Is marijuana really that bad?

[Sovereignty]

why is that so bad? it's a perfectly valid argument... if you make it illegal because it's harmful, it's not that strange to bring up the point that alcohol and cigarettes are more harmful and they aren't illegal. so why should marihuana be?
the only difference is that alcohol and tobacco are socially accepted while marihuana isn't (yet).
as for you argument that we're a society of adults: i agree. so just legalize it and let us make up our own minds on wether or not we use it.
people who want to do it anyway, so why not legalize it and funnel the money to the government instead of criminal organizations.

besides, how often do you get to troll drug lords? ^^

It's not a valid argument. It's a cop-out. A way of saying, "Well I can't think of anything else that'd make you think this idea is a good one so let me point out other lapses in judgment.

The ultimate problem is by saying, "Well if they're legal weed should be too" is that you open the door to everything. We're allowed to buy guns. Weapons designed to kill (Even if they claim it's to protect). Does that mean I should be allowed to buy enriched uranium and create a nuclear bomb for myself?

No.

Laws aren't set in place for smart responsible people (all the time anyway). They're put in place to protect Mr. and Mrs. Idiot Taxpayer.

I support FREEDOM of choice, but we're a society of laws and as such don't get that right on things like this. So if you want it to be legal, argue it on it's own merits. I implore you not to argue it because such and such is legal, or because this drug is worse then that drug.

I mean seriously. Do you people want prohibition back? Because that's ultimately how your point comes across. If weed isn't legal, booze shouldn't be. It's flawed thinking, that as I've said before was dispelled in the first grade.

 

[spartan231490]

They also don't spend much more money on law enforcement because of the weed laws than they would be if it was legalized.

Nope, just 42 billion dollars annually [http://hightimes.com/legal/ht_admin/2463]. Plus the 113 billion dollars people spend on weed each year. Add it up and that's a swing of 155 billion dollars a year. Insignificant, I know.

Read my post, don't just quote the last line out of context and use hyperbole to give the impression that you are right without any evidence supporting that. As i said, most of that money would continue to go to the current dealers, adn the rest would go towards paying for the new infrastructure, even if you could convince the current infrastructure to convert to producing marijuana.

It's nice that you post a link, but the thing about that link is that it's just a bunch of conclusions, no evidence or studies or anything to indicate where that data came from, or how they acertained it's veracity.

 

[DiMono]

They also don't spend much more money on law enforcement because of the weed laws than they would be if it was legalized.

Nope, just 42 billion dollars annually [http://hightimes.com/legal/ht_admin/2463]. Plus the 113 billion dollars people spend on weed each year. Add it up and that's a swing of 155 billion dollars a year. Insignificant, I know.

Read my post, don't just quote the last line out of context and use hyperbole to give the impression that you are right without any evidence supporting that. As i said, most of that money would continue to go to the current dealers, adn the rest would go towards paying for the new infrastructure, even if you could convince the current infrastructure to convert to producing marijuana.

I seriously doubt it would cost more than 155 billion dollars annually to pay for the infrastructure. And I took your last sentence as its own piece because it seemed like that's how it should be: the rest of your post was about converting infrastructure, and then out of nowhere you added something in about the cost of law enforcement, saying the difference isn't that much. To put in perspective just how much 42 billion dollars is, the U.S. spends 12 billion each month to stay in Iraq. It costs more to enforce anti-marijuana laws each year than it would take to keep the U.S. in Iraq for 3 months. That's a hell of a lot more money.

 

[Optimystic]

There is no reason that pot or any drug should be illegal.

Some drugs should definitely be controlled (at least heavily regulated, with hard-to-acquire licenses) but marijuana shouldn't be one of them.

 

[flamingjimmy]

Smoking weed is good. Smoking weed all the time is bad for you, it sucks away your motivation and ambition, and effects your memory. I've wasted years of my life on the stuff.

Having said that, it should definitely be legal, prohibition never solved anything. I should have the right to do whatever I want to my own body.

 

[Floppertje]

snip

It's not a valid argument. It's a cop-out. A way of saying, "Well I can't think of anything else that'd make you think this idea is a good one so let me point out other lapses in judgment.

