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As though in celebration of his twenty-fifth year in Congress, Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) – who first came to power in 1988 promising to only serve six years – has for the first time introduced what appears to be a decent worthwhile bill with a chance of passage – the “Respect State Marijuana Laws Act,” HR 1523.
It’s been a wry but inescapable phenomenon, that when a Republican elected official (not pointing fingers at all you nice regular folks out there who inexplicably VOTE Republican) departs from the laundry list of orthodox GOP positions, it ALWAYS seems to be due to circumstances involving themselves or their families. We recall gay-daddies Dick Cheney and Rob Portman bucking their Party on marriage equality; we remember Hodgkin’s victim Arlen Specter and Alzheimer widow Nancy Reagan defying the party line on stem cell research; we think of Muslim hubby Grover Norquist schooling his comrades against Islamophobia. Just so, our addled Dana, who can generally be counted on to depart from GOP orthodoxy on the War on Drugs, is a well-known stoner who once boasted of “doing everything but drinking the bong water.”
Okay, enough snark, almost. When a guy’s right, a guy’s right. And this is a bill whose time has come, and it’s starting with strong bipartisan support. After all, Republicans are SUPPOSED to respect States’ Rights, aren’t they? And the Democrats are led by a President who at least PROMISED when running that he would stay out of states’ marijuana decisions (his general breaking of that promise notwithstanding.)
A friend in the medical marijuana community with a better memory than I (WAIT – how did THAT happen?) reminds me that Ron Paul and Barney Frank attempted a similar bill two years ago (which Dana supported) and it went nowhere. But since then, as the linked article points out, the states of Washington and Colorado have voted to legalize, and popular sentiment has reached 60% in favor of the uptight Feds butting out, as the Reefer Madness generation gradually shuffles off this mortal coil leaving our civil society better off in so many ways.
Well, OUR job now – YOURS and MINE – after giving Dana props for this timely bill, is to make sure it gets the support of Loretta and Allan, Ed, John and Darrel. Democrats should get off their “tough on law and order” high horse and think about all the minority youths’ lives wasted in this tragic useless War on Drugs. Republicans should get off THEIR anti-drug high horse and tell the tyrannical Obama administration to butt out of what OUR state decides is right for us. All of them should consider the undeniable medical benefits of this natural weed, as well as the huge waste of money and law enforcement resources spent in going after it.
And if any of these five people, when you write them a letter asking them to support Dana Rohrabacher’s HR 1523, tell you that they’ve never puffed on a joint, even in their youth – as a young ice cream server, or college professor, or draft-doger, or car salesman, or car thief – you can tell them to go take a short walk on a long pier:
- Loretta Sanchez. 12397 Lewis Street, Suite 101, Garden Grove, CA 92840. Phone: (714) 621-0102.
- Alan Lowenthal. 100 West Broadway, West Tower Suite 600, Long Beach CA 90802. Phone: (562)436-3828.
- Ed Royce. 210 W. Birch Street, Suite 201, Brea, CA 92821. Phone: (714) 255-0101.
- John Campbell. 20 Pacifica, Suite 660, Irvine, CA 92618. Phone: (949) 756-2244.
- Darrel Issa. 1800 Thibodo Road, #310, Vista, CA 92081. Phone: 760-599-5000.
Remember, one real physical letter is worth ten phone calls, which in turn are worth … well, don’t even bother with e-mails.
‘…Loretta and Allan, Ed, John and Darrel. Democrats should get off their “tough on law and order” high horse and think about all the minority youths’ lives wasted in this tragic useless War on Drugs”‘
Any of them receive campaign contributions from the prison guards union?
beautiful piece of news on this sunny day friend 🙂 we got’s work to do!
Way to go Debbie! Now …if we can convert the rest of his demented beliefs…we’d have it made!
Apparently the text of the bill is not yet available – just the title. Weird.
The recent USC Medical Center News Letter…says that “Marijuana causes testicular cancer.” Maybe Dana read that! Yes, where is the text to the bill? We actually like the cities…..having the control over how many Medicial Marijuana Point of Sale Stores are in each city. We are hoping they are all not like the City of Bell…….
Colorado is again granted the dumbest state in the union……Vote in Marijuana, Vote out Guns! Glad Kobe is never going back there….ever!
Everyone knows that marijuana is a gateway drug that leads to gay marriage which leads to people wanting to marry their guinea pig which we all know is what those bleeding liberals secretly want.
hear what the head of the DEA had to say about this yesterday http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/312077-1
Take 6 mins of your life to feel hateful towards another human!
God, what a dumb woman. That whole presentation needs to be “fisked” – including the alleged studies she cites (although I HAVE heard that it can be harmful to the developing brains of younger teens – but that’s why we should legalize it for 18 and over.)
THIS is Obama’s appointee to head the agency?
When the tape ends, she was about to launch into the “gateway drug” story. I’ve always had a problem with that – how do studies subtract the fact that, since pot is already illegal and you’re breaking the law to smoke it, AND since if it’s illegal it has to be bought from an illegal drug dealer who is selling other illegal drugs, that people smoking pot illegally (and noticing how harmless it is) will be tempted and curious to try another illegal drug.
Make it legal, and regulated, and most of that “gateway” quality disappears.
So the way I see it, if it doesn’t personally affect a politician, they could give a crap about what anybody else wants. So this guy is a stoner and so this law will make it alright for him to continue his habit, therefore nobody can point fingers at him that he is sorta kinda breaking a law?
Its the same with the Gay marriage issue — they change their mind when their kid is the one getting discriminated. What a bunch of douchbags.