Friday, June 26, 2009

Artur Davis Site DELETES Marijuana Post

I just received the following email form the Artur Davis Campaign for Governor.


Topic/Idea: End Marijuana Prohibition

Comment:
Status Changed from Active to Closed.

Posted By : info
http://arturdavis2010.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/8202-4426


It appears that they have deleted the Number 1 topic which was legalizing marijuana and the Number 2 topic which was legalizing hemp. They appear to have kept the rest starting with rewriting the state constitution.

Knowing deep down that was likely to happen I saved the page earlier today on my computer so there will be no saying "We never saw that topic...see it isn't there".

None. Of. That.

I can't upload a document here on blogger but will gladly email the page to anyone who wants it. My original post to the website is at the end of this post. I also have the comments left on the post which were emailed to me. I am about to embark on sending it to the media as soon as I am finished with this post.

I tell ya...this is no way to start a campaign. Say you want ideas from the public, then dismiss the ideas that got the most votes merely because you don't like them...instead of just saying you don't like them, and when the public demands an explanation delete the ideas entirely from your site.

Open and honest government Mr. Davis? Indeed, I think not.

Here is the original text of what I [posted on the Artur Davis site.

End Marijuana Prohibition
lorettanall 5 days ago

Drug policy is one area where Alabama really needs to step up. Ending marijuana prohibition for adults by taxing and regulating its sale would free up police resources for actual violent crimes, ease prison overcrowding and create a new source of revenue for the state. Did you know that 30% of the inmates in Alabama's horribly overcrowded prison system are there for non-violent drug offenses? This state spends $117,000,000 a year just to house them in prison. That figure does not include police and court resources used to address this problem, lost wages and productivity for those locked in a state government cage or destruction of the family unit. Marijuana is Alabama's largest cash crop but the only people benefiting from its sale are black market drug dealers. Monies made from the sale of this innocuous plant could be used to fund treatment for hard core drug addicts, education and a host of other worthy programs. How many teachers could Alabama pay with $117,000,000? How many jobs could be created by taxing and regulating the sale of marijuana? The drug war has been an abject failure. Laws will never stop natural human behavior and it's time we accepted that and changed our focus from prohibition to harm reduction and let this plant make us money instead of insisting that it cost us money.





5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks like he has actually closed the voting entirely. That would definitely be a smarter move by kicking our little hornet nest by deleting the #1 issue our citizens want action on.

Loretta Nall said...

Funny anon...that is the same thing another poster said on a different thread.

However, I suspect that the Davis campaign didn't close the other topics until after the AP called inquiring about the removal of them. They were there for hours after the marijuana and hemp posts were closed and removed from the site. I also suspect that the AP and other media contacts I sent it to were smart enough to look at the site as soon as they read the email.

Even if I am wrong about that (which I seriously doubt I am) there is still the unanswered question of why Artur Davis dismissed the top two ideas on his site. Even Obama didn't dare such a move when his "Open for Questions" website debuted a few months ago. He said he didn't favor legalization, but at least acknowledged that it was the most popular topic among those responding to his call for public input.

Brandon said...

Do you have the ability to create a PDF?

If so, create a PDF from the document and create an account with http://www.docstoc.com and load it up and then choose embed (at 400 px wide).

At that point if will auto-generate the code and all you have to do is copy and paste that directly into blogger's text editor and it will show up on your blog. Then readers can open it up full screen.

Just thought I would mention that in case you ever needed to house and link to documents you come across.

Loretta Nall said...

Thanks Brandon. I know that information will come in handy.

GW said...

This is too good. Blog on, baby...