# Does Freedom Include Pot? #420



## Sasquatch (Dec 12, 2014)

We live in a free country...or do we? If we do live in a free country shouldn't weed be legal? It is just a plant after all. Maybe it needs to be regulated? We dive into this debate and try to get to the bottom.

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/dentonandsasshow/episodes/2019-09-24T22_54_24-07_00

Enjoy the YouTube Potcast (*TM Denton)


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Who the Hell is the federal government to tell me how I relax on a Friday night?

Bring it, all you Reefer Crazies!


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## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

As long as your not piloting my aircraft, or doing my heart repair, I don't give a dang what you do.


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## The Tourist (Jun 9, 2016)

Denton said:


> Who the Hell is the federal government to tell me how I relax on a Friday night?


My concerns have nothing to do with consumption. If idiots want to blow their heads off in the name of Allah I'll loan them the cartridges.

My issue is 'distribution.' Most of the weed brought into this country is shipped by cartels and the mob. The doobie you enjoy pretending to be a hippie probably cost the lives of several mobsters and traffickers.

I used to hear the dregs in Madison defend their use of drugs saying, "_It's my choice, alcohol is dangerous, too_." Getting drugs to America is a gangland occupation. Even the Cuban army used to ferret out dealers.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

The Tourist said:


> My concerns have nothing to do with consumption. If idiots want to blow their heads off in the name of Allah I'll loan them the cartridges.
> 
> My issue is 'distribution.' Most of the weed brought into this country is shipped by cartels and the mob. The doobie you enjoy pretending to be a hippie probably cost the lives of several mobsters and traffickers.
> 
> I used to hear the dregs in Madison defend their use of drugs saying, "_It's my choice, alcohol is dangerous, too_." Getting drugs to America is a gangland occupation. Even the Cuban army used to ferret out dealers.


The cartels would go bust were marijuana to be taken off the schedule. This is known. 80% of their cash comes from pot smuggling.


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## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)




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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

Denton said:


> The cartels would go bust were marijuana to be taken off the schedule. This is known. 80% of their cash comes from pot smuggling.


The libertarian in me says it's none of the government's business. But the analytical side of my brain says that drug use and alcoholism are not "victimless crimes."
Both destroy individuals, families, and endanger other people.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

rice paddy daddy said:


> The libertarian in me says it's none of the government's business. But the analytical side of my brain says that drug use and alcoholism are not "victimless crimes."
> Both destroy individuals, families, and endanger other people.


We covered this in the podcast. 
Short answer is that pot is much safer than alcohol and is not a "gateway drug." 
The pot buzz is shorter-lived than the alcohol-buzz and without the side effects. 
Studies have shown (as has my own experience) that driving with a hangover is more dangerous than driving drunk. O hangover with pot.

Yes, smoking anything comes with the obvious risks but pot can be ingested through food products.

Still, the deadlier of the two is legally sold.


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

Denton said:


> We covered this in the podcast.
> Short answer is that pot is much safer than alcohol and is not a "gateway drug."
> The pot buzz is shorter-lived than the alcohol-buzz and without the side effects.
> Studies have shown (as has my own experience) that driving with a hangover is more dangerous than driving drunk. O hangover with pot.
> ...


As a sober, recovered alcoholic and longtime member of AA, I stand by my statement that drug abuse and alcohol abuse destroys individuals, families, and endangers the public.
I have been working with such people for over 30 years. 
I know the misery I have seen.


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

And if one is predisposed to substance abuse, pot damn sure is a “ gateway drug “.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Denton said:


> The cartels would go bust were marijuana to be taken off the schedule. This is known. 80% of their cash comes from pot smuggling.


Last official sounding stat I heard its also behind 80% of the border drug violence. Now I dont know many pot heads except for some old Viet Nam vet pals but most of them dont seem to favor what they call Mexican Dirt Weed which comes in hard bricks. They tend to prefer to the local grown stuff which is quite a bit more expensive but offers more syptomatic relief from what ails em. They will smoke it if they they are broke or thats all their is. They call it Reggie...which I think is doper jargon for regular. College kids are very good at having a green thumb on the good stuff. They were getting heavy into the thc e cigs but sure the latest horror stories will get them back to green leafy stuff.


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## Old SF Guy (Dec 15, 2013)

Don't know why Sas is on a POT rage these days.

Its natural, as is Poppy..... Making it legal isn't the problem its keeping the people who abuse either from stealing, consuming welfare, killing, or other things...but thats a different problem and many people who don't consume either do the same thing so instead of making it (plants or products from them) illegal...you instead punish crimes they commit while on those drugs and let them suffer the consequences for consuming those products.

Yes that means instead of the sanitation companies cleaning up feces, they instead pick up dead junkie bodies.

m2c


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

rice paddy daddy said:


> And if one is predisposed to substance abuse, pot damn sure is a " gateway drug ".


