The Future of Legal Drugs in America

Discrepancies in Public Opinion

Since the early 1900s, the United States and the vast majority of other countries have forbade the use of THC (marijuana) with harsh penalties while, other than prohibition in the U.S., merely regulating the use of alcohol and tobacco. And, for most of that time, that has been exactly what an overwhelming majority of Americans wanted.

However, according the Gallup, since the 1990s, American support for legalizing THC has gone from the low 20s to over 40% of support. With talk of legalization and taxation of the drug in California, 42% of Americans favor such a law in their state. And recently in Massachusetts, non-medicinal THC made its first ballot appearance as Bay Staters voted overwhelmingly to decriminalize possession of small amounts of it.

However, when comparing these data to data on American support for lowing the drinking age, almost 80% of Americans are opposed to lowering the drinking age to 18 (although the poll does not ask more specific questions that are important we’ll get into later).

What may be at the root of this confusing data is the fact that this has become a national issue and thus, as with any other issue, public opinion has changed as people learn more and more facts. The fact is that alcohol poisoning kills thousands of people per year while there has never been any known case of death directly due to THC.

The only deaths THC causes are those caused by marijuana’s tendency to inhibit vomiting lowering the lethal dose of alcohol, however, those deaths are ultimately caused by alcohol not THC.

One measure of safety of a drug is the lethal dose. For alcohol, it is typically .4% of a person’s blood (meaning the percent of a person’s blood composed of alcohol exceeds .4%) which is only five times the legal limit to drive in most states. Most sources say that the lethal dose for THC is 1500lbs in 15 minutes—street value $120,000. In laymen’s terms, there is no known amount of THC that can kill a person.

Another interesting issue is addiction—the fact that THC has no known physically addictive element. Marijuana addiction is purely psychological. This is not to say that it is not addicting because, using the definition that an addicted person is a person who will continue use of the drug even if continued use will have negative consequences, people do become addicted. However, this does suggest that marijuana is less addictive than alcohol.

On the issue of cigarettes, while the CDC indicates (and I have no reason not the believe them) that joints have more carcinogens than cigarettes by a large margin, it should be noted that very few people become addicted to marijuana. Most tobacco smokers smoke several times per day—even double digits—while few THC smokers even smoke daily. In this respect, THC joints or pipes are safer than cigarettes.

These facts, which an increasing number of Americans are aware of, may explain why so many Americans favor legalized recreational marijuana while so few favor deregulation of alcohol.

K2—“Synthetic Pot”

A relatively not well researched drug has surfaced throughout the US known as “K2”. It is a drug that is chemically similar to THC and perfectly legal in all corners of the United States.

While a couple of states, counties and towns have discussed banning it (even making possession a felony), the US Government has yet to get involved.

Given the public opinion above, it is very likely that K2 will remain legal for a long, long time to come if not permanently. This is a major issue because while THC is well documented as a relatively safe drug, K2 is not. Additionally, it is made in China which has a recent history of making products that do not live up to our strict safety standards.

My Comment

After carefully researching this piece, my opinions changed quite a bit, primarily because I was convinced that THC is safer than ethyl alcohol.

But then I thought, while THC is safe, street marijuana might not be. So, just as the government makes sure that when you buy a fifth of Captain Morgan’s rum it is no less safe than any other type of alcohol, regulating the safety of marijuana is an excellent idea.

Marijuana should only be sold under strict conditions, however. First, it should not be smoked in public, not even outside—there shouldn’t be Weed Bars on 42^nd Street. Second, it should only be sold to people over the age of 19 (no high schoolers). Third, it should only be sold in licensed stores that check IDs upon entry (not at the point of sale—no one under 19 should even be allowed to enter such a store.

My opinions haven’t changed all that much on alcohol. At age 18, you should be able to drink beer, wine and anything less hard than wine. At age 20, you should be able to drink anything.

Having a zero tolerance 21 years old+ drinking age makes no sense because people under 21 drink anyway and when they get their hands on alcohol, especially after a long time of having none, they binge. It is dangerous and counterproductive while exposing kids to small amounts of alcohol before they enter college makes a whole lot of sense.

Many will disagree arguing that when the drinking age was raised to 21, drunk driving accidents plummeted. I remind them that nearly all states have adopted strict drunk driving laws since then. It is the drunk driving laws, not the drinking age itself, that is responsible for our safer roadways.

