How Do You Respond To This? Ignorant to Cannabis?

[HOPS5K]

Okay, I've had it with this small town mentality that these idiots have when it comes to cannabis and medical cannabis.
They Just don't get it, at all!

Heres a letter to the paper from a manager of said Medical Cannabis Center:

I work as the manager of the Craig Apothecary, and have for almost four years. We remain a medical only dispensary, whereas both Craig and Moffat County have not allowed the retail sales, cultivation or manufacture of cannabis products. Since the passing of the 64th amendment to the state constitution I have turned away thousands of customers, sending them instead to Steamboat Springs, where recreational sale of cannabis is allowed. While there, the customers will also eat and shop at local businesses, and, no doubt, purchase gasoline, many go to the bars and surely find other places to spend their money. Not only did Craig and Moffat County opt out of receiving money from a large and growing pool specifically set aside for schools, but we are also sending money away from local businesses, particularly restaurants, bars and hotels, as I send all of these potential customers to Steamboat for recreational cannabis. If I estimate with an extremely low figure, say $1,000 per day in sales since recreational cannabis sales were legalized, the tax revenue would be at least $112,000 and as I pointed out previously, this would open our county up to receive a good amount of money for our school district. I have discussed the amount of money that our community is missing out on before, and have since let the matter go. I’m bringing it up again because every single day for the past two weeks, the number of people I have been sending to Steamboat to spend their money has tripled. I have never had even close to the amount of phone calls nor people stopping into the shop looking for recreational cannabis. Yet each person who stops in I have to regretfully send to Steamboat to generate more revenue for the town 50 miles away. There is of no doubt in my mind that the decision to not allow recreational cannabis sales in our community is hurting much more than the Craig Apothecary, and it is becoming much more apparent with each passing day.

The responses...oh my gosh, so enraging!
Yes, we might be missing out on a few dollars of lost income, but we are also not adding to our costs.
These costs would include rehab for a new crop of habitual users, welfare costs after these users waste all their money on this junk instead of buying food, clothes, housing and health care for their families. The greatest cost is the loss of human minds through the habitual and over use of an unnecessary toy drug that many people use in the claim of health, but are actuall using just to become inebriated. This city and county is smart by counting our gains by not having to count these losses.


Sometimes what is right for some is just not right with everyone else. I question the point Mr. James is trying to make with his letter? Call me a snob, but what I have seen in my many years on earth is marijuana does impair you in more ways than one. And I for one have not seen an awful lot of responsible use. One look at the recent murder in Steamboat Springs and the reasons surrounding it, greed. More money for the school district isn't going to fix their spending issues anyway....maybe everyone should learn to live within the limits of the law and their own budgets for a change.

tammy I agree wholeheartedly, and for once I actually agree with allen.

I am speaking from 20 years of law enforcement experience, you absolutely do not want your economy hooked up with drugs. allen is right, the drain on the system isn't worth it. I have seen literally thousands of really bad things happen due to pot. families crushed, dead kids, families on welfare because they spend every dollar they get on drugs, and folks let there be no misunderstanding here, I have never arrested anyone doing hard drugs that didn't start with pot, they told me so !

and before you start ragging on me about it not being any worse that alcohol, I will say this. it's too bad we can't get rid of both. it's like having a mean pit bull in your neighborhood, every time he attacks a child, do you move yet another one in ?

these letters seem to always come from someone who is making money off the sale of drugs, I think they should just be honest and say, " hey dude, I want to make more money off this junk" I haven't seen a single letter from a cop, fireman, minister, priest, or any legitiment businessman in craig. call it medical if you want, if the medical world agreed it would be controlled and sold at the local pharmacy.

 

[floralheart]

I am speaking from 20 years of law enforcement experience, you absolutely do not want your economy hooked up with drugs.

As a law enforcement officer, nearly his entire economy and revenue was based upon drugs. His paycheck is based upon drugs and a drug economy.

Also, the United States economy is primarily a drug economy and a black market economy, when it's not profiting as a military economy.

Small business owners are the near fictitious window dressing that confuse people into believing in the fiction of America.

 

[Gry]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"I am speaking from 20 years of law enforcement experience, you absolutely do not want your economy hooked up with drugs."

Quite a statement to make in a country where big pharma has more lobby power than any other industry out there.

Those who run things, really knew what they were doing when they decided to gut the educational system. (Powell memo)
[/FONT]

 

[floralheart]

Anyone can make it here, but you have to play your part as a bad actor to be rewarded and not serve as slave labor. America functions on liberties, because its people are slave labor with a better set of liberties than many others on earth.

You're free to do what ever you want, as long as it's what someone else says. You're free to have an organized group of professional liars manipulate and misdirect your thoughts, when written or spoken aloud. You're free to be stopped, searched and asked for your papers, for no doing of your own. Ain't that America, land of the free. Ain't that America, for you and me. Ain't that America, something to see.

 

[genedigger]

fuck you dude!!!!the first drug i tried was alcohal.thats the first drug everyone tries because its legal.oh cool lets make one of the most harmful substances after meth and make it legal.your ignorance to the big picture is staggering.when i was 17 i was drunk one hight and tried crack cocaine.not pot, fuckin crack dude.i wish someone had handed me a joint.you are a fool if you believe pot is a gateway.pot doesnt make you lose your inhibitions alcohal does.people do way more stupid shit on alcohal then weed.when you get stoned it gives abstract thought.you should try it instead of getting wet brain like the rest of leo does from boose.

