Drug Policy
Related: About this forumIndiana Senators Increase Penalty for Marijuana to Appease Extremist Gov.
Mike Pence, the transvaginal rapist governor of Indiana, has decided he doesn't want to encourage new business to locate within the state by continuing a hard right turn. This follows a voucher program in which one Christian school with an "F" ranking for performance is receiving tax payer dollars to continue their program of indoctrination that is, apparently, so bad they cannot even get a mercy "D." This follows Indiana's intention to make abortion unsafe.
Or, maybe he just wants to appease Eli Lily corporation, located in Indianapolis.
Considering all the other crap Pence and other Republicans are bringing up - I think the reality is that they're just too fucking stupid to recognize how out-of-touch with reality they are. Which would lead you to wonder what drugs they're taking - but it's probably abuse of religion, not a pharmaceutical, but maybe it's both.
Indiana residents, from both sides of the political aisle, overwhelmingly support legalization of medical marijuana and 56% support legalization of all marijuana.
Whose interests is Pence representing? Obviously not the voters in his state.
http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/senators-marijuana-penalties-appease-governor-47265/
One of the goals of the criminal code revision legislation is to reduce penalties for low-level, first-time drug offenses in an effort to focus more on rehabilitation. But Pence waded into the debate last week, expressing concern the bill was not tough enough on drug crimes.
After changes by a Senate committee Thursday, the bill still reduces overall sentences for low-level drug crimes, but it reduces marijuana penalties less.
Sen. Mark Stoops (D-Bloomington) says the marijuana sentences were set at the bills original levels to keep them proportionate to other crimes.
Stoops is rightly concerned about singling out penalties for marijuana, considering his city is the home to approximately 40,000 students, and those students overwhelmingly support legalization. The parents of those students, or the students themselves, might want to reconsider sending their child to a university in a state that wants to treat the possession of marijuana, a substance less harmful than alcohol, as a criminal offense while the trend, across the nation, is to revise marijuana law to reflect reality, not prejudice.
Students might mistakenly believe that attendance at one of the public ivies would shield them from such laws. They might be right, since Mitch Daniels sold LSD at Princeton and was let go with a slap on the hand. Dan Burton's son, also, was arrested for carrying LSD across state lines, a federal offense, but because his daddy (and another family's daddy at the same time) was Dan Burton, he got off with a slap on the wrist.
Which gets to the real issue: the law is racist in its application and is used as a political tool by right-wing extremists.
Indiana is the only state in the nation that seeks to increase penalties for mere possession of marijuana.
If Indiana wants to know why others think the state is, generally, a backward hell hole, well, here's your answer.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)RainDog
(28,784 posts)Bloomington, Indianapolis, Chicagoland - every part of the state with a population greater than the extended family of a former Klan member and his John Birch lovin' wife - is Democratic.
But the Republican gawd warriors have a lot of pull with the Republican Party - both protestant and catholic.