WHY LEGALIZE MARIJUANA?

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

[aristotleman]

I'm just back from Amsterdam, where marijuana is sort of legal. People were smoking in civilized cafes, nobody was rowdy or made a big deal of it. If you want to smoke you go in, do your thing and then go on with your day. If you disapprove, it's not in your face (you can't advertise pot on the cafe's storefront).

It just seemed to make sense. Those people were not doing any harm to anybody.

On the other hand, I saw much puking and fighting outside booze bars.

[Nate505]

How could this be true? If they have to steal to pay for it today, how will they magically have more money by legal means tomorrow to pay for it if it is legal?

The same way alcoholic bums get their money....begging. They will be able to beg a certain amount or do enough odd jobs to get their fix. Even if they do have to steal, the amount they have to steal would drop (instead of stealing enough car stereos to pay for a $50-100 a day habit, they'd only have to steal enough to pay for a $10-20 a day habit).

[Don Myers]

"WHY LEGALIZE MARIJUANA?"

The question should be why do the deadheads want to legalize marijuana.

[Phantom Lord]

Crime on the supply end and Joe Addict robbing his neighbor to purchase the drugs are two different things.

[Dane]

Ah yes the pot shangra-la called Amesterdam. They also push euthanasia and export abortion ships from Holland.

What a great place.

[Uncle Sham]

"The fact is there is no way to "win" the Drug War, so we better start thinking of what else we must do"

Our government isn't concerned about drugs. The "War on drugs" has never really been fought. If you look closer, you'll find that the "War on drugs" is nothing more than misleading title to the "War on our rights". A little slight of hand has gone a long way in successfully reducing our freedoms in ways that we would have never tolerated up front.

[Dakmar]

I doubt that there are mant people commiting crime to get money for pot. I would agree with you if we were talking about heroin or crack, but not marijuana. If someone would steal to get marijuana, they very likely would steal to get a CD or a new pair of Nike's.

[southern rock]

I don't know if most police officers are brainwashed into realy beleiving drug war propaganda, or if they are just faking it, or what, but all one need do is just watch a few episodes of the T.V. show "Cops" to see how arrogant and self-centered these guys can be. Every other word out of their mouths is "we helped you tonight", "its for your own good", "we may have just saved your life".
Of course, they say this right after completely ruining someones night and/or entire life over some really stupid small time drug crap.

[Boner1]

But the guberment hates drugs

Unless its for old voters who ain't got a chance without viagra, prozac, xanax valium,oxycotin,sinaid,and on and on

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

The question should be why do the deadheads want to legalize marijuana.

Or... Why do they so desperately need to escape reality by being high on marijuana? Is their reality really THAT bad?!?! That's very sad...

[southern rock]

The question should be why do the deadheads want to legalize marijuana.

Maybe it is as simple as they want to smoke pot. The question should be what gives you or the government any right to stop them?

[Don Myers]

"Is their reality really THAT bad?!?! "

It would seem so.

[Magician]

Decriminalizing hard durgs would reduce the cost radically. A fix of crack cocaine costs about $10-20. A firmly addicted person will use about 5-10 fixes per day. The habit will cost them about $50-200 per day. Unless they are very wealthy, crack addicts are forced to steal or resort to prostitution to maintain their habit as a result. The economics is abou the same for heroin addicts.

On the other hand, legalized cocaine would likely cost about $1.00 per dose or even less, since cocaine is in fact very cheap to produce. The cost per day would be $5-10. The necessity to engage in criminal activity to maintain the addict is thus greatly reduced to the point where they could probably earn enough on their job to pay for their habit (cocaine addicts behave very normally when they have a steady supply and have regulated their own use).

[Dakmar]

Ok, let's ban alcohol, tobacco, and coffee too, then. Oh, yeah, and televison and all forms of fiction. We all square now - no escapes from everyday reality?

[Protagoras]

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

I know you don't really believe that the poster made that comment in good faith.

[Don Myers]

"The question should be what gives you or the government any right to stop them?"

They can go out and put a gun to their head. We have as much right to stop them from blowing out their brains, which they are busily frying anyway with their drugs.

[biblewonk]

The opinions of people who are the parents of teenagers will be very different from those of people without on this subject. Teens don't do weed because it's illegal and making it legal won't make them do less of it.

[Dane]

Here is another great quote from the San Francisco pot heads.

Lucifer T. Cheshire, a 6-foot-tall man clad in a leather jacket who said he smokes marijuana because he has AIDS, also joined in. "We're here to make sure they know how we feel," he said. "Pot is one of the few things that kept me alive."

[Protagoras]

"I have brain damage," he said.

It's about time you admitted you have brain damage.

[southern rock]

We have as much right to stop them from blowing out their brains,

In your opinion. I don't think we do.