California campaign finance disclosures reportedly show that the campaign to defeat marijuana legalization is being funded in part by the alcohol industry which does not relish the idea of joints replacing shots as intoxicants of choice.
The California Beer and Beverage Distributors contributed $10,000 to the No on Prop. 19 campaign, also known as “Public Safety First.” The industry has also spent considerable funds to fight other pot-related legal change, including opposition to Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA), which attempted to reduce marijuana possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction.
This is something truly out of the movie “Thank You For Smoking.”
Polly: Did you see the coverage the fetal alcohol people got themselves over the weekend? They made it seem like we were encouraging pregnant women to drink. I’m surprised I didn’t get kidnapped to my way to work this morning. NICK: I don’t think people from the alcoholic beverage industry need to worry about being kidnapped just yet.
Polly: Pardon me?
Nick: Look, I mean, nothing personal, but tobacco generates a little more heat than alcohol.
Polly: Oh, this is news.
Nick:My product puts away 475,000 a year.
Polly: Okay, now, 475 is a legitimate number.
Nick: OK 435,000. 1,200 a day. How many alcohol deaths a year? 100,000, tops? That’s what, 270 a day? Wow, 270 people, a tragedy. Excuse me if I don’t see terrorists getting excited about kidnapping anybody from the alcohol industry.
Nick: How many gun-related deaths a year in the U.S.?
Bobby Jay: 11,000.
Nick: Thirty a day. That’s less than passenger car mortalities. No terrorist would bother with either of you.
Source: Huffington Post
Elean,
First blood in the language stakes was drawn by your good friend Buddha in the lets make it up as we go along thread., these are your/his rules so live with them, we jus follow the rules as you lay em down.
You said
“I was thinking of using another green leaf in place of the basil, doncha know?”
since it has now been accepted that u are jus another stonehead, junky bitch any right you have to propriety is long gone,
So phrase it how you like and pigeon hole us as you will but please just git the fuck out of here with your bullshit
*snicker*
We all know the family-values-moral-majority types and some other conservatives never dabble in drugs…EVER! Not Dubya! Not Ted Haggard! Not Limbaugh!
GASBAG
OxyContin
Pudding and pie
Rush popped five pills
And went sky high.
He floated
In the stratosphere
Like the Goodyear blimp,
A gaseous sermoneer,
An incendiary
Doctrinaire
Spouting racist talk—
And full of hot air!
Maybe you Rube-trolls should smoke a joint.
Because whatever drugs you’re on are clearly of the anti-social variety. I suspect crack. Just not the kind made of cocaine. Be sure not to set your dingleberries on fire.
As to copy and paste? Sure do. I’m an advanced tool user. That’s why I use the computer tool to save me work and the logic tool to make you tools look like . . . used tools.
Come on.
Call me an egotistical dick again instead of refuting the argument.
It’s funny that you idiots think that’s clever.
Pssst! Here’s a ‘lil secret, Wonder Teen Trolls.
I make arguments because I like to.
I make fun of you because I can.
I think more when I’m asleep than your lot does gathered together in your ‘lil circle.
Nooo, the alcohol lobby is behind the campaign against pot?
Who could’ve thunk it,
No wait, that’s not even news…. more like common sense
Elaine,
… the basement boy is playing dress up … foul language is how he envisions real men speak … it’s harmless experimentation … out in the real world telling one’s Prof, one’s commanding officer, or one’s boss to “get the f#^* out of here” has dire consequences … his claims of adulthood not withstanding, that lesson will eventually be learned … profanity is the refuge of the inarticulate and he who habitually relies on its usage always slips up and uses it on the wrong person at the wrong time usually resulting in the loss of something he badly wanted to gain … ie respect, promotion, fair maiden, bank loan, etc.
