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Joined: Mar 2004
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Campfire Outfitter
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OP
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Mar 2004
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No surprise that a lack of morals negatively affects the poor more than the rich who can paper over their problems with money. http://nypost.com/2016/08/20/legali...lower-class-poorer-and-less-responsible/Legalized pot is making America’s lower class poorer and less responsible
By Naomi Schaefer Riley
August 20, 2016 | 5:35pm
Pot for the poor! That could be the new slogan of marijuana-legalization advocates.
In 1996, California became the first state to legalize the use of medical marijuana. There are now 25 states that permit the use of marijuana, including four as well as the District of Columbia that permit it for purely recreational use.
Colorado and Washington were the first to pass those laws in 2012. At least five states have measures on the ballot this fall that would legalize recreational use. And that number is only likely to rise with an all-time high (no pun intended) of 58 percent of Americans (according to a Gallup poll last year) favoring legalization.
The effects of these new laws have been immediate. One study, which collected data from 2011-12 and 2012-13 showed a 22 percent increase in monthly use in Colorado. The percentage of people there who used daily or almost daily also went up. So have marijuana-related driving fatalities. And so have incidents of children being hospitalized for accidentally ingesting edible marijuana products.
But legalization and our growing cultural acceptance of marijuana have disproportionately affected one group in particular: the lower class.
A recent study by Steven Davenport of RAND and Jonathan Caulkins of Carnegie Mellon notes that “despite the popular stereotype of marijuana users as well-off and well-educated . . . they lag behind national averages” on both income and schooling.
For instance, people who have a household income of less than $20,000 a year comprise 19 percent of the population but make up 28 percent of marijuana users. And even though those who earn more than $75,000 make up 33 percent of the population, 25 percent of them are marijuana users. Having more education also seems to make it less likely that you are a user. College graduates make up 27 percent of the population but only 19 percent of marijuana users.
The middle and upper classes have been the ones out there pushing for decriminalization and legalization measures, and they have also tried to demolish the cultural taboo against smoking pot. But they themselves have chosen not to partake very much. Which is not surprising. Middle-class men and women who have jobs and families know that this is not a habit they want to take up with any regularity because it will interfere with their ability to do their jobs and take care of their families.
But the poor, who already have a hard time holding down jobs and taking care of their families, are more frequently using a drug that makes it harder for them to focus, to remember things and to behave responsibly.
‘ Legalization and our growing cultural acceptance of marijuana have disproportionately affected one group in particular: the lower class.’
The new study, which looked at use rates between 1992 and 2013, also found that the intensity of use had increased in this time. The proportion of users who smoke daily or near daily has increased from 1 in 9 to 1 in 3. As Davenport tells me, “This dispels the idea that the typical user is someone on weekends who has a casual habit.”
Sally Satel, a psychiatrist and lecturer at Yale, says “it is ironic that the people lobbying for liberalized marijuana access do not appear to be the group that is consuming the bulk of it.” Instead, it’s “daily and near-daily users, who are less educated, less affluent and less in control of their use.”
In fact, the typical user is much more likely to be someone at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, whose daily life is driven, at least in part, by the question of how and where to get more marijuana. Just consider the cost. Almost a third of users are spending a tenth of their income on marijuana. And 15 percent of users spend nearly a quarter of their income to purchase the drug. The poor have not only become the heaviest users, but their use is making them poorer.
To all the middle-class professionals out there reading this: Do you know anyone who spends a quarter of their income on pot? Of course not. But these are the people our policies and attitudes are affecting.
As the authors of the study note, marijuana use today actually more closely resembles tobacco use than alcohol use. Cigarette smoking has completely fallen off among the educated and well-off, while the poor and working class have continued their habits. Even as far back as 2008, a Gallup poll found that the rate of smoking among people making less than $24,000 a year was more than double that of those making $90,000 or more.
But at least the rates have been going down for everyone. Thanks to a cultural shift on the acceptability of smoking, awareness campaigns about its dangers and a variety of legal measures regarding smoking in public facilities, smoking is significantly less popular. You could object to some of these public policies on the grounds that the government should mind its own business. But the truth is that Americans across all incomes are now less likely to suffer from the harmful effects of smoking.
Maybe the upper classes in this country have some romantic notion of what marijuana can do to the mind (though we once thought cigarettes were terribly classy too). But it is time to get over such silliness and consider the real effects of our attitudes.
