Poll: Should Cannabis AKA Hemp Be Completely Legalized in the United States?

[Jark212]

If its taxed like cigarettes, it would be a great cash cow.

Hemp should be legal, and IMO so should cannabis. Your friend may have been killed by a stoned driver, but then again drunk driving is illegal (and IMO and those of countless others with or without personal experience, not punished nearly heavily enough), so why should stoned driving be?

Besides, banning the product doesn't lead to anything except organised crime and poorer quality, even immediately dangerous, product. I'm sure you've all heard of the Prohibition, and how this gave rise to massive criminal cartels, and how home-brew or illegally brewn alcohol could cause symptoms such as blindness and death upon ingestion. The same thing applies with any other kind of drug, yet most Western nations have been attempting to eradicate drug use by completely banning it for decades despite the fact that such attempts have been proven futile, counterproductive and immensely dangerous.

Add to that the fact that if cannabis is legalised, and marijuana and joints would be sold next to tobacco and cigarettes, taxes could be levied on them amounting to millions or perhaps even billions of dollars. Compare that to what the US is currently spending on anti-drug enforcement. Yes, drug use might increase, but regulation and taxation would make the resulting situation so much better in all respects.

Best reason here.

 

[Jark212]

If its taxed like cigarettes, it would be a great cash cow.

Hemp should be legal, and IMO so should cannabis. Your friend may have been killed by a stoned driver, but then again drunk driving is illegal (and IMO and those of countless others with or without personal experience, not punished nearly heavily enough), so why should stoned driving be?

Besides, banning the product doesn't lead to anything except organised crime and poorer quality, even immediately dangerous, product. I'm sure you've all heard of the Prohibition, and how this gave rise to massive criminal cartels, and how home-brew or illegally brewn alcohol could cause symptoms such as blindness and death upon ingestion. The same thing applies with any other kind of drug, yet most Western nations have been attempting to eradicate drug use by completely banning it for decades despite the fact that such attempts have been proven futile, counterproductive and immensely dangerous.

Add to that the fact that if cannabis is legalised, and marijuana and joints would be sold next to tobacco and cigarettes, taxes could be levied on them amounting to millions or perhaps even billions of dollars. Compare that to what the US is currently spending on anti-drug enforcement. Yes, drug use might increase, but regulation and taxation would make the resulting situation so much better in all respects.

Best argument I heard in a long time.

 

[felltablet]

Yes it has its uses, yes some of those are medicinal and all that, but one of those uses is what we currently know as "using" it. Smokin' pot, weed, whatever the kids are calling it in your area. It does affect judgment, and persons with affected judgment can bring harm to other people. Believe it or not, that "bringing harm to others" idea is the core of the idea of our legal system, despite it now being a bastard child of Money and Political Power.

Now, here those who are looking for something to rebut will find a perfect opportunity. "Anything can cause harm to another person!" you'll cry in triumph. Yes, even your little finger can kill. Good job. What I was getting at is the idea of "likelihood".

So I am assuming you are against Alcohol being legal?
Studies show that marijuana has no noticeable effect on judgment, even complex cognitive functions are only impaired in relation to time. IE studies show that the only difference between high/sober participants was the time taken to complete the task, and even that was a minimal difference.
So you come out with the same conclusions you normally would, they just take longer for your brain to interpret.

Also,

"Much research has been conducted to address the question of driving ability under the influence of the drug. For example, a major recent study by the UK Transport Research Laboratory found that one single glass of wine impairs driving ability more than smoking a cannabis cigarette (New Scientist of 19 March 2002). The study also found that drivers on cannabis tended to be aware of their intoxicated state, and drove more cautiously to compensate their impairment." -http://www.drugscience.org

We have many substances that are accepted within society that are far more dangerous than marijuana.
I strongly believe that if the product was legal (I also believe this for alcohol) and you are caught DUI, then a punishment relating to that specific substance should be handed out.
IE: your license gets marked so you can't purchase the product for a lengthy period.

