Should marijuana be legal?

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As you often mix the weed with tobacco you might say it is as addictive as cigarettes but otherwise no. Cannabis doesnt make you physically addicted like nicotine but it does as alcohol makes you mentally addicted.

 

And what's the difference if the addiction is mental or physical? The result is the same.

 

About the only thing I really remember about marijuana is that it's has a positive feedback loop.

Or at least, the THC does.

Over usage, it takes less (not more, like cocaine and crack and heroin) to get you "high". I forget the exact mechanism of it's action.

 

In my opinion, marijuana should be legal.
Afterall, i don't want to end up in jail anytime soon

 

I drink alcohol, i don't smoke cigarettes, i occasionally smoke Cannabis and have no desire at all to do any harder drugs than that. People i know who smoke cigs and weed think i'm strange coz im the only person they know who doesnt smoke cig but does occasionally smoke cannabis.

I agree with the fact that an illegal substance is more appealing to some than a legal one, but not for me personally. The only reason i can justify cannabis is because i don't see why it *should* be illegal. Alcohol is perfectly legal but can cause you to completely loose control. For me, the same goes for cannabis, but i never have as much as to get to the point of losing control.
Alcohol damages the liver and the brain. As far as i'm aware, cannabis doesn't.

Oh, and i think people that do do harder drugs were probably likely to take that path anyway, regardless. All the tests/research doesn't take into account your upbringing and personal life experiences, of which there may be a multitude that could point towards you using drugs.

 

perhaps a lame counter-argument but I'll put it here anyway. Apeman stated that less people will smoke weed if it is legal because the thrill has gone out. So if we legalize murder the number will go down as well?

Beside this, I believe (not sure) that here in the Netherlands the number of drugsuser hasn't lessened because of cannabis being legal.

 

Coming from a country where Marihuana IS legal, i say this conversation is useless. If you're gonna ban marihuana, than at least ban tobacco and alcohol too. If you never smoked it, then you don't know what you're talking about. It's NOT addictive whatsoever, it's all in the mind. People who say that they're addicted to it are weak, that's all. Same goes for cocaine imo, but that's another story. I know what i'm talking about.

 

Do you have less pain in your leg if it feels like your leg is broken even if it isnt?
Psychosomatic pain is just as real as 'real' pain, there just isnt any medical cure for it.
In the same way is a psychosomatic addiction to a drug just as real as a physical addiction. It has nothing or atleast not much to do with being weak or strong. Just because your *body* doesnt need the alcohol or cannabis like the body of a smoker needs its nicotine doesnt mean that the mind doesnt need it, or think it does. What is real isnt always reality.

 

@Intentioner: I just read from my biiology book: If you use cannabis once you destroy about ten times more braincells if you got drunk once. And there are also other nice sideeffects. Oh, and of course the chance of an aftertrip (you get high again, long after you smoked it, up to a week).

 

Your biologybook is worthless, throw it away. Aftertrip ? Give me a break... we're not talking LSD here.
And Joaquin, i ask you this, have you ever smoked cannabis ? If you haven't, you don't have to come up with all those theories. It's exactly like i said, it's NOT addictive, unless you let it take control of you, in which case you're weak.

 

I didn't state anything, if you take state from the words maybe and 'that's only speculation' I think you are smoking a marijunana cig right now

All I said was that it is a much debated argument I didn't say it was my opinion, I offered it as an option.

 

ok sorry apeman! It's just that it's an opinion I hear frequently and always makes me itchy!

 

Legalise "soft drugs", at least Hash and Marijuana. Sell it on the same basis as alcohol tax it, etc.

De-criminalise certain harder drugs - the addictive ones like Heroin, Morphin, Crack etc.

Then give it on prescription to registered users.

Now this would in theory do two things: Remove the need for criminal activity, since there is no need to steal to get the drugs, just go to the doctor. This would reduce crime enormously.

Secondly, without a possible profit motive in these drugs, over time this should reduce the usage because there will be no dealers who sell it / give it away to get people hooked, then profit on the addiction, since anyone could register and get it for free.

