Well like most people i have used it in the past as well as booze.Those days are over.But when i was under the influence of pot, i was mild mannered, relaxed, and could get along with anyone.With booze, well, sometimes i'd be nice, sometimes mean, sometimes goofy and sometimes all of the above! Most others would tell you the same thing
I have never understood how one can be legal and the other illegal, espeicaly when alcohol is the legal one out of the two and it cause's a person to do far more crazier things than what pot does.In the words of Jesse Ventura, "Give a man a joint and a Jimi Hendrix tape and he will go to a corner and leave you alone,.How many drunks leave people alone?"
2006-06-28 15:07:35
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answer #1
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answered by itsallover 5
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We are not winning the War On Drugs. In fact, we as a nation, don't seem to have even won very many minor skirmishes let alone major battles in that War. We have, however, declared as a group not to allow sales, possession, or use of a group of substances, including marijuana, we call Controlled Substances.
Even a Medical Doctor cannot prescribe or dispense anything on the Controlled Substances list. No exceptions are allowed.
However, some people want to have and use such stuff anyway. They constitute a market for anyone ballsy enough to supply the demand, and just such people have been found. To call them criminals and dismiss them out-of-hand is too short sighted to be believed. These people are profit motivated businessmen, and accept the costs of doing business with calm and dignity. If it takes guns, knives, poisons, etc, they simply pay the going price for those services and pass the cost on to their customers. Don't just say a blind NO, Understand the issue, dammit.
The only way we can stop drug suppliers is to remove the profit motivation. They are not afraid of anything else we could possibly do. Our nation once tried to outlaw all liquor, passing an amendment to our Constitution to ban it. The result was outlaws supplying the demand. To end the lawlessness we had to pass another amendment repealing the other one. Have we learned Nothing? Human nature can't be legislated. You can be as Hyper-Christian as you want, it makes no difference to this issue.
Legallize marijuana? It's the only thing effective we CAN DO. It will at least be a step in the right direction.
We really should be moving to legallize all drugs currently on the Controlled Substances list! And while we're about it, how about legislation to remove the prescription right of the American Medical Association? Tie that to a requirement for every citizen to be responsible for their own choices. Let anyone order from their pharmacist anything they chose, and get it at a known purity and dosage, and pay the TAX on it. Let market forces do the rest. Thereafter there will be no drug problem.
To borrow a quote from another arena, "guns don't kill people. People kill people."
2006-06-28 15:27:50
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answer #2
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answered by Nomad 1
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Are you kidding? Definitely YES! It is not physically addictive. It is a natural herb put on Earth by God. If anything alcohol should be illegal before marijuana. I am 40 years old and smoked for about 20 of those years. I have had to cease marijuana use due to my job so my relaxation has turned to drinking a few beers after work. How many negative effects (health issues, accidents) occur from alcohol abuse compared to marijuana use. In my experience, the majority of pot smokers are in his/her home not planning on going anywhere when smoking. Just a relaxation after work. Whereas the after work drink is typically in a bar where the user must drive home afterwords. I wrecked my car twice while drinking and don't have good control over my actions. I NEVER had physical illness, accidents when smoking. It would be great if I could just go back to smoking a joint after work and not have to worry about that random drug test, but instead I drink beer to unwind. It causes ill effects on my health, makes me gain weight, become lazy. Legalization would be a step in the right direction.
2006-06-28 15:21:56
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answer #3
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answered by Julie 1
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To answer the question, first we need to look at the long term effects on marijuana; so what are these long term effects?
A: Findings so far show that regular use of marijuana may play a role in some kinds of cancer and in problems with the respiratory and immune systems.
• Cancer— it’s hard to know for sure whether regular marijuana use causes cancer. But it is known that marijuana contains some of the same, and sometimes even more, of the cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco smoke. Studies show that someone who smokes five joints per day may be taking in as many cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a full pack of cigarettes every day.
• Lungs and airways—People who smoke marijuana often develop the same kinds of breathing problems that cigarette smokers have: coughing and wheezing. They tend to have more chest colds than nonusers. They are also at greater risk of getting lung infections like pneumonia.
• Immune system—Animal studies have found that THC can damage the cells and tissues in the body that help protect against disease. When your immune cells are weakened, you are more likely to get sick.
•Marijuana has serious harmful effects on the skills required to drive safely: alertness, concentration, coordination, and reaction time. Marijuana use can make it difficult to judge distances and react to signals and sounds on the road.
•Marijuana may play a role in car accidents. In one study conducted in Memphis, TN, researchers found that, of 150 reckless drivers who were tested for drugs at the arrest scene, 33 percent tested positive for marijuana, and 12 percent tested positive for both marijuana and cocaine. Data have also shown that while smoking marijuana, people show the same lack of coordination on standard “drunk driver” tests as do people who have had too much to drink.
Now my answer.... are any of the above worth legalizing this "recrecational" drug. In a resounding response....not on your life. NO.....this is the only answer that makes any sense. Yes, it is a "natural" herb, but so is cocaine, it come from the poppy plant.....the difference is the refining of the "natural" heb.
2006-06-28 15:48:29
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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Richard Nixon tried to convince the Congress that legalizing marijuana would be a good way to cure the national debt. If they produced, sold and taxed it, like alcohol and cigarettes, with controls on age for purchase, they could make a killing. The USA would be the wealthiest country in the world, and we would no longer have a national debt.
It is not addictive, but alcohol and cigarettes are. It is not as debilitating as alcohol when consumed. It does not make you violent like alcohol does. In fact, it makes you calmer. It does not do the damage to the brain that alcohol does. It does not damage the liver like alcohol, and yet alcohol IS legal.
