Bernie wants to legalize Pot -

Sure .. the overwhelming majority is not always right - but there is no better way to limit Gov't power (one that is realistic).

I highly doubt that the overwhelming majority was consulted on all of California's messed up rules. Municiple councils are a tyranny unto themselves- making rules the general public does not support.

We have fallen way far down the slippery slope - and can no longer see the mountain top. The safeguards protecting individual liberty have been eroded or removed.

Gov't in its essence - wants more power. The founders put safeguards in place to limit that power - for 200 Years Gov't has been trying to get that power back - and it has succeeded.

 

Post 52 gives my reasoning in depth. In short - The bar for messing with individual liberty is 66%. If something is so harmful to society - (having a nuclear bomb being the far end of the spectrum) - that we should give Gov't the power to use physical violence (law) to prevent some action - then an overwhelming majority will agree.

Pot - good luck getting 66% to agree to banning it ( the reverse is true 66% are in favor of legalization)

Meth ? you will easily get 2 out of 3 people agreeing that Meth is so harmful that it should be banned.

 

I see. So it isn’t based on an individual right to self determination or what to do with their own body. It’s based on popular opinion.

 

Not popular opinion .. as in 50+1 - or "Simple Majority Mandate - where some elected official claims to be able to mess with liberty based on getting elected" Both Classical Liberalism and Republicanism refer to this as "Tyranny of the Majority".

Must be overwhelming majority - at least 2/3rds .. it takes 75% of States in order to amend the constitution.

but yes .. the limits to your self determination - with respect to essential liberty - as per the founding principles - is based on overwhelming majority acceptance . "the will of the people"

 

Alcohol is even worse.

 

So you would apply that to all freedoms or just certain ones?

 

The Assembly consists of 61 Democrats and 18 Republicans, with one vacancy, while the Senate is composed of 29 Democrats and 11 Republicans.

The Democratic majority may be even greater after 2020. Get over it.

 

I had top secret clearance in the army so you missed the era before drug testing...

 

Of course not. It would lose him votes from his base and gain him no votes from anyone else. It would be an extremely stupid move on an issue that is more symbolic than practical.

 

The problem us that unless you:re a one issue drug legalization voter they are all horrible.

 

Not sure what you are talking about. We had drug testing in the Air Force in the 1960s

 

People who have only themselves to blame or all their problems? The other guy was right, who the **** cares?

 

The ones covered under the definition of "essential liberty" .. as described in post 52.

 

I named a list:
Do you believe the parents of child suffering from severe seizures that is negated by marijuana only have themselves to blame for securing medicine for their child only have themselves to blame?
Or someone struggling with appetite due to cancer treatments, think they only have themselves to blame?
Or the kid that has anxiety and would rather smoke weed vs taking pharmaceuticals that have hundreds of side effects, are they to blame?

The party of conservative compassion strikes again.

 

Horrible compared to what.

 

Heroin would probably work just as well, you think parents should be able to shoot their kids up to stop the pain? If a thing is illegal and you break the law, you have yourself to blame, nobody else. That is not a hard thing to understand...

 

The damage to the body caused by heroin is measurable.
Not so with marijuana

Your comparison is absurd

Just because something is illegal does not make it just — if guns were banned tomorrow and everyone that didn’t turn theirs in was arrested would you be as apt to dismiss the violation of civil liberties?

 

Folks need to remember if it's illegal to do with alcohol, it's illegal to do with Pot.

 

Yeh, that’s a nice theory until 66% of people want to reinstate the eighteenth amendment or something similar.

Harm to society or danger to the individual is too subjective for me to sign on to taking people’s liberty just because a bunch of people agree with me. That’s the problem with pot now. A majority of people were snookered into believing it was the very devil so it’s remained illegal. Now public opinion is changing and that’s good. But neither the past illegality or inevitable decriminalization should be based on public opinion.

It’s too easy to convince the masses something harmless is dangerous or something dangerous is harmless. You can’t base freedom or infringement of freedom on something so subjective, fickle, and prone to not being based on reality.

 

True - but , far more dangerous to drive on alcohol than after smoking a joint. Having the punishment be the same for both is an anathema to the principle of Justice - rule of law.

 

Like it or not - that is how our system is supposed to function - It doesn't of course - but, that is how it is supposed to function. Did you have a better idea ?

All the "Harm Reduction" arguments are Utilitarian justification for law - a justification on "what will increase happiness for the collective"
This justification for law is an anathema to the founding principles - which are based on respect for individual liberty. Utilitarianism does not factor individual liberty into the equation and thus - allows for an end run around the safeguards put in place to protect individual liberty.

Laws based on utilitarian justification are at plague proportions in this land.

You are right that it is easy to convince the masses of things - which is why state sponsored propaganda should be banned. This is also at plague proportions.

 

same reason whites do

but we can't blame all white or all blacks for the crimes some commit with guns

 

are you saying republicans are against legalization, I think you are wrong there, many in power are against it, but the republican voters are not

 

Almost anything even Trump. If you want poverty and an EBT card vote Democrat.

 

Sure. That’s easy. Only punish those who hurt others. Don’t punish those who don’t. Let them smoke, shoot up, drink, etc. Throw the book at them when they harm someone else.

Agree.

Agree.