Only losers smoke pot, right?

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I don't know. Prohibition has worked out really well in the USA. It's been going strong since 1919!

Wait... uh, what? It was repealed in 1933? Seriously? Highly unpopular? Massive increase in organized crime? Well, I guess scratch what I just said.

 

Exactly.

 

Er, I assume you're simply talking about generally illegal substances rather than drugs for medical use.

Considering the majority of illegal substances that are abused were originally from the medical field and either replaced or discarded as they were ineffectual at their TARGETTED problem.

Cigarettes are even found beneficial in certain gut issues, certain alcoholic beverages also contain compounds that help in the prevention of other health issues.

People abuse prescription medication, even more abuse over the counter products. Should everything that can be abused and be harmful be banned or should there be a sense of personal responsibility instilled instead?

 

It's really a question of when the said benefits are worth the trouble caused by the "medication". We have a heavily regulated medical field to determine where those lines should be drawn. It won't eliminate abuse but it certainly goes a long way to minimize it.

 

Forgive me for being a little dense, but I still don't see the justification for making it illegal. Is it because it is harmful? Because if that is your stance, what is it based on? The studies that I have seen on it usually show different ways that it can be beneficial, not harmful. The only way it can be harmful that I have seen is if you smoke it, and like I said before that can be entirely avoided.

And, like Shoshino said, isn't this a matter of personal liberty? Using marijuana in a private place affects nobody at all but yourself, and there is no evidence to show that you become more of a danger to anyone when you are on it.

 

I have no idea what newest and most recent research say about the matter, it's not really a high priority issue to me anyhow and I freely admit I lack knowledge of more recent research in the matter. Some papers I've read in the past considered it a harmful drug although significantly less harmful than tobacco or alcohol.

What's a matter of personal liberty and what's not is a subjective question. As I've pointed out I have little problem with individuals using in closed spaces, heck they do so even now and their risk of getting caught is basically zero. The fines for cultivating and using for personal use are minuscule and you're very unlikely to get caught. My main concern is public sale and marketing. Usually the two go together. When there's profit involved someone is willing to do business and market it to new users.

EDIT: I guess to me it boils down to me not seeing a single reason why I should support the legalization of pot to other than medical use. I see no positive social benefits in that.

 

If something is legal, then there is no 'dealing' it can be sold and controlled and taxed by the government far safer for the user and eliminating the need for drug gangs and cartels, massive savings on policing and of course no court costs.

 

Then we would be talking about hard drugs and not pot. Marijuana generates very little organised crimes the harder drugs are a lot bigger problem in that regard and I'm even more against legalizing them.

 

Depends what you consider "organized." While I don't know that 'the mob' (whoever they are) is largely involved in trafficking marijuana, its production and distribution is certainly organized. It's not just your uncle Jimmy growing it in his backyard and selling it to neighborhood kids. From the shady guys who distribute it around town to local dealers to the common shady local dope men at every high school, there's definitely a fairly rigorous infrastructure involved.

Anyway, I like the ivory tower concept of legalized drugs better than I like what I suspect the reality of it would be. People almost universally fall to the lowest common denominator, so all these people who we imagine could handle it quite possibly won't handle it and will end up being a drag on everybody else. While it's tempting to think that this sort of thing would always be limited to their choice/their problem, I don't really like the idea of my kid having to walk the gauntlet home from school through crowds of ne'er do well stoners who have no greater ambition in life than to get high and who are immune from being dispersed by the cops because what they're doing is legal. (Not to mention that whole secondhand smoke argument. )

 

look, these 'hard' drugs are just stimulants at the end of the day, you have to accept that if people want them, they will get them, if people want them someone will supply them, if the stimulant is illegal, then that someone will make alot of money by making sure his customers are recieving the worst $h!t out there cutting with various poisons to make as high a profit as they can, and then dealing with violence and other sinister methods...

you have to accept that there is no war on drugs, its more of a game, if you play the game, you can win, if you dont then you automatically lose.

 

You can always just make the laws concerning marijuana like the laws about cigarettes in some areas, where you can only smoke it in your home or "smoke bars".

That being said, criminal marijuana production is certainly organized, and does feed into the coffers of gangs. It's actually one of the most profitable drug for the Mexican cartels, not to mention U.S gangs.