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DARE...TO RESIST REFORM

DARE Drops Marijuana From Anti-Drug Message

It's a sign of the increasingly THC tolerant times...

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by Dain Fitzgerald

Staff Writer t

Impressionable youth with Daren the DARE Lion / Image: wataugademocrat.com

The current zeitgeist in defense of marijuana use is beginning to bear fruit (or at least something leafy, green and fit for consumption).

The country's "DARE" program - this author knows it well, having received the teachings of Drug Abuse Resistance Education in the early 90s - is set to scrap its marijuana plank, reports the aptly named Toke of the Town.

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Do you support DARE's removal of marijuana from its anti-drug efforts?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • stepped_in_it
    !
    My thoughts on legalization of marijuana: marijuana is no worse (and may be better) than alcohol consumption! Ever seen a mean drunk?(I have) Ever seen a drunk who "insists" on driving?(I have) Now, ever seen a mean (purely) marijuana smoker?(No dude) How about a (purely) marijuana smoker who wants to go anywhere?(dude, make that pizza delivery). DARE....welcome into the 21st century. Now, let's spend the money on the BAD drugs (crack, meth, heroin...etc) and tax them pot heads.
  • dances-weebles
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    i was right there with you until your last line. we don't want pot actually 'legalised' we want it decriminalised and then ignored. no gov't regulation of quality and strength, and definitely NO TAXES.
  • stepped_in_it
    !
    @dances-weebles Sorry, your right (and wrong). Nothing gets by the government when it comes to a tax base! I'd prefer NEVER paying another tax again (specially to our so-called government) but that is a reality! The nice thing though is that marijuana can be produced very cheaply (unlike alcohol) and that's why it's called WEED! LOL. And that fact just maybe why our "government" is fighting the legalization/decriminalization of marijuana... lack of their "control"! have a great day!
  • CanisCanemEdit
    !
    @dances-weebles - Why not tax it? Why not tax it like everything else we find pleasurable? Why not regulate it?

    Look, you can grow and eat your own tomatoes...but if you BUY tomatoes at the store they are government regulated and taxed?
  • dances-weebles
    !
    @CanisCanemEdit actually, no... tomatoes and the like aren't taxed in the stores or anywhere else. there's no sales tax on food products.

    the problem is that if they taxed pot, they would include it under what they're calling a 'sin tax' and the price of an already expensive product, would become unaffordable... just like they're attempting with cigarettes. i don't know if you remember or not when nys started raising the taxes on cigarettes... then governor mario cuomo came right out and said that if he had his way tobacco products would be taxed so highly that nobody could afford to smoke... all because he didn't like the smell of it.

    as it is good pot such as panama red, or acapulco gold, which has a value of $20 an ounce on the streets, is selling for 50 to a hundred bucks and if it's taxed the prices will shoot up even higher for mediocre smoke which has been cut with oregano or some such... just like cigarette tobacco is now.

    i would like to see it decriminalised because then everyone and anyone who wanted to could grow their own in their window box, their flower pots on their front porch, or in their gardens. seeds would be sold through major seed companies such as burpees for a nickle to a quarter a package, just like tomatoes and cucumbers are now. then any grandma or great aunt could afford to put that little 'secret ingredient' back into the annual christmas fruitcakes and people might even like receiving them once again rather than using them for doorstops. mommies could hash it out and include it in brownies and cookies for in school snacks and save tons of money on prescriptions drugs for their A.D.D. and High Deffinition Attention Deficit kids.(those are the current names for being bored sick, you know.)

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  • u
    MikeC
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    Of course, pot is a mild sedative that makes people relaxed and hungry. You can only get a mild "high" from smoking pot no matter how much of it you smoke. It makes people calm and non violent you could say marijuana has the opposite effect of alcohol. Liquor makes people drunk, violent, and out-of-control and it is legal. Marijuana is NOT a gateway drug to cocaine or any other kind of hard core drugs. Pot smokers are a peaceful group of people that should be allowed to smoke their weed without fear of being arrested.
  • bizaroWorld
    !
    Non violent except for that Florida guy who was high and ate the homeless dudes face off.
    I don't smoke, so I don't know but I have a question... Everyone is so anti-tabacco smoking because it causes cancer - does cannabis not harm your lungs?
  • Mojave888
    !
    @Clbraz78 Actually they thought he was on bath salts but he wasn't. The toxicology report only found THC in his system. The guy seems to have had mental issues and was a bit wigged out on religion.

