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Joplin activist Kelly Maddy said the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws doesn't dictate for other communities where its efforts will be concentrated, and that he's unaware of any specific plans regarding Cape Girardeau.
Cape Girardeau and the Missouri towns of Springfield and Blue Springs were named because they are cities where there are significant numbers of members but no official chapter affiliate, Maddy said in an e-mail to the Southeast Missourian.
All three cities are also home to universities; Cape Girardeau has Southeast Missouri State University, William Woods University is in Blue Springs, and Missouri State University, along with several other colleges, are in Springfield.
NORML chapters and members are constantly looking for opportunities in Missouri cities to seek reform by gathering signatures on an initiative petition, successful in Columbia, Mo., in 2004, Maddy said.
However, Allen St. Pierre, NORML's executive director, said that there were no current Cape Girardeau members listed in the organization's database, and the last one had not been active since 2005.
"There will be campaigns in 2010 in a Missouri municipality, for now we are not sure where they will be," Maddy wrote in the e-mail.
Such an campaign in Joplin, Mo., fell 531 voter signatures short in 2008, prompting advocates to consider a new community as a battleground next year.
Law enforcement officials in Cape Girardeau say they have doubts that such an initiative would succeed in Southeast Missouri, and have concerns if it were to get local support.
"Cape's still fairly conservative," said Kevin Glaser, director of the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force.
While Cape Girardeau is a college town, it differs from Columbia, said Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle, in that University of Missouri students make up a much larger portion of that city's population.
"I doubt an initiative to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana would pass in Cape Girardeau," Swingle said.
Swingle said he predicted organizers selected another area of the state to concentrate their efforts.
Perry County Sheriff and drug task force board president Gary Schaaf said he expected such a measure to have mixed success locally.
Glaser said most members of law enforcement still view marijuana as a gateway drug capable of leading users down a path where they eventually try and abuse other controlled substances such as methamphetamine and prescription narcotics.
"I think it'd be a step backwards," Glaser said of a decriminalization initiative.
Though many people view marijuana as less dangerous than other controlled substances, Schaaf said, its frequently involved in other crimes and felony drug cases where other types of drugs are seized, like meth and cocaine.
Swingle pointed out that possession of less than 35 grams of marijuana is still a low-level offense in which the defendant is unlikely to serve any jail time.
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Don't we have enough intoxication from alcohol and lung and heart disease from tobacco? It seems to me that we really don't need any more things to make people's lives miserable.
I keep hearing about the medicinal benefits of pot, well even if it cured cancer I would not inhale that nasty smelling stuff! As I see it, if there is any real benefit from the use of marijuana, as some say there is, then why isn't the active ingredient chemically separated from the plant and dispensed in medicinal quantities and known strengths, like other drugs that really do have medicinal benefits?
They do have a drug like that which you describe. It's called Marinol and it's over $100 per perscription. To myself, it makes sense to legalize marijuana for the following reason if nothing else; If you're going to smoke pot, you're going to whether it is legal or not. If you're not going to smoke pot , you're not, legal or not. If legalized, the government could tax it like tobacco and all our tax bills would go down. . . maybe.
It should be legalized. Pot is not the evil drug that they have made it out to be. It's less chemically addictive than alcohol, cigarettes, even many proscription drugs.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/fact...
Hemp in it's other form would create awesome opportunities for farmers to grow another raw material for the textile industry. Cloth from hemp is stronger than cotton and so much more durable.
It's taxable, it's versatile, and safer than many other forms of legal substances.
Wow- first Cape has rev Rice wanting to come to town with his homeless people, now we have potheads coming to town, what next?
Why are "advocates" for legalizing drugs and Rev. Rice zeroing in on Cape Girardeau? I for one don't want Cape Gir. to be like St Louis or Springfield. Welcome to that change that everybody thought we needed.
i know people who use it and my opion it makes people lazy and not want to work.
Legalize it, and tax it to death! It's the only way to "truly" win the War on Drugs. We could pull that 1% extra tax to build the catfish aquarium from this.
You want to create jobs, increase tax revenue both from sales and income tax? Legalize it. Bilions, BILLIONS of tax dollars are completely wasted on enforcement, adjudication, and incarceration of marijuana related offenses. It's not outside the realm of possibility that the legalization of marijuana alone could bring us out of this recession. Don't decriminalize it, legalize it. It's ridiculous it's taken this long. This is the single best and easiest way to help the economy. Add into that it's only b/c of the Bible thumpers that's it's still illegal, is less socially destructive and dangerous than alcohol by an enormous margin, and you begin to see how absurd it's illegality is. And casey, those people are lazy anyway. It's not the weed. And frazzled, you can't swing a dead cat around here w/out hitting a pothead already. You need to wake up. I don't smoke it, but there is absolutely no viable reason for it to be illegal. It's a "gateway drug"? Nonsense. Alcohol, nicotine and caffeine have long beaten weed to the punch on that one. It's bad for you? So is smoking, drinking, Applebees and Taco Bell, and they are all legal. Yet another reason for the government to righfully keep the bible thumpers out of our lives.
I've know people in this town that have been smoking weed for 30 years. They are business owners, teachers, labors, factory workers, etc. I think they would love to see it legalized, but when they feel the tax pinch that they would have to start paying they'll probably wish it was illegal agian.
