I live in Oregon, So my experience with the legal side of Marijuana is different than a lot of the country. We don't have to worry about a traffic stop and having a joint or a bag of weed sending you to jail. I can almost certainly say that law enforcement actually appreciates it. One time, right around the time that it just became legal here but you weren't allowed to go into the shops yet (it was a weird time), I got pulled over and had some on me. For the first time, I had weed on me for a traffic stop. At first, I was really nervous, almost to the point of trying to throw my bag under my seat to hid it. Then it came to me that it is ok, I left it on my seat in plain day, the cop asked me if I had anything in the car and I was honest. I said "Yes sir, I have an 1/8th of weed on me". All he said was "oh, that's ok, I'm not too worried about that". He gave me a warning for speeding, told me to have a nice day, and that was that. It was so different than other traffic stops I had been on when I didn't have any on me and I was treated like a criminal because I was a teenager with long hair (automatically a pot head apparently). All of those states where it is legal in have an amazing amount of tax revenue being generated for the school systems, roads, and other public works projects, money that they wouldn't have had without the sale of this "dangerous plant". I use it for medical reasons and recreational reasons, it helps me with Chronic Pain, Sleep issues due to that Chronic Pain, and severe clinical depression. But do I like to get high, too? You're damn right I do. We are adults, and honestly if you're not hurting someone else with the things that you do, then leave us alone. It's our right to put whatever we want to in our bodies without someone else coming along and saying it's wrong. All it boils down to are other people trying to place their morals onto another person.
Absolutely right. But as a former criminal lawyer, try to argue "victimless crime" and some judges will all but scream at you that "these people" are a burden on the medicare system, needing hospitalisation for all the side effects of "these drugs". Try countering with, "well, why don't we criminalise overweight people who contract heart disease and/or diabetes?" and they virtually start foaming at the mouth.
Oregon is also a tad different from other states, in that weed has been 'decriminalized' here since '73. Removal of the predatory State interest in weed has deep roots in Oregon, thankfully. Unlike other states, where the term 'gateway drug' seems to refer increasingly to the prison door.
I would agree with you if while I lived in Oregon as a teenager I wasn't actively targeted to have my car searched and pulled over for "Speeding" when the cruiser isn't even parked to radar me and I just pulled out of a business. Oregon hasn't always been weed-friendly, believe me.
I didn't go to school here. I moved here right after graduating high school. I live up near the Washington border. Here I was stopped constantly for some reason or another and immediately went to searching my truck. It got to a ridiculous point.
It's quite interesting that we blame the legally-illiterate, yet make NO MENTION of the aggression of the Judges/system that/who -- BEING LITERATE -- should know better, and should NOT be using the law to administer their own biased ideas, or play IGNORANT to the very core concepts of honest JUSTICE (i.e. no CRIME (injured person, damage to property, etc)), or assault people's liberties for their own PROFIT, and self-entertainment, and self-aggrandizement ...
great talk, especially the part about how being literate enabled u to beat an unfair rap, and how many thousands of others are getting screwed over for lack of an education!
"I'm not here to say that there is not a problem with drug abuse in this country, of course there is; but the answer to that problem does not come with incarceration, but with education."
Change is around the corner. The right to do what you want with your own body is well on its way. I would love to see a day when all these innocent people are pardoned and released from prison.
I often find my self asking why i'm labeled a criminal though? I have a job, i attend college full time, I am active at home and with friends. so i always have to sit back and ask my self, am I really a criminal? am I really the kind of person you want to lock up and put away in jail for a few years because i have a ounce of pot? You want me to sit behind bars with people who sexually violate children and murder other humans because i smoke dope in my free time? even at this very moment typing this i could be raided and taken to jail, even though i feel like your average every day joe with nothing that the average person would consider unreasonable.
Jordan Lamb it's wrong i know just always know the government won't ever be on your side there money crazed and will do anything in there words to have an outstanding economy although people being locked up for a plant and putting them in a place with people who murder or who are rapists
I agree about the need for legal weed 100% (and agree with your underlying points) and it's important to remember that because you happen to have a job, attend college full time and are active with your friends does not make you better than anyone else or make you "less of a criminal" or a "model citizen". The same ideas and frameworks that you are using are attributed in the opposite direction towards people less fortunate than yourself to call them "Less than" or to deem someone "worthy of being in jail". These constructs are also a massive part of the reason why weed was made illegal in the first place.
