Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
For every famous person I have no experience with who the stoners mention as being influenced to invent/write/etc by pot, I can think of at least three or four people I know/knew personally who were basically loser stoners (albeit they were/are not famous).
We can go back and forth with anecdotes all day, it doesn't mean anything. If you've spent hours at the Louvre but only explored a certain section of it, and I've spend two hundred hours reading about it, examining pictures of it, etc, I would say I know it better than you do. You can spend hours in a museum and take away very little. You typically get out of something what you put into it. Of course if you spent your time in the Louvre productively, you would probably be in a better position than the person who only read about it, depending on the extent of their studies.
Sorry, but someone who has NEVER been somewhere is never more of an authority than someone who has been there, even if they know everything there is to know about it. There are certain things you can't take in from a book. I can look at pictures of Van Gogh paintings in books all I want, but I'll never know the passion that went into painting them until I see the lines from 6 inches away.
You can think of those people as "loser stoners" but I guarantee you that they would be losers with or without pot. The simple fact is if you have 3 or 4 pieces of anecdotal evidence and I have personal experience, 50 cases of anecdotal evidence, research experience and an open mind to new information, I am going to be right.
After all, you continually make generalizations based on the 3 or 4 pot users you know, but isn't that exactly the same as being racist against all blacks because you were once robbed by three teenaged black kids? Or if you're anti-semitic because you had two girlfriends stolen by Jewish guys? Being prejudiced against all pot users because of some ignorance-based anecdotal evidence is just as bad.
Because of this ignorant prejudice, many lives have been ruined simply from a marijuana arrest. Their lives would have been fine if not arrested, but the penalty is far more damaging than the act. Even the bible believes that the punishment should fit the crime, so why does someone who doesn't hurt anyone have the chance of being locked away in a place where they will be raped, beaten up or even killed? What sense does that make?
When you're basing an opinion on the "Partnership for a drug free America" propaganda (their mention of Pot's effects does not include Euphoria, decreased nausea or any of the other desired effects people use it for in the first place) and on a few pockets of people who were blatant "potheads", you're not exactly well informed. Generally if you can tell that someone is a "pothead" simply by looking at them, they are someone who does not care about the social conventions you are so used to. Most of the "potheads" I know are very productive people who find pot to be their way of relaxing after working hard all day. They are not hippies with dreadlocks who play the bongos all day on the street corner, they are Financial Services managers, lawyers, scientists, professional musicians, librarians, restaurant managers and political staffers. I don't know a single pothead without a full-time job that they've held for a while. And I know at least 10 times as many as you do. That being said, anecdotal evidence isn't enough...but the factual evidence we've provided here about the cost of the drug war, the safety of pot compared to LEGAL drugs and foods, the positive benefits of it and the fact that pot crops accounted for more wealth than any other crop in the state of California.
Hmm, think our state's budget crisis would be so bad if we had an additional $5,000,000,000 in tax revenue (very conservative estimate) and hundreds of million in police and prison savings?
Because of this ignorant prejudice, many lives have been ruined simply from a marijuana arrest. Their lives would have been fine if not arrested, but the penalty is far more damaging than the act. Even the bible believes that the punishment should fit the crime, so why does someone who doesn't hurt anyone have the chance of being locked away in a place where they will be raped, beaten up or even killed? What sense does that make?
Again, I am not for imprisoning people simply for using drugs.
Likewise, I don't believe in a prison system. It is not biblical.
If you commit a crime you are either-
A- executed
B- made to pay restitution
C- placed in the service of the one you wronged until you can pay off your debt/obligation
D- exiled/banished
E- pardoned by the victim or next of kin
(all of that is contingent upon a conviction, of course if you are not convicted you are free to go on with your life)
I believe that all prisons should be immediately closed, and anybody who is guilty of an offense worthy of death should be put to death. Those who are not guilty of such offenses (thieves, robbers, etc) should be made to pay restitution (to the victim, not the state, the fine should NEVER go to the state, the state wasn't wronged, the victim was wronged) and then be left to go on their way.
So we could close all prisons today as long as we were willing to execute several hundred thousand people who are guilty of murder, rape, kidnapping, etc.
90%+ of crack, heroin, meth, cocaine, etc addicts started their drug habit smoking marijuana
And 100% of them started their habit by drinking milk.
Every crack addict has had water, so does water lead to crack addiction?
The fact is that most pot users do not move on to harder drugs. Just because those who are willing to do Crack had smoked pot before does not mean it leads to crack usage.
The gateway theory isn't even pushed by the DEA anymore...
Again, I am not for imprisoning people simply for using drugs.
Likewise, I don't believe in a prison system. It is not biblical.
