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Sean Parker Contributes $9 Million As States Push To Legalize Marijuana (gazettenet.com)
Sean Parker has now donated nearly $9 million in his effort to legalize marijuana in California. An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes Billboard:
Whether it's founding Napster, guiding Facebook or investing in Spotify, Sean Parker has developed a reputation for pushing change forward, and now he's at the forefront of California's marijuana legalization movement... [A] competing proposal from the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform was folded into Parker's, making his the leading ballot measure, by default, for 2016 in a state with the largest medical marijuana market in the country.
The U.S currently has a hodgepodge of legislation, with marijuana entirely legal only in Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, as well as in the District of Columbia, and in individual cities in Michigan and Maine. But with five more states now voting on legalization, pro-marijuana campaign ads are being broadcast in Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, California and Arizona. ("You decide who wins -- criminals and cartels, or Arizona schools?") And meanwhile, Slashdot reader schwit1 has identified one voter who's definitely opposing police efforts to hunt down marijuana growers: All that remains of the solitary marijuana plant an 81-year-old grandmother had been growing behind her South Amherst home is a stump and a ragged hole in the ground... Tucked away in a raspberry patch and separated by a fence from any neighbors, the [medicinal] plant was nearly ready for harvest when a military-style helicopter and police descended on Sept. 21...
The U.S currently has a hodgepodge of legislation, with marijuana entirely legal only in Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, as well as in the District of Columbia, and in individual cities in Michigan and Maine. But with five more states now voting on legalization, pro-marijuana campaign ads are being broadcast in Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, California and Arizona. ("You decide who wins -- criminals and cartels, or Arizona schools?") And meanwhile, Slashdot reader schwit1 has identified one voter who's definitely opposing police efforts to hunt down marijuana growers: All that remains of the solitary marijuana plant an 81-year-old grandmother had been growing behind her South Amherst home is a stump and a ragged hole in the ground... Tucked away in a raspberry patch and separated by a fence from any neighbors, the [medicinal] plant was nearly ready for harvest when a military-style helicopter and police descended on Sept. 21...
As my username suggests, this news be dank! The sooner we take a leg out of the narco/DEA racket the better.
Oh wait.. nevermind, we like his position. Money in politics is good again.
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
I am all for legalizing it.The issue I have is that people buy the laws. Because that way you end up in a pissing contest where only the rich decide what becomes law.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
When we were growing up, it was all dope to our parents and probably misleadingly associated with the same risk assessment. It seems clear, even to the opponents of legalization, that this is not the case.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
He's putting his money where his mouth is.
However I would be more sympathetic to the pot movement in general if they were at least demonstrably more honest than the people who want to keep it outlawed. The notion that schools will benefit immensely seems to be a slightly more realistic version of the old claim that legalized sale of pot would generate $599 godzillion in tax revenue per picosecond to the end of eternity. The problem with either claim is that it assumes that legalization would cause people to want to buy at retail what they and their friends could grow in their backyard.
(there are other dishonest claims from the pro-pot camp but this one directly ties to the summary)
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Your ignorant meme notwithstanding, a vast number of the most successful folks out know under seventy (obviously a generational thing) smoke weed at least occasionally. I'm not at all surprised that you're unaware of this.
to legislate against stupid. Marijuana is for burnouts.
Yeah, so the obvious thing to do would be to put them in prison and ruin their lives.
We wouldn't want them wasting their lives, now would we?
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
How is this related to slashdot? There's not even a cursory connection to tech/science.
Sean Parker, a tech entrepreneur, is investing in bringing our drug laws closer to sanity. I'd say that qualifies as a cursory connection.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
So now asking that police follow the law is "escalating"?
The schedule I status needs to go. Certain chemicals in marijuana have shown themselves to be the best treatment for specific kinds of seizures, far better than anything currently available, to say nothing of the myriad of other uses. The evidence it has some medical value is insurmountable and being schedule I prevents much of the research that could be helping people while ensuring that grandma gets the full swat experience.
Getting a realistic categorization based on facts and not propaganda will help to pave the way for legalizing it on the federal level.
