MPP on CNN’s “D.L. Hughley Breaks the News”
In what turns out, sadly, to be the last episode of CNN’s “D.L. Hughley Breaks the News,” aired Mar. 28 and 29, D.L. devoted a large block of the show to proposals to make marijuana a legally regulated and taxed product for adult consumption. The first segment included an interview with yours truly, followed by Ronald Brooks of the Narcotic Officers Associations Coalition, who wants to keep arresting and jailing marijuana users.
Tagged with: Bruce Mirken and dispensaries and legislation by the author
29 comments
haha that was one of the best things Ive ever seen on TV
i wated this live, and the fat moron doesn’t understand anything, he thinks what he’s talking to a public thats living int he 30’s, YOU CANT GET AWAY WITH IT!
i wated this live, and the fat moron doesn’t understand anything, he thinks what he’s talking to a public thats living int he 30’s, YOU CANT GET AWAY WITH IT! reefers madness, i dont have to listen to you because i have my own opinion and you can’t change, plus the facts of history are on my side.
420 should be not just a healing of a nation but a healing of the world.
Ronald Brooks is shoving his BS down our throats so he and his NAZI PIGS do not have to get a real JOB>
OK the stats relating to the number of kids in rehab for marijuana are total bullshit. Drug treatment is one of the most commonly offered sentences as part of an agreement to plead guilty to marijuana possession. So, you get caught with a couple grams in your pocket. Your options are going to the slammer, or “voluntarily” enrolling in a drug treatment program. Is it any wonder that we see a lot of people entering rehab for marijuana use?
I guess I shouldn’t worry about Brooks; his arguments are all the same, tired points that have been addressed many times before. Increased potency, easier access for kids, “why unleash yet another substance on the public”, etc etc.
Anyway, great work as always Bruce. I truly believe that the tireless publicity efforts by MPP and other organizations are starting to pay off with recognition by the mainstream media that there are worthy and important points to be considered.
By the way, did anyone see Larry King Live on Friday night? There was an (ill-formed) debate about legalization, with Montel Williams hammering home a point about an irrelevant federal med pot program, and Stephen Baldwin pulling out the tried-and-true gateway argument.
The best (read: worst) though was Gary Schandling; when asked if taxation and regulation would help the economy, he responded that the economy would actually be harmed because of everybody sitting on their couch eating potato chips.
It was a joke, but a poor one that once again underlines the stupidity and stereotyping we are up against.
The jokes are no doubt getting old. Well, they’ve been old for some time now. Same with the same old rhetoric about why marijuana is bad for you, when the scientific facts state otherwise.
God, this stuff gets so boring and repetitive, but I realize we have to keep on keeping on.
Too bad D.L. didn’t counter-react to some of Brooks’ points. It would have been so easy, any one of us could have done it.
@David C — Yeah I agree. You could tell he wanted to jump in a couple times (and he had some pretty good facial expressions going), but I think he wanted to let the man say his piece. I guess that’s admirable, although I think typically prohibitionists are allowed to speak while pro-legalizers are often derailed by rebuttal questions and irrelevant claims that need to be addressed.
omg… that narco Officer is one retarded guy. all i gotta say is U THE MAN D.L. Hughley.
Political leaders are beginning to share a growing awareness that taxation and regulation of marijuana is an issue of interest to tens of millions of Americans and is therefore worthy of serious discussion.
Does the use of marijuana potentially pose some health risks? Sure. But the health risks of prison are worse, so we have to acknowledge that the current punishment for using marijuana is more harmful to the user than the use of marijuana itself.
Will the drug cartels continue to be criminals after marijuana is legalized? Sure. But they’ll be shorted out of a big chunk of revenue once people can grow or buy their own marijuana legally, and that means the cartels will have less money to buy guns and other tools of their trade, so we have to acknowledge that legalizing marijuana will hurt the drug cartels and make our cities (and Mexico) safer.
Do marijuana users sometimes have accidents or drive while intoxicated? Sure. But anyone who’s ever been around a drunk driver and a marijuana-using driver knows very well that the marijuana user is a much safer driver than the drunk, so we have to acknowledge that if drinkers switch to marijuana, our streets would be safer.
