Should marijuana be legalized?

Question

Please tell me your opinion on the legalization of marijuana. Also, please be specific such as "I am a doctor and I believe..." or "I am a pothead and I believe" etc. The more details the better - I am using this information as a jump-off point for a blog entry.

Answer 1

I've used recreational drugs (alcohol, tobacco, weed) before, but don't much at all now. Yes, it should be legalized, and anyone out there drinking glass of wine or a beer and stating otherwise is a hypocrite. Alcohol is soooo much stronger, poison, and addictive. So, either outlaw alcohol and cigarettes or legalize pot.

Besides, do you want to pay for all those pot-heads in prison ($20k/yr)? Do you want to support a prohibition used to prop up forestry, cotton, and now supporting the pharm company that makes marinol? Do you want to support a law that also results from racism, which was partially aimed at throwing black and hispanic people in prison (especially because they could not afford a decent lawyer)?

Not to mention it puts a nearly harmless drug in the hands or gansters who can then solicite customers for more harmful drugs AND encourages gun toting smugglers to come to our country. It's also a weed that grows wild by the railroad tracks and in fields. Regulation is an expensive money losser and I not interested in that either.

Responsible people don't get high or drunk when they have responsibilities to deal with. I don't intend to tell you that ghanja is going to help you parent or anything. Its a drug and it make you high, just like drinking makes you drunk.

Answer 2

I get stoned every once in a while but I still feel that it would do society more good than bad. I mean cigarettes are legal and cigarettes DO kill. You could probably write a 10 page report describing the side effects of tobacco ALONE.
Now, it's up to us as civilized humans to show some sort of restraint regarding how we use the drug. Everyone does something or another to relieve their issues with life. Some smoke, some drink, other have sex, some have sports, etc. but restricting a person from something tends to only make the person want it more.
So, yes, marijuana should be legalized. Shoot, I need some to deal with these economic hardships and scandalous presidency.

Answer 3

I am a 29yr old female who does not smoke marijuana or do any other illegal drugs. Yes, I think it should be legalized. Any day of the week I run to the corner gas station pick up a pack of Marlboro and a 12 pack of Bud Select. Cigarettes are far more addicting than marjuana. Alcohol is also addictive and can be extremely dangerous if you operate a vehicle or machinery while intoxicated. They both have their share of health hazards. So why are they legal and marjuana is not. I am sure less people are killed by stoned drivers than drunk drivers each year. Wait until the government finds a way to make a mint off it ..... they will legalize it. Once again I don't even smoke the stuff and I think it they should legalize!

Answer 4

I have never been into any kind of drugs or smoking, but I think all victimless crimes such as using drugs, or prostitution should not be against the law. There should be rules against doing certain things while driving or flying planes though. But, as long as it doesn't directly hurt someone then noone really has the right to tell you what you can eat, drink, smoke, etc. Plus if they were legal then there would be cleaner, safer places to get it and the money would be taxed which would help the economy.

Answer 5

Absolutely. I see no reason why this should not be legalized. It helps kill the pain that is a proven medical fact. If I had a choice between taking 3 different pain meds the rest of my life or smoke marijuana to kill the pain. I would chose the marijuana.
My first husband used marijuana so much that I had to take on the burden of paying all the bill so he could buy his quarter pound of weed every single week, he would sell some to get his monies worth then he would smoke up the rest. There were times that I did smoke it with him. It not only dulled the pain from injury, it dulled the pain from losing family members. My dad's mom died, my uncle died, my moms brother was murdered, my mom's dad died because of the lose of his son, he had a massive coronary, then my mom's mom died, then my dad died. It helped ease the pain of all of those deaths except for my father.
Anyways, I know I got way off track. You can call me a former user, marijuana free for 12 years.

Answer 6

I believe it should be legalized. I used to smoke it regularly but I quit probably about eight years ago. I believe that alcohol is much more harmful that marijuana. For example, many people die from alcohol poisoning, but I have yet to hear of someone dying from THC poisoning. Also, when people are drinking, and their judgement gets impaired, they will insist they are fine and can drive and don't need any help. When a person gets high, they say, I am soooooo high right now. And then go to sleep. Well, they want to anyway. Or get something to eat. I'm trying to make a joke out of it a little bit, but I seriously think it is far less harmful than alcohol.

When I decided to quit, I quit. End of story. Had I been drinking alcohol to the same extent, I think quitting would have been a lot more difficult, and dangerous, considering that the withdrawl symptoms of alcohol can be deadly.

But we are fooling ourselves if we think that smoking pot is harmless. It can be addictive also. Only in a psychological sense. People use it to self medicate, just as many use alcohol. And until they learn to face the problems they are avoiding with the marijuana, it will be a problem for them. I was doing just that. But I got myself out of a bad situation, and then didn't need it anymore because what I was running from mentally, I finally got away from physically.

And one thing I noticed, long before I quit was how it affected my parenting. I noticed that when I got high, my daughter got in my face. I mean, I was high, and wanted to just relax and be laid back and go with the flow. But all of a sudden... and it was like she knew even though she was only a toddler... my daughter needed all my attention then and there. She sensed my sudden feeling of distance and reacted. That's what I think happened. But she needed me to be fully present. And in order to get my attention, she acted up. So then I only smoked it after she went to bed at night, because I was lucky that she would sleep through the night. And that worked most of the time. But to this day, I feel guilty about it, and also proud that I quit and that I improved our situation over all.

It has good and bad points. People are going to do what they are going to do. I think having it be illegal is ridiculous, and interfering where the government doesn't belong. And causes far more problems than it's worth.

Answer 7

I am not a professional on the subject nor am I a pot head. I have only used marijuana twice in my lifetime and I don't think it is at all a big deal. I think we are currently living in the prohibition days and it will be legalized. If marijuana is considered a controlled substance, then so is alcohol. They both supposedly (impare judgment) I think within the next 30 years, marijuana will be legalized and you will be able to purchase it by going to your local smoke shop like you would buy a pack of cigarettes.

Answer 8

I think it shouldn't be legalized, for it's a dangerous and addicting drug. Even if it is far from being the worse, it's not a reason for legalizing it. However, everyday thousands people use legal drugs, which can be much more dangerous, but they'll never have problems with the law for that. So I also think smoking marijuana shouldn't be so hardly repressed. Being addicted to a drug isn't a crime, it's a disease.

Answer 9

as a person who has to much free time to study things believe it should be legal one of the main reasons marijuana became illegal is that it made a cheaper paper then tree's and when some newspaper makers who had allot of money put into large tree covered areas they realized the trees would all be worthless if people started using marijuana for paper they began to print fake stories like pothead rips out his eyes or eats his own arm with freaked people out so they outlawed it

Answer 10

I am not a doctor nor do I smoke marijuana, but it should definitely be legalised. The only thing the black market is doing is making drug lords rich while costing tons in wasted tax dollars trying to fight . . . I don't know what we're trying to fight. All I know is any time anyone moves any substantial amount of money, it has to be reported to the government under the guise of drug laws. What a crock.