I believe this would fit here rather than the drugs board if it's kept as a debate.

So, what do you think? Should it become legal or not?

I personally believe it should be legal...

If it was legal, people wouldn't have a thrill doing it. They wouldn't be baked off their asses all the time because they could get it whenever they want.

It isn't even that bad, you can't die from pot unless you smoke 37 lbs at once...

I'm all for it being legal. The people who smoke pot because its "illegal" should be shot. Let the people who appreciate it and smoke it for it's benefits smoke it instead. So many people smoke marijuana, it's insane. I meet more yuppies, businessmen, housewives, mothers, teachers, etc. that smoke than I can count, not to mention people in my age range that do as well. The government could really cash in on it, but I suppose they make more money from the drug trafficking and that's why they won't do a damn thing about it.

There really are a ton of medicinal purposes marijuana offers. It should be legalized, but like every other prescription drug that can alter your state: Don't drive or operate machinery while using it.

You should have to be over 21 to buy it, like alcohol. And tax it of course.

That wouldn't stop minors from getting it.
And did you know that in one state they says they will bring in over 30 billion in revenue from it? That would go a long way to funding a ton of good stuff. I know people who pay $60 for an eighth. So the government comes in, and taxes it, and sells it for $50, and the schools, police, roads, and childrens services all improve.
But there is also the other side of it. People who believe that if we legalize it we will see a spike in drug use. Some people aren't as strong as others, and would use other drugs, some will just use pot. Which happens to be the most used drug on the street, atleast here in Oregon.
As for me I would love to see it legalized, but it looks like they are more likely to make tobacco illegal than make pot legal.

I think it would be more beneficial legal. You could save money by NOT locking up people who have marijuana on them, and instead use that jail spot for someone more deserving, thus saving the government money. Not to mention how much money the government can make from it. I really don't know why it isn't legal yet.

The US boasts the highest incarceration rate in the world (yes, more than DPRK), mostly due to incarceration due to many non-violent AND consensual crimes, ie. prostitution and drug use/possession.

I'm for legalization, and I could give a million reasons why, but this sums it up pretty well: I might be one of those incarcerated people one day if I slip up. And I know that I don't deserve it, and I hope others would know that too. But the law cares little for that.

It's a "been there, done that" topic of discussion. We'll just have to wait (or act) on the political and social climate.

Socially, the "stoners" have won, at least around here. I haven't met a single individual who was against weed. But then again, I'm a college student in NYC. The people I associate with either do it or don't mind, eh?

I'm actually on the fence about this issue, because I have seen just weed ruin lives. But then, so does alcohol, and that is not banned.

Weed doesnt get up and decide to ruin someone's life. Some schmuck does nothing but smoke weed all day, that's his problem.

I fail to see how making weed illegal somehow saves people's lives from getting ruined considering... you know, getting arrested and sent to PRISON over it.

Noone's really against it in this topic :\ Come on, there's gotta be someone whose morals are against pot.

Prison does not ruin lives. They call it rehabilitation for a reason.

Considering your chances of getting a job before going to prison, and your chances after - yeah it does ruin lives.

Also we can consider the size of your asshole.

Jeez, why does have hate on anal sex?

Even if you're into it, being someone's bitch is probably one of the most degrading and humiliating things anyone can go through, and it's bound to leave some psychological scars.

Or you can refuse to be soemone's bitch in exchange for a few points for bravery and the chance to have 20 men run a train on you every night. So then you're everybody's bitch.

On another note, I don't think the first drug charge sends you to pound me in the ass prison.

hahahahhahahahahhaha

yeah, like here in Cali, if you're caught with say an 1/8, most of the time they just step on it or give it back to you and give you a slap on the wrist. if the cop chooses to do anything, its just going to be a misdemeanor.

Yeah I was just arguing the point that prison can and does ruin lives and does very little for actual rehabilitation.

21? Why would anyone make it 21 to buy it? 18 would make more sense. All the other smokable plants have an 18 year old requirement. I do and I don't think it should be legalized... I don't want it taxed or the price jacked up... or I don't know. I'd like it legal but not government regulated, but um... lol.

If they put a 100% tax on it, you'd still probably get an ounce of chronic for like 10 bucks. It's weed.

In NJ, they moved the age to buy tobacco to 19.

You can make the same argument for practically every dangerous thing in the world. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Cocaine doesn't just decide to mess you up, you have to use it. Etc.


It's not that hard to stay out of prison.

I can understand wanting weed to be legalized (I'm pretty borderline on the issue), but I can't understand when people are all surprised and indignant for getting in trouble for it.

Just because you think it should be legalized, that doesn't mean it isn't against the law. And you know that it's against the law. So think about that before you buy it.


