Should Marijuana be legalized for medical purposes/recreation?

[Warewolf50]

I personally think it should be legalized. One reason being that i thinkn like 60 or more percent of people in jail for drug related crimes are in it for somethgin to do wiht pot, thats alot of tax money going to encarcerate people got busted for selling or possesion of a very non dangerous drug. I personally dont smoke, I tired it once or twice all i did is sleep so i thought it was a waste of money.

On the point of people taking smoking breaks at work, the same thing will stop them that stops them from going out drinking in the middle of work, the thought of being fired.

By the way i heard that Marborlo has copyrighted the name Marborolo green and has a buch of fields set up whith the excat right chemical balance for growing weed just incase it ever becomes legalized they can be on top of it.

RYan

[SCpoloRicker]

"They said marijuana was a performance enhancing drug.

I don't know about you, but I'm lucky if I can find my feet when I'm stoned. Marijuana may enhance smells, sights, and sounds, but you're certainly not frikken empowered.

The only way its a performance enhancing drug is if theres a Snickers bar at the end of the run. Then you'd be like a Swedish ski jumper going 'I'm There!'"

/robin williams
//badly paraphrased

[Pyroboy597]

weed can cause lung cancer... any smoke inhalation, whether it be burning wood, smoking, or anything else CAN cause cancer. Weed should nto be legalized because the current consumptino rates are so high that people will no be able to follow the limits that would be set. People would come to work high and not do a good job, roads would be full of high people driving 0_0 and the weed industry woudl grow to the point where there will be weed commercials on TV.

[LudavicoSoldier]

weed can cause lung cancer... any smoke inhalation, whether it be burning wood, smoking, or anything else CAN cause cancer. Weed should nto be legalized because the current consumptino rates are so high that people will no be able to follow the limits that would be set. People would come to work high and not do a good job, roads would be full of high people driving 0_0 and the weed industry woudl grow to the point where there will be weed commercials on TV.

How would that differ from alcohol (which is a drug)? It just like any drug, some people can handle it, some cant. Moderation is the key.

[RevBrown]

It's not the fact that it can or can't harm people. It is a very relaxing drug. Much more relaxing to me than alcohol. Other countries do just fine with legalization in some form or another.

It's the way the American legal system is set up. When you start with a minor controlled substance being legal it sets the ball rolling for the other controlled substances. I think our system works fine as is right now. Everything is accesable to those that want to take the risk but it keeps it very restrained. Let's face it, having marijuana is a slap on the wrist. Imagine if everything else was legal and freely available. You have a hard enough time dealing with crack-heads and meth-monkeys as it is. Now imagine if it was freely available anywhere to anyone.

It's not the marijuana I am against, it's dealing with 25-36 crack-heads a day instead of 3.

[Chris42050]

It has been proven that the war on drugs is an utter failure. Why not profit from the drugs that are consumed instead of spending billions on trying to stop them. Studies our tax dollars have funded have proven time and again that if drugs are legalized the users will not multiply. In fact crime would go down. Users would stay the same. Anyone heard of prohibition. It doesnt work. If someone wants drugs then they will get drugs. And making the substances illegal just makes criminals out of normal law abiding people. Why fill up jails and spend billions of dollars on something that has proven to be unstoppable.
It is hipocriticle to have alcohol and cigarettes legal and nothing else.
It is fear mongering to beleive that if one drug is legalized than they all will. Alcohol has been legal for decades and I havent seen a flood of new drugs become legal.

[Echo419]

oh. my. god.
Marijuana should not be legalized

::Edit:: ok as a retraction of my sarcastic comment above, holy crap the post above me, i never thought about it that way.

[Lohman446]

I question the statistic (and the justification after that statistic) that 90% of teens have tried pot. That being said, I beleive strongly in the idea that if the only person who is victimized is the user that there can be no crime. I beleive that for many things, and while I do not condone the use of drugs of any type I am less in favor of an intrusive federal government that has overstepped its constitutionally granted powers.

[BuyMyMag]

No way in hell it should be legalized. I visited jamaica over vacation and the people there smoke pot all freakin day long. They are lazy, good for nothing, stranded idiots.


If you legalize it, we would be just like any other country like jamaica, or holland.

Look at thse people, and look at yourself.

You really dont want to be that way...

