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View Full Version : William Bennett, Former Drug Czar; Legal Pot Bad, Just Ask Lady Gaga




Origanalist
01-22-2014, 12:18 PM
(CNN) -- President George H.W. Bush appointed me as the nation's first director of national drug control policy -- or "drug czar" -- in 1989. We took on many big fights, the largest of which was the cocaine epidemic spreading from the jungles of Colombia to the streets of the United States. We conducted an all-out assault on drugs through tough enforcement measures and public education. Contrary to "war on drugs" critics, drug use and addiction dropped across the country.


The issue of marijuana legalization was far less prominent than it is today, although even then, some argued that we should experiment with legalization. I told them not on my watch; the cost to society would be too great.
If you don't want to take my word that it can be harmful, perhaps you'll take Lady Gaga's.


In a recent interview, the world-famous pop star admitted she was heavily addicted to marijuana. "I have been addicted to it and it's ultimately related to anxiety coping and it's a form of self-medication and I was smoking up to 15 or 20 marijuana cigarettes a day with no tobacco," she said. "I was living on a totally other psychedelic plane, numbing myself completely."

Lady Gaga said she was speaking out to bust the myth that marijuana is just a harmless plant. "I just want young kids to know that you actually can become addicted to it, and there's this sentiment that you can't and that's actually not true."

Today a fully functioning experiment in legal marijuana for adults is going on in Colorado and another one is set to begin later this year in Washington. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once remarked that in our democratic Republic, the states are the laboratories of democracy. We are running a few labs now and shall see what happens.

But, as with any public debate, we need to hear all sides. So far, the advocates of marijuana legalization have dominated the public arena. It's certainly had an effect. According to a new CNN poll, a majority of Americans support legalizing marijuana. But where are the voices of the wounded? Where is the outrage from the families who have been hurt?

Pot stocks are hot on Wall Street Mom: Medical marijuana saved my ill son Does legal marijuana mean more addicts?

We know they are out there. More Americans are admitted to treatment facilities for marijuana use than any other illegal drug.

I've talked to parents all over the country who lost children to drug abuse -- not to marijuana alone; though in many cases it was a gateway drug or part of their deadly drug concoction. People have been deeply hurt by drug related accidents or spent thousands of dollars on drug rehabilitation. We need to hear their voices.

During my tenure as drug czar, I traveled to more than 120 communities to see firsthand the impact of illegal drugs. Among those visits was a trip to Boston to take part in drug busts in some of the city's most broken and dangerous neighborhoods. Not once during that visit did a parent or community leader advocate for legalization or loosening drug restrictions. Rather, they wanted the drugs confiscated and drug dealers locked up. They knew the damage drugs had inflicted on their children and communities.

That same evening Harvard University held a discussion on drugs and law enforcement. There I listened to scores of academics argue for legalizing or decriminalizing drugs.

It's hardly an exercise in intellectual rigor for those in the middle- and upper-class who live in areas with little crime and violence to be willing to experiment with drug legalization. They live far removed from the realities of the drug trade. But travel to its core, to the slums and projects run by ruthless drug dealers, and these intellectuals may rethink their position.

It goes on.........http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/16/opinion/bennett-keep-pot-illegal

LibertyEagle
01-22-2014, 12:25 PM
She was addicted to numbing herself; to getting high. If it wasn't pot, it would have been alcohol or something else. To imply that she was physically addicted to pot is ridiculous and a cop out. When the reality is that she is a weak person looking to escape reality and it is that, that she is "addicted" to.

Philhelm
01-22-2014, 12:26 PM
If Lady Gaga smoked marijuana, and openly admits to it, shouldn't she be in jail, or have a SWAT raid on her mansion, rather than being a rich Pop Star?

Didn't Obama admit to using cocaine or heroine, or something like that?

It seems to me that drugs are a gateway to money.

sluggo
01-22-2014, 12:27 PM
Lady Gaga also wears raw meat and voted for Obama. Bennett should find away to work that into his spiel.

kcchiefs6465
01-22-2014, 12:29 PM
http://i.imgur.com/jwtxZYR.png?1
http://i.imgur.com/mEGcGuf.png?1

pg 165, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces, Radley Balko.

For those who were unaware of who William Bennett was.

HOLLYWOOD
01-22-2014, 01:02 PM
Like I have informed many here over and over in posts... this news clip below proves what I have warned about the tyrannical government within the Washington DC beltway. The Soviet Union-WARSAW PACT conducted the exact same policies, that NEOCON-FASCIST William Bennett is advocated. Yet these are the same public-.gov liars and manipulators who have been hosted for years by every form of communications; TV, Radio, Internet, Foundations, Centers, Institutes, Think Tanks, Special Interest, etc. It's a well crafted game to control Americans and America, while those sell us out and enriching those that assist this control gameplan.


http://i.imgur.com/mEGcGuf.png?1

pg 165, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces, Radley Balko.

