Why is marijuana illegal?

[Nudu]

snip

Cracked and you have misunderstood the argument here. The only real arguments against marijuana apply just as much and for the most part more to alcohol and tobacco. The article says "The end result is still that you're arguing for the right to make things worse than they were before." I urge you(not actually "you", but whoever wrote the article. Just so we're clear.) to ask yourself whether you think we were better off during Prohibition. Also, I can imagine a plurality of the people who want to keep pot illegal also drink alcohol, which blows all intellectual consistancy right off the table.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

snip

Cracked and you have misunderstood the argument here. The only real arguments against marijuana apply just as much and for the most part more to alcohol and tobacco. The article says "The end result is still that you're arguing for the right to make things worse than they were before." I urge you(not actually "you", but whoever wrote the article. Just so we're clear.) to ask yourself whether you think we were better off during Prohibition. Also, I can imagine a plurality of the people who want to keep pot illegal also drink alcohol, which blows all intellectual consistancy right off the table.

First off, you straw-manned my argument, which, to be fair, dear reader, isn't cool

Secondly, they have a point. "Booze is worse" is a perfectly good point... in a debate about puting a restriction on it. It has little to no bearing on this.

Hell, I don't drink, or smoke, but I want people to have the freedom to make their own choice in the matter. I just don't think "Tobacco is worse" is a very good argument.

 

[Dragunai]

Smoke too much pot and you will suffer issues with your brain and lungs - Ban it!

Smoke too many cigarettes and you will have serious issues with your lungs, heart and circulatory system - Let it run

Drink too much alcohol and you will have serious issues with your kidneys, liver, heart and brain - let it run

Eat too much cake and you will suffer from obesity which can cause a cavalcade of health issues - let it run! (or not as the case may be lardo)

Everything on this list when used to excess will cause rapidly occuring, easily detected health issues.

However only 3 of them have been linked to fatal issues - Cigarettes, Alcohol abuse and Obesity.

'Nuff said

And yes I am aware of the cotton story its just that now a days the bleeding hearts and do gooders use the above reasoning to get their own way because they can't get laid or something.

 

[funguy2121]

I should have known better than to expect everyone to play nice on this forum. I don't get how legalization would make everything worse. How are Denmark and Canada worse than the US? Unless Michael Moore's been lying to me, many Canadians don't lock their doors. Tell me, American Escapists, do any of you leave your houses and cars unlocked? I sure as Hell don't!

First off weed isn't legal in Canada (except for medical reasons), we just aren't as freaky about it. Cops for example routinely smoke...err...confiscate small personal amounts of weed they might find on you without charging you. Several police chiefs have asked for it to be made a summary offense (they write you a ticket, no criminal record), or to make possetion of small quantities legal. Basically for the small stuff you only get busted if you deserve to be busted for some reason. Dealers however get the cuffs.

Secondly all Michael Moore does is lie. He makes no secret that his movies are entertainment, not documentaries. For example in that famous door scene it took him a day to find an unlocked door.

Fair enough. Did he lie about the murder rates in Canada?

 

[tehroc]

War on Drugs is what fuels the Prison-Industrial Complex prevalent in the US. It an easy way for the state to gain control of the populace by pacifying it's youth with threats of incarceration and stigma to career.

 

[FolkLikePanda]

Well I've done more stupid things when I'm drunk then when I'm high but I've been drunk more times. But being high doesn't feel that all bad, plus it does less damage and is less addictive than tobacco but it may have worse psychological effects. I don't see why they can't legalize it so its seperated from hard drugs with dealers.

 

[NEMESIS 94]

Because the US is making more money of it because it's illegal right now. If that changes they might legalize it because then its just like why not ya know?

 

[Trinketeer]

Just because marijuana isn't as bad as alcohol or cigarettes means we should make it legal? Here's a hypothetical situation so humor me. Guns are legal in school but knives aren't. If a bunch of kids were complaining that they should be allowed knives because it was less deadly than guns, would you allow it?

Fallacious argument. Cigarettes and alcohol are not comparable to guns, and weed is not comparable to knives. Analogies only work when there is a similarity between the two. You're dragging knives and guns into a debate that is about marijuana. Even if kids were allowed to take knives into school, what the fuck does that have to do with smoking weed?

[...]

I say this everywhere I go, but I must disagree. You can compare anything to anything, there's just some comparisons that doesn't do the work they attempt to do.

His comparison was fine except for some differences (there's probably many, but here's the two I noticed that are the most important)
First of all, we've gotten the idea of bringing some thing to school mixed into this. Guns being legal to posess does not automatically mean you can bring it with you to school, and similarly, even if weed was legal to posess, doesn't mean everyone would be free to smoke it everywhere they please.

The other, most important difference I see, is that weed is only affecting the person who brings the weed. You could argue that it can affect other people who are nearby - which is why it should not be allowed in school.
Guns and knives, of course you can use those on yourselves, and I think you should be allowed to if you really want to, but once you bring it where there's a lot of other people, it becomes dangerous to more than just the person with the gun, which is where it becomes a problem.

