This article has been generously contributed for your reading pleasure by Tess Pennington of Ready Nutrition.
When will we wake up to the reality that we are standing at the cusp for very hard times? According to polls, the main concern among voters in this week’s elections was where our government and economy are headed. Will things take a turn for the better now that the republicans are in the majority? In this author’s humble opinion, it does not matter in the least who is in office or which party is in the majority. We are still headed for an economic derailment of epic proportions. And voting the republicans back into the majority will not put the breaks on what is to come.  These economic problems have been a growing cancer for decades, we just chose to turn a blind eye, and as a result, the condition has grown terminal. There is nothing that can stop the inevitable. James Rawles has a similar viewpoint.
On his widely popular Survivor Blog, he adds that, “Â I recommend that you get practical and redouble your family preparedness efforts. We are heading into some very hard times, with plenty of drama. The US Dollar is doomed. There is now virtually nothing that anyone can do to stop it. So get busy: Get out of Dollars, and into tangibles, pronto!
Our terminally ill economy is just another symptom of the much larger problem that looms in the distance. We have all heard whispers of a global food crisis. In fact, in the past 3 months food prices such as wheat, sugar, and coffee have all increased exponentially due to failed crop seasons and the monetary stimulus being pumped into the economy by the Federal Reserve. These symptoms that have reared their ugly heads are the beginning of the end – the end of the carefree American existence and the birth (and reality) of harder times. When America falls, so will other countries.
We were all fed a crock of bull. We were told that we deserve a much grander way of life. We all felt the high from the pipe dream they sold us, and we loved it.  We were so fixated on this grandiose way of life that we were oblivious to the vulnerability of this nation. We were duped into believing these erroneous ideas and at the same time it was going on we became complacent, and content. But at the same time we were feeling the high, the drug dealers stole our way of life right out from under us.
Now that our complacent drug of choice has worn off, many have woken up. And that euphoric feeling of complacency has now been replaced with anger. Anger is a good motivating emotion and causes people to act. And action is what this nation needs so badly. Perhaps the anger should also be at ourselves for believing such deceitful tales.  There is also anger at the lack of concern we seem to be getting from the government. The government seems to be more concerned with keeping up social graces than to admit to the noticeable struggles American families have to make ends meet. My question to Washington is simply: If struggling American households have to cut back on extraneous expenses to make their budget work, why doesn’t the government do the same? They have some of the best economists and accountants in the world, and they can’t control their spending?  Seriously!
Most American households are feeling the effects of the Great Recession… ahem Depression.  A large percentage of households are already living below poverty line, and more are to follow.  Those that have prepared realized early on that they could survive more abundantly by mimicking our ancestors way of life.  They have done the research and seen the logic in living away from cities, planting and raising their food, buying in bulk and storing food for later uses. They have also learned ways to simplify their lives and their finances, and learned essential skills. Those that were prudent will have a better chance at surviving an economic crisis, but the majority of Americans are still oblivious, and will struggle as a result.
It is never too late to begin preparing for unsettling times. Disasters happen every day, to everyday people. While the dollar still has value, begin purchasing needed supplies to live off of. Here are some additional points to preparing for harder times:
In summation, the world is not going to end – literally. However, the world as we know it is changing drastically. And despite many Americans’ hopes, there is no “magic button” that can fix this mess, or for that matter, a group of newly elected officials. The only way to get out of this is to brace yourself for some very uncomfortable years by preparing for them. These changes will make the American dream harder to come by and alter our way of life.  The faster we adapt to these changes the better off we will be. Despite the negative, and sometimes paranoid stigma given to preppers, these individuals saw the need to prepare for a day when they may be without. That day is fast approaching. Will you be ready?
This article has been generously contributed for your reading pleasure by Tess Pennington of Ready Nutrition.
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What? No government hand-outs?  Barry promised.Â
Comments…..Very good Read. You have stated, in a matter-of-fact way, the need to prepare for the economic earth quake that is headed our way.
I have stopped talking about prepping at work, because my co-employees think I’m wacco. I have warned them and given them ideas in prepping. It is up to them to head my advice or not.
Fortunately I live in another valley, far away from them. Thank you for trying, again, to warn and save those that will listen to your words.
Mona,
That’s all we can do is to keep trying. Hopefully, they will begin to listen before it’s too late. And, don’t worry about people thinking you’re wacko – we all look like wackos. We all have stories of people laughing in our faces. Sadly, the time will come when the last laugh is on them.
