Wonkette
It's 2008, and that teenager drug marijuana is still raping our children. But why does that have to be illegal? According to The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), some person wrote to Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin "asking him to justify why medicinal cannabis is still illegal" after the American College of Physicians recommended it shouldn't be. It merited a hilarious reply from Harkin, which noted many of pot's notorious doom scenarios: "the small child whose parents are so addicted to illegal drugs that they sell everything including perhaps their own children to obtain a fix." Harkin knows the routine: smoke up, eat gyro, play Legend of Zelda, sell children to pirates for more pot, repeat. The full, horrifying letter, after the jump.
Dear XXXX:
Thank you for contacting me. I am always glad to hear from you.
I do not believe the answer in solving this country's problem of drug abuse and the violence associated with drug trafficking is to make drugs legal. I have seen too much of the ill effects of these illegal drugs on our nation's young people, as well as this country's law enforcement officers, to believe the solution is to make these drugs more readily available by legalizing them.
Marijuana is often the drug singled out for legalization. However, marijuana is not the recreational drug that many believe it to be. In a study completed by the Drug Abuse Warning Network, the number of marijuana related emergencies has nearly reached the level of cocaine related emergencies. As this statistic indicates, marijuana use often has fatal consequences.
I was deeply troubled when I learned of another recent study which found that nearly one-third of all eighth graders had tried marijuana. As the father of two daughters, it greatly disturbs me that children are exposed to drugs at such a young age. I am concerned that legalization of this drug will only increase the number of children who gain access to its harmful effects.
The victims of the drug war are many - the small child whose parents are so addicted to illegal drugs that they sell everything including perhaps their own children to obtain a fix; the police officer's family which must now learn to cope with the loss of their loved one as a result of a violent drug bust gone awry. These are the people I think of when I say that drugs pose a significant threat to the security of this nation.
In addition to helping to double federal funds for Iowa's anti-drug programs, I am an active supporter of the Smoother Sailing Programs in the Des Moines public schools. This program is designed to help children cope with the violence, confusion and trauma associated with the abuse of drugs in our society.
Legalizing drugs is equivalent to declaring surrender in the war on drugs. However we may differ in tactics, I am hopeful that we can work together to fight drugs in our communities and to make Iowa drug free.
Again, thanks for sharing your views with me. Please don't hesitate to let me know how you feel on any issue that concerns you.
Sincerely,
Tom Harkin
United States Senator
[via NORML]
Comments
Three teenagers for sale !
Non-kind bud need not inquire.
"marijuana use often has fatal consequences."
Such as... hunger... kinda like, ya know, spacing out, watching Cheech and Chong movies and SELLING and DESTROYING children..
Wait, what? huh? I'm really baked right now, could you repeat that last part?
Doesn't he represent Methhead Country, anyway?
WOT: This is almost as funny as the letter I got from Zach Wamp (R-TN) back in 2003, wherein he stressed that the Iraqis had "greeted us as liberators," and that the toppling of the Saddam statue was "a powerful symbol of democracy," and that the war would be over in 7 minutes, and that we'd all be farting sunshine forever and ever. I still have that letter stuck to my fridge, and it makes me laugh, then cry, every time I go to get a beer.
If frequent and habitual drug use led drug addicts to sell their children to feed their drug habit then Barry Hussein Idi Amin Obama would have sold both his daughters to support his habit long ago.
....the police officer's family which must now learn to cope with the loss of their loved one as a result of a violent drug bust gone awry....."
Uh, but if it were legal then there would not be any such violent drug busts . . .
What, is Harkin the only person over 50 who didn't toke during the 60's and 70's?
I'm on hold with Verizon and they are playing a musak version of Chariots of Fire. I recommend rereading the letter while listening to Chariots of Fire. It almost makes Harkin an American hero.
In a study completed by the Drug Abuse Warning Network, the number of marijauna related emergencies has nearly reached the level of cocaine related emergencies.
"Sir, 'my dog ate my weed' is not a 911-type of emergency. I would suggest you hang up and call your vet."
The victims of the drug war are many...
Heh! I'll have to try that with Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Can you sell someone else's children and who do I need to talk to in order to arrange this?
So when are we outlawing Nutella?
I smell (a) skunk!
I have no idea what's going on right now...I so high.
But marijuana is needed for the continual support of America's folk musicians. Why do you hate American entrepreneurs, Mr. Harkin?
California cheese is better than Wisconsin cheese because the victims of Wisconsin cheese are many -- such as the pregnant woman who eats Wisconsin cheese and then the intestinal gas builds up so bad that she EXPLODES! Perhaps such a large explosion that the baby comes out healthy but lands in Mexico -- confusing Lou Dobbs so much that he suffers an aneurysm.