Since our Creator provided us each with a Endocannabinoid System (ECS), the consumption of cannabis to relieve your human condition is a natural right.
I'm dyslexic. I'm not sure i could defend myself properly in written words without spell check. However I think i could if i watched enough videos on law. And i spoke my defense. These people were not seen as apart of the cultural ideal.
Cannabis is a medical necessity for all those of us who have been consuming metabolically poisonous Vegetable oils in our diets and getting one or more of many more modern diseases. The solution is to go vegan and take cannabis supplementation until you are better while getting all vegetable oils out of your diet. You can use some polysaturated animal food-based oil, that in all animal products if you are not quite so worried about living as long as reasonably possible while remaining perfectly healthy.
Good talk, but whats so sad is that those who make and sell alcohol are also drug producers, distributors and sellers, and just look at the global problems to family life and the work place that this fun drug can have. I have experienced both and also grown weed just for personal use but alcohol was definitely no good for me personally because I was a binge drinker and it's just so much harder to quit. Humans have always looked for ways to get off their faces and as we all know the war on drugs has failed so why can't we just legalise everything and let the government produce, sell and distribute the stuff themselves, and by reducing the price I would argue that overnight they would put most if not all the dealers out of business and all the profits could be used to treat those addicted to drugs. The reason that we have the really deadly drugs like meths and crack and countless other substances is because they were produced to circumnavigate the illegal drug laws so that when one of them was banned the chemists just altered a few molecules, called it by a new name and it was on sale again. Eventually they had an outright ban and the local authorities all breathed a sigh of relief. We could also empty the prisons of many offenders who are inside for minor offences and this would save taxpayers a small fortune. Pandora's box is wide open and we can never shut it, so for Odins sake lets allow adults to take their drug of choice, and I would rather have a joint than a beer any day. Lastly, isn't it strange how none of the people who fekked up the finance system in 2008 through mis-selling worthless triple A rated shares and all those who were in favour of deregulating banks causing millions of job losses, umpteen deaths and who nearly crashed the financial system all seem to have got away with their fortunes intact except in Iceland where they jailed their bankers, so, why can't we do this in the US & UK with our crooked bankers I wonder?
Folks, when those fools tell you that that direction is where his loving arms are. Don't go, do a 180 or at least 90, any less than 90 you will still fall into his loving arms and that is very very very bad. His loving arms can snuff the breath out of you in an instant.
it's people with addictive personalities that are the " problem " not the drugs opium is used the world over as pain medication it's people who abuse it that give it a bad name and it's the same with everything you can get addicted to cheeseburgers it's not McDonald's fault. People just need something to blame other than themselves, have some accountability
I disagree with Richard Stratton on several points he made. I will address one of them here. He said people of the street, don't get a good education or are not afforded a good education in this country. I disagree strongly on this point. If you don't get a education because you don't want to get a education, who's fault is that? Certainly not mine or the educators fault. If you don't go to school because you would rather hang out on the corner selling drugs, who's fault is that. There are almost unlimited opportunities to get an education in this country. If you don't take advantage of them or don't want to take advantage of them, then don't cry about the system taking advantage of you.
bro you don’t understand, if you weren’t raised in a poor and violent environment then u don’t understand, some people can’t afford a new toothbrush, what makes u think they can afford to go to college, it’s not cus they’re lazy and choose to deal drugs it’s cus they can’t simply afford it, financial aid isn’t available for everyone some don’t qualify, and that’s just the poor factor, the violence factor is that it’s your environment you’re surrounded by people smoking weed dealing drugs fighting gangs, so human nature you adapt to that environment
Exactly what i thougt.. haha im so good i study'd law in jail and got my self a lower sentence... OR ... just stop reprecenting your self ffs.. hippe! :p
It is a stilistic device, to destigamtize people, who are involved in drug trafficking. He 1st builds up the idea of a sucessfull buisness man to revert it by saying that the product were narcotics.
soufsidestl He was a CEO because he placed himself there, inside of his drug operation. White privilege is turning a blind eye to his activities. Instead he was arrested, tried twice and sentenced twice. His sentence was overturned because he educated himself on the situation, and kept fighting. His plea: We should be investing in young people, ensuring their educational future. That's the difference, education is the privilege and something everyone should have the chance to pursue, accept or turn away. The privilege, and his main point, is knowledge.
