Marijuana: Legalize or Demonize?

[SkinWalker]

First, some recent headlines regarding Marijuan Use in the United States:

 

 

Five charged with operating marijuana ring

Tons of marijuana found in house

Senate hearing on outlawing marijuana stirs strong feelings

Pittsburg man arrested for marijuana possession

Letter: Marijuana potency information misleading

 

Should Marijuana use be legal or illegal? Oh... and why?

 

I'm fairly neutral on this issue and have no real stand. In the past, we've debated marijuana use in this forum and I've taken the stand that it is "bad for you" and "should be illegal." Lately I've given thought to that assessment and have noted many logical reasons why it should not be criminalized. Among them is the fact that marijuana usage, often considered the "gateway drug," is actually the gateway to jail. Now, as I read about how a consequence for being busted for marijuana use/possession if you are a college student is that you no longer qualify, automatically, federal student loans. At first glance, I found this to be a logical consequence, but then I questioned whether or not a student convicted of other, more serious crimes, would qualify for federal student loans and grants. They do. A rapist can get a student loan for school. As can someone who was convicted of manslaughter or negligent homicide.

 

What are your thoughts?

[lukeiamyourdad]

I say legalize it.

 

If alcohol and cigarettes are legal, why can't marijuana be? This is far from being the most dangerous drug around.

 

How often do we hear somebody killing another because he drove under the influence of marijuana?

How often do we hear somebody killing another because he drove under the influence of alcohol?

 

I would like to see it being restricted. Like being unable to smoke it in public(much like over here, we can't drink alcohol in public).

 

 

Holland isn't a hellhole full of sins and marijuana is legal. So are prostitutes but that's another story.

[El Sitherino]

I am for legalization of responsible marijuana usage.

 

The gateway myth is unfounded. People go on to other drugs because they decided long before they smoked/ingested marijuana.

 

The only harm you get from marijuana is when smoking. But it still releases less carbon dioxide and cancer agents than a cigarette. There have since become safer ways of using marijuana, smokeless adapters to heat the marijuanana without reaching combustion point, and various ingestion methods.

 

 

I say we establish a system much like that for alcohol.

 

I myself mainly smoke and just sit and watch a movie. While I have some control, I know that should I move around and do stuff, I'll feel more confident in my small amount of control, and do something foolish.

 

We should teach about substance abuse, and how to avoid it. While marijuana has no chemicals causing physical addiction, people may find themselves addicted to it's euphoria, unlike cigarettes which contain nicotine causing chemical dependence.

[kipperthefrog]

I don't care. I won't smoke it either way.

[Rogue15]

I can't dis it if I haven't tried it.

[Dagobahn Eagle]

If alcohol and cigarettes are legal, why can't marijuana be? This is far from being the most dangerous drug around.

Alcohol and cigarettes are legal because they have to be. They tried banning alcohol in the USA and it was a bad idea, to say the least. So that's not really a valid argument.

 

I am for legalization of responsible marijuana usage.

Please explain that, because I don't quite get that argument.

 

If it's legalized, people will abuse it. Like as long as McDonald's sell hamburgers, some people will only buy McDonald's' burgers for dinner and get diabetes.

 

How do you legalize only responsible use of something? And how responsible is it to smoke marihuana in the first place?

[El Sitherino]

Originally posted by Dagobahn Eagle

How do you legalize only responsible use of something? And how responsible is it to smoke marihuana in the first place?

Laws similiar to that of alcohol, much like no drinking and driving, public intoxication, etc. There is to be no getting high and driving, so on....

 

Sure people abuse legal things, but we still have laws to try and prevent it and to prevent them from harming others with their abuse.

 

 

Also, smoking isn't the only way to use marijuana.

[Dagobahn Eagle]

Laws similiar to that of alcohol, much like no drinking and driving, public intoxication, etc. There is to be no getting high and driving, so on....

OK, thanks:o.

[toms]

I go with legalise too...

 

Within the same restrictions as smoking and alchohol.

 

There are LOADS of things that are bad for you, but I figure that as long as you are adequately informed of the risks, you are a consenting adult and you aren't negatively affecting others you should be allowed to decide for yourself if the risk is worth the reward.

 

That said, I've already stated I don't think you should be able to smoke in public, only in your home or designated smoking locations... so that should apply equally to marajuana (which i presume also has passive smoking and disruptive effects on those nearby).

 

And of course you shouldn't be allowed to drive while under the influence.

 

Legalising something allows you to control it (to an extent). You can set standards (purity, strength), control distribution (selling to under 18s, etc..) and provide health/dosage warnings. It also allows you to tax it and use those profits for research/healthcare/treatment.

 

Criminalising it takes away most of that control. It makes basically law abiding citizens into criminals (with records that can affect jobs). It forces people to come into contact with drug dealers (who may then try to push harder drugs). It hands the profits to criminals and prevents any checking of quality. It also means police spend valuable time and resources chasing harmless stoners rather than catching real criminals.

 

There are certainly (mental) health risks related to taking too much marajuana... but then there are health risks associated with alchohol, cigarettes, fast food, extreme sports, driving etc... and we don't ban those... we just try and educate people better, warn them of the risks and let them be big enough to make their own decisions.

 

PS/ Though i have no problem with legalising marajuana, i wouldn't agree with legalising some of the more dangerous/addictive drugs out there, those have MUCH higher risks associated with them.

 

PPS/ Due to the idiocy of politicians we now have possibly the WORST solution in the UK. It's classification has been downgraded (so police won't generally go after you, or give you more than a caution, which is better i guess) but it is still illegal so the profits still go to criminals, the quality isn't regulated and you still have to associate with criminals to get it.