On Obama's Shoulders

A quiet problem has emerged out of the Middle East and it isn't Iraq or Afghanistan.  A quiet problem has emerged out of Asia and it isn't China.

This week a great crime occured in the Eastern World.  It was a copycat of one that occured not too long ago.  An election was stolen.

The President of Iran told his talking heads at the state run news headquarters to announce his landslide victory.  About 70% of people in Iran voted for the incumbent to re-elect him.

But if he's so popular then where are the anti-protesters?  Nobody is rushing to his aid except the police he has wrapped around his finger and the state run news agency that is as corrupt as that of North Korea.

Think back to 2000...December to be exact.  If I remember correctly, people like me were yelling bloody murder at the fact that Governor Bush claimed victory against VP Gore in the most corrupt election, the only corrupt Presidential election, in US history.  But for ever Gore fan screaming...there was an anti protester.  And think about it...half of Americans voted for George Bush!  In Iran 70% of Iranians voted for the incumbent President but none of them appear to be defending him against the "minority"!

If this all sounds familiar, remember a month ago.  Kim Jong Il of North Korea claimed he won the election unanimously.

The point is, if every country in the world was a democracy, we wouldn't have nearly as many problems as we do now.  A nut like Kim Jong Il or Mahmoud A. wouldn't stand any more of a chance over there than James von Brunn (the Holocaust Museum shooter) would stand here.

So now, we and our President can only pray that the rebels in Iran win the fight against their illegitimate leader.  If they don't, Obama is going to have to worry about nuclear weapons more than any President since Ronald Reagan.

In October of 1962, President John F. Kennedy was informed that Cuba was home to Russian nuclear weapons with the capability to reach the United States.  His brother, Robert, told him not to bomb Cuba.  Later, we found out that the Russians in Cuba were ordered to send a nuclear bomb to the US if the US attacked them.  On that day, the world came closer to its end than any day since a meteorite killed the dinosaurs.

Let the Iranian rebels succeed, because if they don't, we may come closer to such an end or worse.  And, at least in this respect, let Obama succeed because our future depends on it.  No true American would do anything but root for the President of the United States to succeed in protecting the homeland.

Paulson's Version of Capitalism

The United States of America was founded upon an economic philosophy that most members of both parties ultimately agree with to some degree or another.  That philosophy is, of course, capitalism.

Now we're told that capitalism is threatened by the incumbent President.  Obama with his tax cuts on the middle class and his spendthrift habits and his owning GM and Chrysler is turning this country into a socialist republic.

But where were these people at the end of the Bush administration warning us?  Was it not President Bush that was the first President to run a major corporation since FDR?  Was it not President Bush that took over 85% of AIG and ousted its CEO?

Again, no President since FDR (& Tennesee Valley Authority) has ever had a major government run corporation until Bush 43.  And AIG is publically traded!

So now these right wing crazies are suggesting we boycott General Motors and Chrysler.  Even moderate to conservative radio show host Michael Smerconish told Chris Matthews that he disagreed with the boycott and believed it was "a political ploy".  He even said that it was interesting that about the same number of people who support the boycott support the Republican party...in both cases near 20%.

But today we found out the worst of Paulson's socialism.  We already knew that he pressured CEOs to take bailout money (or else).

Now we know for almost certain thanks to the Congressional Oversight Comittee investigators that Paulson did in fact threaten Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis into purchasing Merryl Lynch.

We moderates and liberals knew back then that buying ML was a horrible idea because it was large corporations (and banks with risky assets) that destroyed the economy.  We just didn't know that the decision to purchase it was made by the US Government.

And they want to call us the Democrat Socialist Party?  They've pushed us so far down the path to socialism that I don't know whether Obama can bring us back. 

Dems Face Trouble in Northeast

Three Democrats are causing the party a great deal of trouble in the liberal northeast.  In New York, David Patteron's tax policy and Caroline Kennedy fiasco have sent his approval ratings to 30%...twice as many Democrats disapproving as approving.  In Massachusetts, Deval Patrick's taxes, ethics complains among other things have his approval ratings in the same territory.  And in New Jersey, polls have Jon Corzine behind his Republican challenger by about 10%.

