Marijuana legalization backers try to reel in conservative voters
DENVER (AP) - It's not all hippies backing November's marijuana legalization votes in Colorado, Oregon and Washington.
Appealing to Western individualism and a mistrust of federal government, activists have lined up some prominent conservatives, from one-time presidential hopefuls Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul to Republican-turned-Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson.
"This is truly a nonpartisan issue," said Mark Slaugh, a volunteer for the Colorado initiative who is based in Colorado Springs, which has more Republicans than anywhere else in the state.
"States' rights! States' rights!" Slaugh cried as he handed out flyers about the state's pot measure outside a rally last month by Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. Quite a few passing Republicans took the flyer.
"It's fiscally prudent. It would be taxed, regulated, monitored. It makes a lot of sense to Republicans," he said.
Most Republicans still oppose legalization. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney vows to enforce federal law. When Ryan told a Colorado Springs TV station in September that medical marijuana was "up to Coloradans to decide," his campaign quickly backtracked and said he agreed with Romney.
When activists make their appeal, it goes like this: States should dictate drug law. Decades of federal prohibition have failed where personal responsibility and old-fashioned parenting will succeed. Politicians back East have no business dictating what the states do.
"What is the law against marijuana if it isn't the Nanny State telling you what you can do and what you can't do to your body and with your body?" asked Tancredo, a former Republican congressman from suburban Denver who briefly ran for president in 2008 and endorsed the measure on the steps of the state capitol. He compared federal law to New York City's ban on sugary sodas.
Tancredo launched a radio ad this week in which he compares marijuana prohibition to alcohol prohibition as a "failed government program" that, in this case, "steers Colorado money to criminals in Mexico."
"Proponents of big government have duped us into supporting a similar prohibition of marijuana - even though it can be used safely and responsibly by adults," Tancredo said.
Pot supporters have lined up other surprising allies this year, even as many Democrats oppose the measures. Conservative stalwart Pat Robertson, for example, said marijuana should be legal.
In Washington state, Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Michael Baumgartner is running a longshot bid to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, who opposes it.
"It's taking a different approach to a very expensive drug war, and potentially a better approach," he said.
In Oregon, at least one Republican state Senate candidate backs legalization. Cliff Hutchison reasoned that legalizing pot would "cut wasteful government spending on corrections and reduce drug gang violence."
Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, is fiscally conservative but supports such liberal causes as legalizing marijuana, immigration reform and abortion rights. He's said that if elected he would pardon all non-violent prisoners convicted of marijuana-related offenses in federal court.
Pro-pot conservatives have counterparts on the other side - Democrats who say pot shouldn't be legal without a doctor's recommendation. Democratic governors in Colorado and Washington oppose legalization. Oregon's Democratic governor has not taken a stand.
President Barack Obama's administration has shut down medical marijuana dispensaries in California and Colorado.
Republican Colorado state Sen. Steve King is a frequent critic of Colorado's medical marijuana law. Conservatives abhor government, but they also fear legalization would increase children's drug use, he said. "It's pretty easy to come in and say, 'Let's decrease government.' And I'm all for that. This just isn't the place to start," King said.
"We have a next generation to protect," he said.
All those who have used marijuana raise your hands. Now go turn yourself in and do your time for it. Don't forget if you have some Hemp lotion, clothing or any other HEMP product. Include your probation which will consist of no alchol, fines and drug tests. Think about how many people would be in jail. Seems that a lot of people will want to pull their hands back down but be willing to put others in jail for the same thing. Not saying I want to use it or that I have, but I do have a bottle of that great hemp lotion sitting in my bathroom! Where the heck is it coming from? I know we could deffinatley use the money in this State and since it is already our number one cash crop Per Judge Joe Brown dang it lets make some money off of it before the drug cartell does.
marijuana is Not the Gateway Drug we have been warned about, Alcohol is the True Gateway drug.
 @swede760 Marijuana is a gateway drug to 7-11.
 @swede760 That and ciggs.
@playanekes Sorry about getting the name wrong! I only saw it for a couple of seconds.
I grew up in a conservative household. I am very fiscally and politically conservative. My family has five acres of land that would be ideal for growing hemp. Unfortunately, people who seek to deprive others of the liberty of using one substance continue to deprive us of a different liberty simply because the plant is similar. This is an aggressive offense to our freedom and the greater American ideal. As a liberty-seeking, patriotic American conservative I am ideologically bound to support the legalization of marijuana and hemp
Playcates: You shouldn't have deleted that comment while I was reading it! ];->
pretty simple... those who oppose it have never been around marijuana.. it's one of those anomalies, costs us billions in the corrupt "drug games", allowing criminals to walk because their cell needed to be filled by a 3x caught marijuana smoker, and maybe trillions with all the alternate uses included.  Hell even if you are the most against "drugs" person you have to look at how industrialization across the world, namely China who is making foreign exports impossible to fiscally compare to foreign imports all the while we dip into an extra trillion dollar national debt annually.  This whole damn presidential campaign is about "how do we save money, cut costs, increase jobs" while you have a SIMPLE, VERY SIMPLE answer right here.  When I graduated college I quickly found out EVERY decision that is made, at your high school, at your local hospital, in your white house is made around money. Not like I didn't know this before college, but the maturation of gray matter in your brain and the examples of every decision in history you kind of laude how everything can be so corrupt.  Then you join the workplace, and after 2 years YOU are trying to get YOUR piece of the pie :)  I love it, and have done well I must say.
