When I was in prison there were so many young people in there with me doing 3-20 years simply for having weed…
For growing it in their basement or selling the dreaded marijuana. That for many of them was the real crime, that they were in there at all. Few had any money, most had public defenders, yet were labeled “Big Time Dealers.”
It’s how our legal system has worked for more than 60 years.
We have over 5 million people in prison today, more than China and Russia together.
Sure, more than a million of them belong in prison. The rest? I’m not so sure. CNBC says over 30% of the country is employed in law enforcement related work. Not just badge carrying types but lawyers, judges, doctors, prison staff, the list is nearly endless.
And that’s the main reason the drug laws have remained way too harsh all these decades.
Not for your safety like they would have you think, but because it’s a business…on both ends.
Colorado has finally broken the ice by legalizing marijuana for personal use. Finally the witch hunt is starting to melt.
It will take another 10 or 20 years to get this thing made more fair and safe. The government needs to go forward with legal drugs that you will be able to buy at a CVS. Replacement drugs that are safer and will replace coke, heroin, X and so on.
In this stressed out world, we have to be honest about human beings wanting to escape from their daily headaches. They do anyway. Is it a good thing to use? No. In most circumstances it is not a good idea, but if you’re capable of doing it on special occasions, well maybe pot and some safe pill now and again might be okay.
Time will tell.
To pretend most adults haven’t or don’t use at least the demon illegal pot is insane.
Our last three presidents all admited they used it. George Bush had a serious coke problem and was even in treatment centers before being elected. It’s always called an abuse problem, booze related.
You can believe that if you want, but I know Bill Clinton inhaled and Obama tried blow once.
I was indicted and had to plead guilty in 2001 to sharing drugs with friends like the Star‘s Jeff Flanagan (distribution) – even after I proved I was only a weekend warrior and did the same as the other guys.
We almost all have done that and no money was involved. It happens.
Most cops have used and say so off record.
As of a few years ago one could join the FBI if you admitted you only used weed a few times and never again. Why? It’s hard to find those who never did or don’t.
With age we grow out of drug use.
Mostly time and health play a big part and / or we get too old for the effect or it hampers us at work, we have kids and so on. And I speak to so many friends now 40 and up who used but have convenient memory. Now they say, “Lock ’em up.”
They want to protect their children. I don’t blame them for worrying. Good parenting will be the best answer. I’ve seen that in my family. Don’t do as I did.
It’s hard to find a family that hasn’t had a major drug or booze issue or both.
I hope with the Colorado start we can begin the process of being fair.
All those young people who were locked up for years just for having some pot in their locker at high school back in the 60’s and 70’s, jail ruined them, not the pot.
Yes, there are too many out of control drug users.
But they need help more than jail. Anyone using is guilty of many federal and local crimes the way the strict laws are written. We need some modern changes. We need to address one of the nation’s bigger problems in a more positive and fair way. You can’t lock everyone up.
You say, not me, I don’t use illegal drugs!
What happens when it’s your 18 year old college kid and you get that call? Do you want them in prison? I don’t think so.
When we find ways to make it legal and safer our crime in this nation will fall HUGELY.
Prisons will empty, gang violence will come to an end and it will cut back on so many violent crimes all in the name of drug deals.
Colorado is a start. Maybe things will get better.
When no money is involved, few crimes are committed.
I remember in the 80s, a neighborhood in DC had so many crack dealers and the police were unable to do much. So the neighborhood got together and were well on their way to forcing the dealers out of the neighborhood. The police stopped them, saying they were losing too much money from confiscations.
Now that for-profit prisons are in full swing, there will be another Big Business to ally with Big Pharma and the liquor industry to keep it illegal.
The Weedman was on trial for possession with intent to distribute (a lot) of marijuana. A jury found him innocent though he still faces charges of possession. And the Feds raided his medical marijuana business in California shortly after his win.
http://nj1015.com/nj-weedman-a-marijuana-martyr-poll/
I don’t know if legalization and taxation is the way to go. Decriminalization for the recreational user should start immediately. A statutory offense rather than criminal.