The role of troll on a blog is an interesting one. No one really knows or, honestly, cares who the troll really is … but the character of the one playing the troll always, like the character of anyone else on the blog, manifests itself through his/her choice of written words or turn of a phrase. True character is always determined by what one says or does when one thinks no one is able to identify him/her. Thus the true character of the individual playing troll is self illuminated even though the personal identity of the individual is not. Hiding one’s identity does not hide one’s character and that is what makes the role of a troll so interesting for the role is voluntary and the character of the individual must permit the words the troll uses. Thus “get the f#^* out of here” speaks directly to the personal identity and real character of the individual who wrote the words. It is not without reason that the term “troll” has been assigned to said persons … it’s a character reference.
Rascal,
I didn’t address my comment to you. Then again, maybe I did!
😉
fuck is a legitimate word and is found in the dictionary, since people on this site seem so fond of dictionaries and logic, I see no problems.
Carry on Scooby.
I have posted the definition to show the Merriam Webster version of the entry [pardon my pun]
Definition of FUCK
intransitive verb
1usually obscene : copulate
2usually vulgar : mess 3 —used with with
transitive verb
1usually obscene : to engage in coitus with —sometimes used interjectionally with an object (as a personal or reflexive pronoun) to express anger, contempt, or disgust
2usually vulgar : to deal with unfairly or harshly : cheat, screw
Origin of FUCK
akin to Dutch fokken to breed (cattle), Swedish dial. fókka to copulate
First Known Use: circa 1503
didn’t someone ask if Bud had ever been to Jamaica?
Get it Bud, Jamaica. Someone has a good sense of humor.
I doubt Bud got it, he probably was thinking practically … nothin
Scooby dooby do,
How about you clean up your language?
Dopey said
In all fairness, I should stipulate Einstein was talking about booze, but the principle and logic are sound.
it’s okay offiver, it isn’t a bottle of Jack it’s a kilo of cannabis resin
Get the fuck out of here
All of those good ol’ boys looking to make a quick buck, or pay off their mortgages a little quicker by stuffin their sacks with Afghan home grown will be okay, they just need to print off the above list as supplied by “Dopey” and present it to the customs officers.
I have heard some crocks in my time but that one beats all
bud
I was gonna make some sense
but then I got high
oo oo oo
was gonna climb down off the fence
but then I got high
oo oo oo
Rhubarb:
dont mind Bud, the only thought he has is the one at his fingertips.
ode to cannabis:
duh I fogout
Rubarb:
I concur
The history of cannabis is one of utility, economics, and – since 1937 – repression and fascist machination.
and because all of these people do it and because you can copy and paste the historical/cultural reasons for the legality of it from Wikipedia, that means it’s been made legal ?
it isn’t still against the law then?
or doesn’t it apply to egotistical dicks with biog dictionaries?
Buddha,
Rube–great way to address the troll.
“Your statement is based on belief, not fact, and your “moral high ground” is illusory and delusional.”
Gullibility may be a factor in the rube’s inferring from my comments that I’m a pothead. I guess when one has no sense of humor, it might be difficult understanding light-hearted banter.
Where would Faux News be without the likes of gullible right-wingers who believe everything their spin masters say–spin masters who tell them what they want to hear. Folks like that don’t need drugs. They get high on their own delusions of moral superiority. They can also get whipped up into a state of frenzy/delirium by the rantings of folks like Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann.
In all fairness, I should stipulate Einstein was talking about booze, but the principle and logic are sound.
Sorry, Rube. That was spoken like someone who likes to be told what to think instead of learning how to think.
There’s simply no logic there to dissect in your statement, merely imperious declarations of your supposed moral superiority not backed with any substantive logic or proof. Your statement is based on belief, not fact, and your “moral high ground” is illusory and delusional.
The history of cannabis is one of utility, economics, and – since 1937 – repression and fascist machination.
Call it cannabis, marijuana or hemp, the distinction is linguistic only. It’s all the same two basic plants – cannabis sativa and cannabis indica. Its end use is determined by how it is treated during the growing cycle, but cannabis is a taxonomic and scientific term, hemp is a common agricultural and commercial term and the term marijuana? We’ll get to that later. But up first, it’s . . .
