Opinions - Why Should Marijuana Be Legal??

[Stingray_313]

H</span>ello. I am opening this thread
to allow users to explain why they think marijuana should be legal.
Hopefully, some big, rich, capitol hill politican will read this and
finally see that we arent just a buncha junkies who want to get legally
high, but that there are health aspects as well as environmental ones
(in reguards to hemp and such). Please post your positives and
negatives about weed. (Dont want to make it seem bias.)

With that said, ill start this show. Feel free to respond! Thanks!



PROS:</span>

Inspires a new way of thinking.

Many medicinal purposes.

Great fun for everyone

Hemp products like Oil, food, clothing, and other things could help protect the earth and help the environment.



CONS:

</span></span></span></span></span>Excessive smoking can lead to respitory problems.

Long term smoking can have memory problems.

Excessive hunger (But some lose weight with marijuana)

[The_Great_Sage]

your all a bunch of drugged up hippies........... i dont really think that but we (has drug supporters) will always be looked at like such statements (or at least i think... irony will end biting me in the ass and we wont be looked at like that ) anyway i think it should belegal because.... wel there is no reason whyit shouldnt be man look at ciggs the kill people and weed proly saves more than it kills. and look at what those officebuilding fucks have to lose if everyone is enlightened a little more we would be a totally different world. not to mention the useful side (medically speaking) of weed man.... there are people with aids that could use weed to helpl them live a little longer and if it had been legal maybe my dad would have been able to see my 5th birthday...... but i think that a socciaty with it legal would be much more peaceful and free place i will post again on this subject since im not at all drunk right now (sarcasm) peace

[par excellence.]

The main reaons for me are:





You can't OD on it, unless it's laced with something (I think... you'd
have to smoke like 1,000 times your body weight in pot to OD on it?
Something to that effect.), while you can get alcohol poisoning and
die. Why keep such a deadly thing legal, but such a safe little plant
illegal?





It would boost the economy. Imagine all the money people spend on
illegal drugs... it would be very very helpful to the economy right now.





It would lower drug (marijuana related, specifically) crime, I think,
because people wouldn't have to be shady about getting it or getting
caught or cheating people or anything.



Something tells me it might be an effective form of rehab... for
anorexics and people with strong addictions to other things. For EDs it
would promote hunger and level/happy mindedness, for addicts it would
promote hunger (to be a normal, non-junkie weight) and maybe help ease
withdrawl.



Only negatives I can think of is long term use could impair some motor
skills, and of course, the whole lung cancer thing from smoking.

[shneddi]

i like weed, but tbh it shouldnt.


why : makes you pure lazy. everyone would be zombies.


the nation would turn more like amsterdam , no offence ( if u live there )but that would suck.


no offence , but smoke to much and u sink like weed all the time , go white in the faceand not care about personal appearance


youll definaly lose ambition


I cant be bothered with every loser who wont smoke it just cos its illegeal smoking it. They will if its legal , and that would b shit.


cancer etc..


it can also cause pscosis ( cant spell ). cant be good to have a load of crazy people running around.


I used to think that it should be legal , but I thought about it a bit more and hey.... its just my opinion.

[Lacognac69]

shneddi, you make some very good points. I definitely agree with you. Although marijuana is quite easy to get, if it was legal many people would constantly be smoking it, which definitely would slow down the progress of many things and this definitely could cause more problems

[noeticbuzz]

Originally Posted by Lacognac69

shneddi, you make some very good points. I definitely agree with you. Although marijuana is quite easy to get, if it was legal many people would constantly be smoking it, which definitely would slow down the progress of many things and this definitely could cause more problems

So is the Netherlands the cess pool of moral corruption in the world because of their drug leniency?


If Mary J was legal we would save millions of $ in legal costs by trying to turn otherwise law abidding people into criminals. The courts would not be filled with frivilous cases that waste time and take away from issues that actually matter. The money wasted on the War on drugs could actually maybe be used to combat poverty.


People should have absolute right over how they treat their bodies as long as it does not hurt anyone else.

[Stingray_313]

Thanks so much for your responses! You all have good arguements. I thought of a few more to add... keep adding guys!



PRO:

</span></span></span></span> Would greatly help the food industry with the increase of hunger.



CON:

</span></span>Lowered ambition

[sands of time]

Most people would be getting stoned every chance they could get, imagine that hehe. I still think it should be legal though.

[Lacognac69]

ya, i agree that turning people into criminals because of marijuana is quite stupid. Legalizing marijuana definitely has a lot of pros and cons. Wasn't it actually voted upon recently in Washington State in the U.S.for legalization? I'm pretty sure this was just in the last election and it failed so I guess the majority of people still aren't ready for legalization.

