Poll: Should they legalize pot?

[EeveeElectro]

Tax the hell out of it, and only let them smoke it in certain places. I wouldn't want children and people against drugs to get stoned off the passive smoke.
A lot of drug dealers will be out of business. They might actually have to find a real job! gasp.

 

[Good morning blues]

Recreational drug use funds organized crime. Legalize drugs, combine it with an honest educational campaign, you cut off the finances for organized criminals, you get a large surge in tax revenue, your law enforcement costs decrease, and if you do it right there's no significant increase in recreational drug use.

 

[Lucifron]

***A challenger appears!***

If we could do it without collapsing the economy and fucking over thousands of people? Yeah, morally, we should. It won't happen, so there's not really much of a point discussing it.

In any case, I would like to know what universal morals are at work here.

The use of psychoactive drugs causes scizophrenia in people who are liable to get it. It effectively raises the likelihood of it happening. It doesn't give it to people who will never get it, but it can speed up the process and increasen the severity for those who have a chance of getting it.

So, people who have a history of mental illness in their family shouldn't take any hits from the bong. Similarly, as was mentioned previously in the thread, people with bad livers shouldn't engage in drinking games at the local waterhole. Prohibiting something that is completely optional to engage in because a minority of the population might not be compatible with it is asinine legislation.

And yes, the government should step in and take that away. I believe it is their responsibility to protect the people. You will always have the freedom to break the law if you are so inclined. The risk is that you will be arrested. Risk is involved in everything, the government cannot and will not ever have the ability to control people. It can only guide as best it can.

Protect? From what? Slobbering stoners mistaking you for munchies?

 

[Always_Remain]

People will smoke it whether it's legal or not so you might as well legalize it so that you can tax it and so that it can be regulated by the FDA and the government. Meaning you could control the quality and put an age limit on it etc etc.

As for health consequences I agree it may have some if you use it a lot but joints aren't nearly as dangerous as cancer sticks (cigarettes) so if that's the reason you want to keep it illegal then ban those too.

Lastly who is the government to tell me what I can and can't put into my body? As long as I don't cause harm to anyone else they should let me smoke all the pot I can lay my hands on. Plus if this industry suddenly became legal it would jump start the economy because of all the new businesses and give the government extra funding since you could tax it.

I agree with you all the way buddy. Basically stole everything I was going to say haha

 

[The Lunatic]

I have no issue with smokers of the stuff, the only issue I could possibly have would be with the sources of it.

People are killed over it and money is made off the misfortune and at the cost of the lives of others.

Of course, a solution to this would be to legalize the growing of the stuff and commercialize it. Moving an illegal substance into the hands of a legal and controllable company would make the most sense to me.

 

[Zeromaeus]

Hard drugs are less pervasive in areas where soft drugs are legal. Sure, let's legalize pot.

 

[direkiller]

I believe the federal government should legalize marijuana on two basees.

One: To un-demonize it. In conjunction with the media, the war on drugs seems to explain away all of the hard drug dealers as junkies who stumbled upon the path to dealing from an encounter with pot.
Two: Statistically marijuana contains less lethal additives than the average cigarette, and is linked to less fatal car accidents than alcohol.

That's because less people smoke marijuana then people that drink you need a statistc that compares an even number of drunk drivers to an even number of Marijuana users driving for what you said to be a good point

what you did was basically comparing the Mississippi river to the ocean
yea the ocean killed more people but it may not be any less dangerous then the river

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

We have enough legalized drugs with Tabacco and Alcohol we really don't need another one. Use of drugs like Alcohol and Marijuana can lead to people being more likely to use other drugs. I understand thias isn't always the case and just because you had one joint doesn't mean you will become a heroine addict but it is true to say while high you would be more likely to try other drugs than sober.

 

[Tharwen]

I just don't want to take any drugs, personally. I don't care if it's less harmful than smoking, because I don't smoke want to either.

 

[Sebass]

One: Yes it should be legalised

Two: Wether or not it makes you 'dumber' is not clear, but it does have short-term effects on memory and cognition as marijuana has an effect on choline and acetylcholine. (Try studying, and try studying again after you've smoked weed for a few days, there will be a noticable difference) Now that's a far stretch from making you 'stupider' because this wears of within a few days, but who knowns what chronic use does.

For more information have a read through this thread, it's quite interesting.

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=505336

 

[Haukur Isleifsson]

Yes. And most of the arguments have been stated earlier in this thread.

 

[Spadge]

A few people have missed an important fact; Legalisation =/= Decriminalisation.

Nice to see two or three posters talk with some kind of experiance, rather than friends of friends BS. I, like most, know plenty of people who have partaken in pot and on the rare occasion, so have I. For those who can manage the psychologically addictive traits of marijuana, then good for them. There are loads of people out there who can't and their life goes down the drain as a result.

Now, I get sick of hearing "Tobacco and Alcohol are legal, so should pot". What a load of crap; just because people got together and decided it was OK to use those drugs doesn't mean it was a good idea. I drink a fair bit; do I need to? No - I enjoy it - does it impact on my life? Only financially. It is addictive, and I am aware that it's something I've got to watch. Fortunately, I can prioritise; I don't drink when I've got to get up a 8 and go to work/uni. Some people are less able to do that. Given another opportunity, who seriously thinks our society wouldn't have been better off if a few hundred years ago people decided that these were all bad things so, now, they were gone?

I support decriminalisation to a point. Damning people with a criminal record for possession is rough - as long as someone has so little as to only be enough for personal consumption, police shouldn't be able to charge someone, only confiscate it. As for within your own home, people should be able to have a couple of plants - not enough to be able to set up a business selling it.

Another common argument is that people should be able to do whatever they want with their own lives. I ask those people, as long as a crime doesn't infringe on someone else's person or property, it shouldn't be a crime? If you're on a road with zero traffic, travelling through a rural area, you should be able to drive however you want and the EMTs can peel you off a tree later?

 

[RIOgreatescapist]

we'll start getting somewhere as a society.

I actually want to smoke because I don´t give two fucks about society.

 

[Rakkana]

Maybe... it tends to be the first step to harder drugs so i don't think its the best of idea's.

 

[YouCallMeNighthawk]

So you're disturbed by people who want to legalize pot, but you're making a poll on it?

Marijuana has no significant health effects, at least none as significant as the effects of alcohol and tobacco. Since those are legal, and legalizing pot could provide the government with a significant tax income and prevent gang violence, it's beneficial to legalize it.

You will be getting the same effects of tobbaco when you smoke pot, as you use tobacco in joints unless they are blunts.