The Capitol Fax Blog » Kirk wants huge penalties for alleged “super pot”

Kirk wants huge penalties for alleged “super pot”

Monday, Jun 15, 2009

* Potential GOP US Senate candidate Mark Kirk has scheduled a press conference today to announce that he wants to throw people in prison for 25 years for trafficking “high potency” marijuana…

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk will call for legislation Monday that would toughen drug-trafficking laws regarding a highly potent form of marijuana, with penalties of up to 25 years in prison for a first-time offense.

The law would target offenders who sell or distribute marijuana that has a THC content exceeding 15 percent, which is between 5 and 10 percentage points higher than average marijuana, according to Kirk’s office.

THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main active ingredient in marijuana.

Drug dealers are increasingly cross-breeding plants to produce high-potency variants of marijuana, which are called “kush” in street slang when they have 20 percent THC, Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran said.

Opposition…

But Bryan Brickner, a co-founder of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws said the law would target medical users. “He’s saying we want you to use the lower grade stuff — so you have to smoke more just to get the same amount of relief.”

And there’s some confusion in media reports about what this stuff really is. That top story from the Tribune claims he’s targeting pot that’s 20 percent THC. The Sun-Times says it’s 15 percent. And the Waukegan paper says…

“Kush,” a new strain of hydroponically grown marijuana that reportedly has five times the potency of strains from the early 1990s.

Whenever politicians get all hyper about some “new” drug, it’s time to be suspicious about their claims - and their proposed remedies. Remember that old saying: When the only tool you ever use is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

* Meanwhile, GOP state Rep. Dave Winters describes what he’s been doing to round up support for lieutenant governor…

“I’ve been meeting with Republican leaders all over the state. I’ve met with Andy McKenna, the party chairman, and with (former) Gov. Jim Thompson. I’m getting a very good response throughout the state,“ Winters told me Friday.

* Related…

* Five months later, what Burris record?

* Schoenburg: Voss comes out of retirement to help Burris

* Mr. Quigley Goes To Washington

* Rep. Schock to tour Guantanamo

* Would your lawmaker support public health insurance?

* Democrats to Rep. Mark: Now Who’s Un-American?

- posted by Rich Miller

59 Comments

- wordslinger - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 9:26 am:
Pres. Nixon said: “In a GOP primary, run as hard and fast as you can to the Right; in a general election, run as hard and fast as you can to the Center.”

This won’t sit well with Libertarian element in the GOP, but I suspect Kirk thinks this will help him with the GOP vote outside his district (which, remember, is the only place he’s ever run).

- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 9:31 am:
The economy is in a shambles and every worker is worried about whether they’ll have a job next month.

But Mark Kirk is campaigning on Potheads.

Maybe his Opposition Research shows either that he’s vulnerable on crime or one of his potential opponents is a dope fiend, but to me this spells:

O-U-T-O-F-T-O-U-C-H

- 47th Ward - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 9:36 am:
Isn’t this like sentencing offenders to more prison time for selling crack cocaine as opposed to powder cocaine? When the heck are we going to learn that tougher penalities for drug crimes cost us billions in prison expenses?

Stupid is as stupid does I suppose.

- chiatty - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 9:38 am:
Mark Kirk is positively Blago-like in his ability to pick issues that get him in the public eye. Doesn’t matter if the issue is stupid, like this one, the media jump like lap dogs to his call.

- Carl Nyberg - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 9:42 am:
Does Kirk think the escalating the war on drugs is the right policy direction?

Where would Kirk rank super-potent pot among the following issues facing the country?

a. Job creation
b. Exiting Iraq
c. Reducing health care cost
d. Expanding health care coverage
e. Afghanistan
f. Global warming
g. Increasing non-fossil fuel electricity
h. Transportation
i. Wage growth
j. Peace for Israel/Palestine
k. Property tax relief
l. Properly regulating the financial sector
m. Torture
n. Gov’t violating rights of U.S. citizens
o. Federal debt/deficit
p. Private debt crisis

- tea totaler - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 9:57 am:
The Economist magazine had a wonderful in depth feature on drug legalization. The conclusion was that legalization is the least bad option; I wholeheartedly agree. End the war on drugs and redirect the money to drug treatment programs.