The smoke is not any worse for you than cigarette smoke. In fact, if they would leave the chemicals out of it, and just sell it naturally, it would not be nearly as bad for you as cigarettes! It even has some medicinal uses, such as for patients undergoing chemotherapy or with glaucoma.
The problem is that they cannot control the seeds like they do with tobacco. Did you know that it is illegal for just anyone to grow tobacco? You have to be a tobacco farmer to get the seeds. And if you get them, and you are not a tobacco farmer, then you are breaking the law. Not just any law, FEDERAL law!
Seeds or not, I still think that Nixon had the right idea. They make criminals out of people who just like a nice mild high every now and then. They don't want to get drunk and get into a barroom brawl and wreck their cars. They just want a nice, mild high. But NOOOOO!! If you get caught you are breaking the law and you go to jail. If you get tested at your job you get fired. If you test to get a job you won't get hired.
I do not smoke weed. I have a problem with breaking the law. I don't want to go to jail. I have children that I want to be a good example for. But if they legalized it tomorrow, I would be standing in line to buy it!! The ONLY reason that I don't do it is because it is illegal. NOT because I think it is bad for you or because I think there is anything wrong with it. I think that Congress needs to get over their "Reefer Madness" and stop making criminals out of hippies who would not want to hurt anyone, and solve the national debt!!
2006-06-28 15:07:25
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answer #5
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answered by Oblivia 5
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Yes it should. It should be my FREEDOM to chose if I want to smoke it or not. I'm a 34 year old ADULT and I think I know if I can handle it or not. Plus, think of all the money that could be used for education, add police and free up some space in the prisions. We need to come out of the closet America and say "WE'RE HERE AND WE'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!"
2006-06-28 14:40:13
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answer #6
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answered by Stacy R 6
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marijuana is the most commonly uses illegal substance in the United States. it is used by many people, most of which aren't your stereotypical "druggie", with no life agead of them. Many of them hapen to be very successful, good people. Think about it almost if not every person who reads this paper will know (even if they don't realize it) at least one if not several regular users of marijuana. Its often made out to be much more harmful htan it really is, unfortunatly not every one realizes this.
What many people don't realize is marijuana is much less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. Yet it's the one of the three that gets a bad rap and is illegal. Marijuana isn't even physicaly addicting. You certanly don't see meetings for marijuana like you do with alcohol and AA. Unfortunatly due to American culture the less harmful of the three is illegal.
The most common reason why marijuana can be harmful is that people can often come across laced marijuana without realizing it. Marijuana can easily be mixed with other more harmful drugs with out the buyer realizing it, until they have already used it. This is a dangerous thing that causes many people to do more harmful, hard core drugs without realizing it. If it were to be legalized the government could provide guide lines, like it does with alchol to insure that people knew what they were putting into their bodies.
Marijuana actually has many helpful benefits toward diseases / sicknesses. Marijuana can reduce nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite caused by AIDS. It can Reduce interlobular pressure, which alleviates the pain and slowing and sometimes even stopping the progress of glaucoma. Common side effects of chemotherapy are nausea, loss of appetite, and vomiting, all of which marijuana would help. It can limit muscle pain and relieve tremor nad unsteadiness of gait for multiple sclerosis patients. Marijuana can help prevent epileptic seizures in some patients. It can also alleviate chronic, often debilitating pain caused by myriad disorders and injuries. Each one of these applications have been deemed legitimate by at least one United States court, legislature, and/or government agency.
Due to these reasons and many others many people are going to jail/prison on a daily basis due to simply smoking a little pot These aren't dangerous criminals that would kill or rape someone. Many of them are teachers, lawyers and respected members of their communities. But yet we still pay thousands of dollars of tax payers money to lock up non dangerous "criminals" yearly even though most aren't going to stop after they get out of jail. Don't you think the money spent here is a waste? Couldn't it be going to more useful things such as hospitals, disease research, or better schools? These are the things that would benifit the people of this country. Certanily you would rather benefit the people more than throwing a non violent pot head in jail who was only trying to smoke a joint and relax after a long days work in jail. There is up to forty million regular (note thats just the regular not occasional users) drug users in the United states. If we were to throw all of them in jail it would cost $500,000 per million people, plus the cost and space of building many more prisons. Couldm't that money be spent on building hospitals? There's already about 1.5 million people tax payers are paying to keep in jail over drugs. From 1990 to 2003, nearly 5.9 million people had been arrested for smoking marijuana. Thats a greater number than the entire population of Alaska, Delaware, The District of Columbia, Montania, North and South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming combined. This country simply can't afford to put 40 million more in jail.
Marijuana should be legalized. It has many uses such as helping sick patients. People are going to smoke it no matter what the government sais, and with out govenment guidelines this can be dangerous. Not to mention the fact that we have no way we can afford to throw all those people in jail. Its much less harmful than alcohol and tobacco, which are legal, so doesn't it make sense that it would be also?
2006-06-30 11:42:04
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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Their are only 3 good arguments for legalizing it. Get the consumer away from the illegal element. 2 Tax the revenue. Take the money away from the illegal element.
2006-06-28 14:42:46
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answer #8
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answered by viablerenewables 7
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Yes. But will it even when it is proven to be medicine, still No. The illegal drug market is more powerful than we are told. The balance of power is what we have now, status quo.
2006-06-28 14:38:17
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answer #9
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answered by matthewdeanandrews 1
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Well i am a bit of a libertarian...
People can abuse anything whether its legal or not so I say legalize it and tax it.
2006-06-28 14:40:01
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answer #10
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answered by Sara 6
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