1. Utility
Hemp has thousands of uses and all of them are beneficial. The fibers of the plants can be used to make regular and specialty papers ranging in quality from delicate cigarette paper to sturdy bank notes to technical filters and hygiene products. The fiber, seeds and seed oil can also be used for composites (used in the automotive industry), plastics, coarse textiles (carpet and upholstery), high quality and durable textiles (linens and other clothing textiles), rope, animal bedding and silage, animal food (whole seeds for birds, presscake for mammalian livestock), biodegradable landscape matting & plant culture products, gamma-linolenic acid dietary supplements, alcohol, specialty industrial oils, essential oil (for flavor, perfume & cosmetics), salad oil, insect repellent, medicinal cannabinoids and last but not least construction materials like fiberboard, plasterboard and insulation.
To illustrate the utility of marijuana, I’ll focus on the example provided by paper production.
Compared to wood pulp, hemp requires less chemical processing to yield usable fiber and produce paper. While wood fiber requires chemical treatment to breakdown the cellulose and render useful fiber, cannabis can yield usable fiber through a natural process known as retting that consists of little more than leaving the cut plants outdoors and keeping them turned for 12 to 18 days. Where wood pulp requires bleaching by chlorine which is toxic and difficult to treat out of water used in the processing. With hemp pulp, chlorine bleaching can be replaced by using oxygen and hydrogen peroxide which are far less toxic and easier to treat out of water used in the processing. Processing timber into wood pulp and then to paper also uses much more water by volume than comparable hemp pulp based processes. Until the 1900’s, most of the paper produced was made from hemp and rags, rags which were largely comprised of hemp and flax based fabrics. In fact, two of the most important documents ever produced are on hemp paper. The first two drafts of the Declaration of Independence (important for what it says as a political statement despite any Tea Bagger misinterpretations and misapplications) and the Gutenberg Bible (important to some for what it says, but to everyone for being the first Western book printed with movable type) are on hemp paper.
Add to this eco-friendliness the disparate growth rates between trees (which take years to mature) and cannabis. Cannabis is harvested 60-90 days after planting which in some temperate zones can be renewed 2-3 times per year and grown year around in tropical climates yielding 5-6 crops per year. Timber harvesting creates huge problems with erosion while hemp harvesting creates little if any. It is hearty and naturally resistant to many pests thus requiring less fertilizers and no pesticides which create toxic runoff into the water supply. From a raw fiber production standpoint, cannabis can compete and surpass timber. It can produce more fiber per acre than timber by a ratio of four to one (4:1). Hemp also better encourages biodiversity than many commercial crops including corn, wheat, soybeans, sunflowers, potatoes, sugar cane, rapeseed, cotton, rice and oats.
“Hemp fiber can potentially replace other biological fibers in many applications, but also, as noted below, can sometimes compete with minerals such as glass fiber and steel. As forests diminish, cultivation of annual plants as fiber sources is likely to increase. While crop residues like cereal straw will probably supply much of the need, specialty fiber plants such as hemp also have potential. The four conditions that will need to be met are (after Bolton 1995): (1) the material should be produced at a large enough scale; (2) the price should be low enough; (3) the fiber characteristics should be adequate for the end use; and (4) proven technology should be available for the processing of the new raw material. Of these criteria only point 3 is adequately met at this time for hemp in North America, but this is to be expected in a crop that has only begun to be cultivated after an absence of many years.” – http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/v5-284.html
From a utilitarian standpoint, marijuana is not just multiply useful, but cheaper to produce and less damaging to the environment than the timber and petroleum resources currently being used.
Much of the above information comes from the previously cited Purdue paper by Ernest Small and David Marcus, although some of it comes from various specialty research papers on the paper industry I borrowed from a friend in the paper industry including “Industrial Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) as a Papermaking Raw Material in Minnesota: Technical, Economic, and Environmental Considerations” by Jim Bowyer and “Industrial Hemp in the United State: Status and Market Potential” an abstract from the USDA. It should be noted that both these particular resources have anti-marijuana language but given they were produced for timer and governmental interests that should come as no surprise even though the USDA abstract says on page 2 that “DeMeijer et al. (1992), in a study of 97 cannabis strains concluded that short of chemical analysis of the THC content, there was no way to distinguish between marijuana and hemp.” Which simply means “hemp” and “marijuana” is an artificial governmentally created distinction without a difference. Again, more on that in a bit. All the information is easily verifiable. I won’t bog down the post with too many links that the trolls won’t read or understand anyway.
