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What's the alternative, home delivery? Does the DA really think that illegal MJ trade is more easily stopped by pushing it into the living rooms of buyers? Does the DA really think that brick and mortar dispensaries are more likely to sell tainted weed than fly-by-night dealers with no fixed business address?

No, of course not, the DA simply favors prohibition, probably for the same reason so many law enforcement people favor so many prohibitions on behaviors in which people like to engage: having a lot of things illegal makes the task of putting bad guys in jail much easier. If they can throw anyone in jail that they want, all they have to do is decide who is bad and throw a miscellaneous law at them.

The lesson to be drawn is that halfway measures such as medical decriminalization are legally problematic in ways that outright legalization is not. The current situation gives people like this DA leeway to pursue enforcement regimes potentially much more harmful to the general public than outright prohibition. It is time to stop compromizing on MJ law reform. LEGALIZE IT.

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after real crime!!!

That won't happen easily because big pharma, alcohol & tobacco industries, the DEA, & prosecutors/persecutors like Steve Cruelly all have a vested interest in keeping pot illegal!!!

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There are 1000 marijuana users for every cop. Enforcing the law gives cops too much work to do. Closing down the marijuana shops will have thousands of users pounding the streets looking to make a buy. The cops will then have too many arrests to make. It provides a reason to hire more cops.

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.

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miserable shit. Wasting money when they have no money to waste.

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Santa Maria marijuana forum sparks legalization debate

Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley hosted a two hour marijuana forum to spread the word that pot is much more dangerous than most people think.

Fetal alcohol syndrome

Cannabis as a Substitute for Alcohol

http://www.saferchoice.org/

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At the Federal level the Pres directs his Justice dept to put marijuana on low priority, but the ATF has been ignoring that. And here you see it happening at the State level as well. The executive and judicial branches of government are saying, it's ok, or it's not something we need to prioritize, and the law enforcement branch is ignoring those dirctives and going ahead and busting people. At what point will the other two branches of government reprimand the enforcement branch?

Is it all smoke and mirrors? "We'll say not to do it, but wink, wink at the police and hold out our hands to the private prison industry, and the alcohol and tobacco lobby.

So it's up to the people to start voting out of office those who are not serving the will of the people. I'm guessing that the DA is a Gov appointed position in CA; so maybe the CA gov needs some pressure on him to reign in his DA?

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Another law and order idiot looking to appeal to the voting base for his own ends. Facts and reason never matter.

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Cooley intends to bust 800 to 900 legally operating businesses because he has a "theory" that he can legally do it and make it stick, I would suggest that all those busted shops file lawsuits to the tune of $14 billion dollars in damages. I wonder if L.A. County has enough money to pay that? I wonder if the people in charge of L.A. County are willing to risk a fine that large based on their D.A.'s "theory" that he can get away with it? And I wonder if D.A. Cooley, in this case, refers to Dumb Ass?

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Its time for the growers to stop paying the tax!!!
thats how you control this, everytime a facist opens his or her mouth the growers and dispenseries need to call the Gov. and tell him he don't get no money till he shuts them up, make it the gov.'s problem, its called "no taxation without representation"!!!

they want money to spend? make them work for it!!!

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Even if these dispensaries are technically operating illegally, what is the pressing need to shut them down? The D.A. doesn't appear to offer any reason why this will be good for the general public.

By the way - product "laced heavily with insecticides?" I'd be willing to bet that almost none of these growers use insecticides at all, since most high-quality cannabis manufacture occurs indoors.

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I'm so tired of being polite and decent when discussing this issue. So let's try the more direct approach. Doesn't the stupid ass DA Cooley have folks that are doing violent crime to worry about? When you're done fixing the gang violence issue, asshole, get back to me. Who the fuck set your priorities? Did you slide into office by promising to be tough on crime? Work on the violent ones, first, prick. What part of the voters right to run this state did you miss with the propositions? I guess that your twisted list of favorite people to hate is more important than self-determination by it's citizens? Go rot in hell, dickhead.

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If you want to know the truth about any politician's moves, follow the money. Ask yourselves who benefits fiscally from this move? Guess who - Mexican drug cartels.