Just keep preppin’. Looks like we’re going to need it sooner than later.
Tess – Not all of us believed the b.s. coming at us. My wife and I always got a kick out of watching all our friends and families spending like there was no tomorrow. Big televisions, fancy cars, spend, spend, spend! We have always been prepping in one since or another. My wife works in a jewelry/coin store. Most of the business is p.m.’s. She has been getting paid in silver for the past 3 years. We’ve been warning people for years that they can’t keep it up. We are as ready as we can be for whatever happens. I won’t enjoy watching the same friends and family members when it all goes boom!
During the cold war, planning and preparing centered around camping gear, dehydrated food, and water. Many Americans expected to evacuate their cities and wait for radioactive fallout levels to diminish before returning.
Americans today must first plan and prepare for economic disasters and infrastructure failures due to a global economy and a bankrupt, corrupt, and incompetent government.
World War III is an economic war and the United States is losing.
http://www.planorperish.com/
The irony is that none of us will be completely prepared. Simply because we don’t know exactly what will happen in our area. We can partially prepare for most situations. Far better part way than none at all.
Â
If we just assume high inflation, we buy as much ahead of time as possible as a means of protecting wealth. The key is to not run out before the national economy is stabilized.
If we assume natural disaster, we buy a goodly stock to get us through until services and distribution channels are restored. In effect, until the local economy is restored.
If we assume destruction of the world economy, we buy ahead to carry us through until the local economy improves and we regain security from predation.
In all cases, the plan remains the same. Preparedness to get you through until the economy improves. The questions are: location, duration, demographics of the population and what do I bring to enhance the local economy. Answering these questions will help you to decide what you need to prepare for most eventualities.
The wealthy people have a last minute secret weapon.
INFLATION
Listen people,, the wealthy people are completely unprepared, and hyperinflation will NOT affect them. But it will suck for us.
They are NOT going to do without food and fuel. They don’t care if the small people suffer. As long as they get to remain living in comfort. Even if they they have to spend their entire fortune hiring private security, and paying high prices.
And they will DEMAND martial law..
get ready
Even if we can’t be completely prepared. We, that have prepared, will be so far ahead of the sheeple, it will be like night and day.
I personally do not know a single person who has preps. No friends and no family. My guess is 1 in a thousand has preps.
If TSHTF, the panic will be so severe, and stunning, I just hope I make it home.
It will be the best reality TV ever.
Dancing with the stars, monday night football, nascar, and jersey shore, won’t rate so good that night.
On second thought, knowing the general stupidity of generation Y, who knows.
The majority of the people I previously worked with had at a minimum, graduate degrees. They pegged me as a wac also Mona….. Wisdom & intelligence are two different subjects. Two had the guts to get back with me & say: You were right! It’s not about being right.
What a day for silver/gold! The local news tonight reported that food will go up on average 10%. What a joke! Take care of yourself to take care of your family/friends.
SittingGuy – I am worried about inflation too. Luckily, any extra money that my husband and I made over the last 3 years went into preparations. We saw it as a necessary investment and were trying to avoid paying extra along down the line.  Has anybody noticed the price of sugar increasing in the last few weeks? It’s gone up $3-$4 in the last two weeks.
 The only other people I know that prep are my immediate family members and that is because my husband and I kept talking to them about it. They probably got prepared to get us to shut up about it. Ha!Â
Bill – I envy you and your wife’s forethought. What a great idea to be paid in silver. Brilliant! As far as seeing people suffering over the next few years…. that is especially hard for me to imagine. I pray every night about that. I realize we all had the same amount of time to get ready and some people chose to be prudent and some did not … but it will still be very difficult to watch. Hopefully we will be on our homestead by then.
Overtheedge – right on! I completely agree. What I have found, is the smaller scale disasters supplies my family prepared for (lights out, hurricane, flooding, etc), were all items that I can add more to for larger scale disasters. More food, more water, more fuel, etc… All we can do is prepare for the disasters that effect our area and possibly the larger scale ones – if you can afford it these days.
Comments…..
sugar–dollar general… 4 lbs/$2…
Comments…..
Dollar General…
Libby’s canned peas, green beans, and corn…$.45 cents.
