I've always had a pretty steady stance on whether pot should be legalized, and I would have to say absolutely!(for many reasons). The main reason I can think of is that it would most definitely decrease organized crime, which I would argue is the worst part of prohibition(something we should have learned from alcohol prohibition)

Anyway, do you think pot should be legal or illegal?

I do not agree with the idea that pot should be legalized. 

Yes, there will be less organized crimes, I agree with that, but to be honest, at what cost? There will be much more pot available on the streets and anywhere else really, and think of the little kids, and also the teenagers as well. They will have a much more easier time in getting pot, and can potentially ruin their life. 

Sure, there can be rules to this matter, but at the moment, I can think of any rule that would totally be safe proof, or even the slightest safe proof rule either. You can have pot stores, and operate basically the same as a liquor store: age, ID (I think you need an ID for alcohol? Unless there is solid physical proof, like if you are 50 or something), etc. But what's going to stop a 30 year old man from supplying pot to the local kids?

Yes, I realize there is medical pot as well, which many states are trying to legalize. Sure, it can help with medical uses, but there are plenty of other medications that can surely help in the same way as medical marijuana does as well. 

Marijuana is addictive, and can seriously damage your health, and potentially ruin your life. 

For me, this was just a skim of some arguments, not all totally specific nor right/wrong, and definitely not all of the arguments that can be presented. 

Pot was banned in the 1940's because people ran scare campaigns on how smoking pot would make children worship Satan and women lust after black men. As it stands, governments are gradually running out of excuses for having pot illegal. Sooner or later they're going to have to accept that banning it is not only harmful but irrational. The whole matter is rather like prohibition: it was a stupid idea that didn't work 90 years ago, and it's a stupid idea that doesn't work today.


Sidewinder : Usually when people make a "think of the children!" argument, it's done facetiously, because it's the sort of argument people make when they have no real argument and thus resort to baseless emotional appeals. Pot is widely available already. Legalising it will not make children stoners, as evidenced by countries like The Netherlands where pot is legal and the children are fine. Nor is pot especially addictive; certainly not nearly as addictive or harmful as, say, coffee, the most popular drug on the planet.

Sooner or later people will read beyond the scare-tactics and figure out that marijuana is not a big deal. Here's an interesting take on how ridiculously close-minded people can be about it.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/08/health/gupta-changed-mind-marijuana/index.html?iref=allsearch

No. It definitely should not. Everyone says "Oh it is safer than cigarettes and alcohol!" Truth is, it is just as dangerous. It is a hallucinogen, meaning that it has very unpredictable side effects. Also, driving while high is just as dangerous as driving drunk. And it is NOT safe for your body. It may be safer than cigarettes, but it is definitely not safe.

And if you want a doctors opinion, someone who has gone through years of medical school, read this (Not appropriate if you are under 13):

http://docbastard.blogspot.com/2012/04/drug-or-not-drug.html

And also this (Also not appropriate is you are under 13):

http://docbastard.blogspot.com/2013/10/are-you-high.html

Sidewinder : I see your point, but as far as children having access to pot... 30-year-olds are already selling pot to children, in fact, children are selling pot to children. A teenager who smokes pot has better access to pot than they do alcohol(according to statistics and me witnessing it myself as a teenager), because drug dealers don't have to card anyone. If it was legalized, we would still prosecute people for buying it for minors or selling directly to minors.

Also, alcohol is more addictive, and much more deadly than pot, but prohibiting it didn't decrease the negative effects nor did it decrease availability in the long run. Prohibition made alcohol more deadly, and was a foundation for certain deadly black market organizations(Al Capone's gang for example). Prohibition doesn't fix either of these problems.

It was legalized last year where I live, and I don't think it's as big a deal as most people seem to think. Personally, I have no desire to smoke pot, but I wouldn't be against legalizing it.

Yes. It should be legalized. At least with a few requirement to buy it, like being at least 18 or 21 years old, and having prove of it. Marijuana isn't that addicting, it's actually less than caffeine, cigarettes and alcohol, and it really doesn't have any big negative effective on human beings, maybe some short term ones, which are still better than getting a lung disease from smoking or a liver disease from drinking. Also, making it legal to adults will not make every children or teen a marijuana addict. In my opinion, making Marijuana illegal was a dumb move (And it had a dumb reason to be banned, as people thought it made women want colored man more) and making it legal would not cause our world to become a world infested with Marijuana addicts.

Again.

Sure, why not. Doesn't really make that much difference in my life and I doubt it would bring down the society though I equally despise both sides of the propaganda. Why the companies who make the foods people usually eat when they get the munchies aren't already lobbying for legalization is beyond me. The profits would be enormous.