Yes I agree, again its always more about money than morality…always…even when government acts like its about you…its not…its about them…getting your votes…still money….power so on….this will lead to more pull over checks on ‘are you high’ so we can give you a ticket…so on…and make MONEY on that…the DUI’s have nearly ended nightlife in America as it once was…never more.
I’ll never forget a co-workers comments after his 16-year-old son was almost killed when he totaled his car.
The kid was drunk as a skunk (.2 by blood) and Dad and Mom both said, thank god he wasn’t doing drugs.
Now THAT’S hilarious.
Glaze, if you are driving DRUNK or HIGH and get pulled over, you SHOULD get arrested. It’s freaking stupid. Take cab. Call a friend. Have a DD. Have your car towed right to your house (yes, there is a business for that). there is ALWAYS an alternative to driving drunk. Surely, you are not defending that.
No I’m not, however the number now is so low…you can register with one or two drinks that you really don’t feel…I’ve done the tests to see that…unfair…and its are you driving impaired…I think we’ve gone too far with the entire DUI mess…AGAIN ITS NOT DONE TO PROTECT YOU MY FRIEND, ITS NOT THE COPS WILL ADMIT IT..IT’S A MONEY GRAB…ESPECAILLY DUI CHECK POINTS…sorry…its over the top…
Trust me, I know it’s a racket. I’ve been in the middle of it. My girlfriend’s brother is a top-dog in the highway patrol. I’m just saying if you KNOW the rules, make a plan. If you want to roll those very expensive dice, go ahead.
Two beers will get you popped for a DUI now. If MADD has there way, zero tolerance.
If it were about safety, it would be a hell of a lot harder to get a driver’s license.
Would you feel better if the police told you your loved one was killed in a car wreck and the driver wasn’t drunk, just incompetent.
We had a senior vice president at ACC, Jack Johnson, who put forth a pee-in-the-bottle program for the company. Of course those who worked for him in sales were exempt. He later left “to pursue other interests” after he was stopped and refused a blood test (breathalyzers were not permitted in PA, too unreliable).
Someday……..SOMEDAY……..people are going to look back at the whole weed issue and say, “What the hell were they thinking?” Much the way we view prohibition and slavery. There are billions and billions to be made in taxes once all the “do-gooders” are finally laid to rest. Good God, a Schedule 1 narcotic? How freaking hypocritical can people be? A gateway drug? Oh, please. Legalize it. Regulate it. Tax it.
Talk to any sober addict and they will tell you the REAL gateway drug is tobacco.
Schedule 1 because some Texas legislature hated Hispanics and Blacks.
http://www.csdp.org/publicservice/anslinger.htm
You are a smart man.
watch it Craig, you are close to trademark infringement 🙂
Kansas and Missouri are so politically devoid of intelligent thought the only alternative would be to move to Colorado or Washington. So get them bags packed kiddies.
After reading some of the romney supporter comments after they lost i am
now suggesting that they all get some good weed and smoke it like a fiend.
It will help relieve the sting and anger from getting your a$$ kicked by obama.
hahahahaha….
p.s….what ever happened to that really good thai stick?
Good article Glaze.
Dead on.
Great comments.
glaze this is a good article except for one moronic statement. “all those young people who were locked up for years just for having pot in their locker back in the 60s and 70s”. really? those high school kids got locked up for years for their locker being lined with bricks or just a few joints? i dont think kid in high school had their lockers lined with bricks. so what your saying is all those kids who spent years in prison getting busted with a few joints. geez! and your dad thought you were “dead on”. fairy tales can come true it could happen to you. alfred e neuman
Not true son, Texas was famous in the 60’s for sending people to prison for 5-20 years with small amounts of pot…for real.