Are lots of people going to use marijuana whether it’s legal or not? Sure, but if it’s legal, it can be taxed and regulated, so we can’t ignore the economic benefits and social safety benefits of legal, taxable, regulated marijuana compared to the illegal, untaxed, unregulated, gang-controlled prohibition that we have today.
As a nation we have the choice between either spending $20,000 a year to lock up a marijuana user or collecting sales tax on the individual’s purchase of this widely used, relatively safe product. To collect taxes from the grow-your-own community, we could consider a $100 per year permit for a dozen plants.
It’s time to put the criminal drug dealers out of business and let ordinary Americans grow a little marijuana in their own back yards.
What a “sad” sight to see people in the Netherlands in a cafe smoking weed and eating twinkies?? Is he serious? Has in he looked in the mirror? Seems to me like he ate a whole crate of twinkies in his lifetime.
Yeah, I know Mark, people hanging out enjoying themselves. Can you imagine a society run rampant with happy people? The horror! You gotta love the “bunch of people sitting on the couch” bit.
And yeah, haha, something tells me that Mr. Brooks has enjoyed a creme-filled cake or two in his lifetime. We should lock his ass up and throw away the key.
Do these prohibitionist ever listen to what they are saying? I dont think any of Mr. Brooks arguments held any validity, and about teen marijuana use being down, didn’t more H.S. juniors fess to marijuana use than tobacco? yadda yadda yadda I could refute every fact he put forth. And yeah what a fat ass hypocrite, enjoy your twinkies in hell after your heart attack, Mr. Brooks. At least me and all my cannabis consuming buddies are in shape, how about a fat prohibistionist vs. stoner arm wrestling match? Who’s laughing now?
So teens using prescription meds is fine as long as they aren’t using marijuana?? I don’t think so. That man does not know what he’s talking about
It never ceases to amaze me how much confusion has piled up as a result of misinformation and incorrect facts about marijuana via opponents. The Baptist Press Newspaper (located near Lynchburg, TN) published recently that marijuana has no medicinal purposes and the all the local Baptist Churches accepted their report without blinking an eye and repeating this claim in all Church meetings. I don’t mean to sound like a quiter of Tennessee Legislative efforts to reform the marijuana laws here but this guy, Ronald Brooks, would do very well here as people simply side with any issue over political/religous reasons and Church members don’t care about correct information. It makes perfectly good sense to seperate Church and State in Tennessee. They don’t know the difference here!
I spent a fair amount of time in coffeeshops in the Netherlands. I never saw people sitting around watching TV of any kind. There were no twinkies there.
What I saw was a social scene with music. People out with their friends, having a good time, talking, making new friends, listening to music.
“kinda off topic, but”
I recently seen that california is scrapping the ab 390 bill untill next year- anyone else have info on this. I thought for sure mpp would have been on this but, IDK
Massachusetts is still pushing there bill to regulate and tax mj
The bill is not being scrapped. The CA legislature has 2-year sessions, and author Tom Ammiano has decided to make it a 2-year bill rather than push for a vote immediately because he believes it will take some time to build the necessary support.
Exposure, Exposure, Exposure.
Although DL Hughley isnt necessarily the one I would pick as the face of the marijuana movement, it is good to see these stories on major networks. The more media involvement the better. Well done Bruce and the rest of MPP.
Mr. Brooks bores me with his misleading “facts” but Im glad to see someone in mainstream media basically laugh in his face. These arguments are getting old and the media and the public are no longer listening to them.
thanks bruce for clearing that up. I read just a headline and there was no artical
bruce & mpp- keep up the outstanding work!!!!!!
