free the people free the herb

[ABikerSailor]

......Junk Food Industry Struggles to Keep Up With Demand After Legalization of Marijuana

For the most part, I lean toward agreeing that marijuana should be decriminalized. I think my hesitancy simply stems from the fact that it's always been illegal and having worked in law enforcement I've seen that side of the coin. However, alcohol and tobacco are legal and they are both substances that also alter the chemistry of the body and brain. Are they more harmful to the body than pot? No doubt, chronic and excessive use of marijuana (or any substance, for that matter, food included) will cause physical problems. But I believe that both alcohol and tobacco have far more dangerous implications from a medical and lifestyle perspective than does marijuana. I've known many people who, when under the influence of alcohol, become extremely agitated and/or violent, not to mention those who drive drunk and cause damage, injury and death. I don't recall ever seeing anyone under the influence of marijuana who wants to do anything but mellow out, laugh, or snack on Twinkies.

There will always be people with addictive tendencies who when given the chance to legally partake of a little weed will not be able to do so in a manageable and moderate way. The monies currently spent on the arrest, prosecution and incarceration of marijuana users/growers should, if pot is legalized, be spent on treatment of those individuals who develop an addiction. I don't believe that the average person would go hog wild and be stoned all of the time - I can't come to work drunk, so why would I come to work stoned? (Of course, there are people I work with who take a cigarette break every 15 minutes, but that's another thread.......) I don't think that marijuana is highly addictive for the average person, as opposed to crack, meth or heroin. Totally different. But I DO agree that if a person commits a crime while under the influence of ANY substance, whether it's alcohol or drugs, they should receive a much stiffer sentence than if they had been sober.

Then there's the question of who would grow the stuff if it was legal? And who would regulate the price of the product? And how would law enforcement agencies compensate for the millions of government dollars they would lose for their irradication programs? Hmmmm.

First off, cannabis is NOT addictive. Your brain will put you to sleep before you get too much.

Second, the government ALREADY has the framework to allow growing. It's called the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act.

I wasn't implying that marijuana itself is addictive. Having worked in drug enforcement, I understand that fact. However, there will always be people who abuse substances - addiction or not.

Yeah, but those substances weren't made illegal for racist reasons, cannabis was.

 

[SW2SILVER]

I don't think Thomas Jefferson regarded smoking garbage as a ..."FREEDOM“ , not even in the most vaguest of terms. Why do you people insist that this shit is a “freedom? Guess what? It is a vice, and that is all it is. I never understood why people smoke…ANYTHING, cigarettes, cigars, or hash, for that matter. All of them cause lung problems up to cancer, no matter how pleasant they seem.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Now whoever would have thought YOU were a pot head.

I'm willing to concede this point if I have it codified into law that it is permitted to discriminate against druggies, and bar them from ALL public assistance, financial or material.

You wanna wreck your life, you don't get to do it at my expense OR in my proximity. I want the right to bar you from my property, access to my children, tax money, neigborhood, driving, workplace and government. You can avoid this by choosing to NOT be a dope....head.

Oh, and automatic death penalty for crimes committed for or while on drugs.

Do that and it fucks over all the right people. Drug growers, traffickers and foreign powers while protecting our rights and culls these assholes out of society.

are you willing to go this far with people who drink and are hooked on Cigarets?.....

 

[mudwhistle]

gettin your hate in early this mornin'

S was just saying you talk like you're stoned all of the time.

 

[whitehall]

The global war on murder has generally failed. Should we legalize it?