Oh okay sunny dave… nice name by the way, “sunny dave…” what are you saying to the world with a question like that>? Please. First of all, you talke about Stan’s comment. Attention, Sunny Dork, I’m NOT STAN… I’m his son, CRAIG. Get it right, looser. Your about as big a tool, weiner-butt looser as your friend Wang Danglemen. You too shoud get a room and really just have at each other… tell you what big boy… you come down to woodside and find me. I;ll fight your pathetic looser a$$ until they kick me out for being to much of a the man. I like you blog, by the way… which one? O, none of them really. Only a looser lowlife pondscum would believe something like that… till you what, why don’t you come see me on my blog, okay… it’s a kansascity confidential, and I write all the sports and pick all of the games and I picked the president accurately…. What did YOU do, huh, you pathetic weiner-twurp… I get 50+0 comments on my blogs because KANSAS CIYT LOVES CRAIG GLAXER. GO READ IT, CHUMP… YOULL CHANGE YOUR TOON, WAITER BOY. KEEP WAITING TABLEs, you sick loser piece of waist. You know who I was hanging out with resently? CHARLIE SHEEN… that’s who. LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU GET A FRIEND AS COOL AS CHARLEE SHEEN AND MAYBE ILL TALK TO YOU. OH, wait, you wait tables and serve stakes to real men like me and all my hotties. Maybe I’ll drive my hotties in the Lotus dowsn to your pathetic jazz bar that nobody goes to anymore except for old men, and I’ll show you what a real man looks like with his shirt off. I HAVE MUSCLES THAT YOU’VE NEVER EVEN HEARD OD…. Chump pathetic looser.
Go to school.
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Posted by craig glazer on 11/08/2012 at 1:50 PM
Dear Wank Dingleberry- I wanto know why you’re talking to yourself big guy? whats a Charles-Bar? Is that some sort of candy bar that your mom gives you when you have a tummy ake? Give me a break. You pathetic lowlife looser.
Anyway I know Jimmy well and I wish him the best of luck. We used to swim at Woodisde together back in the mid-90’s before he moved east to Lees Summit. I remember one time when Carot Top was in town, and we all went to Woodisde to have alittle party. it was me and Jimmy and C.Top and Tommy Morrison- yu probably remember him as Mchine Gun Morrison, or Tommy Duke- and Johnyy (Johnny Dares). Jimmy was older, but he was holding his own pulling in the tale along with me and Duek and Johnny. Anyway Jimmy had to leave to open Homers the next morning and I’m saying ‘brother. don’t leave. you’re getting all the honeys.’ but he was married at the time and he said, ‘Craid. your my brother and my good friend and you know I’m not doing ANYTHING wrong.’
I was on the phone with Clint Eastwood and we were talkign about making my bestselling novel into a movie “the King of Sting.” Look it up, looser Wind Dinkelwire. PLEASE, GIRL.
Where was I?
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Posted by Craig Glazer on 11/08/2012 at 11:58 AM
Hmmm…
This could be interesting if the feds don’t allow this law because it violates federal law. It would then probably go to court. If that happens, either Colorado’s law could be overturned or the federal law could be overturned. If we have any attornies on here, I would be really curious as to what they would say about this law and it’s potential ramifications.
Any truth to the rumor that Colorado is planning to change its official state song from “Where the Columbines Grow” to “Rocky Mountain High” and Washington from “Washington, My Home” to “Eight Miles High”? Just curious. Inquiring minds want to know. On a serious note, however, the young driver who caused a double-fatality, two-vehicle accident in April 2011 on K-10 near Eudora tested positive for Mary Jane, if anyone wishes to take that into consideration at some point. In the wake of that accident there has been an organized campaign to make the state put some sort of barricade between the eastbound lanes and the westbound lanes, but what about the use of marijuana by that driver? Who’s talking about that?
They should refer to both factors jointly to be blunt about it.