- Alex - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 10:07 am:
some of the previous commenters have nailed the utter ridiculousness of this idea, but it’s also clearly a attempt to change the subject from his claim to the Chinese that his own country shouldn’t be trusted. This part of his whole “suburban strategy.” http://www.house
.gov/kirk/suburban.agen
da/1.26.06.html

- WOW - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 10:08 am:
So with the state budget in “regression” and the DOC looking at early release for non-violent offenders (not to mention Raoul and Cullerton working on streamlining the criminal code) Kirk wants a penalty enhancement bill so that we can add more people to the prison roles? I wish he would run for Governor … it just proves how out of touch he is.

- Greg - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 10:15 am:
I would oppose this bill, but there’s no way that the opportunity cost of Kirk proposing this bill is the abandonment of addressing Iraq, economic growth, etc. Since when does a minority party congressman have any influence over Carl Nyberg’s points?

I haven’t heard other candidates taking real positions on substantive issues.

- Deep South - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 10:15 am:
Maybe Burris would have a chance. LOL

- Diamond Dog - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 10:18 am:
I completley support Congressman Kirk’s efforts. I hearby volunteer myself to be his official “taste tester.” If I say it good stuff, throw those hippies in jail! Now, bring it on! I want that stuff that killed Elvis!

- Rich Miller - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 10:21 am:
Alex is right. Suburban women are key to winning statewide here, and this is an obvious sop to them.

- VanillaMan - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 10:22 am:
What if tobacco companies were putting out a cigarette with five times the nicotine than regular smokes, so that users will become addicted quicker to the more powerful smoke? I bet there would be an outcry from the same people who are casually reminicing about the ditch weed they used to toke thirty years ago.

A drug is a drug, and when it goes unregulated and is proven unsafe, (marijuana smokers are turning up with serious long term use issues), it should be controlled, right? Too bad so many of us look at marijuana just as we did so long ago and only look at the costs of control, and not the reasons for it. Justifying laws based on the cost of prosecution and incarceration doesn’t take into effect the negative societal costs of lawlessness, and should not be used as a reason to avoid law enforcement.

It is obvious how bloggers will answer this question relates more to their partisanship than to their common sense.

- Rich Miller - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 10:24 am:
===Too bad so many of us look at marijuana just as we did so long ago and only look at the costs of control, and not the reasons for it.===

Some people here, I would bet, are basing their experience on fairly recent usage, not the 1960s or 1970s or even 1990s.

- He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 10:26 am:
I have to agree with YDD. Increase the prison population with people that have great weed?? It doesnt make since and with the cost per prisoner rising, will kill a budget already on life support.

- Amy - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 10:27 am:
Kirk’s bit a play to suburban women? i’d just say nervous parents. as a woman, it makes no play to me.

- wordslinger - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 10:28 am:
VMan, the Drug Wars aren’t really a partisan issue in the sense of Dem/GOP.

Plenty of old GOP bulls think the Drug Wars are a joke — start with George Schultz.

- 47th Ward - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 10:34 am:
===(marijuana smokers are turning up with serious long term use issues)===

VM, can you please give us a link to your source on that?

- Segatari - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 10:56 am:
Medical pot advocates should read this piece about someone who started using pot while he was on cancer chemo treatments…and ended up killing himself from using it when he was almost cured from cancer.

http://illinoistimes.com/gyrobas
e/Content?oid=oid%3A10339

- TaxMeMore - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 11:01 am:
Stronger pot, sure Kirk, smoke another one. This isn’t based on any science or research or legitimate studies into the topic, it is based on Kirk’s ignorance.

20 years ago police were chopping down fields of wild hemp still around from when the US Government GAVE AWAY marijuana seeds to farmers in the HEMP FOR VICTORY campaign to help win WWII. That industrial hemp had a THC level of less than 1%. Throw a few acres of industrial hemp in to your “average THC potency” and it lowers quite a bit.

20 plus years after most of the government subsidized and distributed industrial hemp has been weeded out, and of course the average THC content is going to go up. The biggest reason why pot potency is increasing is because the federal government stopped giving out free marijuana seeds in the 1950s.

Do we lock teenagers in cages for longer if they are caught with whiskey instead of the lower potency beer? If you usually drink 6 beers a night, and decide to drink scotch instead, does it automatically mean you will drink the same amount of scotch as you did beer the night before? Or will you only maybe need 1 or 2 scotches to equal those 6 beers?

The level of ignorance being shown by the drug warriors has almost 50% of the American public ready to end the drug war. Locking human beings in cages isn’t working to solve any problems our society has with drugs. Prohibition, in fact, only makes the drug problem worse.

