Marijuana Legalization
 

I was having a conversation about this earlier with my friend at the paintball field and I just wanted to know what the tfp lurkers thought about this subject.

it should be legal. and I wouldn't be surprised if it was in a decade or less in the U.S. :)

I agree that it should be legal, but I'm not so optimistic about its prospects in the US. The government has spent too much time convincing people that the plant is evil to admit that they were wrong. Plus a lot of people buy into the whole "drugs are bad, marijuana is a drug" rhetoric and changing their minds may be difficult.

You could talk about this subjects pros and cons all day. I think that it isnt ever gonna be legal. The government cant tax it the way they would want to, so forever smoke while looking over your shoulder.

i too feel it should be legal. i also think it comes down to the government not being able to control it. i live in canada where we kinda had it decriminalized for a short while.

Pros and cons were beatin around all day long. i just compare it to smokes and alcohol which in canda the government controls. both have major issues such as cancer and addiction whereas pot has cancer but not so much the addiction.

until the gmen find a way to control the substance i really dont see it becoming legal.

It should be legal no matter how good or bad it is for you.

OK, let's say dope fucks you up. Gives you cancer. Makes you blind. Makes you look like Michael Jackson. Whatever.

So what? Cigarettes fuck you up too. They're not only legal, the government subsidizes tobacco farmers so they'll stay in business.


If someone wants to screw up their life with drugs, that's not any of the government's business. A free country also means we have the freedom to screw up.

The government has spent way too much time and resources fighting drugs that could have been directed toward more worthy causes like, i dunno, rebuilding roads and feeding the homeless?

Its nearly legal over here in the uk. Thank God!
They had a trial period of de criminalisation and it saved the police so much time that they are keeping it in place. You can still be done for it but only if they think you are a dealer.

We even have a smokers cafe called 'the little amsterdam' This is a major move forward if you ask me.

People need to know that smoking it is not as bad as taking heroin or crack otherwise people will do them all thinking they are all illegal and therefore are all as bad as each other

Of course it should be legal. It's funny, the same arguments are valid, yet it goes nowhere. I don't know what's going to make it change. Maybe wider social acceptance rather than government policy, but of course the two can be intrinsically related.

Legalize.

Id rather see it decriminalized then legalized. I dont want big business mixed in with my bud. Id rather be able to grow my own plants in peace and feel free to buy equipment and seeds without having to cover my tracks.

Its only a matter of time before it will happen i think. I'm pretty much for it, i say, do what you want w/ your own life. I give it 20 years in the US 10 elsewhere for full legalization

everyone blazed the whole world wide, peace not fights, cookies cake and pies, not drugs, cheese filled creme pies with your bong at the coffee shop, tip the world its over in the top. peace is attainable through weed. pass the peace pipe once again.

I did a communications project on Legalizing Marijuana. Personally I don't participate in Marijuana, but I would support the legalization of marijuana if it were controlled like alcohol.

The difference I see between tobacco and marijuana is the obvious - marijuana impares your judgement. Tobacco does not. I think they're just looking out for the general public safety of all. And yes, true - alcohol is legal. I think if you had the same guidelines as alcohol (like you can't drink/smoke in public, be publicly intoxicated/stoned) .. I'd definatly support legalization.

I'm with Isis: So long as you take care that it doesn't affect others, it should be legal.

I agree with the pro legalization trend on this thread.

All drugs should be legalized, if you choose to smoke/snort/shoot up/swallow/insert rectally/whatever any narcotic, nobody should be able to tell you otherwise. It is your body, you should be able to do whatever you please to it.

All drugs should be legalized. Why let Al Quaida and the Mafia make the profits?

Where is this cafe? I am going to Europe for 3 months and will probably visit somewhere in the UK during that time.

It would be alot easier to just get marijuana legalized. The harder drugs couldn't be legal because of FDA stuff right? I don't think they can legally sell stuff you can OD on so easily.

Legalize it. The ban causes more problems than it solves.

im more for decriminalization than legalization as well. the power that drugs give law enforcement over EVERY ONE of your rights, even non-smokers is a fucking joke. I have done time and am still having to deal with getting charged with drugs that were NOT mine and the entire situation occured because the arresting officer said he smelled pot and found a roach... that was never seen by me or anyone else and never entered into evidence.

It's too bad when all the money youve saved up for college all your life isnt enough to fight a bullshit case... My middle finger is permanently directed at the Law Enforcement Agents of america. I know there are a few out there that are alright, but it's needles in haystacks... Your rights dont mean shit to 99% of them. Unless youve got a fat wallet of course...

legalize it.

how bad can it be after all?

i've seen people absolutely trashed by years of drinking, the worst potheads don't get anywhere close to that in their miserable state.

If it was like alcohol, only slightly stiffer penalties, I'd be for it. The dumbest mother fuckers I've ever meet are consistently pot heads, but I suppose that could be a coincidence.

If you read the history how pot became illegal you'll wonder why it wasn't decriminalized when alcohol prohibition ended. Most states didn't even know what it was when they made it illegal, they just heard it from southern states that mexicans had it, and mexicans were crazy so pot was to blame(paraphrased from a real quote used in court to criminalize it)

i tend to disagree with this statement and lean the opposite way. sure there are dumb people out there who happen to smoke pot, but ive also met a lot of stupid people who dont do any drugs at all. i believe that the "stupid pot head" is a cliched stereotype and that individuals need to become more aware of just who they are discriminating against. if anything, i think that pot should have lighter penalties than alcohol. I would go into more detail with reasoning, but as it has already been stated in this thread, we could go on and on with the pros and cons that we're already mostly aware of. it is still however a good discussion thread.

happy new year! blaze on! :D

I'm just saying that in my own experience, the top 10 dumbest, directionless people I know also smoke pot. That's not a stereotype, it's what I've actually seen and experienced. I also did not say I haven't meet plenty of stupid people who were not, as far as I know, on any kind of drug. And I allowed that it could be a coincidence.