😂 it was a literary device he was using “I was a CEO of a company which brought in organic product”.. then he flips it by saying that he sold marijuana.!
This guy justifies his behavior, " only marijuana, organic". It is against the law no matter how you feel about marijuana. He knew what he was doing, learn from your experience buddy. No sympathy here, none deserved.
I live in Oregon, So my experience with the legal side of Marijuana is different than a lot of the country. We don't have to worry about a traffic stop and having a joint or a bag of weed sending you to jail. I can almost certainly say that law enforcement actually appreciates it. One time, right around the time that it just became legal here but you weren't allowed to go into the shops yet (it was a weird time), I got pulled over and had some on me. For the first time, I had weed on me for a traffic stop. At first, I was really nervous, almost to the point of trying to throw my bag under my seat to hid it. Then it came to me that it is ok, I left it on my seat in plain day, the cop asked me if I had anything in the car and I was honest. I said "Yes sir, I have an 1/8th of weed on me". All he said was "oh, that's ok, I'm not too worried about that". He gave me a warning for speeding, told me to have a nice day, and that was that. It was so different than other traffic stops I had been on when I didn't have any on me and I was treated like a criminal because I was a teenager with long hair (automatically a pot head apparently). All of those states where it is legal in have an amazing amount of tax revenue being generated for the school systems, roads, and other public works projects, money that they wouldn't have had without the sale of this "dangerous plant". I use it for medical reasons and recreational reasons, it helps me with Chronic Pain, Sleep issues due to that Chronic Pain, and severe clinical depression. But do I like to get high, too? You're damn right I do. We are adults, and honestly if you're not hurting someone else with the things that you do, then leave us alone. It's our right to put whatever we want to in our bodies without someone else coming along and saying it's wrong. All it boils down to are other people trying to place their morals onto another person.
Absolutely right. But as a former criminal lawyer, try to argue "victimless crime" and some judges will all but scream at you that "these people" are a burden on the medicare system, needing hospitalisation for all the side effects of "these drugs". Try countering with, "well, why don't we criminalise overweight people who contract heart disease and/or diabetes?" and they virtually start foaming at the mouth.
Oregon is also a tad different from other states, in that weed has been 'decriminalized' here since '73. Removal of the predatory State interest in weed has deep roots in Oregon, thankfully. Unlike other states, where the term 'gateway drug' seems to refer increasingly to the prison door.
I would agree with you if while I lived in Oregon as a teenager I wasn't actively targeted to have my car searched and pulled over for "Speeding" when the cruiser isn't even parked to radar me and I just pulled out of a business. Oregon hasn't always been weed-friendly, believe me.
I'm sure it varies from town to town. Never had issues when I was growing up. Where'd you highschool?
I didn't go to school here. I moved here right after graduating high school. I live up near the Washington border. Here I was stopped constantly for some reason or another and immediately went to searching my truck. It got to a ridiculous point.
It's quite interesting that we blame the legally-illiterate, yet make NO MENTION of the aggression of the Judges/system that/who -- BEING LITERATE -- should know better, and should NOT be using the law to administer their own biased ideas, or play IGNORANT to the very core concepts of honest JUSTICE (i.e. no CRIME (injured person, damage to property, etc)), or assault people's liberties for their own PROFIT, and self-entertainment, and self-aggrandizement ...
"justice", in our "justice system", sure is ARBITRARY -- for something that's not supposed to be
etyrnal it's all about the money
great talk, especially the part about how being literate enabled u to beat an unfair rap, and how many thousands of others are getting screwed over for lack of an education!
Man, the Internet is a treasure trove with speeches like this.
great speech. almost flawless
It's a sad epidemic that the government even looks at marijuana in any way at all. It should be wide open for people to do whatever they want with it
oh but we "need them and they "gives" us freedom...
