Meth-Head burns down tree older than Jesus

[Bill Mattocks]

Recreational drugs need to be legalized why again?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/02/woman-admits-to-burning-down-3500-year-old-tree/

“We received a tip through our crime line on Jan. 17,” said Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture. “We interviewed some friends of Ms. Barnes who said that she admitted to setting the fire and had pictures and video of the fire when it started.”

According to Ivey, while authorities were serving a search warrant of Barnes’ house, she admitted to starting a fire at the base of the tree as a light source so she could see what she was doing.

http://gizmodo.com/5889581/meth-addict-accidentally-burns-down-worlds-fifth+oldest-tree

The good news is that Barnes seemed sufficiently chastened by the whole thing, reportedly telling friends that "I can't believe I burned down a tree older than Jesus." Neither can he, Sarah. Neither can he.

So what have we learned? First of all, please be careful with lighters. In the wrong hands, they can be deceptively destructive little gadgets. And then yes, right, meth. Don't do that.

Update: Apparently Ms. Barnes was actually inside the trunk of the tree, not on a branch, which is somehow even sadder/worse.

FYI...before and after photos of the perp:

Before:

After:

She's 26 years old, looks 80. Yeah, that stuff is good for you. We should make it legal.

 

[tshadowchaser]

What can I say other than it's sad to lose a tree that old because of some person doing something really stupid.

With luck the courts may deem it proper to send her away for a while so she can reflect on her actions

 

[Dirty Dog]

It's sad to see a tree that old destroyed.
However, your attempt to connect this with the issue of what should be legal is more than a little tenuous.

Alcohol and tobacco each kill more people every year than all the illegal drugs combined.

The worst fire in Colorado history was started by a woman going through a divorce. She thought she could set the fire, put it out and be a hero, thus "winning" her estranged husband back.
By the logic you're using here, I guess we need to make either divorce or love illegal.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Recreational drugs need to be legalized why again?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/02/woman-admits-to-burning-down-3500-year-old-tree/



http://gizmodo.com/5889581/meth-addict-accidentally-burns-down-worlds-fifth+oldest-tree



FYI...before and after photos of the perp:

Before: View attachment 16156

After: View attachment 16157

She's 26 years old, looks 80. Yeah, that stuff is good for you. We should make it legal.

Bill, nobody is trying to legalize meth. Just FYI.
Sean

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Bill, nobody is trying to legalize meth. Just FYI.
Sean

Uh, Libertarians?

 

[Touch Of Death]

Who? LOL

 

[Cyriacus]

Do I have to say anything more than a low sigh?

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Who? LOL

Them:

http://www.lp.org/platform

1.2 Personal Privacy

Libertarians support the rights recognized by the Fourth Amendment to be secure in our persons,
homes, and property. Protection from unreasonable search and seizure should include records held
by third parties, such as email, medical, and library records. Only actions that infringe on the rights
of others can properly be termed crimes. We favor the repeal of all laws creating “crimes” without
victims, such as the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Them:

http://www.lp.org/platform

Just to play Devil's advocate, people wouldn't use and manufacture their own drugs if less dangerous drugs were legal.

 

[Big Don]

Just to play Devil's advocate, people wouldn't use and manufacture their own drugs if less dangerous drugs were legal.

Horse ****
"Medical marijuana" is "legal" in CA, look through the ads on any CA Craigslist. There are a lot of people buying or selling weed illicitly...

 

[Touch Of Death]

Horse ****
"Medical marijuana" is "legal" in CA, look through the ads on any CA Craigslist. There are a lot of people buying or selling weed illicitly...

Since we are talking about speed, your argument almost holds water.
Sean

 

[Big Don]

Since we are talking about speed, your argument almost holds water.
Sean

You implied that were drugs legal, people wouldn't trade in them illegally, you couldn't be more wrong. I know a guy who went to the doctor to see how difficult it was to get a prescription for "medical marijuana". He was in and out of the doctor's office in 35 minutes, having never met the doctor before.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

[h=1]Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?[/h]

The question is, does the new policy work? At the time, critics in the poor, socially conservative and largely Catholic nation said decriminalizing drug possession would open the country to "drug tourists" and exacerbate Portugal's drug problem; the country had some of the highest levels of hard-drug use in Europe. But the recently released results of a report commissioned by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, suggest otherwise.
The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.
"Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html

 

[Touch Of Death]

You implied that were drugs legal, people wouldn't trade in them illegally, you couldn't be more wrong. I know a guy who went to the doctor to see how difficult it was to get a prescription for "medical marijuana". He was in and out of the doctor's office in 35 minutes, having never met the doctor before.

