The whole point of free speech is not to make ideas exempt from criticism but to expose them to it.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

From last night's street corner rally

For ten years I have held various events to help raise consciousness about the incomprehensibly cruel laws governing use of one's choice in medicine or "intoxicant." Often I was the only one who showed up. Last night about a dozen of us held placards at the corner of 8th and St Joe in Rapid City (SD). C'est la vie. Of all the places I (we; there WERE others involved, often from unexpected places) held rallies, only Pierre during the Janklow years provided less visible support than we got in Rapid City.

Honks were plentiful, but not overwhelming. Next time it'll be better. Note Truman in the first picture below.








One of our consistent commentors is fond of quoting Thomas Jefferson. I hope he appreciates this statement from the writer of the Declaration if Independence:

If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.

5 comments:

Someone Who Can't Read Directions said...

Next time your dowon on 8th and St Joe, stop into Ifrits Hookah Lounge just down the street...friendly to your case their.

Bob Ellis said...

I take it, then, that you don't want the government taking dangerous drugs off the shelves of our pharmacies either. Interesting take on public safety.

I take it, too, that you would rather government abdicate its first and only object to allow the destruction of human life and happiness to allow dangerous drugs to permeate our society, then. You apparently see no role for government to protect people from harm--something Thomas Jefferson (and most people) believed was the chief duty of government.

You're entitled to hold that opinion, but most people aren't too keen on having more intoxicated people in society, exposing more people to dangerous drugs and the criminal activity that surrounds it, or the further erosion of the public moral fiber. Some of us have grown beyond our self-obsessed teen years to realize "I want I want I want" is not a very wholesome or uplifting philosophy.

As Thomas Jefferson said later in the passage you quoted, "Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them." Indeed. Reason and experiment have shown us that marijuana is a dangerous drug with limited medicinal application that can be replaced with numerous other more benign drugs, that it does considerable physical and mental harm to those who use it, and harms society by the crime and erosion of public morality that come with it.

Didn't talk about "marijuana" or "legalization" at your rally, huh? Have to keep the truth hidden behind a smokescreen in the hopes of fooling people into voting for drugs, right?

Having to misdirect people away from the actual focus of your proposal in order to get votes says something about your cause--even you should be able to understand that. But when morality and integrity aren't important, that's no obstacle, is it?

Bob Newland said...

If there is anything that reason and experiment have shown it is that cannabis is the most benign therapeutically active substance in nature.

You look at a system that denies people a life-sustaining herb that is demonstrably safer than aspirin, as well as a system that imprisons hundreds of thousands of people for having done nothing other than ingest something that annoys you, as well as a system that provides an incentive for the most vicious people on earth to involve children in drug use, and you pronounce it success.

Ellis, it is fortunate indeed that you have virtually no constituency, and you need to close your stupid topic posts at Dakota Voice Blog to comments, because you receive nothing but refutation to your pronouncements.

Even you would not want to live under a system designed by you.

Bill Dithmer said...

Hi Bob Ellis thanks for stopping by the Forum. I just took a look at Dakota Voice and guess who the guest speaker was for today. Charles Stimson The Heritage Foundation Its nice that you are still up to your old tricks when publishing the facts about medical marijuana. This man was on the ground floor of the DEA under Nixon. From then until now he has changed his mind three times on whether he thinks cannabis should be decriminablized or legal depending on who is signing his pay check. In his article on your site he doesn’t even give any case studies just says what he says and expects the reader to believe him without any proof."This sounds just like you". When he refferences anything it takes you to a list of five lawyers that work for the Heritage Foundation as experts on this issue.
Come on Bob a fact is only a fact when you can back it up with the right research. I intend on exposing you every time you let some expert like this write his lies. Wouldn’t it be easier just to engage in a debate with real people?

taco said...

Marijuana dangerous? I can't think of a prescription drug which isn't more dangerous than marijuana.

Eliis, there is nothing moral about denying a sick person the medicine their doctors think they need.

Why don't you go rat out an elderly chemo patient I know who uses pot to find the strength she needs to live? Not only would that would be very "moral" of you, it would greatly benefit society.