Very very fuckin' true.. 💯🙄
Very very True.. 💯
As with all drugs. Legalize recreational MDPV.
great talk I liked his point on illiteracy!!
11:50 he drops the best quote I've ever heard.
Donovan M. sure
"I'm not here to say that there is not a problem with drug abuse in this country, of course there is; but the answer to that problem does not come with incarceration, but with education."
Profoundly true message
excellent. very good honest talk
Marijuana should be legalized and should NEVER have been criminalized.
Thanks for the show
Change is around the corner. The right to do what you want with your own body is well on its way. I would love to see a day when all these innocent people are pardoned and released from prison.
Fantastic!
Thank you.
I like that Ted Talks allows the tough subjects. Drug use, prison issues are hard subjects. Congrats to TT for pushing the line!
YES, YES, MANY TIMES YES FOR REASON AND FOR GOOD
That was amazing! 👏
That's a good man NO COMMENT and would not snitch his friend. GOOD MAN. NOT GRASS
Respect sir
Almost started crying at the end.
I often find my self asking why i'm labeled a criminal though? I have a job, i attend college full time, I am active at home and with friends. so i always have to sit back and ask my self, am I really a criminal? am I really the kind of person you want to lock up and put away in jail for a few years because i have a ounce of pot? You want me to sit behind bars with people who sexually violate children and murder other humans because i smoke dope in my free time?
even at this very moment typing this i could be raided and taken to jail, even though i feel like your average every day joe with nothing that the average person would consider unreasonable.
Jordan Lamb it's wrong i know just always know the government won't ever be on your side there money crazed and will do anything in there words to have an outstanding economy although people being locked up for a plant and putting them in a place with people who murder or who are rapists
I agree about the need for legal weed 100% (and agree with your underlying points) and it's important to remember that because you happen to have a job, attend college full time and are active with your friends does not make you better than anyone else or make you "less of a criminal" or a "model citizen". The same ideas and frameworks that you are using are attributed in the opposite direction towards people less fortunate than yourself to call them "Less than" or to deem someone "worthy of being in jail". These constructs are also a massive part of the reason why weed was made illegal in the first place.
Since our Creator provided us each with a Endocannabinoid System (ECS), the consumption of cannabis to relieve your human condition is a natural right.
Free our brothers and sisters
God bless this guy
I'm dyslexic. I'm not sure i could defend myself properly in written words without spell check. However I think i could if i watched enough videos on law. And i spoke my defense.
These people were not seen as apart of the cultural ideal.
1.25 speed
omg made it a lot easier to listen to lol!
(:
Thank you.
so helpful ❤️
End the drug war!
Cannabis is a medical necessity for all those of us who have been consuming metabolically poisonous Vegetable oils in our diets and getting one or more of many more modern diseases. The solution is to go vegan and take cannabis supplementation until you are better while getting all vegetable oils out of your diet. You can use some polysaturated animal food-based oil, that in all animal products if you are not quite so worried about living as long as reasonably possible while remaining perfectly healthy.
People will be incarcerated one day for putting kids in jail for this.
Stop Trumpet and Sessions! Period!
Good talk, but whats so sad is that those who make and sell alcohol are also drug producers, distributors and sellers, and just look at the global problems to family life and the work place
that this fun drug can have. I have experienced both and also grown weed just for personal use but alcohol was definitely no good for me personally because I was a binge drinker and it's
just so much harder to quit.
Humans have always looked for ways to get off their faces and as we all know the war on drugs has failed so why can't we just legalise everything and let the government produce,
sell and distribute the stuff themselves, and by reducing the price I would argue that overnight they would put most if not all the dealers out of business and all the profits could be used to treat
those addicted to drugs.
The reason that we have the really deadly drugs like meths and crack and countless other substances is because they were produced to circumnavigate the illegal drug laws so that when one of them was banned the chemists just altered a few molecules, called it by a new name and it was on sale again.
Eventually they had an outright ban and the local authorities all breathed a sigh of relief. We could also empty the prisons of many offenders who are inside for minor offences and this would save taxpayers a small fortune.
