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In reply to the discussion: So, will Oregon or Alaska legalize marijuana next week? [View all]Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)12. About 800,000 marijuana arrests a year nationwide. For starters.
There's that basic justice issue.
We could also dismantle or shrink the DEA and all the dope squads if we treated pot as a public health issue instead of a criminal justice one. Not to mention all the other criminal justice system costs enforcing pot prohibition imposes.
Pot has been de facto legal in California for the past 20 years. We're still here.
Pot has been de facto legal in the Netherlands for the past 40 years. It's still there.
I'm always in a hurry to end a social injustice based on prejudice, ignorance, and now, institutional self-interest and inertia.
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I think we should keep throwing potheads in prison, for the time being, don't you?
Warren DeMontague
Oct 2014
#24
Yeah, we might not have arrested tens of millions of people who weren't harming others.
Comrade Grumpy
Oct 2014
#28
"you ignore the possibility that things might have been worse in Spain WITHOUT the Inquistion!"
Warren DeMontague
Oct 2014
#39