As I have said before start where you are and build from there…dont dispair if you are just starting out…some of us have been at this for decades,others are just now waking up and starting to get ready,when it blows itll be nice to have something/anything laid back,even a few galons of water and a few cases of ramen noodles will look awful good when theres no more anything to be had at any price,plan but dont panic!
I think they intend to default on all the creditors, that’s why they print trillions and trillions of useless papers.Â
The FED is the biggest creditor and will get pay first and the investors (Saudi, Japan, China, Russia..)Â will be mad at the U.S. and will be left holding an empty bag.Â
Correction.
 I understand why “generation Y†is stupid, because they put them on drugs. That’s why liberals want to legalize Marijuana.
Drugs and Marijuana only make you high and number your brain, and you can’t function. It is not for medical treatment, basically it just numbs your brain temporarily.Â
The easier your access to it, the more you get addicted to. Drugs and Marijuana take many lives and impair your brain, you can’t think - And that’s the INTENT. For those who supply it to dealers make a huge profit.
Â
_________________
Â
Forbes: “The billionaire marijuana backers-Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, his former colleague Sean Parker, philanthropist George Soros and Progressive insurance billionaire Peter Lewis all gave cash towards California’s Prop 19, which would have allowed people 21 years old or older to possess, cultivate or transport cannabis for personal use. About 54% of the state’s voters cast their ballots against Prop 19….â€
Â
Usually I like what you say Jane, but that was total Bull.
Generation Y is stupid because of the educational system.
Prohibition costs many lives and wastes resources.
People should be free to determine their own paths in life, just as with prepping. Some do, some don’t.
As The Empire crumbles, the story of The Little Red Hen comes to the forefront in the lives of many.
Dude   the people that wanted to vote for legal drugs to fry their brains were to stoned to realize it was time to vote that day.
JJ…..Dollar General had Libby’s veggies and IÂ bought all they had. Lots of people in there and none were buying food….just junk. People looked at me like I was crazy. I just told them that it was for donations (little did they know it I was donation to my own family)
They still have these sales going on and they also have GOLD Metal FLOUR for 1.50 a bag…..stock up people. Â
If generationY’s problem was just pot, we wouldn’t have a problem. But unfortunatly they prefer oxycotin, and xanax, And obsessive texting tweeting and facebooking. Its thier life.
I’m gen X and most of my X freinds have figured life out and are doing OK. But gen Y,,,, oh my. No skills, no motivation. COMPLETELY clueless how hard they have to work in life to get anywhere. They get hired, and expect to be promoted to a manager within 6 months. They all think they are special.
A more appropriate name for them is Gen Me.
They are so screwed
While I do not necessarily agree with Robert Heinlein’s views he had some amazing quotes.Â
“Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy”. Robert A. Heinlein
There is a ying and yang for me reading this blog. On the one hand, I do wish I had a friend to talk to about prepping, but it sounds like no one else does either. I have been out of work for a few weeks, and wow what a difference. rather than just hearing the news, I listen to the news. I really understand why folks aren’t interested in prepping, everyone is too busy making it from day today. My son is 6. I started making his lunch this week rather than giving him lunch money. Although I knew hot lunch was expensive and not nutritious, this morning I took the time to do the math while loading the lunch box…..
Nice to take a breath and see what is happening rather than rushing through missing most of it.
Thanks for all your posts…and nothing from mushroon. 🙂
@ CLARK,
I agree. I couldn’t list them all. Education is another area that major repair needs to be done immediately. Since Marijuana was recently defeated, that’s why I voiced my concern.
Drug is a major problem in this country; kids and college students are dropping out of school at a higher rate or are lagging so far back in school study.
Since Dems have the billionaire marijuana backers (George Soros and many others), they said they will put it back on ballot and as many as they need to UNTIL IT PASSES.
Anyone have experience w/ Mylar bags and buckets? Are these only good for grains (rice, wheat, flour, sugar, coffee, dried beans, nuts, etc)? And if properly used, how long do these foodstuffs last in mylar bags/buckets?
While I find this site extremely helpful I’m looking for something where all the preppers can get together and blog about PREPPING (what to and not to do). Many of you have a ton of experience that I want to tap into….Frankly…I NEED HELP
Like ARMED & PREPPING….I too have many questions.Â
Anyone know of such a site.Â
Check out survivalblog.com, and survivalistsboards.com. Tons of prepping info there
http://minionreport.net/forum/index.php
My local Piggly Wiggly is having a 2 day sale on Libby’s vegetables, so I’m going to stock up on those after work. Last month my church took food to our local food bank and I went through and cycled out the oldest can goods to take to the food bank.