Prohibition makes our streets more dangerous. Prohibition puts more guns into the hands of the violent. Prohibition puts profits into the hands of terrorists. Prohibition locks human beings in cages instead of helping them with medical problems.

Prohibition is and always has been a failure at controlling human behavior and a failure at reducing the harm drugs have on our society.

The Netherlands is FULL of this so-called more potent cannabis, but fewer children in the Netherlands have used cannabis than American children. Hmmmm. Portugal decriminalized most drugs and they are seeing wonderful improvements since they stopped locking human beings in cages for doing something that doesn’t harm anyone else.

But America is different than those places, because we still have a lot more racism in this country. Look at the incarcerations rates of whites, blacks, and Hispanics. Drug warriors should be ashamed and embarrassed at the effect their war on minorities caught with cannabis has had on that segment of society. A black man is more likely to go to jail for drug possession than get a college degree. Our policies have failed and ignoring that fact is starting to look worse and worse for people still lying about the drug war, like Kirk here.

- Conservative Veteran - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 11:07 am:
The 10th Amendment states that all powers that aren’t reserved for the federal government, in the Constitution, are reserved for the states. I read every word of the Constitution, and I didn’t see the word “drug” or “marijuana.” Therefore, any involvement, of the federal government, in drugs, is unconstitutional.

- Steve - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 11:24 am:
Here’s another bad idea from Mark Kirk. The war on drugs is an expensive failure. We don’t need more people in jail. The way to solve this problem is to allow health insurance companies to deny care for those who smoke this stuff.

- TaxMeMore - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 11:28 am:
Segatari - you may want to expand the ability your brain has to comprehend things a bit before you read this.

The marijuana didn’t kill that 20 year old cancer patient. An infection he got from tainted cannabis, is what killed him. In other words, prohibition killed this kid.

Cancer patients should be receiving medicine that is free from mold and other contaminants, like some places in California already provide. All of their medicine is checked for fungus and mold and such, unlike here in Illinois where we trust the likes of Al Capone and Pablo Escobar to provide medicine to cancer patients.

If it were legal and they could check for contaminants like mold that causes deadly infections in people with lower immune systems, this kid would not have died. Prohibition killed that kid, not cannabis. Cannabis helped save his life.

- Rich Miller - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 11:32 am:
TaxMeMore is dead-on right.

- shore - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 11:34 am:
1. Kirk knows something about drugs. He works in Afghanistan on counternarcotics issues for the navy and has oversight on the narcotics bureau of the state department.

2. Governments oughtta be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. The world doesn’t stop because there are 2 wars on and an economy in shambles. This is what district staff and legislative assistants are paid a measley 35k a year for-constituent service and policy help.

2a. Burris has how many times kirk’s staff and how many non-blago related press conferences has he held? Was it not in politico this morning that he has introduced 0 ammendments in 5 months in the senate?

3. That blago fiasco wasn’t a debate about reviving the Illinois economy.

4. The quigley piece was great.

- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 12:10 pm:
=== Alex is right. Suburban women are key to winning statewide here, and this is an obvious sop to them. ===

If suburban moms actually believed their kids smoked pot, it would be a decent strategy.

Show me a poll where “drug use” even ranks.

Suburban moms are concerned about guns. They’re concerned about health care costs. Depending on the age of their kids, they’re concerned about consumer safety.

But Republicans can’t address the concerns of suburban moms without alienating major core constituencies: the Gun Lobby, The Drug Lobby, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

- just sayin - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 12:25 pm:
Sounds like Mark Kirk is just throwing a law and order bone to the conservative base as a distraction to his recent divorce.

By the way, has anyone seen the divorce file yet that Kirk promised would be unsealed?

- shore - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 12:53 pm:
Lisa Madigan does something and the media hails her as a fighter for social justice. Kirk holds a press conference and it’s politically motivated. Hypocrisy.

- VanillaMan - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 1:03 pm:
The Long Term Health Problems for Marijuana users.

These medical problems are found with users with years of abuse. Since the THC contents of Marijuana has grown exponentially, there is more than causal reasons to believe that these kinds of problems will rise in severity.

