WHY LEGALIZE MARIJUANA?

Voy forum ^ | 2-19-2 | Marc-Boris St-Maurice

[Magician]

Interesting that the majority of Canadians now favor decriminalizing maijuana. All recent elections/referenda on the subject in the U.S. show the same majority.

The entire crime scene associatd with drugs, including most thefts in the U.S., could be done away with by adopting two simple measures:

1. Legalize marijuana and control it like alchohol. It is less harmful.

2. Give addicts to hard drugs a prescription for the drug they use and let them buy it at a pharmacy. If they are truly addicted, they are going to get the drug illegally if they can't get it legally. And if they can get it legally, they won't have to steal the radio out of your car to pay for their drugs.

Lets spend the $30 billion per year we now spend of the War on Drugs on education against drug use, and rehabilitation for existing addicts.

[francisandbeans]

$30 billion.....try $50 billion.

[acheeks]

Amen to everything you have posted. I would only add though that the whole issue could be simplified if someone would read the Constitution. The Federal laws against cultivating your own marijuana are in my opinion a clear violation of the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution.

In a recent US Supreme Court decision regarding the "medical necessity" defense as an exception to the Controlled Substances Act, Justtice Thomas writing for the majority made a point of stating that the Court was not ruling on the Constitutionality of the CSA. The Court was only ruling that medical marijuana did not qualify for a "medical necessity" exclusion to the law.

Perhaps I am just hearing what I want to hear, but it sure sounded to me like the conservative wing of the Court was just begging for someone to challenge the entire Constrolled Substances Act on Constitutional grounds.

[francisandbeans]

and not spend it....tax cut, tax cut, tax cut. We reduce gvt. not grow it,

[francisandbeans]

Lets start a collection!

By the way...what does the a in your name stand for?

[AUgrad]

Bump for later.

[Whilom]

And soon we'll all be drinking cold bubalub and eating rainbow stew.

[HRC]

MARIJUANA grows like a weed. Therefore anyone could grow their own crop of MARIJUANA for use. There goes your tax it argument. Why buy it from the stores, where it will have less potancy, higher cost and taxes to pay when you can get around all of that by growing it yourself? You are assuming that people are pretty much idiots and could not realize this on their own. Unlike grain alchol and beer, which takes different processes to more potent, the same process is needed for really potent MARIJUANA as does lesser potent MARIJUANA. All you need is a seed, water sunshine and there you go!

No one grower will ever be responsible for their crop if there are millions of growers. Sure the price of MARIJUANA may go down due to legaization but where are the regulations for mom and pop growers? Are they going to be responsible for the negative side effects of smoking MARIJUANA?

[FatherTorque]

One small bone to pick. I wouldn't necessarily legalize it, but I would decriminalize it, so that possession anywhere in the U.S. is not a crime.

Then I would leave it up to each individual state as to whether they want to allow the sale of it or not.

[Kevin Curry]

Why? Because libetarians desperately want their dope and are willing to accept more nanny-state socialism to get it.

And that's the only way they will get it.

[eno_]

Either we legalize it, and fast, or we get busy locking up millions of Canadians.

This is the elephant in the room that Drug Warriors won't discuss. Well, actually it is the largest elephant in the room among the other elephants of police corruption, addiction rates among police, suicide rates among police, divorce rates among police, criminality rates among children of police, a 16-year shorter than average life expectancy among police, etc.

The fact is there is no way to "win" the Drug War, so we better start thinking of what else we must do. The number of Drug Warriors required is infeasible. The number of prisons required is infeasible. The people who would have to be imprisoned would cause insurrection.

[Tailback]

That sounds dangerously like the intent the founders had when they wrote the constitution.

[Khepera]

I don't get it!

[eno_]

You can brew your own beer legally. This is another Drug War straw man. Legalization does not imply TV ads and Proctor & Gamble New Improved Ganga in colorful packages.

[sharktrager]

People could grow their own tobacco too, but they don't.

I've never smoked pot, and don't plan on doing it even if it is legal. I hate watching my tax dollars go to waste, however.

If banning something works, it's hard to explain that I drank more in the 5 years before I was 21 than I have in the 10-years since I turned 21. And it's probably by a factor of 3 or 4.

[OBAFGKM]

"...The Federal laws against cultivating your own marijuana are in my opinion a clear violation of the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution..."

The official stance is that the "general welfare" clause in Article 1, Section 8, grants carte blanche to the Federal Government to do anything they jolly well want. The founding fathers evidently overlooked this loophole.

[mitchbert]

One small bone to pick. I wouldn't necessarily legalize it, but I would decriminalize it, so that possession anywhere in the U.S. is not a crime.

This mirrors my opinion exactly (although I'm a Canuck, not American). Decriminilization has the dual benefit of leaving people alone who indulge in the privacy of their homes or wherever else it's deemed acceptable, but still giving authorities the power to take a person off the street who may be so stoned as to pose a potential danger to themselves or others. The basic message becomes "Don't get in someone else's face with it, don't be a mush head in public, stay out of your car and for crying out loud don't give it to kids or we'll screw your thumbs to the wall." Before long the street trade would dry up as people replaced their friendly suppliers with hydroponic gardens, etc.

The trick will be to lift the criminal penalties without turning our cities into open air dope markets. This will then leave the cops the ability to go after hard drug dealers and importers, and hopefully provide help (society, not the cops) for those unfortunates who are wrecking their lives through addiction. Just MHO.

[sharktrager]

I am not a libertarian, and I have never smoked pot. But I want it decriminalized.

[OBAFGKM]

"People could grow their own tobacco too, but they don't."

Try that and you have heavily armed ATF thugs knocking in your door so fast it'll make your head spin!

[southern rock]

I would only add though that the whole issue could be simplified if someone would read the Constitution.

AMEN to that!!! Most arguments miss this point. It is not a question of, "are drugs dangerous?", "do the laws work?", "what is the cost/benefit analysis?", or anything like that. It is a matter of the constitution and inalienable rights of the individual to smoke, snort, drink, or inject anything he darn well pleases.

And no, social programs to help such individuals ought not exist either.