A and P: It’s complicated. If your stores a totally dry and you can remove the oxygen or replace it with CO2 and if you can seal the bag really well then most grains and sugar will last forever (well, longer then you will live). If there is any moisture in your stores the food could spoil. Oxygen will do much to sugar but will degrade grains somewhat over time but probably not enough to make them inedible. Coffe stored in the original vacuum sealed cans will last forever BUT will it taste like coffee forever? Probably not. It will probably be pretty good in five years and maybe even ten years but eventually it will taste more like dirt then coffee. Dried beans may well last almost as long as grains but they tend to not cook up to a soft texture after being stored in excess of five years. Nothing wrong with them they just have a little al dente feel to them. Nuts and most seeds have lots of oil and do not store well. If they are vacumn packed they may be OK after a year or two but much longer and they will go rancid or pick up an off taste. White flour stored in an oxygen free environment may last as long as you and I will last but it will probably change somewhat over time. I have heard of people who claim that after about five years it doesn’t rise as much as fresh flour will.  Oils (which you didn’t mention) are very problematic and will not store, even unopened for more then 2 years and probably less. Exceptions might be butter canned at home or commercially and lard. While both of these animal fats will go bad there is some historical and modern experience that leads me to believe that under good conditions they can be stored for years (probably less then five years).  One thing to remember is that most of this information reflects taste and not nutrician. That is five year old flour might not taste like what you expect but it might be perfectly good to eat. Ten year old flour might be even worse but again if there is no mold/spoilage it may be fine, certainly better then going hungry. Â
Here is my theory: I buy oil and if I don’t need it in 18 months I give it to the food bank. I store some canned goods and after two years for acid foods and four years for low acid foods I give them to the food bank or throw them out. Wheat, sugar and rice I pack as good as I can and fully intend to use them when I need them even if it is twenty years later. I store flour and beans that I will probably throw it onto the compost pile after five years.   I keep about six months of coffee but I use it as needed. I do have some freeze dried coffee (instant) that is pretty old and will be interested to someday find out what 10 year old instant coffee tastes like. But otherwise I don’t “store” coffee.
Also, Mrs. Survival is extremely helpful in assisting beginning preppers in getting started. Â Tons of great info on that site, especially on canning, dehydrating, etc.
Site says it is for women, but there are plenty of men on that board also.
Some excellent reads, thoughts and suggestions. I’ve been a prepper for three years now. It took a lot of research, money and time but I feel worth it. My greatest fear and weakness is my wife’s cancer staying in remission. Looks good now but as for the future without medical help….well, I’d have to watch her die. We both know this and are devoted to one another. We’ve been one for thirty years, both of us love target shooting. She has her .357 and I my .45.  She initially wondered why I seemed so determined to prep….it troubles her sometimes, but she says she trusts my gut instincts. They have saved my life.  I think largely the idea of societal collapse. I’m ex- military and have told her things.  Living in a small town in the Central Valley of California is a good place to be if TSHTF. We grow things here. Meth heads and other losers and looters would soon find themselves dead or killed off seeking their drugs or chow.   We have several shotguns, rifles and pistols ammo for the same.  I collect silver rounds as a hobby, and as with Tina, I hunt for bargains at stores.  I can remember a time when I was grateful for the can of peas I had for dinner…..so many are in for a very rude jolt, and I don’t think it will be that long a wait.  My plans and preparations are known to only one local individual, my best friend for forty-four years, he living in the Bay Area.  He would hopefully be showing up if problems arise…and he is a damn good shot. But the water harvesting is in place, a years supply of chow, medications, stores for heat, fuel, fire, medical and such.   So now I wait and fine tune…..always something I learn here, something I had not considered, something new to implement.  Come to think of it, I should buy some more fire extinguishers.  Thanks Folks, I owe all of you.
Comments…..Why is the guy who owns a food website telling us to stock up…….maybe it is just me!
Now this is what I’m talking about. You all don’t have to give away all your trade secrets but bouncing ideas off one another is what I need. I’ve only prepping for about a year and I know I have a long way to go. Again, I’m afraid that I’m going to miss the obvious…..like fire extinguishers….I NEVER THOUGHT OF THOSE.
Anonymous and TnAndy….thanks for the other websites. I will definately look them up.
