Pot and the Art of Felt Tip Whipping

Sometimes while we're reading an article we get so hacked off we just want to whip out our big ol' fat red felt tip marker and lay a major rebuttal on the butthead we're butting heads with. (And the reason we usually don't is because then we'd have to whip out our big ol' bottle of Windex and clean all those red Magic Marker marks off of our monitor screens.)

I recently encountered one of those articles in bad need of a felt tip whipping. You know how this works. Read a little, scribble a lot, read some more, scribble a lot more. So get out your Sharpie and let's do this one together.

(Excerpts below are from the Salem OR Statesman Journal web site. The hacking off begins with the headline.)

Expanding medical-marijuana law would create drug haven, czar says

Oh yeah? How 'bout "Expanding medical marijuana law would create DRUG WAR haven, libertarian says."

A measure on Oregon's Nov. 2 ballot to expand the medical use of marijuana is drawing criticism from the White House drug czar, who says it would turn Oregon into a "safe haven for drug trafficking."

You mean a "safe haven for Drug War refugees."

But White House drug czar John Walters, echoing the criticism of Oregon's district attorneys, calls Measure 33 a "fraud" against Oregon voters and a backdoor attempt to legalize marijuana. "People are being played for suckers," Walters said in an interview.

Fraud? Suckers? As opposed to what, being duped into your duplicitous drug war? There was no nationwide drug problem until your opportunistic powercrat predecessors launched their preemptive military-style strikes against their nonviolent fellow citizens. Yes, people are being played for suckers, and you're the player.

"This is not about medicine; this is about recreational use of dope," [Benton County District Attorney Scott] Heiser said.

This is about something you powercrats can't tolerate -- freedom of choice and personal responsibility.

"Under this measure, the Benton County Health Department would be required to give away free dope to indigent users at taxpayer expense," he [Heiser] said.

What? You have principles? Yeh, when it comes to taxpayer-funded dope dispensing you're suddenly a libertarian. But when it comes to bashing in doors, bashing in skulls, handcuffing people, dragging them off to jail, prosecuting and imprisoning them, all for the crime of harming no one, and all at taxpayer expense, you're still just a Narco Nazi.

The Oregon Medical Association . . . has paid for a page in the state Voters' Pamphlet to urge Oregonians to vote "no" on Measure 33. "It is a thinly disguised effort to legalize the use of marijuana without any medically scientific justification," it said.

Okay, so where's your pamphlet that gives the medically scientific justification for outlawing a common weed that has never killed anyone? Where's your medically scientific justification for ruining the lives of thousands of ordinary people by incarcerating them while the rich and politically connected go free? Where does your Hippocratic oath tell you to suck up to politicians instead of caring for your patients?

The association said that safer, synthetic derivatives of marijuana are available to patients and that studies have shown that smoking marijuana can damage people's lungs.

Throwing people in prison can damage way more than just their lungs. So, hey, they're my lungs and my responsibility. But maybe you're not just sucking up to the politicos. Maybe you're sucking up to the giant pharmaceuticals. Marijuana can't be patented but "synthetic derivatives" sure as hell can be. Is that why "more than 7,000 physicians statewide" signed on to the vote "no" on Measure 33 anti-pot campaign? Money?

Walters, the White House drug czar, said that the federal government wouldn't sit by and watch Oregon create a system of dispensaries that would dole out six pounds of marijuana to patients each year. Such a system would be wide-open to abuse by drug users and sellers, he said.

As opposed to your Drug War system which is wide open to abuse by squads of swaggering SWAT bots who love to break down the doors of people clad in pajamas? But, hey, I just read that the possession and use of up to four ounces of marijuana at home is protected by the Alaska constitution. So what are ya gonna do, firebomb Fairbanks?

"We do not intend to let any part of the United States become a safe haven for drug trafficking," Walters said.

So who died and made you Czar? Oh, that's right. Freedom died.