Thread: Trump’s pick for attorney general: ‘Good people don’t smoke marijuana’

I think it is pretty mild to declare that good people don't smoke marijuana. This is a character judgement and need not necessarily reflect an opinion of the laws that govern its use. Our experience is that such language precludes decriminalization, but I think decriminalization and alienating people away from marijuana use should go hand in hand. Let's face it, marijuana is a "recreational" drug. The claims for medical benefits are weak quackery to create medical licenses for people to get stoned. Medical licenses and distribution for alcohol were also applied during Prohibition.

Tobacco is also a recreational drug and we all extol efforts to discourage its use among everyone, especially young people. Those of us who advance the decriminalization of marijuana should also be open to similar efforts against marijuana. Tobacco is another recreational drug that has been at times marketed as being medically acceptable if not beneficial.

Looking ahead at the rest of the Drug War, we should consider other strategies to confront the other plant product recreational drugs. Cocaine is the next step. The chemically extracted cocaine rather obviously should never be available for commercial distribution or decriminalization. (It was once an over the counter medication patented by Bayer. "Cocaine" was the product name coined by Bayer.) But the leaves that it comes from should be entirely legal to grow and distribute. Processing the leaves into cocaine and distributing the same should remain a serious felony. By decriminalizing growing the plant and distributing the leaves, you take farmers out of the loop of organized crime. This is not so much of a problem in the US, but in South and Central America, it would do serious damage to the networks that yield up cocaine for global distribution. It would serve to separate the cocaine processing from the farms where the processing is usually done. Farmers could continue to grow the stuff under pressure from organized crime and distribute it to same, but the processors would be isolated and easier to arrest and prosecute without damaging the more vulnerable farmers.

The commercial distribution of the leaves in the US would serve to interrupt and confuse the market of illegal stimulants of all kinds. It could continue to be illegal to add coca in any form to any other product like it was once the main active ingredient of Coca-Cola, which was originally sold as a tonic. The leaves themselves could only be sold unprocessed themselves. No snuff or cut leaves of any kind.

Heroin is a different problem as a plant product. A good part of the extremely harsh penalties for drug distribution throughout Asia is because of the history of Opium which is nothing more than the resin milked directly from incisions made to the seed head of the opium poppy. The poppy blooms, is fertilized, the petals drop off and a seed containing bulb grows where the flower was. When careful incisions are made on the side of the head, a milky sap oozes out and hardens. This is collected and rolled into balls of opium to be smoked. That's it. A proven plague in Asia and the basis of the Opium Wars in China. Such a product could never be allowed for commercial distribution. It would be a social nightmare. It already has been a social nightmare here in the United States where opium dens came over with Chinese immigrants around the 1900s.

One thing to consider as a way of confronting opium, both itself and its use as a basis for heroin, is that it is a labor intensive process to milk the poppies. I don't think there is any way of mechanizing this process. Opium is grown legally as a source of morphine and as far as I know, it remains that it must be harvested by hand. I have heard repeatedly that this is too often child labor. Complete legalization of the growing of poppies might be a strategy of confusing the users and the market. But milking poppies must be done by the farmer, there is no way to take the farmer out of the loop. The best we might hope for in legalizing the growing of poppy would be continuing criminalization of distributing opium without a license. Such licenses already exist to produce morphine.

When Americans decide to legalize and regulate, these problems and issues will be solved. Until then, it's just a terrible, costly, deadly tug-of-war with no good outcomes.

Prescription Opioid Overdose Data | Drug Overdose | CDC Injury Center

www.cdc.gov › Opioid Overdose › Data
Jun 21, 2016 - The most common drugs involved in prescription opioid overdose deaths include: Methadone. Oxycodone (such as OxyContin®) Hydrocodone (such as Vicodin®)


Opioid Overdose | Drug Overdose | CDC Injury Center

https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/
Oct 17, 2016 - The United States is in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic. ... At least half of all opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid. ... CDC HAN: Influx of Fentanyl-laced Counterfeit Pills and Toxic Fentanyl-related

Stoners protest Trump AG pick Sessions over anti-pot stance

Originally Posted by Judy

When Americans decide to legalize and regulate, these problems and issues will be solved. Until then, it's just a terrible, costly, deadly tug-of-war with no good outcomes.

No, legalizing these drugs will not solve all the problems. Actually, it would create some new ones.

Obviously, I disagree.