2. Economics, Repression & Fascist Machinations
Our Founding Fathers Washington and Jefferson grew hemp. In some instances, if you owned a farm you had to grow hemp it was so vital to national interests. In 1619 the Virginia Assembly mandated farmers to grow hemp and from 1763 to 1769, farmers in Virginia could be jailed for refusing to grow it. Franklin owned a paper mill that produced hemp paper. The letters of our Founders also indicate that they smoked marijuana as well. In Washington’s diary entry dated August 7, 1765 he said they “began to separate the male from the female (hemp) plants”. This is a harvesting technique to maximize the potency of marijuana. Washington may have even smoked hashish as his letter to Dr. James Anderson dated May 26, 1794, states “The artificial preparation of hemp, from Silesia, is really a curiosity.”
Did the Founders light up? I’ll defer to Chris Conrad’s summary from “Hemp: Lifeline to the Future” which says:
“Dr. Burke, president of the American Historical Reference Society and a consultant for the Smithsonian Institute, counted seven early presidents as cannabis smokers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor and Franklin Pierce. [41] ‘Early letters from our founding fathers refer to the pleasures of hemp smoking,’ said Burke. Pierce, Taylor and Jackson, all military men, smoked it with their troops. Cannabis was twice as popular among American soldiers in the Mexican War as in Vietnam: Pierce wrote to his family that it was ‘about the only good thing’ about that war.”
“[41] Burke asserted that Washington & Jefferson were said to exchange smoking blends as personal gifts. Washington reportedly preferred a pipe full of ‘the leaves of hemp’ to alcohol, & wrote in his diaries that he enjoyed the fragrance of hemp flowers. Madison once remarked that hemp gave him insight to create a new & democratic nation. Monroe, creator of the Monroe Doctrine, began smoking it as Ambassador to France & continued to the age of 73. Burke. ‘Pot & Presidents.’ in Green Egg. CA. June 21, 1975”
The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was forced through Congress by business interests. Namely William Randolph Hearst and the DuPont family. William Hearst because he feared his extensive timber interests which he had intended to basically sell to himself for his publishing interests would be rendered valueless by allowing the cheaper to produce hemp paper to be used. The DuPont’s because DuPont Chemical had just developed nylon in 1935 and they wanted to sell it to the Navy but found it difficult to make their synthetic compound compete cost-wise against the traditional hemp rope. There is nothing more emblematic of fascism than when corporatists manipulate the law for their personal financial gain . . . like defrauding the country into declaring war on a country that hadn’t attacked us so their families could profit from oil and construction interests, but I digress.
Prior to 1937, in addition to previously noted industrial uses, marijuana was used for a wide variety of patent medicines and recreational use. But it had been called almost exclusively hemp or cannabis. The term marijuana is a term used to demonize hemp that has been grown to produce higher THC content than what may occur in hemp cultivated solely for industrial uses. The term was chosen because in 1937 the DuPont and Hearst contingent needed to whip up some irrational fear to get their legislation through Congress. They did this by blatant racism as “marijuana” or “marihuana” is the Mexican Spanish term for hemp or cannabis. They did this by exploiting the situation after the Mexican-American war.
After the war, despite the pleasures President Franklin Pierce found in smoking marijuana, there was economic tension created between small farmers and big farms that relied on Mexican labor. Given today’s situation in California, it is ironic that the current leader in legalizing marijuana was one of the first states to create an anti-marijuana law in forbidding “preparations of hemp, or loco weed.” This was done solely as a racist and protectionist move to discourage Mexican laborers who had a greater cultural tradition of marijuana usage than the white population. To bolster this move, politicians made wild claims about Mexicans doing crazy things while smoking marijuana.
