http://www.ksat.com/content/pns/ksat/news/2015/05/06/texas-house-committee-approves-bill-to-make-marijuana-legal-for-.html
QuoteA proposal seeking full legalization of marijuana on religious grounds has cleared an unlikely legislative hurdle.
Republican state Rep. David Simpson of Longview argues marijuana comes from God and therefore shouldn't be banned by government.
The tea party stalwart has repeatedly championed what he calls the "Christian case" for legalization.
Simpson's bill (HB 2165) languished for weeks before the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.
Three committee Democrats and two Republicans surprisingly voted to support it Wednesday, though, and it passed 5-2.
Republican state Rep. David Simpson of Longview argues marijuana comes from God and therefore shouldn't be banned by government.
That makes Simpson's bill eligible for consideration to reach the House floor before the legislative session ends June 1, although that's still highly unlikely.
State law currently makes no exceptions even for medical marijuana, making outright legalization unthinkable.
Still, advocates hailed the committee vote as "unprecedented progress" for Texas marijuana rights.
Nearly three out of five Texas voters (58%) support making marijuana legal for adults and regulating it like alcohol, according to a statewide survey conducted by Public Policy Polling in September 2013.
Four states have adopted laws that regulate and tax marijuana similarly to alcohol. Two of them, Colorado and Washington, have established regulated systems of marijuana cultivation and sales.
Alaska and Oregon are in the process of implementing similar systems.
Statement from Heather Fazio, Texas Political Director for the Marijuana Policy Project:
“Marijuana prohibition’s days are numbered in the Lone Star State. Texas voters recognize that punishing adults for consuming a substance that is safer than alcohol is a waste of law enforcement resources and an affront to individual liberty. It appears most of the committee members agree.
“State officials are increasingly becoming fed up with the failed federal government policy of marijuana prohibition, and they’re taking action. Like most Americans, most Texans are ready for a more sensible, fiscally sound.
Should have asked me, I'd have told them that 40 years ago.
Well then shouldn't opium poppies be just as legal? I see absolutely no reason to stop anyone from easing pain with a "god given" plant..
Get stoned boys! Religion helped us out for once!
...ONCE!
What exactly doesn't come from God? I assume if God didn't want something to exist it wouldn't.
Quote from: GSOgymrat on May 07, 2015, 07:05:30 PM
What exactly doesn't come from God? I assume if God didn't want something to exist it wouldn't.
Like god himself?
Quote from: AllPurposeAtheist on May 07, 2015, 07:08:52 PM
Like god himself?
I'm sorry, there I go trying make sense of Christianity again.
I get the impression that a tea party members version of being stoned is having a sugar rush.
Quote from: Munch on May 07, 2015, 07:27:23 PM
I get the impression that a tea party members version of being stoned is having a sugar rush.
CAFFFEEEEIIINNNNEEEEEE!
Even so-called synthetic materials have natural roots. We can only make things from things that existed on the planet in the first place. You can't get something from nothi...........wait a minute???
Quote from: hrdlr110 on May 07, 2015, 08:28:32 PM
Even so-called synthetic materials have natural roots. We can only make things from things that existed on the planet in the first place. You can't get something from nothi...........wait a minute???
Right. Nearly every drug had some original natural counterpart, Aspirin being the first to come to mind. Opiates now are synthetic, but came from plants, obviously. Cocaine, caffeine, many others.
You mean those space flights to and from the ISS aren't bringing us new stuff from distant planets yet?
Wait, doesn't Texas have bigger fish to fry fending off the entire US military takeover when Jade Helm kicks off?
It's funny how any argument is okay if a christian wants something. It would not surprise me if next year these very same people would argue that pot is unnatural and not of god.
Quote from: AllPurposeAtheist on May 07, 2015, 09:43:14 PM
Wait, doesn't Texas have bigger fish to fry fending off the entire US military takeover when Jade Helm kicks off?
Can't you be happy that they're actually right about something, even if it is for an odd reason, without bringing in crap from elsewhere?
And hopefully the Tea Partiers will actually smoke some and get a clue that maybe they are full of shit.
They sound like libertarians... Republicans who love drugs and sex.
Quote from: GSOgymrat on May 07, 2015, 07:05:30 PM
What exactly doesn't come from God? I assume if God didn't want something to exist it wouldn't.
Yeah, that's probably the weakest case for marijuana legalization that I've ever heard. But at least those Texas Christians are helping to reform a bad policy.
(this is probably the only time I've used Texas, Christians, and helping in the same sentence)
Joints for Jesus? Who'd'a thunk it?
Well, hell, even a stopped clock is right twice a day... except a stopped digital one, which isn't anything. I don't mind if they want to do the right thing for the wrong reason.
Quote from: Hydra009 on May 08, 2015, 12:48:31 AM
(this is probably the only time I've used Texas, Christians, and helping in the same sentence)
Yyup.
Quote from: trdsf on May 08, 2015, 12:59:24 AMJoints for Jesus? Who'd'a thunk it?
Well, hell, even a stopped clock is right twice a day... except a stopped digital one, which isn't anything.
Those are right 10 times a day. :P
I think this 'it's from god' defense in this case is just converted from 'it's from nature' bullshit in their understanding. I am sure you have heard that commercial line for promotion of most things which became a part of daily conversations some time ago. So as in commercial terms, it is in sync with selling some soap to people claiming it is 100 % organic.
But I don't think, for one second, that it's surprising for religious people to promote marijuana. Religion and drugs have been closely linked for so long in human history. In fact, as probably you know it was used in religious rituals and ceremonies. For the basics, if you think about the common delusional frame of mind of all religions, they sell their bullshit with based on 'becoming one with their god and his love for all people'. Basic human need to feel safe by belonging to a whole. The bullshit of religion already makes people 'high'. There is nothing like a piece of 'natural god's medicine' to feel it more and spread that. Like they need to get high to spew more bullshit. Let's hope it will do them some good, but I doubt that. It will just crank up what is there. May be, we'll have more news about people seeing Jesus and Satan, angels around. And the whole experienced of 'being saved' 'God's love' will be far more real for them, if this becomes a standart product of consumption among religious people. Because like their muslim friends, they don't like alcohol either. So it could be the new outlet of the reliigous masses. Expect some groups to be founded to live God through marijuana. Which I am sure there has been for a long time. :lol:
Same goes for the muslims. Of course it never gets talked about. Why do you think usage of weed kind of drugs are very common in the Middle East? And they are so good at it. It's not described by name in their holy book either. While alcohol and some others are.
In the country I live in, there are lots of sayings about 'grass'. One of them is 'It's known as grass, no sin it'. It rhymes when you say that in Turkish, it is very catchy and very old. Huge amount of people are using it here anyway.
Go for it. Pot should be legal now, I don't partake, but I think far too many people have been locked up for too long because a small amount of the sticky icky icky