While tight on time, I did skim the transcript and agree. There are enough problems in 5d country without adding to it. While I understand some people benefit from medical marijuana, I am totally against it’s legalization for a multitude of reasons.
My soap box: As a street cop in CA during the entire time before it became legal for medical use, to dealing with medical legal use people, to full on recreational legalization, I and others saw the scam way back. I always say, how did they go from medical use for "seriously ill" Californians, trot out a bunch of cancer patients and terminally ill people and say it was so strong and effective and a benefit to them to ease their suffering and pain- to full recreational use? If it was so strong a medicine that it had to be legalized and administered by a Dr. prescription to end the suffering of chronically ill Californians, how could it then be safe for recreational use? As soon as the medicinal act passed we saw 18 year olds with "migraines" and "menstrual cramps" - kids in top physical shape who played varsity sports, getting medicinal waivers and carrying weed everywhere. We knew at that point the scam was on and recreational legalization wasn't far behind. Even before medicinal use passed, we were seeing investors setting up grow sites and warehouses... Then when recreational passed and we were all assured the tax $, regulation and new criminal laws like no smoking in a vehicle or no transport of "open containers" or smoking in public would keep it all in check. No. Every cop could have told you that nobody was going to go to a dispensary, pay inflated prices and taxes when they could buy it from a guy on the corner at half price and no tax (there goes your tax revenue argument). Then, it was the wild west. People smoking it at work on their lunch breaks, smoking on the way to work in their car, smoking it on the way home from work while driving their car, smoking in public places....and if you caught them and cited them, no DA would charge them with the crime. Even as long as alcohol has been around, in almost 30 years in law enforcement, I never caught people violating alcohol laws and using it as often as we were seeing and catching people abusing marijuana in public, in vehicles and while driving. The chronic pot smokers are not some connoisseurs who smoke a joint once a month like a fine bottle of wine. They smoke every day, several times a day, and live a very specific lifestyle of laziness and low motivation. Besides the people I dealt with on the street, I have enough extended family and old friends who got into weed who never did anything with their lives to know. Any state considering legalizing it for any reason needs to look at CA and CO and do a deep dive into the problems it created. They far exceed the "benefits".
Well done, Roland. I was also tight on time, but was thankfully able to listen it. You made excellent points based on in-depth research. I was shocked by the percentage of people whose schizophrenia is linked to marijuana usage. This is not the same marijuana from yesteryear.
Like you and Howard, I understand that people can benefit from medical marijuana, but that's different from what you're talking about. Unfortunately, people like to conflate the two, when they're not the same thing.
There was stronger weed around in the 60's and 70's, during Vietnam some guys would ship some home in shoe boxes and during the 70's there was Panama Red, Acapulco Gold, Black Gunji from Africa and others which was easy to get into the country back then.
You have today the politicians taking over the rackets, the mob ran the numbers in the 60's and 70's it was only 3 numbers and easier to win and they would pay you in cash. Now we have the lottery with the states pulling in such big bucks that there should be more lower prize winners.
The states want to sell weed because it is big bucks where they can slim off the top and their pension funds are in trouble.
The first thing we need to do is comprehend how people are self governing and STOP with this ideology that the masters in an elected and non elected capacity have any such authority to hold the population at will as slaves
While tight on time, I did skim the transcript and agree. There are enough problems in 5d country without adding to it. While I understand some people benefit from medical marijuana, I am totally against it’s legalization for a multitude of reasons.
My soap box: As a street cop in CA during the entire time before it became legal for medical use, to dealing with medical legal use people, to full on recreational legalization, I and others saw the scam way back. I always say, how did they go from medical use for "seriously ill" Californians, trot out a bunch of cancer patients and terminally ill people and say it was so strong and effective and a benefit to them to ease their suffering and pain- to full recreational use? If it was so strong a medicine that it had to be legalized and administered by a Dr. prescription to end the suffering of chronically ill Californians, how could it then be safe for recreational use? As soon as the medicinal act passed we saw 18 year olds with "migraines" and "menstrual cramps" - kids in top physical shape who played varsity sports, getting medicinal waivers and carrying weed everywhere. We knew at that point the scam was on and recreational legalization wasn't far behind. Even before medicinal use passed, we were seeing investors setting up grow sites and warehouses... Then when recreational passed and we were all assured the tax $, regulation and new criminal laws like no smoking in a vehicle or no transport of "open containers" or smoking in public would keep it all in check. No. Every cop could have told you that nobody was going to go to a dispensary, pay inflated prices and taxes when they could buy it from a guy on the corner at half price and no tax (there goes your tax revenue argument). Then, it was the wild west. People smoking it at work on their lunch breaks, smoking on the way to work in their car, smoking it on the way home from work while driving their car, smoking in public places....and if you caught them and cited them, no DA would charge them with the crime. Even as long as alcohol has been around, in almost 30 years in law enforcement, I never caught people violating alcohol laws and using it as often as we were seeing and catching people abusing marijuana in public, in vehicles and while driving. The chronic pot smokers are not some connoisseurs who smoke a joint once a month like a fine bottle of wine. They smoke every day, several times a day, and live a very specific lifestyle of laziness and low motivation. Besides the people I dealt with on the street, I have enough extended family and old friends who got into weed who never did anything with their lives to know. Any state considering legalizing it for any reason needs to look at CA and CO and do a deep dive into the problems it created. They far exceed the "benefits".
If they had DUI back in the 60's and 70's you would have needed new jails built, when the WW2 crowd was around you had a bar on every corner.
Well done, Roland. I was also tight on time, but was thankfully able to listen it. You made excellent points based on in-depth research. I was shocked by the percentage of people whose schizophrenia is linked to marijuana usage. This is not the same marijuana from yesteryear.
Like you and Howard, I understand that people can benefit from medical marijuana, but that's different from what you're talking about. Unfortunately, people like to conflate the two, when they're not the same thing.
There was stronger weed around in the 60's and 70's, during Vietnam some guys would ship some home in shoe boxes and during the 70's there was Panama Red, Acapulco Gold, Black Gunji from Africa and others which was easy to get into the country back then.
You have today the politicians taking over the rackets, the mob ran the numbers in the 60's and 70's it was only 3 numbers and easier to win and they would pay you in cash. Now we have the lottery with the states pulling in such big bucks that there should be more lower prize winners.
The states want to sell weed because it is big bucks where they can slim off the top and their pension funds are in trouble.
The first thing we need to do is comprehend how people are self governing and STOP with this ideology that the masters in an elected and non elected capacity have any such authority to hold the population at will as slaves