1. Robert on March 5th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
   

   What is the amount of seizure in relation to what hit the streets?? I hope we are making an impact but I don’t think so. I guess you could monitor by the going street price. If the price went up, then those seizures made a difference.
2. Rastus on March 5th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
   

   Yeah right - I bet that really hurt.
3. ShinerBlonde on March 5th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
   

   I gotta question how they value the marijuana they seize in these busts. I don’t see how two buses could hold 13 mills worth and a high-tech whole house operation only netted 1/3 that much. Is that street-value? If so, what the heck is weed selling for these days?!?

   Whatever. But as far as putting a dent in the supply, I seriously doubt this latest score is going to hurt the local potheads. The stuff grows everywhere and, according to everything I’ve read and heard, it is easy to come by. Personally, I think they should legalize marijuana (and tax the hell-out-of-it!) and let the drug agents concentrate on the really serious drugs. (A wildly unpopular view hereabouts, I suspect!)
4. southerntragedy on March 5th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
   

   Hooked-on-ponics weed is not the typical bunk or bunker crap we knew about growing up. This stuff is Potent. Don’t know exactly how much is sells for, but rested assured, it isn’t cheap.

   As for the
   

   but I have got to believe that at this very moment it is nearly impossible for reefer-fiends in the Greater Houston area to get their hands on the Old Mary Jane.

   Doubtful. Until we close our borders with Mexico, this may take out great weed, but you can still get some good Mexican stuff….sigh…Great bust, though!

   What dummies! Musta been smokin’ the stuff. They weren’t very bright. hah hah hah! Me thinks those guys are gonna be in deep do-do.
5. Wino on March 5th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
   

   #3 Shiner

   I’m with you on pot being decriminalized, but I want employers to be able to drug test and fire users, if they so desire. I don’t think they should be forced to allow folks who are high to work in their plants or factories or shops, etc.
6. RickG on March 5th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
   

   3 SB

   You may be in the minority on the “legalize marijuana” view, but there’s some non-so-bad company in that camp, including Wm. F. Buckley and (the late) Milton Friedman (no relation to Kinky, though he holds the same view) - Friedman (M) favored legalizing all drugs.

   Buckley, who apparently said he had smoked marijuana on his boat when outside US jurisiction, caustically responded to the argument that legal medical marijuana would mean “legal marijuana for whoever wants it” with this:

   “That would be different from the situation today. Today we have illegal marijuana for whoever wants it.”

   Friedman said, “It’s absolutely disgraceful to think of picking up a 22-year-old for smoking pot. More disgraceful is the denial of marijuana for medical purposes.” Economists estimated that legalization of marijuana alone would save local and state governments $7.7 billion in law enforcement costs annually, and generate yearly tax revenues of over $6 billion.

   And John Stossel wrote that “few people get high and run out and commit crimes. Most drugs just make drug users stupid and sleepy.”

   Of course, those views may not necessarily be “conservative.” Libertarian, perhaps. (Someone once asked the question: Is a Libertarian just a Conservative who wants to legalize marijuana?)
7. glynne on March 5th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
   

   Hey, no laws no legal problem. No money spent of law enforcement. Like the no border, no problem attitude. Uh, whatever.
8. Wino on March 5th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
   

   #7 glynne

   That’s an unfair reductio ad absurdum. No one is suggesting anarchy. We are questioning the proper use of law enforcement resources for problems that are serious, rather than picking up and wasting resources on some teenagers caught smoking a joint in a parking lot somewhere.

   I’d rather have cops looking for burglars, muggers, rapists, murderers, etc., than doing the paperwork on some pot head who probably isn’t dangerous to anything except fig newtons.
9. ShinerBlonde on March 5th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
   

   COW alert = “I’d rather have cops looking for burglars, muggers, rapists, murderers, etc., than doing the paperwork on some pot head who probably isn’t dangerous to anything except fig newtons..”

   Exactly my point, Wino. And it’s not as if there aren’t plenty of truly horrific drugs out on the streets to keep the DEA and the local law busy. The real drug scourge in this country is meth-amphetamine. And we’ve still got plenty of coke-heads, heroin-junkies, and prescription-drug addicts committing crimes and causing havoc that need to be off the streets.

