Ron Paul on Various Issues, Including Legalizing Pot
Submitted by Reason Foundation on Sep 18, 2009
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) sits down with Time for a six-minute Q&A video that covers topics ranging from auditing the Fed ("You could call the Federal Reserve a conspiracy") to decriminalizing pot ("Why criminalize marijuana?" he responds) to media bias to his part in the Bruno movie ("No one likes to be tricked") to the wrongness of the income tax ("If you concede the principle of the income tax, you concede the government owns all your income") to Obama's Iraq and Afghanistan ("every bit as bad as the last administration") and much more.
Watch the full interview:
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While his point that prohibition doesn't work has some merit, the reason prohibition doesn't work is inevitably the result of government corruption. The illegal drug trade, globally, is the third largest industry, only behind oil and arms. It simply is not possible to have global manufacturing and distribution on that scale without complicit government involvement.
Personally, I don't want the guy next to me on the highway stoned on pot. I don't want to have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for his treatment when his habit begins to ruin his life. I don't want to have to pay to raise his children because he can't hold down a job. And, I don't want to see his potential contribution to society as a whole lost because he has incapaciated an otherwise good mind to the point it is no longer functional.
Maybe I'm an idealist, and perhaps my view is unrealistic, but I'd much rather live in a society where its people are not oppressed to the point they find their lives so intolerable, that they feel a need to escape their hopeless existance by destroying their ability to think clearly.
I see a certain conflict of interest on his comments about income tax. Is Mr. Paul unaware of where the money that goes to pay his salary comes from? If you want to know what a man truly believes, watch his feet, not his mouth. A Federal employee, feeding at the public trough, is not honestly opposed to taxes , and certainly not at the level where Mr. Paul feeds and passes out the pork. His job is to spend out tax dollars, so the only logical conclusion from his comments is that he's lying.
As far as his comments about the Fed and the impact of a virtually unregulated fiat money system is concerned, well, yeah. He has an amazing grasp of the obvious. The funny thing about elected representitives these days is there is no shortage of calls for investigations, but when the investigations are completed, no action takes place. So, it's all blow and no go.
I like Ron Paul better than most, but at the end of the day, he's a politician first and a representative of the people second. As a politician, he's any man's dog who will hunt with him - that's just the nature of the beast.
The invasion of Afghanistan was launched for one reason and one reason only: to gain a monopoly over the global heroin trade. Going into 2000, the Taliban had effectively wiped out opium cultivation. In the Summer of 2001, the CIA organized and armed the country's opium lords into what eventually became known as the Northern Alliance. In the years since, Afghanistan now accounts for over 92% of the global heroin supply. Mission accomplished.
Is a guy who advocates making pot legal , likely to do much to end an occupation that ensures the flood of heroin to the world's addicts? Pardon me for being skeptical, but I kinda doubt it.
As Mr. Paul notes, it's truly amazing how fast politicians geek once they're elected. Still, if he were to run on an independant ticket with Kucinich as vice president, I'd probably vote for him. If nothing else, it'd shake things up, and that's a start.
Let's not forget the reason many hard drugs have gained so much ground in America today...C.I.A. --> "Lucky" Luciano --> Heroin.
Don, you are a little off base this in my opinion. To think nobody is doing drugs is naive. Prohibition does not work. When alcohol was illegal, it created the Al Capones of the world. Now it is legal and you don't see gang wars between Miller and Coors, now people drink legally and still make tons of mistakes. Government cannot legislate morality. It doesn't work. If things were legalized, the drug cartels in Mexico would be over!!
As far as income tax, he is not a liar. The income tax is actually unconstitutional. it implies that the government owns you and can decide how much of you paycheck you get to keep. That is slavery. We can make better decisions for ourselves then having big government telling us how to live. Look what its got us....failing schools , perpetual wars, bankrupty, ect....and by the way, who do you think is paying for the guy who smoked a joint to sit and rot in jail with REAL criminals??......YOU
RE: "To think nobody is doing drugs is naive."
