XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: alt.politics.usa   
   From: pxhxz@cadence.com   
      
   In article <4AC431D9.6070202@aol.com> Tristan  writes:   
      
   >This sort of action is probably the most effective way to get marijuana   
   >(and other drugs) legalized.  Appoint panels of experts to study the   
   >problem and make recommendations (as a large group of economists   
   >recently did for marijuana).  Few politicians (including Obama) have the   
   >guts to come out for legalization on their own.  But if we can get the   
   >policy makers to appoint an expert panel and abide by their   
   >recommendations, practically all experts will advocate some sort of   
   >legalization.  It would be a start at least.   
      
   The trick is to get the politicians to actually abide by the recommendations.   
   There was just such an expert panel put together in the early 70s that   
   recommended legalizing marijuana, and the report was buried and ignored   
   because it didn't give the results the politicians wanted.   
      
   -Pete Zakel   
    (phz@seeheader.nospam)   
      
   "However, on religious issures there can be little or no compromise.  There   
    is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs.   
    There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jese Christ,   
    or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being.  But like any   
    powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used   
    sparingly.  The religious factions that are growing throughout our land   
    are not using their religious clout with wisdom.  They are trying to force   
    government leaders into following their position 100 percent.  If you   
    disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they   
    complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.  I'm   
    frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country   
    telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe   
    in `A,' `B,' `C,' and `D.'  Just who do they think they are?  And from where   
    do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?   
    And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of   
    every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control   
    my vote on every roll call in the Senate.  I am warning them today:  I will   
    fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral   
    convictions to all Americans in the name of `conservatism.'"   
      
   					-Senator Barry Goldwater,   
   					 from the Congressional Record,   
   					 September 16, 1981   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)