i look at it like this....
1) going from what i've observed, an overwhelming majority of people living in any part of the modernized world needs something to help them unwind at the end of the day or on their day off. something that lets them transcend the trapped feeling their life can give them... especially if they have a stressful or exhausting job.
2) any of these crutches or drugs or whatever you want to call them can wreck or end the lives of any one around the people abusing them.
3)this harm can be measured in degrees from unhealthy physiological side effects to psychotic episodes to impaired/dangerous driving.
so right there, i can see the reason why marijuana should be legal. while
eating lots of takeout food, settling for a bad job, and being happy bored are negative things to see linked up with it, they are nowhere near the same stratosphere of the effects of drinking... i just think the pot smoker is going to be much less likely to beat the shit out of his wife or wrap his car around a tree.
legalization would also be good from an economic standpoint for anyone but the alcohol and tobacco companies. it would be quite empowering for a lot of lower class and poverty stricken people could grow their own high instead of constantly enslaving themselves for their weekly alottment of beer and cigarettes.
the point of our jails being crowded is a good one too. a huge chunk of our population is working for less than third world wages in prison sweat shops around the country while thousands of really violent offenders are released too early for their crime because of prison overcrowding..... the relief to be had from releasing all the marijuana offenders is more mindblowing than a magic brownie at a phish concert.
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-my phobia drowned while i was gettin down.
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