Make Marijuana Legal?

reminded me of this:



the only possible way it can be a gateway is because it comes from the same source as other illegal drugs. it's just good business to try to sell similar products to the same customer; "would you like fries with that?" if it's legal it will be distibuted from a seprate source. thus eliminating the chance of direct exposure to other drugs.


something else to consider is Portuguese drug policy as an example of positive results of decriminalization.

Should weed be legal. Meh depends. Yeah weed is less dangerous then coke, crack, crank or heroin but it leads to the couch and the munchies.. which is fine if you have nothing to do after work or the weekends. Weed just make you unproductive. My brother works at gamestop.. that fool is baked all day long because hey games are fun when your stoned.. i have spend a day baked at his shop. Also he the manager. As long as it not use while driving or doing shit needed to be in a clear mind at the time then why care if it a drug anyways. We all on some form of drug now.

Prescribed drugs are more harmful to the body then weed, lsd or shrooms. That being said.. some people need drugs to survive.. i have to have insulin for my sugar, a seizure med and an Antidepressant for my pains in my legs because the sugar ate the coating on my nerves to the point of HOLY FUCK MY FEET ARE ON FIRE. Insulin isn't really a drug but yeah i can't just buy it over the fucking counter.

Beer and smokes are more dangerous to the body then Thc in a vaporizer or in a brownie. Yeah smoking anything is dangerous to you... shit smoking makes you lightheaded sometimes.. should you do anything like that while driving? weed has upsides for people. Cancer patients and aids patients can now eat food without nausea because of the chemo and antiviral. Has some benefits on pain.. not a pain killer but your so baked and happy... the pain is the least of your worries.. pizza hut is.

Sadly weed won't be legal unless they just pass it without a vote. Not because the people won't pass it.. because the growers won't wanta lose big money. Here in cali we tried but yeah the northern weed growers funded anti weed ads and lobbyist's because if california would of pass it.. then all the weed would of been growed in the central valley like 25% of America's food supply. Also valley grows a lot of legal weed for the pot shops.

Really weed should be legal like beer or cigs but yeah.. still a drug war and opinions vs facts. Shit all that untaxed crops and the way to stop the mexican drug lords.. make american grown weed legal.. and drive the mexicans drug trafficers away. Shit i live in the valley.. i know those crazy fuckers are out in the hills grown with a ak. Shit i can't even take my kids to see wild california without my gun with me because of the illegal trade. Now the american growers leave signs and tale tell marker so people won't venture off in the crops. You know what a boarder brothers sign.. a gun shot thru your skull. I love to take them to where i lived and hike thru for all my life.. just too scared of them illegals and their guns and no reason. Everybody know don't go off the trail during growing season.

I think marijuana should be legalized so that the government can regulate the concentrations so that there is less of a danger from overdosing/reactions with other substances in the body(natural or otherwise). Dealers already have basically perfected the formulas for growing the optimum THC producing marijuana plant and so the government simply needs to set up some production facilities before they can start selling. Have it only available through doctors and have each crop be inspected by the FDA so that it will be safe for public consumption.

In addition I find that taxing marijuana heavily(through not too much) will provide a much needed economy boost for the US. I can imagine many doctors prescribing it to a variety of patients in order to provide pain relief, increase a patient's appetite, or even to calm patient undergoing abnormal amounts of mental stress.

As long as the government takes control of every point of the chain - production, supplying, distribution, I can easily see marijuana being legalized.

Yes.

Tax it for a economy boost and cut out the primary source of funding for organized crime in the U.S.

Legalization might even make it cheaper. Based on simple supply and demand the supply right now on the streets is being controlled by hundreds, thousands, or even more, of people. Legalized it would be controlled by corporations and the government. Not to mention the quality of it would likely increase.

The privately owned prisons and the pharmaceutical companies will never want it legalized though.

I like to think that one day you will be able to just stroll around Wal-Mart and grab a big ol' sack of weed and toss it in your cart. You'll have your name brands and different quality levels and flavors. You'll have the Equate(Wal-Mart brand) versions that will be a bit cheaper. You'll have a whole new section of Wal-Mart just for weed with pipes, bongs, papers, you name it. You'll have cleaning products that claim to clean your bongs better than the others, snack foods that claim to compliment weed better than others, and so much more. You'll have business men buying stock in weed.

