Religious Leaders Unite to Oppose Calfornia Legislation
Religious Leaders Unite to Oppose Calfornia Legislation
The International Faith Based Coalition co-sponsored a press conference in Sacramento to speak out against efforts to legalize marijuana sales and use in California. Members of the coalition represent over 150 different faiths and Christian denominations and have more than 3,600 members. These leaders see the damage done by drug abuse firsthand in their congregations and families and are joining with Californians for Drug Free Youth to stop the attempt to send society down the wrong path by legalizing another addictive substance.
They refute the idea that taxing marijuana would pay for the costs to society of its use by noting that California collected $1.4 billion in taxes for alcohol and tobacco products while spending $19.9 billion on substance abuse and addiction. Put another way, the state spent $545.09 per person on problems caused by substance abuse and collected only $38.69 per person in taxes on those substances.
Why would marijuana taxation be any different?
Comments
Misinformation again
"They refute the idea that taxing marijuana would pay for the costs to society of its use by noting that California collected $1.4 billion in taxes for alcohol and tobacco products while spending $19.9 billion on substance abuse and addiction. Put another way, the state spent $545.09 per person on problems caused by substance abuse and collected only $38.69 per person in taxes on those substances."
We are talking about the regulation and taxation of Marijuana. These people are throwing around numbers that apply to substance abuse by all drug users. How much money is spent on Marijuana drug abuse? And how much of that treatment is court mandated for 1st time possesion offenses?
Watch the television show Intervention. How many episodes deal with marijuana?
The reason why marijuana taxation is different
The problems caused by alcohol and tobacco are not small. They include death, cancer, violence, domestic abuse, to name a few. Marijuana, however, is quite different. A recent Brown University Study showed that long term, chronic smokers of marijuana had a REDUCED RISK of head, neck and throat squamous cell carcinoma. A large study funded by NIDA showed that smoking cannabis does NOT increase your risk for cancer. Those are GOOD statistics. Police will tell you that pot smokers are much less trouble than drunks.
If marijuana was legal many people would switch from tobacco and alcohol. This would lead to a REDUCTION in death and disease. Many others could also reduce their consumption of opiate pain killers, thereby reducing the side effects, as well as the risk of death by overdose.
Instead of lobbying against marijuana reform, the International Faith Based Coalition should be lobbying FOR cannabis regulation, which would deal a death blow to the organized crime that gets 65% of its income from its sales. Your neighborhood pusher is not selling booze is he?
70 years of prohibition in the US has resulted in the highest percentage of use in the world. On the contrary, the Netherlands, with their liberal drug policies, enjoys a far, far lower percentage of use, particularly among teens.
Usage
America has the strongest economy, the richest people, the least damage from world wars and the most drug use of any nation - all those things are related. Marijuana decriminalization would not decrease use; even those who would legalize the stuff admit that usage would increase. I think the coalition has experienced the death and damage from drug use firsthand in their communities and their families - they're not in it because of scientific studies. They know what they've seen.
Food for thought.
But they do not understand...
I gotcha. Seeing is believing. But what IS it that they have seen?
They do not understand, no matter what they think.
Cannabis use DOES NOT cause broken homes. Cannabis DOES NOT lead to "death and damage"!
Broken homes happen for reasons. "Death and damage" happen for reasons. But they are not because people smoke pot!
Sure herroine will turn you into a fiend who will rape and pillage to get more.
Cannabis WILL NOT!
The only death that comes pot is because of drug gangs. And no anti-prohibitionist would ever condone drugged driving... something that could lead to death.
They simply DO NOT understand.
not in it for the science?
When it comes to HARD drug use, it is our nation’s poor and disenfranchised that tend to develop substance abuse problems. Where is there a correlation with our nation’s collective wealth or economic situation? And please explain to me how wars 60+ years ago have effected drug usage today. Surely Amsterdam isn’t still rebuilding from the destruction of World War II and even if it was, surely it wouldn’t lead to these people using less drugs.
“Marijuana decriminalization would not decrease use; even those who would legalize the stuff admit that usage would increase.”
But what it wouldn’t do, as insinuated in prohibitionist tradition, is skyrocket use. Yes, cannabis use among adult Americans is likely to rise. But what you fail to address is the fact that this rise will consist primarily of individuals using cannabis in place of more harmful substances (like alcohol). This would be overwhelmingly effective in reducing the social costs of substance abuse all together. A brand new study out of Canada clearly demonstrates exactly how much MORE harmful tobacco and alcohol are than cannabis.
http://www.heretohelp.bc.ca/publications/cannabis/bck/7
“They're not in it because of scientific studies. They know what they've seen.”
So you admit the prohibitionist mentality is driven by ideology as opposed to scientific fact? Well that mentality has had a rough few weeks here since election day; as more and more Americans are listening to the science and logic of the issue as opposed to focusing on the same fear-mongering they have been hearing for 40 years now. The voters in the state of Maine approved a dispensary system to distribute medical cannabis. Voters in Breckenridge, CO removed all criminal and civil penalties for possession of up to an ounce of cannabis. Then we had the AMA coming out saying SMOKED cannabis DOES have medical value and recommended it be moved out of schedule 1. NOW we have the California Medical Association endorsing a resolution stating the criminal prohibition of cannabis is “a failed public health policy”. Pro-reform measures are now being debated in the state capitals of literally dozens of states in all corners of the country.