For those who were unaware of who William Bennett was.

jmdrake
01-22-2014, 01:11 PM
If Lady Gaga smoked marijuana, and openly admits to it, shouldn't she be in jail, or have a SWAT raid on her mansion, rather than being a rich Pop Star?

Didn't Obama admit to using cocaine or heroine, or something like that?

It seems to me that drugs are a gateway to money.

LOLz! ^That is exactly what I was thinking! Hey, Lady Gaga could have become addicted to prescription anti-depressants which have the unfortunate side effect of causing people to kill themselves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/12/us/student-19-in-trial-of-new-antidepressant-commits-suicide.html
Student, 19, in Trial of New Antidepressant Commits Suicide
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: February 12, 2004

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A 19-year-old college student who had shown no outward signs of depression killed herself over the weekend at an Eli Lilly & Company laboratory in Indianapolis where she had been participating in a company drug trial for an experimental antidepressant.

The student, Traci Johnson, was one of 25 healthy patients at an Eli Lilly clinic who were being given larger than therapeutic doses of duloxetine, which will be known as Cymbalta if it is introduced as an antidepressant. Four days before her death, Ms. Johnson was taken off Cymbalta and given a placebo.

While Eli Lilly asserted that it had properly screened Ms. Johnson before the study started to ensure that she was healthy and had no mental problems, her death is being used by critics of a popular class of antidepressants to bolster their case that the widely used drugs carry the risk of suicidal tendencies for a small number of people, particularly young people.

Four other patients who were given the drug during earlier trials also committed suicide, the company said. The drug is being tested not only as an antidepressant but also as a possible treatment for stress urinary incontinence.

Ms. Johnson's death came less than a week after a federal advisory panel concluded that the Food and Drug Administration should issue stronger warnings to doctors that this class of antidepressants may be linked to suicide and violent behavior in children and teenagers.

A review board has told Eli Lilly to stop entering new patients into the trial, and to have all the current participants evaluated by an independent psychiatrist.

Robert Smith, a Lilly spokesman, said the company did not believe that duloxetine, the drug's generic name, caused the suicide.

''This drug has been studied in 9,000 patients, in depressed and nondepressed healthy people, and we have not been able to discern any signal between duloxetine and suicide or suicidal ideation,'' Mr. Smith said.

Ms. Johnson had not shown signs of depression, distress or mood swings throughout about a month in the trial, said Dr. Alan Breier, Lilly's chief medical officer.

Patients who abruptly stop therapy with some antidepressants often experience withdrawal symptoms that can include severe agitation, unusual dreams and night sweats. This is especially true of antidepressants like Paxil, made by GlaxoSmithKline, that leave the bloodstream quickly. Cymbalta also leaves the blood stream quickly.

Dr. Breier said Ms. Johnson did not appear to be suffering any withdrawal symptoms. He said the company might never be able to answer why Ms. Johnson killed herself.

''Most people who commit suicide in the general population leave people asking these kinds of questions,'' Dr. Breier said. ''And just because this happens while someone is taking a drug doesn't mean the drug caused it.''

Ms. Johnson did not leave a suicide note. She hanged herself in a shower stall Saturday night in the bathroom of Lilly's dormlike laboratory on the top two floors of the Indiana University Medical Center.

She had been attending nearby Indiana Bible College but left school to participate in the study because it paid $150 a day plus meals.

Whether antidepressants cause some people to commit suicide was an issue that flared briefly in the early 1990's but had been largely dismissed by mainstream researchers until last summer. That is when GlaxoSmithKline warned that a series of studies had found that children and teenagers given Paxil were more likely to attempt or think about suicide than those given a placebo.

Wyeth soon followed with a warning suggesting that its antidepressant, Effexor, should not be given to children. British and American drug regulators set to work studying the problem. The British soon concluded that most antidepressants in this class should not be used in children and teenagers since they have not proved effective in that population and could be linked to suicide.

The F.D.A. continues to study the issue, said Susan Cruzan, an agency spokeswoman. The agency is aware of Ms. Johnson's death and will evaluate its implications once the agency receives all of the needed information about it, Ms. Cruzan said.

So why isn't there a war on prescription anti-depressants?

kcchiefs6465
01-23-2014, 05:56 PM
Bump.

fr33
01-23-2014, 09:57 PM
Bennett has ruined more lives than pot has. He is guilty of crimes against humanity.

Occam's Banana
01-23-2014, 10:26 PM
William Bennett? So that sackful of rancid fartings is still around? Damn ...

Origanalist
01-23-2014, 10:32 PM
Bennett has ruined more lives than pot has. He is guilty of crimes against humanity.