In Massachusetts, as went the economy so went Deval Patrick's approval numbers.  While it's hard to complain about a mere $2B deficit during a crisis of this magnitude in a state as large as Massachusetts, after four years of balanced Romney budgets, Patrick looks like Bush next to Clinton.

People in Massachusetts are afraid of their healthcare plan failing.  Under Romney Healthcare, working families recieve a large government subsidy on their private plans while the unemployed are granted insurance for twelve months.  In Mass, it is illegal to not have health insurance.

And now, Patrick has decided to chip away at whatever is left of his base (although more Dems are against him than for him) by denying Boston Mayor Tom Menino stimulus money for Boston's schools.  Tomorrow, many Boston parents will march on the capital with a sign reading, "Patrick to Boston: Drop Dead".  I compare what Patrick's doing to Pres. Obama deciding to give California $1B and Maine $100B.

Patrick is up for re-election in 2010 and "does Patrick deserve re-election" poll has far more saying no than yes.  And his flipping of the Mass state bird at the city of Boston has yet to be responded to with a poll...that fiasco will likely push his numbers even lower.

If someone challenges Patrick, they will likely win the Democratic nomination for the 2010 election.  If not, Mass is likely to make an unexpected swing to the right following Vermont & Connecticut.  It should be noted that Patrick was never elected to any office before Governor.

Meanwhile in New York, David "I'm Only Governor Cuz My Boss was a Sex-addict" Patterson is about to be rudely interrupted from his new job by two Italians: Cuomo and Giuliani.

Patterson assumed office after Spitzer resigned.  Patterson decided to come clean on he and his wife's extra marital affairs among other issues.

Patterson has two problems.  Not-Senator Caroline Kennedy and taxes.

As preface, most of New York has 8% sales tax, the highest in the union.  It also has the unpopular bottle deposit program that charges 5 cents per bottle which most people never bother to collect when they finish their drinks.

Now, Patterson suggested many unpopular tax increases to balance the budget.  The most spoofed tax was the "fat-tax" on non-diet soda and other unhealthy drinks.  Taxes on haircuts, video games and music downloads were also proposed.  

Of course, we all know that nobody is more likely to stop spending as a result of tax hikes than teenagers so targeting that age group will obviously hurt the economy.  Patterson didn't consider that when he decided on the video game and music downloads tax.

$2.3B in taxes remained after the state's assembly and Senate compromised with the governor.

And of course, the speculation (probably not founded, but still believed by many) that Patterson waited days to tell Kennedy she was not going to be chosen (he said he knew he was choosing Gillibrand on Tuesday, January 20th but Kennedy didn't know that until days later).  Of course, the Kennedy democrats, many of whom were the last of Patterson's dwindling base, were furious.

Then, take a trip across the Hudson River to New Jersey and Jon Corzine.

Currently there are no serious Democratic challenges for the June 2nd primary and the obvious Republican challenger, Chris Christie is ahead in the polls solidly.

Corzine's accident caused a dip in approval ratings as he was regarded as the cause of the accident.  It didn't help that he let the officer driving him apologize when the officer was obviously speeding because the Governor told him to.  Few blamed the officer.

And, of course, the state government shut down angered many.  Taxes went up and the state deficit went up, too.  So New Jersans have to ask, why are we paying the same property taxes if not higher and 7% sales tax for no reason?

So the Republicans will likely keep their seat in Connecticut until 2014 with their untouchable governor, Jodi Rell, a likely re-elect.  Will they gain three more in the next few years?

Without Democratic challenges to Patrick, Corzine and Patterson, most likely.

College Costs

Private education has become a private business, one with zero regulation and zero ethics.  Many of them use their endowments to invest and when times were good, many made double digit returns.  They never lowered their costs.  Now, their endowments are down...but still sky high...and in the midst of the worst downturn in history, prices are still rising.

Colleges should be given the same choice every other organization is given...you're either a for-profit or a not-for-profit organization.

If colleges want to choose to be for-profit, they may solicit absolutely no donations what-so-ever.  There should be a federal law guaranteeing that those colleges be treated as companies in every way from property tax to income tax.  And it should be illegal for students or anyone else to volunteer for them...WalMart can't have volunteers, afterall.  And they cannot unionize with other schools such as when private pharmacy schools lobbied the government collectively to make pharmacy a six year program.