Harkin (D-IA) says we don't need to toke weed. We can just guzzle ethanol.
If someone had been really honest with me and told me that although weed wouldn't make me commit suicide, do heroin, or rape kittens, it WOULD cause me to fail enough classes to have an extra years worth of student debt hanging around my neck...
Well, I'd still probably of gone ahead and smoked weed. But probably less of it. Probably.
He's clearly high.
"As the father of two daughters, it greatly disturbs me that children are exposed to drugs at such a young age."
Does this mean that if he didn't have children he'd be handing it out like candy?
As an Iowa resident, I have to concur that we often sell our children for marijuana "around these parts." But we also sell them for used computers and '99 Grand Ams as well.
I have a cousin who works as a prison guard. He and his wife -- who he met on the internet, natch -- have matching sets of diabetes, thanks to their insatiable appetites for HFCS. The wife is in her early 30s; has trouble with stairs. Thank GOD they don't smoke weed. After corn syrup wrecked their bodies, I'd hate to see how they would deal with one of those 'marijuana emergencies'.
Harkin's worried about people selling children in search of their next sativan fix? Perhaps if the price of weed weren't artificially set, perhaps if the feds weren't devoted to eradication, then maybe people wouldn't have to spend what money they have trying to get something sweet to fill their glass pipes.
I would think, finally, that the feds would want to legalize herb. Given how irredeemably fucked up domestic policy and foreign policy are at this point, it would be in the Feds interest to give every citizen a blunt a day. Better that they be high than actually notice what's going on, and how these bastards in Washington sold them out decades ago.
tl;dr....
Everything congress needs to know about pot comes from "Reefer Madness." Or maybe he was high when he wrote the letter.
"the number of m-related emergencies has nearly reached the level of c-related emergencies."
Oh, really? I guess we aren't judging my intensity of the emergency are we Tom? Yes, it's an emergency when you run out of Doritos in the middle of the third episode of Law and Order that you've watched in a row, but I'd hesitate to put that in the same bucket as Martin Lawrence waving a pistol in the middle of the freeway in Santa Monica.
Similar but different.
And in two weeks we will find out that Harkin is a drug lord pedophile intimately involved in an east-Asian child-prostitution ring. Ahhh, Republicans! What fun!
I think Harkin's just come up with a solution for the sub-prime mortgage mess. Sell off one of your healthy youngsters and your mortgage rate is slashed in half.
I think this is how they do it in Brazil.
I just thank God that they're not going after my booze. Hopefully they won't notice that alcohol ruins sooooo many more lives than all their precious 'illegal' drugs combined.
I'd sell a few kids for YOU my sweet, sweet Absolut.
Now, a public message brought to you by Gilberto Gil.
PantsPants, it's worse than you think. Harkin is one of the most liberal Dems in the Senate. They're all insane on the drug issue cuz it's so easy to get swiftboated. Also guns.
@pantspantspants: you forgot drug-free.
@Gopherit: And Harkin is a Dem, but he's from Iowa.....so not really.
"the number of marijuana related emergencies has nearly reached the level of cocaine related emergencies. As this statistic indicates, marijuana use often has fatal consequences."
Bullshit. NO where in that statement does it say that going to the ER means you die. My friend went to the ER twice when he was stoned because he thought he had a stomach tumor. Turns out, it was gas. Increased paranoia- yes. Death? Pretty sure there IS a statistic somewhere that shows close to ZERO people have died from marijuana.
" the police officer's family which must now learn to cope with the loss of their loved one as a result of a violent drug bust gone awry."
Um. Make it legal. No more drug busts. No more dead cops. Funny how that works, huh?
Damn, I really want to like Harkin. He is so much better than our other Iowan senator Grassley, who actually won his re-election campaign based on a commercial where he mows his lawn with two push lawnmowers tied onto his tractor.
I bet Harkin's views on Mary Jane are influenced by his position as head of the agriculture subcommittee. If weed was legalized then everyone would quickly realize it works much better at creating bio-fuel than Iowa's precious corn. The increase in Doritos and Twinkie consumption would not make up for the loss in ethanol dollars.
@Johnny Mac: Of course, if there was THC in car exhauset, maybe ER visits would go up.
@Gopherit: Actually, this reads like it was written by some community college intern, who no doubt will turn it in for some assignment in their Poli-Sci class this fall. He or she, though, was undoubtedly high. (How else to survive a semester with this guy?)
@Laura Ingalls Wildest: Baby boomers all got their weed virginity back after they had kids. That's why Hannity and denial are so popular.
HARKIN's a Democrat??? WTF?
