Marijuana- Should it be Illegal?Follow

With Alaska recently voting on weather or not to leagalize marijuana, I thought I would ask opinions here.

Should it be illegal? Please post reasons to back up your opinion.

It seems to me that it has been outlawed for being a gateway drug (a drug that leads to alchohol, and other drugs). But, If you have good self-control, it doesn't act as a gateway drug.

Just curious as to what you think. I don't want this to turn into a hostile debate, no fighting please.

Also, sorry if this has been brought up a-thousand times.

*I just posted this in OOT also, but apparently that forum is dead right now. No responses, and its still the first thread on the list.*

Do you know where you are ?
Umm I've been posting here for about a month and a half, and Ive seen at least three threads on this. This also makes me a ******* bottom feeder here.

Really before the flames start, get a premium so you can do a search and save us the agony.

As I posted in OOT...


Well, I think it should be decriminalized*.

*Decriminalized- A fine or a warning for possesion, no legal action.

A gateway drug... I don't think so. I see it like this, kids and adults are going to smoke, no matter what, but they shouldn't be going to jail, or have it on there permanent record, for smoking a relaxing joint with their friends.

I live in Canada, and this bill just recently came up, of course, it wasn't passed mainly because, if we decriminalized this drug, the US would be very unhappy with us. Our ties with the States is weakening, and decriminalizing MJ isn't a step in the right direction.

The Law would work something like this,

1-20 grams(per say)- would result in $100 dollar fine, or higher, it doesn't matter.

Ect...

The main arguement from the other side of society is this,

The fine system would be even worse, most MJ users wouldn't pay there fine and will go to jail. It will ultimitaly have a worse result then if they got caught now.

_______________________________________________________________

MJ isn't even as bad as alchohol, though I guess it would nearly double the numbers of impaired drivers, which would suck.

Actually, after hearing myself out, I am now split on the issue.


Goose

Well, the gov't COULD tax it, therefor lowering nat'l debt, but that would make the soccer moms mad. And nobody wats soccer moms mad at them. Ask Rock*.

It makes you feel different.....better, as most would say.

Those commercials are ********* where kids are shooting each other and stuff. It doesn't make you insane. If it does make you insane, than you, as an individual should not use it.

I say legalize it. Cigarettes are worse for you.

Your opinion doesn't matter, because you're high. Not saying your judgement is totally fu[b][/b]cked, just saying you will be far too biased.

Goose

hXc you do have a point about how much people are smoking, and you are correct, I have never done any acctualy tests to prove what I say. However this is an issue that has been on my mind for a long time, and over time, I've done some reading on it.

Cigarettes seem to be packed with more tar and fiberglass, where marijuana has little if any. (unless it is laced, and I am not talking about laced)

Edited, Tue Nov 16 23:41:32 2004 by AsarathOfWindurst

People are so casual about talking about getting the old bong out that its almost a joke.

If you start talking about crack and lsd however people get a little more protective....


look people, drugs effect chemicals in your brain...
namely your pleasure center.
It may cause you a high, but over time you will find it harder to become happy without being influenced by a drug

this is because when your brain becomes over stimulated it will attempt to compensate by telling your body this is how it is suppose to feel like.

Hey life is short.... if you want to suck crap into your body and become manic depressive thats all your problem..

My aunt is currently in jail for trying to cure her problems away with crack...
She looks like crap...but she was once one of those people you couldnt help but wonder why they werent a model.

Should Marijuana be legal? Most definitely.

Is marijuana a gateway drug? Nope. The most recent statistics say that marijuana is not a gateway drug. It is simply the drug most readily available to open minded peoples. Sure, 60 some odd percent of the people who have tried harder drugs tried marijuana first. Is that reason to criminilize the "drug" and give it a special name? (Analogy: nearly 100% of the people killed in motercycle wrecks rode bicycles a child...do we outlaw bicycles?)

Marijuana was criminalized in the late 1930's on a bunch of unsubstantiated propaganda and remains illegal as a schedule one drug (insinuating the drug has no known medical use). Outside the U.S., however, there have been several hundred studies recently proving that marijuana not only provides relief to glaucoma (relieving ocular pressure by nearly 25% in most cases), nausea, severe pain, swelling of arthritis, but also (by a 600% margin over the only known treatment) slows the rapid deteriorization of the brain due to parkinsons disease, and stimulates apetite (munchies anyone?) in cancer and aids patients. Most of these are recent findings, and sadly the politics surrounding marijuana are lightyears ahead of the science...making the effort to undo all of the governments lies in this subject a tough effort to say the least (Watergate, Monica...anyone?)

