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Title: Why the Christian Right Is Backing Marijuana Reform in Texas
Source:
Yahoo/Takepart.com
URL Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-christian ... na-reform-texas-200846673.html
Published: May 7, 2015
Author: Rebecca McCray
Post Date: 2015-05-08 10:55:13 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 2234
Comments: 17
"As the saying goes, everything’s bigger in Texas—but the state hardly has an outsize reputation for progressive marijuana reform. If this legislative session is any indication, that could be changing. While previous sessions have seen one or two marijuana-related bills introduced, 11 bills taking on various facets of marijuana prohibition were introduced this session—including an effort to decriminalize—and on Wednesday the most comprehensive among them survived the Texas House of Representatives Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. Introduced and backed by Rep. David Simpson of Longview—a Republican, Christian legislator who is supported by the Tea Party—H.B. 2165 would legalize marijuana possession for both recreational and medicinal use and create a system for the legal sale of the plant." Big hair. Big barbecue. Big sky. Big guns. As the saying goes, everything’s bigger in Texas—but the state hardly has an outsize reputation for progressive marijuana reform. If this legislative session is any indication, that could be changing. While previous sessions have seen one or two marijuana-related bills introduced, 11 bills taking on various facets of marijuana prohibition were introduced this session—including an effort to decriminalize—and on Wednesday the most comprehensive among them survived the Texas House of Representatives Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. Introduced and backed by Rep. David Simpson of Longview—a Republican, Christian legislator who is supported by the Tea Party—H.B. 2165 would legalize marijuana possession for both recreational and medicinal use and create a system for the legal sale of the plant. The bill will now move to a full floor debate and vote in the House. While marijuana legalization may bring to mind more liberal states such as Colorado and Washington or a dorm room full of hippies, the movement in Texas—and elsewhere in the country—is increasingly backed by conservatives. “From a fiscal perspective, most Republicans already think marijuana use is not a major risk to public safety,” Zoe Russell, assistant director of Texas-based Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition, told TakePart. “That message resonates across the board.” The Houston-based reform group, which also has a chapter in North Carolina, is teaming up in its advocacy efforts with the nonpartisan reform organization the Marijuana Policy Project, along with other grassroots organizers. The group was founded a few years ago by an octogenarian—and lifelong Republican—who saw pot’s positive effects firsthand when it was successfully used in treating her paraplegic son’s muscle spasms. The success of H.B. 2165 thus far has been a game changer that shows legislators are ready to take action—if you ask Heather Fazio, the political director of the Marijuana Policy Project’s Texas chapter. “Whether they’re interested for social justice reasons or because they’re fiscal conservatives, Texans all across the state are supportive of this,” Fazio told TakePart. According to Fazio, H.B. 2165 is carefully crafted not just to remove criminal penalties for medical marijuana but also to tax and regulate the drug for recreational use for Texans age 21 and up. “Rep. Simpson wants marijuana to be regulated like jalapeños,” Fazio added. In other words, Simpson thinks it should be regulated like any other plant-based product on the market. While first motivated by the medical needs of some of his constituents in northeastern Texas who had been failed by traditional medicine, Simpson decided to advocate for a tax-and-regulate system. The idea is to protect medical marijuana patients from federal prosecution if a new president decided not to follow the Obama administration’s lead and ramped up drug prosecutions. Even if H.B. 2165 fails, this legislative session demonstrates that the movement for marijuana reform in Texas is picking up speed. While it might not become the next Washington or Colorado this year, Texans on both sides of the aisle are starting to agree that their state’s marijuana policy needs to change. “[Marijuana is] not a problem that government needs to fix,” Fazio told TakePart. “The government needs to get out of the way.”
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#1. To: Deckard (#0)
From a fiscal perspective? WTF is that gobbledygook?
Whoa! Rep. David Simpson of Longview introduced a bill! That makes it practically a law!
Hmmmm. Regulated just like any other plant-based product on the market. Are jalapeños regulated in Texas, limited to those over 21, with an additional tax imposed on them?
I'll guess.....Lobbying Dollars?
"we are tartets from evil doers!!!" [ and ] U looked up birfer on the dcitionary. It isn't a movie.
Shhhh!
I could explain it, but I'd need charts, and graphs and an easel. Simple answer - The War on Drugs is a waste of money. We throw billions at "eradicating" drug use with no effect. Addiction rates have not fundamentally changed and they never will until we start treating drug use in a more productive manner. Now I'm sure you think we aren't being "strict" enough and you would like to see drug use become a capital offense. However even in the fascist societies which you so richly praise, even that is not a deterrent.
These greedy government parasites can say and do anything they want. I just hope the black market keeps up its successful efforts to keep it unregulated and out of the grasp of the greedy parasites. Go, black market! Ignore the people who could only get government "jobs". We've seen what these losers do if given the opportunity.
