Should Marijuana be Legal in the United States?

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Should Marijuana be Legal in the United States

Yes, completely legal to everyone
32
31%
Yes but with restrictions
33
32%
No, not at all
37
36%
None of the above
1
1%
 
Total votes: 103

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James
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Re: Should Marijuana be Legal in the United States?

Unread post by James »

Sun Fin wrote:I guess my opinion is that drugs should be illegal but the emphasis should be on rehab for those people who are addicted not punishment and instead it should be the dealers and smugglers who should face heavy prison time.
Part of the problem with the 'War on Drugs' is in addressing what a 'dealer' is. There's a big difference between some dude in Oakland growing marijuana to share with his friends—or that same dude selling the marijuana to friends—and the people arranging for thousands/tens-of-thousands/millions in product to cross borders.

We've been putting away some of those little guys—and our prison populations are swelling.
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Iain
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Re: Should Marijuana be Legal in the United States?

Unread post by Iain »

Its supposed to go legal up here in Canada next year, Prime Minister Trudeau made it an Election promise (probably to gain extra votes lol) I'm not looking forward to this as I already get that tell tail whiff through my bedroom window from my upstairs neighbors late night and the thought of the air being further filled with this once its legal annoys me.
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Re: Should Marijuana be Legal in the United States?

Unread post by laojim »

As someone has surely pointed out above it is already legal in a patchwork of states and districts. In Arizona you can buy all you want with a doctor's recommendation. I get some for arthritis, fibromyalgia and some other complaints. This is legal by state law although illegal by federal law. It appears that what is going to happen is that the number of states and jurisdictions where the pot has been legalized in one way or another will continue to grow until it becomes obvious that it is the will of the people and some form of federal legalization will be forthcoming. Marijuana is in no sense addictive or harmful. It was only made illegal in order to stop Mexicans from coming into the states, or so the tale goes. It was believed that Mexicans wouldn't come here if they couldn't get their marijuana. Well, surprise! That has utterly failed.
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Re: Should Marijuana be Legal in the United States?

Unread post by l3wis 1337 »

I can't believe the 'no' vote is winning here???

People clearly don't know their stuff when it comes to Cannabis, it should be legal everywhere, it's a victimless, natural drug that is virtually impossible to overdose on.

Legalising it would create industry and therefore create lots of jobs, yeah you'd see a few more people with red puffy eyes walking about... I have lost friends and family members to alcohol, yet not a soul to cannabis.

Hm.

420 blaze it xxx
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Re: Should Marijuana be Legal in the United States?

Unread post by ky9ersfan »

I think focusing on marijuana crimes is a giant waste of money & resources.

First, we have small time criminals going to jail on petty marijuana crimes, and leaving prison as hardened master criminals, with prison education in the area of criminology 101. We really should rethink these policies, and I agree with the states that are making it legal, but with restrictions to sell it to underage people.

Secondly, it is a giant waste of money to imprison record numbers of low level dealers, who are otherwise not a threat to society. We are wasting insane amounts of money, and are running out of space in prisons, with all these petty criminals. And another point I was thinking about, is that if we make it legal, we can sell it in legitimate buisnesses, and create new tax revenues, and take away large amounts of money from street gangs & mexican cartels. AND by doing so we can create new tax revenues, and "Uncle Sam" can get his cut, and those substantial amounts of funds can help with stuff like our crumbling infrastructure, programs to help the less fortunate, help fund police, etc..

Pretty much the only bad thing I can think about, is that all that extra smoking will increase cancer related illnesses. I know for a fact that people who smoke every day are at an increased risk to get cancer, because my cousins dad got throat cancer and died, after smoking marijuana everyday. And also my aunt got lung cancer from smoking marijuana every day, and it spread to he liver, and she slowly shrivelled up and died recently. So smoking marijuana regularly, would definitely come with a buyer beware risk, but that risk is on the consumer (just like vaping).
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Re: Should Marijuana be Legal in the United States?

