Is there a single reason pot should not be legalized? (statistics, regular)
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What's really sad is all this debate is so that you can get high. No other reason. No benefit, nothing. You want to get high, and screw everyone else. This is so sad if this is what our society has degraded to.
Go ahead.. puff away. No one is important but you and your need to get high.
So sad.
But people should have the right to do whatever they desire, as long as their rights aren't infringing on other people. If they are an infringement, those other people should act to do something about it. But there should be NO laws, no government.
Honestly I can see no reason not to make pot legal. None. Despite all the hand wringing and emotional rhetoric about it's ills and how it is a "gateway" drug if you look at it hard ALL abusers started on booze first. Pot is not without it's harmful effects but it is far less harmful than booze and unlike booze has a lot less harmful side effects. Unless cottonmouth, a bad case of the munchies and a perception of Tom and Jerry toons as profound and thought provoking theatre qualifies as harmful. It does not scar the liver as with alcohol, smoking it can of course be bad for the lungs ( hmmm tobacco don't do that) and I'm having a hard time coming up with much more in the way of physical problems. For folks in need of appetite stimulation (as with cancer patients) theres nothing better. No food is safe. EVERYTHING looks tasty. So...whats the problem?
'you' can't legislate morality or responsibility.
Responsible people will act in a responsible manner regardless of the law...irresponsible people won't.
Advocate for all the freedom stealing legilation you want...it won't change human behavior. ...it'll just restrict the freedom of law-abiding citizens
The pot smokers I've known were totally creepy and off-beat. I'm sure they had developed a mental illness over time because of it.
Pot needs to stay illegal; however, people should not be thrown into jail for smoking a joint. They just need citations and community service punishments at most.
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Originally Posted by ubu
In the UK, the Independent was originally the leading voice arguing for decriminalisation of cannabis. They have now publically changed there opinion. Here is there apology and there are some accompanying articles that are also worth reading from this link.
Cannabis: An apology - Health News, Health & Wellbeing - The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/cannabis-an-apology-440730.html - broken link)
For a while there has been a strong correlation between smoking dope and mental illness. But it was hard to figure out the causality. Were these folks mentally ill because they were smoking dope or were they smoking dope because they were mentally ill as a form of self medication?
In the UK the cannabis was mostly decriminalised and a lot more people started smoking dope. In effect its been a huge experiment performed on a lot of people. At the same time, the number of people who were being hospitalized for mental illness started exploding. Moreover those folks were smoking dope. So the causality is definitely looking like its dope that is causing the mental illness.
If you legalise dope, it will be cheaper and more people will have access to it. This should also mean a fairly large increase in the number of pysch patients intially. But in terms of public health campaigns, if its legal then you can sue the companies selling marijuana for the health effects like how the feds went after the cigarette companies in the tabacco settlement. Its also easier to demonise the industry as seeking to profit from harming others for profit. The public health anti-cigarette ads have been fairly successful at getting people to not smoke cigarettes. But legalising dope does mean that there is a certain group of people who will smoke dope who might not otherwise do if it was not legal and a certain percentage of that population will become mentally ill. So there are some tradeoffs there as well.
So while I disagree with you about the safety of marijuana, I still vacillate about the actual issue of legalization. In the short term I think its a bad idea that will cause a lot of extra people to become mentall ill. But in the long run, I think it might be a good idea.
Right now you have the hip hop stars blaming 'the man' and you have articles in high times saying that hemp was criminalised because the petrochemical industry didn't want competition from the wonder product hemp. If it was legal you could point out that the marijuana industry is as exploitive as the cigarette industry and shouldn't be trusted either.
Believe me, it can get a lot worse. We do not want the United States to become a third world nation or another Nazi Germany now do we??
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Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson
Back in the day I used to be against legalization because I feared that it would cause a general problem with apathy and dumbing down of the population as a whole. However, the country has become SO APATHETIC and SO DUMBED DOWN that I seriously doubt that legalizing pot could possibly make it any worse.
[quote=SuSuSushi;5770520]Caffeine and sugar are more addictive than pot. When a pothead can't get his daily toke, he doesn't go through withdrawal. Sure, he may be annoyed that he can't have his buzz, but he doesn't have physical withdrawal symptoms. Caffeine on the other hand -- take away a coffee addict's coffee and they have problems with sleeping, headaches, irritability, et cetera. Take away a sugar addict's sugar fix and they suffer from fatigue, cravings, et cetera.
So by your standards we should outlaw caffeine and sugar as well. Good on ya, there.[/q
Well it seems that medical journals don't agree that its not harmful. On etoike addicts are liike one cigaette smokers or one drink alcohol drionkers. being fron the 60's genertion I ahve seen what it does to peoles lifes. Certianly I would rather be around a smoker ;sugar addict or a caffine addict than a pwerson on marijuana in a car or operating equipment especailly when they work. Its like being with a drunk plain and simple. They got the name pothead ro a reason.
First, if its legal, you could get it at a convienence store, grocery store, maybe they would have specialty shops, like cigar shops (Maybe you could chalk that up as a plus, since it could stimulate *some* economy). You could get some on your way home from work. It would be another rite of passage. Think of how many kids go overboard when they get their license, go on a long road trip over the weekend, binge drink when they turn 21 (or enter college) . Their would be some group of kids out their that might be able to get pot that before wouldn't have the access.
If pot is not available they will just drink. Marijuana is actually safer, so if they smoke it instead of binge drinking that would be a plus.
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Originally Posted by aperfectbass
Second is venue. Now, if you want to smoke it, you do it in the comfort of your house, your friends house, or at a party. Now it would be just as easy to smoke on your break at work, in a bar or in your car on the way home. I could see the conversation with the police officer, "I'm just smoking it now, so I feel good right when i get home"
Driving under the influence is illegal. Public intoxication is illegal. Nobody is talking about making these things legal.
But people should have the right to do whatever they desire, as long as their rights aren't infringing on other people. If they are an infringement, those other people should act to do something about it. But there should be NO laws, no government.
Sorry to chase you down; how was I to know you'd be over here? But I do have to ask, given your thoughts stated above (and I know, it's off thread) but why then do you vigorously advocate against the lawful ownership of firearms, achieved through additional, onerous legislation aimed only at the lawful? Just curious.
I do agree with you and most of the liberal-minded posters here. There just has to be an economic reason for the persecution of pot users. From what I've seen it just doesn't seem near as bad as alcohol, but then the government gets to sell and tax alcohol.
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