[trains are bad]

I am really eager to see the responses of well founded thoughts for legalizing marijuana.

Well, sorry. I don't have any. The problem I have with that statement is that it acts like things are illegal by default, and the government grants us the privilege to do some things. That might be your political philosophy but it isn't american.

I ask you, why should weed be illegal?


There is no good reason. The only actions that should be illegal are things that cause harm to other nonconsenting people.

Come up with way that smoking, growing, eating, or bathing in weed does, that is not already covered under more general and objective laws and I will listen.

Untill then it should be legal, should never have been illegal.

.

[Echo419]

Hmm, thats true also...

But I also know it is harder to do somethings when your high, im not going to say it isnt... Now so how is it different than alcohol? Well alcohol is as easy as this

Police - Sir are you drunk
Man - No
Police - Breath Here
Man - Ok...
Police - Come with me
Man - Oh hell...

If they could do this with weed, why not be legal.

[LudavicoSoldier]

If the US governemnt could come up with a good way to not look like complete asses/hypocrits, I bet marijuana would have been legal a long time ago. I am sure they would LOVE to be able to make money off of it, but its a bit tricky of a situation when they have be waging an ignorant, losing war for decades. Apparently the worst thing politicians can do is admit that they are/were wrong.

[slade]

I would love to see this thread get to a few pages or so, for the sole purpose of me printing it up and sending it to my congressman. No, not for the legalizaion of marijuana, but to display the intellect that responds to this thread in support of it (see posts above mine, save a few coherent thought posts).

See, the same thing goes on over at pbn. One person tries to make a serious thread about something, and people like kai and jonneh (dont get me wrong, I have nothing against either of you personally) come in and make the comments they make. lets also not forget quik's gem of a comment either.

The only intelligible responses in this post (thus far, and it is early) come from RevBrown, Steelrat and Deadeye9. At least they put a little coherent thought into what they were going to say on this thread.

Personally, I don't think it should be legalized. It will set a precedent for other drugs, whether you choose to believe it or not. What is your foundation for legalizing marijuana? That everybody does it? That its not harmful? That NOBODY has ever died from an overdose? Those points are all well and good, but, very weak points to make an arguement on. So what if everyone smokes marijuana. As the old addage goes, If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you? Look at you being a unique individual. As far as harmless goes, yea. As I understand it the smoke from marijuana contains some of the same carcinogens found in tobacco smoke. Not to mention the tar content is signifigantly higher. And touching on the subject of NOBODY ever dying of an overdose.. so what. Its not to say that there haven't been marijuana deaths. I Am sure we have all heard of an incident where 'a friend' or 'friend of a friend' was smoking marijuana, exercised poor judgement, and got themselves, or others injured.

Listen. Legalized or not, people are still going to do it. Leave it as is, and let people then get punished for doing it, as they shouldn't be. I am really eager to see the responses of well founded thoughts for legalizing marijuana. I have low expectations though, since the majority of posts will be summarized as the following:

I smoke pot all the time. I think they should legalize it because its no big deal. All your pot are belong to me.

That, is what new laws and regulations are founded on.

Good luck guys.

what happened to being my bad influence?

im so dissappointed in you, joey.

[drg]

The campaign to criminalize marijuana/hemp was founded on an incredible set of falsehoods that have in the intervening decades been exposed. Read up on the history of the criminalization movement and you'll see what I mean.

I side with the concise arguments put forth by the likes of Crighton. The costs of prohibition are far too high to be commensurate with the potential harm. And the potential benefit from the plant itself is much to high to keep locked down -- hemp is an amazing natural resource.

The issue of lung cancer is moot -- smoking is just one way to consume marijuana.

[master_alexander]

in health class we were talking about this subject. we decided that if it did get legalized then the rate would be up for a while, but then rapidly decrease. and there would not be that much of it. and then a new drug would pop up. sometimes its populrity goes down because it is not illegal, some people do it because there is a law against it, and for whatever reason they do it because of that.

and that goes with most all things, underage drinking accidents where someone gets seriously hurt from drinking too much, and the only reason that they started was because they were curious about it. ex: my parents have a beer once in a while, i ask for a sip, they give it to me. just a sip, and i know what it tastes like, and if i would be at a party and everyone is drinking it id ont need to, i know what it tastes like.

and i kind of have a preference... corona is the best tasting beer ive tried...