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Old 11-15-2004, 08:10 PM   #26 (permalink)
MSD
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As said by one of my professors, a former state trooper, "The only difference between a drunk driver nad a stoned driver is that you don't have to worry about the stoned one puking on you when you arrest him."

There is no roadside test to determine how much THC is in someone's bloodstream, how severely they're impaired by smoking. The only way to tell if someone's been smoking and driving is to arrest people and hold them until a test comes back. The other options are to let them go (which can endanger lives of others) or to arrest and assume intoxication for anyone with any amount of pot or paraphernaila in the car. This either gives the police not enough power, or excessive authority in the case of suspected stoned drivers.

How about jobs? Would you want a stoner teaching your kids? Would you want to risk having the guy operating a wrecking ball at a construction site high at work? What about that cop who was pulling people over for being stoned? If pot is legal, government agencies can't prohibit employees from using it, only from doing so while on the job. If someone is still high and goes to work thinking they're fine, it's a problem, especially when they're the ones who are protecting us. Same with firefighters; if they're stoned, they're going to stand on your front lawn gawking at the dancing, swirling pools of light instead of putting water on them. Then there's truckers. They've got huge-ass trucks carrying goods to points of sale, a lot of them aren't the world's greatest drivers in the first place, and then add teh effects of pot smoke. If they do make it to their destinations safely, I can just imagine the results, "You made it here safely, but where the hell did all the boxes of Twinkies go?"

Draw out the previous paragraph until it includes every occupation whose members need to be level-headed and alert for their jobs, and you've got some of the strongest arguments you can come up with.

Just so you all know, I'm pro-legalization.
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