How Come "Joe Sixpack" is an American Hero, While "Joe

[grace]

How Come "Joe Sixpack" is an American Hero, While "Joe Stoner" Gets Arrested?

Posted in Chronicle Blog by Scott Morgan

Mon, 10/06/2008 - 7:34pm

StoptheDrugWar.org

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2...ack_is_an_ameri

 

Paul Armentano at NORML points to Sarah Palin's glorification of "Joe Sixpack" in the vice presidential debate. Indeed, one could scarcely overstate the naked hypocrisy of portraying daily drinkers as American heroes, while our nation continues to arrest nearly a million Americans each year for using marijuana.

 

I usually leave the alcohol analogy alone, assuming that it often speaks for itself, and when it doesn’t, the guys at SAFER can be counted on to point it out. But there are moments -- like hearing a major party VP candidate canonize alcohol users in a massively public forum – that remind us how truly discriminatory and fundamentally illogical this disparity is. If regulated sale is the best policy for alcohol, then it is the best policy for marijuana. And if people who drink a sixpack after work can be American heroes, so too are those who derive pleasure and relaxation from cannabis.

 

(This blog post was published by StoptheDrugWar.org's lobbying arm, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also shares the cost of maintaining this web site. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501©(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)