Sidewinder : How is this any different that Alcohol, Cigarettes, or pharmaceutical drugs?

Marijuana is safer than both of the above options for the most part and in many ways is beneficial for people who are sick/have cancer or other ailments. Not to mention that many things can be made from Hemp.

Honestly I understand Marijuana isn't for everyone, but it's not evil either. You cannot tell people that it's ok to drink up and take all the pills they want but keep a fairly harmless plant illegal.

Having it legal would not only save MILLIONS in the court system for pointlessly locking up people with smaller amounts of the product which is pointless. Not only that, it would make the country money through Licencing these producers, sellers and taxing the purchase of the product just like Alcohol and Cigarettes.

The children argument is kinda pointless. It would be regulated just the same as Booze or Cigs. Beyond that, kids can get their hands on it even if it wasn't legal.

Jordanv78 : You will probably disagree with me, but I don't think that alcohol or cigarettes should be legal either. All they do is harm us. Alcohol is a poison that is responsible for TONS of deaths (mainly drunk driving), and cigarettes contain over 4,000 chemicals, including lead, ammonia, arsenic (yeah, the same arsenic that is used to kill rats), acetone, nicotine, methanol (used in rocket fuel), carbon monoxide, cadmium (used in battery acid), and many others. There is no positive to either of them. So I think that marijuana should be illegal, but I think that cigarettes and alcohol should be too.

tgags123 : You may already know this, but the US has already tried to prohibit alcohol in the 1920s, and by all accounts, it was a complete disaster. It didn't stop people from drinking alcohol, in fact, alcohol use was about to surpass the pre-prohibition levels before prohibition was repealed in 1933. The alcohol was more deadly to drink(because no one enforced health regulations on black market alcohol), and prohibition was basically the foundation for all major organized crime, that's how hardcore gangs and Mexican drug cartels get their money(not to mention the hundreds of thousands of people who die in drug related violent crimes each year)

The point is, drugs and alcohol can cause major problems, but arresting and putting people in cells for doing them doesn't fix the problem(nor is it moral in my opinion), it's only ever made the problem worse.

tgags123 :

You can read all about how well the prohibition on alcohol worked in the history books. It sounds all fine and dandy on paper how people should be both sober and non smoking and since you are, good for you. I hope you stay that way but in real life prohibiting all this does not work. During the prohibition people drank more than they did before and they drank more hard alcohols which also meant more violent crimes related to alcohol and meanwhile the gangsters and the smugglers got rich. Which in the end also meant that society was more corrupt.

And it doesn't matter if cigarettes would have a million different carcinogenic chemicals. People would still smoke them and you would have a bunch of raving lunatics all over if you would ban them all of a sudden.

Also it is a sad fact hat if you forbid something, people are going to be more interested about it. Take a look into the history of the Soviet Union for example, where they were masters of banning everything.

sloanstar1000 :
Brigand :

I know all about prohibition. I am not saying that the government should make it illegal, I am saying that it should be illegal. I know that sounds kind of confusing, but I don't know how else to put it.

tgags123 : I agree with what you are saying but the same is not true for Marijuana, so comparing them in that sense is not fair as there are beneficial uses not only for people using the THC element, but also for production of things like cloth and paper.

is...this kid joking? marijuana is not a hallucinogen. i think you need to study into this a bit more, and understand what a hallucinogen is, and what marijuana actually does. a hallucinogen causes a state where you feel, hear, see, taste, or smell things that are not real. what makes them a hallucination, is that you cannot tell that they are not real. to you, they are a part of reality, and thats that.  hallucinogens induce hallucinations. there are relatively few actual hallucinogens known, and most of them are obtainable by simple plants youd find growing outside.

as for what marijuana actually does, it dosent really do much. it slows the motor skills in most cases, by a minute amount. it might make you hungry, which is generally actually just your body using more energy then you think it is, thus inducing hunger. it puts a very slight damper on the CNS, and in effect gives a slightly deadened sense of touch, but nothing more then slightly noticeable unless youre REALLY high. it does alot of different things, but overall none of them are inherently dangerous. it can be consumed in ways that are actually quite healthy, through various means of refining the chemicals within. it supposedly causes stunted brain development, but ive known alot of kids who grew up smoking pot, or were around it and thus influenced by it most of their lives, and those kids were generally the ones who truly wanted to learn, and were good at nearly everything they tried.