Bottom line - all smoking is bad. Those who advocate the elimination of tobacco smoking, should also step up to the facts regarding marijuana smoking. Those who advocate better medicines should also be advocating better medicines than pot for medical usage. Those who recognize the negative social impacts of societal vices, should also recognize the negative social impact of legalizing marijuana. Those who question the safety of high caffeine, taurine and other energy drinks, should also question any reasoning behing the support for another drug to be allowed in our society.

- Legaleagle - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 1:38 pm:
Raising penalties does not deter this kind of crime. Criminals don’t know what the exact penalties are. What will it cost to house all these new prisoners? Does the seller have to know about the %s of the pot he sells? How much will all this additional lab analysis work cost the system? Aren’t there far more urgent issues for a Congresscritter to care about? Looks like a p.r. stunt. Who is the real “super-dope” here?

- TaxMeMore - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 1:58 pm:
VanillaMan, thank goodness we have invented the vaporizer and a thing called an oven to bake brownies in. Smoking is not the only way to consume cannabis, but because of prohibition, it is the most common delivery method since our government is more interested in lying about cannabis than educating people about it.

Prohibition of cannabis causes more harm from smoking because it results in less education of the alternative delivery methods. Prohibition causes more people to smoke it VanillaMan, so how exactly will your position reduce smoking?

Bottom line, locking people in cages for drugs in counterproductive and causes more harm to society than it does to help anyone. Locking someone in a cage for 20 years longer will do nothing to solve anything.

VanillaMan why are you quoting an agency getting lucrative government contracts to fight the drug war? Passing on false information, is still bearing false witness. That is a bigger sin than eating than a pot brownie accorind to God. Why are breaking the ten commandments in order to continue locking human beings in cages? What has that solved?

Suburban moms is NOT what Kirk is after. Its the police unions, prison guard unions, prison employee unions, private for profit prison operators, drug treatment centers pushing for mandatory treatment instead of prison like VanillaMan here is shilling for, and the religiously conservative black congregations’ votes. If he can peel that HUGE donor and patronage base away from the Democrats, he might stand a chance.

The people that will benefit the most from this legislation is not our children, it will be the drug cartels and terrorists. This fictional “super pot” with stiffer penalties only gives the drug cartels and terrorists more power.

Like they know how potent a cannabis plant is going to be before it is harvested? And they have the scientific equipment handy to test the THC levels after they harvest? They have no way of knowing what THC level is going to be in a plant when it is done growing, so I don’t know what Kirk thinks this legislation will accomplish. Does he expect cannabis growers to buy expensive THC testing equipment and throw away the so-called “super pot”? When Joe Blow on the southside of Chicago gets busted with a joint that has a higher THC content, was it his fault the person that grew it did a good job? Because Joe Blow is going to be put in prison for a longer period based on something completely out of his control. There is no possible scenario in which this legislation will do a darn thing to make society better.

We have the evidence sitting in our prisons every day that prohibition is a failure. Those who continue to advocate locking human beings in cages need to recognize their policies have already failed and clinging to them now is causing even more unnecessary harm.

You want to debate the health effects of cannabis VanillaMan, fine, lets take it off Scehdule 1 and do some scientific studies on it. Tesing evidence from random police lockers is NOT SCIENTIFIC evidence. It is bearing false witness against your neighbors and it is a bigger sin than eating a pot brownie because is causes more harm.

Pingback ArchPundit | Because People Smoking Dope are Dangerous - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 2:01 pm:
[…] That said, we don’t need to be populating our federal prisons with people selling dope whether it is supposedly super pot or not. While this is obviously meant to target suburban voters–women especially who are worried about their kids–it’s stupid policy. It increases the number of people in prison for non-violent crime and it’s not going to stop anyone from getting high. […]

Pingback ArchPundit | Because People Smoking Dope are Dangerous - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 2:01 pm:
[…] That said, we don’t need to be populating our federal prisons with people selling dope whether it is supposedly super pot or not. While this is obviously meant to target suburban voters–women especially who are worried about their kids–it’s stupid policy. It increases the number of people in prison for non-violent crime and it’s not going to stop anyone from getting high. […]

- Cheech&Chong - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 2:05 pm:
Just wondering: Who coined the goofy term “super pot”?

If it’s supposed to somehow scare people away from the drug, it would appear to do just the opposite. How could pot labeled “super” be anything but, well, super?

So rather than making your hamburger taste like a porterhouse, I suppose that “super pot” would make your hamburger taste like a side of beef!

