The end of prohibition
October 31st, 2009 at 12:55pm Pat Cunningham
 
 Jacob Weisberg EXPLAINS “why gay marriage, getting high and going to Cuba will soon be legal.”
 An excerpt:
 Our forms of prohibition are more sins of omission than commission. Rather than trying to take away longstanding rights, they’re instances of conservative laws failing to keep pace with a liberalizing society. But like Prohibition in the ’20s, these restrictions have become indefensible as well as impractical, and as a result are fading fast. Within 10 years, it seems a reasonable guess that Americans will travel freely to Cuba, that all states will recognize gay unions, and that few will retain criminal penalties for marijuana use by individuals. Whether or not Democrats retain control of Congress, whether or not Obama is re-elected, and whether they happen sooner or later than expected, these reforms are inevitable—not because politics has changed but because society has.
Entry Filed under: prohibition
10 Comments Add your own
1. snuss | October 31st, 2009 at 5:01 pm
And when will you Liberal proclaim NAMBLA “mainstream”? It IS just another lifestyle choice, isn’t it?
2. DingDong | October 31st, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Got to remember, anything that is compulsion that an individual can not control should just be understood and legalized. It is the liberal way.
3. denny johnson | October 31st, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Don’t mind at all if we open the doors to travel to Cuba. We have built several playgrounds there for the kids. Also have brought in materials to assist the churches to teach the children. Have met Castro in the process. However America has a long standing reverence for God and making laws that use the common sense He put in each one of us. Legalizing marijuana seems as logical as texting while driving…… both can produce crazy drivers.
4. snuss | November 1st, 2009 at 9:35 am
My only concern about travel to Cuba, is that it helps support the Castro regime, in it’s repression of the Cuban people. Why do you think so many of them have, and continue to try to, reach the U.S., at great risk to their lives?
5. Joe | November 1st, 2009 at 11:37 am
denny you will not see an uptick in poor drivers when marijuana is made legal. It is not like the american people are going without marijuana. Right now it is easier for a kid to buy marijuana then it is for them to buy beer. It is everywhere. If anything by making marijuana legal we would see a decrease in usage. That is exactly what happened in other countries when they decriminalized marijuana, Take a country like portugal. They decriminalized and seen a decrease in usage.
Of course we could just keep building prisons and locking people up. That plan is clearly working well. We have more people smoking marijuana now then ever before. We also have more people locked up then ever before. This clearly is a win win for the people that make money off marijuana being illegal. You know drug dealers, cops, growers, lawyers, prison guard unions, judges, bankers, pfizer, miller, and politicians. Don’t forget the good people making these kits to test everyone, Denny did you know that kids as young as 7th grade are subject to drug testing if they want to play sports.
My favorite part of the drug war is how they deal with student loans. If you have been arrested for marijuana you can not get a student loan. If you have been arrested for rape or murder you can. That my friend is crazy.
Another interesting fact is more people in columbia die from our tobacco, then americans die from columbia’s coke.
I also find it interesting that our government labels marijuana as a schedule one drug. Yet they have ok’ed the use of marinol, which is thc in a pill. How can they say marijuana has no medical value, but at the same time have a marijuana pill? I guess marijuna has value as long as it is developed in a lab and not in your back yard.
Either way I’ll keep smoking. Just wish my country didn’t want to lock me up for it. If only i was a drinker.
6. QuentinK | November 1st, 2009 at 11:52 am
Joe is right on the drug war thing. A child molester gets out in 18 months and some guy smoking a joint in his backyard after work gets a 5 year minimum sentence??? Somebody rapes a girl, then cuts off her head and sticks it on a flagpole is eligible for a student loan UNLESS he was smoking a joint at the time. All of a sudden he has crossed the line. How about legalize pot, tax the hell out of it and use the money to keep the rapists, muderers and child molesters in for a LONG, LONG time?
Oh and since their would be a tax on pot we could use that law as a way to go after the cartels. It’s what we did after the first prohibition.
7. mike | November 1st, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Pat only you could applaud people on the road to Hell. Stay tuned.
8. DingDong | November 1st, 2009 at 12:53 pm
On the surface, legalization or de-criminalization of drugs seems like a good idea. But in most countries that this has been tried, it has been a failure. Increasing crime, drug users and abusers. I agree that the punishment needs to be much more lenient. It is ridiculous imprison a user for lengthy amount of time just for using.
9. Craig Knauss | November 1st, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Gee, the next thing you know, we’ll be legalizing travel to communist China and Vietnam. Oh, wait. It’s already legal, isn’t it?
10. Joe | November 1st, 2009 at 11:36 pm
ding dong, can you name a few of these countries where decriminalization hasn\’t worked?
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