Common Sense Says, "No Thanks!"

(CBS)  This column was co-written by Stephen Baldwin & Kevin McCullough

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Sure the debate is raging presently, but it's as fictional in its need as whether pigs can fly or whether Superman was or was not faster than that bullet.

In the modern trumped up controversy over whether marijuana should be legalized for the masses, the biggest canard of all is the supposed demand that exists. As a team that produces a weekly talk radio show now heard on 195 stations, we can earnestly say one thing is definitively true in the discussions we've launched about the revival of the "Should pot be legal?" question: "America doesn't want its pot... American potheads do!"

Almost to a person, callers to our broadcast who have asserted the need for weed's legality are also toking up on a regular basis.

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Make Marijuana Legal

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Considering that Stephen starred in "Biodome," one of the more famous marijuana movies of all time, and that he has testified to smoking enough of the substance prior to his conversion to Christianity to fund a third world junta or two, we are able to compare the pleas of the modern marijuana movement and measure them for what they are--cries of economically struggling potheads who want to get high cheaply, next generation be damned.

Nothing could be more foolish and nothing could be more unnecessary.

We have no desire to prevent doctors from prescribing specified care, or authorizing specific treatments for patients that simply cannot find any more compassionate or effective means. We do, however, also recognize that the medical community has expanded its array of treatments in instances for cancer and other diagnoses that might render the need for marijuana completely useless.

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

Legalizing it across the board creates easier access for children who we suppose would still be legally prevented from "purchasing" it. This doesn't even preface the fact that cigarettes are now thought of as a greater evil to children than sex offenders.

Marijuana proponents claim that the benefit to society would be enhanced by fewer offenders being sent to prison, tax revenues that would be generated, and the establishment of marijuana farming systems.

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.

What they also will not tell you is that for every ounce of tax revenues raised, a ton of cost is exacted upon society by intoxicated drivers, child addicts, counseling, rehabilitation, etc.

And the farming argument is just dumb.

What the rabid dealers and addicts will not admit is that the primary reason they are making this push is multi-purposed. First, they believe having a former user in the White House will give them the cover they need to make this process speedy, efficient, and successful. And second, they are convinced that it will give them easy access to the "high" they want, as well as give the pushers a new line of clientele.

The pot-heads of America believe that their new day has dawned.

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

(Stephen Baldwin & Kevin McCullough produce Xtreme Radio with Baldwin/McCullough, heard on 195 stations nationally. They can be reached at [e-mail], or at 903.200.HOPE.)
By Stephen Baldwin and Kevin McCullough
Special to CBSNews.com

[samyspade]

I've been listening to this lame argument since the war in Vietnam. High School, College, raising kids ( all college grads) and am now retired ( early because I worked hard) and smoked pot the whole time. I have been low key and exercised Aristotle's Golden Mean: Everything in moderation. I started with the Beatle's White Album at Christmas in 1968 and sat in the hot tub and smoked a bowl with my loving wife last night. This issue is a government created problem. The government has created so many profoundly more pressing problems that it seems to be forced to let this invention of a problem go. I find it virtually impossible to believe that after forty plus years this issue is still current.

[nathan porrata]

Idiot post is idiotic. Minors have plenty of access to MJ today, it is not hard to find and is relatively cheap. It is unregulated as well, which means they can get as much as they want from those willing to sell it. Its MUCH easier to get MJ for a minor than it is to get beer, and that is precisely because its legal and regulated. In fact the "for the children" arguments makes no sense at all. Drug dealers who sell MJ do not discriminate between what drugs they sell to what people. As many of these drug dealers also deal in meth, cocaine, heroin, etc, by making it illegal we are in fact exposing minors to these hard drugs as well.

Also you make a huge mistake in claiming we'll have to deal with underage addicts. MJ is non addicting. Alcohol, cigarets, caffeine, those are addictive; MJ is not. MJ is in fact safer than all those legal drugs. So even if minors get a hold of it, it does not cause any lasting damage, is not habit forming, and is far safer than legal drugs.

I've never done MJ in my life, and I'm here to tell you there is not ONE reason to keep it illegal. The costs to society in maintaining the drug war far outweigh any supposed benefits.

[samantha1974]

Marijuana would be substantially LESS available to our children if legal. Any imbecile can see this. Question is, do you trust paid employees to check ID more or less than you trust drug dealers to check ID? Yeah, that's what I thought.

[Gongum]

"What the rabid dealers and addicts will not admit is that the primary reason they are making this push(...)"