The more difficult area in my opinion is what to do with designer and synthetic drugs like speed, LSD and e's etc. Now these are not in theory physically addictive, so it's not justifiable to prescribe these since they are much less likely to cause people to commit crime to obtain them. They are also too dangerous to seriously allow over the counter. Tricky one. Leave them banned, and use the additional resources available from the reduced crime levels to stop these, or let people pickle their brains at will if they wish?

Radical, sure although hardly new thinking. However, what is certain is that current drug policy and legislation in the UK and other western countries - US included, is not working.

Taking the profit out of drugs must lead to less drugs on the street, so that would at least be worth a try.

Sure shoot it down, but might as well try something which might have a chance of working. Current policy does not.

 

profit will always be made from those type of drugs. In Holland you can now buy weed as some kind of medication, for people who suffer from chronic headaches, but do you actually think those people will go through all the trouble of visiting a doctor, get a prescription, and then go to an apothacry to get their smokes ? Of course not, they go to the pub at the corner, or to the nearest coffeeshop. Much faster, less trouble. Same thing for every other type of drugs. I live in Utrecht and we have a big mall here, called Hoogh Catharijne, which is a meetingpoint for every junkie in the city. Every monday or tuesday a big bus comes by, and provides free heroin to those who are registered as "hopeless", and methadon to other junkies. Do you think you'll see less dealers swarming around them ? Hell no... whatever it is they're getting out there, will only give them satisfaction for half a day, after that they're gonna need the dealers again. That's why you can buy whatever you want, in almost every bar in town, if you know who to look for. What i'm trying to say is that our government more or less allows all this to happen, is only for their own benefit, we have less criminals now, since smoking weed or snorting cocaine is not considdered a crime, and therefore no arrests have to be made. Legalizing drugs does not bring the amount of drugs on the street back, you'll see even more pushers, even students who want a piece of the action.

 

Actually Viking one western country is in the middle of a very large debate about the de-crimilization of weed. What is intresting about is that a low level court dismissed, a weed possesion charge. So the great white north migh just de-crimilize weed in the next year.

On a note people have talked about tobacco and weed. As public school taught the addictive chemical in tobacco is nicotine, while tar is one of the chemicals that wreck your body. Weed also has tar, and contains a little more or the same amount of tar compared to tobacco.

Tal, the person that died when smoking a joint. Did he grow his own plants, never leave from their sight, and personally roll his own joint? If not, who the hell knows what he smoked? Since it was his first time the joint could have been spike with anything from arsenic to herion.

I personnaly have no problem with weed becoming legalized, and being sold. For all I care, give the tobacco farms and companies the right to manufactur and distrubute the product, and everybody will be happy. The people that hate it, don't have to buy it. The people that love it, know what they are buying, so it wont be spiked, or be a rip-off. Third the tobacco compaines and their large political groups will be happy as the can start selling weed, making them more money.

 

No jokes on my behalf, it's sad but true.

 

Come on Tal one kid dies in over 2000 years of use and this is a dangerouse drug?Maybe one of the stats junkies on here could find a link to show us how many people die every day of alcohol poisining.
This drug is one of the most misunderstood in history.The fact that it is illegal and alcohol is not is quite silly.
Franklin Delanor Roosevelt did one of the most exhaustive studies on this drug in history.When He got the report back and did not back his beleif of how dangerouse it was,guess what,he threw it away.(maybe Laches could find this for us on the net it must be out their)
Up until the fifties it grew on most roadsides in America.To make a weed(no pun inteneded it is a weed)illegal is beyond me.It does not go through any chemical change to smoke,just take it of the plant its all natural.
Now this is not to say it is not bad for you.IT can cause cancer and it does cause short term memoray loss.The memerory loss returns shortly after you stop using however.
The gateway drug argument always comes up as well.Most kids admit the first drug they tried is alcohol.Its easy to get most kids dont even have to leave home.(and yes alcohol is a drug)
Under the gateway argument almost everything could be considered a gateway substance.Caffiene makes me hyper what other substance can I try to simulate this effect?
I could go on but I think I have gone on long enough for now.

 

Tal did you read my entire reply?
I responded to both of your arguments.Sorry your freinds took a bad turn but trying to blame that on marijuana just doesnt add up.