- Segatari - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 2:08 pm:
TaxMeMore - you’re gonna blame it on a “bad batch” of pot that killed him? Really? Why are people so desperate to learn things the hard way instead of listen to reality?

- TaxMeMore - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 2:32 pm:
Segatari, is wasn’t a “bad batch” it was an infection from something other than cannabis that might have been on the cannabis. He could have gotten the SAME INFECTION from lettuce, tomatoes, or a hospital workers that didn’t wash their hands. We have outbreaks from “bad batches” of food all the time Segatari, but I have yet to see someone blame the peanut, for a recent example, rather than the actual cause of the infection.

I’m blaming his death on that fact that prohibition also prohibits healthy measures like checking cannabis for mold that can cause infection. You know, kind of like what we do with food to keep people safe. Not a hard concept to grasp that the peanut plant or lettuce plant didn’t kill anyone, it was the fact that peanut and lettuce was contaminated and not tested. Or do you think peanuts and lettuce should be prohibited now because mold and diseases might get on them? That is your logic, bans peanuts and lettuce to save people from an infection that they are only carriers of.

Reality? I still see drug arrests everywhere after 40 years of a drug war. How is your current policy working out? Reality says that approach has failed.

- Louis G. Atsaves - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 2:54 pm:
Love the comments here.

Smoking cigarettes is bad and is being banned all over the place. You can get lung cancer and spread it second hand to others! Ban! Ban! Ban! Cigarette smokers are the new modern lepers in our society! But smoking pot is good and those wishing to try to stop stronger pot from hitting the streets are wackos. Shame! Shame! Shame! Pot is healthy and causes no health risks to your lungs or body, just gives you a nice pleasant buzz! Uh, huh!

So outlaw cigarettes! And legalize pot! One is bad. The other is good! I understand completely. : -)

I would use logic to punish pot smokers in a similar fashion that cigarette smokers are now punished. Fines. Taxes. Tax the hell out of pot to the same degree that cigarettes are now taxed. But I’m not seeing much in the way of logic here. For “superpot” impose a super tax!

Can we get $12 billion in tax revenues from legalizing pot? : -)

- Segatari - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 3:03 pm:
>Reality? I still see drug arrests everywhere after 40 years of a drug war. How is your current policy working out? Reality says that approach has failed.

Gee TaxMeMore, are you gonna throw out the entire system of laws because people keep violating them? And I’m talking about the ones that have NOTHING to do with drugs. Without law there is chaos.

- Call a Spade a Spade - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 3:11 pm:
I am sick of politicians abusing the words “terrorist”, “war on drugs” and other terms to scare people. Ultimately this scaring people about “super pot” that is akin to “crack” is itself a form of terror. This is a scare tactic by a politician who lacks a conscience and wants to scare people needlessly.

Many of us know of plenty of doctors, lawyers, options traders, and campaign professionals in Illinois who smoke so-called “Super-Pot”, and many are on the Republican side. Some of the most successful people in our state are potheads. I know a PHD physicist who is one of the top guys in the country for particle physics whose groundbreaking work is often done while stoned on guess what ? “Super-Pot”

Any politician who wants to scare suburban moms and peaceful professionals who happen to like to smoke pot by threatening to incarcerate people for 25 years is behaving in a way that results in the creation of needless “fear” (a form of terror).

Openly calling for violating the civil liberties of free people who are not harming anyone else is a form of terrorism when you call a spade a spade.

Therefore, in order to reduce terror, because we need according to these same politicians to combat terrorism, there should be a law against needless unfounded fear mongering by self serving politicians like Kirk.

- TaxMeMore - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 3:28 pm:
Segatari

“Gee TaxMeMore, are you gonna throw out the entire system of laws because people keep violating them?”

No. Are you trying to imply I said something even remotely similar to that? That was some giant leap you made there changing the topic, so I don’t know what you are trying to debate now. I suggested cannabis be inspected for mold and contaminants like we do with food. I used the Netherlands and Portugal as examples of alternative policies on trying to control people that like cannabis. Somehow that makes you think I want anarchy and chaos?

Inspection, quality controls, science, research, and regulation now equals chaos. Interesting leap of logic. But prohibition and the black market that results from prohibition creates more a lot more chaos than it prevents.

Try some other piece of evidence to show current prohibition policies are doing anything else than making it worse.

