Cons to legalizing marijuana?

cause its bad mkay

mackey wrote:

cause its bad mkay

Ugh cuz it's illegal and deadly duh

I, for one, would stop smoking it. What is the fun of doing illegal drugs if they are legalized? I'm switching to heroin.

If it is legalized, it is regulated. If it is regulated, it is taxed. If it is taxed, it may be more expensive. If it is more expensive, you may have to get a job.

Sorry dude.

The biggest con I can think of is that it seems incredibly difficult to define/enforce standards of operating under the influence for marijuana, unless the standard continues to be that you can't operate a motor vehicle after consuming any quantity

Cankles '16 wrote:

If it is legalized, it is regulated. If it is regulated, it is taxed. If it is taxed, it may be more expensive. If it is more expensive, you may have to get a job.

Sorry dude.

"At 2%, Colorado is the state with the lowest black market savings. There are even cities, like Denver and Aurora, where black market marijuana is more expensive than legal marijuana. Colorado’s government hopes that, due to legalization, the illegal and unregulated market will soon cease to exist."

The police don't get to confiscate your property if you have a small amount of weed in your car or on your person.

There is virtually no reason to not have this legal. Canada may go ahead and make it legal throughout the nation.

Like any medically relevant drug, I support medical use but not recreational use.

Reasons I oppose outright legalization:

1) It becomes easier for the underaged to obtain

2) It impairs judgment and should be treated like other drugs that do so

3) It's stupid

1st best pro-pot argument: It is far less harmful than alcohol. My counter: While this is true, I really don't believe a substance that claims 88,000 lives per year (CDC stat) should be our golden standard for what is and isn't legal. That's nearly 3x's the deaths by guns.

2nd best pro-pot argument: It brings in lots of $$$. My counter: Is it worth the cost? How many driving deaths are you comfortable with per $million revenue? Medical mj also brings in taxes.

3rd best pro-pot argument: It's a schedule 1 drug and the punishment doesn't match the crime. My counter: I agree, so take it off the schedule 1 and let medical laws govern its use.

There is no GOOD reason for recreational use. The pendulum sometimes swings too far ---> the swing from schedule 1 to legal is exactly that.

jewbacca wrote:

Like any medically relevant drug, I support medical use but not recreational use.

Jewbacca's arguments are well thought out, unlike most of the drivel on this board, and like most well thought out arguments, open to debate. I would add to his arguments that alcohol is legal and will continue to be legal due to societal norms. It has been romanticized into cultural acceptance and the effects of consumption studied adequately to have recommendations on consumption and limits established with driving, etc. With the aside I just presented, I am getting to my point about marijuana. It is heading quickly to societal acceptance and likely legalization and I think our efforts should be studying the effects of usage in more detail, set up some more long term use studies (if they aren't already) and most importantly fund some studies to set up limits (and field tests) for driving. Too often in this country, we legalize or approve new things prior to understanding the consequences and then are left to deal with the fallout. It makes no sense to legalize marijuana until we are able to deal with it's use.

What I would do immediately, and nationwide, is decriminalize it to nothing more than a fine until it is legalized. I would also let out of prison/jail everyone on a marijuana possession charges (unless they are in for other charges). The number of people we have in prison for drug use is really a problem and would immediately solve prison crowding issues and the taxpayer dollars needed to house them. That $$ would be much better served treating the problem.

Because It makes things worse for those who need medical marijuana. I mean those who have a legitimate medical need, not 95% of those who currently purchase "medical marijuana".

The problem with medical marijuana, though, is there is very little (if any) clinical evidence. We have a strong need for studies evaluating marijuana's safety and efficacy in treating all of the conditions that it's been found to help anecdotally

jewbacca wrote:

There is no GOOD reason for recreational use.

You don't think anyone could possibly benefit from experiencing an altered state of consciousness? No potential spiritual benefits? No advantage to being a bit more relaxed and less anxious? No benefit from sleeping better? Society wouldn't gain from allowing adults to blow off steam by eating an edible instead of drinking a mild poison?

Have you ever consumed marijuana? Being high is nothing like being drunk. There isn't much convincing evidence that it has an impact on traffic fatalities. Every other person on the road is looking at their cell phone. If traffic safety is your concern, start there.

In the end, you're arguing that adults shouldn't be allowed to partake in a relatively benign activity because you don't see the merit, and covering it up with "won't somebody think about the CHILDREN." Of course, we should do everything we can to educate and keep it out of the hands of kids, but anyone who would rob me of the simple pleasure of a joint and a book after a long day at work because "it's stupid" can get bent.

Did you even go to high school? It was easy enough to get in the 90s.

Really the best pro-pot argument is that it is none of the government's business what I choose to put in my body. Pro-freedom.

So, more in detail rebuttal, because I think your arguments are reasonable on the surface but not based on good evidence or deep analysis of the facts:

1. Do you have any evidence that legalization makes marijuana easier to obtain for the underaged? This article from Forbes (hardly a liberal bastion) indicates that underage use fell in Colorado since legalization:

Here's an article that says the same thing about Washington:

2. Yes, Marijuana should be treated like alcohol, a drug that impairs judgement. Although marijuana is far safer. It has caused

3. it's stupid?? What does that even mean? That you don't want to use it? Do you oppose everything being legal that you might personally not want to try?

Conservatives are afraid everyone will become potheads, and liberals love controlling your life. Bipartisan win-win!

4th best pro-pot argument: The cure is worse than the disease. The drug war is a complete disaster. We've already endured hundreds of billions of dollars (or more) wasted, the total destruction of the 4th amendment, selective enforcement against minorities and resulting mass incarceration, tens of thousands of violent, no knock SWAT raids every year to serve minor drug warrants, rampant asset forfeiture abuse, and of course the tens or hundreds of thousands of deaths through gang and cartel related violence. How many more deaths and ruined lives are you comfortable sacrificing to continue this hopelessly failed effort to prevent people from getting high?

Pro-MJ sf resident wrote:

The biggest con I can think of is that it seems incredibly difficult to define/enforce standards of operating under the influence for marijuana, unless the standard continues to be that you can't operate a motor vehicle after consuming any quantity

To expand upon your point:

Vermont, one of the most liberal states in America, voted DOWN the measure to legalize commercial sale of marijuana. Why?

"After Colorado legalized pot in 2012, the number of highway fatalities in which the driver tested positive for the active ingredient in marijuana shot up from 23 in 2013 to 37 in 2014, according to a report released in April by the state’s Department of Public Safety. One reason may be that pot use among young adults also increased, from 21 percent in 2006 to 31 percent in 2014. The report also noted a rapid rise in the number of police trained to identify driving impairment from drugs other than alcohol.

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In Washington State, meanwhile, the number of fatal crashes caused by a driver who tested positive for marijuana has doubled since voters legalized pot in 2012, according to a study released Tuesday by AAA. “The significant increase in fatal crashes involving marijuana is alarming,” said Peter Kissinger, president and chief executive officer of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety."

It isn't a harmless drug. There is a risk involved, despite what pot advocates say. Also, these stats don't even mention the number of non-fatal marijuana-related driving accidents, which most likely increased as well.