NORML’s 4/20 legalization ad: “Yes We Can”
posted at 6:15 pm on April 20, 2009 by Allahpundit
The ad’s old-ish but the ad campaign isn’t:
The NORML Foundation launched this pro-marijuana ad campaign to create further political pressure on the federal government to recognize 1) the ever-increasing support of Americans who favor cannabis legalization, 2) the clear sea change of cannabis laws that’s been happening at the state level since Californians voted in favor of medicinal access to cannabis in 1996, and 3) to rally cannabis consumers and anti-prohibitionists on April 20, a date on the calendar that has organically become a national day to both publicly celebrate cannabis as well as protest 70 years of prohibition.
Support may be increasing but, as of last month, fully 58 percent still opposed legalization, notwithstanding the gradual mainstreaming of the drug in pop culture. There would be obvious economic benefits to legalization, needless to say, but maybe not as many as you think: This excellent NPR piece cites one analyst who pegs it at just $20 billion annually, which isn’t enough these days to cover a bailout of even one megabank. The same piece notes that pot use among teens, which is bound to increase if the drug becomes more accessible, can cause developmental delay.
There’s only one thing to do. A Hot Air poll awaits below the clip.
Blowback
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Wait, Cigarettes are being taxed into legalization but pots OK?
I missed a meeting I guess.
Bladerunner1701 on April 21, 2009 at 12:22 AM
Lots of times, and I’m not the least bit wrong. It’s a fact.
FloatingRock on April 21, 2009 at 12:22 AM
Do you ever worked accidents where the offender wasn’t high or drunk or anything, but was talking on a cell phone? Fell asleep? Adjusting the stereo? Dropped their hot coffee in their lap? Wasn’t paying attention?
Your claim is only based on anecdotal evidence.
FloatingRock on April 21, 2009 at 12:35 AM
from my personal experience… 100% of all my good friends who “only smoked pot” in high school, all of whom said they would never do anything harder…. have all done harder drugs. Some cocain, some Zanbars, to meth. It is a gateway drug because it takes more and more pot to get the same high, which starts to cost more money than say 1 hit of acid…
btw all of them have done Acid now, we are only 24 so its been 6 years since highschool and none of them “just smoke pot” .
So for all you “its not a gateway drug” you should say “its not always a gateway drug”
Not all people are created equal,some can handle stopping at pot, some can not. but the reason its called a gateway drug, is because nobody goes from nothing to cocaine. usually Coke heads also smoke pot. Why is this you say? well if you are breaking the law smoking pot…. then you have no respect for the law so why not do harder drugs?
you can say alcohol and cigs are also “gateway” drugs, but that would be a far stretch since majority of Alcoholics do not smoke pot, where as majority of pot heads DO drink alcohol ….
So regardless … Potheads have tried their best for last 30 years to try and convince us that “pot is not bad” or “the war on drugs has failed” well so had the “war on poverty” should we just stop that? (yeah i think we should… ) Pot is in no way good, anything that puts somebody out of their normal state of mind can never be good for that person or society… esp at the cost of brain cells and donut’s time having to put up this long of a post to debunk stupid potheads who just want to be able to smoke more pot….
Donut on April 21, 2009 at 1:07 AM
Ugh. Now all the potheads come out in the thread to proclaim pot is somehow safer than alcohol and no different than cigs.
TheBlueSite on April 21, 2009 at 1:22 AM
Yes to the first one, because it is scientifically factual. That you were ignorant of this fact doesn’t alter its existence. MJ is different than cigarettes, however, because nicotine is addictive.
FloatingRock on April 21, 2009 at 1:38 AM
I am not going to read the previous comments but just put in my two cents…
We should legalize pot.
Yes, I smoked it a lot in my teens and twenties. I am now in my 50′s and haven’t touched the weed in 30 years.
Babs on April 21, 2009 at 3:40 AM
I’m down with it, but with conditions:
1. It’s got to be regulated by the FDA just like any other legal controlled substance like alcohol or tobacco or prescription drugs.
2. Any Legalization Act MUST carry the folowing provisions:
1. Cannabis, Alcohol and Tobacco must be classified as Class 2 Controlled Substances; Sale or distribution to minors of said substances will be subject to a mandatory 25 year federal prision sentence w/o possibility of parole.
1a. Unlicensed manufacture or sale of Class 2 Controlled substances will be subject to a mandatory 50 year federal prison sentence w/o possibility of parole.
