Legalization of Marijuana

[MikeK]

Drug users ruin not only their own lives, but the lives of everyone around them. Warehousing users would be one solution. Keeping them in a place where they can't cause harm.

Are you including marijuana in this categorical condemnation? If so, please tell us specifically how marijuana use causes harm, both to the users and to others.

 

[GuyPinestra]

Drug users ruin not only their own lives, but the lives of everyone around them. Warehousing users would be one solution. Keeping them in a place where they can't cause harm.

Are you including marijuana in this categorical condemnation? If so, please tell us specifically how marijuana use causes harm, both to the users and to others.

Katz won't have an answer for that question, but instead will pull out some 'study' done by the same people who gave us 'Reefer Madness'.

 

[purplemonkey84]

I watched this new show "Weed Country" on Discovery and it was really interesting. I can't wait for the next episode tomorrow night! Legalize now!!

 

[Mr. Shaman]

In what ways is pot worse then alcohol?

In what way is the war on drugs different then prohibition?

Do you think it is harder for high school kids to get pot or alcohol?

Just some simple questions.

Pot is in no way worse than alcohol...in fact more deaths and more violence is caused as a direct result of alcohol.

It's not different than prohibition.

It's actually easier for kids to have access to both marijuana and alcohol.

A suggested read on this topic: I Shoulda Robbed A Bank by Hugh Yonn

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYVaQwMHGaI]Grass - The History of Marijuana - YouTube[/ame]​

 

[ScienceRocks]

Drug users ruin not only their own lives, but the lives of everyone around them. Warehousing users would be one solution. Keeping them in a place where they can't cause harm.

Are you including marijuana in this categorical condemnation? If so, please tell us specifically how marijuana use causes harm, both to the users and to others.

No more then drinking or smoking cigs. Of course its effects are closer to drinking.



Why not give people the choice?

 

[ScienceRocks]

Drug users ruin not only their own lives, but the lives of everyone around them. Warehousing users would be one solution. Keeping them in a place where they can't cause harm.

Are you including marijuana in this categorical condemnation? If so, please tell us specifically how marijuana use causes harm, both to the users and to others.

Katz won't have an answer for that question, but instead will pull out some 'study' done by the same people who gave us 'Reefer Madness'.

Eatting cake or cookies will make you fat=health problems. What's it to government to tell us what to do?

 

[MikeK]

In what ways is pot worse then alcohol?

In no way is marijuana as harmful as alcohol. Uncontaminated marijuana is non-toxic, non-addictive, and it has never been shown to cause a single example of death or illness.

In what way is the war on drugs different then prohibition?

Prohibition addressed one drug -- alcohol. The War On Drugs, which is an equally counterproductive failure, addresses a wide and expanding variety of recreational substances, from raw opium to "bath salts."

Do you think it is harder for high school kids to get pot or alcohol?

Much harder. No one is "pushing" alcohol on high school kids, whereas marijuana is readily available to them via street dealers because of the exceptional profit margins resulting from pot prohibition.

If marijuana were marketed in the same way as alcohol the same level of restricted access would apply.

 

[MikeK]

More substance use is not better.

Are you concerned with substance abuse or responsible recreational substance use?

 

[MikeK]

Testing to see if someone is high is harder than drunk. And neither should be driving...

That is true now only because marijuana is illegal and as such there is little demand for a testing method which is as immediately applicable as the breathalyzer. But if marijuana were legal you may rest assured the demand for such a testing method would motivate research and development, probably associated with saliva or optical reflex measurement apparatus.

Another factor to consider where "Reefer Madness" promotion of the highly exaggeratedstoned driving menace is driving while tranquilized by marijuana is not nearly as dangerous as driving while either stimulated and/or virtually disabled by alcohol. The main problem with stoners is they drive too slow, but they are for the most part intently focused and not inclined to speed or drift.

 

[MikeK]

Legalize it and tax the hell out of it!

Tax it, yes. But not enough to promote bootlegging.