 

[genedigger]

the first thing everyone tries is boose not weed.so to skip the boose part and say oh it must have been the pot that he tried 2nd that made him do other drugs is just crazy talk.you prob think people that drink milk will ebd up getting hooked on fuckin oreos later in life.you are a moron hop guy.go drink another shot and lose a few more b-vitamins from your body you fuckin retard wet brained leo.

 

[Scrappy-doo]

I was watching Alaska State Troopers once and the cop in that episode said the exact same thing. "I've never arrested anyone doing hard drugs that didn't start out with pot."

Must be a talking point they were taught. Funny thing is you can use almost anything in place of pot in that sentence. Alcohol, prescriptions, cigarettes, candy, soda, water....

Yeah most of the people you arrested for hard drugs started out eating food. Let's ban food too.

The vast majority of pot smokers I know aren't even interested in drugs and a lot are flat out against them. Many don't even drink alcohol. It's a pretty ridiculous argument.

 

[genedigger]

thank you scrappy thank you.i could introduce this wingnut to folks that use pot and are extremly against other drugs.the reason these addicts say that dumb shit is cause the fuzz says it first.they get busted and the cop instigates the phrase'did you start out on pot'?then the dumb meth head whos brain is just as gone as the drunk boosing leo says oh yea you must be right it was pot that did it.leo is trained to minipulate senerios and get suspects to say what they want.

 

[Dropped Cat]

I respond with this:

 

[DrFever]

No shit crime starts small scale usually at a young age once a kid does it gets away with it gets rewarded from it .
He will then move up the chain of crime scale ?? there is no denying that drugs cause death by shootings gang related etc just go n holidays to a cratel infested area in mexico or colombia ..
most drug heads will start out with pot like they say its a gateway drug from pot mushrooms , acid , meth , cocaine , herion , opium etc and with that comes crime and dont say BS its facts now with new drugs of ecstasy salts and so on pot is cheap and easily available
and with drugs comes crime it works hand in hand end of story although you may be responsible the average meat head isn;t thems are also FACTS ..

when looking at most drug busts what do you see pot , cocaine , money GUNS pills and so on end of story

 

[FunkBomb]

Lets not forget why reefer was made illegal in the first place. The end of prohibition and too many mexicans coming over the border. All those coppers needed jobs so Uncle Sam kept them working.

-Funk

 

[McKush]

...
The vast majority of pot smokers I know aren't even interested in drugs and a lot are flat out against them. Many don't even drink alcohol. It's a pretty ridiculous argument.

Ding Ding Ding, one here. non-drinker for 20+ years. straight other than mmj with no other desires.

oh, and btw imho people who move from one substance to another are seeking a drug experience. The reason they are seeking the drug experience is the root of the problem. Not the medium they use to go there. That is too hard for society to resolve or get its collective head around. Restrict access to a substance and the drug experience seeker is going to find what they seek somewhere else.

 

[DrFever]

well its funny when people tend to forget about the crime that comes with a drug never mind gang wars fighting for land lol
you know they have gambling machines on every corner here but some town took tem out and why it was money in ??? but again when you factor in other things like roken families people on the street cause they lost there house to gambling ?? and even the rise in crime possibly its a no brainer specially in a tight nit comunity to try there best to keep it simple and safe .
i remember growing up and leaving the house unlocked,, everything unlocked just try to put your 1000 dollar bike right now out front of your yard see how long it lasts ,, or your house unlocked i mean front doors open before someone sees a opportunity to gain something ..

 

[Green Squall]

I wonder if that cop really thinks that or if he is just saying it because of his position.

Reminds me of something my mother told me a couple summers ago. She was having dinner at a friends house outdoors and her police chief husband comes home and say's something along the lines of "Hey ladies, you see this? This is marijuana. It might have been left by the last renter" (This was a summer rental house and it was a friggin garden weed or something ). I said he couldn't have been serious and probably was just trying to impress everyone, but she said he was dead serious. To this day it still frightens me that a police chief could be so ignorant.

 

[stoned-trout]

yeehaw

 

[HempKat]

Well on the subject of Gateways, I started smoking marijuana at age 11 and was content with just marijuana for the next 7 years. I'd even preach to my friends about how wrong it was to do most other drugs because they were either synthetic or had to be put thru a lot of processing to get into usable drug form such as cocaine and heroin. Whereas marijuana all you had to do was let it dry out and then smoke it. All natural, zero processing. Now when I was 18 was when they (US and Mexican Governments) came up with the brilliant idea of spraying paraquat on the marijuana fields in Mexico which then led to a marijuana draught in the US for the next several years. That is when I began experimenting with some of the "harder drugs". So really the gateway for me technically was the lack of marijuana rather then using marijuana. Had I been allowed to keep being able to get my ounce of weed for $15 - $35 I probably never would have tried anything harder. Fortunately even the lack of weed was never enough to make me stick a needle in my arm.

As for this claim of stoners spending all their money on marijuana such that they even spend their food money and rent money I call BS on that. What self respecting stoner is going to spend all his money on weed and not save at least enough for munchies?