- Rich Miller - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 3:32 pm:
Segatari, eventually, a responsible society has to decide whether a law on its books is working or is doing more harm than good. Just because it’s a law today, doesn’t mean it has to be a law tomorrow. These laws are made by humans, not by gods, so therefore they can be changed and should always be subject to review. The “Because it’s a law” argument has no meaning or relevance in a democracy.

- VanillaMan - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 3:40 pm:
mandatory treatment instead of prison like VanillaMan here is shilling for

For a pro-doper, you sure need to chill. Your anti-VanillaMan posting is ridiculous. Try reading what folks with concerns over marijuana are telling you before you accuse us of whatever it is you have going through your mind at the moment. You like pot - great, but just like tobacco, don’t expect everyone to think it is the great savior of the world. There isn’t any conspiratorial madman forcing us to reach our conclusions, nor are we ignorant or inexperienced.

Before you start claiming what those who disagree with you believe, try listening first.

- Double - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 3:47 pm:
Maybe if we pass around some of this super pot to the governor and four legislative leaders we can finally come to a resolution of this budget mess!..What a great way to spend his time and efforts earning votes…give me a break.

- MrJM - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 4:10 pm:
May I submit an alternate, two-step proposal:

1. End Prohibition.
2. Tax Pot.

– MrJM

- Segatari - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 4:18 pm:
3. Establish massive trust fund to pay out millions to families who sue the companies selling pot after it’s legalized for causing injury or death…just like they do with tobacco.

TaxMeMore - you’re not brillant…and I’m pretty sure you’re cherry picking how “successful” legalized drugs are in those countries are and leaving out the negatives that occurred.

- Rich Miller - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 4:20 pm:
Segatari, legalization always has problems. Look at alcohol, for instance, which is much worse than marijuana on many levels. Still, a free society decided on its own that the problems of legalization far outweighed the benefits of prohibition.

- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 4:58 pm:
Where would Kirk rank super-potent pot among the following issues facing the country?

I dunno, but as of 5 PM today, the readers of the Capitol Fax Blog made it today’s #1 issue by a whisker:-)

- TaxMeMore - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 5:00 pm:
“U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk will call for legislation Monday that would toughen drug-trafficking laws regarding a highly potent form of marijuana, with penalties of up to 25 years in prison for a first-time offense.” - Tribune today.

That is war talk, not peace talk. 25 years for a first time offense. What, 70% of the people sentenced under this war on drugs enhancement would be minorities? You were defending his talk of more war, but sure, the goal is to start bringing peaceful solutions to the table instead of more war, more wrong address SWAT raids killing innocent police and civilians, more gang violence, and more drug cartel violence as Rep. Kirk is bringing to the table with this proposal.

I want to see Kirk debate someone on this issue. Seriously. Pete Guither is always up for it. If his belief in this is strong enough to think it should be federal policy controlling all Americans, he should be open to debating the issue. I’d love to listen to that.

How will locking first time offenders in cages for 25 years motivate drug cartels to start scientifically testing their crops after harvest and get rid of “super pot”? Does he really think drug cartels are going to do that because they are afraid of this new more oppressive law? I really want to hear how Kirk thinks that is going to work.

- Calling A Spade A Spade - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 5:50 pm:
It is war talk. He has declared war on all kinds of ordinary taxpayers in Illinois who vote and have good jobs and contribute to society.

Look up the four former managing DEA agents who served in Columbia who just came out publicly and stated that the DEA in Latin America is working for the drug cartels. A great interview with them and about them is here http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7219#more-7219

Being a closeted Pot Smoker is akin to what it used to be to be gay.

There are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of Illinois residents who lead productive lives who imbibe Pot (whether smoking, eating it, vaporizing it) who never hurt anyone who are sick of being used as a political punching bag and picked on.

The pot users need their own PERSONAL PAC to advocate for their needs.

The Drug War is a cover for increasing money into the coffers of high level organized crime syndicates that don’t have to pay taxes and are never caught or brought to justice. It’s just the low level guys being busted.

It’s the biggest fraud in our country.

- anon - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 6:41 pm:
Really dumb idea. I thought these people were fiscal conservatives.

I’ve smoked sensimillia plenty of times. Its actually healthier because you need to smoke far less to reach the desired effects

- wordslinger - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 7:24 pm:
–So outlaw cigarettes! And legalize pot! One is bad. The other is good! I understand completely. : -)–

Louis, I’m with you,brother.

I consider myself an old-school Liberal, FDR and HST, (which makes me a lot more Conservative than some of you ditto-heads out there), but I think this kind of stuff requires a realignment.

