NY governor wants to decriminalize pot possession in open view
 

Good. As it stands right now, pot possession under 25g is a violation, whereas publicly "displaying" the same amount of mj is arrestable. So the NYPD forces people to empty their pockets during stop-and-frisks, and then arrests them for "displaying" a joint.

Cuomo is hoping to cut down on this abuse by changing public display to a violation. Should be amusing to read the comments of certain cop-hugging bridge-and-tunnelers on this thread :)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/nyregion/cuomo-seeks-cut-in-stop-and-frisk-arrests.html

I'm normally for local autonomy, but if the state slaps NYC and the NYPD down, this will be a good thing.

"Outside a Small Circle of Friends"
 

Look outside the window, there's a woman being grabbed

They've dragged her to the bushes and now she's being stabbed

Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain

But monopoly is so much fun, i'd hate to blow the game

And i'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody

Outside of a small circle of friends.

Riding down the highway, yes, my back is getting stiff
Thirteen cars are piled up, they're hanging on a cliff.
Maybe we should pull them back with our towing chain
But we gotta move and we might get sued and it looks like it's gonna rain
And i'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Sweating in the ghetto with the colored and the poor
The rats have joined the babies who are sleeping on the floor
Now wouldn't it be a riot if they really blew their tops?
But they got too much already and besides we got the cops
And i'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Oh there's a dirty paper using sex to make a sale
The supreme court was so upset, they sent him off to jail.



Maybe we should help the fiend and take away his fine.
But we're busy reading playboy and the sunday new york times
And i'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Smoking marihuana is more fun than drinking beer,
But a friend of ours was captured and they gave him thirty years
Maybe we should raise our voices, ask somebody why
But demonstrations are a drag, besides we're much too high
And i'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

~~Phil Ochs (1966)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulTmmTIlM_o

Well I have no issue with the decriminalization of weed. But it is not the Mayor's proposal it is the Gov. Cuomo's proposal. (I know you hate Bloomie but please get it right, SPD!)

The problem is , first they outlaw fatty foods, then huge sodas and now a joint or three is legal...but

WADDA WE GONNA DO WHEN WE GET THWE MUNCHIES?????

There is NO good Munchy food available in NYC!!!

:laugh4: :laugh4:

Catch 22!:eek:


Isn't it crazy that these dictators want to ban what is legal and legalize what is ILLEGAL?

Of course, there's a lot more money involved with illegal drugs than with a Big Gulp! That's often the key to these things, following the money!

No it all has to do with generating income for the state and city. Instead of a procedure that results in a dismissal or probation and no income to the city/state, we have a simple ticket with a $100 fine that 90% of the recipients will pay so they don't have a record.

Same with sugary soda and fatty foods. the seller gets a fine and has to pay which generates income for the city.

In the past 3 years the Traffic Cops have gone rampant with tickets for ANYTHING. knowing 70% of the people will not fight it and just pay up, guilty or not.

Great point Stoney! As I indicated, follow the money. Thanks for doing the following!

time to end the war on weed.....

You are missing the point. The US government wastes millions of dollars trying to stamp out weed usage and maintain its illegality, when anyone in the country can find marijuana in about 20 minutes on a college campus or by driving around on a saturday afternoon in suburbia sniffing for that tell tale weed odor.

Its a completely ridiculous waste of government money, and marijuana should be legal. Prohibition didn't work, and the war on weed doesn't work either. Makes far more sense to concentrate on drugs that have negative effect other than making you lazy and hungry. IMO booze is far more destructive yet its legal.

Think of the economic boom that would take place if you could buy weed in any smoke shop and pay tax on it.

Better for the city, better for the people since they don`t get a record. Seems like everyone wins.

Re-read my original post, please. I did mention the governor, not Bloomberg. As to Bloomberg, I don`t hate him -- just think he jumped the shark (repeatedly) in his third term.

Bwahahahaha, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! :)

Hmmm.... it appears that maybe I just learned something about you.

So since prohibition didn't work and we have some high number of alcoholics, that this justifies adding to that a bunch of pot heads with the munchies? Interesting logic.

Since when has pot prohibition stopped stoners from smoking weed? (Or alcohol prohibition stopped drunkards from hitting the sauce.)

amazing, you missed my point completely and im sure you suspect im a stoner now. :D

Actually, im frustrated at the amount of money wasted trying to stamp out something that is everywhere. How can you disagree with that? Unless you live a singularly insulated and sheltered existence, im sure you have encountered people smoking pot here and there. Maybe you didn't even know it. Id say personally, I come across someone smoking weed in their car in traffic once a week, and I smell it in the neighborhood about that much as well.

Do I like stoners? not really. Is it typical of stoners to get high and violent, jump in a car, drive erratically and kill a mother and child in a crosswalk? not really either. However, that IS typical of drunks.

With that logic, I have a bigger problem with drunks than stoners, and as a source of money wasted on trying to eliminate something so common, its a big one.

Legalize them all, not just la mota. I find it interesting that the conservatives who tremble in fear of the scary "nanny state" do a complete 180 when it comes to the government allowing adults to do what they want with their own bodies and minds.

Okay Drop, I believe you. I apologize for the comment, but it did seem to explain some of your views.

Now to the response to your post:

Yes, I know that marijuana use is out of control. Guess what? I have no more approval for drinking than I do pot smoking. How in the world does the fact that alcohol causing so many problems, justify adding the pot smokers and THEIR problems to the list? I just can't follow that logic.

If the US gubmint had the balls to do anything about it, they would be stopping the drugs at the border. Sure I realize that there is pot grown in the US, but if it were stopped at the border, the home grown could probably be more easily eradicated than what's coming through our porous borders.