Ok so maybe I dream a bit big but it could happen.

Sure, I'm not a smoker but I love the smell haha... Anyway it does have its good uses.

People keep mentioning the taxation benifits, but no one seems to consider the huge redution in enforcement and incarceration costs. a very large portion of inmates are non violent drug offenders. the cost of arresting, processing(court), housing, feeding, and clothing them in jail is a huge waste of money. espescialy when the more effective methods of rehabilitation and education are largely ignored in the current system.

Personally, I'm all for the legalization of Marijuana, but only for MEDICAL purposes.

Seriously, I'm already fed up with potheads wanting weed legalized just so they can get high more easily. That's NOT why Marijuana should be legal, and really, at the end of the day, we the US would be LAUGHED at.

I can understand the medical need for it, I've had relatives that died of cancer, and if they had access to Marijuana, they would've lived more comfortably.

In short, legal for medical use everywhere; YES. Legal for recreational use everywhere; HELL-FUCKING-NO!

You say that but what gives the government the right to say that we can abuse caffeine, tobacco, and alcohol recreationally but not marijuana? Especially when weed isnt as bad as those 3.

The only reason I can see that Marijuana won't be legalized for recreational use is that it's a multimillion dollar market at the moment, and that's because it's still illegal in many states and under federal law, and that it being legalized for recreation would destroy the tobacco industry, which will fight tooth-and-nail to keep it illegal.

My own mother used to smoke Marijuana when she was younger, mainly because it actually helped her sleep. Only reason she stopped was not because she got caught, which never happened, but because after a good while, instead of feeling sleepy, she started experiencing HEADACHES.

Even if weed isn't as bad as alcohol or tobacco in terms of what it does, it still damages the brain, and prolonged use will result in serious problems, one of which is MEMORY LOSS.

Ask yourself; do you really want Marijuana legalized for recreational use? Or should it only be legalized for medical use?

At least some places are working to decriminalize the act of being found with a small amount when searched.
A lot of times, when people are randomly (or in the process of another violation) searched for items, pot turns up in tiny amounts and puts otherwise sometimes innocent people in jail.

This is a waste of time, money, prison space, and is really, almost never, linked to major crime. Thankfully, some places are working to make such findings lawful, as long as the person is not using the pot at the time of apprehension.

I don't have any objections. If people want to smoke it then go ahead. Jobs can still have drug test if the use of the drug impairs an individuals ability to perform, however I see no reason to outlaw most illegal substances.

I have asked myself and do want it legalized for recreational use. I have done the research into it as well. If your mother experienced headaches because of marijuana then your mother would be quite valuable to science. So far there has not been any studies that show any permanent damage due to marijuana. There was ONE study done on monkeys where in which 3 monkeys were observed to have brain damage. This study was a favorite among those that were against marijuana. That is until it was discovered that the study actually subjected the monkeys to such high levels of cannabis smoke via gas masks that they were deprived of oxygen. Since then no study has been able to replicate the observed brain damage via legitimate testing methods.

The memory loss is also not as bad as one might think. Short term memory loss does occur while high but goes away once sobered up. It hasn't been shown to cause permanent memory loss but chronic users may experience longer periods of short term memory loss extending into weeks after the initial use. Being chronic users would mean that they would certainly be smoking again within that period thereby further extending the short term memory loss. It a chronic user it may appear as if they have permanent memory loss when in fact that is not the case.

Also, a Harvard study released on April 17, 2007 shows that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread!

There was also a study done with a synthetic THC compound approximately 400 times stronger than marijuana that actually showed an increase in brain cell growth in rats.

There have also been studies that claim that THC might help alzheimers patients.

I can eventually provide the sources for all of this if you would like but that would take some time.



