Archdiocese gives $850,000 to fight marijuana bid

[mikekle]

Bravo Archbishop!

Hopefully the stuff will not be legal in TX until my generation is safely in Purgatory.

Hopefully also, federal laws on it will again be upheld.

ICXC NIKA

So you would rather have the cartel violence in TX, AZ, etc?

Keeping it illegal only ensures the cartels stay powerful.

 

[ringil]

drug abuse of any kind leads to addiction, which leads to decay of morality.

We are talking marijuana here. I certainly don’t use it but it is a fairly benign substance compared to alcohol or tobacco.

 

[_Abyssinia]

 

[GEddie]

Why is the Catholic Church giving money to fight a political issue? Surely a donation of this money to a group who feeds the poor would be much better way for this money to be used.

Drug use is a significant factor in causing young people to become or remain poor. Discouraging it is almost a work of mercy.

The law is a teacher, according to Saint Paul, and we are to instruct the ignorant.

ICXC NIKA

 

[GEddie]

So you would rather have the cartel violence in TX, AZ, etc?

Keeping it illegal only ensures the cartels stay powerful.

I would rather everybody not be encouraged to use, and that youth-rebel stoners not become lifelong users. Who would quit if there were no legal inconveniences to using?

ICXC NIKA

 

[JapaneseKappa]

I would rather everybody not be encouraged to use, and that youth-rebel stoners not become lifelong users. Who would quit if there were no legal inconveniences to using?

ICXC NIKA

Yeah, why would anyone ever quit smoking or drinking, since there is no legal inconvenience? I’m sure you know that marijuana is less addictive than smoking or drinking, and has lesser withdrawal symptoms.

drugpolicy.org/drug-facts/10-facts-about-marijuana

A landmark, Congressionally-mandated Institute of Medicine study found that fewer than 10 percent of those who try marijuana ever meet the clinical criteria for dependence, while 32 percent of tobacco users and 15 percent of alcohol users do.

 

[JapaneseKappa]

drug abuse of any kind leads to addiction, which leads to decay of morality. Durg users usually are not the pillars of society, not are they typically good parents, faithful Christians. The drugs are a one way ticket to hell. The Church is a witness of Christs message in this world. That is why they fight against all evil, including drug abuse.

Careful there, Ms. “My religion uses a drug in its religious ceremonies.” The drug, of course, being alcohol.

 

[GEddie]

Yeah, why would anyone ever quit smoking or drinking, since there is no legal inconvenience? I’m sure you know that marijuana is less addictive than smoking or drinking, and has lesser withdrawal symptoms.

drugpolicy.org/drug-facts/10-facts-about-marijuana

And a lot of folks **should **quit smoking or drinking or both, but never do, because there are no legal disincentives to using, and get lung cancer or die in car wrecks.

Do we really want to add recreational drugs to this mix?

Already, every stoner can recite names of people who smoke pot into their 70s. Mesmerized by the lie that pot is “natural and healthy”, why would these youths want to quit unless forced to?

ICXC NIKA

 

[Havard]

One benefit of ‘legal’ marijuana is reduced deaths by tainted products. Also frees up police to do more serious work, empties prisons/jails of non-violent offenders, reduced judges having to deal with petty possession cases, and reduces overall societal costs.

Is that really the case that petty possession is clogging the system though? Petty possession is treated as a civil offense in most places already, like a traffic ticket, not a criminal one. Officers and prosecutors have discretion in these cases, and, like traffic tickets, they can be sources of income for states. Just like traffic tickets, they don’t present a big administrative burden, because you don’t see people fighting these tickets very often.

With regard to sentencing and incarceration, According to the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics latest study, only 2.3% of those arrested for marijuana possession are sentenced at all, only 0.7% are actually incarcerated, (and only 0.3% are incarcerated as first-time offenders).

Then account for why these rare cases get incarcerated at all: based on a survey of federal prisoners in 1997, the median amount of marijuana involved in the conviction of marijuana-only possession offenders was 115 pounds. Further, per the same source, these rare cases of possession incarceration are the result of plea bargains. Putting the data together, the people who get incarcerated are trafficking in a volume that is way over “personal use”, and could be charged with more serious crimes, hence the plea bargain.

Source: ncjrs.gov/ondcppubs/publications/pdf/whos_in_prison_for_marij.pdf

 

[vz71]

I’m not sure I agree with the archbishops. (Is that all right?) While buying a selling drugs to get high is a mortal sin, I think the War on Drugs has been so ruinous that we should decriminalize everything.

And let evil go unopposed?

 

[SyroMalankara]

Drug use is a significant factor in causing young people to become or remain poor. Discouraging it is almost a work of mercy.

The law is a teacher, according to Saint Paul, and we are to instruct the ignorant.

ICXC NIKA

Interesting. The Democrat proabortionists say the same thing about pregnancy

 

[SyroMalankara]

And let evil go unopposed?

The disagreement is on which is the greater evil. Drugs are bad, mass usually racially or financially motivated incarceration is worse. We are not, after all, Puritans

 

[vz71]

Why is the Catholic Church giving money to fight a political issue? Surely a donation of this money to a group who feeds the poor would be much better way for this money to be used.

Sin is not a ‘political’ issue.

 

[GEddie]

Interesting. The Democrat proabortionists say the same thing about pregnancy

They can say what they like, but while pregnancy yields new life (per se good), drugs create only fuddled minds (per se not good).

ICXC NIKA

 

[vz71]

The disagreement is on which is the greater evil. Drugs are bad, mass usually racially or financially motivated incarceration is worse. We are not, after all, Puritans

In this case it is not a question of greater evil.
Evil is to be opposed.
Making said evil more easily accessible is clearly wrong in the same way keeping abortion legal is wrong.

 

[jtav]

And let evil go unopposed?

It’s a matter of how to oppose the evil. The criminal approach has led to the birth of a massive police state, and the consequences have fallen on the poor and minorities. Meanwhile, Portugal decriminalizes drugs, sends people found with drugs to a team including a social worker, and saw their drug use rate plummet. Criminal sanction is not the right tool for every sin, especially one so analogous to drunkenness. Social shame and strict labelling may be more effective in the long-term. (see tobacco use0

 

[GEddie]

It’s a matter of how to oppose the evil. The criminal approach has led to the birth of a massive police state, and the consequences have fallen on the poor and minorities. Meanwhile, Portugal decriminalizes drugs, sends people found with drugs to a team including a social worker, and saw their drug use rate plummet. Criminal sanction is not the right tool for every sin, especially one so analogous to drunkenness. Social shame and strict labelling may be more effective in the long-term. (see tobacco use0

If you think that drug legalization would make the police state go poof, I’ve got a gorgeous beach condo in El Paso, Texas to sell you dirt cheap! Right on the water!!!

ICXC NIKA

 

[Paganus]

They can say what they like, but while pregnancy yields new life (per se good), drugs create only fuddled minds (per se not good).

ICXC NIKA

The government has a numbers game to run. Someone has to buy those tickets and it’s sure not going to be someone who understands what 1 in 258.9 million (the odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot) actually means. Common Core math plus legalized marijuana could be the solution to this dilemma.

 

[Adonia]

Sin is not a ‘political’ issue.

I wonder when the Church will be coming out against the continuing legality of alcohol, which is the most destructive drug in our nation. That substance has killed more people and destroyed more families than any other drug by far.

 

[SyroMalankara]

I wonder when the Church will be coming out against the continuing legality of alcohol, which is the most destructive drug in our nation. That substance has killed more people and destroyed more families than any other drug by far.

Never. The Catholic Church in the USA opposed prohibition when it became the law of the land, and rightly so!