Comments on: Common Sense Says, "No Thanks!"

Guest Column: Stephen Baldwin & Kevin McCullough: America doesn't want its pot.. American potheads do!

[cakemanjb]

I am 52 years old and i haven't smoked pot for years. But i smoked a lot of it when i was younger. Our Marijuana laws are just plain stupid and out of balance in America. Alcohol is much more harmful and dangerous then pot every thought of being.

The money this country spends on prosecuting and incarcerating Pot smokers could be used for Health Care or paying down our National Debt.

This article is a total joke when it talks about how easy legalizing pot would make it for kids to obtain. I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU............Kids in grade school today can easily get and use pot if they decide to.

[strangeworld]

I'm near 50 years old and suffering from degenerative bone disease in my spine at the neck and lower back, as well as joint pain brought on by knee surgeries and knee repacements. While I have not as yet tried marijuana to deaden the pain so that I can sleep, it's propably not going to be long before I give it a try. I was holding out some hope that a common sense marijuana law would have been ushered in under Obama, but it seems that he's got a lot more on his plate to worry about right now. I still call my Senators and representatives about it, and hope that you do to. They only start listening when they get a lot of calls of certain subjects, Your senator/representative's phone numbers can be found in the front of most phone books. Talk nice to the people...I've never had someone answer the phone at a senator's or representative's office who wasn't nice or understanding.

[strangeworld]

A lot of good opinion on the issue of legalization of marijuana, but to really make a difference in tis debate, you need to contact your state and US Senators and Concressmen and explain your thoughts on the matter to the person who answers the phone. The Senator generally doesn't have time to anwer phone calls to his office, but his/her staff with tabulate the results and provide the senator with them to take to the hill with him as a guide when the governing bodies start examining the issue, Make some time and call your representatives...you'll be glad that you did..

[1RastaWarrior]

Bless up abrew12, the truth should be plain for everyone to see.

"Herb is Healing of the Nations, alcohol is the destruction."

Bob Marley

[ubrew12]

I support the legalization of marijuana.
I've known people who got addicted to tobacco... it killed them.
I've known people who got addicted to alcohol... it made the last third of their lives a joke, then it killed them.
I've known people who got addicted to cocaine... it killed them.

But the only person I've known who arguably got ADDICTED to marijuana, had to take a year off from college to straighten himself out. When he returned, he still enjoyed the occasional toke, just NOT to excess. On the other hand, he'd learned so much about cultivating pot in his closet that he decided to get a PhD in Plant Propagation, and he's a highly respected, healthy, and VERY energetic professor to this day, THIRTY YEARS after his year of 'difficulty'.

I wish I could report such a happy outcome to the people I've known who fell to tobacco, alcohol, or cocaine, but, alas, that was not the case. Those people lived increasingly brutish lives, fell into ill-health, and eventually died awful deaths. It's amazing to me, still, that alcohol and tobacco are actually LEGAL, given the HORROR they visit upon those who become enslaved to them. That is JUST not the case with marijuana, and its time to recognize that fact.

[[e-mail]]

Your in trouble the day you start taking Steve Baldwins advice on anything. Anyone notice how pejorative the terms were in the article? Not addressing issues but instead coloring people by negative words such as pot heads and rabid dealers and addicts. Does Steve Baldwin think we have a Rabies problem and not a drug problem?

[1RastaWarrior]

"But for the sake of our kids and the generations to come, it is still not too late to "just say no!" "

I would agree, it's time to just say no to lying politicians and the hold they and the tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical companies have over our lives. It's time to say no to these companies when they open their wallets to hand out massive amounts of money to fight against every piece of pro-cannabis legislation that crosses a government desk. Let's just say no the next time we hear an anti-cannabis advocate recycling the same discredited propaganda we've heard for 80 years now.

If cannabis were legal and we actually taught our kids the truth about it, the tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical companies would lose significant profits.

For the sake of our kids let's hope they choose to use a non-toxic plant that poses virtually no health risks over highly toxic substances that cause massive amounts of disease and death.

"In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly
consume. For example, eating ten raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death... Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man."

Francis Young - Administrative Law Judge ofr the DEA

[paperwhite]

Smoking smog is bad for our lungs. Everybody is complaining that our air quality is so bad. So, why do we need to have another smog around us? Tobacco must be eradicated, too.

[1RastaWarrior]

"At any rate, smoking anything will eventually cause emphysema."

This is not true of cannabis. A study out of New Zeland published 2 years ago and reviewed by the Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that even among heavy cannabis users (5 joints a day) the rates of emphysema were virtually non-existant (1.3%) while in pack a day tobacco smokers they were significant (16.3%).

I spoke to friend of mine - a fellow cannabis user - who's an anesthesiologist. He said when lifelong cannabis users come into surgery their internal functions (lungs, airways, etc.) look like those of an 18 year old who has never tried anything.

Most of what most people know about cannabis is information based on everything from a gross misrepresentation of facts to bald-faced lies.

The debate about legalizing cannabis is not simply about potheads wanting their pot as the authors of this piece postulate. It's a debate that strikes to the very core of our nation's supposed values - truth, liberty, equality, economic freedom and democracy. It's about exposing the corrupt hypocrisies of a political system which has made a practice of lying to its people for many years in order to serve the narrow interests of a privileged few.

"It's just another case of political insanity, abusing the rights of humanity but we should all plant a seed of this tree that we need to avoid an ecological calamity. We can use it for paper to save some trees, use it for fuel to save some seas, use it for medicine to help fight disease and use it for food when we're hungry."

Pato Banton

[andylance1]

Legalize hemp. Until the 1930s hemp was made into rope, clothing and many other products. Hemp is much better than corn for ethanol - it has a higher oil content and grows nearly everywhere if those pesky cops would let it. It grows in National Forests and BLM land. It is a very hardy plant which just happens to have another name - marijuana.