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  • Locutus
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    About time we our opening our eyes to "The WEED". So much money and resources have been wasted on it while the true criminals and crimes go unpunished. The war on drugs has been a failure since day one. Oh what did Mitt do with his 1.7 billion dollars? That would have fed several people.
  • kirbstomp1
    !
    I remember when they came and talked to me in elementary school. And pot was 'evil' and 'deadly'. Lol. All your tax dollars wasted on telling me how bad pot is and now I enjoy the 'evil deadly drug'. DARE needs to find another field of work.
  • Dan_Tien
    !
    @Romney2012 Any idiot should know that alcohol IS a drug, and sugar lights up the pleasure centers of the brain just as other drugs do. Sugar has limited nutritional value (especially processed sugar) and people become so uncontrollably addicted to it that they continue to ingest mass quantities even when suffering from its adverse health effects.

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    RobertJHarsh
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    Like I said before....legalize and tax it. The state claims its always broke. So they can stop arresting people for smoking pot and collecting tax revenue. We might even put a CIA ran cartel or two in Mexico out of business.
  • bsking
    !
    yes I do. I think they should defund dare programs immediately. it's a waste of money especially for children in the public school system who are only being groomed for life of servitude to the nanny state. the truth is they will be much happy in that lifestyle if they are addicted to some form of drug
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    DogLady_1
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    I support DARE from dropping their entire message... Even gov't reports have shown that the program is highly ineffective in deterring drug abuse among children... Some reports even say it has increased drug experimentation... and most of the stuff they say about drugs is a lie, and kids know it... it causes them to not trust cops or other adults who preach the Anslinger Doctrine to them ad nauseum.
    Stop using propaganda on our children. It is increasing contempt for authority... a dangerous thing in a civilized society.
    http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03172r.pdf
  • Lpguy
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    first of all D.A.R.E. is a horrible program and should be dissolved. but given the fact that it does presently exist, the removal of marijuana from its curriculum is great! the less government propaganda the better
  • ir0nw0lfe
    !
    This experiment was tried before and failed. In Alaska from 1978 to 1990 something. Teens marijuana use went up 50% more than the rest of the country. 65% of teen drug users stated that marijuana was their gateway drug. Teens are not the target of the new legalization efforts but they will be the victims.
  • mimi57
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    They'll also be dropping Oxycodone, Heroine, Crack, LSD, all street drugs, from Xanax to Fentanyl...It's just a
    matter of when. Drugs are not condusive to anything positive, and indeed lead to so many other things that have
    people in prison for life. Few prisoners got there without the help of drugs, but, it is , what it is. The Genie doesn't
    go back in the bottle...
  • GetAwake
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    I'm not so sure that this is 100% accurate. Ever since this story broke, like...TWO DAYS AGO, there have been people trying to get confirmation on it from DARE's HQ in CA. Others have posted upcoming DARE-workbooks that still include MJ. Don't get me wrong...this may be the case for Kennewick, WA, but in a couple of other states...namely those few that don't begin with "Colo-" or end in "-ington", I think that they might still be planning on preaching "Reefer Madness". In other LATE-BREAKING news: Whitney Houston is dead, tobacco-use causes cancer, and VHS & cassette-tapes may soon be deemed obselete due to a miniaturized-version of the Laser-Disc.
  • GetAwake
    !
    I just heard a crazy rumour that KISS is putting the make-up back on and embarking on a two-decade-long 'Farewell'-tour...might want to check that out. Also, WTF is a 'Furby'?!?
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    Poseur
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    I don't think that DARE is really a worthwhile program. I certainly understand teaching kids about the health dangers of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, but the program is mainly about indoctrination. Intriguingly, the kids who shouted the loudest about how evil drugs were in the fifth grade, were the same ones who became the biggest addicts.

    The emphasis needs to be put into teaching kids to think for themselves, to use reason, and to think critically. This will help to prepare students to make the personal decision to use, or hopefully abstain, from drugs.
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