@ Tina ~
Give Jack Spirco (sp?)Â over at the Survival Podcast a look see. Jack has new podcasts on an almost daily basis that cover a wide variety of relevant subjects, a great archive section and you can even call him toll free or email him with your questions.
James Rawls over at the Survival Blog. com also has a great site. Great archive section and his active links to news of interest to preppers is an outstanding feature.
Be extremely careful of who you listen to as an authoritive source to assist you while prepping. Just like religion, there are as many ‘false prophets’ out there in the survivalist community as there are in the religious community. Both usually have one thing in common …….  both seek to enrich themselves at your expense by seperating you from as much of your cash as they possibly can.
There should be no “trade secrets” amongst preppers; we are all kind of on this journey together. Please remember that there is NO “one size fits all” answer to any survival question. What works well for me may not work so well for Bubba and not at all for you. You will need to customize your response to your individual situation in order to meet YOUR needs.
Best of luck to you on your survival journey.
@Armed and Prepping – Check this out.
Lots of excellent comments. It’s nice to see everyone on the same page.Â
Peace to you all!
Comments…..
@ Bill like the beginning of the vid “have to boil rice for twenty or thirty minutes” whoever made it hasen’t ever cooked rice!!!! my asian family would disagree….
I’ve been prepping for about a year as well, and it really does start to come together. The hardest part for me when I started was that there was no “plan” to turn to. Every family is different, and we all live in different places, so there is not a one-size-fits-all plan.
I started by buying at least 6 weeks worth of food and water. Then my water jugs disintegrated, so I learned what type of plastic not to use. LOL. Then I bought 6 months worth of freeze-dried food from Costco (Thrive when it was on sale) and stored that in the closet. I bought another set when it was on sale again last month.Â
Then I started buying rice, beans, and pasta from Costco a couple of weeks ago. I’m ordering Mylar bags this weekend. I can’t find any 5 gallon buckets, so I’m going to use big Rubbermaid Roughneck containers. I have lots of peanut butter and canned foods that I will donate to the food bank when they get close to the expiration dates (if we don’t eat them).
I still have a lot of things on my list, but prepping has become a habit now. I was a complete minimalist before and didn’t collect/store anything! That has taken some adjustment, but I keep everything organized and keep lists on my computer. That helps a lot.
Tina,
One of the books I have is “Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook” by Peggy Layton. I highly recommend it. It has charts and tables so you can do your own food storage planning, plus recipes.
Good luck, everybody.
Thanks Everyone….Thanks Bill I really love that link.
Serenity…paint stores sell five gallon buckets with lids, most of them anyway. I work for a paint company and we sell them for about six bucks each, more or less. They are airtight and sturdy. I have ten gallons of rice and five gallons of beans filling three of them.
Folks,
Please be careful as to what buckets you put food in, sealed or not. A FOOD GRADE plastic bucket is very highly recommended. Look to your local grocery store w/a bakery or a stand-alone and ask if they have any empty buckets they’ll part with. May be a $1 or $2 or free… Something to think about.
Comments…..
also folks remember chlorine bleach loses its effectiveness after six months, so don’t don’t unknowingly poison yourself! pool shock is better, but I’d get a Berkey….
In October, overall vehicle sales increased by 13.4% compared to October 2009, but that increase was largely because light truck sales increased by 23.5%, more than six times the 3.9% increase in passenger car sales. Year-to-date, truck sales are up by 16.7%, more than three times the 5.3% increase in passenger car sales so far this year.
What does that signal? The economic recovery is real.
AutoNation Chairman and CEO Mike Jackson (featured on a CD post in June): “I’ve always said, when you want to know when this economy is going to turn, just watch the pickup sales. All those sales are small businesses and entrepreneurs, and when they see the prospect for better business, they’re going to go out and finally buy a new pickup truck. So this is a key indicator of what’s going on in the U.S. economy. This is small business America saying that the worst is over, I see opportunities in the future, I feel confident enough to go out and buy a new truck.
Pickup trucks are bought by small business entrepreneurs who have their finger on the pulse of the U.S. economy. It’s an expression of confidence in future of economy. They don’t buy until they see the prospects for business are brighter.”