I have to question the reasoning or at least look at it from a different angle.

There is evidence that a physical change occurs in the brain once someone crosses the line into alcoholism. That means that such a person's offspring's very first drink can render that offspring an alcoholic. To date, I have read of no such evidence regarding pot. Not gateway, but a definite problem.

The CDC says more research is needed to determine if pot is a gateway drug. All these decades after Refer Madness and more research is needed? I'm gonna bet that they assert that because they truly know it is not gateway into the world of hard drugs. Prescription painkillers, sure. Pot? I've known many who smoke pot and don't jump to heroin, but I've known some who got there from prescription painkillers once the prescriptions were no longer to be had.

Heck, I'll even argue that those who were gonna do heroin, cocaine and pills were gonna do them even if pot didn't exist.


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

Again, if one is PREDISPOSED TO SUBSTANCE ABUSE, pot is a gateway drug. If you are not, you can get high once in a while and suffer no ill affects. Just like alcohol for a non-alcoholic.
I know this from experience, not from some college class.

Also, the alcoholics genetic makeup is different from normal drinkers. Our bodies process alcohol differently. Science has shown this. True alcoholics are different than the typical heavy drinker, who can stop or moderate if they choose.
Alcoholism has been recognized as a disease since 1955 by the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association. It is a two part disease, of both the body and the mind. 

The average alcoholic who has a number of years of sobriety knows more about the disease than any professor. You can take that to the bank.

For myself, I will not put any mind altering substance into my body, with one exception - after surgery I will take pain medication, closely supervised. I love my sober life too much.


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## The Tourist (Jun 9, 2016)

I'm kind if "iffy" on this 'substance' issue. Isn't the 'abuse' the real part of this negative equation?

I happen to be hooked on pudding. In fact, I wait for The Jehovah Witnesses to show up at my place for a spiritual 'cleansing.'

Never get between a switchblade knife and a bowl of creamy butterscotch pudding...


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## Swimmer1 (Sep 25, 2019)

I don't recall flying interdiction missions on Bootleggers, (perhaps I'm to young?) but the profits from the illegal drug trade forced me to chase the fastest of cigarette boats and financed nearly submersible crafts, and that was during the last millennium. Opioides are dispensed daily by the handful to anyone that can afford the price of an office visit. How many innocent lives need to be lost/affected before WE/US take a stand! Drive by shootings, home invasions, shoplifting, fleecing the elderly, etc..etc.. none of this is in any way related to Cannabis use? 
Get high, get the munchies, order food to go on the internet, everyone's content.
It's not like a Senior Citizen had to brace a quartet of jobless Cannabis using 20 year olds that forced thier way into his Castle to rob,steal, & pawn the items he earned by the sweat of his back over decades. Yup, septuagenarian with a 1911A1 .45ACP one, cannabis Freedom Fighters ZERO. 

Food for serious thought..............JMHO.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

I'm not a fan of the stuff. There's good reasons both for and against legalization, but it should be decided at the state level.


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## MisterMills357 (Apr 15, 2015)

Swimmer1 said:


> Yup, septuagenarian with a 1911A1 .45ACP one, cannabis Freedom Fighters ZERO.


I am not quite a septuagenarian, but at 63 I am close to it, and I keep a .45 with 230 FMJ handy, for any and all developments. I am too old to get into fist fights.


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## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

We should ban pot....and alcohol....ohhhh, I know, then straws and large carbonated sugary drinks. Then we can ban guns and ammo! We should look at banning knives and scissors, they are killing people with those in England and Japan. We should also really look at banning political opposition parties and free speech as well. There's all kinds a shit we can ban in movies and on TV. Then we can ban books! We can ban large SUV's and cars that consume carbon fuels. Of course, then we have to ban all plastics as well. Should we ban abortion? Or ban those who want to ban abortion? Ohhhh, what's to worry about what to ban, Big Brother will handle it all. 


There is food for thought. Just how much control do you want the federal government to have in deciding what to ban and what not to ban. How much control do you want them to have? Because the more control they have, the more they will demand.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Old SF Guy said:


> Don't know why Sas is on a POT rage these days.
> 
> Its natural, as is Poppy..... Making it legal isn't the problem its keeping the people who abuse either from stealing, consuming welfare, killing, or other things...but thats a different problem and many people who don't consume either do the same thing so instead of making it (plants or products from them) illegal...you instead punish crimes they commit while on those drugs and let them suffer the consequences for consuming those products.
> 
> ...


Be best to let folks do it themselves but the guvment cant cut a fat hog in the ass on that..so Legalise it..tax the sheet out of it and regulate it like ethanol. Then some smart business folks will realize private industry will come up with better and cheaper stuff..so we can got back to gangertism like Al Capone during prohibition..lol. Prob not as bad as the current drug cartels.


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