Should marijuana be legalized? Why or why not?

Question

I think that marijuana should be legalized. What do you think?

Answer 1

Marijuana smoking should be legalised everywhere.
It is a simple natural herb, which provides pleasure and relaxation, and has many beneficial medicinal properties. It relieves stress, reduces pain, and certain studies show that it can disipate asthma, and be beneficial to alzheimer's patients.
The reason it was made illegal in the first place was because the oil from the seeds can be used to fuel an engine, and so the oil lobby, along with the media who were making profits from cutting down trees, found a way to make it illegal. The law was passed as a part of the tax law, which introduced the name marijuana, so that nobody would realise that they were restricting the use of hemp.

Answer 2

Don't call it marijuana; call it "cannabis" - Marijuana is a corruption of the Spanish "marihuana", which was used to make people afraid of the Mexican's cannabis flower cigarettes, without referring to it by its more widely known name! Nobody would have wanted to ban cannabis, but "marihuana", the killer weed from Mexico with its roots in hell, was a great target.
Don't say "legalized". Say "relegalized".

I have yet to hear one good reason why it should not be legal again. Most are based on entirely flawed scientific data which the scientific community does NOT accept today, or on pitiful arguments for the preservation of the status quo.

Reef should definitely be legal before alcohol and tobacco, no question!

And it's hard to argue against ganja relegalization when we see how prohibition failed for narcotics like ethanol and even hard narcotics: don't see how keeping hard drugs illegal helps the drug situation at all -- I'm sure drug crime would drop immediately, even if you compared only what would *still* be considered "drug crime" when hard drugs were legal!
Imagine if no one ever had to buy a vial of heroin without big red warning labels all over it, without getting their age checked, nor having to worry about being shot over gang territory loyalties!

Answer 3

As much as don't believe in legalizing any drug, yes I believe it should be legalized. Main reason is that almost anyone charged with possession of marijuana will receive nothing but a fine, if that. Our prison system and court dockets are all too crowded to waste its time on sentencing marijuana offenses. My suggestion would be to turn it over to the tobacco companies who could 'water' down its effects and then tax the crap out of it. This would, in effect, obliterate the street seller and would eliminate a huge trade coming out of Mexico and South and Central America. In effect, it could cut down on alot of money wasted by the Federal Gov't or could allow manpower and money to be diverted to fight the drug traffic on serious and dangerous drugs like Heroin, Meth, PCP, etc

Answer 4

Yes it should be legalized. We have wasted BILLIONS on this supposed war on drugs to what end? Prisons full of non violent "criminals" that would benefit more from counseling than incarceration, kids killed in senseless gang violence involving selling drugs, etc, etc, etc. Marijuana is no worse than alcohol and in some ways more beneficial.

Answer 5

Yes, because by legalizing it you eliminate the need for the black market. Also because it would free up the court system and prisons for more serious cases. And the government could earn revenue from the sales tax like cigarettes and liquor and erase the deficit in our government.

Answer 6

I've thought about this for years and as a daily user I do NOT want legalization.

In order to legalize, there would have to be laws passed and you know what that means. There would be deals and regulations and restrictions and licensing. My pals think it would be oh so great but they don't realize that to legalize we would have to give ALL the control to the fed.
The laws wouldn't pass without a return so look for taxes. Big taxes. I expect prices would probably quadruple. Look at the percent of tax on tobacco and alcohol and you will see what I mean. Also in order to pass there would have to be government control. This means the government would license growers, wholesalers and retailers just as they do alcohol. You aren't going to be able to grow your own any more than you can make your own alcohol (except in small, personal use quantities). The penalties for illegal growing and distribution then have to be INCREASED. This protects the tobacco growers (who because of declining business would take over the industry. They already have everything in place, all they need is seeds and a trade name. (oh wait a minute they have ALREADY taken out the trade names Panama Red etc and are owned by tobacco companies! How convenient!) Now the regulation part comes in and the amount of thc per gram of product will have to be regulated. (if you disagree you don't know my government!). Expect the quality to drop significantly. There would be limits (and taxes) on whoever SELLS and how they sell and to whom. Of course a legal age limit to buy so you younger users will have to find somebody to buy for you and they will likely be commiting a felony. Look for liquor stores to fill this void and to be the only retailers.

So now what have you got? High priced low powered legal pot and EXTREMELY high priced pot on the black market that will sent you to prison for growing, possessing, selling or smoking.

I'll just stick with the status quo thanks, which seems to be a defacto decriminalization that pretty much leaves most of us alone and leaves the control of the indusrty in the hands of the people who are growers, smugglers, wholsalers retailers and end users. I trust any one of them to do business with more than the fed. Thanks for reading my opinion :)

Answer 7

I think a better question would be "why is it illegal?"

It's nobody's business what you want to put in your body for recreational purposes. It harms no one.

Another good question would be "Is making it illegal stopping it?"

I don't think anyone could make the case that it even slows it down, even prisoners can get it. We don't stop the ones we catch.

Answer 8

What's the point? People already smoke it. The Goverment is not doing thing about it.

Answer 9

yes as you can see you only had one person who said no and im sure she is either in drug testing .or sucks some dumb asss cops dickkk and wants that loser to have a job to support his bbastardd children

Answer 10

no marijuana can affects your coordination up to three days after you smoke and the last thing we need it a bunch of pot heads on the road