Reply from Michigan Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R)

[Little_Luck]

I just got the exact same crap from knollenberg. So apparently anything that a criminal could possibly use is automatically a bad thing for everyone.

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The Marijuana legalization lobby has been held down for years by the use of one term, "Drug Legalization". It makes me cringe when I hear a proponent or an opponent of marijuana legalization refer to it as legalizing drugs. When you lump a relatively harmless substance in the same group as substances that can take your life the first time you try it it plays right into the hand of the opponents of said legislation. It is much the same here, although I will probably get flamed for this analogy. If we poker players do not distance ourselves from other forms of gambling our cause will always have that cloud over it of being lumped into one category and it is not that simple.

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a relatively harmless substance

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Not that relatively harmless, it has been confirmed to cause severe mental illnesses. I do agree though that ecstacy and other drugs can be lethal or harmfull in a much shorter term.

You shouldn't consider Marijuana a 'fun drug' which just happens to be currently illegal.

Why not throw in alcohol, well alcohol can cause diseases, but these diseases can be cured at a rather late stage, paranoid schizofrenia can be medicated, only in rare cases cured.

I will probably be flamed for this, but I will gladly throw in tobacco as a drug to be outlawed asap.

I hope that I haven't been to flamey, but I have a friend who was very close to topping himself due to marijuanna abuse. And I have family who are schizophrenic, not due to marijuanna, but that does not make it pretty, anybody seen A beautiful Mind? Forget it, try thinking of a person sitting in a room screaming for 10 hours straight, just because it is dark outside.

So stay off drugs, including marijuanna and cigs as well.

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this is the part of the problem. the amount you know about drugs and the way you feel about them is how a lot of people feel about gambling & poker. ignorance and demanding the goverment to babysit people is what we should all be fighting against.