Lets talk Pot

I really can't believe I'm doing this, as I've been down this road at ATS before.

Recently the topic of Marijuana has been coming up at ATS, generally with regard to news concerning it legal status, specifically in California.

As a card carrying, state registered medicinal user of marijuana, I may simply view it with less jaded eyes than the administration of ATS. However, it seems lately that the ATS staff is simply looking for excuses to remove threads that deal with this topic.

Most recently, a thread about the new measure in California to legalize and tax the sale of my medicine was removed because the thread starter made the mistake of requesting that the member base here show their support for this measure.

The reason cited for the closing of the thread was violation of the following:

1 e.) Recruitment/Solicitation:

i) You will not use your membership at The Above Network, LLC site(s) for any type of recruitment to any causes whatsoever. You will not post, use the chat feature or use the private message system to disseminate advertisements, chain letters, petitions, pyramid schemes, or any kind of solicitation for political action, social action, letter campaigns, or related online and/or offline coordinated actions of any kind.

I think it's pretty obvious this is not the real reason the thread was closed, but an excuse to close a thread that dealt with a topic ATS doesn't like to deal with.

There was no discussion of personal use, which is what we've been told time and time again is what gets them closed.

So, in light of this, how many Ron Paul threads, or Obama threads, or McCain threads have we all endured during the last 18 - 20 months that were nothing but ATS members selling their candidates to others. Prior to the election, just about every political thread on this board made some sort of attempt at recruitment in one form or another.

We see members "calling for support" for any number of topics. Gun rights comes to mind immediately. Yet these discussions are allowed to go on page after page, and end up providing a lot of valuable information on the topic.

So, the question I ask is this: Why not simply state that any mention of Marijuana will result in deletion of your post? Why put us through this roller coaster of "Yeah, you can talk about it, but only in a very special manor, and then we'll find another excuse to close your thread anyway".

Wake up ATS, we have a member of state government advocating the legalization of this harmless substance in an effort to save his states dire economic situation, and we're not allowed to discuss it! Last year in Denver, the governor came out and waved hello to the thousands of Mary Jane's followers who were medicating on the steps of his capitol.

Oh, but it degrades further into hypocrisy. Anyone else think the "tell countries to stop doing business in Iran" add is a little inappropriate? Hey, ATS, if I pay you standard Advertising rates, can I start philosophical discussions about marijuana without fear of having my post deleted because I was soliciting, or recruiting?

Of all the topics discussed here, the subject of Marijuana probably has more misinformation surrounding it than any other. ATS's motto seems to indicate that clearing these things up with civilized discussion would be something that would be fully supported, not swept under the rug at first opportunity. For instance, why on earth would you delete a thread discussing the results of a government funded study on the medicinal qualities and long term health effects of it's use? Why on earth would you want to kill a discussion about a piece of state legislation which may be the ONLY thing that allows state employees to receive a paycheck, or residents to receive state income tax returns?

For the most part, ATS does a pretty good job of "denying ignorance". In some cases though, ignorance seems to be brought to a whole new level.

Now, doc me points, ban me, do what you want, but the hypocrisy in this subject on the side of ATS is appalling. You tell us we can discuss with respect to news articles, legislative occurances, etc. SO has been clear that any discussion of personal use is a blatant violation. He never said if we don't discuss personal use, another reason would be found (or created) to remove the thread.

I'm not asking for an explanation as to why it's an issue at all (which is ridiculous in and of it'self, it's not 1955 any more), you don't have to, but we'd all appreciate it you'd quit beating around the bush and outright allow or disallow the discussion of marijuana. It's more difficult than any of the conspiracy games have been to try and determine if you've worded things in a satisfactory manor or not. Hey, a prime example is this post. Does my mentioning that I'm a card carrying, state database registered, legal medicinal user constitute "discussion of personal use"?

reply to post by Unit541


I have to agree here. I know that ATS is trying not to be a repository of stoner stories and I agree with that. But I also think that cannabis is a societal issue, and needs to be addressed. If it requires a strict hand by the mods, so be it. But the Above Network wanted to deal with the big alternative issues...if it needs to pay particular attention to this one, that's part of the package.

And why can't I post a star here?

There is already a thread designed for discussion of this topic here.

Please contribute further questions and/or comments to the above linked thread.

Thank you.

Thread closed.