Rabid dealers? Making what push? Do you truly believe that pot dealers want it legalized? But that's just dumb! Why would they want to lose their source of income to the government? The way it is now, I'd rather fund the government by paying a tax on marijuana than fund criminals.

You really don't know what you're talking about.

[jsknow]

Drug War Victims

http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/drug-war-victim/

Our drug war results in staggeringly tragic losses. Drugs, when abused, can be dangerous, but they are not nearly as lethal as the drug war itself.

In addition to the blights of an imprisoned population, lost rights, broken families, and economic waste, people are dying in this war. No, these are not deaths from drugs, but from prohibition.

It is important to realize that the vast majority of deaths on the drug war simply would not happen without prohibition. When drug dealers fight it out over territory and they or their neighbors are killed in the process, it is a sympton of prohibition, much as when we suffered the scourge of alcohol prohibition many years ago. Prohibition makes violence profitable.

When drug users overdose from tainted drugs, it is the result of prohibition. When they die from overdoses because they were afraid to seek help, it is the result of prohibition.

Increasingly, people are dying because of the tactics of the drug war. Military operations are being conducted on our soil, and collateral damage is inevitable.

When drug task forces dressed in black batter in doors without knocking or announcing themselves, the danger to citizens and police alike is enormous. Sometimes the greatest danger is to (or from) the innocent citizen that understandably believes that they are experiencing a home invasion, and rushes to defend their family and property.

Every now and then, a death happens that is particularly grotesque ? that points out the horrific folly of our actions. This page presents some of those deaths.

Many are purely innocent victims of the war ? bystanders who have been mowed down by military drug war tactics gone berserk, and by government agencies? greedy pursuit of the glory and financial gain of drug busts. In other cases, the victim is guilty of something, but their punishment does not fit the crime.

All the victims have two things in common:

Their death was a result of drug prohibition, and the dangerous tactics used in the drug war, and
They didn?t deserve to die.
As you look at those who have died in the war on drugs, remember one thing: There has never been a single recorded case of anyone dying from an overdose of marijuana.

[HumanAction]

I've heard Stephen Baldwin debate Ron Paul regarding this issue recently on CNN I believe. Baldwin, as bright as he is (sarcasm) continues to toss out the phrase fact when what comes out of his mouth next is nothing close to fact, logic or truth. For instance, he believes that 2 to 3 times as many people will be users if it's legal. That is hilarious, and where are the 'facts' regarding this? Before it was illegal, how many people used pot? Or heroin for that matter, as they were legal and able to be bought at a pharmacy at one point.

But something that both Baldwin and the legalize-marijuana advocates miss, and this is vital is the issue of property rights. Property rights are so important, yet continue to get overlooked. Does Baldwin even understand that without property rights, freedom is logically impossible? It's easier to understand when you think what is your most valuable possession. For most people, it would be their body and life. Why should anyone have the right to tell me what I can do with my body? Like Baldwin, I am a Christian, but I don't confuse morality with the law, as legalizing morals is not freedom. And for those of us who don't shoot heroin, or snort coke, etc I don't have to condone the use of these drugs (especially with my children) but I don't want to force others not to make their own decisions, and then live with the consequences of such decisions.

And last but not least, I also continue to hear Baldwin that the majority of Americans don't want to legalize pot and other drugs. Again, this is pure ignorance of the basic meaning of the Constitution. Our law of the land was written to protect the minority from the majority, that is why democracy never appears in it. You see Stephen, democracy is mob rule, the exact opposite of freedom. Even if 300 million people were against it, and only 1 person wanted to smoke pot, that person should have the right to do so. Freedom is way more important than drug addicts.

I'd probably back some of these anti-drug groups if they stuck to education and realized the importance of property rights, freedom and choice.

[tryhonesty]

The U.S. government will legalize Pot when it can make enough money doing so (tax it 1000%) for U.S. debt relief.

[tincup356]

America doesn't want its pot.. American potheads do!

Well, I respond America doesn't want alcohol.. American alcoholics do!
Posted by skylines96 at 9:12 AM : May 14, 2009 ....................................
...............While that may be true for most alcoholics ,,,some of us have had our share,,,I'll stick to pot. And YES we pot heads want our pot ,,,to be legal just like the drugs that corporate America deals out,,,,except the maker of pot ,I TRUST.

[layups]

If growing marijuana is a crime then God himself is a criminal- Bob Marley

[rsmik]

Stephen's a celebrity, get him out of here.