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Legalize marijuana

D

David Merlyn

Super-Earth
Joined
May 3, 2015
Legalize marijuana and not just for medical uses. How many people think it's crazy that this drug is not legal in all 50 states? Yet alcohol, far more destructive, is. This is something I don't get. I was always against drugs period. One day I gave in just to the green girl, and found it wasn't that bad. Will I start popping needles or snorting, no. Those drugs and mentally and physically destructive and should not be taken. However this drug isn't. And with the new(sorta re popular) B.H.O. and wax dabbing craze what are your thoughts?
 
Well, now that I think about it, when they call it a "gateway drug", it sounds a lot of the time like they're not talking specifically about the effects of it as a drug but rather who you buy it from. Since it has been illegal for such a long time, when you go to your "dealer" for a new experience, which would notably be why you'd seek one out in the first place, asking him "what else ya got?" I do not think there's a lot of dealers who do the de-personalized, cold and quick handoff like portrayed in popular media. I think a lot of them are sales-people or they at least have someone to direct you to them who can convince you to try something new. "Hey, my man! You liked that kush? How about, if you're looking to taste something a little sweeter, we just got something on the market. It's a huge hit!"

That's just my impression of that term, which would be completely eliminated if you made it legal and took out dealers who might be selling other illegal substances. Afterall, the gateway leads to whatever else the guy who sold it to you has in his stock. Like doctors! And prescription psychotropics!
 
Hello again Mr. Quin. I think anything can be a gateway drug almost. Coffee can lead to energy drinks that when that buzz wears off your looking for more from something else. One beer can lead to another and then stronger liquors ect. If a person is open to trying drugs in the first place they have already stepped through the gate. However it doesn't mean that they will try other drugs. Now if it's a physically addicting drug or mental one it's a different story. There are no withdrawals with this drug and therefore no dependence on it.

I see your point on the dealer part. but lets face it just cause you call it illegal doesn't mean they will stop selling.
 
David Merlyn said:
Hello again Mr. Quin. I think anything can be a gateway drug almost. Coffee can lead to energy drinks that when that buzz wears off your looking for more from something else. One beer can lead to another and then stronger liquors ect. If a person is open to trying drugs in the first place they have already stepped through the gate. However it doesn't mean that they will try other drugs. Now if it's a physically addicting drug or mental one it's a different story. There are no withdrawals with this drug and therefore no dependence on it.

I see your point on the dealer part. but lets face it just cause you call it illegal doesn't mean they will stop selling.
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Now that you phrase it that way, I see my interpretation of the term as really dumb. But your last comment makes me think you didn't understand what I was saying. It's illegal right now. And it's selling. A lot. And my comments held no argument with that point, lol. In fact the opposite, if you're willing to look for an avenue to buy and for marijuana you're willing to break the law, then it becomes easier to make the choice "Well, since I'm already here, at this illegal dope dealer's house. Might as well try crack." And that is, that's hyperbole, since there's no saying that a person WILL absolutely make that leap but just to state that the choice becomes easier. Like I work in a grocery store and there's a cheaper grocery in town but I always shop at the one I work at, simply because wasting the gas money and time to go anywhere else isn't worth it to me. We're lazy creatures. Choices become easier to make when 1. we've already made a break through choice(like cursing like a sailor after you start easing in the phrase "Goddammit") and 2. when more opportunities are presented or made available at the exact same time and place.

What I was trying to say above is the opposite of what you're saying in your last comment: if made legal, it will sell more through legal channels and people will be less likely to try other drugs that a doctor or shop owner doesn't offer.
 
Well a lot of the hysteria about it can be seen in the farce - Reefer Madness, or whatever its called now. Although depending on what view you have of it, some of the opposition was also anti-Mexican as the use of it increased in the US post Mexican Revolution, though it had been used previously the prevalence of it in Mexican communities gave a way to prohibit Mexican immigration. Similar to how the Chinese Exclusion Act had been used to limit Chinese immigration in the 19th Century. The laws basis was not so much about hysteria of it as a drug, it was social where Mexican's mad on the drug would do things to "decent white folk", though the focus on it as a drug certainly came out of it later on as Church groups sought some social issue now that temperance was no longer a binding issue with the repeal of Prohibition. Much of it became an excuse to force certain groups to live or not live in certain areas.

Is it a gateway drug? Probably to certain people, same way as anything you want to mention can lead certain people to other things, but overall it has no more harm (IMO) as alcohol. The advantage being that you are more in danger of over snacking with too much smoking of pot than you are of a hangover with too much alcohol.

