Replies

...but the desire of recreational marijuana smokers to get their “weekend buzz” as one poster termed it without hassle comes with a tremendous amount of risk for society as a whole, especially our children. Again, look at what happened to the attitude toward abortion when it went from illegal to legal.

Exactly how would this put our whole society at risk, "especially our children"? I'm guessing that you don't have a concrete answer for that. There is no answer you can give that doesn't already exist within a country where marijuana is illegal throughout. So, before we toss all of our ideas about limited government and self-reliance out the window out of fear of the downsides of recreational marijuana usage, how about if you explain exactly what you mean.

Also, the abortion analogy is false. Look at how society viewed pre-marital sex and divorce in the years before abortion became legal vs. how nonchalantly they viewed now. Making abortion legal did not increase its acceptance - the degradation of moral standards in general increased its acceptance. In the case of marijuana, the cultural acceptance has already occurred, and I honestly think that you really don't understand the level of acceptance it now has even among otherwise straight-laced, productive members of society. I've said this before, but old-timers don't believe me: I would bet money that the first thing that close to half of our guys in uniform will do, once they ETS, is get high, especially if they go to college.

“Exactly how would this put our whole society at risk, “especially our children”? I’m guessing that you don’t have a concrete answer for that. There is no answer you can give that doesn’t already exist within a country where marijuana is illegal throughout.”

I think I have answered this. It will increase, not decrease the crime rate, and those crimes will be worse than marijuana pushing. It creates a state that draws drug users to it and the state will have to pick up the costs of those who abuse the drug instead of merely using it. It lessens the public approbrium of drug intoxication. It exposes the children to pushers wanting still to illegally push marijuana. I haven’t even mentioned the medical aspects of regular marijuana use or drug intoxication, particularly on young people. My point is that the real ramifications of this policy change may, and most likely will, be catastrophic for the next generation and the generations after that, all so the current folks can enjoy their occasional buzz. All of that is danger to our society.

As to widespread acceptance, I don’t know. I don’t associate with known drug users. How many of my acquaintances use it, I can’t say, but they certainly keep it hidden if they do. I know that publicly it has been largely unacceptable until the past twenty years or so since “I didn’t inhale”. There has been a concerted effort by many to make it acceptable and claim it is widespread. I haven’t looked at reliable numbers who claim to be otherwise law-abiding folks who use it regularly. But I think the number who try it, and who end up using it regularly, are quite different.