Pat Robertson: Pot should be legal like alcohol

You guys are gonna love this one.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson says marijuana should be legalized and treated like alcohol because the government's war on drugs has failed.

That's really all ya need to know about this one. I can post a link if you like, but its all over the internet and the news. Came as a complete shock to me and probably many other Christian Conservatives like myself. Whagt can Pat be thinking? He has said pretty much the same arguments I've heard from the legalize it crowd, (its safe, no worse that alcohol, etc).
But here are my thoughts on this:

Moderate doses tend to induce a sense of well-being and a dreamy state of relaxation that encourages fantasies, renders some users highly suggestible, and distorts perception (making it dangerous to operate machinery, drive a car or boat, or ride a bicycle).
Now dont give me that jazz about how it should be ok becayse alcohol does this too and people arent supposed to be using it if they are underage. Fact is... underage people DO use alcohol already. So there's no reason to think they wouldnt use pot too. I dunno about you, but I'm not sure I wanna add to the problem we already have with drunks on the highway.

Marijuana use reduces learning ability. Research has been piling up of late demonstrating clearly that marijuana limits the capacity to absorb and retain information. A 1995 study of college students discovered that the inability of heavy marijuana users to focus, sustain attention, and organize data persists for as long as 24 hours after their last use of the drug. Earlier research, comparing cognitive abilities of adult marijuana users with non-using adults, found that users fall short on memory as well as math and verbal skills. Although it has yet to be proven conclusively that heavy marijuana use can cause irreversible loss of intellectual capacity, animal studies have shown marijuana-induced structural damage to portions of the brain essential to memory and learning.

Can you think of ways where impared memory might be dangerous both to the user as well as to others? (And remember...if people use alcohol inappropriately...why wouldnt they use pot in the same fashion)?

Chronic marijuana smokers are prey to chest colds, bronchitis, emphysema, and bronchial asthma. Persistent use will damage lungs and airways and raise the risk of cancer. There is just as much exposure to cancer-causing chemicals from smoking one marijuana joint as smoking five tobacco cigarettes. And there is evidence that marijuana may limit the ability of the immune system to fight infection and disease.

Umm...what is the cost of medical care in our nation right now? We're already trying everything to get people to stop smoking normal cigarettes. Do we want to dump all these extra problems on an already stressed medical care system? Are my taxes gonna be raised again to cover the costs of extra cases of cancer screenings and long term care? Most likely they will. Do you wanna pay for that? MAybe PAt Robertson can afford it but I cant.

The Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found adolescents who smoke pot 85 times more likely to use cocaine than their non–pot smoking peers. And 60 percent of youngsters who use marijuana before they turn 15 later go on to use cocaine.

And saying it wont doesnt make it so. This is backed up by the CDC's research and I assume they know what they are talking about.

So imo, Pat is waaay off the mark here. Now...I do agree with him that criminalizing the use of pot is probably not the way to go. For example, jailing a pot-user is (IMO) a waste opf money. Jail the pushers, but we'd probably get more out of them if we made users of illegal pot (or even harder core drugs) do community service PLUS go through rehab. MAybe community service (cut grass, wash police cars, etc) for a first offense, but future offenses you could send them into rehab. MAybe fine the heck out of them too. That would stop me. And if Pot really isnt addictive (and the legalize it crowd claim), then we wouldnt actualy be punishing offenders for something they cant help.

So I can see imprisoning sellers and growers. But not the general user.

some more views on this: What would Jesus do?

I suspect JEsus would caution that the body is a temple for the Holy Spirit and we should not abuse it. He also cautioned against being drunk and all that. I dont know if pot was around back then, so I'm guessing at what he'd say about that. Probably caution us not to use it.

As to the issue of imprisoning 'mere users', he might disagree with that. Man, throwing a kid in jail for just using is harsh. But selling it, preying on other people, getting them to do things harmful to themselves for the sake of profit...Jesus might throw a fit over that.

So yeah, let's just keep tossing money down the well.

How do you stop rain???

How do you stop wind???

How do you stop poverty???

How do you stop drugs???

All have the same exact answer.

Quit telling people what to do and let them make their own choices.

I dunno about poverty though. Do we just let the poor starve and say, "well...you cant stop poverty". I'm not saying we should give all our money to em because some folks wont work when they actually could. But some folks are on limited fixed incomes and are too old or too handicapped to have jobs. And then there is the high rate of unemployment. So "I'm for safety nets at least.

But drug use? The only way I'm for that is if it is as highly regulated as other drugs that require prescriptions and is used only for medicinal reasons. I would never be in favor of it being sold over the country like beer or colas. We laredy have enough problems with drunks in public or on our highways.

Dennis324 wrote:I dunno about poverty though. Do we just let the poor starve and say, "well...you cant stop poverty". I'm not saying we should give all our money to em because some folks wont work when they actually could. But some folks are on limited fixed incomes and are too old or too handicapped to have jobs. And then there is the high rate of unemployment. So "I'm for safety nets at least.

Gasp! European-style socialism! Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

Lol! Btw...I havent watched PAt Robertson's tv show since he took his stance on pot.