[lolomgwtfbbq]

Hemp can be used to make cheaper paper and clothing. That could possibly hurt the economy, though.</font>

[The_Great_Sage]

well now that you mention the bad things that i thought of but not that much i do see that it could be bad to haveit legal but i would like it to be cheaper i am content with my stoner life though it could involve more weed but im fine almost

[Stingray_313]

One major thing i would like to be changed if weed wasnt FULLY legal,
is the penalties for possession or selling. Just because someone smoked
a little pot doesnt make them a criminal. Go spend tax dollars on
finding murderers or terrorists or something. Let people do what they
want to their own bodies.



A good friend of mine recently got caught with a small bag of pot in
his dorm room in college. He was kicked out of that college, had his
driver's lisence taken away for a long period of time and now all his
family looks down on him (they all thought really highly of him). All
because of a little marijuana. I want pointless shit like this to stop
happening to good, hardworking people!!!!

[billyloner]

luckily it appears to be heading this way in the uk. its already been reclassified to class c, which basically means (i think) that you will just have it confiscated if you get caught with an amount suitable for personal use. ie not with bags full.


im not sure that laziness should be considered as a negative when determining legal status; yes it can make you rather lazy, but that is a personal factor and not something that others should decide for you. at least i dont think so. outlawing something because it has the potential to make people lazy is not really acceptable to me.


as for the point about it making you not care about personal appearance. i mean really, why is everybody so caught up on how they look? we all walk through life, not daring to look different for fear of ridicule, not wanting to risk causing a bad first impression. all for what? some of the nicest people ive known have been regular heavy smokers, very lazy and not giving a shit about the way they dressed.


it blows my mind to think that people feel they have the authority to say what is right or wrong for other people to do, and this is why i feel all drugs should be legalised. who can tell you what is right or wrong for you? how would you like it if a government came to power and decided clubbing / raving were illegal? or the use of computers for recreation? its ridiculous.

[turfshark_40]

The biggest plus to legalization would be the freedom it would allow the medical community to study the plant's potential. It has so many uses like alleviating nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite from cancer treatments and for people with MS and glaucoma but people can't get it (or find it very tough to get) even if they do manage to get a prescription for it.

[billyloner]

its funny you should mention the medicinal effects... this was just in the news over here...

[Darthcarlos]

Well alcohol is much worse than marijuana , alcholol is physically adictive causes damage to grey matter of the brain damages internal organ , this is with heavy use.

Marijuana has not killed a single person is not physcally addictive causes no brain damage.

Its natural to, and brings relief to people with medical conditions.

Alcohol makes people violent and aggressive weed on the other hand does the opposite.

Its so much more a garmless drug , thats why i dont thing it should be illegal.

[biga]

The police are made needlessly unpopular becausethe law requires them to run around busting pot smokers. They don't really accomplish anything in doing this, other than to get themselves hated by the youth of today. This is no use since a working relationship with as much of the public as possible is essential to the policeif they are to carry out their more worthwhile duties efficiently. Cannabis is a waste of police time, butthey love it when they get you for posession, because it means that they can run you down the station, fill in some forms and get an easy shift out of it. That's not why we pay taxes, and it doesnt help prevent real crime either.


Pot smokers often end up on harder drugs eventually. I don't think this is because cannabis is a 'gateway drug', but because since people need to use black market dealers to get it, once they have a contact established for getting pot they can also get all manner of other drugs as well. Over here at least, there's no realmoney in selling cannabis on a street level. Dealers would much rather you buy pills, charles or smack because there's more room for profit, so sooner or later they'll encourage you to turn your relatively harmless pot habit into a smack addiction. Legalising pot would make it much less likely that your average joe would use a black marketdealer, and this would minimalise exposure to drugs that can actually do some damage.

[Stingray_313]

Excellent post Biga. You have a point of how the youth today hates the
cops because of marijuana. Personally, if i was a cop, i would let it
slide. Its not like we are killing people, all we are doing is having a
good time.



And on the subject of harder drugs, i sorta have to argue on that one.
Sure people would have less exposure to it, but after a period of time,
smoking marijuana would still get boring to some people and they would
find a way to get other drugs. But as you said, if they never had to go
through dealers, they would most likely not know any dealers and
getting the drugs would be unthought of. Im definately still
pro-legalization though... just looking at it from another point of
view.



Great posts by the way! Keep it up guys!

[billyloner]

also, if it were legalised, the 'haters' who look down on pot smokers would, eventually, mellow out a bit. might take a few years but if it was legal then pot smokers would no longer be though of in a bad way by certain people.