As the Great Depression grew, massive unemployment increased public resentment, tension and fear of Mexican immigrants, escalating falsely flimflammed public and governmental concerns about the problem of marijuana. This resulted a flurry of biased research which linked the marijuana with violence, crime and other socially deviant behaviors, which strangely enough only seemed to be committed by racially inferior or underclass communities. By 1931, there were 29 states with anti-marijuana laws on the books. Hearst and the DuPonts took advantage of this situation and put their fortunes behind forcing a Federal law to ensure that their investments would yield maximum profits by eliminating any chance of hemp competition from the remaining states. Both using hordes of lobbyists and Hearst using his newspapers to fan the flames on racist propaganda that emphasized Mexicans and blacks as degenerate criminals to get the Marijuana Tax Act passed in 1937. Since then, we’ve seen the growth of Federal agencies like the DEA looking to justify their ever swelling budgets and the private prison industrial complex which seeks to maximize their private personal profits by filling beds with non-violent drug offenders whose only crime is smoking marijuana which as already demonstrated is many times safer than alcohol.
Since you trolls hate quotes so much, I’m going to give you a few.
“When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny.”
“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”
“The greatest service that can be rendered to any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.”
“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.”
– all by Thomas Jefferson
“The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this.” – Albert Einstein
“In any civilized society, it is every citizen’s responsibility to obey just laws. But at the same time, it is every citizen’s responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.” – Ronald Reagan
And last but not least:
“Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and sow it everywhere!” – George Washington, The Writings of George Washington Volume 33, page 270 (Library of Congress), 1794
Too bad, Rube. History, facts and people smarter than you are against you again. Your alleged moral high ground exists only in your imagination. As to any aspersions you may cast that marijuana is for losers? As if our Founding Fathers weren’t enough?
Here’s a list of famous marijuana users:
Sir Richard Branson (head of the multi-billion dollar Virgin empire who said he’d sell it if it were legal)
Buddha (The real one, not me. He liked to chew it. One day he sat down and figured a whole of of stuff out. Unlike you trolls.)
Rick Steves (author of 27 top selling European travel guides, host of his own TV show and radio show)
Michael Bloomberg (business tycoon and mayor of NYC)
Ted Turner (ridiculously wealthy founder of TBS, CNN and Turner Networks)
Stephen King (if he hasn’t scared you, you don’t read horror novels or see horror films)
Arnold Schwarzenegger (Not only Governor of California, but on film smoking a joint in “Pumping Iron”, currently a leader in the decriminalization effort, movie star, real estate mogul)
Glenn Beck (right wing lunatic, smoked every day for 15 years, just so you moralizing trolls wouldn’t feel left out)
Kareem Abdul Jabbar (He not only has a basketball jones, but a weed jones as well.)
Louisa May Alcott (wrote “Little Women”, used a little mary jane)
Robert Altman (death curtailed his smoking habit, but this guy made some great films)
Jennifer Aniston (hotness!)
Louis Armstrong (blew a horn like an angel, blew a joint like a devil)
Hal Ashby (another great director higher than a kite)
Dan Aykroyd (Who ya’ gonna call? Dan. He’s holding a bag.)
John Belushi (Did you ever doubt it? Too bad the heroin and cocaine speedball killed him. You know, dangerous drugs unlike marijuana.)
Lewis Black (THE ONLY TIME HE’S NOT SHOUTING SOMETHING FUNNY? He’s high. And still funny.)
Usain Bolt (Speedy!!! And he can de-seed faster than anyone!)
Peter Boyle (Too funny for words, so I’ll just say “Pudddin Non Dah Riizzzz!”)
Bill Bradley (Basketball strikes again.)
Jeff Bridges (The Dude abides.)
Pierce Brosnan (Good enough for Bond? Good enough for me.)
Christopher Buckley (wrote “Thank You for Smoking”, the book cited on the leader of this thread)
Lord Buckley (notorious for stomping the Earth and using marijuana)
William F. Buckley (Wha-wha-what I fail to understand is how you could disparage a drug used by a right wing icon?)
Richard Burton (Martha . . . where’s my bong, Martha?)
George Carlin (Like that was a secret. Maybe the funniest guy to ever walk the Earth.)