As Manhattan Institute fellow and psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple, says, this is like the 1960s all over again. He tells me, “I’m afraid I can’t hear all that stuff about ‘tune in, drop out’ without being infuriated because the people affected really deleteriously [are] people at the bottom.”
Islam is a terrorist organization.
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 31,251
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 31,251 |
This comes as a surprise? Many if not most of the chronically destitute got that way by making poor decisions. A high percentage of them are already alcoholics and/or addicts. Making marijuana legal and more easily available can have only one result.
Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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More laws are what we need. Laws fix everything.
“Life is life and fun is fun, but it's all so quiet when the goldfish die.”
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Nov 2006
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This comes as a surprise? Many if not most of the chronically destitute got that way by making poor decisions. A high percentage of them are already alcoholics and/or addicts. Making marijuana legal and more easily available can have only one result. Beat me to it. They are what they are because of their own behavioral patterns. Marijuana use is consistent with those behavioral patterns.
Mathew 22: 37-39
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Campfire Savant
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Campfire Savant
Joined: Apr 2011
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Happiness= good decisions. Many poor people aren't capable of making good decisions. Most are also lazy. Most people who have things are go getters. They get off their ass and go get it.
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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More laws are what we need. Laws fix everything. Yup. And nothing like a government sponsored "study" to bring us all the facts.
"There's more to optics than meets the eye."--anon
"...most of us would be better off losing half a pound around the waist than half a pound on our rifle."--dhg
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Posts: 115,424
Campfire Sage
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Campfire Sage
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 115,424 |
That article is a ginormous POS.
Dave
Trump being classless,tasteless and clueless as usual. Sorry, trump is a no tax payin pile of shiit. My young wife decided to play the field and had moved several dudes into my house
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Outfitter
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next time they have one of them BLM riots, the PoPo needs to roll up in an MRAP, push a button and eject a bale of kentucky greenbud and pull away. problem solved.
My diploma is a DD214
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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It will do the same to all classes, though the upper classes may be able to disguise and fund it better for a while. There is no up side to any proclivity that hides reality.
We may know the time Ben Carson lied, but does anyone know the time Hillary Clinton told the truth?
Immersing oneself in progressive lieberalism is no different than bathing in the sewage of Hell.
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Campfire Sage
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Campfire Sage
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Let's see...
Poor people make up 28% of marijuana users. People making $75K and up comprise 25% of marijuana users.
And the availability of marijuana has increased since 1993.
Yeah. Real earth shattering stuff.
Dave
Trump being classless,tasteless and clueless as usual. Sorry, trump is a no tax payin pile of shiit. My young wife decided to play the field and had moved several dudes into my house
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Sometimes the obvious is the least recognizable.
My home is the "sanctuary residence" for my firearms.
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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Keep the masses stoned (or drunk) and they are easier to control , much less likely to revolt.
Mike
Always talk to the old guys , they know stuff.
Jerry Miculek
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Cheap legal alcohol has been doing this nationwide for decades, where's the outrage?
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 6,624 |
The weed is every where and HAS been readily available for a very long time. Reefer madness at its best. The article is blowing serious smoke up a lot of uniformed people's butt holes.
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
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This comes as a surprise? Many if not most of the chronically destitute got that way by making poor decisions. A high percentage of them are already alcoholics and/or addicts. Making marijuana legal and more easily available can have only one result. Bingo! There was no other possible outcome after the foolsish voted to legalize it.
Liberalism is a cancer Support Christian Family values
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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That article is a ginormous POS.
Dave THIS!!!
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Joined: Oct 2004
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2004
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Let's see...
Poor people make up 28% of marijuana users. People making $75K and up comprise 25% of marijuana users.
And the availability of marijuana has increased since 1993.
Yeah. Real earth shattering stuff.
Dave Yet few if any of the $75k and up get no knock raids at 3am, and then thrown into prison. They can afford a lawyer who just may point out the long list of constitutional violations the cops do in one of their raids.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Yet few if any of the $75k and up get no knock raids at 3am, and then thrown into prison. They can afford a lawyer who just may point out the long list of constitutional violations the cops do in one of their raids. Or could be they're smart enough to not be driving a 1984 Buick with expired plates, no exhaust, cracked windshield, broken taillight, on a suspended DL, while lighting up doing 50 in a school zone. Seriously, some idiots could just as easily wear a neon sign.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Every day on this side of the ground is a win.
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