OPP Newsletter

Tasine Loc: Southwest US

I'd have no problem if the US took this same track. Article says government is slow to make the changes required - and I say that pot should have the same laws re it as does alcohol because it is no more dangerous than alcohol, and we have laws in place to deal with crimes committed while under the influence. Alcohol will NEVER be criminalized - too many politicians are addicted to it.

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

Naturally police chiefs would vote like that for two reasons. 1) it keeps weed within their area of oversight. They would make a lot of money issuing tickets. 2) It keeps them relevant The police need felonies and misdemeanors and infractions. without them there would be no need for for police.

Tasine Loc: Southwest US

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I like your spunk, but we can still use police, at least as long as there are laws on the books that prevent us from protecting ourselves. If all laws were removed, we could survive without police - every victim and his family could do the investigation, convene the court, and pass judgement and provide the punishment. There would be a LOT LESS CRIME committed around the country!
;-)

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

I did not mean to imply that the police aren't neccessary. What I wish to stress is that we could do with fewer laws, and weed is one of them. Prop 36 in California was passed by a significant majority of voters. In a nutshell it said that you couldn't treat a person like a criminal simply because they had a substance abuse problem. The legal community fought Prop 36 tooth and nail and after it passed they went to a great deal of trouble to find ways of circumventing it, because, you see, criminals are a commodity. There is a vast interwoven group of public employees that directly benefit from criminals. Is weed good for us? No, but arguably its much less harmful than alcohol and just about everyone who wants to smoke the stuff does anyway. Why waste time and resources on it? Don't we have bigger fish to fry? I can gaurantee this: legalize weed and the crime rate will go down overnight!

Tasine Loc: Southwest US

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I'm with you all the way!! Frankly I don't think users deserve a ticket either unless they are causing a problem, such as drunks sometimes do. And if they commit crimes while under the influence they should be punished for the CRIME, not for the drug. I remember a case over 50 years ago when a young married US Senator who was a heavy drinker drove his car into a lake while carrying a girl home from a party, and though he got out, he left the girl in the car to drown. He went home, conferred with family and attorneys and went to bed. The next morning they reported the accident. Nothing happened to him. His name was Ted Kennedy. And that was BEFORE PC hit the world and killed all true communication.

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

Ted Kennedy, who's family fortune was made in the booze business. The booze business which has lobbied for years to keep weed illegal. Hmmm. Smells like incest. And yes, any crime committed under the influence of the drug, or in illegal trafficking -as in evading taxation- should be treated like any other crime. We also need to insist that authorities use the test that determines the level of THC in one's system instead of the one that merely determines its presence. Its more expensive, but hell, they don't mind spending godawful amounts of money on everything else.