty- seven percent of the kids nationwide are in drug rehab because of marijuana,” Cox said.

Against their will! Not to mention unnecessarily. Most of them are not cannabis addicts.

(I still believe that cannabis addiction is a rare thing. Habits are not addictions.)

Diane Cox

Is the last name Cox (cocks) dying a slow death, like Hooker and Gaylord?

 

Is the last name Cox (cocks) dying a slow death, like Hooker and Gaylord?

Apparently there's at least one homeowner residing in my area who goes by the name of Harry Dick.

 

Against their will! Not to mention unnecessarily. Most of them are not cannabis addicts.

(I still believe that cannabis addiction is a rare thing. Habits are not addictions.)



Is the last name Cox (cocks) dying a slow death, like Hooker and Gaylord?

lol the nicest hotel in my city is called the Gaylord, there is also a big mall in the same complex and they are going to start building a theme park on it, all with the name Gaylord. I asked my mom when I was a small child if they guy was a "gay lord" as I didn't know what gay meant but I knew a method to try to find the meaning of the word.

It was the funniest shit ever in retrospect.

 

Sixty- seven percent of the kids nationwide are in drug rehab because of marijuana,” Cox said.
Colorado is already third in the nation for teen drug abuse, and more drugs coming in will only hurt the kids.

67% is a gigantic number. I didn't know it was that much of an issue; I'd always been under the impression that pot abuse was a sort of "fringe" problem. This is definitely something to consider. And with Colorado already third for teen drug abuse, it may not be a good idea to legalize there first, even just for adults.

 

I think they were trying to say that of all of the teens in rehab facilities in the US that 67% are there due to MJ not that 67% of american kids are i rehab

 

Indeed ^

And its because marijuana is the most commonly abused drug especially by teens! And they have elders or the courts that can force them to go to rehab for it when in reality I bet a veryyy small percentage of people would willingly go to rehab for "marijuana addiction."

 

67% is a gigantic number. I didn't know it was that much of an issue; I'd always been under the impression that pot abuse was a sort of "fringe" problem. This is definitely something to consider. And with Colorado already third for teen drug abuse, it may not be a good idea to legalize there first, even just for adults.

This post appears to be very naive... do you happen to be a 40 year old soccer mom?

 

Yeah thanks how did you know?

 

Perhaps I'm wrong but I'm fairly sure the rehab statistic is so high simply because with many MJ cases involving younger teens and adolescents the court basically tells them (ok gives them a choice but still) go to rehab or go to jail...

Then they get to use the increase in rehab numbers as an argument against MJ. They pick up/arrest more younger teens for silly offenses like possession of very small amounts and then scare them into going to rehab for their 'abuse' by threatening them with jail time.

 

Has anyone here been in a teen rehab mostly populated by teens busted with marijuana? It's so ridiculous! Plus, it puts smokers into friendly contact with IV opioid users.

 

I do think its a bad idea to mix and match marijuana users with people who use more heavy drugs. That statistic is still astounding though.

 

^It could just as easily be alcohol accounting for 67% of teen rehab admissions. Alcohol and marijuana are the more popular inebriants for adolescents. The important point is, if a teen is found with alcohol, he most likely won't be forced into rehab.

We're talking about forced treatment. Medical necessity is by no means implied.

I honestly have never known a person who needs rehab for cannabis. It's little wonder that the recovery industry is opposing legalization.

 

"This is an issue that is going to cut across all racial and economic lines, drug dealers are going to be exploiting all the kids. Sixty- seven percent of the kids nationwide are in drug rehab because of marijuana,” Cox said.

I want to choke this lady. If marijuana is legalized then drug dealers aren't going to suddenly go find children to sell to. Also the black market demand for marijuana will decline dramatically. Also most kids in rehab for marijuana are there BECAUSE THE LEGAL SYSTEM FORCED THEM TO GO!!!! * facepalm *

 

yeah, marijuana is such a PROBLEM, meth and adderall and xanax and oxycontin don't create ANY problems. our solution to the "marijuana problem" is to let the state spend our tax dollars to take care of our kids for us because we failed to raise them effectively? drug prohibition has thus far been pretty fucking ineffective at accomplishing it's stated goals, at the very least they could start executing cultivators and castrating people who do drugs. At the very least, policies could be effective, but no, we dick around with forced rehab programs and our bullshit public education system.