Author Topic: Legalize, tax marijuana, researchers tell U.N. drug commission  (Read 609 times)

Dos Equis

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Legalize, tax marijuana, researchers tell U.N. drug commission

VIENNA — A group of drug researchers is urging diplomats at a United Nations meeting to drop their prohibition on cannabis and allow the psychoactive substance to be sold and taxed like tobacco.

"Our message to politicians is that 'you don't have to worry too much about the effects of cannabis and that the kids aren't listening to you in any case,' " Peter Room, a public health professor at the University of Melbourne, said today at a briefing. He helped chair a scientific committee that produced a report saying that marijuana isn't a public health menace and that half the U.S. population born after 1970 and at least 21 years old has tried the drug.

The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs is meeting for a second day in the Austrian capital. More than 1,400 diplomats and policy makers from 130 countries are attending.

Proponents of legalization have gained some support. In California and Hawaii medicinal marijuana is legal. Brazil's former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso has supported the Beckley Foundation's proposal to treat marijuana like tobacco. Billionaire investor George Soros has funded programs that look for alternatives to prohibition.

Antonia Maria Costa, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime director, yesterday called proposals to legalize drugs an "oversimplification" of a problem that has caused "very considerable damage in the last few years and decades."

Room and Peter Reuter, a public policy researcher at the University of Maryland, both said at today's briefing that governments aren't prepared to make changes to existing policy.

Around 11 percent of Americans and 7 percent of European Union citizens smoked marijuana in the last year, the UN's 2008 drug report says.

"Cannabis has become the most widely used illicit drug worldwide," the International Narcotics Control Board wrote Feb. 19 in a report. The latest UN statistics show around 41,000 metric tons of marijuana is grown in 172 countries.

Marijuana, produced from the cannabis plant, can be smoked or ingested and is used — illegally in the U.S. and many other countries — for recreation. Medically, the substance has been used to combat pain in cancer patients and others, and to treat neurological disorders and glaucoma.

The Beckley Foundation, a non-profit policy institute near Oxford University, published Cannabis Policy: Moving Beyond the Stalemate for this week's UN meeting in Vienna. The international scientific team that wrote the 240-page report argued that marijuana should be treated similarly to tobacco.

Cardoso, ex-Colombian President Cesar Gaviria and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo wrote Feb. 23 in the Wall Street Journal that policy based on eradication, interdiction and the criminalization of consumers hasn't been effective, and that the violence and organized crime linked to drug trafficking remain.

Soros has donated money to support ballot initiatives in Florida, Ohio and other states to allow the medicinal use of marijuana. He supported the Drug Policy Alliance Network, the Washington-based organization that says it's seeking "alternatives to the drug war that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights."

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090312/BREAKING/90312025

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Re: Legalize, tax marijuana, researchers tell U.N. drug commission
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2009, 02:36:14 PM »
I saw Al Roker on MSNBC this morning, hocking his "Marijuana, inc" report.

I'm not buying it.  Accidents will increase. many users will take the road a lot less seriously.

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Re: Legalize, tax marijuana, researchers tell U.N. drug commission
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2009, 02:37:31 PM »
Interesting.  We spend way too much money battling a substance that poses minimal risks.  The key is to be able to spot test it for people that drive (I agree 240).  It should be held to the same standard as alcohol.

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Re: Legalize, tax marijuana, researchers tell U.N. drug commission
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2009, 02:51:49 PM »
No government has the right to tell people what to do with their lives. People have a right to do what hey want.
I hate the State.

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Re: Legalize, tax marijuana, researchers tell U.N. drug commission
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2009, 02:52:40 PM »
I think they should... the drug industry is a MULIT BILLION DOLLAR industry that is tax free... Kinda like CHurches... LOL   Why not make Pot Legal and charge out the ass for it...  Will bring crime down, tax the hell out of it... Im all for it!!!  My friend in San Fran has a legal script for it and has them in packs just like cigs...

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Re: Legalize, tax marijuana, researchers tell U.N. drug commission
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2009, 02:56:15 PM »
I'm sure they could develop a weed test for drivers.  I konw ppl say it's not possible.  but if you promised $50 mil to the first firm to patent it, we'd have a working test in about 2 weeks.

Now, if you are caught driving high - wielding a 900 pound weapon of steel at 95 feet PER SECOND (which is 65 mph) - while fucked up... well, the police should be able to break your leg with an ABS baton on the spot.  All on video after failing the field test, ,of course.