Should marijuana be legal?

You should read and comprehend a little more and not assume so much. Just to update you. I'm not Republican or Democrat. I'm an undeclared voter. I don't support any one person. I'm not a sheep and don't suck up to nobody. I look at issues. There are issues on both sides I agree with. I just so happen to agree more with the conservative issues than the liberal ones. The big ones for me are and not necessarily in this order.

Lower taxes

Less government

A ban on abortion or as close as we can come to it.

No affirmative action

The right to bare arms-short sleeves only ;o)

Yes, legalize marijuana

A healthy enviroment but not obsessively so.

Alternative energy

The death penalty only when there is no doubt.

Assisted suicide for the terminally ill

Work for welfare

No gay marraige

A crackdown on illegals

Et al

Well Cigarettes are legal, why not marijuana? Considering all the chemicals in cigarettes, marijuana just doesn't seem all that bad to me.

In my younger days, I smoked a lot of marijuana and so did a bunch of my friends, including one who is now a Republican congressman. The biggest marijuana dealer at my college now has a job in the justice department. No one I know got addicted to marijuana. I had given it up by the time I was 24 mainly because I got busy with other things - like my all-time favorite girlfriend. I haven't done it in years, and I certainly haven't gone through any kind of mental or physical withdrawal. In any case, anyone who opposes medicinal uses of marijuana has allowed narrowmindedness and bizarre politicval partisanship to get in the way of common sense and basic human decency.

Yes.

Weary wrote:

But heck, what do you think morphine is? It's heroin, basically. What do you think Oxycontin is? It's synthetic heroin, basically.

Morphine and Oxycontin aren't synthetic heroin any more than Adderral is synthetic methamphetamine. Heroin, morphine, and oxycontin (which is a brand name drug, not a chemical name) are all different derivatives of opium.

dude, you are f***ing dork

dude, you're a f***ing dork

yah right wrote:

nh native wrote:

It is not possible to use crack responsibly, because it is physically addictive.

marijuana, on the other hand, is not physically addictive. it might be psychologically addictive (i.e., you want very much to keep using it because its effects are so nice), but you can stup using marijuana, or control the amount you use, without any withdrawal symptoms or physiological complications.

The use of any mind-altering substance which impairs judgement to the point at which you can hurt yourself or others is INHERENTLY irresponsible whether you are addicted to it or not. Leaving the car keys at home is irrelevant. You think going out drinking but taking a cab instead of your car is "responsible". Please.

I have no problem with you getting stoned or drunk, or high. But don't kid yourself that you're being "responsible" while you're warming up the bong.

yeah the government should sell it but they'd have to make sure it was good quality... the canadian government tried to grow pot for people but it sucked so bad that the program collapsed. party because they tried to grow it in tunnels.

Pot and prostitution should both be legalized.

Locknload wrote:

I'm not Republican or Democrat. I'm an undeclared voter. I don't support any one person. I'm not a sheep and don't suck up to nobody. I look at issues. There are issues on both sides I agree with. I just so happen to agree more with the conservative issues than the liberal ones.

I may not agree with you on all of the specific issues, but I love how you approach politics. We need to have more people like you in America.

Mork,

Thank you. That was nice to read.

well now wrote:

The laws regarding marijuana use maybe crazy, but so are are a lot of people who smoke it.

Ask anyone who works in the field of mental health, just how many young people are suffering from severe mental health problems because of their marijuana use.

I'm not going to disagree with you, but I will say that a lot of these people probably started abusing MJ before they were 15. Any psychoactive drug abused in the young, developing brain is sure to cause damage.

I know back when I was in HS, I looked younger than I was and I had a hell of a lot harder time getting alcohol than I did MJ. Regulating and selling only to those over 21 could possibly have the same effect. There would also be more appropriate education about the ACTUAL dangers of MJ instead of all the falsified bulls*** they tell you in DARE and other programs.

I also want to add that probably a % of those people suffering from mental health problems abused other drugs at some point as well, even if their abuse still remains a secret.

Click here to see how much is spent on the drug war so far this year!

http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm

Granted that's for all drugs, but I've seen numbers that the Federal government spends anywhere from $4-10 BILLION a year on marijuana prohibition.

Now think of all the people you know who smoke it, or think of how easy it is to obtain, or think of how many people are currently in favor of changing the current laws. This is money that is not well spent.

Then there's the cost of all those trials and keeping people in jail...

You mean its not legal?

Also think of the tax dollars legalization would bring. The jobs that would be created. Also it would be safer because they would test and make sure no pesticides, additives, etc were used.

It should definately be legalized, why wouldn't it be??

What is the worst thing that could come of legalizing marijuana?

I had a theroy I came up with one day when I was high...

Marijuana was originally grown by Native Americans right? And when white settleres came to America, didn't they pretty much all deem anything the Native Americans were doing to be .. I donno, savage? immoral? some word.. Anyway... the point I came to was that marijuana was probably, I don't really know, deemed to be wrong because it was something the Native Americans did. More of a cultural issue then a moral issue. We make alcohol and it kills millions and causes many other problems but its fine.. Native Americans grow weed and have a good time and they're the savage and stupid ones.. I didn't really research this or anything, but at the time it def. seemed like a plausable theory, I don't know how many of you will agree with it.. or be able to follow what I was saying.

Never have I been smoking with my friends and a fight broke out..

ever been to a party where people were drinking and a fight broke out?

I think its sad that something so pure.. a natural substance that comes from the ground.. is considered to be so wrong. Alcohol doesn't come straight from the ground. Mushrooms do though! If the gov't controlled it, it'd be even better. G-13 anyone?? It'd be safer too. It's just.. sad that we live in a place that is so hypocrtical towards some things. We allow alcohol and tobacco, two things that kill millinos of people but not marijuana, which if anything helps people (medicinal marijuana). We believe in a unseen force but ridicule any other culture believing in their own... ah i'm done this is far too long sorry.

you're on the right track at least. wiki marijuana for a more detailed history of marijuana legislation.

Lot of info above