Â
Back to topic, I can only imagine the millions of dollars trading hands by the people or industries needing to keep things the same (those wanting things to change aren't legal entities to lobby, hence this law taking so many years to come into eventuality) Â But simple, don't like marijuana, you absolutely like all the issues it solves
@Benjamin Austin ". . . those who oppose it have never been around marijuana . . . "
Â
I must be an anomaly, then. All of my siblings either used pot or had friends that did and I oppose legalizing marijuana.
@theprodigal How in good conscience can you support a 41 year effort in futility at a cost of over a trillion dollars and a loss of over 52,000 lives?
The hemp industry is estimated to be worth $40 billion per year creating 50,000 consumer products. Big Business does not want the competition, hence the reluctance of government to address the issue. Money dictates policy and common sense is cast aside. This government repression of personal freedom goes against the constitution our elected reps are sworn to uphold. A public demand to repeal cannabis prohibition is gathering force and is the only way to get lawmakers attention, thus forcing them to placate the populace or be replaced by someone who will.Â
I see no reason for it not to be legalized, or at least completely decriminalized. It doesn't matter anymore, because the United States is done for as a major player in the world. We have become so "Europeanized" that America might as well get stoned and forget what it was we were all about.
No conservatives are hypocrites who only see waste when it's being spent on anything other than already bloated military budgets.
 @criticalreason If you want an example of 'bloated', we waste far more dollars on welfare [or human services if you prefer] than we do on the military.
 @last boyscout Budget for FY2013...$901,400,000 on military $422,300,000 on Welfare....so yeah, they spent double on the military but welfare is a waste. We spend more on our military than the next 15 countries combined. Welfare spending is growing faster than military today, but still not even close in total $$$$ spent!
Â
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/current_spending
Â
You seem like a nice enough guy last boyscout but you need to quit watching Fox!
 @B Smizzle  @Festivus  @last boyscout I don't think it's really fair to consider SS/Medicare to be anything other than a tax.  They were designed from the start to be a transfer of wealth from the current working generation to the current infirm or retired generation.  Since you have no account with your name on it from which you can draw only that which you put in when you retire, and since most people alive today will pull out of SS something like 3x what they paid in during their working lives, there's really only one word for the program.
Â
One I am more than willing to pay,and in the case of SS I support raising the income limit, Â but a"human services" tax nonetheless.
 @Festivus  @last boyscout You can't count SS/Medicare/Medicaid as we already paid into it out working lives (well at lest I have).  My opinion is if I pay into it, it should not be seen as an entitlement as I already paid for it.  However you are probably correct on his assumptions.
Â
"My beef with military spending is that we somehow feel obligated to spend as much as nearly the rest of the world combined."
Â
Agree 100%! Â Also does anyone remember this the day before 9/11?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kpWqdPMjmo
 @B Smizzle  @last boyscout To be fair, I presume he's counting SS/Medicare/Medicaid in his definition of human services.  Which, when summed, do outpace the military. Â
Â
My beef with military spending is that we somehow feel obligated to spend as much as nearly the rest of the world combined. Â If the two political parties are going to spend my tax money with equal abandon, I'd rather they do it here to help Americans. Â
@last boyscout @criticalreason we just gave a company $100,000,000 for "Egypt Staff Support Services" and another few hundred million to build a machine to load missiles onto Joint Strike Fighters. The Navy loads missiles faster, on the decks of ships, by hand.
 @last boyscout  @criticalreason And, the thing that many people (or should I say liberal people ?) forget is that the Constitution requires the federal government to "provide for the common defence". It does not require spending money on welfare.
 @OliverNicholas You should avoid reading too much into a 3.5 line comment.
So you are perfectly ok with over expenditures in government as long as they are military related? No questions asked?  Common defense I think is more than just the end of the rifle, itâs about using critical thinking and not being trapped into stupidity and complacency.
http://www.taintedthoughts.com/item/the_power_of_hemp_-_the_plant_god_blessed_man_with
this aught to get your attention.
here is one.."Save the trees , Use Hemp to build our houses"
 @lee986321 The US government forced the Sioux to grow hemp for the war effort, and then showed them how to do it, and then turned around and threatened to seize their land if they grow it now. It turns out, hemp is also awesome for livestock, buffalo...  Gotta have our War on Some Drugs though.
 @Playanekes True, it seems that our government uses innocence to legalize or legalization products, but one fact remains, what would happen if a person built a house made of hemp? does it then become an illegal structure?Â
@lee986321 I don't think so because you can still by hemp rope, clothing, etc. Somebody grows the hemp somewhere but it's obviously not done in America because the Nanny Statists will destroy your business, confiscate your land and take your freedom for attempting such an enterprise.