Yeah, I have a couple of friends that that've been let off with warnings for pot more than once, also in California.

Fixed, and that's the idea

Again, I was pointing out the fact that once you're already in it, your life is fucked.

Wow, I'm sure that's made a big change in tobacco use.

I live in Maryland, and the drug laws here suck.

Anyway, marijuana should be legal and I think in 50 years it will be. There's a lot more harm in having it illegal. You're giving drug dealers a source of money and power, which on the larger scale also leads to violent crimes. The government should just legalize and tax it. That way they save all the money they would've spent on retarded anti-marijuana ads that don't do shit, and make some extra green (LOL GET IT?). Just follow the example of Amsterdam. It works fine there. Tougher laws on harder drugs (although I'm not sure that's possible), only authorized dealers, and no more than 5 grams on an individual at a time (but they should bump that up to 7 grams). I see little to no downsides to that. Everyone who doesn't smoke wouldn't have to, and just make it illegal to drive under the influence (which it already is). Hell, they could make it illegal to smoke outside of a home or weed shop and I'd be more than satisfied.

I get the feeling that only copious amounts of drugs actually allows someone to have that naive of an attitude.

They would gleefully lock me up for months, and then years for doing something that I think is my own business, leaving me to the more (or equally, as some would have it) hardened criminals, confinement in a shit-smelling 5x5 foot cage eating near-excrement every day and working in a giant vat of lye doing laundry, if I'm lucky. It would be the end of my freedom, and you call it anything but tyranny?

Is the rehab supposed to be the part where you'd to anything not to be there, like when your cellmate's 900 pound friend they call "The Anaconda" is transferred to your facility?

Is that guy who comes in once every 6 months to ask 700 inmates if they've got "troubles" rehab?

And, yes, chances of being caught are rather miniscule, because most policemen know the BS and don't bother with the drug arrests. But they do happen.

I don't know that you can separate being in prison from the crime that got you put there. At this point you're not already in prison, so it's not hard to avoid. And since you know about the crime beforehand I don't know that you can argue that it's the prison that ruins your life, not you. And you're right, it doesn't do much for rehabilitation, but it does scare some people straight.

Are you Paranoid Android, by the way?


Again, the scared straight thing. I think people who've been in prison for smoking pot are a lot less likely to do it again.

I agree, for the most part, that the prison system is pretty crappy. But I don't know how to make it good. Do you?

Yeah


Get rid of drug laws, then the only people left inside will be real criminals and who gives a fuck about them?

Prison doesn't focus on rehabilitation that much in the US. Why do you think there are so many repeat inmates? It's more about punishment than fixing the problem.

More of a way to keep them off the streets than punishment, really.

Just to throw my 2 pennies in, I know what I'm going to say has mostly already been said in more or less words...

Personally, I smoke occasionally/socially(probably only once or twice a month) and believe that it should be legalized medically but not recreationally. I think the cons outweigh the pros even though it will still continue to be used heavily. If it were legalized there should certainly be a limit on the THC concentration, along with a very very strict DUI policy.

Do you really think cops should be tougher on smoking than drinking when it comes to DUIs?

I think cops should be tougher on both.

I think it's pretty tough as it is. If you're driving and have been smoking/drinking, you're not getting off with a slap on the wrist.

Well it should be tough, I mean, sure 99/100 of those people who drive 'buzzed' will get home in one piece but that 1/100 who hurts themselves or others isn't worth it.

(note - 99/100 as an overestimation, I really have no idea what the real fraction would be)

socially accepted weed (on a widespread basis, not just among shitty college campuses) would ruin the economy on a fundamental level

all the legal drugs are conducive to a happy working class.

Elaborate.

I think it should have the same guidelines as alcohol (age limit, can't be "high in public", etc.). If alcohol is going to be legal, you might as well make weed legal.

I don't need to know how to make it better to know that it's pretty god damn shitty. And I do have ideas, but so do most people and they generally don't amount to much.

People who have been in prison for smoking pot are likely to come out as drug addicts or drug dealers. What do you think prison does to a person? Their lives are broken, difficult to repair.

And why again must we be putting people in prison? I mean, why is the objective to get less people to smoke pot? I'm a little confused on that point.

I think what he means about the economy part is that it will undermine some already powerful businesses. Textile, chemical, pulp, and most of all, alcohol/tobacco and pharmacuetical companies are going to be undermined by legalizing weed. The money of all those forces combined could lobby congress forever.

I could be wrong though.

And alcohol definately suits the working class. But I assume weed would too, Which might be his point.