Hyperbole much?
Many people don't know who Sean Parker is.
Some people don't even remember what Napster is anymore. C'mon. One sentence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
FTFY.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Wake me up when a state actually means legalize when they say legalize, as in you could grow it yourself. From everything I've seen what they mean when they say legalize is to decriminalize it's use and build/protect an industry. I'm OK with the first part the second part is really kinda disgusting.
Phase two after decriminalization never seems to be legalization, what it ends up being is a bunch of people swooping in to corner the grow/supply market and once they are in place they tend to lobby for laws that make it that much harder for competition to move in. Even if that perceived competition is the average citizen growing their own marijuana for personal use.
Hey, wake up.
https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_64,_Marijuana_Legalization_(2016)
From that link: "An individual would be permitted to grow up to six plants within a private home, as long as the area is locked and not visible from a public place"
Colorado's laws are similar; one is allowed to grow a limited number of plants. When they say legalize, they mean legalize. Consider me your alarm clock.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
You know, I sort of hope you don't smoke weed, because otherwise you're not doing your argument any favors. You wrote a sentence that made no sense, then your correction isn't even correct. You didn't write "out now", you wrote "out know".
.... he's obviously had one joint two many ... oh weight
"bringing our drug laws closer to sanity"
For sanity read: "The way potheads like me want them to be so we can buy and smoke our sorry little losers narcotic without being bothered by the police".
And for "potheads" read "about half of Americans".
Not that I'm pro-pothead, necessarily, because I've known my share, and so I can safely say that I like people way better when they aren't high. But continuing to outlaw an activity that 150 million people support seems kind of dumb, not to mention a failure of democracy. See: Prohibition.
I think that marijuana is going to be the sequel to tobacco. Smoking different stuff isn't healthier. Around the 2030s we will probably see lung cancer and throat cancer go up again along with everything else as the second anti-smoking campaign begins. Or, you know, we could just try to stop it now.
Do some research. Pot smoking is not linked to lung cancer or COPD.
https://www.hellomd.com/health-wellness/marijuana-found-to-shrink-aggressive-brain-cancer
In fact, marijuana has been shown to have an anti-tumor effect. From the linked article:
Marijuana really is medicine. It just so happens that it's also nice to enjoy recreationally.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
So you don't drink any alcohol then do you? If you want to talk drugs. Alcohol and tobacco are 1000s of times worse for your body than any amount of weed. There is no reason at all that marijuana should be treated any differently than alcohol or tobacco. You are just spouting off a stereotype and nothing else.
You'd be surprised at how many very productive people smoke weed and I'm no talking about artists or musicians either. I'm talking about CEOS and other very powerful people.
It is impossible to OD on weed. Try drinking 2 gallons of alcohol and get back to me if you live. I'll eat 2 pounds worth of edibles and smoke 2 pounds if that was even possible and report my findings. Oh I'll be alive and 100% sober a few hours after I'm done.
"bringing our drug laws closer to sanity"
For sanity read: "The way potheads like me want them to be so we can buy and smoke our sorry little losers narcotic without being bothered by the police".
Ah look, another stranger on the Internet who thinks he knows me.
Full disclosure: I smoke pot. Fuller disclosure: I do so with minimal risk and without the attention of police. You know why? I'm white and upper middle class. I am a senior systems admin at a global company, make a professional salary, drive a nice car and live in a nice apartment. I have good, quality relationships with my friends and family. I exercise and watch what I eat.
As you can see, I am not a "sorry little loser". But this is the Internet and I could be a dog for all you know. So it's really neither here nor there. No, the real reason I want marijuana legalized is so we can stop wasting lives and resources by locking people up for smoking it. By the logic of our current policy, society would be better served by putting me in prison rather than leaving me free to help run a large computer network for a productive company. But as I said, I am discreet and do not fear arrest, so this isn't about me. My concern is for those whose skin color or socioeconomic status prevent them from enjoying the freedom I do. We ruin their lives, waste our resources and have very little to show for it. It's stupid, whether or not you think pot is okay to smoke pot. Our current policy has nothing to do with taking care of people or helping them stop using pot, and everything to do with punishing them and making them unemployable. Like I said, stupid. Way more stupid than smoking pot could ever be.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
You don't smoke weed and code?
