Let's get serious about pot legalization.

[PhillyG]

I fully agree that weed needs to stay out the hands of children. The weed smoking age should be 18. Of course thats not going to stop kids from getting it but I can't imagine it being much different than tobacco.

Yeha it wont change anything. I just like how in a place where pot is semi legal there are less pot heads than here.

[Justin B]

Ok, I usually leave these threads to go their own course, but I gotta jump in.

Self interested pot heads? Who cares. Even so, its not a tapped government resource like commercially available alcohol is. Think about what you said at that point. It would be far easier to legalize cannabis than to eliminate alcohol (again, LOL)...and that didn't work in the first place back in the prohibition days. The big brewers wouldn't have it anyway and would put untold mounds of money into lobbyists and all that gov't shit, it would never work. Give me a break. That was a genuinely crappy example, IMO. All that would do is drive crime up even more and lead to the literal meaning of boot legging all over again.

Im for Legalization of weed. I fucking hate organized religion and all the zealots that somehow pry the government one way or the other, and those politicians that are afraid of setting an example. Get it done, if they're afraid of the people who voted for them because of religious beliefs or their own religion themselves, they shouldn't be in office. What happened to the separation of Church and State? That's a joke these days, and its bullshit. Politicians are in office for their people, of every religion, or none at all.

If someone doesn't like something, don't take part. Of course there will be higher concentrated areas of conservatism elsewhere, but what about federally? Can we really let states thousands of miles away influence us? Of course, but why. If a federal law was passed to make it legal, couldn't local and state governments add restrictions if they felt it was such an ungodly thing?

Land of the free?

[rwh11385]

I did enough that I sometimes think I may still be tripping...

Drugs and alcohol (alcohol mostly) I belive have left me permanently screwed up to some degree.

At least we can agree on something.


Legalize and tax the crap out of it. No more deficits from Obama's plans, and not as much spending on imprisoning or enforcing prohibition of a victimless crime, besides the user/loser. And ought to cut down on the taboo attractiveness of it. Hell, lower drinking age to 18 already too.

Although unemployment may go up if everyone is like Farbin...

[Jordan325iC]

Legalize and tax it? As if that has done anything to solve the problem of alcohol abuse?

Get real. If you're going to anchor yourself to an argument, that ain't it.

The numbers that "prove" weed is safer than alcohol are apples and orange scented candles. Alcohol, legal and taxed as it is, is far more readily available and thus more easily abused. Weed is not so close at hand and thus cannot contribute to any meaningful comparison of what harm it does opposed to anything else.

Note that BOTH things are harmful. The watch-the-birdie argument that one thing isn't as bad as another conveniently forgets this.

So change your argument to what it really is; give weed a chance!

Give weed that chance to be as widely consumed as alcohol! You can make money off of it, big government! No more bailout! Woohoo! And hey, don't paint me a criminal just because I'm in favor of it!

And when widespread weed is proven to be far more destructive than alcohol, what will you say? Stop smoking your weed long enough not to make stupid assertions like the abuse of alcohol is legal. Get stoned, drunk, angry, whatever... then go hurt someone. You'll pay no matter what it is that was compelling/compromising you.

How about a compromise? You get your license to smoke pot and we get a signed statement from you you'll never apply for social benefits? Deal? I didn't think so.

But hey, let's say instead that you've opened our eyes to a more serious problem. That alcohol stuff sure is dangerous. Wow. So much more harmful to the body, blah, blah, blah. Okay. I'm sold.

Waitaminnit... why aren't we on the bandwagon to do away with booze?

Oh yeah... self-interested pot smokers... gotcha...


Try thinking of just one other person. A friend. A sibling. Your child. Anyone you love.

Now imagine putting that person onto a bus being driven by a stoner.

You have to understand that when we say "weed is less harmful than alcohol" we are not talking about the overall effect on society. Of course if we viewed it socially, with no account for the scale of use, alcohol would have be many times more damaging. It is used by a much greater percentage of the population.

However, even adjusting for scale, weed is thousands of times safter than alcohol. There are virtually no deaths attributed to marijuana use, whereas tens of thousands of people die each year from drinking.

But I'm not talking about the national effect. I'm talking about individual affects. Weed abuse is just less harmful to a person than alcohol abuse. Google "marijuana alcohol harmful". It's just not an arguable fact. We HAVE widespread marijuana use. Millions of people use it. But yet we see almost no discernible effect on the population.


Having said that, I want to make two points.

1) Marijuana is damaging. I have seen it first hand. Long term usage does affect memory and wit. It is mildly addicting to some people. However, these damages are very, very minor compared to the immediate and long term effects of alcohol.

