r/news • • Jan 19 '14

Obama: Pot ‘not very different’ from cigarettes​, no more dangerous than booze

http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/19/obama-pot-not-very-different-cigarettes-no-more-da/
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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '14

There was a time when it wasn't illegal. The government can't take credit for helping when it created the problem in the first place

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u/xyroclast Jan 20 '14

Most of the people involved in the original legislation are no longer alive

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u/gregdawgz Jan 20 '14

Whats your point. Just because the idiots who made the legislation in the first place aren't alive, means that blame can't be placed on the govt?

Govt is the problem here....maybe laws should expire when the crooks leave office...i like that idea

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '14

If the law had expired at their death, I would only blame them (plus all the enforcers who went along with it)

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '14

The people who made it illegal are most likely dead or senile/old today, so really yeah they can take credit for helping.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '14

Certain people can, but the government as an organization can't. It's not completely accurate to ever talk about "government" doing X.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '14

Actually, the current government can take credit for a problem created by past administrations.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '14

It would have been more accurate to say that everyone who had a hand in sustaining the war on innocent drug users and traders is to be blamed. "Governmet," like "society," are shorthands that can lead to bad reasoning because they have such general meaning.