I will agree that a lot of corporations have a lot to lose if it is legalized. Tobacco industry and Big Pharma are likely to fight the hardest against it as they have the most to lose. I don't think that the tobacco industry would suffer that much though. I know plenty of people that smoke weed and still smoke cigarettes, all of whom say that marijuana makes their cigarettes even better. It's not like people are just going to give up their nicotine addiction once marijuana is legal.
There will, however, be less of a need for many different medicines. Most headache relievers and sleep aids will be useless. And let's not forget about Marinol. That is a medicine made based off of marijuana and it will lose all use.

http://norml.org/component/zoo/category/marinol-vs-natural-cannabis

Sure, it might be a bit biased, but it's still pretty accurate. Big Pharma will also lose money from drug tests. It is well known that the majority of drug tests that come back positive are for marijuana. Take that away and that's another big hit for Big Pharma.

So what politician is going to want Big Pharma against them? Not many. Still I think legalization is plausible in my lifetime.

You know if marijuana were to make legal, most of use probably won't have long life. Study has show that marijuana will make someone live shorter than those who doesn't use it, unless they want to die young.

Get high easily ? I call a number and 10 minutes later i got my weed , what's so hard abouth that ? It's not why marijuana should be legal and it's not why we want it to be legal . Also no you wouldn't be laughed at , you might not know it but it's not all countries where weed is illegal and no one's laughing abouth it .

So you didn't give any arguments against it or in favor of your position , what was the point of writing all this ...



Next you'll tell me that cigarrettes are not good for the health maybe ? And anyway , what does that change , is it any of your buisness if the guy who smoke weed will die sooner ?

Yeah cause if that person was my partner in business, that could become a real headache when he dies. Plus if that person was some kind of like parent to you, would you not consider for his well being?

When it comes to legalizing Marijuana, when you get down to it, you have to be reasonable about not only legalization, but you also have to consider REGULATION of it.

While different, Marijuana should be subjected to the same restrictions as tobacco products; have to be 18 to buy and use, LEGALLY, and trying to do so for someone that can't results in a fine and/or whatever other punishment is added as well.

For me, the only way I see Marijuana being legalized, and I'm being reasonable about it, is if it were legalized as a MEDICINE, meaning, only LEGALLY obtainable through a prescription. Yeah, would still be illegal for RECREATIONAL use, but if that's what you want to legalize Marijuana for, then you've got an uphill battle convincing the powers that be to legalize the plant for more than medicinal use.

I am not sure if this thread is directly related to marijuana legalization in the U.S. or in general. I can make a case easily for the U.S. based on our constitution but in general it gets a bit tougher.

Despite that, the reality is that there have been no conclusive studies that prove any permanent harmful affects from marijuana. Even so, that is not the point. Here in the U.S. it is perfectly legal for someone to eat as much food as they desire from any restaurant that they desire. This simple fact is far more harmful than ANY drug in existence, and yet it is legal. The safety argument against marijuana simply doesn't work.



I don't think that is the only way but it is most certainly a starting point. I believe that it is very possible that it might one day become an over the counter drug. That gives the public the perfect chance to use it recreationally as much as they want without the government officially condoning recreational use, just like the current state of DXM or DPH.

Why shouldn't it be used for recreational purposes? Your argument is that because it CAN be used for medical purposes, we shouldn't use it for recreational purposes????

What's with society's attitude that recreational substances should be banned in the first place? Why?

The argument shouldn't be whether or not it is safe! Why should that determine legalization?

When we talk about legalization, we're not just talking about ethics. We're talking about me not thrown in jail and forced into slave-labor by prisons just cuz' I wanted to smoke a piece of grass while having sex with my wife!

Even worse is you have a CRIMINAL RECORD! Even after you leave prison, you wont even be able to get a job, or anything!

All because you smoked a fucking plant!

HOW could you people talk so casually about wanting to keep drugs illegal!?

I ask.. WHY should it be illegal!? Don't just tell me your opinion whether or not it should be legal or not.. WHY should it be illegal for recreation!? WHY must one have such harsh consequences not already done by the drug itself!?

Meh, for all I've learn, Marijuana is basically tabacco, but with a "makes you high as shit" component.

Now, trusting the results of a study and seeing that it has weak dependance issues and no neurotoxicity, I'm going to say hell, why not.

The thing is, its like alcohol: it needs to stay indoors.
Smoking weed +driving=dead people


But apart from that, sure, I'm in.

You do as everyone else that are against it in this topic , you say that you are against it but you don't give any arguments of why you are .