[toms]

oh, and i NEVER go with demonize as an option for anything.

 

Things are almost never that black and white, and if you tell people they are then they won't believe you.

 

This is why the whole "Just say no!" campaign was such a total failure. Government propoganda kept tellign everyone that drugs were all bad, then people tried them and found out they weren't, so they didn't believe any of the other advice either. (or their common sense told them that they couldn't be ALL bad).

On the other hand a film like trainspotting which shows both the plusses and the minuses of drug use (and which was condemned as "glamourising drugs on release") was probably the most powerful anti-drugs thing i have seen. Cos it was balanced and honest.

[txa1265]

Due to my libertarian leanings I am definitely in favor of legalization.

 

Similar to alcohol, I believe there should be guidelines and laws. Definite age limits as well.

 

I don't fall for the 'gateway drug' thing, any more than alcohol is a gateway drug to depressants.

 

Mike

[SkinWalker]

Biblical Bale?

 

Chronic of Christ?

 

God's Ganja?

 

See: Was there a whiff of cannabis about Jesus? to read more, but in this brief article, the writer argues that cannabis was a drug in use by many biblical figures and he provides some supporting information of his hypothesis.

 

This is basically a review of the book Sex, Drugs, Violence, and the Bible, by Chris Bennet in which he "postulates that Jesus's ministry was fuelled by mind-altering substances."

 

Here's an excerpt from the introduction linked to above:

 

"Like the ancient Greeks, the Old Testament Israelites were surrounded by marijuana-using peoples. A British physician, Dr. C. Creighton, concluded in 1903 that several references to marijuana can be found in the Old Testament. Examples are the "honeycomb" referred to in the Song of Solomon, 5:1, and the "honeywood" in I Samuel 14: 25-45" (Consumer Reports 1972). Creighton felt that in " the O.T. there are some half-dozen passages where cryptic references to hachish may be discovered... But that word, which is the key to the meaning, has been knowingly mistranslated in the Vulgate and in the modern version, having been rendered by a variant also by the LXX in one of the passages, and confessed as unintelligible in the other by the use of a marginal Hebrew word in Greek letters" (Creighton 1903).

 

Perhaps if Christianity got back to its roots it might increase and maintain membership! It would certainly give a new perspective on what it meant to be a "fundamentalist!"

[El Sitherino]

He probably did some variant of hydro.

 

I know I've smoked a bit to where I felt I was the son of god, then I just realized it was the remote changing the channel, because I was sitting on it.

 

 

Interesting bit there.

[ShadowTemplar]

I am undecided. On the one hand, it would be lovely to remove marihuana as a gateway to hard drugs (which it is primarily because its use is confined to illegal environments). However, marihuana does have certain... interesting effects on you that neither booze nor smokes do.

 

My main gripe with marihuana is that it stays in your system. Unlike alcohol, marihuana affects your cognitive abilities for the better part of a week after you've smoked it. That's right: If you toke in the weekend, you're stupid for the whole week. That's not smart (OK, bad pun, I know).

 

One might, however, legalize possession of moderate amounts for personal consumption and go for the biznizmen behind the sales. That way one would avoid criminalising a big group of relatively responsible and law-abiding teenagers and solve somewhat the gateway problem.

 

- ST

[Spider AL]

The illegal status of marijuana wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the double standards of the governments that ban it.

 

Legalise ALL recreational drugs, including marijuana, or ban ALL recreational drugs, including smokes and booze.

 

Know why they keep booze and cigs legal? Tax. Massive money from the industry to the government. Etcetera. Etcetera.

[toms]

But legalizing possesion of the drug for personal use (but not sale of said drug) increases demand (by sending out the message it is tollerated/allowed) but still forces people to contact criminal elements to obtain it. Which means the profits go to criminals and the "gateway drug effect" is still in operation.

 

If you are going to legalise possesion, then legalise sale... that way you can monitor, control and tax it.

 

The "war" on drugs has blatantly failed. Its time to bring in the big guns: the tax authorities!

[Spider AL]

But legalizing possesion of the drug for personal use (but not sale of said drug) increases demand (by sending out the message it is tollerated/allowed)

Not strictly true. Many things are legal which are completely uninteresting to today's youth. Archery, for instance. Or orienteering. Philately. The list is endless.

 

What makes legal drugs so popular, is that people are directly ENCOURAGED to use them. Cigarette companies being allowed to advertise AT ALL, for instance. Social gatherings have become places to smoke, and are maintained as such by said companies. Half the smokers I know claim that they don't even like cigarettes.

 

but still forces people to contact criminal elements to obtain it.

I didn't say "just legalise possession". I said legalise it all.

[ronbrothers]

I'm not necessarily for legalization, but I agree that by doing so it would eliminate the criminal element as we know it. Sound funny to imagine it, but there would be marijuana farmers just like there are tobacco farmers.

[ShadowTemplar]

Originally posted by toms

But legalizing possesion of the drug for personal use (but not sale of said drug) increases demand (by sending out the message it is tollerated/allowed) but still forces people to contact criminal elements to obtain it.

 

Not if they smoke home-grown. Reputedly it's easy enough and doesn't require much in the way of space and equipment. Reputedly.

[toms]

But you WOULD be in danger of being arrested if you were producing your own! Thats why it makes no sense to legalise possesion and use while keeping production and distribution illegal.

 

Its basically saying to people "go give your money to criminals"!

[TK-8252]

I say legalize it. It's no worse than drinking. At least with it legal it could be monitered and taxed. People seem to frown upon smokers, but all the dudes I know who smoke are nice guys, and giving them a criminal title for it is a waste.

[El Sitherino]

People should start using vaporizers. Smokeless = good.