If the Marijuana trade in California had anything to do with the meth trade in Florida, we could have your discussion. My implication is that people would not make meth or even know how, if cocaine were legal and regulated. So until the pot heads start destroying public property, I really don't know what your argument has to do with the subject at hand.
Sean

 

[Bill Mattocks]

[h=1]Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?[/h]
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html

http://www.justice.gov/dea/demand/speakout/09so.htm

The Netherlands has led Europe in the liberalization of drug policy. “Coffee shops” began to emerge throughout the Netherlands in 1976, offering marijuana products for sale. Possession and sale of marijuana are not legal, but coffee shops are permitted to operate and sell marijuana under certain restrictions, including a limit of no more than 5 grams sold to a person at any one time, no alcohol or hard drugs, no minors, and no advertising. In the Netherlands, it is illegal to sell or possess marijuana products. So coffee shop operators must purchase their marijuana products from illegal drug trafficking organizations.

Apparently, there has been some public dissatisfaction with the government’s policy. Recently the Dutch government began considering scaling back the quantity of marijuana available in coffee shops from 5 to 3 grams.

Furthermore, drug abuse has increased in the Netherlands. From 1984 to 1996, marijuana use among 18-25 year olds in Holland increased twofold. Since legalization of marijuana, heroin addiction levels in Holland have tripled and perhaps even quadrupled by some estimates.

The increasing use of marijuana is responsible for more than increased crime. It has widespread social implications as well. The head of Holland’s best-known drug abuse rehabilitation center has described what the new drug culture has created: The strong form of marijuana that most of the young people smoke, he says, produces “a chronically passive individual—someone who is lazy, who doesn’t want to take initiatives, doesn’t want to be active—the kid who’d prefer to lie in bed with a joint in the morning rather than getting up and doing something.”

...

The United Kingdom has also experimented with the relaxation of drug laws. Until the mid-1960s, British physicians were allowed to prescribe heroin to certain classes of addicts. According to political scientist James Q. Wilson, “a youthful drug culture emerged with a demand for drugs far different from that of the older addicts.” Many addicts chose to boycott the program and continued to get their heroin from illicit drug distributors. The British Government’s experiment with controlled heroin distribution, says Wilson, resulted in, at a minimum, a 30-fold increase in the number of addicts in ten years.

...

Drug policy also has an impact on general crime. In a 2001 study, the British Home Office found violent crime and property crime increased in the late 1990s in every wealthy country except the United States.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Can't we just execute all drug users then? Make no exceptions. Caught with .0000000000001 mg of coke, 2 .45's in the brainpan on the spot.
Regardless of age, sex, race, nationality, etc.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Can't we just execute all drug users then? Make no exceptions. Caught with .0000000000001 mg of coke, 2 .45's in the brainpan on the spot.
Regardless of age, sex, race, nationality, etc.

I knew we could come some some kind of agreement.

 

[Touch Of Death]

I knew we could come some some kind of agreement.

Somehow, I think this would effect the black and hispanic communities harder than the white.
Sean

 

[ballen0351]

So until the pot heads start destroying public property, I really don't know what your argument has to do with the subject at hand.
Sean

Thats a silly argument Ive seen "Pot Heads" kill each other over who took the last hit off the bong so dont try to play the Pot heads are peaceful and dont bother anyone argument its just not true.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Thats a silly argument Ive seen "Pot Heads" kill each other over who took the last hit off the bong so dont try to play the Pot heads are peaceful and dont bother anyone argument its just not true.

You are right. I should not have included that in my post. However, what's it gonna be A-motivational syndrome or Violent Psycho? Both are fine I suppose.
Sean