I think it's best not to conflate issues -- i.e., yes, those who acted irresponsibly by perpetrating fraud should be penalized.

Those who need cannabis for medical reasons should be allowed to.

I agree that excess of sugar and immoderate use of other substances is harmful.

And Michael Phelps violated laws, he was smoking pot, and if companies no longer want to use him as a spokesperson because by his actions he tarnished his heroic image, then fine.

But it's also true that pot is not benign. Count me as someone who has inhaled. However I recognized the dangers and quit when I was 19. My first husband became a pot addict, and still is. His personality became altered. He lives in a fantasy world. He's not the only person I know like this. Maybe not exactly refer madness, but these lives were destroyed, and their lives touch other lives, like my children's, so it's not that they're hurting no one else. They are.

We once lived in an area in California surrounded by pot growers. They were dangerous people who had amassed a great deal of firepower, and even were reputed to have buried mines on their property.

Here's a link to a report about a UN position about the dangers of marijuana. I don't think that everyone involved in these positions are also going out and drinking until they pass out every night.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Dangers_of_cannabis_must_not_be_0219.html

I guess we all know the bad stuff that's going on in the world.
Nobody can avoid the headlines. I was upset with myself for
posting such negative remarks. I want joy and happiness in my
life. And I'm going to make a real effort to focus on the uplifting, joyful stuff from hereon. Now let's see if I can do it.

It's like making a New Year's resolution: You think you're going
to follow through, then something sidetracks you. Pretty soon you're headed in the opposite direction. Geese!

Some new California legislator from the Bay area just proposed that we legalize pot but sell it through state-run dispensaries and just add heavy taxes. This as a solution to our massive budget deficits. We'll see if this one gets anywhere. I have to say, it's not the worst law proposed here...

It is amazing to me however that the States because of the miss spending by the Washington bureaucrats, are thinking of legalizing drugs for profit. Mind blowing stuff, how far we as a nation have fallen. Whats next, "Murder for Hire?"

The governor of NY State is talking about taxing almost everything, air will be next.

I really laughed at this news flash: Itr seems the CASINO'S want a bailout too! I thought I had heard it all until this one surfaced. Can you imagine bailing out these FAT CATS because business has slowed???

I heard an interesting discussion on the radio the other day, part of which concerned the proposed bailouts/takeovers of a number of banks. One economist said the problems, in his opinion, are far more deep-reaching and systemic than greedy bankers and Wall Street financiers. He has been keeping a chart of consumer debt -- all consumer debt -- that goes back decades.

There are two major peaks in the chart, which shows consumer debt compared to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). He said for a long time consumer debt bobbled along at around 50 percent of GDP, but from 2000-2008 it shot up like a mountain peak to 100 percent of GDP, which is a *lot* of debt. He said the banks are having the same types of problems that people are: too much sustainable debt, meaning it's everywhere. According to him, we have been financing our lifestyles on credit, and not well-thought-out credit at that. The last time, by the way, credit was that high was 1929.....

So I'm wondering if there are plenty of people who keep their debt down whether there are an equal or greater number of folks who have really been out on a limb.

IMO The darn credit card companies can be blamed for much of
the indebtedness. Nonstop, they keep sending credit cards to the young folks. And they know the temptation of that [buy now, pay later] syndrome.

I bet the odds are about 50/50 Ellemm. One half being frugal only necessary spenders and then the fly by the seat of their pants half. Whats so unfair is that our new El Presidente wants the frugal half to have to subsidize the spend thrift half.

Jabber, the 'buy now, pay later' is fun in the buy half of that premise. It's when the pay later half comes that the trouble kicks in. There are 20 somethings filing for bankruptcy and thats just ridiculous.