I made no such statement. If anything, far too many people experiment with, or use drugs on a regular basis. Argument by analogy is always suspect and the comparisons to pot and alcohol are worse than most. Among other considerations, there is no equivalent to a glass of wine with dinner when it comes to marijuana usage. The goal of smoking pot is to "get wasted". The sought after effect is comparable to something close to a pint of whiskey as the bare minimum. Judgement and reflexes are impacted substantially. A self impaired person of that description does in fact present a real threat to those around him or her. It is NOT, as its advocates like to proclaim, a "victimless crime ". Without spelling out a laundry list of the various ways drug usage impacts society as a whole, it can be most simply put by saying that whenever one person seeks to escape their responsibilities through drug usage, someone else has to pick up the burden.
I think it would also reasonably accurate to say that in practice, to the extent marijuana use is illegal, the consequences are comparable to drunk driving or public intoxication if you're going to use alcohol as the yardstick. Society as a whole has a vested interest in protecting itself from those who will act in a reckless, irresponsible or negligent fashion as a result of incapacitating themselves through the use of intoxicants. That interest is preserved through the criminal justice system. When the individual refuses to accept responsibility for the consequences of their actions, society has a right to say "your actions WILL have consequences".
As far as the income tax being unconstitutional, I've read the Constitution in that regard and find the argument hard to support on that basis. In the mean time, if there's a congressman who hasn't spent our tax dollars like a coke whore on welfare payday, including Ron Paul , I'd be interested in learning his or her name. If you'd like to examine their voting records in the process of compiling a list, I'd be very interested in looking at what you come up with.
There's only one way to reduce income tax and that is to reduce spending. I don't see any of the current crop of "pork is my life" Congress critters, including Ron Paul, making a case for the kind of radical restructuring of government that would be necessary to substantially reduce spending. Anyone claiming a platform of reduced taxes , without a program to reduce spending, is a bald faced liar.
You say drug user's are non-productive members of society ,false,many are leaders in industry, health and every field of endeavor. The ability to perform the job has never been the issue,and the only reason some can't get work is because of drug testing,and most of the jobs applied for are not jobs where drug usage would be a problem,and none of the jobs,would be affected by marijuana usage when the person is not working. Many "druggos"
have a criminal record,which keeps them from qualifying for the "good" jobs in society,and they want too provide for their family just the same as everyone else.
The continued prohibition will just continue the black market.
The continued imprisonment of marijuana users will continue the building and housing of more industrialized prisoners,aka slave labor force.And now 4 studies report marijuana has cancer blocking abilities. And the DEA,under the ONDCP refuse any
medical testing or clinical studies to verify medical uses for marijuana.
All this adds up to way too much money in someones hip pocket,keeping marijuana illegal.
If Ron Paul can eliminate the decrepit system that's destroying our nation then he should be elected in 2012. If our nation survives the change that is. Like many other Americans I'm tired of being lied to. Sick of soldiers dying. Sick of foreign civilians dying. Sick of putting our noses so far into other countries' business that our own is falling apart at the seems.
With this disgusting system of leeches feeding on the blood of our future we're steadily becoming less and less free.
Our elected legislators have allowed a federal bureaucracy to become so powerful that they could be causing the unnecessary deaths of American citizens.
It is mandated by congress that the ONDCP refuse and refute any clinical or scientific proof of marijuana as a medicine or recommends that marijuana be moved from schedule I. They are required to fight legalization by any means necessary.
The DEA is the main law enforcement in the federal government for interdiction and enforcement of federal drug laws . They are also the agency charged with the final approval of any studies or clinical testing of marijuana.
As of this date,they have routinely refused all applications trying to prove any medical testing of marijuana,in any form,except to the pharmaceutical companies,(Marinol).