The laws stink, sadly until you can change the culture that has built up around those laws not much will be done overall.
 
Thanks Boyo111 I totally learned something there. Well there are a few states it is legal Colorado Alaska Washington can California(Need medical Id's in some of these) I hear the states make a killing off the taxes alone.
 
There is always a more going on behind many of these things than you can guess from the surface, US History is full of a lot of this.

Making it legal, same as tobacco and alcohol, and taxing it would allow some revenue, though I don't recall if the numbers showed a significant increase in revenue across the board. I will have to look for that.

Again, until society becomes more accepting its going to be like other large scale social changes where it will happen slowly until it builds momentum.
 
Let's look at what happens after it's legalized. I was watching a documentary about how legalization has changed anything in California. They talked to both a sheriff's department, and a legal grower. The Sheriff explained that number of illegal growers has actually increased in his jurisdiction. He had to have a special warehouse built just to house everything his department had confiscated from illegal growers. The reason for this was that the Mexican cartels had created more growing operations since legalization. If you think about it, this makes sense. Alcohol is legal yet there are still illegal moonshiners in operation. Why? It's all so they don't have to pay taxes, fees, buy licenses, and whatever else the government wants to charge for. Also because the plant requires anywhere from 3 to 5 gallons a day, it's caused large areas of erosion in the national parks in California. The legal grower they talked to insisted that they could only interview him without revealing the location of his operation. Again, why? Because human beings don't want to pay for anything and he keeps getting his plants stolen.

Even when it becomes illegal, it'll still be a drug which places it under the control of the FDA. You're not going to be able to just toss a couple plants in your backyard. If you want to grow it, then the government will put you through your paces. First you'll probably have to go through a background check which you'll have to pay for because the government doesn't pay for anything, and I guarantee that just one little wrong thing in your past will cause it to be denied. If you pass the check, then you'll have to pay a fee just to apply for a license to grow (which I guarantee will be in the thousands of dollars). Of course you'll have to pay another fee to get your license once they've allowed it. Not to mention the yearly taxes and fees you'll pay in city, county, state, and federal. The government will make a killing off the legalization of pot.

Let me make myself clear about this. I really couldn't care less about this. I don't know what the solution is and really don't care if there is ever a solution found. It's just not that important to me. I'm just against handing millions, maybe billions, of dollars over to the government that they'll blow on something stupid like the 12 million dollars in financial aid we send to China every year (this is in addition to the loans we're paying off to China).
 
I personally don't agree for the simple fact that I am deathly allergic, to the point that even smoking it in my general vicinity could land me dead or in the hospital.
 
I live in Oregon, where in two months it will be completely legalized. It will not be decriminalized on a Federal level - but so long as you don't draw the feds down on your ass you'll be good. The law has some pretty specific details, on how many plants a Non-grower can have. To become a medical grower is actually a lot easier than people think, yes there is a lot of licensing and fees... And you have to dedicate part of your yield to the local medical dispensaries... but you get paid to grow those plants, and whatever is left you can keep for yourself or do whatever with.

Personally I think legalization is a good idea. So long as it is combined with strict regulation. The same as alcohol. I think it should still be something that you can get in trouble over, if you are minor doing it. Someone providing it to a minor should get in trouble to. Because unless you medically need it, for whatever reasons the doctor says you need it, I don't think that kids should be smoking that shit. They should be focusing themselves on bettering their lives, not wasting their allowances on weed and forgetting they had homework to do.

But that's just me personally.
 
I am in favor of legalizing it medically as well as recreationally. Tax it and regulate it like you would alcohol (which is far worse for you, by the way) or tobacco.

I don't smoke much of it myself, but I know when I do, I not only feel happy during the high, but have noticed an anti-depressant like effect for a few days after. And I also sleep very well if I smoke before bedtime. So I know from personal experience that marijuana has medicinal benefits. I have also read up on all the ailments that can be treated with medical marijuana. (Muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis, Nausea from cancer chemotherapy, Seizure disorders, Crohn's disease, ect.)

Outside of that, legalization and regulation of Marijuana would increase tax revenue, create jobs and economic opportunities, and reduce law enforcement costs. The criminalization of marijuana use disproportionately harms young people and people of color, sponsors massive levels of violence and corruption, and fails to curb youth access.

If you are against Marijuana, run/fund mass media and school-based educational campaigns which historically has been shown to reduce rates of smoking in the case of Tobacco. Cigarettes and Tabacco products are legal, but smoking rates and Tabacco use are at an all-time low.
 
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