As for what can be seen on the streets, I’m sure this coalition has witnessed firsthand the damage DRUGS can do; not marijuana. We’re talking about marijuana here. Not “DRUGS”. This whole argument is built on a gateway theory that has been debunked DOZENS of times in SCIENTIFIC studies over the past decade. A far larger group of those who witness first hand the damage drugs can do agree that the system railroads minor drug offenders into ever increasing levels of drug abuse and criminality; leaving people caught in that cycle very little way out. I have witnessed this first hand. With people I know and love. So I’ll have to be excused if I don’t find the word of a preacher I don’t know from an organization no one’s heard of very convincing.
That was a very funny speech.
That was a very funny speech. The speaker didn't even get the proposition's author's name right, AMMIANO. Certainly it can't be all that difficult to pronounce that name correctly? (It reminds me of the redneck during Michael Dukakis' presidential campaign a few years back who said, "Dukakis? That ain't no American name.") The speaker in the video comes across as an ignorant redneck in a suit. Also, what about legalization being a "dubious proposition?" The stoners must be laughing their asses off at this "doobious" proposition. Really, the speaker should have selected his terms more carefully, but the whole speech was a rant anyway so who cares. Gnash your teeth and whine, fools. Legalization is coming, and it is unstoppable. Surely even you DFAF types have noticed the normalization of marijuana, with TV shows like Weeds and the general attitude among Americans? Just look on any comment board when the topic of cannabis comes up. The comments are usually running about 90% pro-legalization (and it's not only us die-hard stoners who support it.) Do you think it cuts any ice that a bunch of clergy opine on something they don't have a clue about? They would do better to concentrate on things they do know something about, such as virgin births, people rising from the dead, water being changed to wine, and other, ahem, obviously true events.
Really?
What about freewill? God gives us freewill, when will you?
You're right God DOES give us
You're right God DOES give us free will....free will to CHOOSE between right and WRONG not free will to do whatever we want and put anything in our bodies and have no punishment. If you look at God's teachings, some things are clearly defined as being wrong ....such as putting mind altering substances in your body.
...And yet there are
...And yet there are religious ceremonies that use alcohol. Sometimes involving giving it to children. And I thought the Bible says God gave mankind all the flowering plants and herbs for our use. But that’s an ideological debate, which has no place in a public policy debate. There is supposed to be separation of church and state in this country. Faith is not meant to be used as a weapon of dishonesty in political matters as it is here.
Notice how THIS is what provokes a response. Nothing regarding the FACTS of the issue. Prohibitionists are driven by ideology. They are immune to facts and logic. Numerous one-sided debates and unaddressed comments testify that the only real argument for prohibition is “…but drugs are bad”. I suggest everyone check out the CBS news debate between David Evens and Judge James Gray. The proof is there clear as print that prohibitionist organizations have to actively ignore large portions of debates and avoid whole lines of questioning in order to stay on their talking points.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/08/national/main5578613.shtml
Genesis 1:29 And God said,
Genesis 1:29
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
So according to his master plan, cannbis use is OK. It is up to US as ADULTS to use it responsibly, which 95% of people who use cannabis do!!! Using the logic of prohibithionists, ANY soul partaking in sacramental wine for use in celebration of the Eucharist qualifies an an alcholic.
Mind altering substances
So God is against alcohol, tobacco, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the medical use of opiates, and coffee?
are you kidding me?
the use of marijuana would grow if it was legal?
have they done any research at all?
look at the facts, when the brits experimented with decriminalizing marijuana use in 2004, they noticed the use of marijuana user went from 25% to 21% by 2006/2007
legalizing this shit isn't just for recreational use anyway.
it could completely replace our timber industry leaving our planet green.
gives it a new meaning in going green don't you think?
"...stop the attempt to send society down the wrong path by legalizing another addictive substance."
seriously? they believe marijuana is addicting? it is NOT an addictive "drug"
it's a damn plant that grew on this planet. people do NOT experience withdrawls if they stop using marijuana. you wouldn't know a person smokes weed just by looking at him. However, you could tell just by glancing at a crackhead that he smokes crack. that is a drug that should be the focus of the "war on drugs" and not a damn plant.
AMA
Just running this up the flagpole to see who salutes - the AMA has softened its longstanding hard stance towards medical marijuana.
And another one bites the dust...
WHAT IS YOUR BASIS?
Where are you getting all your information from and why is your information so flawed. I would think that even 3,600 idiots with internet access could manage to stumble upon some kind of information about the truth of marijuana and its medical benefits. How about instead of bashing "drugs users" the International Faith Based Coalition reads the bills, realizes that the bills don't legalize marijuana for sale to minors and then do a little research and find out that marijuana is NOT addictive. Coffee is more addictive than marijuana and contains more chemicals in it than marijuana. I wonder if coffee will be served at their coalition?
Reject whatever notions you want...
But you WILL NOT decide for me. I decide to use drugs, I WILL use drugs... and even IF you manage to catch me and prove it? You can spend 100,000$ a year while I sit in prison AND DO MORE DRUGS instead of the work I do making people in the USA safer. You would be surprised exactly HOW much of a "good guy" this drug user is. But then again, your notion of morality and mine are very different. You think morality means hurting/threatening people to force them to live the way you choose for them to, while my idea of morality is to help protect my fellow countrymen, and enjoy my life without hurting others.
Idiots.
So religious leaders are now
So religious leaders are now economic experts as well? I wonder if there isn't a little bit of worry that people finding spiritual sustenance in the use of cannabis would cut into their market share.