The pharmaceutical companies also have several more medicines in various stages of testing,that are either derived from or are synthetically produced because the chemical compounds that are naturally in marijuana have shown to have medicinal properties.
Yet the ONDCP still claims that marijuana has no medicinal uses.
Every medical evaluation that congress has ordered,since 1972,has stated that marijuana is a possible therapeutic medicine and has recommended that it be removed from schedule I ,and they have refused to listen to the doctors and scientists.
Now there are four studies,one paid for by the ONDCP budget ,that has stated that marijuana in it's natural form shows
cancer blocking properties and may prove to be a cure for some cancers.
They are still refusing to reschedule marijuana so scientific testing can be done to find out if we are possibly prohibiting a natural cancer blocker.
Any study that the DEA approves now,with their history of and continued anti-marijuana campaign,and a federal budget in the billions riding on the findings of such a study.would be tainted.
They are required by law, to lie if necessary,to keep protecting America,even if it kills us..
The pharmaceutical companies are trying to synthesize and extract the medical compounds from marijuana,so they can put it in a pill,to sell you,but the plant already has the compounds in it,safely. Big pharmacy's one attempt at synthetic thc,marinol,
has been listed as the cause of death four times,and only been used by a very few patients. Marijuana has been used by millions,with real thc in it,and never been listed as a cause of death. And the same results may occur with the new medicines,derived from or copying compounds from pot.
Every day that goes by that they delay the testing to see if marijuana blocks cancer,may be allowing people too contract cancer that could have been blocked or treated with marijuana
and it is a dangerous game they are playing with peoples lives
just too protect who?
Whether marijuana blocks cancer 62% as claimed in one study,or even 1/2 that amount,wouldn't it be better to block cancer than treat it. And big pharmacy has no cancer blocking medicines,and there are none going through any clinical testing
but they are working on some more cancer treatments, using cannibinoids that are in marijuana.
Pharmaceutical companies are suits and ties,not caregivers or even doctors,they are after the buck,for the buck and of the buck. They don't want cancer blocked,or cured,they make billions treating it.
Someone STOP this INSANITY
I. Drugs that contain chemicals taken directly from the marijuana plant
Name/Trade Name Manufacturer Approval Status Suggested Medical Use Cannabis-Related Properties
1. Sativex GW Pharmaceuticals U.S. Phase III clinical trials started in late 2006
Approved for use in Canada (2005) and Catalonia, Spain (2005); Licensed to Bayer in the UK and to Almirall in Europe
Ongoing Phase III MS (Multiple Sclerosis) study in the UK due to report results in the first quarter (Q1) of 2009 and regulatory submission scheduled by the end of the second quarter (H1) in 2009.
Treatment of neuropathic pain and spasticity in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS); Analgesic treatment in adult patients with advanced cancer who experience moderate to severe pain. Mouth spray whose chemical compound is derived from natural extracts of the cannabis plant
II. Drugs that contain synthetic versions of chemicals naturally found in marijuana
Name/Trade Name Manufacturer Approval Status Suggested Medical Use Cannabis-Related Properties
1. Dronabinol/
Marinol Unimed Pharmaceuticals,
a subsidiary of Solvay Pharmaceuticals
FDA approved in United States as an appetite stimulant (1992) and for nausea (1985)
Approved in Denmark for multiple sclerosis (Sep. 2003)
Approved in Canada for AIDS -related anorexia (Apr. 2000) and for nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy (1988)
Treatment of nausea and vomiting for patients in cancer treatment; Appetite stimulant for AIDS patients; Analgesic to ease neuropathic pain in multiple sclerosis patients Synthetic Delta-9 THC
2. Dronabinol Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI)/
Marinol aerosol Solvay Pharmaceuticals
Not approved for use as of Feb. 15, 2008
Phase II clinical trials in the United States completed Sep. 7, 2006
Treatment of nausea, vomiting, migraines, spasticity in MS patients, and neuropathic pain Human-made THC inhaler