If they want to be non-profit, give them the benefits.  They can have their donations, they can have their tax breaks or reprieves.  But here's the list of regulations.

• No corporate donations...prevent the Harvard Medical/Pfizer embarrassment
• 2% per year limit on tuition hikes
• Strict rent control on student living space without kitchens & private bathrooms...dorms are meant to provide students with cheap housing, not crappy housing for an arm and a leg
• Requirement that 99% of each student's tuition be spent to directly benefit that student (that means no new buildings that they won't see completed before graduation)...only 1% left for Dean/Presidential salaries...none for endowments
• Ban on the practice of flat tuition rates so students don't pay rates meant for 17 credits when they only take 14 credits
• Ban on endowment investments not protected by the FDIC and requirement that donations be spent at a rate of 75% per year almost 100% of that to benefit students.
• Ban on professors holding second jobs in related fields such as Harvard medical professors holding jobs with drug companies
• Require full access for students to all salaries from janitors to the President
• End mathematical dishonesty such as saying the student to faculty ratio is 30 to 1 and counting security guards and janitors as faculty
• Absolutely no unionization of colleges...as mentioned above
• Pass any additional regulations required to ensure all colleges resume being educational institutions

This would legally and constitutionally pressure colleges to choose the non-profit option.  Choosing to be for-profit would be the same as choosing to be a company, zero donations and zero volunteers.  Choosing to be non-profit would be agreeing to a set of regulations that would 1) slow tuition growth, 2) ensure students' tuition benefits them and 3) provide transparency for current and prospective students.

Moreover, I believe that Collegeboard should be bought out and made part of the Health & Education Department.  And all colleges that choose to be non-profit must use the Education Dept's test (SATs).  The price of an SAT test and AP tests would become so low that it would begin to end the correlation between money and score.

Stalking is Illegal, Pinhead

Today, I recieved an email in my Facebook inbox that the creator of the Facebook group that was petitioning for the uninviting of the rape vitim blaming Bill O'Reilly for a rape victim support group was ending.  Why?  Well, as Keith Olbermann reported last night, Bill...er...the producer he sheepishly sent, stalked a critical "far-left blogger" as she was on vacation.

She, Amanda Terkel of thinkprogress.org, says she left her home traveling two hours to her vacation destination in Virginia.  Terkel rightly complained that no one from Fox News attempted to speak with her before the ambush.  O'Reilly has previously claimed he would never send fox news stalkers unless someone declined to comment or be interviewed.

O'Reilly thinks MSNBC, where she appeared, pressured Terkel to write the entry.

Tim Kaine, the Governor of Virginia, should notify Fox News that the state does not tolerate harassment or stalking.  Terkel could have pressed charges in the state and caused Murdoch and O'Reilly a great deal of trouble.  The last thing Murdoch needs right now is more evidence his waiver to have multiple networks and newspapers in a single city should be revoked.

Bill O'Reilly has freedom of the press, and with it power, but he does not have the power to intimidate bloggers for quoting him...O'Reilly (who previously knocked mediamatters.com) seems to hate nothing more than people quoting him.

And by the way, that's all Terkel did.  She quoted something O'Reilly said that was offensive, placed the blame for a rape-murder with the victim and condescendingly refered to her as "that".

"Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning.She’s walking by herself on the West Side Highway, and she gets picked up by a thug. All right. Now she’s out of her mind, drunk."

-The Radio Factor, April 3rd, 2006

Unpatriotic Anti-Obama Cheers Hinder Progress

Rush “I Should Just Move to Canada” Limbaugh

First it was Rush Limbaugh.  Just before inauguration day on January 16^th, he wished failure on the President-elect of the United States because “[he is] a conservative”.  That prompted millions of people to question Limbaugh’s patriotism…why would anyone wish failure on a U.S. President when his failure means the entire nation’s failure.

And unfortunately, there are the Michelle Bachman’s of Congress that get all of their information from Rush Limbaugh and the right-winged website Townhall.com.  Perhaps a few of them learned their history from Conservapedia, a site that claims Obama was “allegedly” born in Hawaii.

Perhaps the worst story out of this was that of Phil Gingrey who criticized Rush Limbaugh on hardball.  For that, he received a spot on Keith Olbermann’s best persons list.  Then, he went back and apologized to Limbaugh as if Limbaugh were in any way his leader.  Both Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann heavily criticized Gingrey for the move.