How about The Mind-Your-Own-Beezwax Party? I know, there are Libertarians out there, but those dudes really can’t make it viable in the Capitalist society many of us want.

Or we can go with Leadbelly:

“Mind Your Own Business and You Won’t Be Mindin’ Mine.

“It’ll Keep You Busy All the Time.”

- Call A Spade A Spade - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 7:45 pm:
Wordslinger - what a coincidence.

One of my inspirations is HST also, except not Harry Truman.

Hunter S. Thompson - a trailblazing political journalist for Rolling Stone magazine in the 1970s who also happened to be a big stoner but someone who had the guts to turn political journalism on its head completely upside down and was himself all the way through his death - uncompromising.

Sometimes the best people to speak truth to power are those that are not afraid of their freedom.

Sadly, there are not enough gonzo journalists out there challenging people like Mark Kirk - who is almost Nixonian in some ways with this thing and with his China comments.

Rich Miller though I must admit is the closest we have to an Illinois’ Hunter Thompson, and I for one am grateful he has common sense to see through 100% pure bull and calls it when he sees it regardless of who it’s coming from.

- anon - Monday, Jun 15, 09 @ 9:45 pm:
Think of how much it would cost to imprison these people. For a plant?

Also “Kush” is a strain of marijuana. It is also a very popular way to refer to sensimillia in hip-hop.

Growing something hydroponically does not equal a higher THC level, it just is more likely because a person with that setup is more likely going to take better care of his or her plants.

- Bill - Tuesday, Jun 16, 09 @ 7:22 am:
==Rich Miller though I must admit is the closest we have to an Illinois’ Hunter Thompson,==

LOL

- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 16, 09 @ 8:59 pm:
I totally get the statement on China. It’s a “Buyer Beware” warning to both parties in the deal.

Someone should have issued a similar statement to all the companies that were running to get in line for TARP–but on a grander scale–and were then trying to figure out how to get rid of the loans because they realized the fine print was, well, fine print.

If anything, I’m surprised at Alexi’s statement in the link. As a money guy, he needs to remember he’s not doing the lending on this one.

- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 16, 09 @ 9:26 pm:
I’ll add, too after re-reading Alexi’s comment several times:

Alexi REALLY showed his hand on this one with his “…and by extension, the American people….” comment–in a couple of ways.

We’re dealing with our Country’s “future”–as he even states–and yet he’s willing to take a transparent cheap shot like this one to try to illogically slam a potential future rival and “endear” himself with the Voters.

He, and other Ds who are slamming Kirk for this, will soon realize that there are many fiscally-conservative Voters from both parties who have lived through (i.e., more than “read”) a long history with China before we became a Global Village. They’re also painfully, painfully aware that our Government is currently in spend-spend-SPEND mode.

These attacks on Kirk, who raised a valid point on a critical issue to our Country, will be remembered for a long time.

Thanks, Ds.

- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 16, 09 @ 9:28 pm:
And for those who might decide to get all “hissy” over “trust issues”: Do you fully trust your creditors, or are you optimistically cautious?

- Rob_N - Wednesday, Jun 17, 09 @ 4:07 pm:
Anon 9:26pm,

90% of the current deficit is a result of Bush’s policies and dropping revenues due to the recession — and that stat comes from a review of Congressional Budget Office reports.

Bush put us in spend-spend-SPEND mode over the past 8 years and Republicans kept calling anyone who disagreed a traitor and/or terrorist.

PS - When did Geithner resign and, more importantly, when did President Obama appoint Mark Kirk as the nation’s Treasurer?

- Chris - Monday, Jun 29, 09 @ 12:28 pm:
Its funny - any article about the negative effects of Cannabis is always riddled with biased OPINIONS and speculation. Its very hard to debate with prohibitionists because any rational argument gets diverted into character assassination and derailment of fact into the slippery slope speculation pool.

I love the way this congressman compares marijuana to cocaine - obviously has no idea that an “ounce” of pot will last the average pothead about a month, but an ounce of coke will last the average coke head about a day. The two substances aren’t even comparable.

I smoke “kush” - I am very healthy, I am a systems administrator for marketing company with over 5000 people. Never fumbled up on the job once, and I maintain a critical role.

I am also a student of philosophy, a music teacher on the weekends, a spiritual teacher, and a physics major.

Cannabis is largely misunderstood. Questions?

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