The ultimate problem is by saying, "Well if they're legal weed should be too" is that you open the door to everything. We're allowed to buy guns. Weapons designed to kill (Even if they claim it's to protect). Does that mean I should be allowed to buy enriched uranium and create a nuclear bomb for myself?

No.

Laws aren't set in place for smart responsible people (all the time anyway). They're put in place to protect Mr. and Mrs. Idiot Taxpayer.

I support FREEDOM of choice, but we're a society of laws and as such don't get that right on things like this. So if you want it to be legal, argue it on it's own merits. I implore you not to argue it because such and such is legal, or because this drug is worse then that drug.

I mean seriously. Do you people want prohibition back? Because that's ultimately how your point comes across. If weed isn't legal, booze shouldn't be. It's flawed thinking, that as I've said before was dispelled in the first grade.

it's not like saying we own guns so you should be allowed to buy enriched uranium...
it's like saying 'everyone owns nuclear weapons, but it's illegal to own handguns'
your argument is valid only if you think alcohol should be illegal.
after all, if you don't mind alcohol, why on earth would you oppose marihuana?
if you do oppose marihuana, why would you endorse alcohol?
it's your thinking that is flawed, not mine

I see how that argument can be used to argue in favor of prohibition, but i'm using it to argue in favor of legalization. what they're doing now is endorsing the worse one and illegalizing the milder one... that makes no sense. just treat them proportionally.
finally allow me to point out that here in the NL's it's legal and we're doing just fine, I don't know anyone who's addicted or has any kind of problems with it.

as for arguing it on it's own merits: it's FUN!

 

[DiMono]

finally allow me to point out that here in the NL's it's legal and we're doing just fine, I don't know anyone who's addicted or has any kind of problems with it.

That's one of the things people don't seem to understand: by legalizing it, you take away the taboo, which if it has any effect at all on people's desire to use the substance reduces it because it's no longer this magical forbidden thing.

 

[thepyrethatburns]

It's a shame we can't inject polls into posts, as I'd like to put one here: for those who currently don't use pot (of which I am one), if it were made legal would you start using it?

I wouldn't. I simply have no interest in trying it.

Probably not but I don't really have any good reason for that assertion.

Also, I do have to admit that I don't buy the fever story. A fever is the body's attempts to burn out an illness. While I'm not a doctor or anything like that, I can't see pot actually lowering a fever or curing the illness that brought on the fever. I imagine what happened is more "I don't feel it anymore." as opposed to "I don't have a fever anymore".

 

[DiMono]

Total sidenote: right now this thread shows up on page 4 of the forum index, between threads that were last posted in at 3:16 and 3:48pm, but the thread has the correct timestamp for the last post. Is anyone else experiencing this? It's really weird.

Anyway, what do you guys think of marijuana being legalized at the State level while remaining illegal at the Federal level?

 

[Snor]

finally allow me to point out that here in the NL's it's legal and we're doing just fine, I don't know anyone who's addicted or has any kind of problems with it.

That's one of the things people don't seem to understand: by legalizing it, you take away the taboo, which if it has any effect at all on people's desire to use the substance reduces it because it's no longer this magical forbidden thing.

true, I am a student and I know no regular users whatsoever (besides an ex class mate but he is also into fashion design or something haha). nobody cares any more its just weed and not interesting or just fun now and then.
its the foreigners that make all the fuzz about it (such as drug tourism from germany and belgium)

if you look at the statistics you will see that The Netherlands have a significant lower percentage of users than the USA. except if you watch fox news then you might know that we are a cesspool of corruption etc. etc.

a major problem if you legalize it at state level will be drug tourism, which is something that causes nuisance now and again in The Netherlands

 

[eyedonutkair]

I like how people whine constantly about hating potheads and how this thread has been done a millions times. Such sissies: Mweah, lock this thread, i think it stuuupid.
I'd rather be a friggin pothead than a whiny little bish any day. So, let's go through the motions, oh holier than thou non pot smoking whiny bish nub cakes, shall we? FIRSTLY you didn't have to click the link to come here in the first place. Doing so just to whine makes you stupider than any pothead ever. SECONDLY just because you don't like pot or alcohol doesn't mean you're some sort of enlightened being at one with the world. THIRDLY I'm sure your views on racism and homosexuality are totally different from your view on weed and drinks, so you really need to get your judgemental priorities correct. Being selective with your hate just as stupid as you claim smoking and drinking is. Granted, some potheads really give m.j. a bad name, like drunk drivers make drinking look bad. However, grow up and take a look at yourself. You can't stop the internet, so stop whining about the fact that not everybody stalks the forums 24 hours a day like some internet ADDICT (such as yourself) to be able to see every single thread ever made by the millions of members on this site and stfu. Somebody pack these chumps a bowl, please.