And of course, we learned quickly how many Republicans do think of Rush as a leader when only three of them ultimately voted for the Economic Recovery Package.  Two of them from Maine have both repeatedly been called “Republicans in name only” by critics while the third, Arlen Specter, is also a notorious moderate. 

All 216 of the rest voted no because the Democrats were not willing to adopt a 100% tax cuts plan that…wait didn’t the people vote against upper class tax cuts on November 4^th or something?

Conservative Columnists Write Obama Off

Then came the editorials.  Just two weeks in, several conservative editorial writers said that Hillary Clinton and John McCain were obviously right about Obama’s experience problem because of his first two weeks in office with his cabinet problems…this coming after a Republican aggressively sought an appointment to the cabinet only to quit because of ideological differences…evidently he did not know that Obama was a liberal until recently.

Well these people who are counting Obama out within a couple weeks of the administration are the people hoping for a failure.  They want Sarah Palin or Bobby Jindal to be President at cost of four more years of people like Henrietta Hughes suffering without jobs or homes of their own. 

I wish the whole Republican Party could be more like MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough who was never afraid to call out Bush’s uncontrolled expansion of government.  He was never afraid to criticize Bill O’Reilly who often said “Joe Scarborough is a liberal because he doesn’t support Bush”.  And now, Scarborough is not afraid to admit that he is pulling for Obama like everyone should be.  He’s an American who just happens to be conservative, not the other way around.

Former Obama Rival Spews Lies

So then came Reagan’s former Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizing Affairs, Alan Keyes.  More importantly, he’s the guy who lost to Obama during the 2004 Senatorial election by a margin of 70% to 27%.  You ought to hear what he has to say now.

Keyes started off discussing how Obama is not really President because last he checked, the President had to be a natural born citizen.  He claims Obama “refused to prove he was” born in Hawaii.  Except that he released his birth certificate and upon examining it, nearly every independent and even some conservative websites concluded it was legitimate. 

The reporter evidently couldn’t help but laugh at Keyes and Keyes told him “this is not a laughing matter”.  He went on to discuss how soldiers are in court asking whether they have to obey the President (well a conservative swore him in so that’s a pretty damn good sign).  That latter part of course would be where the laughing stops…except there are currently no such cases in any courts, at least none any sources are bothering to even cover (because they’re all obviously absurd).

Keyes called Obama a “radical communist” and said that everyone realizes that now.  By that logic, over 60% of people support a radical communist President then, according to Gallup and 53% of Americans voted for one.  It is clear that Keyes who held just one major government job for two years over two decades ago, never an elected one (unless he was on Student Council or something) and who lost the 2004 race by an embarrassing margin is just trying to pay back Obama for taking away his dignity.

NY Post Offends Millions…including Rupert Murdoch???

By now, everybody’s seen the racial and more importantly violent depiction of President Obama.  If anybody had compared Fmr. Pres. Bush to something dead, conservatives everywhere would have called upon the Secret Service to arrest them.

Yet just a month into the new Presidency, the NY Post has done something even worse…promoted violence AND racism.  The cartoonist said that if the monkey was anybody, it was Nancy Pelosi…as if it is any more justified to call for her assassination than it is to call for Obama’s.

Few thought the Post would apologize, but it gave a non-apology apology (a big step for that paper) the next evening.  It said that to any who were offended, it apologizes but to those who have had disagreements in the past and want to retaliate for past problems, no apology is due.

Here’s the interesting part though…the man who wrote The Man Who Owns the News who heavily interviewed Murdoch and said that he has become more liberal in his old age because of his spouse appeared on Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann twice to discuss the subject. 

He says that Murdoch likely called for the apology himself and was likely angered when the editor of the paper did not actually apologize in the apology.  Also, the only reason Murdoch owns several papers and television stations in New York right now including the local Fox 5 NY, Fox News Channel, the NY Post and others is because of a waiver to a rule barring such a monopoly. 

That could be the other reason for the apology…if that waiver is revoked as Sharpton is calling for (of course, NY’s Governor just happens to be black furthering fears at NewsCorp of such a revocation) Murdoch may have to sell parts of NewsCorp, move Fox News Channel or other major inconveniences or even financial disasters.