He also might have had a clump of semi-digested meatloaf in his gut, two 12-ounce Red Bulls waiting to be pissed out and a wad of sunflower seeds in his mouth. Was he texting or talking on his cell phone? Simply testing “positive” for THC doesn’t say whether he was high at the time of the crash, or if his blunt hitting took place a few days earlier.
You bring up a good issue, Rick, even if inadvertently. Alcohol leaves your system in a relatively short time (day or so) but with the weed, traces are there for weeks. Once pot’s recreational use is legalized, it will become socially convenient to blame every fatal crash involving someone who smokes weed on the drug. That inevitably will result in conservative indignation and “crackdowns” by police who, at random marijuana checkpoints, will test and arrest on the spot drivers who test “positive.”
In that light, maybe it’ll be safer for pot smokers if it stays illegal.
Glazer is a glaring example of why we should discourage alcohol and drug use. Maybe not with laws, but with social pressure that makes people, ESPECIALLY those between ages 12-30, practically outcast if they use psychoactive drugs. You’d think with the toll drugs and alcohol took on Glazer’s closest relatives, he’d leave this subject, to others.
Not really not sure about the booze who was that? Just trying to help my son…all the best…
Interesting news clip from a far Western Kansas Sherriff stating he’s afraid all the dope smokers on the border in Kansas will run over to Colorado, like there will be fruit stands on the side of the road selling weed or something, buy their weed and come back to the lonely wheat fields of Western KS to get high!
Reminds me of all the silly law enforcement concerns that all us punk kids would run across the border from SW Mo to Kansas to buy COORS since it wasn’t available In Mo, plus the drinking age was 18 in Kansas instead of 21, in Mo.
That was as stupid then as this is…… no, wait… we really did DO that.
In the words of Rosanne Rosanadana – never mind.
paul….we sold more coors beer than any retailer in trhe state of kansas
before coors expanded east of kansas.
people would drive from illinois…indiana…detroit…michigan…
st. louis….pennsylvanaia ……with trailers to pick up coors beer…
crawford sales was the dstkributor and they had a polish salesman who
was our rep who worked in the kck drivers license bureau and all of our
friend and family who couldn’t pass the driving test woiild (eye test…)
wouuld go down to kck and get him to pass them….those were the days!!!!!!!
the same thin is happening on the border of colorado and kansas!!!!!!!!
Personally I’d like to see everyone get high on Jesus. Everything else is just a cheap substitute.
+1
Ya know what Glazer for once I agree with you. Legalize it get it done and get it over with. I do take exception that you rarely find someone that hasn’t used I proudly claim i’ve never done that or any other drug and i’m fast approaching my mid 40’s. Was I offered you bet but I wouldn’t eat a candy bar bought from the likes of most these that deal so I damn sure won’t ingest anything they or an associate cooked up.
Now back to the point. Legalize it and point in fact every narcotic. But I do hope the federal government does one thing. TAXES THE SHIT OUT OF IT !!! We got sold a bill of goods on smoking now we pay the healthcare costs. We’re doing the same with booze. Next if your under the influence and slam into a car injuring someone its a mandatory 10 years. You kill someone tuff shit your going in for life. Like it or not these recreational drugs have health and social consequences and nobody wants to take responsibilty for their own actions. You get caught behind the wheel spaced out on a dorito run then – license gone for life.
I’m tire of flipping the bill for every social welfare whack job that can’t take control of their own life and want to get bailed out because they are too stupid to make reasonable decisions. But will any of this happen NOPE! Why? cause we are the welfare country the nanny state.
You want to plunge a needle or inhale some smoke in your own home great. You take your recreation to a habit or abuse don’t expect the system to bail you out. You loose your job cause you can’t go 10 seconds without a hit tuff shit.
Glazer, I’m a former narcotics officer and you are exactly right.
Nice to hear that. Yes I wish more of the readers knew what you and I know. Only when you work for the government in law enforcement will one find this all out. Like we both agree, IT’S A BUSINESS, nothing more, unfortunately…as a cop if you try and make it more, you will be sorry or gone.