Can’t Spell POTUS Without POT
Jan 20, 2014 Commentary, Political
Barack Obama has suddenly become a health expert on marijuana, tobacco and alcohol. I guess Obama thinks that smoking weed, using coke, smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol makes him an expert on the subject.
I have made my position known in the past. Instead of spending billions to fight this drug we should legalize it and tax the hell out of it (say 40-50%) in order to increase revenue. The revenue (as well as the savings from the war on drugs) could be used to pay the debt and lower our income taxes. The real problem will be getting government to actually use the tax money to pay bills instead of using it to make more bills. It will also eventually lead to government declaring marijuana a right and that some folks can’t afford it so it needs to be subsidized. They will give away pot with Obamaphones. I would never use it so the issue will not affect me as long as government does not decide to use my tax dollars for pot related items.
Back to Barack. He wants marijuana made legal and he is out talking now about how it is no more dangerous than alcohol. Obama said that it is well known he smoked pot as a teen and that he viewed it no differently from smoking tobacco. Hey genius, tobacco does not cause one to get high. It does not impair one’s ability to do things.
So Barry said he does not think marijuana is any more dangerous than alcohol. That is likely true but we have quantitative methods to determine if a person is impaired by alcohol. How would we do that for marijuana when THC stays in the system for sometime and the levels stay high with repeated use? The person is not intoxicated but the levels are high so how do we measure? If we make marijuana legal there needs to be very strict laws about using it and driving and doing other things (like those where we would not allow alcohol) and the punishment needs to be severe.
Even if marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol that still means it is dangerous (just no more so than alcohol).
Smoking marijuana causes cancer and if one is also a tobacco smoker the incidence of cancer greatly increases. Despite what the stoner crowd tells you, marijuana is not some wonder drug that causes no harm. There are serious effects on the body and long term use is detrimental. Perhaps there is a use for the products from marijuana (like THC being used to stimulate appetite in cancer patients) but make no mistake, it has harmful effects.
The real issue with regard to Obama is the inequality in the legal system. Obama is concerned that rich people who get caught with marijuana are less likely to suffer the harsh consequences of the legal system than are the middle class and the poor among us.
Yes, there are a lot of people on the middle and low end of the spectrum who are jailed or otherwise under the restraints of the legal system because of marijuana use. However, I strongly doubt that these problems are ONLY because of the marijuana. For many of these people marijuana possession or use is but one charge among others such as illegal possession of a firearm, possession/use of other drugs, burglary, assault, failure to appear, violation of probation, multiple past arrests and so on.
In other words, these folks are not angels who happened to have a little weed on them.
But Obama is one to never leave the inequality card at home so he makes the issue about the inequality of the legal system.
If he wants equality then how about we start with making it so all the citizens have the same standards and rules as the politicians? If people get caught intoxicated they can go to rehab and be allowed back to work just like a member of Congress. If someone gets caught not paying taxes or cheating on them then that person can get a pass just like members of Congress and members of the Obama staff.
I do not believe in equality of outcome. Everyone should have the same chance in life (and we all pretty much have the same opportunity) but what one does with the opportunities is what determines the outcome. Obama can’t grasp this concept for society at large (with regard to him and his daughters it is a different story) so he thinks everyone deserves (or, as liberals say, has a right) to the same outcome.
And by God if the outcome is not the same then big government needs to step in and fix it.
Suppose two people of similar means both receive a million dollars to do what they want with. The first guy parties and spends it all on lavish items and soon runs out of money and ends up bankrupt. The second guy invests the money in a small business and grows the business over time so that he is eventually making many times more than the million dollars he started with. He employs people, provides them great benefits and he prospers. He buys the things he put off while building his business and he establishes a great life for his family.
Which one would most people applaud? They both had the same opportunity and chose different paths so their outcome was not the same.
To Obama the first guy got shafted and the government needs to step in and take money from the second guy to make the first guy’s life better.
Obama is clueless.
Maybe all that pot he used in his youth did damage his brain after all…
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: cdc, inequality, lies, marijuana, Obama, pot smoker
Who Benefits From Swine Flu Hysteria?
May 1, 2009 Opinion
Influenza type A H1N1 (Swine Flu) has affected fewer than 300 people worldwide and according to the World Health Organization there have been fewer than 10 deaths associated with that virus and yet the world is going nuts. Joe Biden is telling people not to travel by air or subway and there are all kinds of Swine Flu emergency operation centers popping up in states. Why are we going through all of this for a flu outbreak that is way smaller than the seasonal flu episodes and for a flu that seems to be rather mild when it runs its course?
Why is all this happening and who stands to gain from it?
For the past few years the scientists and the government folks have been looking at the Avian or Bird Flu. This has been the one they figured would be spreading among humans and killing lots of folks and it still might do that.
The Swine Flu popped up and they were not expecting it. This flu is a combination of human, avian, and swine viruses that got together in a pig host and replicated in RNA to become something different and something that could be transmitted from the animal host to the human and from human to human. The process where viruses get together and something new is created is known as an antigenic shift and the virus is sometimes referred to as a novel virus.
This caught people by surprise and the reaction (or over reaction) was because people were not expecting this and worried that it could lead to a huge number of deaths like those that occurred in 1918. But why the hype? Who benefits from all this?
The drug companies that make antivirals and vaccines stand to benefit. The research scientists who work on this stuff stand to get more work. The drug companies that will have to make more medicine to replace stockpiles stand to benefit.
The hype seems to be driven toward over reaction in order to gin up a huge response. Of course, Obama had to spend another billion dollars on this problem.
Keep in mind that only about 109 people in the US are confirmed as having the virus and many of them have already recovered. The course of the illness seems to be mild and it is not particularly debilitating. Nearly all of the people in the US had some contact with Mexico in that they either visited there, met up with someone who visited there or were exposed to someone who came from there. Mexico figures into nearly all the exposures in the US and even though the reports were that over 150 had died in Mexico the WHO says that the confirmed number is 7.
There is a belief that a lot of Mexicans got the flu but never sought medical care and they recovered without difficulty.
Still, the world is going nuts over fewer than 300 cases world wide. Some places are culling pigs, and some are restricting travel. People are afraid.
During the regular flu season we don’t close schools when one kid gets the flu and we don’t stand up flu emergency operations centers when 109 have been confirmed as having the virus (though no doubt more people have gotten sick). It usually takes quite a few before we become concerned. Keep in mind that 36,000 people die from the flu in the US each year and 200,000 are hospitalized. So I think we are going overboard on this flu.
I think that many companies will make money during another crisis we can’t let go to waste. I understand the scramble. They all had their eyes on avian flu and this one showed up out of nowhere.
When you see all the hype just keep in mind that this is a huge industry and flu is a big money maker. A lot of people make money in a “billions of dollars” business.
This is not to say we don’t need to be careful but I think we are getting all spun up over nothing.
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