Besides, the only reason people bring up the "it's not as dangerous as alcohol or cigarettes!" is to show how hypocritical the law is. It's quite simple, really;

Weed is allegedly illegal because it's dangerous.
Alcohol is not illegal, therefore one can assume that the law considers alcohol to be less dangerous than weed.
If that is the case, the law would be wrong, therefore the law is hypocritical.
It's not an outcry that attempts to say "Alcohol is legal, so legalize ours too! ", it simply shows off that the law is put together in a hypocritical way.

It still all boils down to this:
Are people free to do what they want with their own bodies?

If yes, then the discussion is over, and all drugs should be legal.
If no, then we can dive down and begin discussing all these things about why it should be illegal.

But if the answer is no, then I think we have a problem, because to me it seems that freedom is something that people see as a positive thing (The Land of the Free). But if we're willing to punish people for doing things that only affect themselves, then why the hell are we waving this banner of freedom around all the time?

 

[Darth_pipsqueak]

I think that, that whole suect is pretty stupid. C'mon. If a man or a woman wants to take drugs they shouldn't be prohibited to do such a thing should they? Yeah, Pushing is ad, ut shouldn't the cops then take EXTRA CARE for drug dealers outside elementary schools or parks were kids and teenagers are all the time? I mean seriously? We know it's ad and it's worse than alchohol and cigarettes but you can't ban marijuana without banning alchohol and cigarettes as well. None of those things should be banned, IF you ask me.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

TL;DR

Again, I introduce wisdom from a man well beyond his time...

 

[OliverTwist72]

Source [http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-pro-marijuana-arguments-that-arent-helping_p2/]

That is awesome!

Also, my opinion on this subject when it comes up is...who cares? Most people that want to smoke pot are already doing it, and I have no problem with it. I, for one, do not participate but I don't care if my friends do it.


Also: Reefer Madness.

 

[Nudu]

snip

Cracked and you have misunderstood the argument here. The only real arguments against marijuana apply just as much and for the most part more to alcohol and tobacco. The article says "The end result is still that you're arguing for the right to make things worse than they were before." I urge you(not actually "you", but whoever wrote the article. Just so we're clear.) to ask yourself whether you think we were better off during Prohibition. Also, I can imagine a plurality of the people who want to keep pot illegal also drink alcohol, which blows all intellectual consistancy right off the table.

First off, you straw-manned my argument, which, to be fair, dear reader, isn't cool

Secondly, they have a point. "Booze is worse" is a perfectly good point... in a debate about puting a restriction on it. It has little to no bearing on this.

Hell, I don't drink, or smoke, but I want people to have the freedom to make their own choice in the matter. I just don't think "Tobacco is worse" is a very good argument.

...I don't even know how to respond to this. Did you ignore my entire post? I went back and read it again and I didn't see the strawman. A strawman would be "If you support legalizing pot, you support driving while high!" which I've seen a couple of times. And keeping in theme of the argument here, an appropriate response would be "Well, does supporting the legality of alcohol mean you support drinking and driving?"

 

[wilsontheterrible]

For the people who say that the government shouldn't regulate what people do with their bodies, that's bullshit. The government has a responsibility to protect its citizens. What you all suggest is basically a small foundation for anarchy.

Then we get down to who we protect the people from. I've always stated that the government exists to protect people from those that would violate their property or their person without consent, and thats where that protection should end. I don't smoke pot but I drink and I smoke cigars and quite frankly it's nobody's business but my own.

Pot smoking, crack, crystal meth, prostitution, gambling, alchohol consumption, and tobacco smoking are all victimless crimes and whether or not they equate with what someone else deems as moral or healthy is irrelevant.

I find that those who rely on mind affecting drugs suffer from a fundemental weakness of character which I find repulsive. However I'll not prevent them from doing so. So long as you are an able bodied, free thinking adult you can do whatever you want to yourself as far as I care. Citizens are not children and government is no parent.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

snip

Cracked and you have misunderstood the argument here. The only real arguments against marijuana apply just as much and for the most part more to alcohol and tobacco. The article says "The end result is still that you're arguing for the right to make things worse than they were before." I urge you(not actually "you", but whoever wrote the article. Just so we're clear.) to ask yourself whether you think we were better off during Prohibition. Also, I can imagine a plurality of the people who want to keep pot illegal also drink alcohol, which blows all intellectual consistancy right off the table.

First off, you straw-manned my argument, which, to be fair, dear reader, isn't cool

Secondly, they have a point. "Booze is worse" is a perfectly good point... in a debate about puting a restriction on it. It has little to no bearing on this.

Hell, I don't drink, or smoke, but I want people to have the freedom to make their own choice in the matter. I just don't think "Tobacco is worse" is a very good argument.

...I don't even know how to respond to this. Did you ignore my entire post? I went back and read it again and I didn't see the strawman. A strawman would be "If you support legalizing pot, you support driving while high!" which I've seen a couple of times. And keeping in theme of the argument here, an appropriate response would be "Well, does supporting the legality of alcohol mean you support drinking and driving?"

Really? Let me quote for you

A good point. We should criminalize alcohol. Man, why didn't anyone ever think of this before?

That's quite clearly a straw man argument. But enough of this. We both agree, we just disagree on arguments.