[dr ACE]

because its starting to get a bit boring all this talk of dangerous 'illegal' drugs,and the thing i hate most is all the lies & propoganda Edited by: dr ACE

[Creeping Death]

The only reason drugs are illegal is because the goverment would crumble if they weren't. With drugs, people would mutch rather spend their time having fun and exploring themselves than continue with the spiral of consumption that society is today. This would cause total anarchy.

I would love that. But most people wouldn't.

[billyloner]

Originally Posted by Creeping Death

The only reason drugs are illegal is because the goverment would crumble if they weren't. With drugs, people would mutch rather spend their time having fun and exploring themselves than continue with the spiral of consumption that society is today. This would cause total anarchy.

I would love that. But most people wouldn't.

well, from what ive read and seen in documentaries, that is the main reason that lsd was outlawed in the 60s. the governments could see what a big problem the hippys were becoming, quite separate to the society they wish to control, very difficult to influence via the usual means. simple solution? turn them into criminals. even better if you can make the rest of the population fear them irrationally, as an irrational fear is a very useful tool when you wish to control people.

[biga]

Legalising pot wouldnt lead to a breakdown in society. In fact, it would probably benefit it.Most pot smokers I know have jobs. Not great jobs, but they earn an honest living. Yes, when they're stoned they happily sit on thePS2 for hours on endkilling each other on Halo, but they do this after work in their own time, in their own homes. The next day, they get up like anyone else and go to work.


Pot isn't free you know, and legalising it won't make it free either. Stoners know they have to pay for their habit which is why they get up and go to work.Some people on here seem to think that a legalisation would instantly turn everyone in a given country into acomplete stoner. Using that logic, everyone who lives in a country where alcohol is legal must be a 24/7 pisshead. But they aren't.

[RoboCop]

Biga Said:
"Legalising pot wouldnt lead to a breakdown in society. In fact, it would probably benefit it. Most pot smokers I know have jobs. Not great jobs, but they earn an honest living. Yes, when they're stoned they happily sit on the PS2 for hours on end killing each other on Halo, but they do this after work in their own time, in their own homes. The next day, they get up like anyone else and go to work.
Pot isn't free you know, and legalising it won't make it free either. Stoners know they have to pay for their habit which is why they get up and go to work. Some people on here seem to think that a legalisation would instantly turn everyone in a given country into a complete stoner. Using that logic, everyone who lives in a country where alcohol is legal must be a 24/7 pisshead. But they aren't."

Thank you, I agree completely. If our governments can survive the legalization of alcohol, we can easily legalize marijuana, it is not going to have as negative effects on our society as alcohol. Just because it is legal does not mean everyone will use it, people will still have their morals, if they thought the plant was bad before a little change in the law will not change their beliefs. America is supposed to be the land of the free, I laugh at this seeing people are going to jail for smoking/selling something that is grown from the earth. Someone said people would become "mindless zombies" LOL you couldn't be more wrong, weed does not make people mindless zombies, in fast DXM does make people look and act like mindless zombies....and you know what, I can go to walmart and buy that.

[xctico]

I think all drugs should be legalized. Not only weed.


Why?


Fiscally


It would increase income through new taxes. It would reduce spendings associated to the drug war[from jail space, to police time]


Law enforcement


Addicts would no longer be forced to pay for overpriced black market drugs. So they won't steal to get drugs. That would reduced crimes indirectly associated to drugs. Also, police time could be used more efficiently by dedicating time and money to fighting real criminals [the kind that harms others]. The same principle applies to judges.


By legalizing the use of drugs, you can also control the areas where drugs are used. In other words, you can have crack heads concentrated in a particular area of town. They usually won't go more than a few blocks away from where they get their fix. Making it possible to separate drug user populations, so thatpotheads won't evolve into crackheads.


History has proven that by legalizing a substance you can regulated more efficiently. The best example of this is alcohol. Is a lot easier to get crack than alcohol for a school kid.


Healthcare


The benefits of currently proscibed drugs could be more widely studied. MDMAis promising in such fields as psicology, marijuana can be usefull in such fields as terminal cancer threatments, and geriatrics. LSD and other triptamines could be used in the treatment of chronic depression.


The avaibility of pure drugs, with the active ingredient concentrations clearly stated, will make OD's a lot less frecuent. Making it a lot easier for doctors. Not to mention that without the fear of incrimination patients would be more open to disscuss with physicians their drug addictions and the interaction of such drugs with other prescription drugs.


Freedom


Every person should be FREE to decide what to do with his/her body, as long as it doesn't affect the freedom of others. This is the main reason why all drugs should be legal.