Somebody around here sure the hell does.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
This is exactly how the new "people for the people" democracy works: Wealthy people or corporations use money in bribes to influence legislature bypassing unbiased education and disclosures of facts for voters.
This is a ballot measure in California. It's direct democracy. What are you on about?
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
And while they're in prison they're exempt from the 13th amendment barring slavery. There are actually more legal slaves in the USA now than there were when slavery was abolished in the 1800s.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Around here (BC) the private alcohol sellers along with the government alcohol sellers union are really pushing for it, along with them being the legal place to buy. Their theory being they have practice selling stuff to adults only.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
"As you can see, I am not a "sorry little loser". "
So you say. More than likely you're a functioning pothead just holding on like a lot of functioning alcoholics. And the common trait of both is that neither recognise they have a problem.
Yes, as I said, I could be making the whole thing up. I might not even smoke pot! But I have nothing to prove to you, so you can think what you like of me.
"We ruin their lives,"
They ruin their own lives. No one is forcing them to smoke weed.
Not too strong in the logic department, eh? It's not the weed smoking that's ruining their lives; it's the punishments of prohibition that do that. The question is not whether or not they will go to jail of caught smoking weed. The question is whether or not that is proper. I maintain that it is not proper. We ruin their lives, over and above the effects of pot smoking, by putting them in prison and a felony on their record. That doesn't help anyone, not even you. It is quite clear that the war on drugs has failed at its stated goal of eliminating drug use. It hasn't even reduced it by any measurable degree. It is a waste of money, lives, time and resources. It should be ended.
You will go right ahead thinking that pot smokers are all worthless burnouts. I cannot disabuse you of that notion. But the failure of prohibition is a fact, not an opinion. It's time to stop locking people up for non-violent, victimless "crimes".
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
...I can safely say that I like people way better when they aren't high.
Agreed, but if I had to choose, I like people who are high way better than people who are drunk. I used to be on the fence about this issue because I have seen first-hand how excessive pot use can ruin people. But the same can be said of alcohol and many/most other things that humans consume for pleasure.
I think the biggest driver for anti-pot legal enforcement is/was the privatization of prisons. It would not shock me to hear that private prison companies lobbied hard to push for mandatory incarceration for recreational pot use; probably also jaywalkers and those who spit on the sidewalk.
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
The above is utter bullshit.
That may well be true but none of the hot air you followed with even remotely backs-up your claim. Parent: 1; You: zilch
They ruin their own lives. No one is forcing them to smoke weed.
Smoking weed may make them unmotivated or spacey, but at its worst will do nothing close to the harm to their lives that arrest, incarceration, and a felony on their record will do. Further, just like there's a difference between hardcore alcoholics and people who enjoy a beer every now and then, not everybody who smokes post is stoned every waking moment of their lives.
Full disclosure: I don't smoke pot, but I know people who do. You sound like the sort of person who would be surprised to learn who around you smokes pot, though they'd likely never tell you. You sound like you've been hitting the D.A.R.E. pipe pretty hard.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
More than likely you're a functioning pothead just holding on like a lot of functioning alcoholics. And the common trait of both is that neither recognise they have a problem.
I've smoked marijuana before. Can't say I liked it all that much, or that I think it was very addictive. It certainly never turned me into a dangerous asshole like alcohol does with a lot of people. I do have a problem with nicotine and caffeine though. They don't turn me into a dangerous asshole either. An extremely strong argument can be made that alcohol and nicotine are both far more dangerous than marijuana. They are legal, while marijuana is not only illegal, it is a schedule 1 drug but has demonstrable medical value and is blatantly safer than alcohol. Whatever society gains by preventing a certain number of people from turning into potheads, it loses by transforming otherwise productive members of the community into criminals, militarizes the police, and puts a large financial burden on the tax payers to imprison and capture users. It's stupid, pot is not worth all the effort.