 

[MikeK]

Just as there’ll always be a ‘war on terror,’ there’ll always be a ‘war on drugs,’ including marijuana.

The politicians are too fearful of the voters to do otherwise.

I believe the fear factor is secondary to "PAC" bribery of the Congress, the Executive, and the Judiciary by corporate interests which would be seriously undercut by legally available marijuana, outstandingly the liquor industry, followed by the prison industrial complex, law-enforcement unions, the piss-testing industry, the legal profession, etc. Marijuana prohibition is big business.

 

[MikeK]

Where are the potheads going to get the money to buy this expensive shit?

What?

Dude... one plant... ONE average plant... Can get you like 2 grand right now. A fuck'n plant. If it becomes legal you'll get people who... You know... Grow the stuff on a large scale and prices drop like a rock.

I'd love to see your source on that.

Listen, it's just like how we can legally brew our own beer and wine; sure, it's possible but, for MOST people, it's easier to buy a homogenized product from the store. Not every pothead is going to be growing the shit you see in High Times magazine and I assure you that some average female ditch weed in someone's garden isn't going to achieve the premium that a product will become. I can make pretty good beer at home but I can't make a store-bought guiness as easily as I can buy it.

2k for one average plant? uh huh..

Not an average plant. But a plant that would yield a few pounds of skunk ("lawyer bud"), no question about it. While I personally haven't even seen any marijuana since the late 1980s I was amazed to learn how pot prohibition has driven the prices up.

Back in the seventies, when marijuana was decriminalized in New York City (and I regularly indulged), the going rate for ditchweed to exotic was $25 to $80 per oz., respectively. Today, in the New York City area, people are paying $150 to $500 for the same things.

 

[MikeK]

Can you believe it? The government is doubling down on tobacco use and the doobie heads want to legalize marijuana which is not only unhealthy but makes you too crazy to drive a car or operate machinery. The dirty little secret is that the former hippies have gone capitalist and see a big profit is selling drugs to kids.

no one is talking about selling pot to kids any more than budwieser talks about selling beer to kids. you are a hyperbolic dumbass. end of story.

Marijuana makes you too crazy to drive a car or operate machinery. Indications are that the constant inhaling of the noxious smoke is poison to the system maybe worse than cigarette smoke. Why in the world would it make sense to legalize the drug?

First, marijuana is a tranquilizer. It doesn't make users "crazy." It makes them calm, relaxed, and peaceful. But one should not drive or operate machinery when under the influence of marijuana because it slows the reflexes.

Marijuana which is not contaminated with pesticides or growth-inducing hormones does not produce "noxious" smoke, which is not to say inhaling any kind of smoke is a good idea even when done only occasionally. But smoking is not the only way to enjoy the benefits of marijuana, nor is it the best way. The reason smoking is presently the most common way is because it is illegal, which causes the alternative means of ingesting it to remain obscure.

One alternative is the use of a vaporizer, which produces a completely benign vapor to be inhaled rather than smoke. But by far the best way to enjoy marijuana is by eating it in the form of baked good or some exotic sauces. And if it were legally available we soon would see a wide variety of delicious commercially marketed baked and cooked products, like cup-cakes, brownies, carrot cakes, tomato sauces, and many other edibles. And those who have been indoctrinated by "Reefer Madness" propaganda, such as yourself, would discover that marijuana is not the dangerous or insidious substance they've been led to believe it is.

If bubble-gum were illegal, made the subject of fabricated nonsense and malicious lies, the uninformed and impressionable public would feel the same way about it as they now feel about marijuana.

 

[MikeK]

No, but if it was made legal, then you'd get carded. I'd also wager that if it were legal and regulated like alcohol, you'd see a drop in consumption among kids.

Since marijuana became freely available to adults in The Netherlands in 1976 use by adolescents has significantly decreased. It's believed the reason for the reduction is disappearance of the lure of the illicit. Many kids simply have lost interest.