How about this? If we stopped it at the borders, we could stop alot of CRIME in the border towns as a side benefit. Stamping down the murder rate along our borders on both sides wouldn't be a bad thing would it?

You don`t drink at all?

CORRECT! NOTHING! NADDA! ZILCH!

Let me be clear. I mean alcohol.

So do I. You never have a glass of wine with a meal or a beer with a friend occasionally (when you are not planning to fly in the next 12 hr)?

Not recently and not often.

The last time I had a SIP of wine was when I was part of a team that toured North America and Western Europe rolling out a new software product. We hit something like 30 major cities in 45 days or something like that. The name of that tour was "TechTour 2002" so that tells you how long ago that was. The very last night we had dinner in Paris and lots of wine was poured. I drank a small SIP.

Before that I probably hadn't drank any alcohol since before I was married in 1974.

That`s a shame -- it`s not unhealthy in small quantities.

You should get together with MBBERG and have some beers--
he likes to reminisce about when he used to be a stoner--smoked a freight train boxcar full of ti stick---Oh yea and he ONLY wrode a bicycle all those yrs,
Then he'll tell ya about the 'dopers he got pop-d by speed dialin the pigs and following so he could see his own little episode of cops. he luv v's him some smugg satisfaction--Telling himself how much better that anyone else is--and then he'll probably get in his car buzzed--over the limit!

Because its not "adding". People smoking pot in the US is already a fact of life.

IMO most of the border drug wars are over cocaine and other harder drugs.

I can list at least 5 people I personally know who grow marijuana in flower boxes or closets. The stuff is everywhere in the US. I even had a cop landlord who would smoke the confiscated stuff he took from college kids when he went home.

Its a ridiculous double standard, just a big waste of time. Better to regulate and tax it.

why bother with this---WHO CARES?? youalready know what his answer would be.

The funny thing is I don't do any kind of anything, no drinking, smoking, hell, i don't even drink coffee. And I still think it should be legal.

He (as with many people) doesn`t see the difference between use and abuse.

Yes, marijuana use has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 30 or 40 years as has liberlism. Both need to be stamped out.

Why should it be stamped out? How is pot use hurting you so long as you choose not to inhale?

weed is SO much less harmful than booze. legalize it....

Ok, here we are back to the police state but with personal liberties and small government paradox that conservatives so easily roll out without taking 2 seconds to consider what they are saying. This is from an independent, not a democrat too, for your info larry. Im sick of rhetoric from both parties, but the conservative republican machine is especially hypocritical and idiotic.

You can't have both. Pot is an effectively pointless substance to attack, and has only been illegal since the 2nd world war. Legalized, time could be concentrated on pursuing more dangerous drug production, and revenue could be realized from taxation.

It's a HUGE part of the decadance of our country. People dumbed down by any substance are often less than productive citizens. If they are productive they could be MORE productive without substances. Their morales go down the tube. Their alertness goes down the tube. And their brain gets fried by substances over time.

They don't call the stuff DOPE for nothing.

Even MORE revenue could be brought into our treasury with a productive society not all doped up.

So long as they can support themselves without being on the dole, why is it their obligation to maximize their productivity for the good of the country? Should we ban people from taking a 6-month sabbatical or a vacation of more than a week? Labor is people`s OWN property, to be sold to employers or clients at will, NOT the property of the State.

Your rhetoric sounds a lot like the old Soviet rhetoric about parasites and slackers :) Are you a closet Commie by any chance?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U06jlgpMtQs&feature=fvwrel

Tell that to all the professional white collar coke heads. From a neoliberal perspective, they are perfect citizens.

Are we going after cigarettes and alcohol as well?

The problem with this logic is that some of them are taking our tax money and being supported by the government. The ones who are NOT at the very least owe their employers a non clouded brain day of work.

NOT AT ALL. They are the same kind of slime balls, just a different substance.

That`s a matter of private contract between them and their employers, not between them and the government. Besides, no one is arguing that people should come to work stoned, or drunk, or after partying all night and getting one hour of sleep.

Key of what I said is neoliberal perspective (which you often embrace), they pay their taxes, make money, and make big business run and support the domestic economy.

The irony that I see here, is that most of the serious potheads that i knew or know are model businessmen. Usually holding down a pizza delivery job that dovetails nicely with their core interests, and growing and selling marijuana illegally providing themselves a decent income.

After that, time can be spent enjoying pizza and smoking pot while watching "Terminator" with the soundtrack from "Lost Highway" and looking for correlations.

I have absolutely no problem with these people's lifestyle, the are harming no one.

Want some oregano with that PIE?

Wow, I had NO idea that we were talking about such stellar citizens and productive members of society!;)

Good for them. Too bad they are unable to set a better example for others!

Ever thought that if you`re busting your a$$ at the office 16 hours a day, a little llello might help you keep going and be productive?

so whats the problem then?

I can probably lean out the window right now and point to 20 people who are not only non productive members of society, but are actively counter productive.

The point is that the BIG users of weed are fairly harmless, so why the big deal about keeping it illegal? big fat waste of money and time.

:confused:So more CONSERVATIVE politicians could go and waste it on military budgets to fight useless wars with no coherent strategy, mission or end goal ???

Even if I agreed with your assessment, the growing pot use is a CLEAR contribution to the decadance of our society.

If there was a LIKE button, I`d click it right now :)

:confused:
What the heck is llello?:confused:

Peruvian marching dust.
Andean snow.
Yakyak.

Take your pick :D

Wow, not even brain neurosurgeons?