2. All other controlled substances (Heroine, Coke, Crack, et al) must be classified as Class 1 Controlled Substances for which the following MANDATORY penalties apply:
A. Simple Possesion of a Class 1 Controlled Substance: 25 years, w/o possibility of parole.
B. Transport, Trafficking or Manufacture of a Class 1 Controlled Substance: Life Sentence w/o possibility of parole.
C. Violent crimes committed while engaging in Transport, Trafficking or Manufacture of a Class 1 Controlled Substance: Automatic Death Penalty.
D. Foreign Nationals caught entering the United States for the purpose of transporting, trafficking, or manufacturing Class 1 Controlled Substances will be subject to summary execution.(Cocaine and Heroine are the two worst Weapons of Mass Destruction to hit these shores to date. Time to start treating the scum who profit from the destruction of our society as the terrorist murderers that they are.)
E. The United States Armed Forces will be deployed for the purposes of securing our boarders, coastal waters and all points of entry to enforce sections B and D.
Call these measures draconian if you want, but has anything else wrought more damage upon our Nation in the last fifty years than substances such as cocaine, heroine, crack, or meth-amphetamine?
Hard drug use and it’s trafficking and associated “splinter crimes” have destroyed communities, cities and torn holes in the very fabric of our society and created the very dependency culture that plays into the hands of the Left.
You start fighting an actual war on drugs, you see how fast our country starts cleaning up. Anybody wanna join a gang if it’s an automatic life sentence or signing your own death warrant, no two ways about it? Anybody wanna mule if it means life imprisonment or summary execution? How many coyotes are going to be willing to make a border run if it means running into a mechanized infantry column or heliborne patrol or a cutter full of Marines with orders to shoot them on sight/confirmation of purpose?
I’m thinking not many.
SuperCool on April 21, 2009 at 5:21 AM
I was curious last night now many times you would declare scientific evidence of something that any pot smoker who is over the delusions can quickly refute, while failing to link to a single source to support your assertion.
Conclusion: every time. So, where does one get this “scientific evidence” – from NORML rallies? Come on, dude. Put up, or shut up.
Jaibones on April 21, 2009 at 7:42 AM
Prohibition has never worked and never will work. Re-legalize Cannabis. Let people grow their own,ie. no taxes. As for cannabis hurting anyone, that’s a joke…
adamsmith on April 21, 2009 at 7:47 AM
Glad to see that NPR segment get some mention. It is a great piece of work.
I’m for legalization. The one area of concern is young kids (mainly college) increasing their consumption of it. But, I’m not sure it will that much. There will be some “independents” if you will that will try only because it’s legal, but I think pot already so mainstream on campuses that most people who don’t smoke it don’t because they don’t want to, not because it’s illegal.
Tom_Shipley on April 21, 2009 at 8:08 AM
And judging by the rest of your post, I would guess you are also on the take.
Just like a good many narcotics detectives.
JohnGalt23 on April 21, 2009 at 10:20 AM
Amazing how quickly potheads get nasty if you threaten their stash.
Dude, you may want to consider why being able to alter your mind is so serious to you. I like beer but if it was made illegal tomorrow I could care less, it would not be a call to battle. A nation where people are in their right minds 100% of the time would probably be a better nation in the long run. I understand that will never happen because even without pot and beer there would be liberals and libertarians.
peacenprosperity on April 21, 2009 at 11:06 AM
Can we de-regulate psuedaphedrine while we are at it. It irritates me to no end to have to show my driver’s license to buy cold medicine.
bitsy on April 21, 2009 at 11:37 AM
FIFY
FloatingRock on April 21, 2009 at 11:47 AM
Legalizing MJ could not result in statistically significant increase in consumption because everybody who wants to use it already does. But it would make the MJ less likely to be adulterated with acid, because most of the users I know would not buy anything from their dealer that they could get from 7-11.
.
Only one pot smoker I know went on to other drugs, and he couldn’t be trusted with a sugar bowl when we met in second grade.
darktood on April 21, 2009 at 11:51 AM
Just because we have a bunch of pothead Democrats in charge doesn’t mean it’s right.
Like my son, I want every pot user “scared straight”. His half-day in the tank was truly the start of the rest of his life.
unclesmrgol on April 21, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Great idea! If it works for pot, why not for meth?
unclesmrgol on April 21, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Are you stoned? Pot is already illegal. How is your freedom taken away by not changing the status?
Libertarians are just liberals who are honest about taxes.
peacenprosperity on April 21, 2009 at 1:12 PM
Are you drunk? The LACK of freedom is taken away by not changing the legality of pot. Including the freedom of non smokers who would prefer not to fund a failed drug war.
And social Cons are people who only pay lip service to “less government.”
justfinethanks on April 21, 2009 at 1:31 PM
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