Ya, in NJ i was arrested for possession and they made me go to a group counseling class at my local YMCA as well as 2-3 MANDATORY N.A. meetings every week for substance abuse counseling. It even got to the point in the meetings that the people would look at me like I was crazy for being there (almost like the scene in Half Baked) just for marijuana, when they’re there talking about how crack and prescription drugs ruined their life. Even better, they used the counseling as an excuse to try and EXTEND my probation by saying that I couldn’t be discharged until the 6 month program was completed. The best part? I was already 11 months into my probation, and had been drug tested 2x a month for probation, yet they still forced me to enter counseling outpatient rehabs at MY OWN EXPENSE. After various complaints with my lawyer and P.O. officer the problem was later corrected when the YMCA’s counselor argued with my probation officer that someone who has been clean on probation and came into a drug program where you get tested once a week clean shouldn’t be in one in the first place.
So in the end, I ended up having to do about 4 of the 6 months of counseling, and my 1 yr probation with a “90% chance of being let off after 6 months and completion of community service” ended up being a year and 3 months.
I think the problem right now is that Marijuana is a schedule 1 drug. This makes it very difficult for a unbiased party to run a good study on it. Basically all their numbers are coming from government run programs and that is not how this is supposed to work. Statistics can be skewed or one study says something other than another study. I just doesn’t work.
Then we have the gateway theory. Which is completely illogical. Why would someone go from Marijuana, which is mostly a hallucinogen with some other classification, to cocaine and heroin which are REALLY powerful stimulants. Its not even the same high. If gateways were true it would be far more likely that people who drink 3 or more coffees a day would become addicted to cocaine. As a matter of fact there is one drug I know of that is known to be a gateway drug to cocaine. Its called Ritalin and that is one of the long term side effects. That’s right everyone the stuff you are giving your kids to keep them focused is getting them hooked on coke because they are basically the same.
Also that fat JACKASS has no clue about ADD and ADHD. Marijuana has no effect (and I should know). You can’t just say scary words that parents are scared of. Maybe that is were we are going wrong. We should be telling people that the Terrorists don’t want us smoking pot and that not smoking pot leads to spousal abuse and rape. COME ON! Words mean nothing without backup. I will leave with a quote I think expresses this. “If I went around sayin’ I was and Emperor just because some moistened bink lobbed a scimitar at me they’d put me away! Come see the violence inherent in the system! Come see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I’m being repressed!” -Monty Python and the Holy Grail
I can’t believe that fat fu#@er said that in the coffe shops in Holland its a sad sight for him to see people sittin around eating twinkies. What a hipocrite. I know people who don’t smoke marijuana and lay around eating snack foods and are too big to get out into the community. If thats all hes got then save it. I know people who smoke marijuana eat a fairly healthy diet and exercise by choice. Marijuana does not make people lazy, maybe for a short period of time. If you follow them throughout their day when they are not under the influence they may be out walking, riding a bike, lifting weights, helping a friend, working a job, repairing something, picking up trash in their yard, so on and so forth. Some lazy people by nature choose to smoke, so what, they will be lazy no matter what. How can this fat fu@$ sit back a judge people for what they do and when they choose to do it. Of course if I smoked marijuana and it were legal I would enjoy it in a coffe shop or in the privacy of my own home. I wouldn’t smoke it and go to the gym or play tennis. Another thing that gets me is its referred to as a recreational drug. I would not engage in any type of recreation while under the influence. Kicking back for the moment and eating a twinkie sounds more like it. It is a temporary break from the chaos which is reality. Do people plan a vacation from work to go do more work? Do people do work on their break? NO. Too bad no one worked up enough violence in them to throw a twinkie at him (in which he probably would have devoured). Maybe then he could say how violent people get while under the influence of marijuana. But it didn’t happen. Unfortunately the best he’s got is they were sitting around eating twinkies. Unreal.
