Cannabis should be decriminalized for the same reasons that alcohol is

The Prometheus Institute ^ | 8/28/2006 | Editorial

[tang0r]

It turns out that alcohol is legal for the simplest, most nostalgic, and most American reason of all. Despite its risks and harmful side-effects, adults are reserved right to drink because they are independent adults in a free country. For all of the empty rhetoric about economics and black markets, the end of Prohibition was due to a single principle: even if drinking may be bad for society, government has no right to keep the people from doing it. The ability to get drunk is an inalienable right that we have forever confirmed with the 18th Amendment.

[pissant]

harsh tokes, dude. It ain't gonna happen.

[cyberaxe]

.....the thing that makes me pause on this subject.....

.....is that myself included.....

.....I know hundreds of people that occasionally "use" alcohol (a glass of wine at dinner, a spot of Irish cream in coffee after dinner).....

.....in quantities that DO NOT impair.....

.....but I have never met anyone that used pot.....

.....in the same manner.....

.....I dunno, it just seems that there isn't the "safe" consumption going on out there in the pot users.....

.....maybe it's a non-issue.....

.....but that's just my take on it.....

[tamed]

As well, they eat tons of "free" food.

And, rest assured, they will complain if you go to the grocery and don't buy enough.

[osideplanner]

Your list of effects on the users of MJ is impressive, but no cigar.

Should the gov outlaw the substance because it has those effects? If so, how are you different than the anti-smoking, anti-soda machine, anti-donut crowd who wants the government to control our diets so that we can be healthy.

Also, I believe your comparison is incomplete. It's rare that the users of MJ demonstrate the violent behavior that drunks display.

The basic question for me, is how far do we want the government to go to control the behavior of the citizenry. I like the libertarian definition: outlaw attacks on others and their property and let the government butt out of the rest. There's a big difference between illegal and bad for you.

[HawaiianGecko]

Driving while under the influence of poppy seed rolls is sure to come next!

You've been watching to many reruns of Seinfeld. ;-)

 

[Trampled by Lambs]

Yes, lets keep marijuana as illegal as heroin. Put anyone that uses it in jail. It's obviously a dangerous substance.

What's that you say? You want to ban cigarette smoking? How dare you! How dare you infringe upon my god given right to decide for myself what to put into my body!

[ßuddaßudd]

A friend with weed is a friend indeed.

[tamed]

A&E presents:

Intervention

A TV series - hapless addicted people

The Msg: Stop doing drugs or else

[thoughtomator]

..weed has always been illegal.

Incorrect. There was nothing illegal about it until the 1930s, when it was made illegal on the heels of a propaganda campaign connecting it with Mexicans and claiming it caused white women to have sex with black jazz musicians.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

MY feelings exactly. I hate it when I see shows or commercials that assume that anyone that grew up during the 60s was a hippie. In Georgia, there were very few, and most looked upon with tremendous distaste.

Cannabis has all the problems associated with alcohol +. It is a gateway drug to Cocaine and others. Sure, relative to other drugs, it is not as dangerous or addictive. I have seen what it did to some people that I know, they got fat, lazy and worthless.

[Lekker 1]

"I remember being high and driving down the interstate at 25 miles per hour for lord who knows how long without realizing it."

At least you remember it.

[HawaiianGecko]

If the state of TX wants to put you in jail for 10,000,000,000,000,000 years .... If MASS wants to reward you with praise for smoking 10,000,000,000,000,000 pounds ...

Do you own stock in the company that manufactures commas and zeros? ;-)

 

[PissAndVinegar]

Marijuana, however, impairs a user for weeks.

Duuuuude weeks!?!? What strain are you smoking?

[Lekker 1]

It is a gateway drug to Cocaine and others.

I remember my grandma saying that women wearing makeup was a gateway to permissiveness. She also said something similar about wearing nylons. :-)

[Bigh4u2]

""I remember being high and driving down the interstate at 25 miles per hour for lord who knows how long without realizing it."

At least you remember it."

That wasn't me. That was the poster I was responding too.

But as an aside, I also remember getting wasted drinking with a band I used to be in years ago. And to this day I still remember everything about that too.

[Broker]

FAT LAZY Worthless and often premature DEAD. I have watched the ruination my boomer generation to dope. So many wasted lives and years.

[in hoc signo vinces]

Welcome to Free Republic!

[Boiler Plate]

Two wrongs don't make a right. Alcohol is bad enough.

[Protagoras]

.....in quantities that DO NOT impair.....

Right, the different people are trying to get a different sensation.

The sensation people are trying to get with a glass of wine is relaxation. The same with pot. The people who do pot need a bigger dose usually, but I have seen some people take only one puff, so they don't get the same as the person trying to get high. Same as the person who just has a glass of wine vs the person who has three or four.

Your "take" is valid, and so is mine.

I have never used pot, but I do partake of alcohol.

[edzo4]

I agree that pot should be treated the same as alcohol, but I disagree that alcohol is decriminalized. It is regulated, you cannot drink and drive, you cannot drink in public, you cannot buy alcohol if you are a minor and you can only buy alcohol legally from a government licensed vendor and you pay a tax.