Quote/Unquote

Il est dangereux d’avoir raison dans des choses où des hommes accrédités ont tort. ~Voltaire (1752)

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

Member from upstate New York: “Mr. Speaker, what is this bill about?”

Speaker Rayburn: “I don’t know. It has something to do with a thing called marihuana. I think it’s a narcotic of some kind.” (Marihuana Tax Act Hearing, 1937)

Prohibition... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control mans' appetite through legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not even crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our Government was founded ~President Abraham Lincoln (December 1840)

Five years of Prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists. None of the great boons and usufructs that were to follow the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment has come to pass. There is not less drunkenness in the Republic, but more. There is not less crime, but more. There is not less insanity, but more. The cost of government is not smaller, but vastly greater. Respect for law has not increased, but diminished. ~H. L. Mencken, "The American Mercury"

Persons using this narcotic (marijuana) smoke the dried leaves of the plant, which has the effect of driving them completely insane. The addict loses all sense of moral responsibility. Addicts to this drug, while under its influence, are immune to pain, and could be injured without having any realization of their condition. While in this condition they become raving maniacs and are liable to kill or indulge in any form of violence to other persons, using the most savage methods of cruelty without, as said before, any sense of moral responsibility...If this drug is indulged in to any great extent, it ends in the untimely death of its addict." Emily Murphy, Edmonton Canada (1923)

It creates delusions of grandeur and breaks down the will power and makes the addict ready for any crime, even murder. ~Ida B. Wise Smith, Women's Christian Temperance Union, CBS radio network speech

It is possible to stop most drug addiction in the United States within a very short time. Simply make all drugs available and sell them at cost. Label each drug with a precise description of what effect - good or bad - the drug will have on the taker. This will require heroic honesty. Don't say that marijuana is addictive or dangerous when it is neither, as millions of people know -- unlike "speed," which kills most unpleasantly, or heroin, which can be addictive and difficult to kick. Along with exhortation and warning, it might be good for our citizens to recall (or learn for the first time) that the United States was the creation of men who believed that each person has the right to do what he wants with his own life as long as he does not interfere with his neighbors' pursuit of happiness (that his neighbor's idea of happiness is persecuting others does confuse matters a bit) - Gore Vidal, "Drugs," 1970

Marijuana leads to homosexuality ... and therefore to AIDS. ~Reagan White House Drug Czar Carlton Turner (1986)

(Turner resigned on Dec. 16, 1986 after an October 27, 1986 Newsweek editorial lambasted him for his lies. He went on to make a fortune by going into the urine-testing business with partner, Peter Bensinger, a former head of the National Institute on Drug Awareness.)

One substitute for the disappearing Evil Empire (The Soviet Union) has been the threat of drug traffickers from Latin America. In early September 1989, a major government-media blitz was launched by the President. That month the AP wires carried more stories about drugs than about Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa combined. If you looked at television, every news program had a big section on how drugs were destroying our society, becoming the greatest threat to our existence, etc. ~Noam Chomsky, What Uncle Sam Really Wants

The most reliable scientific sources say permanent brain damage is one of the inevitable results of the use of marijuana. ~Ronald Reagan

And on the seventh day, god stepped back and said and said, "This is my creation, perfect in every way... oh, dammit I left all this pot all over the place. Now they'll think I want them to smoke it... Now I have to create Republicans. ~Bill Hicks, Comedian

There are no violent gangs fighting over aspirin territories. There are no violent gangs fighting over whisky territories or computer territories or anything else that's legal. There are only criminal gangs fighting over territories covering drugs, gambling, prostitution, and other victimless crimes. Making a non-violent activity a crime creates a black market, which attracts criminals and gangs, which turns what was once a relatively harmless activity affecting a small group of people into a widespread epidemic of drug use and gang warfare. ~Harry Brown, Libertarian Party

...Short term controlled trials indicate that smoked cannabis reduces neuropathic pain, improves appetite and caloric intake especially in patients with reduced muscle mass, and may relieve spasticity and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis. Furthermore, the report urges that the Schedule I status of marijuana be reviewed with the goal of facilitating clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods. ~American Medical Association. November, 2009

Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit. ~White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, at a Fresno, Calif., press conference, 2009

The chemistry lesson from last century is that no drug has ever caused as much problems as the attempts to rescue us from them. ~Arnold Trebach, professor emeritus, American University.

Racial minorities comprised a strikingly disproportionate percentage of the prison population. African Americans constituted 46.5% of state prisoners and 40% percent of federal prisoners, although they constituted only 12 percent of the national population. ~Human Rights Watch World Report 2001: United States

okay. decriminalization would be good start.