Here are a few more facts noone considers: the government also spends 2 billion dollars a year to "educate" people on the dangers of smoking the herb. 2,000,000,000$$ of our tax money. Not to mention that the American public pays for the 55% of 173,059 federal inmates in prison for non-violent drug charges through our taxes. That is just federal prisons folks, not state or county.

"The Marijuana Laws," as they are apply named, also help violate up to nine of the first ten ammendments to our constitution (otherwise known as the bill of rights). Most notibly 1,2,4,6,8, and 10.

1. Freedom of religion-unless you happen to be a rastafarian.
2. right to bear arms-unless you like smokin herb (then your a fellon just for owning both)
4. unreasonable search and seizure-unless a government official can smell anything that resembles marijuana, or substances frequently used to cover the smell of marijuana.
6.trial by an impartial jury-unless your illness is best treated by marijuana, because we all know that marijuana has no known medicaluses.
8. No excessive bail, fines, cruel, or unusual punishment-unless you are a nonviolent herb toker.
10. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people-unless the state wishes to legalize marijuana for medical treatment or research thereof.

I dont have time to cite all the sources I got this information from. This is the culmination of a question I asked myself back in middle school days (10 years ago). You wouldnt have time to read every single detail I know about mary jane, so I listed the important points. The National Orginazation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws holds the answers to most of the questions any of you would ask : www.norml.org.

Thanks for your time, and toke up ^.^

I forgot to speak on the safety of marijuana.

It has more than a 4700 year written and oral history. Its first recorded appearence in a medical journal appears in the Pen-Tzoa, a journal pre-dating the Ming dynasty in China. In those 4700 years, there has never been a recorded death do to overdose. The apporximated lethal dosage of marijuana for a 160 pound man through:
smoking is 900 1 gram joints in a sitting. (that is not a typo, 900)
eating is 2 pounds in a 24 hour period. (based on average thc quantites in marijuana, about 4% content)(anyone who consumes nearly pure fiber on any regular basis will tell you how possible that is)

Acetominophen (tylenol, advil, and some prescribtion strength pain killers) kill an average of 15,000 people per year by lethal overdose.

On smoking cigarettes vs marijuana.
Ciggy's tars and fibers tend to collect in the alveoli of your lungs, bursting the small sacs and eventually leading to emphazema. Once these small sacs are damaged, there is no curing them. Also known to cause lung and neck cancers through stimulating more free radical cell growth.

Ganja's tars tend to collect on the larger passagways of the lungs (trachia, bronchial) and will disappate given enough time. Although marijauna is known to increase free radicals (like ciggarettes) it also tends to promote programmed cell death (the death of other wise healthy cells) which is essiantially the opposite effect cancer has on your body.

The only real truth the government will tell you about marijuana is that smoking it is not safe. In the context that nothing you put into your body (with the exception of the food pyramid and water) that is true. However, if food were judged on the same basis marijuana is, there would be no such thing as McDonalds (big mac's cause high fat levels and cholesteral, which lead to obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure). The absence of a "safe" classifcation hardly constitutes one of dangerous.

Ah well...enough already ^.^

Weed is a getaway drug, period. Ask anyone who's a constant "pot-head" and they will tell you they have tried a different (usually much stronger) than weed. Marijuana is the opening to a whole selection of a different kind of high.

This is how I pretty much tried every drug I could get my hands on. It opened a portal of trying to get "f-ed up" differently.

I wouldn't legalize marijuana.

Umm....I smoke and I have never taken any other "drugs."

I smoke pot because I like pot, not because I want to do other drugs.

well, heres my take on it....

im against the legalization of it, but not against the decriminalization of it...

its the same as alcohol in my opinion... impaired is impaired wether its by perscription, alcohol, or narcotics... and thats the biggest reason i dont want to see it leagal...

if you want to smoke it in the privacy of your home, thats your business... but when you start seeing high teens behind the wheels of cars, and more deaths occur as it has withg alcohol, then some sort of regulation is in order.

pot may not be damaging to your body as ciggs or even alcohol, but the legalization of it would bring a new era of potheads... and these poeple will eventually run the country... personally, i want someone in office can pass a bill without smokin a joint at the same time...... you think laws are bad now... think of how it will be when your govenor lights one up and passes the "lets put chemicals in our drinking water" bill... oh wait... that already happend hehehe! Point being, is that it impairs your judgement... making it legal would encourage its over use and cause us to become hippies again... and the last thing we need right now is a love fest... we are already overburdened with unwanted children and std's in this country as it is...

just my 2 cents...