In a study completed by the Drug Abuse Warning Network, the number of marijauna related emergencies has nearly reached the level of cocaine related emergencies.
Glad to know that "# of ER visits" is now the standard we use for whether or not something is legal or illegal. In other news, dogs, toaster ovens, serrated knives, and nailguns are now illegal.
ILLEGALIZE AUTOMOBILE DRIVING!
That shit kills over hundreds of thousands of people a year! AND we license them! Stupid fuckers.
On Tom Harkin:
While running for his Senate seat in 1984, and again while running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992, Harkin has faced criticism for claiming that he had flown combat missions over North Vietnam. In a 1979 round table discussion with other Congressional Veterans, Harkin said of his service as a Navy pilot: "One year was in Vietnam. I was flying F-4s and F-8s on combat air patrols and photo-reconnaissance support missions". These comments were later published in a 1981 book by David Broder. After subsequent inquiries by Barry Goldwater and The Wall Street Journal, Harkin clarified that that he had been stationed in Japan and sometimes flew recently repaired aircraft on test missions over Vietnam. His service flying F-4s and F-8s was later, while he was stationed in Cuba. References to this controversy were deleted from Wikipedia by staffers from Harkin's senate office.
@Dave J.: Well, it is technically possible for a very determined individual to OD on pot (if you really need 50 lb of fiber in your diet), I suspect most marijuana-induced visits to an ER go something like this:
+ Watch video
"I'm so HIGH! NOTHING can hurt me!"
NOOOOOOOO!!
He's harshin' my mellow, man.
@sppeterson: Awesome.
Simply awesome.
Having Mary Jane make Lou Dobbs go bye bye - priceless.
@Laura Ingalls Wildest: The solution is for violent drug busts to go violently as planned.
I wouldn't expect Harkin (or any Iowa politician) to come out in favor of legalizing pot unless it had something to do with it being a big cash crop. Which it could be. Probably makes top-quality ethanol or biodiesel, with a more tons-per-acre yield using waaaay less fertilizer than corn (a very heavy nitrogen feeder).
Along with some other, uh, useful by products.
Marijuana is the reason I'm alive Harkin! How many people wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for drugged up free-loving parents?
I have no comment on this story.
@Gopherit: What a jackass.
@pantspantspants: *raises hand*
@pantspantspants: Republican? Harkin's a corn-fed, Democratic-farmer populist. Don't you people keep track of former presidential candidates?
Oh, that's right, you're high. Never mind.
Didn't they used to grow hemp in Iowa, for the old ship building industry along the mighty Missouri? At least what grows wild along side of Iowan roads sure looks like hemp. You can't put it in your pipe and smoke it, and nobody's selling their babies for it. But I find the Harkin story just a little ironic, and more than a little misinformed.
@Gopherit: The fucked-up cop from Dearborn, MI made the 911 call around the same time that an assistant coach for the Detroit Lions--right down the street--was arrested for ordering and picking up at a Wendy's drive-through while completely naked.
Not much fun here in the buckle of the Rust Belt but we really know how to get stupid.
People should just stick to legal, all-American drugs like alcohol, which never cause any problems ever!
@Crush All Humans: No, that's not true. I kind of know where Harkin's coming from because I once sold one of the neighbor's children for a bottle of red wine. Mind you my neighbor was so high at the time, he didn't realize he was paying for his own child. Stupid stoner.
@Lazy Media: Jesus befalls me! Teddy wins again!
Harkin's right. AND you end up with marijuana track marks.
If I only had children to sell, then I wouldn't be scraping my pipe for resin.
You got to be shitting me, and the rest of the world.
No wonder your country is fucked up with people like this in power. Do they have no limits to the lies they can tell and common sense went out of the window on this issue years and years ago. I would debate issues but this is just toooooooo rediculous to respond to.
Good luck with your next war guys, you have already got your buts kicked in the drug "war", just like you did in Vietnam.
How much chronic would be traded for 2 teenage skaterats? Just asking.
Marijuana related emergencies?
Two words: insulin overload.
Is it redundant if I have two daughters and grow my own...hypothetically speaking...
The "Drug Abuse Warning Network"(a Government agency) attributes to drugs every death which occurs in an emergency room if any of its "drug-related death" criteria is met.
According to them, "...the criteria for inclusion in DAWN are intentionally broad and simple, with few exceptions." [dawninfo.samhsa.gov]
So if you smoke weed and get hit by a falling meteor, clearly the weed was responsible.
Wow! What a douche-bag! How do I know this? Let me count the ways:
1. "Drug Abuse Warning Network"(DAWN) Is this another one of those sappy organizations like MADD or SADD? It's probably a bunch of religious kooks, you know, like the ones who voted for dubya(twice).
