Should we or should we not legalize drugs?

[mattskramer]

I agree with it 100% but I think that it explains my view better than I could explain it myself.

 

[insein]

I do too. Its like we tell our kids not to over do things like drinking and to not smoke. Most of the time they listen and sometimes they don't. The difference between drugs and drinking or smoking is that the kids wont get shot trying to buy alcohol from a store. We have regulations on Alcohol where you cant drink till your 21 and its nothing more than a fine if you are caught. Same deal with cigarettes. Just legalize, make them safe (aka government regulated to avoid experimental and bad batches of certain drugs) and regulate the age of use. Then use part of the money on education of these drugs so that people don't over do it.

 

[CrazyLiberal]

I don't think we should legalize some "hard" drugs such as cocaine, but marijuana should most definately be legalized. Right now, tax payers pay billions of dollars every year for the war against drugs, and to jail drug related criminals.

Marijuana is no more intoxicating or impairing than alcohol. It is impossible to overdose on marijuana and induce a lethal response. It is not difficult to induce a lethal response with alcohol.

Tobacco is much more dangerous to your health than marijuana.

It is ironic that tobacco and alcohol are legal, and marijuana is not.

Think of the money that could be made by taxing marijuana. And think of the crime that could be prevented by putting an end to the black market.

There are also benefits to consider from medicinal uses of marijuana.

 

[proud_savagette]

I don't have any problem with marijuana used for medical purposes, but I don't think it should be legal. This is coming from a teenager, who has seen other teenagers drop out of school because of marijuana. You see, marijuana has been proven to be a gateway drug for most teens who use it. Young people who smoke marijuana are two to five times more likely to move on to harder drugs, according to a group of researchers who published their conclusions from a recent study in the Journal of American Medical Association. It is also the informal conclusion of two recent high school graduates who talked with Family News in Focus. The two said they no longer smoke marijuana, but that most of the kids they smoked pot with in high school went on to harder drugs and aren't able to hold jobs.

 

[insein]

Originally posted by proud_savagette
I don't have any problem with marijuana used for medical purposes, but I don't think it should be legal. This is coming from a teenager, who has seen other teenagers drop out of school because of marijuana. You see, marijuana has been proven to be a gateway drug for most teens who use it. Young people who smoke marijuana are two to five times more likely to move on to harder drugs, according to a group of researchers who published their conclusions from a recent study in the Journal of American Medical Association. It is also the informal conclusion of two recent high school graduates who talked with Family News in Focus. The two said they no longer smoke marijuana, but that most of the kids they smoked pot with in high school went on to harder drugs and aren't able to hold jobs.

and the point is, if we legalize it, the BLACK market won't be a lucrative market anymore. Therefore it will cease to sell weed on the streets to anyone with money including kids. If we legalize it, we can regulate it and only sell it at certain distributors that ask for ID just like alcohol. Granted some kids will still get through but not in the numbers that they are right now. If its legalized it can be controlled and kept out of the hands of kids.

 

[proud_savagette]

I don't know...don't you know how many kids get away with buying alcohol? People are always going to find a way. So I guess it really doesn't matter what we do.

 

[CrazyLiberal]

Originally posted by Semper Fi
Marijuana is legal in Alaska, where I live. You can have 2 ounces growing in your home, but you can only use it in your home or some other non-public place. So far (the legalization was released around September 2003), I haven't notic3ed much of a differance, mostly because my eighth grade friends aren't into that. However, I would say that even though pot is a more dangerous substance than tobacco and alchohal, I think that it should be legal as it is here in the North as it should in the Lower 48.

Semper I live in Alaska.. and yes it is legal to have 2 ounces of marijuana in your private residence by STATE law.. You will still get busted for marijuana by Federal Law, so it doesn't really matter. It just means that marijuana related criminals are less severly punished here.