Furthermore, I was actually in support of legalizing it in the similar vein of alcohol. If people want to fuck themselves up, be my guest. Or enjoy it responsibly, that's fine too.

I think that alchohol impares your judgement way more than any pot and somehow it is legal. It is all about the government taxing it to make money.

most of the time, the obvious potheads are the dumb people to begin with. us smart folk that toke up just don't show it. oh, heres something interesting for you to read...
http://www.jackherer.com/


http://www.jackherer.com/

That website is pure bullshit with regards to using it for fuel, as any decent thermal/fluids engineer like me could tell you. It's a simple matter of energy conversion- plants burn at low temperatures, which means low energy conversion, which means low temperature flame, which means low electrical power output. Also, the fouling from soot etc. would destroy your turban blades in a jiffy. But hey, don't let a little thing called science get in the way of your idiotic dreams.

Which in no way changes my position for legalizing it, but like PETA to the animal rights cause, the legalization lobby would be helped greatly if they stopped making baseless claims like the "burning it for fuel" one.

nailed it.......head on.

I'm all for the legalization of Marijuana for "recreational" purposes. However, as stated previously in this thread, it will take the US government a long time to admit they were wrong and legalize it.

You never see potheads smoking dope and picking fights with one another. Usually just sittin back snackin' and watching tv. You see drunks get into all sorts of trouble.

Oh well, nothing I can do about it.

Now, now.....no need to be testy about this shades. :p

Really, who cares about the 1001 uses of cannibas? I smoke it recreationally because one, it relaxes me after a stressful day at work. I don't look to a bottle after work to drown my sorrows, I just like to wind down a bit. Also, I have a bad lower back and it definitely helps when it tightens up after a long day of work, working out, and any other multitude of activities I enjoy.

I am for the decriminilization of marijuana.

Decriminalization does not mean that you can grow buds and buy equipment in peace. You could and would still be fined for possession, now matter what the amount you have. Decriminalization's one and only goal is to ease the workload of police officers and courts, which are bogged down by minor possession cases preventing them from focussing on dealers. Instead of having to convict every person carrying minor quantities, they would just write them the equivalent of a parking ticket.

As I've said in another thread, speaking from my own experience growing up in Montreal, cops already are pretty lax towards those that carry/use minor quantites, even in public. They just nab the stash and chuck in a strom drain. No fine, no bust, no extra paperwork. Decriminalization would just give them that much more incentive to leave pot smokers alone. However, that might blow up in our faces, since "pot bust quotas" may be introduced (just like "speeding bust quotas" that make driving fast towards the end of the month pretty dangerous), which would aim to encourage cops to hand out fines and increase their budget. It's all a money/interest game in the end.

If you would want a world where you could buy/grow marijuana without fear of reprisal, it would be a world in which pot was LEGAL, not simply decriminalized. Therefore, the government would be all over that like flies on shit.

Yesterday I realized that it won't ever be legal. Pharmaceutical companies will give there congressmen or what have you (I don't know enough about the govt. heirarchy) enough money to never allow it to be a real issue.
My father had to get anti-nausea and anti vomiting pills cause he has been sick. The total for the 30 pills without insurance....$900. A bag of weed that would last 20 times more with one toke to help out....$50.
A lot of people out there would be missing out on a lot of money if it were legal...and these are the guys at all of those lovely fund raisers.

Sorry to hear about your dad Jim Kata.

If it were legal and corporations were kept out of it, then the prices would actually drop, not increase. Because both supply and demand would increase, the price would have to drop because of the growing consumption of it. Of course, the key to this is keeping big brother out of the legalization....

So you're saying you would want to keep both corporations AND the government out of it if pot was legalized? I'm making this statement on the assumption that your usage of "Big Brother" means the government. If so, then how would it ever get legalized in the first place? You need both to make this work: the government for legislation and control, as well as the corporations for distribution.

I doubt prices would increase if corporations were involved, since each of them would want a bigger share of the market, which would partly be achieved by giving the people quality product at the lowest price.

We almost had it decriminalized in Canada, but that fell through. Therefore, I think we're a looong way from legalization in this continent.

Where I live they made it legal already. For the longest time it was legalized for medicinal purposes. They found that with people dealing with cancer it helped take away pain. As far as the illegal drug legalizing it. They said you can have a certain amount on you I think 1 or 2 ouces (dont really remember) but its a matter of the discretion of the officers that catch you with it if you get a ticket for pocession or not. I guess mostly meaning that if you had prior charges for trafficing they COULD give you a ticket. Other then that it doesnt bother me one way or the other.

I think it should be completely legal.

I don't think it is the governments business to tell us what we can/can't consume.

Too True. I am in favour of legalization/decriminalization because I don't think that any governmential system should be able to say "hey you! see that plant! its illegal, if you touch it, you're going to jail!"
Also, people should be able to make their own choices, even if they are wrong choices.

Unfortunately, the american government gets money from people who own jails so that it stays illegal, because the more people we put in jail, the more that the people who own that jail make.