General Discussions

You run into alcoholics who say the same thing. Who then drive off exit ramps and end up in someone's backyard pool.

driving while high is about as dangerous as driving while you're sleepy.

legalizing pot would create alot of jobs and the taxes from it would generate massive revenue for the government. it would also remove millions of american people from being criminals and enemies of the state, which in turn would save millions, perhaps billions of taxpayer money used for law enforcement, prosecution, and imprisonment. not to mention all the taxable money that is lost in the current multi-billion dollar marijuana black market trade industry. *also* pot itself would actually be alot cheaper if legalized, which is great for everybody.

so basically right now marijuana is costing the usa billions upon billions of dollars every year. if it were legalized, those billions and billions of dollars would be back in the pocket of uncle sam.

the only possible downside of this would be an increase in lung cancer cases, but in my opinion there wouldn't be much of a difference because 6 out of 10 people smoke it regularly and 8 out of 10 people have tried it.

also weed doesn't have to be smoked, it can be used in food, it can be vaporized(which reduces ingestion of cancer causing carcinogens by 95%, virtually eradicating the chance of getting lung cancer), or it can be brewed as herbal tea.

so obviously, i vote yes, and in not doing so, the government is neglecting the best interests of the people. its a mild intoxicant at best, not worth spending billions to unsuccessfully get rid of.

oh yah, and its also a renewable resource for paper, which would save millions of trees that consume millions of tons of green house gases. so legalizing weed would indirectly, but effectively help combat global warming. wow is there anything weed can't do!?

[Edited by dstates, 10/27/2010 1:13:22 AM]

Definitely yes!

Bur also it depends of the cultural background of respective country and more to say people involved.

The long term effects of smoking weed regularly make you into a moron. Just like alcohol it will be abused and cause more problems than its worth. My uncles brother in law smoked it since he was a teenager and now he can barely string a coherant sentance together, like he's mentally disabled.

The point is Law as an absolute arbiter in social life should decide for private living quality in such depth or leave some aspect to personal decisions?

Then why not ban Alcohol my friend?

i find it hard to believe that thc is the main cause for that. i know many people that are well into their 60's that have been smoking regularly since they were teens/young adults and they are among the most intelligent people i know. one of them has a phd and another is a published novelist.

the only way i see weed having ill effects such as that would be if it stays illegal.

since it's illegal, its unregulated and can commonly be laced with other drugs, knowingly or unknowingly for the user(PCP, cocaine, methamphetamine etc.) which can cause major brain damage, especially if smoked.

however, studies have shown that prolonged use of marijuana can lead to memory loss.

Just like alcohol or any other drug people have different levels of tolerance.

Yes there are benefits to having it legalised, but I really dont see the point in wasting money on policies and regulations. People who want to use weed, use it. People who don't, well they don't. Legal or not, billions will still be spent trying to get other more dangerous drugs off the streets anyway.

i see what you're saying but policy making has no direct cost aside from the salaries of the policy makers, who will get paid either way. and you're right, people will use it weather it's illegal or not...but if it were legal, those people would not be considered criminals for doing nothing wrong.

just think of all the criminal organizations world-wide that use illegal substances to fund their organizations. if such an organization relied heavily on illegal marijuana sales and then marijuana was legalized and produced/distributed by legitimate, law abiding businesses, it would cripple said criminal organization.

bottom line is, the pros heavily outweigh the cons. and when making a decision in government you must compare pros and cons before coming to a conclusion on an issue.

take minimum wage for instance. the list of pros and cons for setting a minimum wage is very, very close. with the pros just barely outweighing the cons, yet government has relatively no hesitation when making such a decision.

the choice is obvious. the money that would be generated from legalizing and taxing marijuana would be enough to END world hunger.(im not saying that the money would be used for such a thing, just giving it some perspective)

[Edited by dstates, 10/27/2010 3:10:13 AM]