The UN criticized the US for using subsidized corn for ethanol. It raised the price of corn and other grains all over the world... like your neighborhood grocery store. Save energy, lower food prices, legalize hemp.

[dickcntsn]

This is an incredibly poorly written and reasoned article, even by prohibitionist standards.

"What we oppose with ferocity is making it as common for children to obtain as alcohol and cigarettes are now."

Are children "commonly" obtaining cigarettes and alcohol? Last I checked, it was illegal for kids to buy either one. Hmm, are you saying prohibition is ineffective?

"This doesn't even preface the fact that cigarettes are now thought of as a greater evil to children than sex offenders."

Apart from the utter meaningless of the phrase "preface the fact", I've never heard this argument made.

"A major untruth that they spread is that for every criminal it would prevent from being sent to prison, dealing with the increasingly prevalent use by underage users would be doubled or even tripled. "

I think you meant to say "a major truth they ignore" or something similar - or was that a Freudian slip and you really know that your arguments are nonsense?

Stick to reading from a script. Actually, don't do that either!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439238/ (apropos of this article)

[zendigity]

The fight to legalize Marijuana isn't about getting high, it's about standing up to a justice system that has overstepped its bounds repeatedly throughout history; it's about the desire for real change within this country. The costs of this country's attempts to legislate morality has bled its coffers dry; as the country sinks deeper into despair and real crime increases, do our leaders really want to be remember as being fixated on this kind of mindlessness? It's time for the world to re-examine the ridiculous propaganda this country has attempted to force into the mainstream consciousness of its people; it's time to take an honest look at the facts and ask ourselves if it's worth it as a country to be so concerned about outlawing something so minor as a plant that makes you giggle when you smoke it; billions have already been lost..what next?

[Ron_Mexico2]

Hey oreo, what happens if someone eats cannabis or vaporizes it? I'll tell you what happens, fear-mongering prohibitionists get flustered and start talking about the kids and people getting REEFER MADNESS! So while I agree that it's pretty foolish to smoke anything, you can mitigate the harm associated with cannabis with education.

And knowing is half the battle. ;)

[listentoreason]

"This doesn't even preface the fact that cigarettes are now thought of as a greater evil to children than sex offenders" I don't know about you but I would never follow anyone's judgment that thinks that smoke is potentially more harmful than rape or assault. Haha, you must be kidding me.

[Addub]

Hahaha! Stephen Baldwin! Conservative Christian spokesperson extraordinaire! I'm a Christian, and all about forgiving people's past. But I'm not about excusing ongoing harmful narcissism.

[oreo1412]

One thing that popped out at me as I read this article was the inference that sex offenders are more dangerous than cigarettes to our children. Actually, both are pretty lousy things for kids to have around but the comparison is ridiculous and attempts to be inflammatory, inferring marijuana is equal to these things. At any rate, smoking anything will eventually cause emphysema. Emphysema is incurable damage to your lungs, popping the tiny air sacs one by one. People with emphysema eventually start having attacks which feel the same as drowning, the inability to pull air into your lungs. Then they start losing control of their bladder and bowels during these attacks. Eventually they become housebound because they don't want to be out in public during these attacks which become more frequent. It is miserable. This theory that marijuana is harmless is wrong if you are smoking it. It damages your lungs the same as tobacco, except some studies say it does it faster, at a rate of 15 joints to 1 cigarette. It is fine with me if you want to do it, but just don't delude yourself that it is natural and therefore healthy. It causes all the same health problems tobacco does when it is smoked.

[barnhill23]

Haha. Well apparently 94.8% of people who voted in your poll were baked out of their minds. Or maybe some non-pot smokers also support legalization of marijuana. I would guess the latter.

[merlgrey]

Stephen Baldwin... no wonder you are the largest failure of the baldwins. a grade schooler could have written a better oped piece.

its quite clear you are a brainwashed 'born again'... everything is based on your christian opinion, not on economic science, medical science, fact, or basic human rights of freedom. a true moron.

ps- you are also a terrible, terrible actor.

[Addub]

I'm no fifth grade teacher, but I did go to school once upon a time. As early as in the third grade, they taught us the importance of referencing our sources when stating "facts." If this article was written by a medical doctor, or even a (likely biased) narc, then it might have the leg of personal expertise to stand on for legitimacy. But Baldwin being a self-righteous semi-famous guy who "used to smoke pot" doesn't mean he has a clue about what he's talking about. Impressive as it is, the Baldwin name is not enough to sway my opinion away from the ideal of personal freedom, nor will it cause me to forsake scientific studies and economic realities that contradict the authors' very premises.

I suggest Baldwin and McCullogh try to develop some critical thinking skills. Maybe they could start by reading their first whole book, and work their way up from there. Cat in the Hat comes to mind.

If you care, go learn something real about the drug war. At least get the different sides.

Looks like they were already ordered to remove the site:
http://blog.austindefense.com/2007/03/articles/-marijuana-controlled-substances/a-government-agency-tells-the-truth-about-marijuana/

MJ, $$$, and crime
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2008/04/080424_how_crime_took_on_world_one.shtml

MJ and Cancer
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm

[kansas1946]

He was a lunatic, drug addicted, sex addicted, violent embarrassment to his family who "found Jesus" and was "born again" as a republican. Yuck!!!
Posted by fred-mann at 2:42 PM : May 12, 2009
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LOL. Great point, fred. Amazing all of these pot heads that are logged on to the CBS news site and posting comments. According to that born-again Republican, we are all toking on a "regualr basis." Don't you hate these used-to be addicts that want to preach to the rest of us about what we should or should not be doing. Stephen did not end up in rehab because of marijuana. What a joke.