   The forces working to keep marijuana illegal are the liquor industry, the prescription drug manufacturers and the tobacco lobby. They don’t want people to be able to grow a little weed for their own consumption. They want people to use THEIR drugs. The argument that marijuana is a “gateway drug” is pure BS.
10. Neocon on March 5th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
    

    ShinerBlonde

    It is a gateway drug for some. Some are happy with the marijuana high but others think that that high could be better and go on to worse drugs. It depends on the individual. The forces on keeping drugs illegal are those who believe that marijuana will lead to doing other drugs and I personally believe that certain individuals will go on to more drugs to experience a bigger high will do so.
11. ShinerBlonde on March 5th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
    

    Neocon - By that logic, beer should be illegal because it is nearly a certainty that every alcohol-abuser porbably started out by drinking a brewski. Besides, it’s simply not true that marijuana as a “gateway” drug. A real world example of what happens when marijuana is readily available can be found in Holland. The Dutch partially legalized marijuana in the 1970s. Since then, hard drug use-heroin and cocaine-have DECLINED substantially. If marijuana really were a gateway drug, one would have expected use of hard drugs to have gone up, not down. This apparent “negative gateway” effect has also been observed in the United States. Studies done in the early 1970s showed a negative correlation between use of marijuana and use of alcohol. A 1993 Rand Corporation study that compared drug use in states that had decriminalized marijuana versus those that had not, found that where marijuana was more available-the states that had decriminalized-hard drug abuse as measured by emergency room episodes decreased. In short, what science and actual experience tell us is that marijuana tends to substitute for the much more dangerous hard drugs like alcohol, cocaine, and heroin.
12. PBFloyd on March 5th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
    

    I too agree with ShinerB on all points; I think prohibition is bad law on a substance which has no proven ill effects.

    Also, I have it on very good authority that there is no shortage now or ever if someone wants to score a bag of weed in this town and they have $20.
13. Neocon on March 5th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
    

    Shinerblond and PBFloyd,

    I said it was a gateway drug for SOME! And it is. SOME PEOPLE want bigger and bigger highs and that leads to more potent drugs. Not all people look for greater highs. But you cannot exempt those people who look for greater and greater highs. What is it that you don’t understand? Legalize marijuana — what’s next?
14. ShinerBlonde on March 5th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
    

    One question Neocon - Just what do you think would happen if marijuana use was legalized? What ill effect, that is. We’ve already established that it would free up scads of money and manpower, not to mention prison space, if it was decriminalized. That’s good, right? So what exactly is your objection besides your unfounded opinion that it would lead to more people doing harder drugs?

    Funny story - when I moved out to my farm, I had the driveway grated and graveled. The next Spring, all these funny little plants were growing right out of the bull rock in my driveway. I mean, there was no dirt for them, no water, no nothing - but they were green and healthy and growing like crazy. Then I had a to call the Sheriff’s department out to investigate someone vandalizing my mailbox and as I was talking to the deputy he said, “Uh, you seem to have marijuana growing on your road there, ma’am.”

    I couldn’t believe it! Under Texas law, he could of arrested me on the spot but instead he suggested I douse the little blighters with Round-Up and that was that. I guess the seeds came in with the gravel as I haven’t noticed anymore of the plants anywhere. Still, It does kinda go to show you how ridiculous it is to try to eradicate marijuana, don’t cha think?
15. bigjolly on March 5th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
    

    Shiner & Pretty Boy

    http://www.marijuanaaddiction.info/marijuana-gateway-drug.htm
16. PBFloyd on March 5th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
    

    Big Jolly: Please save me the public service announcement: I do not buy it. However, will cede to Neo that it is certainly may be for some.

    But they probably started with alcoghol first, like most of us, so it could be aurgued that that drinking was the gate way drug. And we all saw what happened when the do-gooders tried to foist prohibition on the country for their own good.

    I think it’s a herb, not a drug, and a darn good one. But only for medicinal purposes, of course!
17. RickG on March 6th, 2007 at 10:14 am
    

    15 bigjolly

    Citing to a special interest group which has as its purpose keeping people away from marijuana won’t end the debate. That’s sort of like citing those old studies financed by tobacco companies that said cigarettes weren’t bad for us. (Though “Thank You for Smoking” is a great book/movie.)

    I wonder if there are statistics as to those “addicted” to marijuana vs. those “addicted” to alcohol, or the disease costs of marijuana vs. alcohol. Some still want to ban alcohol again, I suppose. The problem isn’t either of these substances, it is addictive personalities. Remove these two things, and those folks will find something esle to abuse.

    Those of us who have lived 50 years all know of people who smoked marijuana, in college, at parties, etc. I used to work at a church where people were counseled for such things. I never met a person who claimed to be “addicted” to marijuana.

    I saw a documentary the other night that included “Reefer Madness.” I wonder how many people still believe that it is accurate. No one here, I presume.
18. FedUpCracker on March 6th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
    

    If they confiscated $17MIL, then that means $68MIL
    probably made it out into the streets. As long as there’s money to be made, and our leaders allow the border to remain open, it does not take a scientist to figure out that this is a never ending battle. Our leaders will perform another song and dance for the media, and we should concentrate on more important issues; such as Anna Nicole or Brittney.

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