For the cheapest pre-canned basics like wheat berries, beans, rice, oats, etc (in #10) cans) go to your local Mormon (church of Latter Day Saints) Food Storage Center. It is one of the basic tenets of the Morman religion to have a years supply of food saved for your fa,ily so they provide the resources. They offer the services to the general public as part of their mission. They charge a ridiculously minimal markup. I bought 84 #10 cans for under $300. You will need to get a wheat grinder for the wheat berries to make flour, but all these foods are rated to last 30 years.
@Jane – Why do you care if people want to smoke a naturally occurring plant? Compared to all the crap the FDA let’s us take, its nothing. I personally hate the stuff, but I don’t like telling others what they can or cannot do with their lives as we live in a FREE country. Why are you against freedom of choice?
My parents live up in Canada where it’s legal. Crime is down, they’ve been able to reduce the number of police in some areas that were needed to enforce laws so they’re saving even more money. Their neighbors behind them grown 3-4 plants in the backyard. Canada is better off and has more freedoms then we in the US do now-a-days. Being high from pot, according to the medical professionals, is like drinking 2-3 beers. So driving “drunk” is still illegal in Canada.
So far, after 2 years they’ve only had positives from legalizing small amounts of the stuff. Next step I think they need to do is regulate it like cigarettes. Then when all the pot heads are sitting around with no ambition I can do even better for myself 🙂
MIKE L (Lunatic), Stop attacking me, read my comments again. Drugs and Marijuana only make you high and numb your brain, and you can’t function. It is not for medical treatment; basically it just numbs your brain temporarily and gradually will destroy your brain cells.
.
THE EASIER YOUR ACCESS TO IT, THE MORE YOU BECOME ADDICTED. Drugs and Marijuana take many lives and impair your brain, you can’t think - And that’s the INTENT, the billionaires like GEORGE SOROS and MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS support drugs .
.
For those who supply it to dealers and want to legalize drugs, they make a huge profit.  That’s why we have a lot of drug addicted zombies in America and on the increase every day.Â
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Certain drugs are dangerous and therefore they are made illegal. It’s no longer personal choice, it becomes society’s responsibility. BUT GEORGE SOROS & YOU WANT TO DESTROY THE VERY FABRIC OF SOCIETY, SO YOU CAN CONTROL ZOMBIES.
Jane’s rant against medical brought up a thought. Don’t forget to have your prescriptions filled. Aspirin or other NSAIDs, vitamins, and the whole list of treatment/preventative meds need to be in your stash. Biggy biggy, antibiotics. Infection kills and before 1947 was one of the leading causes of death.
And Jane, you are wrong about medical use. Our gov’t sends 300 marijuana cigarettes weighing 8.3 ounces to 4 people every 25 days. They were grand-fathered in the now discontinued Federal compassionate-use program. Marijuana remained listed in the official pharmacoepia until 1942 when the gov’t pressured it to be removed. Marinol is legal and prescribed. Active ingredient -THC, same a marijuana. Do a web search for Irvin Rosenfeld and marijuana. I am NOT a doctor nor do I recommend any treatments for chronic pain or anything else. I do a lot of research and only accept REAL evidence backed by sound research methodologies.
Now back to medical supplies. In any socio-economic instability, you had better figure that distribution will be affected. Stock up now and rotate your stock. It would be a horrible waste to survive the major effects to succumb to a minor injury that gets infected.
It is only reasonable to figure the increased physical demands of survival to not cause all sorts of skeleto-muscular injuries for many folks that aren’t use to repetative hard work. Hence the reason for aspirin/NSAIDs or other pain relievers. Like the phrase from the Bible, “If you don’t work, neither shall you eat” takes on a whole new meaning when the SHTF.
Have any of you considered throwing some appetite suppressants in your preps? I know that they are not good for you but it would help in the initial cutback that most people would have to do. Most people right now eat more then we should and would feel like they are starving if they had to eat a REAL SERVING (small handfull) of food. Just a thought……if nothing else you could hand them out (w/a cup of rice) to everyone that knocks on your door.
@Jane (great, mature, name calling) – I was not attacking you. I was questioning you. If your logic cannot hold up to that, sorry. You restate your already stated “facts” with NO empirical evidence. You realize if pot was legalized most of the Mexican drug cartels would be out of business right? The Federal government (companies outsourced to do so) would grow the stuff in the USA (just like in Canada currently) and process it. It would be no different then the addictive cigarettes already on the market. Now I have no idea how addictive, if at all, marijuana as I’ve never smoked the stuff.