I want to work for one of these News groups, and I want to ask these people the questions that need to be asked. I wanna know why they are still using the same BS their grandparents used to make pot illegal since their white skinned daughters were going out with the dark skinned brothers. why is this country still believing that pot is a gateway drug. what i find the most funny about his interview with the fat guy is the fat guy couldnt stop including other drugs with pot…why cant these reporters ask them to stop comparing pot to Heroine or crack? there is an enormous difference. Why doesn’t MPP fire back like this, get a camera, go to some doctors offices and get their opinions, then head to a meth heads house (i got 6 next to my house) and then go to the local rehab place and show the world that the real bad drugs are and then for last…go to a hospital where I am located and show some babies that are born where their mom’s used meth and crack while being pregnant then show a baby where the mom used pot…even babies are not affected by pot use…although i dont agree with it being used while pregnant…then put that video on Youtube or this site…then the world can see what pot use doesnt do compared to the real “drugs”
The older I get, the more ashamed I become of our country. I was just perusing the nida (national institute on drug addiction) website and they have the same old lies posted to “educate” parents on the dangers of marijuana. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could sue the government for propagandizing the people? Absolute lies and “concerned citizens” are a tragic mix when the population won’t educate itself. That is why I am ashamed, we are sheep trained by the government and they don’t even bother to come up with new lies or logical defenses, they are that arrogant. The populace is to blame for not taking action in its own defense. Its about time we had another depression, maybe bring back the draft and a few more vietnams to slap the people with. WAKE UP AMERICA!
There is no doubt the media is seriously looking at this now. Right now on CNN there is a poll asking if drugs should be legalized for taxes. Also, CNN’s Jack Cafferty has a commentary piece saying the war on drugs is insane:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/31/cafferty.legal.drugs/index.html
You might be seeing him talking about it today on the air.
he could of thrown down some better arguments like when the cop said that 65% of 12-18 year olds, who are in rehab are in there for marijuana, this is only becaouse the kids can either get away with a fine or they have the option to go to rehab what would you pick?
Can we the people file some sort of civil lawsuit that the govt. is lying to us and not allowing our country to benefit from the uses of marijuana, not only for personal use, but for economic reasons. They are allowing the rich to get richer and the rest of America to collapse. They want us to fail…it helps keep money in their pocket.
Fiber, renewable energy, medical, etc. Our govt. is committing a crime against the people of the United States. Perjury anyone?
30 years of the same rebuttals of lies since Mr Watergate NIXON had to make cannabis in the bracket of needle use. You cannot make a powder from cannabis and inject it. Mr Brooks is a liar. Keep arresting 800,000 Americans each year for no reason except to ruin their lives. My request to every American in favor of ending Cannabis Prohibition is this. Never stop telling others & tell them to tell whoever they can this. If the constitution says we are created equal. Then the Change this country is suppose to have happen must include Cannabis Reform to be legal for adults that abide the laws that would be instated. Would Mr Brooks arrest his wife after busting a medicinal card holder or someone for cannabis when he went home if she was smoking it or had it and put her in jail ? For that fact would he arrest his kids, family or friends and put them in jail? He is a Criminal himself worse then any Cannabis user. Would any Police arrest their wife , kids, family or friends after busting someone & putting them in jail ? None of them would. How about any judge after he sentences someone for cannabis. Would he arrest his wive,kids, family or friends. Why are all of them above the law and more equal then everyone else. Any 18+ year old can be drafted & go to war & die. So the excuse I have to fight Criminals is a lie. That’s what they choose to do & it does not make them any more right to condone who they want as an excuse. And to prove this have them all go under a lie detector test. If the Police busted & arrested everyone in this country for anything. Say the only people free were 20 million cops & their family & friends. They would never break any laws or use Cannabis or Tobacco, Alcohol or any other drugs. They would never get a traffic ticket because they would stop at every stop sign, never speed, always use their blinker, ect. Their kids would be perfect students never causing a fight, or putting down another student, ect So all the courts would close and the judges would retire as would never need to lie or condone their own kind. Do you know see what I am asking everyone to explain to all Good Americans who are not liars to hurt others. It’s time that the Change to abolish past Cannabis laws is Now & until we prevail without giving up. And if Mr Brooks or any law inforcement think they can imprison someone for telling the Truth & taking away their Freedom of Speech to cover up themselves or think they are protecting the rest of themselves so people do not realize how they are, cannot win. That would make the Government something that is a lie. They already made it a lie and that is what has to be Changed back for what are Constitution stands for. With Best Regards !!! To All Good Americans FREEDOM BUD P.S. This cannot go on without complete Change for another 30 years.
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