2) If the government is going to make certain things legal and certain things illegal, there should be LOGIC behind those decisions. Some sort of damage and addictiveness threshold that determines whether a recreational drug should be deemed legal or illegal.


Nobody is arguing for prohibition. The argument is that if alcohol is legal, a less damaging drug should also be legal.



Now onto the economic side of it:
We have spent billions and billions of dollars on the war on drugs, much of it directed at stopping marijuana from entering the United States. This war has had virtually no effect on the widespread use of marijuana, and has only created a highly organized criminal underworld. Legalization and taxation would not only free up billions of dollars of taxpayer money, I believe it would make it more difficult for minors to get access to it. I can tell you first hand that if you are a teenager, weed is much easier to get a hold of than alcohol. Drug dealers don't need to see ID.

[StereoInstaller1]

Stoners, watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwDRBm-qbQI

[Need4Speed]

Youtube is no good with out sound, but I do think a lot of problems would be solved if most drugs were regulated rather than criminalized.

[jflip2002]

I just want a fair warning before this shit becomes legal, so I can buy stock in Taco Bell.

[Need4Speed]

I just want a fair warning before this shit becomes legal, so I can buy stock in Taco Bell.

Nabisco.

[BrewCity11]

You have to understand that when we say "weed is less harmful than alcohol" we are not talking about the overall effect on society. Of course if we viewed it socially, with no account for the scale of use, alcohol would have be many times more damaging. It is used by a much greater percentage of the population.

However, even adjusting for scale, weed is thousands of times safter than alcohol. There are virtually no deaths attributed to marijuana use, whereas tens of thousands of people die each year from drinking.

But I'm not talking about the national effect. I'm talking about individual affects. Weed abuse is just less harmful to a person than alcohol abuse. Google "marijuana alcohol harmful". It's just not an arguable fact. We HAVE widespread marijuana use. Millions of people use it. But yet we see almost no discernible effect on the population.


Having said that, I want to make two points.

1) Marijuana is damaging. I have seen it first hand. Long term usage does affect memory and wit. It is mildly addicting to some people. However, these damages are very, very minor compared to the immediate and long term effects of alcohol.

2) If the government is going to make certain things legal and certain things illegal, there should be LOGIC behind those decisions. Some sort of damage and addictiveness threshold that determines whether a recreational drug should be deemed legal or illegal.


Nobody is arguing for prohibition. The argument is that if alcohol is legal, a less damaging drug should also be legal.



Now onto the economic side of it:
We have spent billions and billions of dollars on the war on drugs, much of it directed at stopping marijuana from entering the United States. This war has had virtually no effect on the widespread use of marijuana, and has only created a highly organized criminal underworld. Legalization and taxation would not only free up billions of dollars of taxpayer money, I believe it would make it more difficult for minors to get access to it. I can tell you first hand that if you are a teenager, weed is much easier to get a hold of than alcohol. Drug dealers don't need to see ID.

Great post right here. Agree with it word for word.

I know more night/weekend smokers than drinkers. I know more potheads (more or less always high) than alcoholics.

I have never, not once, gotten a phone call, heard from a friend, or even heard on the local news about a marijuana related injury. But, along with many of you i bet, i've had many friends involved in DD accidents (drivers and passengers), many uneccesary brawls inflicting wounds/stitches, and destruction of property. Worst case with my pot smoking friends: eating all my food.

Plus, smokers don't have moodswings. Worst that's happened, is someone passing out on my couch. On the otherhand, i once had my drunk bestfriend smash a bottle over my head.

Yeah, i'd rather laugh it up with my buddy, than take a Colt45 to the head.

As odd as it may sound, I am not condoning either. Just reiterating a line from the previous post: "The argument is that if alcohol is legal, a less damaging drug should also be legal."

[Old'n'Slow]

I spent 10 years on the road as a musician and I will tell you uncategorically that I'd rather be around stoned people than drunk people ANY day.

I have never once seen a stoned person pick a fight, or even act violent, but I've seen otherwise nice people turn into raving assholes after a few drinks.

Thousands and thousands of people are getting high right now, but we won't be reading about them wiping out some poor family while trying to drive home from the bar because they're probably just chillin at home, but even they are driving, they're going about 30 MPH!:D

And I've never even tried drugs, or smoked cigs.....but gimme the stoner ANYDAY!

[OrganicMechanic]

this should be bumped with every page so that this thread can have some nice music

I agree.

[joshh]

Just legalize it already, then control the fuck out of it and profit like crazy. We already have alcohol why not weed.

[Danny]

Then after that, we already have alcohol and weed, why not ecstasy?

[kronus]

Then after that, we already have alcohol and weed, why not ecstasy?

ooh ooh and hookers! Can I have hookers?



oh wait.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Holt Bvld kronus, hit up Holt.