Unread post by Kongde »

I think this whole idea that people can't have something just because it's bad for them is wrong. If people want to have something that isn't necessarily all good for them, why should we completely ban it? As long as they are educated about what it's going to do to them so they can make an informed decision, then it should be their choice. If we are going to safe-proof everything, then we should ban fast food, alcohol, cigarettes, anything unhealthy at all, and whatever else could be harmful to health. I think it's kind of odd to be picking and choosing on it. I may not agree with the usage of other things, but is it a crime worthy of prison to simply ingest something or possess something that harms nobody but themselves, at worst? At worst, rehab, but prison? We should not treat drug users as criminals, because they are not criminals, how can you commit a crime when nobody has been hurt, and property has not been violated in any way? It is a victimless "crime," where nobody is being affected but the person choosing to do it. Arguably, by keeping it illegal, you are enabling the true crime to thrive - profits go to mobs, gangs, and even terrorists (who are funded through drugs quite often). Clearly, the fact it has been illegal has not stopped anyone from obtaining it, only changed the fact that now the money is going towards bad organized crime instead of the government who could use the money to educate and rehabilitate instead. You would ironically lower crime by legalizing drugs. Furthermore, it being legal would not suddenly cause a spike in usage of drugs. The people who want to do these drugs are already doing them, and the legality of it would not change that. There are people who do not smoke cigarettes, do not ingest alcohol, and in places where it is legal, do not smoke weed. When people are aware of the risks, they simply do not do them.

This position may be radical to some, but I think we've tried this whole drug war thing for the past 80 years or so, and look where we are. Clearly, it's not working at all, and in fact, we are worse off now than ever before with an opioid epidemic. All we are doing is wasting our resources, imprisoning large amounts of people for victimless crimes, ruining many lives even further, funding terrorists/gangs/mobs/crime organizations, and overall seems to worsen drug use than prevent it. You do not have to agree with drug usage to make it legal. I do not agree with many things, but I do not think disagreeing with something is grounds for making it illegal, nor is simply being unhealthy/bad for you (or else we should ban everything else unhealthy/bad for you).
?-Kongde-?
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Re: Should Marijuana be Legal in the United States?

Unread post by SunXia »

People should be allowed to do with their bodies as they see please.

Granted, psychosis does exist as do episode of self harm but these are usually in response to hypercriticism and a general lack of compassion in the form of affirmation we all need from those we love and our community.

I don't even think Mary-Jay should be regulated.

Getting really tired of the bubblewrap lifestyle when, tragically, you, anyone, can drown in a puddle.
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Re: Should Marijuana be Legal in the United States?

Unread post by WeiWenDi »

Kongde wrote:This position may be radical to some, but I think we've tried this whole drug war thing for the past 80 years or so, and look where we are. Clearly, it's not working at all, and in fact, we are worse off now than ever before with an opioid epidemic. All we are doing is wasting our resources, imprisoning large amounts of people for victimless crimes, ruining many lives even further, funding terrorists/gangs/mobs/crime organizations, and overall seems to worsen drug use than prevent it. You do not have to agree with drug usage to make it legal. I do not agree with many things, but I do not think disagreeing with something is grounds for making it illegal, nor is simply being unhealthy/bad for you (or else we should ban everything else unhealthy/bad for you).
If you'd asked me back in, say, 2018, I probably would have disagreed vehemently with this. But now, partly after acquainting myself with the facts about the war on (some classes of people who use some) drugs and partly after observing what happened in with George Floyd (and everything that came after it) here in Minneapolis, I think I'm starting to agree with it more.

The truly odious and horrid thing about the whole war on drugs is how many people land in state or county prisons on simple possession charges. It's insane. We lock up as many people in the United States as China and India put together despite having a population that's only a fraction of each country's, and a pretty significant chunk of those (something like 10% nationwide, according to the Prison Policy Initiative) are in there on drug offences, some even on simple possession charges.

That's not to say that there shouldn't be controlled substances. Meth should be banned. Most synthetic opioids - including some which are currently legal and available on prescription - should probably be banned as well. But I think the really sad thing is that we seem to be going down the whole 'regulate-and-tax-it' route anyway with marijuana--even here you can start seeing legal dispensaries and licenced distributors for weed popping up. But they're mostly white-owned and white-run. And we still have 200,000 people, mostly black, who are behind bars for doing what is now legal, and who probably aren't going to be released.
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James
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Re: Should Marijuana be Legal in the United States?

Unread post by James »

I have shifted on this, too. I think I was generally a bit open to legalization, but I know in the past I have been opposed to it in various capacities here. But now I think it should just be legalized, with reasonable controls (e.g. as elaborated below) in place.

Which, in retrospect, is kind of funny. Because I certainly never cared if my friends smoked. I guess, far enough back, I imagined there would be concerns with the broader legalization effort. Ah… just now I remember my major concern: opening the floodgates for commercialization. Turns out they didn’t need legalization. They got to roll back the clock on protections with e-cigarettes.

