Fourth marijuana conviction gets Slidell man life in prison

No worries Jekyll - when you have a strong opinion and give voice to it you will be sure to encounter friction as a result. On some things we will agree, on others not so much. I am sure that you are not one of those who transfers to the person the distaste that you may feel for their opinions. I'm of Irish and German decent - and we all know both of them sometimes go looking for trouble and never have to travel far before they find or create it.

Irish and German, eh, PS?

I suspected as much.

You and I have too much in common to disagree so much!

Pity the Children in this area.

Yeppers - the Irish comes from Pa's side, the German from my mom.

It was 14 years ago today that cancer claimed my Pa and I miss him as deeply now as the day the Creator called him home. He and I would often disagree as passionately as you and I do, but we never let that get in the way of other things. We had each other's respect - and the few times I failed to render that respect he felt was due him are memorable events, but you would be hard pressed to find a man who was as fair as he was or who was as willing to set everything else aside to help others. All he ever asked of me was my best effort. I remember coming home with grades that were less than expected on more than one occasion when I was a lad. He would look at the report card and pause for just a minute. When he looked back up at me he only ever had one question, "Does this represent your best effort?" If it was, the mark was acceptable to him, if it wasn't, then neither was the grade. I only tried one time to tell him it represented my best effort when it didn't. That is one of the memorable events I spoke of earlier.

Well, PS, I actually agree with you on this issue. :VeryScared:

Irish on my mother's side and German on dad's.

And yeah, they both asked that I do the best I could.

Do we really disagree that passionately, PS?

I'm not so sure we do.

PrintSmith wrote: The largest problem with the "Medical" marijuana is that they didn't in fact treat it like a prescription drug where you had to go to a licensed pharmacy to fill your prescription. The whole "caretaker" and "dispensary" nonsense has turned it into nothing more than an end around the illicit drug laws for those who want to imbibe for recreational purposes. Yes, there are indeed people like CB who are suffering from debilitating conditions who receive a benefit from it, but by and large my perception, shared by many, is that people like CB are only a small fraction of the total number who have obtained their MMJ card. The rest are simply recreational users gaming the system.

You want marijuana to be legal for recreational use? Fine - get the current laws repealed that make it illegal to consume for that purpose. If you can't, then you imbibe at the risk of incarceration. We are a nation of laws after all. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. Whether the recreational buzz is worth risking your freedom is something each person must decide for themselves. If you knowingly violate the law, you knowingly open yourself to being punished for your transgression. I have no sympathy or empathy for the man in question. He knew the risks and decided he could beat them. Sucks for him that he was wrong.

The question begs to be asked:

Do you believe that MJ should be completely legalized?

AspenValley wrote: Do we really disagree that passionately, PS?

I'm not so sure we do.

Not usually, unless one of us is having a bad day that is. I think I have had to apologize more than once when that someone happened to be me. We're both proud and stubborn people AV. Whether by genetics or as the result of some serious introspection before deciding where we'll stand on a given issue. You know I think the world of you even when our opinions clash instead of harmonize. That is something that won't ever change because you're good people.

Soulshiner wrote: The question begs to be asked:

Do you believe that MJ should be completely legalized?

Personally I do not, I have seen it stunt the progress of too many lives to take the position that it should be added to the list of legalized recreational drugs. I think it does have a place in the realm of medicine and I would not hesitate to avail myself of its medicinal qualities were I to find myself in CB's shoes one day. But I think that is where it should stay. It's not important enough to me one way or the other to become an advocate one way or the other though. It falls within the realm of apathy for me. If you want to spend your life in a fogged state of consciousness, who am I to tell you you can't.

PrintSmith wrote: You know I think the world of you even when our opinions clash instead of harmonize. That is something that won't ever change because you're good people.

And I'm guessing you know I feel the same about you?