Don't let the potheads ruin freedom

The Prometheus Institute ^ | 9/5/2006 | Editorial

[tang0r]

Generally, there are two types of marijuana users. First is the most commonly stereotyped “stoner,” depicted in the media of movies (e.g. Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and television (e.g. Shaggy from Scooby Doo). These are the dead-end job, ambitionless abusers who ingest marijuana to escape their already dismal lives. They represent the image which is most often associated with marijuana use. Certainly, the average American high school is teeming with similar directionless pot-smoking losers, further cementing this public perception.

[Disturbin]

Zoinks!!!

[staytrue]

Ok, how about this. Pot is illegal unless you buy a license to use it. To get a license for personal use only, you pay 30,000 a year. That way only the high achievers can get it and the pot heads won't get it legally.

[Disturbin]

"Neoprohibitionists seize on these abounding examples of squandered talent and vanishing ambition as proof that cannabis is nothing but a societal cancer that should be illegal on utilitarian grounds, if nothing else."

Aren't we getting out of hand with the "NEO" everything?

[ndt]

"These are the dead-end job..."

Who says ghost hunting is a dead end job?

[Disturbin]

Then the libs would create a "disease" for which they can take our tax dollars and use them to buy pot for the "victims."

[Clint N. Suhks]

Nice Liberaltarian Red Meat article.

[Global2010]

I forgot what I was going to say.

j/k

[dmz]

Aren't we getting out of hand with the "NEO" everything?
_____

Pretty neolinguistic of you to so suggest.

[texas_mrs]

It is helpful to remember that legality is not social approval, and our laws recognize this.

Maybe so, but our children do not.

[orionblamblam]

> Pot is illegal unless you buy a license to use it.

How about booze? Or tobacco? They do far more damage to society than pot. Hel's belles, how about requiring a license to have a baby?

[aligncare]

As public policy, the war on marijuana is a dismal failure. Any negative impact marijuana has on society remains entirely as a result of it's status as illegal.

[rhombus]

What's the point of that?

[fnord]

neologisms are everywherish

[Global2010]

Scooby too.

[orionblamblam]

[JamesP81]

I think the tone of the article is ridiculous, however, I agree with it on one thing: I've come to think that marijuana is not the evil it's been painted to be. While most of my Christian brothers and sisters will disagree with me, I don't think marijuana is as dangerous as alcohol. I know that we get tired of hearing that comparison, but it is accurate.

I don't think possession of marijuana should be a crime, or if it is, not a serious one. Basically I think marijuana should get the same legal treatment as alcoholic beverages. Now, trafficking is another matter. Just like bootlegging is a more serious crime, I would think that marijuana trafficking would be too. I just think a great amount of judicial and policing effort is wasted catching pot smokers. Furthermore, not everybody that smokes a little dope is a bad person. However, a drug conviction pretty much gurantees you can't get a job that pays more than 8 dollars per hour for the rest of your life (on a side note, it's no wonder people sent to rehab programs have no motivation to actually get rehabbed. There's nothing waiting for them when it's over except poverty and social ridicule). That just doesn't seem right to me.

[rhombus]

Nice Liberaltarian Red Meat article.

Amen to that. It also brings out the paleo-angry too.

[staytrue]

How about booze? Or tobacco?

We already tax the crap out of both of these and ditto for gasoline and automobiles too. Why not restrict pot to people who will pay an arm and a leg for it and use the proceeds for a tax cut on the middle class.

[Moonman62]

I don't think possession of marijuana should be a crime, or if it is, not a serious one. Basically I think marijuana should get the same legal treatment as alcoholic beverages. Now, trafficking is another matter. Just like bootlegging is a more serious crime, I would think that marijuana trafficking would be too.

That's how alcohol prohibition worked, or should I say didn't work.