[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,

[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.

[Jonathon Spectre]

>rubs hands together eagerly, waiting for the Drug Warriors to tell us how demon weed will destroy America<
Oooh, this will be entertaining! We'll get to see rationality, reason, and any sort of intelligent discussion fly out the window when the Drug Warriors get here!

"Obey our government, or feel its wrath!"

Can't wait to see if that guy, or his alter ego, show up on this thread. It's like watching for Bigfoot.

[Phantom Lord]

And if they can get it legally, they won't have to steal the radio out of your car to pay for their drugs.

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?

[Phantom Lord]

Wanna get high?

Come on, just a little bit?

[reagent]

I've flip-flopped on this issue in the past, but now I feel the need for the legalization of Cannibis. Provided the substance is used responsibly, who is the government to tell me what I can and cannot do to my body?

However, there is one major difference between an illegal drug such as Marijuana and a legal drug such as alcohol. That one difference is intoxication. I can enjoy alcohol recreationally in moderate amounts and can control my level of intoxication. I can decide just to savor the taste of a good beer, or get obliterated on a fifth of whisky. With Marijuana it's a different story. The only result of use is intoxication. While this isn't necessarily a reason NOT to legalize, it certainly nullifies the comparison of Cannibis to alcohol.

[Dane]

For the record, marijuana is NOT dangerous. It is no worse than coffee and much safer than alcohol. Marijuana is also much less addictive then cigarettes. Chronic use is rare as the majority do not smoke it everyday. Try that with tobacco!

LOL! Here is the pot quote for the ages,

Another man, Patrick Hughes(a "medical marijuana "patient") circled around the police squad units -- sent as backup -- intermittently standing up and raising his arms in the air. "I have brain damage," he said. "I can stand up, but I can't walk."

Hughes said he smokes marijuana morning, noon and night to ease the pain.

LINK

[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.

[Don Myers]

"WHY LEGALIZE MARIJUANA?"

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

[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

[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.

[biblewonk]

Our marijuana laws do not work. They never have, and they never will.

Define work. Murder laws never work and they never will either.

[Osinski]

Why not. Exactly.

[Destructor]

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

That argument is bogus. Marijuana use inevitably leads to harder drugs. Besides, that argument is no longer true. It might have been true 20 years ago, but now pot is much stronger. It is grown to produce new generations of plants with a higher THC content. Pot is now psychologically addictive, whereas it wasn't 20 years ago.