gun control
Democratic state gains may mean tighter gun, looser pot laws
From New York to New Mexico, residents in a number of states can expect a leftward push for expanded health care coverage, gun control, education funding and legalized recreational marijuana as Democrats who gained new or stronger powers in the midterm elections seek to put their stamp on public policy.
The Spot newsletter: Colorado legislative session ends with fireworks, a look at the state’s most competitive congressional race and a sad update on Aurora’s mayor
Welcome back to The Spot, where The Denver Post’s politics team captures what’s happening this week — from the Colorado legislature to Denver city hall, with a stop through the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Lil Wayne smoking again. (PICS!)
Lil Wayne is still on probation, but now, a photo showing Lil Wayne smoking what may be marijuana is online for all the world (and his probation officer) to see. Uh oh. Could this be big trouble? Let’s not forget, he’s still on probation for several more years. The idea here is to stay clean! […]
Can The Aurora Shooting Make Us Rethink Medical Marijuana?
Now that we are about a week and a half beyond the horrific shooting in the Aurora movie theater during a premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises”, we are still trying to deal with the shock of what occurred. We would like to extend our condolences to the families of the victims in the Aurora shooting.
There is simply no reason to detail the disturbing events as almost everyone is already familiar with the tragedy at the Aurora movie theater. This article was not written to get into a second amendment debate. The country seems evenly divided on gun rights but we do have to ask exactly why it is that the right to self-defense force enjoys much more protection than the right to seek self-relief? Should they not at least be equal? Firearms are responsible for thousands of U.S. deaths every year opponents of marijuana are still eagerly awaiting the first death attributed solely to marijuana use.
Perhaps the right to bear arms is necessary, but we know for sure the right to relief is absolutely a right we should all be entitled to. As mentioned before the country is evenly divided on gun ownership yet gun rights are protected by politicians with unusual vigor. However, a physician’s right to prescribe cannabis is supported by almost 75% of the country, though by far fewer elected officials. We live in a representative democracy and we have to start to wonder exactly when is it that lawmakers will start to resemble us. They certainly do not talk or dress like most of us so is it not in their job description to push for legislation that is in line with what we want and not lobbyist interests?
However politicians are similar to us in one way, they also seem to have no clue as to why James Holmes walked into that movie theater armed to the teeth. What drives someone to acquire weapons and then indiscriminately open fire without a care to individuals or their families? It should only be a matter of time before politicians blame video games. However blaming that familiar suspect is far too simple an explanation as millions play video games but only a micro percentage of the population storm into public places with the intent to take down as many people as they can. We cannot solve this problem quickly but we can solve one other problem troubling this nation. In the amount of time it would take for the ink to dry on a bill, we could solve the issue of intolerable pain, lack of compassion, and an inability to understand. Our government could legalize medical marijuana. Senseless violence is difficult to stop, so it