Texas looking to legalise, not decriminalise, marijuana.
Offline Texas Moves Toward Unleashing Free Market on Pot Legalization
Committee-passed legislation would treat pot plants like jalapeños.
By Steven Nelson May 8, 2015 | 1:19 p.m. EDT
A bill that would make Texas the fifth state to legalize the drug doesn’t propose strict regulations or a state bureaucracy to enforce them. Instead, it would simply repeal state-level prohibition and open the door for an unbridled free market.
The idea – a significant divergence from states where legalization has been accompanied by frameworks to tightly regulate sales of the drug – appears surprisingly popular in the conservative state.
The Texas House of Representatives' Criminal Jurisprudence Committee passed the bill in a 5-2 vote on Wednesday night and it may be debated on the floor next week.
“The debate has changed and people aren’t afraid to vote for it,” says state Rep. David Simpson, the Republican sponsoring the bill.
The East Texas legislator introduced the bill earlier this year with repeated references to the Bible, turning heads as he used the language of social conservatism to sell pot legalization. “All that God created is good, including marijuana," he said. "God did not make a mistake."
Simpson says constituents hoping to use the drug as medicine spurred him to action, and he sees no reason to jail people for possessing the plant or to block farmers from growing industrial hemp. He says ending prohibition would have the added benefit of undercutting criminal drug cartels.
“A lot of Republicans don’t want government interfering with how much you can eat or drink or which doctor they can see – they want freedom,” he says. "And mine is a medical freedom bill and they do like it.”
Article continues:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/05/08/free-market-pot-legalization-bill-advances-in-texas
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
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In Florida 89% of the state voted to get the damn thing on the ballot, but when it came time to vote on legalizing it, the pro side missed out by 2% of getting 2/3rds. The reason for it was the aggressive ad campaign by a fucking tool who wanted to legalize gambling in the state. He pumped 40 million in to ads over a year before the election making a mockery of the drug. His ads were similar to 'Reefer Madness'
The writing is on the wall though. Hard to believe that just barely 10 years ago Canada came within a hair of decriminalising marijuana, and only stopped because the US threatened to make border crossing ridiculously time consuming and expensive (basically threatening an attack on the Canadian economy). And now US states are decriminalising marijuana left right and centre. At this rate, in 10 more years it will be federally decriminalised and only a few states will still have it in the criminal category
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I can't understand why people have a problem with pot being legal, but no problem with alcohol. Being high carries some stigma that being intoxicated does not, though by all indication intoxication is more dangerous.
There are no theists on operating tables.
i'm sure there's a lot of lobbying from alcohol companies who are afraid it will eat into their profits. i also don't doubt there are a few key politucians in the pockets of drug lords who do not want to see cheap, legal, regulated, taxed marijuana.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
I have experienced both at all levels. I believe that being high is less debilitating. I wish it were legal here. I would use it for the pain in my joints. I might actually function better on a day to day basis.
I no longer enjoy alcohol but I do enjoy a crafted beer much like a wine enthusiast enjoys the subtleties of wine.
When I was much younger three of my friends would get together to play D&D and we would get a quarter bag and smoke almost all of it. It was way too much. We were so wasted that we couldn't play games any more. We ended up crashing listening to Pink Floyd's The Wall. So there is a limit on weed also.
I believe eventually it will be legal in all states. Profits will win.