If you commit a crime you are either-
A- executed
B- made to pay restitution
C- placed in the service of the one you wronged until you can pay off your debt/obligation
D- exiled/banished
E- pardoned by the victim or next of kin
(all of that is contingent upon a conviction, of course if you are not convicted you are free to go on with your life)
I believe that all prisons should be immediately closed, and anybody who is guilty of an offense worthy of death should be put to death. Those who are not guilty of such offenses (thieves, robbers, etc) should be made to pay restitution (to the victim, not the state, the fine should NEVER go to the state, the state wasn't wronged, the victim was wronged) and then be left to go on their way.
So we could close all prisons today as long as we were willing to execute several hundred thousand people who are guilty of murder, rape, kidnapping, etc.
So where would people arrested for simple possession fit in your little biblical justice system?
I agree that only crimes against others should be punished, as they are the only true crimes, but to say that all thieves and robbers should just repay without having any prison systems is VERY foolish. Where do those thieves get the money to repay the victim? Where do people get exiled/banished to? And do you really think that we could institute slavery again?
Which century do you think we're living in? Your system makes absolutely no sense in a modern society. Banishment? Slavery? Executing hundreds of thousands of people?
After all, you continually make generalizations based on the 3 or 4 pot users you know, but isn't that exactly the same as being racist against all blacks because you were once robbed by three teenaged black kids?
Your use of that analogy is rather flawed, since given that black males are about 6% of the US population, young black males are perhaps 3-4% of the US population, and a full 25% of black males are in prison or in court on any givend day, they they still commit between 45-60% of all violent crimes (as high as 90% in regards to carjacking) (exact numbers vary from crime category to crime category) it would be prudent and reasonable to exercise a heightened degree of caution around black men, especially when they are older teenagers or young adults, particularly when they are in groups. Approximately three (3) percent of the population is responsible for a majority of all violent crime.
But that's another issue for another time and another thread.
I agree that only crimes against others should be punished, as they are the only true crimes, but to say that all thieves and robbers should just repay without having any prison systems is VERY foolish. Where do those thieves get the money to repay the victim? Where do people get exiled/banished to? And do you really think that we could institute slavery again?
Prisons are nothing more than training camps for inmates. They bulk up with weight lifting, they mingle with the hardcore brutal thugs, and they wind up graduating with a degree in home invasion or armored car robbery, where before they were just a petty mugger. Every single prison should be immediately shut down as soon as arrangements are made for several hundred thousand executions.
If they cannot repay the victim then that is their problem. They are either placed in the service of the victim or sold into slavery until they can repay their debt or until, through the mercy and generosity of their master, they are released.
People would be exiled/banished either out of the city, out of the state, or out of the country. Pick a place and send them there... Castro sent tens of thousands of felons into the USA... We could return the favor, hmmm?
Prisons are nothing more than training camps for inmates. They bulk up with weight lifting, they mingle with the hardcore brutal thugs, and they wind up graduating with a degree in home invasion or armored car robbery, where before they were just a petty mugger. Every single prison should be immediately shut down as soon as arrangements are made for several hundred thousand executions.
If they cannot repay the victim then that is their problem. They are either placed in the service of the victim or sold into slavery until they can repay their debt or until, through the mercy and generosity of their master, they are released.
People would be exiled/banished either out of the city, out of the state, or out of the country. Pick a place and send them there... Castro sent tens of thousands of felons into the USA... We could return the favor, hmmm?
You show absolutely no knowledge of modern society with this statement.
You actually advocate people being sold into slavery?
You actually think we can just "banish" people to other countries?
You show absolutely no knowledge of modern society with this statement.
You actually advocate people being sold into slavery?
You actually think we can just "banish" people to other countries?
Wow, go back to the 1700s...
I know what modern society is and what it is all about, and I reject it as much as God and all of His people reject it. Is this a crime?
If somebody robs $20,000 dollars from me and they cannot repay me, then it is my right to have them indentured to me as a servant, or to sell them to somebody who will force them to work for a length of time consistent with the amount in question. At the typical prevailing wage in manual labor, that would probably amount to six to eight months of labor. If they cannot do the time they shouldn't do the crime.
If America really wanted to get serious about the Constitution and the Bible (the Constitution being heavily derived from the Bible) they would find a way to have a workable justice system. America has the government that it has, the corruption that it has, because Americans stopped caring about the Constitution and they stopped caring about the Bible, and they let thieves, liars, cheats, and assorted scoundrels take over the various mechanisms of state control.
Prisons are nothing more than training camps for inmates. They bulk up with weight lifting, they mingle with the hardcore brutal thugs, and they wind up graduating with a degree in home invasion or armored car robbery, where before they were just a petty mugger. Every single prison should be immediately shut down as soon as arrangements are made for several hundred thousand executions.
If they cannot repay the victim then that is their problem. They are either placed in the service of the victim or sold into slavery until they can repay their debt or until, through the mercy and generosity of their master, they are released.
People would be exiled/banished either out of the city, out of the state, or out of the country. Pick a place and send them there... Castro sent tens of thousands of felons into the USA... We could return the favor, hmmm?
ahh yes...lol I call it criminal college.
We need to pick an uninhabited island with a one way ticket. See ya.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
