TMR: Colorado Officials Want to Ban Pot Edibles, Man Arrested for Ebola Joke, and Ron vs. Rand on Ebola Travel Bans
Welcome to your Tuesday edition of The Morning Roar! Colorado Health Officials Want to Ban Marijuana EdiblesJust when everything seemed to be going all hunky dory and chunky monkey for marijuana users in Colorado, which recently legalized the herb which many use for both medical and recreational purposes, leave it to some government busy bodies to try to spoil the party. The Huffington Post reports how health officials from the rocky mountain state are looking to ban marijuana in a specific form only, that of the "edible", a food or candy which contains marijuana:
The call for a ban from the state Health Department comes as multiple lawmakers, state marijuana industry representatives and state officials have made recommendations to be included in a Colorado House bill that seeks additional restrictions on the sale of edible marijuana products, all of which will be discussed in a working group Monday."Prohibit the production of retail edible marijuana products other than a simple lozenge/hard candy or tinctures that are plainly labeled using universal symbol(s) and that users can add to their products at home," Colorado Health Department officials wrote in their recommendation, obtained by The Huffington Post. "Hard candy/lozenges would be manufactured in single 10 mg doses/lozenges and tinctures would be produced and labeled with dosing instructions, such as two drops equals 10 mg."
I first reported on this bill in an April edition of The Morning Roar, and the analysis remains the same. Coercive regulation placed upon the free market for marijuana will at best cast unneeded burdens upon an industry that is already rapidly adapting to its consumers needs, including safety needs. A full ban on pot edibles would simply push sales to the black market, where dosage information would be even less trustworthy, if it even existed at all.If these "health officials" (are they doctors? lawyers? career politicians?) were really concerned about the well being of kids who might not know any better, they wouldn't advocate for laws which would send teenagers to jail for life in prison.Be sure to check out John Odermatt's recent Felony Friday report on the Texas teen who took a plea deal to avoid life in jail for hash brownies, as well as my interview with Dr. Mark Thornton about the disastrous side effects of the War on Drugs.Man Arrested At Casino For Ebola JokeEbola is a serious disease, to be sure. In yesterday's Morning Roar, my colleague John Odermatt discussed the "anti-hysteria hysteria" surrounding Ebola. The disease is no laughing matter, and one man recently found out during a routine day at the casino that joking around about Ebola can have serious consequences. The Smoking Gun details how an Ohio man found himself under arrest for cracking an Ebola joke at the tables:
Emanuel Smith, 60, was gambling Wednesday at the Horseshoe Casino in Cleveland when he allegedly told a dealer that he was there as a way to avoid his ex-wife, who was stricken with Ebola.Smith, a retired municipal employee, claimed that his former spouse had recently returned to Cleveland from West Africa.According to a Municipal Court filing, Smith’s comment “caused panic” in the downtown casino, a portion of which was shut down as a result of Smith’s claim. The closure, investigators allege, caused the business to suffer “a large financial loss.”Several hours after his Ebola comment, Smith was arrested at his Cleveland home and charged with inducing panic, a felony, and criminal trespass.
It's hard to either defend or prosecute Smith from this column with the information we have about the incident. If Emmanuel Smith was intentionally attempting to cause a panic in the casino by frightening people about Ebola, the Horseshoe Casino could indeed have legitimate claims against him.However, one can easily imagine a man in a casual setting such as a poker table at a casino joking around with the dealer and several of his fellow players. I've certainly sat at poker tables where people made off key, politically incorrect comments once they got comfortable with each other. The comment about his wife makes it sound like he was simply making a topical joke.At some point we must ask ourselves, "what should be considered a crime?" Emaneul Smith could face jail time, and since he is charged with a felony, he could also lose the right to defend himself by owning a firearm for the rest of his life.Speaking of Ebola....Ron Paul vs. Rand Paul on Ebola Travel BansRaw Story has broken down the recent remarks made by the two most well-known of the libertarian ( leaning?) Paul family. It was Rand who spoke first last week, while speaking with Fox News Radio's John Gibson:
“It’s not like AIDS,” he explained. “AIDS is difficult to transmit. You’re not going to go into a cocktail party and have someone cough and get AIDS. If you are in a cocktail party with someone with Ebola and they cough, you are at risk for getting Ebola.”The Kentucky senator said that a “temporary hiatus on flights” was “only reasonable.”
The Senator may have a point about a "temporary hiatus" on certain flights.. But who should make that distinction? Should a coercive government force certain flights to a halt? Or should airlines be able to assess the risk regarding what geographic areas their flights should service? We'll break from this rhetorical sidebar to hear see what Paul the elder, Ron Paul, had to say about Ebola, when speaking with Newsmax.
“For a government to just ban all travel, I’m not much interested in that,” the former Republican presidential candidate told Newsmax. “You’ve got to put it in perspective. What if you wanted to save 15,000 deaths from AIDS this year. Why don’t you ban certain practices that spreads AIDS? So, we’re talking about one person that’s died [of Ebola in the U.S.] and we want to close down the world travel system.”Ron Paul, who is a medical doctor, pointed out that an estimated 3,000 to 49,000 people died every year from influenza, but no one was considering a travel ban to stop the flu from spreading.“So right now, I would say a travel ban is politically motivated more than something done for medical purposes,” he concluded.
While not directly responding to Rand's statements, it continues to be interesting to see the contrasting views between the non-politican Ron Paul, and his increasingly political, likely-Presidential-candidate son.Check out Ron Paul's appearance on Newsman TV below:http://youtu.be/p2vCx2FJqYkRead The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