Well if this is going to deteriorate to a discussion of how to get out of this recession/depression, and NONE of us are going to use it! What the heck...legalize it all...then when the terrorists come to take us down we won't even know it...we will all be high as kites!
Just think of the money we could save...while we are at it..lets just legalize everything! Then we won't even need police, judges, prisons or anything!
If we are going to be absurd, then lets be completely absurd!
I agree with heye1967 and zzz's. Unless you are or have been a user, you can't judge it. Alcohol is far more dangerous. Pot on the other hand, in most people, causes them to be more mellow and I have never in 30+ years seen anyone become violent on it.
As far as being a "gateway" drug...most young people in that mindset end up trying other drugs anyway. They usually, once passed that, settle down and just smoke their pot. Some people are just going to make poor choices and do anything they can get their hands on. We will not ever completely control that.
Alcohol is far more dangerous. It kills, not only by dangerous drivers, but by causing serious health problems. I have never heard of anyone getting "too high" on just pot. It peeks and the worst that happens is that you want to devour anything in sight and then it's time for a nap.
Weed doesn't cause laziness. Some will be regardless, but some users also get bursts of energy and can conquer major tasks that they've put off forever. It's individualized, just like anything else.
So don't knock it if you can't back it up! I'm for legalizing it and I know a WHOLE bunch of other people who are too! The majority being the everyday working class.
They target Cape because we are getting bigger and more like St. Louis, we can't have it both ways. Big city = drugs,crime,murders,shootings,
robbery,homeless (and cape does have them just look around )and all that good stuff that goes with a large city. And if you really want to see trouble bring in the gambling boats and you won't be able to walk the streets after 6:00 morning or night.
Small Town = Quite nights,unlocked doors,sheds, gas caps, you knew your neighbors, they watch out for you and you for them and there things. Just country time lemonade days on the front porch,the kids could play in the front yard without worrying about the perverts that live here now(everywhere)
this was cape 40 years ago, before we started trying to keep up with St. Louis, should have left well enough along guys, now you have to deal with it.
How does the big growing city feel today? like home?
Hey, I sometimes get high from a pinch of Kodiak.
I think it should be legal! Not for me because I found out 36 years ago that I am allergic. But the government doesn't want you to know about the medicinal side of it. There used to be a woman in Marble Hill that the government sent her a months supply for her glaucoma back in the late 70's. I am sure that she has since passed away, but she claimed that it helped her. It won't 'cure' cancer, but it helps with the after effects of the treatments. So why not make it legal. I sure don't want my loved ones to suffer when there is something that can help ease their pain.
Maybe it could tie in the the DREAM initiative: Build a pot "cafe" downtown and we could be a "Little Amsterdam". Talk about downtown growth!
That could lead to another city slogan: The city that rolls its own.
Megalomania:
That would do nothing but turn drug dealers into tax evaders; and put the DEA out of business.
But it would distract the IRS, hmmm...
Uh...Uh..."I forgot what I was gonna say".
Walkenstick said,"well even if it cured cancer I would not inhale that nasty smelling stuff!
I would be willing to bet you would!!!
Stupid comment I might add.
Prohibition does not work it never has. The war on drugs is a huge failure and the cost involved has been wasted. Perhaps Walkenstick thinks that "refer maddness" was true! Marijuana should be legalized and we should all be allowed to grow six plants for personal use. Here in lies the problem. How can the Government tax something anyone can grow in their own home or yard?
Like it or not marijuana use is here to stay and filling our prisons with drug users is NOT the answer to the drug problem. It is nothing but a revenue source for the police and too much of their time is being wasted on looking for pot heads INSTEAD of solving real crimes like rape,murder and stealing.
I'm changing my tune. I'm now for the legalization of marijuana, along with any other drug out there.
I don't care whether it's safe or not. I couldn't care less whether it's addictive or a gateway to other drugs. In fact, I don't care if someone wants to spend the rest of their life in a marijuana-induced haze.
I'm now actively encouraging people to smoke weed and use every other type of drug they can. Oh sure, there might be a slight risk to me in how the pot heads and other druggies conduct themselves in society. On the other hand, I'm convinced of the benefits ... to me, the non-user.
It's gonna make my non-using kids that much more competitive in gaining entry to better colleges. It's gonna help me and them and other lucid members of society be in more demand for better and more responsible jobs. And I also get the benefit of more police support, since they now won't be out trolling for illicit drug sales.
So please, legalize marijuana now! I have absolutlely nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Why is it in our community's benefit to arrest potheads, instead of drunk drivers that pour out of bars every night, or get booze from the drive thru? Is Cape a place where passive stoners are more threatening than drunken motorists? Are we a town where no one could handle a joint, but anyone could carry a gun?
I went to Cape schools. The suggestion that the marijuana culture isn't yet here sounds more stoned out then anything I've heard from marijuana users. It's always been here. We've had a headshop on Main St. for years; we're a tiny college town! You'd have to be high to think marijuana isn't here already.
People suggest decriminalization just opens the door to use, but anyone can already buy marijuana. The entrance isn't open, there's no door at all, and there won't be until there's sensible regulation. If we're not ready to handle marijuana in an effective way, then it's our loss.
LEGALIZE!!!! pot and make ciggaretes illegal. just because pot is illegal it gets a bad rep. if cigs were illegal and we were debating on legalizing it, it wouldnt even be a discussion. Not to mention the profit america could achieve from it. LOOK AT IT BOTH WAYS