 

[quiet_samurai]

Yes, the only reason it is illegal is because you can ceate an oil from an extract you get from the Cannibis plant. And by oil I mean oil that can be used for fuel, not cooking or tanning. The big oil companies saw this and had it made illegal for fear of competition and market loss. That's where you get alot of the anti-weed propaganda which is ridiculous because they are all completely ignorant and full of 1950's and 60's bullshit to scare you away from it.

If the USA government legalized it and added it into the same category as tobacco and alchohol by putting a tax on it, they would probably bring in a few extra billion dollars annualy.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

All I know is it should be legalized here. Whether here be Britain, England, Kent, Canterbury or my house, I don't care.

 

[darklink259]

Personally, I think that hemp should be legalized, but should require an age like alcohol. It should also be illegal to drive with it in your body, also like alcohol. That's just how I feel.

I agree.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Personally, I think that hemp should be legalized, but should require an age like alcohol. It should also be illegal to drive with it in your body, also like alcohol. That's just how I feel.

I agree.

On a more serious note, yes, I'd have to agree with this too.

Studies have shown time and time again that Cannabis is not only no more dangerous than alcohol, it's actually less so.

 

[chefassassin2]

If you're talking about legalising marijuana, the intoxicating product of cannibas, I say no. But if you talk about all the useful, non-mindaltering produscts, then absolutely. I have a t-shirt made from hemp, and it's one of the most comfortable pieces of clothing I own. A friend of mine hass a bottle of cannibas oil for cooking, and the smoke point is so high, it's ideal for pan-frying, and also delicious. If you have this conversation, I think most people need to realize that cannibas as a plant, and THC, the element in marijuana that gets you high, are two completely different things. I don't smoke pot, and don't condone it, but cannibas is useful for sure.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Yes... I don't smoke the stuff and won't, even if it was legal, but it should be... Could help the economy, and ffs, cigarettes are worse to your health then pot is... Legalize it and tax the hell out of it like with tobacco...

 

[manic_depressive13]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB9rNhwofvI

 

[Computer-Noob]

Appealing to the environment, the economy, crime prevention, chronic pain patients and such misses the point, however important those issues may be.
No one has the right to tell others what they may do with their own bodies and what they may grow in their fields, as long as they are not harming anyone else. That is why cannabis should be legalized.

Yeah, they tried that with alcohol. How many people die due to impaired driving each year? How many people who die weren't smoking/drinking, and died from someone else's lack of concern and/or brain matter?

The problem is that you CANT get people to be responsible. There will always be fuckwits who think they can drive home, or that they're totally fine, and end up killing someone, or people who get OTHER people addicted.

Hell, if pot was legal, and it was as lethal to one's self as heroine, I wouldnt give a damn if they legalized it so long as people just sat in their homes letting it stop their hearts.

I'd also like to know WHY and HOW the world is in such a shithole that we need to fucking legalize WEED to fix it. Bullshit reasons like this are laughable.

 

[Mcupobob]

Yes, Cannabis is the most versatile and useful plant in the world. It can be used as fuel, food, medical, paper substitute, clothing substitute and commercial recreation. Basically its a silver bullet to many of the worlds problems yet is still illegal. Reason being, that many companies and moralist would rather people buy their wasteful and damaging products instead and the moralist don't like it when someone gets stoned for some reason despite pot being a safer and softer drug compared to most(rather all) including the painkillers doctors hand out today.

It pains me to say this, but those dirty rasta hat wearing hippies were right about this one.

Also sorry about your friend being killed by a stoned driver, but honestly accident like that compared to drunk driving are far less and I would doubt would increase with the soon legalization of Cannabis.

Also I would like you to imagine a world where pot was never made illegal. It would be grown everywhere hell my great grandma said back before it was made illegal(1932 something shes really fucking old) it used to just grow on the side of the road. Sad really it never took off, there might have never been a oil crisis if people stuck to hemp fuels and biofuels, and imagine if it was the main stray instead of alcohol. Less violent drunks and car wrecks and less alcoholics needing rehab. Also a lot of people wouldn't have been persecuted and thrown in jail and it would have been tax and regulated as opposed to drug dealers and drug lords getting their hands on American money and spending it on more illegally obtained items.