LOL. Jalapenos may end up putting you on the toilet for an hour or two but the two 'plant-based' items are not comparable. Even in Colorado where pot is legal employers still test their employees for drugs. Pot being one they test for. What is that saying? So are we now saying Jalapenos are a 'gateway' pepper for more serious peppers like the Ghost Pepper and the Habanero?
"For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13)
HA! Good one.
Why not say that rather than, "From a fiscal perspective, most Republicans already think marijuana use is not a major risk to public safety”? And what does a waste of money have to do with public safety? Your "explanation" is as much gobbledygook as the original statement. "We throw billions at "eradicating" drug use with no effect." So now you're saying, therefore, that if we ended this "War on Drugs", drug use would not increase. There went your credibility.
It is a gateway pepper, you greasy hippie! LOL
That's right, unless you are saying that you and the millions of others like you would go out and pick up a dime bag of weed and get high? There went your credibility. That comment, coming from someone who has zero credibility, made me laugh.
Can't stand the flavor of Jalapenos so I always substitute Serrano's (which are hotter) for them. But always use Habaneros when I'm doing a Jamaican Jerk chicken or a dose of what I call "Fire Rice"!! (That reminds me I haven't made any in a long time)... :) When I was growing up I never really ate any "hot" food but when I got to Michigan my Hispanic neighbor across the street got me hooked on it, and it got to the point I was eating hotter food than he could. After I left and went to Texas I sent him a batch of Habaneros, boy did I get cussed out by his wife. Turns out he spiked her Tamales with Habs (when she wasn't looking) and they were so hot she had to throw them all out!!! OOpppsss.... LOL
“Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rapidly promoted by mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.”
Never season eggs with hot chili peppers. Unless you want to spend lunch outside the kitchen:)
"For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13)
LOL. Does that buddy still keep in touch:) My 15 yr old son is the chili pepper connoisseur. Reminds me he wants to do some omelets with his chili peppers concoction. Guess being raised in Texas most his life rubbed off. I used to down hot peppers often and lace all my foods with them. Since chemo two years back now I lost my desire for them. Something about eating a meal with hot peppers one night when I should have stuck with mild:) Guess I gotta get back on that horse:)
"For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13)
Our kids keep in touch more than us adults, we seem to be busier than the kids for some reason. I haven't physically talked to him in about 10 years we usually pass messages thru the kids. Last I heard they were still in the U.P. and he was still working for Johnson Controls. Found themselves a piece of property there and built a house out in the middle of nowhere, BTA most everything in the U.P. is in the middle of nowhere... :)
“Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rapidly promoted by mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.”
Just gotta work your way back up to it slowly so you avoid those long intimate moments with the porcelain gods. One things for sure they do keep the "pipes" clean. :o
“Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rapidly promoted by mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.”
“From a fiscal perspective, most Republicans already think marijuana use is not a major risk to public safety,”
#2. To: Deckard (#0)
"Introduced and backed by Rep. David Simpson of Longview"
#3. To: Deckard (#0)
“Rep. Simpson wants marijuana to be regulated like jalapeños,” Fazio added. In other words, Simpson thinks it should be regulated like any other plant-based product on the market."
#4. To: Deckard (#0)
Why the Christian Right Is Backing Marijuana Reform in Texas
#5. To: misterwhite (#3)
Are jalapeños regulated in Texas, limited to those over 21,
with an additional tax imposed on them?
Don't give the loonies any wild ideas!
#6. To: misterwhite (#1)
From a fiscal perspective? WTF is that gobbledygook?
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts
#7. To: Deckard (#0)
(Edited)
“Rep. Simpson wants marijuana to be regulated like jalapeños,” Fazio added. In other words, Simpson thinks it should be regulated like any other plant-based product on the market.
#8. To: Deckard, CZ82, liberator (#0)
“Rep. Simpson wants marijuana to be regulated like jalapeños,”
#9. To: redleghunter, Deckard, CZ82 (#8)
So are we now saying Jalapenos are a 'gateway' pepper for more serious peppers like the Ghost Pepper and the Habanero?
#10. To: Deckard (#6)
"Simple answer - The War on Drugs is a waste of money."
#11. To: redleghunter (#8)
So are we now saying Jalapenos are a 'gateway' pepper for more serious peppers like the Ghost Pepper and the Habanero?
#12. To: misterwhite (#10)
So now you're saying, therefore, that if we ended this "War on Drugs", drug use would not increase.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts
#13. To: redleghunter, Liberator (#8)
So are we now saying Jalapenos are a 'gateway' pepper for more serious peppers like the Ghost Pepper and the Habanero?
#14. To: TooConservative (#11)
#15. To: CZ82 (#13)
#16. To: redleghunter (#15)
LOL. Does that buddy still keep in touch:)
#17. To: redleghunter (#15)
Something about eating a meal with hot peppers one night when I should have stuck with mild:) Guess I gotta get back on that horse:)
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