And the war on drugs… even before, I was aware of how much a disaster that had become. And still is. It is abhorrent the extent to which people are incarcerated for simple possession charges while people who commit crimes that are actually deeply harmful easily get off with no sentence or less sentence. In the US, there’s the money and poverty thing. Which is also just a mess. People with money play a totally different ballgame. They aren’t the ones showing up in prison for possession. It is generally the poor demographic. And those subject to racism (implicitly or otherwise).

If someone is wealthy and connected enough (e.g. Trump), they can commit enough crimes in a couple-week period that could land the average modestly wealthy Joe in prison for decades, but for years on end with virtually no risk of imprisonment.

What a mess...
SunXia wrote: Sat May 13, 2023 6:15 pm People should be allowed to do with their bodies as they see please.
I doubt we are in disagreement at all on this, but the one asterisk I would place on that is “so long as it does not impact someone else’s choice as to what they get to do with their bodies.” The most obvious example would be drinking and driving. I would not support drinking and driving as a bodily autonomy concern as it places the lives of others in jeopardy. (Which makes me realize there is one possible comparison to be made, but I do not feel that concern applies in that scenario for reasons I think I was clear about.)

So marijuana… and cigarettes… if someone wants to smoke, carrying on that would be that they do not necessarily get a right to subject others to their choice. So support for businesses and public places choosing to disallow it. And little sympathy on my part for smoking around a child. But I support their right to be able to choose to smoke.
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Re: Should Marijuana be Legal in the United States?

Unread post by WeiWenDi »

James wrote: Tue May 16, 2023 5:27 pmAnd the war on drugs… even before, I was aware of how much a disaster that had become. And still is. It is abhorrent the extent to which people are incarcerated for simple possession charges while people who commit crimes that are actually deeply harmful easily get off with no sentence or less sentence. In the US, there’s the money and poverty thing. Which is also just a mess. People with money play a totally different ballgame. They aren’t the ones showing up in prison for possession. It is generally the poor demographic. And those subject to racism (implicitly or otherwise).
Yup. All of this.
James wrote: Tue May 16, 2023 5:27 pmIf someone is wealthy and connected enough (e.g. Trump), they can commit enough crimes in a couple-week period that could land the average modestly wealthy Joe in prison for decades, but for years on end with virtually no risk of imprisonment.

What a mess...
Yeah, don't get me started on DJT. Trump's sexually-predatory behaviour (not to mention his flagrant scams, like the Trump University thing) should have landed him behind bars years ago. Unfortunately, Trump seems to be a symptom of a much larger disease. As you say, James, there are a lot of wealthy and connected people who seem to be answerable to a vastly different legal system than the rest of us are.
James wrote: Tue May 16, 2023 5:27 pmI doubt we are in disagreement at all on this, but the one asterisk I would place on that is “so long as it does not impact someone else’s choice as to what they get to do with their bodies.” The most obvious example would be drinking and driving. I would not support drinking and driving as a bodily autonomy concern as it places the lives of others in jeopardy. (Which makes me realize there is one possible comparison to be made, but I do not feel that concern applies in that scenario for reasons I think I was clear about.)

So marijuana… and cigarettes… if someone wants to smoke, carrying on that would be that they do not necessarily get a right to subject others to their choice. So support for businesses and public places choosing to disallow it. And little sympathy on my part for smoking around a child. But I support their right to be able to choose to smoke.
The harm principle is a good starting place when designing just laws and regulations, though many would argue that you probably shouldn't end there. I happen to think that one of the regulations that should apply to recreational marijuana use is that driving while stoned should be a crime which is enforced every bit as harshly as DUIs are. It's fairly well-known that marijuana slows reaction time, decreases ability to focus attention and lowers executive functions necessary to make in-the-moment decisions while driving.

And yeah, marijuana smoke contains pretty much all the same laundry list of carcinogenic chemicals that tobacco smoke does (nitrosamines, PAHs, aromatic amines). So the second-hand smoke concern equally applies to tobacco and marijuana as well.
Some more blood, Chekov. The needle won't hurt, Chekov. Take off your shirt, Chekov. Roll over, Chekov. Breathe deeply, Chekov. Blood sample, Chekov! Marrow sample, Chekov! Skin sample, Chekov! If I live long enough... I'm going to run out of samples.
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