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The Marijuana Thread

Should marijuana be made legal?

  • Yes

    Votes: 120 89.6%

  • No (Please state why below.)

    Votes: 5 3.7%

  • On Planet X, we believe that the burden of proof is on those who want something to be legal.

    Votes: 9 6.7%
  • Total voters
    134
steverino said:
That's because he was not YOUR brother.
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No. My brother's drug of choice is cocaine. I saw him for the first time in three years recently, and it was not a pretty sight. But this is not a thread about cocaine.

Look, I'm sorry if I sounded glib or insensitive in my reply above. But a family member's life being destroyed by marijuana is not an argument for its criminalization. How many more families have been destroyed by alcohol? And yet, no one is calling for the Volstead Act to be reinstated.
 
tkingdoll said:
However, what I will say is that legalising marijuana will lead to an increase in usage which will lead to an increase in tobacco smoking and the associated health problems. In the UK, that's an NHS resource issue. In the USA, a health insurance one. But, as tobacco isn't illegal, it's not a reason to prohibit marijuana, it's just a reason to discourage use in the same way governments discourage smoking.
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Hmm, am I to assume that in the UK marijuana is commonly mixed w/ tobacco before smoking? I know that's a popular way to smoke it in Canada also. But in the US it is almost always smoked straight, unless blunts are your thing.
 
AmateurScientist said:
There is no distinction at all. Decriminalization is legalization. How is something "illegal" in this context but not criminal?

Decriminalization is simply a more palatable term for legalization. For too many persons, "legalization" implies government condonation. I cannot for the life of me understand why. It's legal to overeat and be obese, yet surely no one would argue that the government condones being obese. Why then, does anyone argue that "legalization" is tantamount to condoning (some even argue than it would be encouraging) its use?

AS
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I see your point, but--my conjecture--what people I speak to here tend to mean by decriminalizing it is that it's still illegal, but the consequence of violation is a fine, not jail time, not prison. Just a ticket and a fine.
 
brodski said:
Well, if taxed right cannabis could help to fund the NHS, and to be honest (in the UK anyway) dope is so easy to get hold of, and so tolerated by many police forces, that outright legalization is unlikely to massively increase usage.
I doubt that there are that many people out there thinking "I'd love to have a spliff, if only it where legal".
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I simply do not know. I know people who won't try it because it's illegal, and the vast majority of householders wouldn't have the first idea where or how to get hold of it. But you are right, it's possible outright legalisation won't massively increase usage. The difficulty is, you can't make it legal on the sly, so the publicity would in effect amount to an endorsement. And as the govt. spend so much combatting tobacco smoking, would it not be taken as politically hypocrital? I do wonder if that's a motivating factor and the status quo is the best compromise available.

The problem is not that marijuana shouldn't be illegal, it's that you'd have to make it legal when you could just tolerate it like the police in the UK do, as you point out. That way, those who want to smoke it, do, and those who don't because they can't get it, or because it's illegal, don't. Which works, I think.

Slingblade, I was posting that as a dim and distant memory of something I read which may or may not have been govt propoganda. I'll do my best to find a source for it but in the mean time just take it as my own opinion. I think it's highly probable that the legalisation of marijuana will lead to an increase in usage, but I couldn't say by what margin. But given the penetration of alcohol and tobacco consumption in the general population, I see no reason why marijuana consumption wouldn't eventually reach the same levels as tobacco (currently at 30% I think) or alcohol (no figure for that but I'd guesstimate at least 60%).

I will try and find some figures to back that up but I think any projection about increase in usage is pretty useless until someone actually tests it. And that won't happen. If the benefits of legalising marijuana outweighed the disadvantages, it would be done already I think.
 
WildCat said:
Hmm, am I to assume that in the UK marijuana is commonly mixed w/ tobacco before smoking? I know that's a popular way to smoke it in Canada also. But in the US it is almost always smoked straight, unless blunts are your thing.
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yes, it is almost always mixed with tobacco, whether it is smoked in joints or through pipes/bongs.
But even if smoked "straight" it still does many of the nasty things to your body that smoking tobacco does.
 
I will build on Tkingdoll's comment to say that if you add smoking pot to those who smoke cigarettes, then of course the entire pool of smokers would increase. Everyone into the pool. (cough cough)
 
Vorticity said:
No. My brother's drug of choice is cocaine. I saw him for the first time in three years recently, and it was not a pretty sight. But this is not a thread about cocaine.

Look, I'm sorry if I sounded glib or insensitive in my reply above. But a family member's life being destroyed by marijuana is not an argument for its criminalization. How many more families have been destroyed by alcohol? And yet, no one is calling for the Volstead Act to be reinstated.
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I am sorry to hear about your brother, and I am glad cocaine is illegal, if you get my point.
 
AmateurScientist said:
There is no distinction at all. Decriminalization is legalization. How is something "illegal" in this context but not criminal?

Decriminalization is simply a more palatable term for legalization. For too many persons, "legalization" implies government condonation. I cannot for the life of me understand why. It's legal to overeat and be obese, yet surely no one would argue that the government condones being obese. Why then, does anyone argue that "legalization" is tantamount to condoning (some even argue than it would be encouraging) its use?

AS
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Ah, but if being obese was illegal, and the government then made it legal, would it not be condonation then?
 
brodski said:
yes, it is almost always mixed with tobacco, whether it is smoked in joints or through pipes/bongs.
But even if smoked "straight" it still does many of the nasty things to your body that smoking tobacco does.
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Maybe not quite as many. Consider the difference between a two pack a day cigarette smoker and a tea-totaler. In the latter case, a lot less is inhaled.
As an aside, the only people who I ever saw mixing cannabis (hashish) and tobacco were Berbers.
 
yes, make it legal

I would expound but I'm too lethargic. I could barely manage to bold the first sentence.
 
pot really doesnt have any legit use. Other than to get your high. We frown on highness cause it causes people to do goofy things. Even alcohol has its uses as a food/drink. It only messes you up when you drink to access.

And remember the 11th commandment. THOU SHALL NOT HAVE FUN!
 
slingblade said:
I see your point, but--my conjecture--what people I speak to here tend to mean by decriminalizing it is that it's still illegal, but the consequence of violation is a fine, not jail time, not prison. Just a ticket and a fine.
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Yes.
 
Absolutely it should be legal.

Since when it is the business of the government to control what I do within the proximity of my own home?
 
Legal. 100%


Alcohol as a food? Are you even serious? Alcohol, by any reasonable definition, is a drug. A mind-altering drug that can have lethal withdrawal symptoms. In fact, it is the only recreational drug that can kill you via withdrawal.

But, with as many times as I have seen drunk driving accidents, and my father ran a towing business, so I have seen more than most, I still would oppose prohibiting it.

We have already seen in this country that prohibition does not work. We witnessed the rise in gang related violence due to prohibited subtances, and also saw the overcrowding of our prisons due to spurious laws on consensual acts.


We saw all this in the time of Al Capone.


Why have we not learned our lesson?
 
I don't know about you, but I drink wine to stay healthy.

Just what the doctor ordered!
 
I've heard that pot works well as a self-medication for depression. No, I don't have any links or studies or anything to back this up.

Not because I'm self-medicated, but because I've always been too lazy to do any of the required research.

I'm nervous about voting in the poll, since I've learned that Darat can see who's voted what. (Hmmmmm.... any studies about pot and paranoia?)

I've known lots (and lots and lots...) of people who have smoked recreationally (and daily) for all of their adult lives, and you'd never know. I'm not one of them, simply because when I smoke, I get high. Everyone would be able to tell....

I suppose I think it shouldn't be illegal, but possibly regulated somehow.
 
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