 

[s0m3th1ng]

It used to be perfectly fine, and did next to no damage whatsoever. That was back in the 60s.
Now it just gets spiked with other drugs, and it'll do alot worse stuff to ya than if you were 50 years earlier...

I smoked for 5 years, got it from a variety of sources and from some very unsavory people. Not once had I or ANY of my friends encountered weed laced with anything. Spiked weed is an urban myth. Look at it from the seller's standpoint...why would they waste good drugs?

 

[dickseverywhere]

no, its fun for some but too much can really fuck you up. next?
also its called cannabis, marijuana is a word made up by the american government to connect cannabis to mexicans for scaremongering purposes.

 

[blankedboy]

It used to be perfectly fine, and did next to no damage whatsoever. That was back in the 60s.
Now it just gets spiked with other drugs, and it'll do alot worse stuff to ya than if you were 50 years earlier...

I smoked for 5 years, got it from a variety of sources and from some very unsavory people. Not once had I or ANY of my friends encountered weed laced with anything. Spiked weed is an urban myth. Look at it from the seller's standpoint...why would they waste good drugs?

To get the customer hooked on their 'marijuana' so that they'll keep coming back and buying more, obviously to the seller's profit. Not hard to get your head around...

 

[Rhiehn]

They don't throw you in jail for drinking antifreeze, why should they for ingesting any other potentially harmful substance. I believe that no drug use should warrant jail time. None. Half the dangers of drugs in general come from them being illegal, and likely impure and usually taken in less than ideal ways, and people have to make drug money illegitimately because they aren't allowed to have a job because they failed drug tests, even if they never showed up to work high, and drugs are, as a rule, significantly more expensive when illegal. I don't understand why anyone wouldn't believe it should be legal to put whatever you want into your system, so long as you don't hurt anyone else as a result.

 

[dickseverywhere]

It used to be perfectly fine, and did next to no damage whatsoever. That was back in the 60s.
Now it just gets spiked with other drugs, and it'll do alot worse stuff to ya than if you were 50 years earlier...

I smoked for 5 years, got it from a variety of sources and from some very unsavory people. Not once had I or ANY of my friends encountered weed laced with anything. Spiked weed is an urban myth. Look at it from the seller's standpoint...why would they waste good drugs?

To get the customer hooked on their 'marijuana' so that they'll keep coming back and buying more, obviously to the seller's profit. Not hard to get your head around...

but the cost of putting an addictive drug in there would be uneconomical for the dealer. its a problem that could (though it doesn't) only arise under prohibition. the only kind of 'spiked' weed you see has tiny silca beads sprayed onto it to increase weight and the appearance of quality. its called grit weed and its yet another consequence of prohibition.

 

[thahat]

finally allow me to point out that here in the NL's it's legal and we're doing just fine, I don't know anyone who's addicted or has any kind of problems with it.

That's one of the things people don't seem to understand: by legalizing it, you take away the taboo, which if it has any effect at all on people's desire to use the substance reduces it because it's no longer this magical forbidden thing.

true, I am a student and I know no regular users whatsoever (besides an ex class mate but he is also into fashion design or something haha). nobody cares any more its just weed and not interesting or just fun now and then.
its the foreigners that make all the fuzz about it (such as drug tourism from germany and belgium)

if you look at the statistics you will see that The Netherlands have a significant lower percentage of users than the USA. except if you watch fox news then you might know that we are a cesspool of corruption etc. etc.

a major problem if you legalize it at state level will be drug tourism, which is something that causes nuisance now and again in The Netherlands

does bring in money though. i would have made weed state regulated. XD damn, thats an income much XD