Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 28, 2010

I am sure Mexican and South American people feel the the same way about prop 19

^IF we can get it out of the hands of the cartels, there’s likely to be less massacres on both their streets AND ours.

But that’s a tall order. After all, DEA’s budget would go down a little if they weren’t busting in California (which, BTW, they’ve said they WILL be), and local cops would have to suck it up and start busting real, scary criminals.

The local dealers would start losing revenue, of course.

The courts that having been confiscating houses, cars, boats, jewelry, cash - anything not bolted down, and NOT returning any of it on acquittal, would lose revenue as well.

So there’s an industry against passage of such a notion. It still makes too much sense to get rid of Prohibition - again!

LEAGALIZE MARIJUANA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LEGALIZE PROSTITUTION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

let the government tax and control it. they’ll MAKE money - maybe take some of the pressure off the hidious financial state of our country - the hole we dug ourselves.

hi PBARNROB, haven’t heard from you for awhile - hope all is well w/ you !

Are those college midterms or electoral midterms?

Yeah, as opposed as I am to drugs, I agree they should be legalized. Besides the ethical principles of individual freedom, it will have the additional benefit of speeding up natural selection.

myming said:

LEAGALIZE MARIJUANA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LEGALIZE PROSTITUTION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! let the government tax and control it.

Who gets to be the government quality control inspector? :)

Relevant as usual. Thank you once again for bringing common sense to the comics page!

Perfesser Shearer, don’t forget increased tax revenues from legalizing many of the black market activities. Same goes for prostitution.

Can we legalize guns too, and maybe put some controls on them to end the black market there? Oh, wait…

Zonker may no longer feel the buzz, but he grasps the difference between “public health” and “criminal” profiteering. That makes him superior to Obama’s “smart” bankers and to Wall Street.

@ FriscoLou from yesterday,

“Nemesys seems to think MJ has a unique set of negatives to employers and the state that the more toxic alcohol doesn’t have.”

Lou, please spare us the tired diatribe about why legal alcohol is much worse than illegal mj. The fact is that if you live in California (or anywhere else in the US) and want to work at Boing, any hospital, or any company that has US government contracts or compliance requirements (which is a whole lot of them), you’ll not be hired if you test positive for drug use, including mj. Of course, you’ll not be hired if you show up drunk, either.

Perhaps the government looks upon it as a matter of character. Psychologists will tell you that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, so it could be that the government attitude is that if you so casually break one set of laws, you’ll be more likely to break others while employed. With the job pool full of eager non-addicted qualified candidates, it’s just wiser to move on to the better hire.

^ Legalizing alcohol ended the making of illegal spirits. Ask my friend who became inebriated on moonshine because it was easier to buy than legal spirits and then crashed his car into a concrete bridge. -At the age of 17.

There will always be a market for illegal substances even if they have to go to Kindergarten to find buyers.

Just like they have ‘dry’ counties to protect the ‘shine business, they can have ‘weed free’ counties to protect local growers.

Just a thought…

In the Charlotte, NC area they bust a grow house a week down here. That’s on top of the usual dope bust. There is absolutely no way the government will ever put a dent in marijuana production. Never have, never will. People want it, it’s easy to grow and extremely profitable.

I beginning to think Phil Davidson’s Gocomic user name is Nemesys, with the heart of a Cossack, teeth of steel and a forehead 7.62 cm thick. Why do you think the past use of marijuna is a better predictor of work performance than the past use of alcohol, and should be treated differently?

You should have been able to predict Bush’s character flaws from his past behavior with cocaine and alcohol.

This World Series is like a metaphor for the red state/blue state divide, and the “Pelosi Giants” are a game up on the “Bush league”. It’s like a match up with Heads vs Conservative Capitalists Crackpots. They should postpone the election until after the series, so Karma can give the voters clarity.

@FriscoLou,

“Why do you think the past use of marijuna is a better predictor of work performance than the past use of alcohol, and should be treated differently?”

It has nothing to do with what I think… it has to do with what your employer and the US government think. No, you don’t have to like it, and no, my cranium size doesn’t factor into the simple fact that nobody wants to hire a lawbreaker.

If the consumption of alcohol was illegal in your state, and there were reasonably accurate means to detect recent use, the same principles would apply. Willfully engaging in illegal activities is a predictor of one’s willingness to continue to do so in the same and other areas. If you demonstrate an eagerness to not follow the rules and flunk your drug test, what employer would want to hire you to not follow THEIR rules? How could they credibly defend against liability lawsuits when they knowingly hired a willfully negligent lawbreaking druggie loser and that loser crashed the company truck into someone else’s minivan and wiped out their whole family?

It’s a headache that nobody wants. Now please pass the Doritos.

Nemesys, thank God Bush didn’t wipe out a whole family in a minivan when he was convicted of drunk driving. His drug (alcohol) conviction didn’t hold him back from being one of the biggest loser prezs. in history, even though you say it’s predictable.

Isn’t voting for a predictably loser prez, like harboring a terrorist, and isn’t it predictable that a person who has done that in the past will continue cast bad votes in the future?

Lou, admirable use of straw men and red herrings, but none of what you just wrote has any relevance to the point I made. In your own way, you’re actually agreeing with me.

Thanks for playing.

If Pixar ever made “Doonesbury: The Movie” Nemesys could play the role of Mark Slackmeyer’s dad before he died and …

Just as gun battle broke out over alcohol distribution during Prohibition, 15 year olds are getting shot up over mj distribution today. It’s time to end the war over this NOT a Class I product, and get sensible about medical use and perhaps distribution through other than illegal growers on a broader basis. They call it “weed” because it used to grow in the U.S. as widely as dandelions, and was a weed, though a highly useful one.

It’s time to end the war and use some wisdom.

Thanks, but it would be more fun to play Duke… and you can play Honey Huan!

Nemesys,

If you believe that “willfully engaging in illegal activities is a predictor of one’s willingness to continue to do so in the same and other areas,” what do you think of the bankers who have hiked their profits by writing questionable mortgages? Would you trust Wells Fargo or Citigroup with your business?

The bad guys are not selling MJ to 15 year olds, they’re selling Coke or Ecstasy. Kids steal grass from their parents stash.

Ming, I agree. Legalize marijuana & prostitution and let’s collect some taxes on them. They are less harmful than gambling.

I agree, Pschearer, that Zonker’s remark about midterms is a bit unclear. I think that he meant college midterms, but, if so, then he is a bit late, unless Walden keeps to Harvard’s schedule of beginning in late September and having finals after Christmas.