Pandora's box is wide open and we can never shut it, so for Odins sake lets allow adults to take their drug of choice, and I would rather have a joint than a beer any day.
Lastly, isn't it strange how none of the people who fekked up the finance system in 2008 through mis-selling worthless triple A rated shares and all those who were in favour of deregulating banks causing millions of job losses, umpteen deaths and who nearly crashed the financial system all seem to have got away with their fortunes intact except in Iceland where they jailed their bankers, so, why can't we do this in the US & UK with our crooked bankers I wonder?
oh shit .... this must be the guy from HIGH TIMES article in the late 70s ...... wow , time flies .
Free the weed !
LIFE FOR WEED WHAT A SHAME
Folks, when those fools tell you that that direction is where his loving arms are. Don't go, do a 180 or at least 90, any less than 90 you will still fall into his loving arms and that is very very very bad. His loving arms can snuff the breath out of you in an instant.
Marijuaner 😂 😂 😂 love it!
it's people with addictive personalities that are the " problem " not the drugs opium is used the world over as pain medication it's people who abuse it that give it a bad name and it's the same with everything you can get addicted to cheeseburgers it's not McDonald's fault. People just need something to blame other than themselves, have some accountability
#jurynullification learn about it show the State the people are the only Authority
this guy looks like an older version of Michelle from GTA V
Any smuggler out there..?
There is no market here.
I disagree with Richard Stratton on several points he made. I will address one of them here. He said people of the street, don't get a good education or are not afforded a good education in this country. I disagree strongly on this point. If you don't get a education because you don't want to get a education, who's fault is that? Certainly not mine or the educators fault. If you don't go to school because you would rather hang out on the corner selling drugs, who's fault is that. There are almost unlimited opportunities to get an education in this country. If you don't take advantage of them or don't want to take advantage of them, then don't cry about the system taking advantage of you.
Terry Foster you are correct 100%, however that isn’t most Americans.
bro you don’t understand, if you weren’t raised in a poor and violent environment then u don’t understand, some people can’t afford a new toothbrush, what makes u think they can afford to go to college, it’s not cus they’re lazy and choose to deal drugs it’s cus they can’t simply afford it, financial aid isn’t available for everyone some don’t qualify, and that’s just the poor factor, the violence factor is that it’s your environment you’re surrounded by people smoking weed dealing drugs fighting gangs, so human nature you adapt to that environment
Houston TX exactly man
What a hero. Not. Makes millions breaking the law and I am supposed to feel sorry for him.
"war on plants" man, american loves that word right?
FREE WEED VOTED FOR ME BELLSRINGER
If he had hired an attorney instead of representing himself, he would never have been convicted 25 years in the first place.
Exactly what i thougt.. haha im so good i study'd law in jail and got my self a lower sentence... OR ... just stop reprecenting your self ffs.. hippe! :p
Michael Kjergaard haha yeah it's impressive but unnecessary
Max de Koning when the lawyer isn't part of the problem, as well.
He only trafficked marijuana 😂 okay 👍
CEO? And the guy standing on my corner is regional manager? ....White privilege
It is a stilistic device, to destigamtize people, who are involved in drug trafficking. He 1st builds up the idea of a sucessfull buisness man to revert it by saying that the product were narcotics.
soufsidestl He was a CEO because he placed himself there, inside of his drug operation. White privilege is turning a blind eye to his activities. Instead he was arrested, tried twice and sentenced twice. His sentence was overturned because he educated himself on the situation, and kept fighting.
His plea: We should be investing in young people, ensuring their educational future. That's the difference, education is the privilege and something everyone should have the chance to pursue, accept or turn away. The privilege, and his main point, is knowledge.
soufsidestl how could a black homeless bum like Chris Gardner ever become CEO millionaire?
......Black Privilege?
😂 it was a literary device he was using “I was a CEO of a company which brought in organic product”.. then he flips it by saying that he sold marijuana.!
The way this guy breathes while talking is so annoying. Reminds me of Trump during the debate.
This guy justifies his behavior, " only marijuana, organic". It is against the law no matter how you feel about marijuana. He knew what he was doing, learn from your experience buddy. No sympathy here, none deserved.