The way i see it, if Pot is illegal, then so should alcohol and tobacco. Tobacco is proven to cause all sorts of cancers and there's a tremendous amount of deaths, injuries and crimes related to alcohol. But the chances of Pot being legalized in the US anytime in the near future is incredibly slim. For the reasoning, look at the reasons behind it being banned. http://www.oblivion.net/htp/v3i3/v3i3-potluck.htm

I disagree. However, Ben and Jerrys will become as big as Walmart.

Just like nothing stops minors from getting alcohol. It's a problem, but it's not huge, and it's definitely easier to deal with than outright banning pot.



We will see a downward spike in drug use, because pot wouldn't be a drug any more.

There is an inherent flaw with people who cite that legalizing it would increase use.

Because the assumption is that people shouldn't be using it... BUT IT'S LEGAL.

Legalizing it isn't like some sort of military armistice with the agreement that potheads wouldn't infect the general population.

IT'S LEGAL. Who cares who uses it? I mean, you can have marijuana problems just like folks have alcohol problems, but the mere "spiking" of usage is no big deal. And we would in fact see usage spike even if the actual number of people using it doesn't change or even decreases, because at that point you could actually catalog purchasing. As it is now, you have NO idea who is using it. They make inferences and projections, but the margin of error is probably ridiculous.

Mostly because, from where I'm sitting, 97% of the people I've met either do smoke or have smoked weed. The other 3% tend to be foreign exchange students.

Either legalize Marijuana or ban cigarettes and alcohol.

Alcohol will never be illegal because there are so many different ways to consume it. It is a part of global culture, and has been for centuries.

Tobacco will never be illegal because after the colonial times, America made a lot of money selling that shit to Europe. It is also a part of our culture.

Marijuana, however, is not. Once they illegalized it, which wasn't long before alcohol, there was not the same influx of people as there was during prohibition. Not enough people cared to smoke weed in the first place.

Now look at the polls. Look how weed bills got voted against in Nevada and Colorado. Sure, it probably isn't worse than alcohol, but why legalize another mind-altering substance? America needs to be a well-oiled machine, not some dregs of society wanting to take their drugs.

Alcohol was illegal...


Anyways while I'm personally against smoking weed I think it's fucking stupid to outlaw a plant.

I don't see how any of this makes any kind of sense. Whether it's legal or not has no bearing on whether people should or shouldn't use it; law isn't really the end all be all of morality or practicality.

And I know a fair few people who've never smoked pot, and probably never will.


Did you read the rest of his post? That was part of it>_>

But with how quickly and spectacularly prohibition failed, it seems safe to say that alcohol won't be illegal for a long time, if ever.


I guess I don't care that much about whether or not weed is legal. But it would bring up a whole new kind of secondhand smoke issue. I don't really like to be around people who're smoking, or just have, because they're stupid. And if I'm around while it's happening then I'm inhaling the shit.

Weed does exactly the opposite of suit the working class, or at least the upper classes intentions for the middle. Who wants to work their entire lives away in a little cubicle once they start smoking pot? Alchohol and cigarretes keep people on edge, unhappy, and easily controlled. Pot usually makes you care about little else but enjoying yourself.

I think his point was that, since marijuana isn't any more harmful than alcohol or tobacco, both of which are legal, there isn't a logical basis for restricting it's use due to negative health effects, since we allow people to do far more harmful things to themselves. So, if it's no worse than smoking cigarettes, why is it that society treats it as being so much worse? Because it's illegal. Because, whether it's true or not, people assume that legality is a reliable indicator of morality. People don't want pot legalized because they think it's usage will spike, and they don't want it's usage to spike because they don't want people smoking pot at all, and they don't want people smoking pot at all because doing so is criminal behavior and causes more criminal behavior in the form of drug dealing and trafficking. But if Marijuana is legal, then none of those things are crimes. Furthermore, shady dealers in back alleys will go out of business, at least the Marijuana business, as consistent-quality weed becomes available from reputable suppliers.

? ? ?

Yes it... would.


I like the cut of your jib.

Should be legal.

Number one argument:

Drinking and tobacco are legal, why not weed. Driving while high is way safer than driving while drunk. I think a night of drinking does way more damage to a body than smoking a joint.

And Kefka, don't worry, if it were legal prices would plummit, even if it were gov't regulated. I bed it would cost a fraction of the current prices. Not to mention there would be no more 20-30 dollar bags of an 8th of garbage weed. No more 50-60 bags of chronic. Everything would probably end up being chronic. And you wouldn't have to waste 50 dollars for an 8th.

Plus, think about all the fucking stupid crime raids and drugs busts over a kid having an ounce, or some schmuck growing 4 plants in his closet. Think about the money wasted on those people. The money wasted while they are in jail, the money wasted on their trials...it's ridiculous.

Just make it legal, make it 21 (I know it should be 18, but drinking is 21, keep shit consistent), make it heavily taxed like alcohol, and bam you're good.