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View Full Version : Could marijuana legalization be the gateway drug for Liberty?




jonhowe
08-23-2012, 06:26 PM
After having to sit through 10 hours of CNBC at work today (I work at a brokerage firm where almost every other person is 50 years old or over, they LOVE having it on with their "marijuana and business" special, I realized that this could be a GREAT way to get people thinking. Allow me to elaborate:

Six or so years ago, when I was just finishing highschool, I had to do a report on the dangers of marijuana. I had never even SEEN the plant in person, so I had to do a lot of research. Soon I realized that the dangers we had been brainwashed with were either made up or overblown. I started questioning why pot is against the law. I did some more searching and found Ron Paul. I've been a fan ever since, slowly coming around to pretty much every position he has. (I've also come around on the issue in other ways, but it choose not to "incriminate" myself.)

So today at work, every single person watching TV made some sort of comment about how crazy it is that pot is illegal. I took the opportunity, of course, to talk up Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, and the liberty movement. A lot of these guys really didn't know much about any of the 3, and I had some really good conversations, and may even have won some minds. The stories on CNBC about how much trouble the federal government is giving the medical marijuana dispensaries made a great example of how government regulation can destroy business. (One Colorado dispensary that made packaged edibles with weed in them has decided to shut down because no bank will work with them due to federal law.)

Now outright legalization is going to be on the ballot in 3 states, and more states are moving towards medicinal marijuana. Maybe it was just me, but realizing that "my" government had been lying to me, putting people in prison, and wasting hundreds of millions of dollars because of a plant that gets you high REALLY got me to start questioning everything else the government does. It wasn't until today, though, that I realized that all the new legal developments surrounding it could be a good way to bring people around to the liberty movement.

Thoughts?

Seraphim
08-23-2012, 06:35 PM
Absolutely. Freedom is contagious. You get a whiff, and you need to keep coming back for some of the home cooking.

malkusm
08-23-2012, 06:56 PM
+rep :)