I have done no research other than reading various blog comments from those living in LA, but the claim is that with this move, Cooley is paying back his campaign backers, many of whom are purported to be "Gang Lawyers" who provide legal cover for the gangs who don't want legal competition for their drug trafficking.

Utter crap and I hope he gets spanked for this.

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from the legalization of marijuana. They're raking in over 50 Billion a year alone from opium harvested from those Afghan poppy fields and major crime families like the Bush's and Clinton's don't want some poor slob who's dying from cancer getting some relieve from smoking OTC pot, since that cuts into their street sales.

The LA DA is just another fascist richardhead who will go after harmless pot heads to make him appear 'tough' to the voters so he can run for higher office.

"Hey Cooley, how about going after those violent LA street gangs like MS 13 or is that too dangerous?"

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Get out in the streets and march!

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...just posturing for a future ran at Congress or the State House?

It's pretty clear that this POS is intent on making headlines for being "tough on drugs" and getting on the right side of those well known ex-junkies Limbaugh and Beck.

If his complaint is that 80% of the OTC sales are NOT supported by a prescription, then all he has to do is actually ENFORCE the requirement to show scrip to be served. Instead he says that the "legal" 20% of customers are to be deprived of their medication.

Just imagine if he pulled that on scrip for beta-blockers or insulin, He'd be hit with mega million court cases by Big Pharma - here, Pfizer, Lilly and others aren't getting a slice of the profits so all is silent.

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The Tyranny of Good Intentions:How Prosecutors and Law Enforcement Are Tramping the Constitution in the Name of Justice
Paul Craig Roberts

It is interesting to read the 28 customer reviews on Amazon.Com

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The obvious rationale for closing down the OTC shops is so that big pharmacy chains will be able to take over this monumentally lucrative business. Are DA's elected or appointed, and shouldn't someone be looking at Cooley's list of contributors or his boss's lobbyist lunch appointments?

Or is this coming from the White House, since Nancy-Ann DeParle's mama is June Cooley?

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I don't claim to be psychic and not really bitter and pessimistic by nature, either, and I enjoy a spliff as much as the next person (maybe more) but when cats and dogs are falling out of the sky, you have to say it's raining!

My research started when I saw a documentary on the Exxon-Valdez disaster. Exxon-Mobil had the record profit of any corporation EVER in 2008 when they finally settled the lawsuit. The interest ALONE from the $4.5 billion settlement was enough to hire a team of lawyers for 20 years, long enough to whittle the settlement down to $500 million.

And I thought, it takes a special kind of evil to come up with this crap. Valdez, an american town on american soil, was obliterated financially. The spill was never really cleaned up. Many people committed suicide. So I started to look into the history of Exxon-Mobil.

What I found was a corporate monopoly that goes back to 1870, the "Age of the Robber Barons". I found that "mass mind control" was first used to coerce americans into joining WWI (a war nobody had any business being in and a victory that laid the seeds for Hitler's rise to power) and that the man responsible for this first modern PR campaign, Freud's nephew, was also responsible for the stereotype of the "evil jew" (Goebbels was a big fan of his technique) and the "evil commie" ... and doubtless "evil reefer madness". No? Dr Bernays worked for the government officially right up to the JFK administration and even appeared on Letterman!

Bernays on youtube: PR and Propaganda

This is all tied in with the fact that the first cars ran on hemp ethanol. And here I always thought Alcohol Prohibition had something to do with public morals! Today new technology makes it possible to brew hemp ethanol for about $1.40 a gallon and it doesn't require petroleum-based fertilizers or pesticides - or genetic modification.

But we are making CORN ethanol in a world of starving people and fuel shortage, and hemp, which has no psychoactive compounds at all, is still ILLEGAL.

Descendant of Kentucky hemp farmers talks about hemp ethanol

Industrial hemp supporters wait on federal OK

None of this makes any sense, that given the groundswell of support for industrial hemp, that the feds are still dragging their ass on this no-brainer, unless you realize that:

Prison labor is big business.

Oil is big business.

War is big business.

Oh right, drugs are big business too.