But then again I am about freedom. Not restrictions. Should alcohol be banned too? Alcohol kills braincells, more so then cigarettes. What about guns? They people use guns to hurt other people, that’s bad. Where do the bans stop?
I actually want to make society better. I don’t believe I have the right to tell someone else what they can put in their body. You, on the other hand, do. I want to restore freedom to America like it was when the country was founded. Back to a constitutionally backed government that does not overreach, like they are with telling me what is good/bad for me. Even if I don’t want to use it, why do I have the right to restrict someone else from using it if they choose to? I do not believe I am better/more knowing then they are.
Mike L: You say “I don’t believe I have the right to tell someone else what they can put in their body”. Does that apply to crack and meth too? I think a legitimate arguement can be made to “decriminalize” pot which isn’t the same as making it legal. But you seem to feel that we could still function as a society if meth and crack and heroin, etc were legal and readily available. I think it would destroy us starting with our children. Â
I also think the “great success” Canada is having with legalization is exaggerated.  Vancouver is becoming a pit and gangs are being created to market drugs. Is that “success”?
@GoneWithTheWind – No, I’m not a supporter of hard drugs in any way, not really a supporter of corporate drugs either.
When were you in Vancouver last? I work there several times a month and except for the East side, I see it improving from 10 years ago. Gangs are created everywhere to push (I wouldn’t say they market, aka advertise) drugs. This is nothing new and its actually worse in Seattle I find then Vancouver. Vancouver has been one of the top 10 cities to live in World wide several years in a row and one of the key reasons was its lower then average crime.
I would never advocate legalizing hard drugs. But pot is NOT a hard drug nor any more harmful to a society then alcohol. I think we have bigger and more important things to spend policing monies on then pot busts of the recreational type. If the guy has 1+ ounces, arrest them. But you bust 2-3 teenagers with 2-3 joints we do not have the funds to put these kids in jail, then in front of a judge. We as a society are broke. I would rather spend our monies fighting the gangs and the hard drugs.
The known side effects of smoking pot are quite similar to drinking (except you tend to drive slower rather then faster) and the health effects are quite similar to smoking. So until we ban those two activities why do we fight a product (hemp mostly but we cannot grow that here because police are not smart enough to tell the difference between pot and hemp) that could net us billions in profits and tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs if we were allowed to grow hemp? Hemp cloths are more resilient then cotton, last longer on average and are cheaper to produce (it is a weed and grows quickly, much like Bamboo).
You will never, ever stop the meth, cocaine, etc drug problem. You can easily reduce it though. Through parents once again spending time with their kids (TV is not a babysitter, you wanted them, put in the time, they’re not a status symbol) and teaching them right from wrong. Influencing who your kids friends are also helps, but is not always possible. But if we were not spending so much on enforcing pot laws we could focus those funds on the harder drugs. You would also eliminate a lot of teens going to drug dealers who give out free samples of harder stuff to them. Which is why pot is a gateway drug. Its not cause they lace the joints, that’s actually very rare a lot of kids roll their own (according to my cousins) its that the dealers give out free samples of cocaine, meth, or designer drugs. If the government controlled the majority of distribution of pot this would be a mute point for the most part.
So legalizing it creates jobs by allowing hemp to be grown. It stops a lot of kids from going on to harder drugs by eliminating the need for them to see dealers (they get smokes and booze already, pot sold like smokes would be the same).
As a personal note, my friends that grew their own pot in their parents backyard never tried the harder stuff (that I know of) but my one friend that mostly got it from dealers has tried cocaine, acid and god knows what else cause he got it for free. He would then, once in a while buy that stuff again. Amazingly he is still alive and now is just a pothead (though quite rich).
Meth/grow-ops are a big problem in Chilliwack/Abbotsford BC. A lot of cases I deal with (removal of the AC units) the houses are rentals and insurance does not cover the damages to the place so it hurts the neighborhood and the actual home owner. Though since the legalization of pot in Canada, the number of grow-ops is dropping fairly fast.
@ Mike L
May I please ask what brand of single attach point sling you are using with your AK-47? Where does it attach to the rifle?
Thanks – MadMarkie
@MadMarkie – Of course. I changed my buttstock out to a Tapco 6 point adjustable one (OD green). I also got an OD green Tapco sling that threads through the buttstock. I love it, I can unclip my AK and keep the sling on but let my friend shoot too who has an AR15 with a single point Tapco sling.
If you need more info, like links reply back and I’ll try and get it this weekend.