Marijuana Legalized in Two States

[godofallu]

Honestly I don't like potheads and I don't want the amount of potheads to increase. So I am against legalization.

I don't get where people yank the idea that legalization increases use from.
Usage is at a point you would likely consider "pandemic" and it's been illegal longer than I've been alive. The smallest percentage of people that haven't tried it are either extremely hardheaded *cough cough* or way too afraid of being prosecuted for it (like if it was cocaine or something, ha!). Everyone else has had experience with it already, and made up their minds.

Seriously, if making something illegal actually WORKED the way you think it does, then alcohol prohibition wouldn't have been one of our more famous "oops" stories.

*Texas will never make it legal, though... because Texas will always be Texas*
(so move to Texas)

To be fair I have never seen anyone smoke pot and i'm an adult who has graduated college.

It isn't just about them smoking pot, but whether they do it or are high around me.

 

[fenrizz]

by that line of logic, we should make all drugs legal.

Indeed.
Seems to be working for Portugal.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html

The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.

The Cato paper reports that between 2001 and 2006 in Portugal, rates of lifetime use of any illegal drug among seventh through ninth graders fell from 14.1% to 10.6%; drug use in older teens also declined. Lifetime heroin use among 16-to-18-year-olds fell from 2.5% to 1.8% (although there was a slight increase in marijuana use in that age group). New HIV infections in drug users fell by 17% between 1999 and 2003, and deaths related to heroin and similar drugs were cut by more than half. In addition, the number of people on methadone and buprenorphine treatment for drug addiction rose to 14,877 from 6,040, after decriminalization, and money saved on enforcement allowed for increased funding of drug-free treatment as well.

 

[Quaxar]

Great, I'm sure now everybody in my vicinity will not stop to shut the fuck up about how it should be legalized like, everywhere because it's the most perfect plant ever and the big cool US are doing it too because we all know the US has always been the perfect example for all our issues in the EU.

Sod drugs and this rebel culture.

I know I'm late to the party, but is not a huge part of the "derp rebel culture" only around BECAUSE weed is illegal?

In the US, for example, alcohol binging is extremely high in teens but drops off immensely as soon as they reach the legal buying age of 21. It's not as "cool" once you are legally OK to do it, and I think the same would absolutely apply to weed if the government would just stop freaking out about it.

Exactly. I briefly talked about that in a reply somewhere in this thread but I really dislike exactly that "it's illegal so we HAVE to do it" attitude a lot of people seem to have. I don't have much issues with the US legalizing it, I just fear that people here will use the opportunity to annoy me with their rant for legalization again.

Maybe I should move to Singapore... I hear they disencourage drugs quite effectively.

 

[Cuddlebear]

Moral progress really. Laws based on what people believe should be illegal because they dislike are immoral. I don`t like Justin Bieber, but i have no right to deny other to listen to him. That`s not my buisiness. I also believe a plant with the medical effect that cannabis have should not be illegal at all. Used wisely alot of people could get alot better life without drugs with fun side-effects. But everything can be abuses so that is no real reason to ban something. It makes my life easier despite having two chronic illnesses that bothers me every day.

 

[Something Amyss]

that want ALL drugs legal? There are more posters (who tend to be VERY LIBERAL on this site, speaking as an independent) who are for marijuans but are against other drugs than there are posters who are for marijuana and other drugs. And right now it is almost a 50/50 split (probably more in the 40-45 area) who want to legalize marijuana. So even if 50% of the people who are for marijuana are also for legalizing all drugs, that still puts them at 20-25% of the population, and that is highballing the hell out of the numbers. More likely they are less than 10%.

While i am against legalization of marijuana, it at least has SOME positives going for it and I wouldnt mind too much if it was legal. Anyone advocating legalizing cocaine or other hard drugs are traitors to mankind in my book as they are willingly trying to destroy mankind.

Although if marijuana does become legal, I want to see it done at the federal level, not the state level. And I want it put to popular vote.

The numbers seem to be going up beyond just Marijuana. Honestly, I think you're underselling things. Marijuana is at least plurality status as you say, but I don't think the drop off is as sharp as you assume.