Should Marijuana Use Be Legal?

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

Should Marijuana Use Be Legal?
posted with permission from: http://sane-ramblings.blogspot.com/2010/09/should-marijuana-use-be-legal.html

California's Proposition 19, to be voted on November 2, 2010, will decide whether to legalize marijuana use in the state. Attached is a 2 minute, 23 second pro and con news report, which includes my eldest son Kyle, a former police officer as one of the commentators. http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/state&id=7666299 What do you think?

The 40 year old War on Drugs is a disaster that has blown trillions of taxpayer dollars with little to show for it. We've tied up police officers, the judicial system and our jails to arrest, prosecute and imprison minor drug offenders at the expense of focusing our efforts and our money on violent offenders.

And in Mexico, Columbia, Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America, the U.S. is helping to fight drug wars in which people are dying and communities are being destroyed. To legalize the drugs would end the wars much as they did the gangster wars when alcohol usage was again legalized in America in 1933. Did we learn nothing from that experience? Instead of Al Capone, we had Pablo Escobar and we have others today, from grand style drug lords to the peddlers on the street.

California is America's breadbasket and what is its biggest crop? Marijuana. Legalize it and tax it. What kind of logic provides dangerous drugs legally such as nicotine and alcohol and prosecutes marijuana users? It is hypocrisy when a person can pour a martini, light a cigarette and then condemn pot users.

The War on Drugs is just a grand delusion, a competition for the moral high ground, an attempt to legislate behavior that is a colossal failure that grows worse by the day.

[RKP5637]

1. Yes! This war on drugs is insane. n/t

[Vincardog]

2. The War on Drugs is just a grand delusion, a competition for the moral high ground, an attempt to

legislate behavior that is a colossal failure that grows worse by the day.

BTW L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca sounds like the kind of cop who likes to have an excuse to stop and search brown people.

[blondeatlast]

3. Yes, from a non-user. nt

[Uncle Joe]

4. Absolutely, I believe it would be the best policy for the nation on multiple levels.

Thanks for the thread, No DUplicitous DUpe.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

7. Thank you for the comment!

:hi:

[MrSlayer]

5. Of course.

The most dangerous aspect of marijuana use is that you could end up in prison for it. Prohibition is ridiculous.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

17. "The most dangerous aspect of marijuana use is that you could end up in prison"

That's for sure.

[mrmpa]

6. Yes, yes and yes-I recommend the following

book "Licit and Illicit drugs" read this back in 1975 for a class on illegal drugs. It was and remains an eye opener.


http://www.amazon.com/Consumers-Narcotics-Stimulants-Depressants-Hallucinogens/dp/0316107174

[Romulox]

8. Yes. There is no rational reason for marijuana prohibition.

Its supporters are a minority comprised of authoritarians and moral scolds.

[Bobbieo]

9. Break the back of the Mexican Drug Cartels-

The U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy … says that more than 60 percent of the profits reaped by Mexican drug lords are derived from the exportation and sale of cannabis to the American market.

[tech9413]

10. I'm all for legalizing MJ and most other natural substances

What I don't like is allowing the commercialization of production. Once commercial industries get involved the cost will skyrocket and the quality will go down. Make it legal but keep it free to grow your own.

[Romulox]

12. This post is silly. Cancer patients shouldn't have to engage in horticulture.

"Once commercial industries get involved the cost will skyrocket and the quality will go down."

This is a ridiculous assertion. Do you think sick people should have to pay $350/O to support the lifestyles of growers? Because I don't.

[Occulus]

16. Because we all know the financial pain of a six-pack of Bud Ice

or a fifth of Jack Daniels. It'll be just like the end of alcohol prohibition, when the mob took over production and consumer costs of alcohol products skyrocketed to the point people were shooting each other in the streets over jars of bathtub gin.

:wtf:

[obxhead]

11. The war on drugs has been extremely effective.

If you understand what it is truly about that is.

The war on drugs has caused artificially high prices for drugs, especially pot. It has also allowed a few people to become extremely rich. It is also used as a scare tactic and a talking point in campaigns. On top of all this it has kept millions of people from becoming voters by ridiculously low standards for a felony charge.

The war on drugs has very little to do with drugs and peoples use of them. It's all about the money. Follow the money and you can find the reason.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

20. That's a great point..

It's all about the money.

[d_r]

13. absolutely yes from another non-user

[WhiteTara]

14. I always noted the hypocrisy of Nancy Reagan

and her "just say NO campaign" while her husband's administration was hauling it into neighborhoods.

[damntexdem]

15. Yes, Reefer Madness has created enough problems for this country in the past 3/4 century.

And marijuana does apparently have promise in medical uses -- although adequate study has been blocked by the stupid anti-Marijuana laws.

And this is quite apart from the issue of the wrongheadedness of the "war on drugs" in general.

[Blue_In_AK]

18. Absolutely.

[the redcoat]

19. I dont even need to read the posts to...

know what my answer is.

Weed being illegalized had nothing to do with its effects, those were all fake/manufactured to scare the public (reefer madness, etc)
It was illegalized for 2 main reasons:

1. Fear mongers began calling it "marijuana" to tie it into Mexicans entering into the country illegally. Because many were against the illegal immigration, it made it so you were automatically against weed.
2. You can't regulate weed growth. It grows naturally. And that, my friends, is a no-no if you are Big Pharma, Big Textile, or even just capitalism in general.


In REALITY, though, among the many medical benefits of weed being recognized around the world, it is literally impossible to overdose from THC. Literally zero people have ever died from it. LEGALIZE IT!

[spanone]

21. without a doubt. reefer madness has ruled long enough.

[Canuckistanian]

22. 20 years from now, we'll laugh at this question

Just as they did 60 years ago when the big question was "Should blacks be allowed in college?" or "Should women be allowed to have careers?"

[Fumesucker]

25. Funny, that's what I thought in 1976 when Carter was elected..

That was thirty four years ago.

Now I don't think cannabis will ever be legalized at the federal level.

[Kaleva]

23. The War of Drugs has arguably been the most costly boondoggle in our history

It'd be interesting if someone were to provide info on how much money the US spends annually on the so-called war, how many people end up in jail who needn't be there and how many are killed.

[obxhead]

32. Its not just jail either.

How many people have lost a job because they failed a urine test for smoking pot on the weekends?

How many people can no longer get a decent job because they are a convicted felon over a half ounce of pot?

The war on drugs doesn't just send people to jail. It punishes them for a lifetime, even when some give in and obey the rule of law and stop using the drugs.

[tomp]

24. should alcohol use be legal? nt

[Jokinomx]

26. Common Sense - of course it should! That should be the end of story. n/t

:toast:

[Warren DeMontague]

27. No. Because your body belongs to the state, the church, and "God". Not you.

What sort of crazy thinking would lead you to believe what you do with your own body is somehow your own business? Nut.



:sarcasm:

[pitohui]

28. fuck yes and i don't even tolerate drugs around me

there is no upside to illegal

[Mudoria]

29. Yes, And I'm not a user...

[panzerfaust]

30. Prohibition of Alcohol gave regionally organized crime a foothold in our country

Prohibition of drugs gives nationally organized crime a grip on our entire government and our society.

The "War on Drugs" is being used to destroy democracy, and replace it with a police state.

[pipi_k]

31. Another "yes" from another non-user n/t