As I type this, I can smell the weed from my room mate's door creeping into my room. I spent almost all of my teenage years until today growing up around and smoking Marijuana. I believe in legalization, but I don't care that much either. A possession charge with no priors isn't the stigma it once was. In Florida most people get worse for stealing a candy bar. I would gladly give up legalization for the rest of my life it meant we could get the unemployment rate in the United States down to less than 4%. I'm for legalization, but you won't see me signing petitions or protesting in front of the White House. edit: I didn't start with alcohol. I smoked weed for the first time, got high for the first time like a month later, then got drunk for the first time about another month after that.
Firstly, you realize marijuana existed before it was illegal right? How is decriminalizing it making it easier for people to destroy their lives? Unless you think the government and God/nature are the same things. Secondly, who in the hell are you to be deciding what other people do with their own lives anyway? Isn't that the fundamental question being danced around by so many people? On whose authority do you gain this power over others?
So you're saying things like heroin and crystal meth are ok? Judging by your logic, people should be able to whatever the fuck they want with their lives. Just playing devils advocate here. Where do we draw the line? Obviously, this is the underlying quuestion behind the entire debate. Postscript - During college, I was president of my fraternity, and there was a civil war of sorts between two factions, team pot and the rest. It got pretty brutal and dirty. One side wanted no weed in the house, the other wanted it and to smoke it whenever they wanted. We eventually came to a compromise but really I came out thinking exactly what I thought before all hell broke loose; there is really no right or wrong side to this debate.
Focus: People will find a way to self destruct. I'd rather see it be controlled by legalisation than dirty drugs on the street and the horrible measures people go to to obtain them. Pot is in no way as dangerous as most drugs, we should start there.
This debate, I feel, is ultimately like the prostitution debate (which we are not having). Ask yourself this: can you ever forsee a situation where drug abuse, or at least the DESIRE to partake in recreational drug use, does not exist? If someone here can outline a realistic situation where this can occur, then we should discuss limiting and outlawing access to drugs. If, like me, you can't think of a realistic scenario where this would apply then we must accept the fact that, since drug use will ALWAYS occur, we should endeavor to make it safe and (at the very least) have the state profit from it, rather than the cartels and drug lords.
It doesn't matter who's opinion it is, whether it be a gas station attendant or someone who earns in the millions, we're all human and and our opinions are worth the same. I think I speak for all of us when I say, let's keep this on topic (sorry for stepping on toes, mods). Take that to PM, I don't want to read arguing on something off-topic.
Have you ever bought pot? It's not all that hard, but it is still way more difficult than buying a beer. Now they legalize it and put it in stores, you no longer have to track down the shady man your friends uncle knows from poker night. It makes it ten times easier. What authority does the government have to tell you not to rape people? Or murder them? I'm sure this would all work in a perfect world, but people aren't perfect. And I do believe there should be some force in power that keeps them from fucking up even if it is just making it difficult to buy a joint.
I agree with you that some money can be made, but I think it's about limiting social discourse. I think your prosposal seems like if we can make a buck, why not let people completely ruin their lives. Some people don't have the ability to be their own moral compass and do need some structure. The grey area around this type of drug abuse is how much does it effect everyone else? Trips to the ER, completely distruction of family and social ties, etc... That being said, I wouldn't really object to marijuana being a drug federally regulated much like alcohol.
Comparing the vice of marijuana usage with crimes where the rights of another are infringed upon is flawless logic. Following your logic any and all activities of other people can legitimately controlled by yet another group who takes it upon itself to do so. http://www.lysanderspooner.org/VicesAreNotCrimes.htm
People are claiming the pharmaceutical industry is against legalization; what about the alcohol industry? Considering weed is recreational drug along the lines of booze, I would think the alcohol industry would have a much bigger stake in its legalization than pharmaceuitcals. Weed would much more closely compete with alcohol for your recreational drug dollars. It wouldn't suprise me if the alcohol industry was one of the biggest supporters of keeping weed illegal.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting it should be legalized purely so that the state can profit. I'm suggesting drugs be legalized so that we can introduce some measure of control. Since drug use is likely to always occur, I feel it's better to have as much open discourse and regulation as possible. By making it illegal governments are creating a situation where people have to obtain drugs illegally, in addition to creating a culture of shame about addiction. This makes finding and treating addicts all the more difficult. An interesting website: http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/67 Although I appreciate that any site entitled "Drug War Facts" is likely to be biased, it was interesting to me that the Neatherlands had the lowest incidence of drug-related death in Europe. Also, they claim that the level of oppiate addiction has remained constant for years. There's no way we can talk about causality in such a short thread, but this (to me) at least hints at the notion that you either are or are not an opium addict...access doesn't seem to be a determining factor.
I would have to disagree with you here. I have a feeling that most "recreational" dollars are already allocated to their drug of choice, whether it being weed or booze. Would some people switch their drug of choice if weed was legalized? Maybe. But I have a feeling that there would be more double dipping than people switching from one to the other. It seems like both goods are pretty inelastic in regards to competition, price, and market changes and there wouldn't be a huge impact on the alcohol industry (if elasticity can even work in this situation). Heck, one could argue it may even help it due to social laxing and behaviors. This is purely speculation, take my opinion for what it's worth.
Even if that were not the case, I would be willing to accept a rise in the percentage of deaths related to drug abuse if it meant a decrease in the percentage of deaths attributed the drug trade. I fully support a person's right to destroy themselves. I do not support the murders, kidnappings, corruption and general violence for which drug cartels and their subsidiaries are directly responsible, and which affects people who are not voluntarily involved in those organizations. Don't get me wrong, I feel for drug addicts. But I feel more for non-addicts who have been unnecessarily harmed by drug crime because we perpetuate the illusion that drug use can be stopped or should be stopped.
Yes, exactly. Do we have the same problem with alcohol? Does alcohol production and distribution result in the kidnappings and murders and corruption that you mentioned? No. It used to - go back and look at Prohibition to get a sense of what happened with alcohol once it was made illegal. This is exactly why it should be made LEGAL. Legality would rob the drug cartels of their monopoly and their power. I'm not naive enough to suggest it would happen instantly, or that some of the cartels wouldn't morph into the very businesses that wound up legally producing stuff, but by removing the clandestine nature of drug production and distribution I think it would make "drugs," as a whole, safer.
This is an interesting link I found not too long ago on the reasons why marijuana is currently illegal. Thought some of you might enjoy it.
I see no difference between alcohol and marijuana use other than that I can get my alcohol easier and consume it much more publicly than I can my marijuana. Both have impairing and long term detrimental effects if they're abused. I choose not to abuse them (well regularly anyways). If the US decided to legalize and tax marijuana much like they did tobacco you would cut off the drug cartel's power in about 3 months when the first crop comes in. Long suffering farmers would likely turn to it immediately unless they were morally opposed to it and the price would come waaaaaaay down and the consumer would have many more choices. "Is that Indiana Skunk?" "Nope, Virginia Skunk. A little stronger and a more immediate high." "Can I try some?" "Sure, have an ounce. I picked up a couple lbs of it the other day on sale at Costco." Wouldn't it be nice.