James Cameron (If you haven’t seen one of his films, you’ve been living under a rock.)
Hoagy Carmichael (“Stardust”. Nuff said.)
David Carradine (His kung fu was better than yours.)
Bill Clinton (Evidence? He married Hillary didn’t he?)
Hillary Clinton (Evidence? She married Bill didn’t she?)
Stephen Colbert (It’s the truthiness.)
Matt Damon (He’s Jason Bourne damnit!)
Rodney Dangerfield (A master comic craftsman and generous fellow.)
Alexandre Dumas (Wrote a couple of books.)
Richard Feynman (Brilliant theoretical physicist. You trolls wouldn’t know him.)
Harrison Ford (You wonder what he was smuggling on the Falcon? Now you know.)
Bill Gates (He dropped out of college too. Went on to found a small company no one outside of computers has ever heard of.)
Bob Hope (Thanks for the buds, bud.)
D.L. Hughley (Very funny. Often high on camera. I can spot it.)
Victor Hugo (“The bongs! The bongs!” – warning, smoking marijuana won’t give you a hunchback.)
Rudyard Kipling (I’m a higher and happier guy than you, Gunga Din.)
John Lennon (All the Beatles were really high. Evidence? They let Ringo sing.)
Rush Limbaugh (Before misogyny, racism, general hatred and Oxycodone became his drugs of choice.)
Jack London (“Call of the Wild Weed” was the original title. True story.)
Bob Marley (No. Really.)
Steve Martin (The Man With Two Brains, one of them very high.)
Groucho Marx (You bet your life!)
Margaret Mead (Famous anthropologist.)
John Stuart Mill (You wouldn’t understand, troll.)
Robert Mitchum (No one was tougher than Bob.)
Thelonius Monk (Piano Master. ‘Nuff said.)
Marilyn Monroe (Classic hotness!)
Roger Moore (Another Bond!)
Bill Murray (“This is a cross, ah, of Bluegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia.”)
Willie Nelson (“I didn’t say I had to smoke weed every day. I said I liked to smoke weed every day.”)
Jack Nicholson (“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”)
Barack Obama (He’s president of something or the other.)
George Orwell (That explains some, but not all, of the paranoia. The bulk of it was justified by cretins like you, Rube.)
Sarah Palin (You betcha!)
Pablo Picasso (No kidding? I’d have never guessed. Not.)
Pink (She’s naughty!)
Brad Pitt (He’s a little famous.)
Natalie Portman (She’s one of three my girlfriend would let me cheat with. ‘Nuff said.)
Prince Harry (Following in the family footsteps. Although his was recreational use, not for PMS.)
Marcel Proust (Strange, strange man.)
Pythagoras (You may have heard of his theorem, but since you’re uneducated trolls, probably not.)
Oliver Sacks (bestselling author and neurologist)
Carl Sagan (Said he had some of his best ideas in the shower after a joint.)
Carlos Santana (Viva!)
David Sedaris (Very funny, very high author.)
William Shakespeare (Yeah. No one has ever heard of this guy.)
Robert Louis Stevenson (The real treasure on “Treasure Island”? Really good herb. A Scot by the way.)
Charlize Theron (More HOTNESS! Smart too.)
Pete Townsend (You better, you bet.)
John Updike (Rabbit is High)
Queen Victoria (Yep. Used it for her PMS.)
Pancho Villa (I wonder if the Cisco Kid was a friend of his?)
Dawn Wells (Mary Ann was into Mary Jane!)
Ron White (one of the funniest comedians ever)
Malcolm X (One serious social reform leader.)
William Butler Yeats (Famous for his mastery of the language. Unlike you trolls.)
Muahahahaha! See, the difference between my quantity and your quantity? Is mine is quality too.
Run along now, ‘lil TeenTrolls.
This old pot smoker can run mental circles around you lot.
Lottakatz,
Truth be told, I don’t usually snack in the wee hours o’ the morning. In fact, I’m not much of a snacker. Although I do like to nibble on a little cheese or indulge in hot buttered popcorn once in a while.