Screw both parties, vote Gary Johnson.
 @randomdude He's a republican.
 @randomdude Well, legalizing marijuana is the Original Libertarian Party Platform plank.  Gotta give 'em props for consistency.
This comment has been deleted
They need to start using the word HEMP they continue to enrage and play with the readers by using POT. POT is Politically incorrect lol. Hey this being politically correct can be a two way street KATU You can not "Cherry Pick what is politically correct or wrong to suit ones ambitions or needs."
Â
at any rate on the reality side, hemp can be used to manufacture other things then Drugs, one can make clothing, building materials and other things that can have a total legit reason for use. but industries like the lumber and such, would have to turn from Loggers to Hemp Harvesters. Now to see an entire Log Truck hauling that much Hemp would be rather interesting to see.Â
Â
I dislike the term Pot, as I too find it offensive. I also believe that Marijuana is a derogatory term that was thrown into use by the prohibitionist propaganda of Harry Anslinger-confirmed racist. He detested African Americans and Hispanic Americans, as well as Jazz "Devil" music.  Certainly a person we should not be role modeling our behavior or modeling or laws from.
 @lee986321 Abolutly, just like they need to use the word homosexual instead of gay.
@oodathunked @lee986321 "gay" is ambiguous whereas "homosexual" is not. Consider the original lyrics of "My Old Kentucky Home" and having to explain to the children, "'T'is summer, the darkies are gay..."
Oh and I can jsut see a new this "Bud is for you" commercial/
 @lee986321 What's interesting is that my football coach at Reynolds was a minor celebrity around school because he was the guy at the bar who said "Bud" in the original Henry's commercial. Now, imagine if it had been a cigarettes or marijuana ad.
People dont need  a State full pot addicts.
 @sortbait People don't need a state full of gambling addicts or drunks, either, so, I hope you're not a fan of the casino.
 @sortbait So we need to continue the sham of the war on drugs.. that costs $600 per second? And fills out PRIVATIZED prisons? Ya continue on! you sir are an idiot
 @iamright555  @sortbait Yes because private prisons help the economy.
@iamright555 @sortbait - At present the drug war costs taxpayers $1716.77 per second.
 @OliverNicholas Plants don't grow in basements with artificial lighting.
@Nobody @wrench @iamright555 Quick, make up a statistic because you don't know. If drugs weren't illegal the would be no cost of illegal drug usage. See how easy it is to manipulate rhetoric?
Its none of your business what anyone puts into their own body, so bugger off. Personal Sovereignty is our right, so please beat your chest elsewhere. Drugs are manufactured or processed heavily - cannabis is no drug, itâs a plant.
 @wrench  @iamright555 And, what is the cost of illegal drug usage?
 @sortbait Truth is, we need a lot fewer dunderheads who believe the lie that cannabis is addictive in any way!  All the legitimate studies out there prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that cannabis is, in NO WAY, addictive.  On the other hand, nicotine is one of the most addictive substances and alcohol is not only addictive, but can also trigger severe mental problems.
 @Gravity Works! If it's not addictive, why do many people smoke it daily and often?
 @on shing dao Why do so many people need Alcohol, Nicotine, Caffine, sugar, comfort foods, sex etc. etc? Everyone has thier own stress relief drink, bowl, candy or sex. If you say you do not you are a Liar.
 @Gravity Works!  @sortbaitÂ
 @Benjamin Austin Uhmmm, hunh?  Didn't quite catch the nuance, there.
 @Gravity Works!  @sortbait Well, that statement can be questioned. A brief search turned up this statement (from a NON-government source); "Compared to other substances, marijuana is not very addicting.") This puts big question marks around the "NO WAY" statement; not very is a considerable departure from NO WAY. Yes, not as immediate or severe addiction as some other choices but there is still an addictive component to marijuana. It has been reported by more than a few research studies.
Â
What I find most amusing, however, is the constant comparisons to alcohol and tobacco. First, marijuana smoke is as toxic or more so than tobacco smoke. And secondly; yes, we made a mistake with tobacco and alcohol. But those mistakes are not reasonable justification for making another mistake with marijuana.Â
Â
At least three independent studies have recently shown that marijuana smoking increases the chances of getting testicular cancer by 3 to 4 times. That is by 300% to 400%. But maybe that is a good thing. No testicles = no reproduction.
@Nobody @Gravity Works! @sortbait "And secondly; yes, we made a mistake with" How about you take that Nanny State nonsense to China or Iran where it belongs?
I don't smoke anything, so at least the last item you bring up does not apply to all cases. Â I use a vaporizer = no toxic anything, no tar, just H2O and THC.
 @Gravity Works!  @sortbait not to mention that thanks to my fathers smoking I have asthma. But, I can say this, get caught smoking and driving should be just the same. and any one UII..in book desereves a revocation of there license.