Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense

IMO-One of the greatest hypocrisies of this country has been position on marijuana use. We tolerate alcohol use, coddle the addicted, but smnoke some pot and you could be off to jail with rapist & murders, most of who could get out of prison before you. And in these times, the money spent on arresting & prosecuting marijuana could be better allocated elsewhere.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

have you read about the bust at UofI? year long investigation, many lives ruined, all for about SIX OUNCES of marijuana.
make it legal, regulate the strength, tax the hell out of it.

DEA Drug Schedules

Heroin, Ecstacy and morphine, right there with marijuana on Schedule I. Thanks Dick Nixon!

Cocaine? Schedule II.

But it's a gateway drug.
What about the children?
Are you soft on crime?
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As ignorant as those statements are, they still rule.

But it's a gateway drug. LMAO

Look up when marijuana laws were enacted and who the users were at that time.

Childen will always benefit from parents that are fair and consistent in their behavior. Telling your children not to smoke pot, while drinking alcohol sends a mixed message. Both are drugs, but one has been deemed acceptable by society. Why is alcohol socially accepted, but marijuana is not?

Well you can explain that Marijuana is illegal and alcohol/tobacco aren't.

I do think some of our laws on this are pretty stupid and could stand to be changed.

What worries me are all the politicians who favor legalizing it, solely because of the extra tax revenue it can bring. We've tried that with gambling and I don't know that, that has worked out so well.

Heroin, cocaine etc are also drugs, just like alcohol so should we legalize them. Think of the extra tax revenue. True the addiction and side effects are worse but if your only argument is that its a drug as well then why not legalize all of them. Or any vice. Prostitution, drugs, gambling.


Alcohol and tobacco are the most abused drugs in this country. And they're both legal.

So if we legalize marijuana more than likely use of it will increase.

The notion that a drug can cure just about anything is pretty much marketed 24/7 on television - Say did Restless Leg Syndrome get cured? Or did "Requip" go generic?

If you pee in your pants, can't sport wood, get heartburn [or acid reflux disease] or have itchy, watery eyes - no problem. There are [very expensive, but don't worry, your insurance will pay for them] drugs for any and all of your maladies.

"Ask your doctor."

We are a nation of junkies, eagerly being sold pills so we don't pee in our breetches or belch fire.

[Note to anyone who wants to go off on this post with a screed about "RLS is a real disease!!" or "I almost died from my acid reflux syndrome!!" Fine. Go get your scripts and take your pills. I don't want to have my time wasted by these legalized drug pushers.]

quote:

Originally posted by taxpayer:
Alcohol and tobacco are the most abused drugs in this country. And they're both legal.

So if we legalize marijuana more than likely use of it will increase.

And that, my friends, is why we teach logic in schools.

Sorry. I am 52. I used to smoke when I was 13. We had no problem getting cigarettes. To get cigarettes now requires ID and other stringent barriers. But kids still smoke.

Nothing has changed with alcohol either. Other than the barriers. Alcohol has always required ID, but it is more stringent these days. Kids still drink. And the police are much more involved in arresting kids, rather than just breaking up parties and pouring out your beer, like they did when I was younger.

It's a cash crop. Tax it. Regulate it. But let's start treating it like we are the adults.

Use of tobacco has declined in this country significantly in the last ten to twenty years, mostly because the price has increased.

Once Marijuana becomes legal the price will in all likelihood decline. Also marijuana is a fairly easy crop to grow . So once it becomes legal people will be able to grow their own. With less chance or cost of punishment. So there will be additional supply. With the cost going down more people will probably use it.

I'm not taking a side on this but there are things to think about before everyone jumps on the legalization bandwagon.

While prohibition is widely considered a failure it had one side effect. Alcohol abuse dropped during that era. Alcohol became more expensive so people consumed less of it. Tobacco became very popular because it was so cheap.

Is tobacco more expensive due to the higher cost of production? The lack of crop output? The higher taxes?

And, in the same logical leap, homosexuality is nonexistent in Iran, because it is illegal.

What hasn't really been discussed is the crime associated with illegal marijuana. Taxpayer correctly points out that it is an easy crop to grow. Once it is legalized, all the drug cartels will be put out of business. Is this a bad thing? Wasn't prohibition ended for exactly the same reason? It certainly wasn't ended because America decided alcohol was a benevolent drug.
Also, consider those doing jail time for smoking pot. What a waste of our tax dollars, and what a cruel thing for any government to do. Where's the crime?

I was wondering about that as well. Many of them probably also deal with cocaine . So they may decide to ship more cocaine to the U.S. Or go into other illegal activities. There may be an increase in drug violence as rival cartels consolidate or fight over a smaller piece of the pie.

Juat as the mafia didn't disappear after prohibition ended the Drug cartels probably also wont disappear but will probably do something else.

Also the existence of these groups may limit how much you could tax marijuana since you can't make it costlier than it is now.

Who would sell this anyway. Could you go to Walgreen's and buy a pack. Would there be a limit in how strong you can make them.

quote:

Also, consider those doing jail time for smoking pot. What a waste of our tax dollars, and what a cruel thing for any government to do. Where's the crime?

The first step in this process would be decriminalization. I'm tired of seeing my tax dollars spent on locking up folks who smoke pot. If you puff & drive, then yes you should get a DUI. Otherwise. no harm, no foul.

I think testing for driving while impaired is part of the problem. I don't believe there is a simple breathalizer (Sp?) type of test for weed. Peeing in a cup would be difficult at the side of the road and a positive result would mean nothing about the drivers current state.

Driving 10 mph under the limit and a large, recently emptied bag of Cheetos could be one indication.

a poll:
a.smoked marijuana
b. tried cocaine
i bet alot of people can answer yes to a and not to b.
how can we ban pot, and yet allow gambling, drinking, smoking? just seems stupid. and as for underage useage...ask any parent of college age kids about the dreaded (and costly) drinking tickets. we'd have all been broke back in the day.

quote:

Originally posted by Gus:
good one Yoss! Don't forget the bottle of Visine in the center console.

And Oziom

Yoss, you seem very knowledgeable.
Someone needs to post Afroman's "Because I Got High" tune (the clean version please) so Yoss can see what weed can do to him. We're here for you bro.

Highly interesting.



Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday the time is right to debate legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California

Everyday's gonna be 4/20