Bob Kerrey Quotes
Marijuana can be a highly effective treatment for PTSD, a condition afflicting nearly one in five veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And overwhelming scientific evidence has already proven marijuana's safety and efficacy for treating conditions like chronic pain, which affects many combat-injured veterans... Veterans in states without medical marijuana laws fare far worse. These veterans risk arrest for using marijuana to treat their combat injuries, joining the more than 800,000 Americans arrested annually for marijuana offenses... They deserve to receive medical advice from their VA doctors, not the DEA.”
PTSD is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. DEA is the Drug Enforcement Administration.
J. Robert Kerrey, Nebraska Governor (Democrat), U. S. Senator (Democrat, NB), President, New York University, Quoted on Marijuana Majority Website, http://www.marijuanamajority.com/?id=521
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Perry was an extreme right wing law and order conservative, but like many extreme rightists had a streak of libertatrianism.
The DEA is the Drug Enforcement Administration.
He was also a paid lobbyist for the beer industry.
Marijuana had been made legal in a number of states at that time. Based on the example of New York City, many other cities of the world were just then passing ordinances to make it illegal to smoke in any public place or any private establishment that serves the public.
This was a great surprise to most conservatives who assumed that Robertson, a major conservative leader and ordained minister would be opposed to drug legalization.
The "Formula" was to legalize all drugs, This would break the Drug Cartels and the power they held in Mexico, The money that could be saved from the failing drug law enforcement could be spsent on substance abuse prevention and treatment. He also felt that government should not intude on personal life style and health decisions. He was particularly intent on legalizing marijuana which unlike alcohol and other illicit drugs does not cause death.
Although only a minority of Americans advocated legalization of Marijuana at the time, Nixon brought his notorious anti-Semitic point of view to bear on a situation where the overwhelming majority of Marijuana legalizers were Christian. There were Jews as well – in particular some prominent Jews such as Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Milton Friedman who recommended against marijuana use, but argued against government making it illegal. This was a position held by most Libertarians, many liberals, and many conservatives like Friedman.
The judge, at the time was only summarizing the science evidence for the physiological safety of the drug in its natural grown state at that time. Unfortunately drug dealers have learned to extract the active ingredient, THC, and produce marijuana, much more potent than the 1988 variety. Nor did the judge address the behavioral consequence of extensive marijuana use where we know now that some people who get into extensive marijuana smoking tend to have negative consequences for ability to study, concentrate on operating machinery, develop a personal relationship and the like. The extent to which The more potent marijuana represents a physiological health risk ( as opposed to psychological) however is not as well known for lack of research of what the effects are because the government has refused to allow marijuana to be used in experiments nor have they funded any of their own studies. As of 2011 there has been no study that demonstrates serious physiological harm.
Reacting to calls to legalize drugs.
Marijuana was and still is a health and social problem in that people who tend to use it---especially young people---tend not to focus on their friendships, their work and study obligations, their own development and welfare. However it is nowhere near the degree of deleterious problems of alcohol and other drugs like heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. There is no record of anyone dying from an over dose or marijuana while alcohol and other drugs kill hundreds if not thousands a year. But none of those health emergencies compare with the flu which each year kills over 20,000 Americans who do not get inoculations or highway crashes which kill about 50,000. Yet Nixon did not characterize these as “national emergencies.”
La Guardia had seen some Federal officials claim that marijuana was a very dangerous drug leading to insanity, violence and murder if used. See {624434} and {590692} . However, none of the “dangers” had been verified by science and medicine/ La Guardia was the first public official who asked scientists to study the substance and let people know the real danger if any. The report was a major contracdiction to the federal propaganda that had been issued, and even continued to be after this study by the prestigious New York Academy of Medicine. It has been known for a long time that marijuana was relatively harmless when compared with other drugs such as heroin, cocaine, alcohol and tobacco. At the time the government officials had lied to the public grossly exaggerating the negative effects of marijuana. And scientific research was prohibited in most cases until the 21st century. And the evidence is now available that while marijuana does not have the very dangerous effect that was claimed, it is not benign either. Marijuana has an effect on the brain—especially of youth who are still developing—that is not totally understood. And there is a definite negative relationship between the extent of marihuana smoking student grades. Also we know now that marijuana impedes social development as well as intellectual. The causality is not clearly established however. It is possible that the poorer students and those less socially skilled have little success and use marijuana. With the exception of many adults who claim that marihuana helps them tolerate cancer drugs and other pain, there is no other benefit that has been found. Youngsters can think they are “cool” but that is about it on the plus side. On the negative side, marijuana is not the most dangerous drug one can take, but it is certainly not harmless.
Joseph Robert Kerrey (born August 27, 1943) is an American politician who served as the 35th Governor of Nebraska from 1983 to 1987 and as a United States Senator from Nebraska from 1989 to 2001 and an unsuccessful 1992 candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