And what's bad for Big Business is, through the miracle of "democracy", bad for YOU :.?

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Wingnuts like to make a lot of noise about 'states rights' (even though they're usually trying to take away someone's rights when they're making said noise)

Nevada tried to legalize a few years back, but the feds spent a lot of your tax dollars fighting that effort. So much "State's Rights"; "Limited Government" and "Fiscal Restraint", eh?

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Why, and from whom is the opposition to legalising marijuana and other psychoactive drugs coming from?
Is it an all pervasive force, common throughout the universe?
Is it the righteous indignation of the RIGHTEOUS?
Or is it something more readily apparent (and far more sinister) to anyone taking the time to actually examine the issue?
What defines the USA more than any other element of its existence?
It's MONEY, and the various means of generating it.
Let's face it; most of the money and wealth generated here is in the hands of that one or two percent of the people, who want to keep it that way, and will go to ANY lengths to accomplish this.
WHO controls almost all of the money here? The banksters, that's who. The same crooks who extorted trillions of dollars from us, via crooked politicians, and who launder illegal drug money.
In a rare moment of truth, one Congressman stated "They OWN this place".
And there it is.

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OR, maybe this dumb ass needs to be reminded that we are all more concerned about being, raped, robbed , murdered or having our car stolen than whether the neighbor is buying pot over the counter for his illness.

These self righteous voter ignoring morons should have a reminder taped to their desk as to exactly WHO they used to work for.

And by the way, IF they do NOT sell over the counter, HOW exactly would he suggest IS it legal?
I've read where they are prosecuting in Washington state, saying a grower can only supply ONE patient.
So, EACH patient would need to find ONE grower just for them.
And possibly need to wear red sneakers and carry a yellow umbrella,while reading Moby Dick and tap dancing to Swanny River on an even numbered Tuesday in an odd nubered month of an even numbered year. With the wind blowing southeast.

OR, maybe it is about time to have a very FRENCH event; a general strike on a Monday where NOBODY goes to work and we get the attention of the entire CORPORATE Government.
THEY NEED us, and we need them to understand that when we have gone the route of our legal governing system and made changes to our rules, that WE EXPECT those in OUR EMPLOY as government workers to follow the directives WE the people and voters and citizens have sent down to them.
And those that find cracks and reasons to ignore US the majority of voters, need to find themselves looking for new employment.

Sooner, NOT Later.

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Amazing...

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Valid medicinal value, it’s a victimless crime, the War on Drugs WAY too costly, too many arrests for simple possession, tax it and use the money to pay for health insurance and to reduce the deficit…Need I say more?

Woodstock Universe supports legalization of Marijuana for a number of reasons. Check them out and vote in our poll "Should marijuana be legalized?" at http://woodstockuniverse.com

Current poll results: 96% for legalization…4% opposed

Peace, love, music, one world,
RFWoodstock

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as an advocate for cannabis reform (and recent graduate from oaksterdam) i know there are HUGE problems in los angeles...my (adult) daughter told me of idiots out at venice beach approaching beach goers with promises of recommendations from their docs to any takers, she reported they also promised "primo bud" once a rec was obtained - if i'd have been there i'd have jumped all over the jerks...
northern/central california has a much better handle on what they are doing, idiots in l.a. are not doing the movement any good, but i don't think they will take down the momentum...quite frankly i hope the d.a in l.a. weeds out the folks who ARE breaking state law (puns always intended)...

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It is hard to think that advancement hasn't been made. California is having so much economical trouble that they should push legalization efforts. I think that legalizing drugs such as cannabis will only have a good effect economically. Legal weed has many beneficial aspects that city governments and state governments could gain from.

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California seems to relish the prospect of becoming the first state in which imprisoning people is the number one growth industry. It almost makes me glad I live in Texas, but only almost.

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Steve Cooley might be trying to emulate HARRY J. ANSLINGER If this is true then ya...there is big trouble brewing.

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Cooley another goodie two shoes that overtoked and got all freaky. All I can say in one word BUNGHOLE.

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DA Cooley is a media whore who is trying to score points for his next election on the backs of those who are suffering.

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest his armpits and groin.

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