Posted on 08/13/2014 11:13:55 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom
A few decades ago, marijuana was a topic that relatively few people, mostly counterculture musicians and comedians, spoke about in public. The comedy team of Cheech and Chong made films such as "Up in Smoke" that extolled the pleasures of smoking pot at a time the subject was still taboo.
"When trouble times begin to bother me," they sang, "I take a toke and all my cares go up in smoke." On the fringes of American society, it was usually possible to find activists who wanted to legalize it, as the reggae artist Peter Tosh famously sang. Efforts to legalize the substance in the mid-1970s failed.
Now marijuana has gone mainstream. Twenty three states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. Colorado and Washington have legalized pot for recreational use. The media has featured lively debate over the issue.
Joining other media outlets that have run articles supporting this cause, The New York Times editorial page published a number of high-profile pieces that call for making pot legal at the national level and outline specific steps that should be taken to ensure that the industry evolves in a safe manner.
How did we reach this point? How have we come to the brink of ending the national prohibition against a drug that has been roundly condemned for years as a grave danger to health and a gateway to drugs that can be devastating over time?
Here are eight reasons: [...]
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Well I neither drink nor smoke - anything.
When younger I have smoked MJ and drank on occasion. Im my personal experience Alcohol was more damaging physically.
If people who want to keep Marijuana illegal were also interested in banning alcohol and tobacco illegal, I could understand their position.
The drinking age there is 18, but ages 16 + 17 can be served, with adult family members and with food.
I think the 21-year old age, in addition to being absurd for all the reasons cited, also prevents normal socialization around alcohol and promotes drinking in secret and binge drinking.
I thought it was 27 these days with Obamacare and all
27 sounds about right for driving and drinking and stuff
So long as we don’t go and complain that they’re avoiding all responsibility into their 30s. The longer you force them to stay adolescents the longer AFTER that they’re going to avoid growing up.
Yeah, forbidden fruit tastes better. There was some child shrink in the 70s that preached the way to get your kids to read the stuff you want them to is to put it on a shelf they have a hard time getting to, make it SEEM forbidden. Not sure they were totally right but it’s worth thinking about. My period of heaviest drinking was right before I turned 21, once it got legal it wasn’t as interesting. And once I got access to legal alcohol I lost interest in illegal drugs, just wasn’t worth the hassle.
Nothing good will come out this leniency trend that is for sure. Roads were already dangerous enough with the drunks..... Fast forward 10 years ago, add texters and phone web browsers Now the future double the amount of pot heads.
I’m late to the thread, but I just want to point out it’s possible to oppose the federal government’s War on Drugs AND the legalization of drugs at the same time. Like some of the other posters, I believe federalism is the best way to handle this issue as well as many others.
Actually, I think federalism is the only chance we have of saving America. The country may survive in name only without a return to federalism, but it sure won’t be the America you or I grew up in (there’s already far too little of that left already!). It will be just one more country where the few oppress the many, just like nearly every other country in the world and throughout history.
Add one more reason. State governments think there’s a goldmine in taxing pot.
I’m OK with it being a state issue. I mean I still think legalization is the best path, but illegal at the state level is a lot less likely to result in the full on assault on the BOR than we’ve got with it being a fedgov issue. And it opens up the option to leave, kind of like what we have with dry counties now.
Since marijuana legalization, highway fatalities in Colorado are at near-historic lows
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Nov 2011 study =>
Medical Marijuana Laws, Traffic Fatalities and Alcohol Consumption Study
Using state-level data, we examine the relationship between medical marijuana laws and a variety of outcomes.
Legalization of medical marijuana is associated with increased use of marijuana among adults, but not among minors.
In addition, legalization is associated with a nearly 9 percent decrease in traffic fatalities, most likely to due to its impact on alcohol consumption. Our estimates provide strong evidence that marijuana and alcohol are substitutes.
Case in point: Robin Williams, R.I.P.
Robin Williams had severe depression and was self-medicating with cocaine and alcohol. The drug use was a by-product of his illness. He went to rehab and stopped the self-medicating, but the depression is what finally killed him.
Many people with serious depression problems turn to drugs and alcohol to escape the pain and hopelessness, even if only lasts for a few hours.
Which of those people died from using marijuana?
Let me help:
None. Most of those people died from alcohol or other drugs.
Here’s the people I recognize in your list along with cause of death-
River Phoenix: cocaine and morphine
Jim Morrison: alcohol and/or heroine
Heath Ledger: prescription drugs
Jimi Hendrix: alcohol and barbiturates
John Belushi: cocaine and heroine
Marilyn Monroe: barbiturates
Amy Winehouse: alcohol
Judy Garland: barbiturates
Whitney Houston: heart disease and cocaine
Janis Joplin: heroine and alcohol
I guess, better roads, and safety systems in vehicles had nothing to do with that stat. Do you believe every statistic you read? I hope you are a smarter freeper than that.
Do you also realize that one stoned pot head could take out 20 people at a local festival too? What would that do to your stats? I tell ya... you are in the extreme minority if you think having more drivers on pot is going to make the roads safer.
Let me help:
None. Most of those people died from alcohol or other drugs.
Okay, how many of these used Marijuana as a gateway drug to get those non-alcohol harder drugs...... Probably most. Don't get me wrong, 90% of people can handle MJ with no further damage. The problem are the 10% or so, who want to take the process to become high to an excessive level. Since most don't know going into it, why tempt fate?
Alcohol abuse is a social ill. Marijuana abuse is a social ill. Divorce is a social ill. I could go on and on. My concern is simply that too many people, particularly libertarians, push for liberty but seem to ignore the fact these activities deserve all the disapproval we as a society can dish out. Libertarians seem entirely focused on the liberty aspects without regard to seriously negative ramifications that result from immoral people. Libertarianism itself—if it could ever work—requires people who are generally very moral and self restrained.
So, even if I agree marijuana shouldn’t result in a police state or incarceration of citizens, I definitely think its use deserves all the scorn I can put on it. Potheads, like alcoholics, definitely don’t deserve our accolades. They are a negative influence on society and often a risk to those around them. Like I wrote, I may not want to call down the state on them, but let’s not kid ourselves. Society would be far better off if people didn’t use pot.
BTW, I don’t hold potheads in high regard for another reason. Moral people don’t break laws they disagree with. If someone is currently a pothead in a place where it’s illegal, then they deserve additional scorn. One works within the laws to change those laws one disagrees with. Those who do not do so are basically criminals. Once again, I may not want to send a SWAT team to their homes, but let’s not say it’s a great thing to ignore laws one doesn’t like (not saying catfish1957 does this—I’m simply making a point).
The only way the Nanny Staters could have kept marijuana from being legalized was to again make alcohol illegal. Hypocrisy can only live so long.
MJ legalization losers blog bump for later...
The age of a study in and of itself tells us nothing about the validity of its conclusions. Only if a newer study uses a larger dataset, or explicitly addresses deficiencies in an older study's methodology, can it be presumed superior to the older study.
How many of these used alcohol as a gateway drug to those non-alcohol harder drugs...... Probably most.
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