as for kids getting some 30 year old to buy them, do you live in some fancy place where drug dealers dont exist? ive been all over this country, and i can say without a doubt, weed is everywhere. and being a child doesnt mean you cant get it. a drug dealer will sell to a 12 year old kid, because hes going to jail if he gets caught anyways, why care? if there were proper control over this, at least to the extent that there is on ciggs and booze, then the likelihood of 12 year olds getting weed will drop. it wont disappear, as some people allow their children to make their own choices in life, but it will drop significantly when some random guy going to go buy his weed gets asked by a kid to buy him some, and the guy might serve 5 years in prison for it. prison is the contributing factor to why most adults dont buy kids booze and smokes.

what i dont understand is why, eve if it IS unhealthy, or even deadly, do you care what someone else chooses to do with their life? i understand wanting children to be safe, and thats why we have a society that generally does what it can to protect them, but some weed isnt going to hurt a kid. and even if some stupid kid decided "hey im going to go and smoke this stuff i know absolutely nothing about", instead of asking his parents about what it is, why should everyone else have to sacrifice their freedom? if you want to smoke crack, opium, or or menthol covered plastic, its none of my business, or anyone elses. its your right, as long as you dont put anyone ELSE in danger. harm yourself all you want.

On the topic of banning booze, im pretty sure they tried that in russia and. they started making moonshine out of dangerous chemicals, it killed a lot of people.

And i dont agree weed is safer than booze.
You can quote alcohol deaths or accidents but there are a few points.

1-alcohol is far more widely used
2-typically accidents or deaths due to impaired judgement are included in alcohol statistics.
They are not when looking at weed.
3-most alcohol deaths or afflictions occur from overdosing, it would be interesting to see the results of a weed binge study
4-weed can help people with certain conditions.
However it can also cause massive psychological problems from prolonged use, most commonly clinical depression or extreme paranoia. I have witnessed the later first hand and it was very real.

As it stands its not that hard to obtain weed and i dont majorly object to that, but i dont approve of making it more widely available, because then it will become more common.

Also i dont know of any organised criminals having much of a hold on the distribution of weed here, a lot of its grown in houses.

thenumberone : You have to be joking. Of course marijuana is safer than alcohol. It isn't about statistics. People do idiotic and sometimes violent things when drunk. People sit on the couch, eat snacks, and laugh at idiotic things when stoned. Of course there's also the fact that alcohol is poisonous and even if it doesn't lead to an overdose will slowly destroy your body, whereas THC is non-toxic and fights cancer. There's no clinical evidence for "massive psychological problems" from prolonged use. I'd like to see your peer-reviewed paper on that. Alcohol, however, most certainly can cause serious psychological problems, often stemming from addiction. That is well-established, and I can produce studies on the matter if you really don't believe me.

Traduweise :
And pot doesent cause you to do any dangerous things? Solid.
Its not like they get stoned, think iv had a great idea, then do something stupid.
Course not.
Whereas smoking, the major means of conaumong weed isnt bad for your body.
Of course much like your liver, your lungs heal.
Oh wait, they dont.

But unlike weed alcohol has no good effects.
Oh wait, it actually relieves pain, stress, is safe in moderation and doctors recommend elderly people drink a glass of red wine every day.
Super poisonous.

Funny how people can live to 100 and they drank most days of the week. There bidys were clearly destroyed.

Im sure i could find papers suggesting weed can cause psychological problems but so could you so you dont need the middle man.
Iv seen it, thats all i need.

thenumberone : Pot won't cause you to make stupid decisions. At least no more stupid than the ones you would have made without it. That's not how the stuff works. But I'm sure you have evidence that goes beyond an anecdote or two, right? I don't care what you claim to have seen. The plural of anecdote is not data.

Yeah, and alcohol is a toxin. That doesn't mean drinking it will kill you, it means drinking too much will kill you. Don't give me all that crap about "red wine is good for you". That's irrelevent. Ethanol is a toxin. THC is utterly non-toxic. That's the point.

while under the influence of marijuana, you may have idea you normally wouldnt, but these are generally along the lines of something to eat, or something to kill some time. i think youd find that most of the people who play games on this site, do so while under the influence of marijuana. it is a VERY common thing, and it doesnt cause any proven mental health issues, only speculated by the same people who scream that its killing our children and corrupting the country.

nobody smokes a blunt and then decides "im going to go murder my ex wife now", as occasionally happens on alcohol.
nobody thinks they can fly, and jumps from a window, as occasionally happens on alcohol.
you sit around, smoke more weed, turn on some bass heavy music, and eat something. thats what weed makes you do, that you normally might not.