2. "To believe the solution is to make these drugs more readily available by legalizing them."
Notice how Harkin lumps everything together thereby associating pot with hard drugs. He uses the same disengenius approach with legalization by saying that "drugs" would be more readily available if they are legalized. Rediculous! Quite the contrary Senator douche-bag, if "Drugs" were "legalized" they could be taxed and controlled through prescription only programs. The black market would go away, and neither kids nor adults would be able to READILY buy drugs at school or on the street! It's easier to get dope NOW, you dope! But lets not open an intelligent dialogue on legalization/decriminalization, for heaven forbid, that would be CONDONING DRUGS!!!
3. "The victims of the drug war are many" Harkin refers to the small child who's parents sell everything they own including the child, and the police officer who gets killed during a drug bust gone awry... What about teenagers who are sent to PRISON for small amounts of pot? How about the recent report that PROVED that 1 out of 10 adults is NOW IN PRISON?! Maybe the pot laws are just a LITTLE too harsh, senator! Maybe some of the victims of the "drug war"
are young men and women who just like to smoke a little pot now and then, DOUCHE-BAG!!!
4. Harkin stated that marijuana use results in fatalities. Look at the way he words this paragraph! You can read a LOT into this misleading statement. Sure, if you get drunk as a skunk, smoke a joint then go out and drive into the side of a building, yeah, that can be fatal! Taken on the face of it however, Harkin's statement is insinuating that marijuana can be FATAL which is an out and out LIE. There have NEVER been ANY documented fatalities from marijuana alone.
5. "Legalizing drugs is equivalent to declaring surrender on the war on drugs." No it ISN'T you douch-bag! The "war on drugs" is what is causing the availability of drugs and the vast amount of money to be made by dealers and cops alike that is keeping "the war on drugs" alive! It is it's own self-perpetuating entity! Senator Harkin, if you want to keep drugs available to children, just keep up the same old "war on drugs" that the U.S. has been waging all along, DOUCHE-BAG!!!
6. Harkin Looks just like that dork in "City Slickers" ...DOUCHE-BAG!!
I got so high yesterday I sold myself on E-Bay. Now I'm a sex-slave to Mondonna ...
He should help us by updating the Registry of Marijuana Overdose Victims.
I'm just read the study he quoted and there are numerous flaws. It is funded NAMHSA. They are one of a number of groups that perform this research. The twisting of the results is his, although the study is seriously flawed. NAMHSA is not one to quote about drug policy.
1) the number of emergency visits in the 2005 study for cannabis is HALF the number for Cocaine.
2) These are only emergency visits. There is no delineation as to the reason for the visit. It may have been a simple case of bad Tsaziki sauce on the gyro.
3) The data is not gathered wholly through toxicology screens. Some of it is self-reporting.
4)23% of the reported ER visits also involved ALCOHOL.
In a fit of hyprocrisy the study is not tasked with recording ER visits for alcohol only. I bet the numbers would astonish them.
This is yet another misuse of statistics.
tom harkin has got to be the stupidiest fucking person ever hey tom its people like u that makes everyday people not want to vote at all thats why i dont vote so thanks for another year of me not voting along with the millions of others u fucking moron son of a bitch
Harkin is amazing. He must have found the Marijuana Smoking Overdose Victims page of names of people that have died from smoking Marijuana. You must scroll down a very long page to get to the back button. Compiled from historical medical records, this list puts an end to any question about how lethal smoking pot is. reallyneatstuffalaska.net/overdosevictims
People used to think the Earth was flat. That was because most people couldn't read. What do you suppose is Harkin's excuse? What's worse is he's being PAID to perpetuate lies about a factious dragon. How stupid does one need to be to get elected? One sure way to prove ignorance is to open ones mouth and spill forth lies and un-truths. Harkin sure is good at that! Sadly, Harkin will probably get re-elected. Idiots, every one of them. Chris
The war on drugs is over DRUGS WON!!! These idiots that keep fighting it remind me of Japanese Soldiers still fighting on Pacific islands...not realizing Japan had surrendered. The biggest problem my country (Canada) faces directly is the illegality of drugs. We are wasting precious resources for no logical reason. Almost every argument conferring harm to drugs is because of there being illegal. STOP THIS WASTE! The war on drugs is killing people, not drugs. Get off your hypocritical high horse and do the right thing you idiotic bastards.
dear senator:
how stupid can you be to infer that pot smokers sell their kids? i have 2 kids and i never had that depraved thought of selling them....
you are still fixated w/the reefer madness syndrome...
just think about it