Ya, that's not even debatable.

heavenlyboy34
01-23-2014, 11:01 PM
Irony- Bennett is rather well-known for a book he edited called "The Book Of Virtues". My father tried to get me to read it as punishment for something or other. Very boring, and I managed to get out of it somehow, IDR. He kind of reminds me of Ben Franklin and his "Poor Richard's Almanac"-he lived his life almost directly opposite of how he insisted everyone else should. Utter hypocrites, both. :P

otherone
01-23-2014, 11:03 PM
It's hardly an exercise in intellectual rigor for those in the middle- and upper-class who live in areas with little crime and violence to be willing to experiment with drug legalization. They live far removed from the realities of the drug trade. But travel to its core, to the slums and projects run by ruthless drug dealers, and these intellectuals may rethink their position.


It's hardly an exercise in intellectual rigor to understand that making a commodity illegal CREATES ruthless criminals.

tod evans
01-24-2014, 06:38 AM
More Americans are admitted to treatment facilities for marijuana use than any other illegal drug.

There is one reason for this and only one; The "Just-Us" system will be somewhat lenient on a person if they seek "approved treatment" for their "addiction".

Government creates the problem by making plants illegal, government persecutes, er prosecutes, folks for using plants and then government offers their solution of "approved treatment"...

Now the propaganda arm of government is trumpeting the rhetoric as a "truth" and Boobus'll suck it up....

Root
01-24-2014, 07:15 AM
Wtf, that is just silly. I use cannabis in a completely different way. While, it can be used to numb (emotional) pain, I find I like it best when I use it as a "life/experience enhancer"

The drug war profiteers are getting very nervous.

Occam's Banana
01-24-2014, 02:06 PM
More Americans are admitted to treatment facilities for marijuana use than any other illegal drug.

There is one reason for this and only one; The "Just-Us" system will be somewhat lenient on a person if they seek "approved treatment" for their "addiction".

Government creates the problem by making plants illegal, government persecutes, er prosecutes, folks for using plants and then government offers their solution of "approved treatment"...

Now the propaganda arm of government is trumpeting the rhetoric as a "truth" and Boobus'll suck it up....

Exactly so. Their use of the word "admitted" is a sly euphemism.

It's like saying, "More Americans are admitted to prison facilities ..."

dannno
01-24-2014, 02:26 PM
Wtf, that is just silly. I use cannabis in a completely different way. While, it can be used to numb (emotional) pain, I find I like it best when I use it as a "life/experience enhancer"

The drug war profiteers are getting very nervous.

Lady Gaga is being really ungrateful for all of the insights and creativity that led to her being the biggest pop star on the scene and I don't think there is any doubt it affected her career positively.

parocks
01-24-2014, 02:58 PM
Lady Gaga is being really ungrateful for all of the insights and creativity that led to her being the biggest pop star on the scene and I don't think there is any doubt it affected her career positively.

Lady Gaga sucks

dannno
01-24-2014, 03:33 PM
Lady Gaga sucks

Most pop stars are relatively talented dancers, relatively un-talented singers and their careers are more or less fabricated for them by others.

Lady Gaga is a fantastic performer and songwriter, she was before she ever became famous.

Nevertheless, her career does include a large amount of fabrication for her by others, but she is still one of the more talented and creative singers and songwriters of her generation.

So I would say your statement is pretty inaccurate. You can have your opinion, but just know that a lot of people have very poor opinions when it comes to blanket judgements on things. I hate pop music, but I am also able to recognize where talent exists within pop music because you can't just make a blanket statement that every single pop music piece or musician isn't talented, that doesn't make any god damn sense. To say that most of it is crap would be, in my opinion, an accurate observation.

Origanalist
01-24-2014, 03:50 PM
Most pop stars are relatively talented dancers, relatively un-talented singers and their careers are more or less fabricated for them by others.

Lady Gaga is a fantastic performer and songwriter, she was before she ever became famous.

Nevertheless, her career does include a large amount of fabrication for her by others, but she is still one of the more talented and creative singers and songwriters of her generation.

So I would say your statement is pretty inaccurate. You can have your opinion, but just know that a lot of people have very poor opinions when it comes to blanket judgements on things. I hate pop music, but I am also able to recognize where talent exists within pop music because you can't just make a blanket statement that every single pop music piece or musician isn't talented, that doesn't make any god damn sense. To say that most of it is crap would be, in my opinion, an accurate observation.

Nah, she sucks.

brushfire
01-24-2014, 03:55 PM
I wonder what his thoughts are on the "shrub". He did drugs.... So did "the first black president". And of course, the current black, or half black if you will, president.

Acala
01-24-2014, 04:21 PM
It will give me pleasure to see the drug war unravel before the eyes of the evil people who made their careers on it, ruining countless lives while posing as paragons of virtue. Bennett is a really nasty guy.

DamianTV
01-24-2014, 04:50 PM
... Lady Gaga said she was speaking out to bust the myth that marijuana is just a harmless plant. "I just want young kids to know that you actually can become addicted to it, and there's this sentiment that you can't and that's actually not true." ...

Lady Gaga knows that Addiction conflicts with Obedience.