Should marijuana be legalized?

Question

Should marijuana be decriminalized and or legalized entirely? Our last two presidents (U.S.) admitted to using it in their youth. Supreme court justices, Lawyers, doctors, grandmothers, etc.
Should we be handing out jail sentences, or big bowls of M&M's?
What do you think....?

Answer 1

First, you should understand why it was outlawed in the first place. There were two major reasons. The first was racial prejudice against Mexicans. The second was the fear that heroin addiction would lead to the use of marijuana - exactly the opposite of the modern "gateway" myth.

When the American Medical Association testified before Congress, the AMA said there was no evidence that marijuana was a dangerous drug -- it was used in about 250 common medicines -- and therefore no reason for the law.

You can read a history of the subject at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/whiteb1.htm It is quite funny.

The US Government knew that the marijuana laws were unenforceable from the time they were first passed. Therefore, they started a campaign of Reefer Madness. For example, the US Official Expert on marijuana testified in court, under oath, that marijuana would make your incisors grow six inches long and drip with blood. He also said that when he tried it, it turned him into a bat.

Every major study of the drug laws in the last 100 years has said that the marijuana laws were the product of racism, ignorance, and nonsense. They all said the marijuana laws do more harm than good and should have been repealed long ago. You can read them at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer under Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy.

If anyone thinks that marijuana should be illegal, you can be absolutely sure that they have never read the most basic research on the subject.

Answer 2

Absolutely, marijuana should be legalized for all uses, recreational, medical, and industrial. Hemp is a wonder plant with many practical uses, and it is barely grown due to the fact that marijuana is illegal. There's been an amazing amount of anti-marijuana propaganda over the years, most of which isn't true. Our government also spends billions of dollars every year arresting, prosecuting, and imprisoning non-violent "criminals" whose only offense was willfully imbibing a substance into their own bodies (a right guaranteed to us by the constitution). Imagine what we could use all the money we waste on the drug war on. The only way to "win" the drug war is to legalize but control narcotics, if people are able to buy them in stores they're not going to go through a dealer. The government could regulate and tax the sales of marijuana, and use the money for something positive like education or roads, maybe. As a longtime marijuana smoker (though I'd say legalize it even if I wasn't), I can tell you that pot is completely harmless and benign, just another way to relax. Anyone that believes it is a dangerous drug (And I really even hate calling it a drug, it is a plant after all) is very misinformed.

Answer 3

So presidents have used it. That doesn't justify it or make it intelligent. People do stupid stuff all the time.(boy have I ever!)
If you look into the effects this weed has on the body, and especially the brain, you'll see it can't be a good thing. The long term effects we all know about whenever we see someone that we say is "burned-out". Jail won't solve it. People will find a way to do it if they want to bad enough. Education may stop some but in the long run, I think it will be legalized because there's a whole lot of money in taxes the government could get.

Answer 4

I think it should be legalized. It has no long-lasting negative side effects and lots of health benefits, especially to people suffering from cancer, AIDS and glaucoma. It is less harmful than a lot of drugs doctors put into us on a regular basis. Consider the example of two of my cousins:

My cousins, a brother and a sister, both had severe emotional problems during their teenage years as the result of abuse. Since the girl was older, her problems became apparent first. She was diagnosed with several different disorders over the course of five years, given many different drugs that I can't even pronounce, much less spell. She spent her teenage years as a doped-up zombie. To this day, she cannot work, is still on psychiatric drugs and is emotionally crippled. She can be pretty smart, but her mind can't focus at all. It's turning more and more into mush with each passing year. Her younger brother, seeing what was happening to his sister, calmed himself by smoking a joint of marijuana once a week (he got it from his friends). If he didn't react to things like his sister, he reasoned, the shrinks would leave him alone. They did. He was considered "normal" due to his mellow attitude. He's now a college graduate and has a high-paying job. He doesn't smoke marijuana anymore because he doesn't feel the need--it's no where near as addictive as the drugs these "professionals" forced down his sister's throat. Imagine how the sister could have been if instead of giving her all those medications, they had just handed her a reefer once a week. She might have been able to actually succeed in life. We'll never know.

Answer 5

I think it should. In general, it will clean up society a bit. It will eliminate the need for illegal selling and growing of it. It will push up the safety of the marijuana available. It's not uncommon for someone drunk to be totally violent, yet if someone is stoned on pot, about all they're going to do is find a couch to relax on and giggle to themselves. I really wonder why it was made illegal when alcohol is so readily available. It makes no sense to me. Not only that, but the hemp plant itself is an extremely useful plant for textiles, soap, oil, paper, etc. It's a totally versatile plant which is a lot less destructive to the environment than other plants. It can also be grown with negligible quantitities of THC (the active drug in marijuana).

Answer 6

Absolutely it shuld be, in fact ALL narcotics shoule be. That would better allow the regulation of who has access, and how much they can get at a times. Just like alcohol. YOu ahve to be a certain age to purchase, possess or use it. Also, it could be peoperly orepared so thiere would not be any harmful chemicals, poinsons or the like. Also it could be made at a lesser strength to decrease the side effects.

Answer 7

Yes

Answer 8

OK they want to ban smoking cigarettes but you want to legalize marijuana? What's wrong with this picture!

Answer 9

Why not? Bring out the bongs. Heh, I don't even smoke it, but I say, enough people do it, why the hell should they be stuck in jail with rapists, murderers and the like? Because they puffed a joint? Psh.

Answer 10

I think that it should be legal, just have the same restrictions that beer drinking has.

In case some of you are wondering, no I don't use pot. I also don't use alcohol or tobacco , but I don't want them banned either.