What are your views on Legalizing Marijuana?

Question

and please explain why you have come to that conclusion.

Answer 1

iT HAS BEEN USED FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, IT IS NOT PHYSICALLY ADDICTIVE, NO HARMFUL EFFECTS HAVE BEEN FOUND AND MANY THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED. sORRY ABOUT THE CAPS, THE KEY IS LOCKED, i'M NOT SHOUTING ON PURPOSE!

Answer 2

Decriminalize it, don't legalize it. See, the problem with the legalization question is where do you draw the line? If you legalize weed, are cocaine and heroin that far behind? Christ knows if the gov't made a fortune in taxing the weed, they'd make waaaaaaaay more if they legalized the hard stuff, which I understand is considerably more expensive. Not only that, but full-on gov't regulation of marijuana would not neccessarily be a good thing. Example: up here in Canada the gov't tried growing medicinal marijuana for a time; it failed miserably mainly because the quality sucked; in other words, medicinal users were still getting it off of their regular dealers 'cos their stuff was better. Besides which, in regards to the taxation, doesn't the government tax us enough as it is?

And I wouldn't say legalize it just so every seventeen year old pothead who doesn't know s--t about s--t (likely 'cos they're too stoned to grow up and face reality) can smoke it with a clear conscience; not having to worry about getting busted and having to face Mummy and Daddy afterwards. Bottom line: people who like getting high on whatever will get high whether its legal or not. Indeed, marijuana has its medicinal benefits; this has been proven. As far as I'm concerned, genuine medicinal users should be the only ones to use it legally, since they are actually recieving some sort of positive effects from it.

Having said that, the penalties should be stiff fines ONLY, no jail time. We could use that space in the already overcrowded prisons for REAL criminals, like killers, paedophiles and rapists. Arguably, use of marijuana is a victimless crime...unless you consider the user to be the victim, which I doubt they do.

...But who am I to judge? If I had my druthers, I'd ban alcohol and gambling as well as the f--king drugs because booze and gambling are just as harmful, if not more so, as far as I'm concerned.

Answer 3

To be honest, I'm not sure about legalizing it completely, but I definitely agree with decriminalizing it, such as Colorado has, where if you have under a certain amount then you basically receive a ticket and pay a fine.

But I do think it should be legalized completely for medicinal purposes. I won't go into details, but I have a debilitating health condition and while I was living in CO I received medical marijuana for a time. My doctor was able to wean me off my pain meds, which I had been addicted to for some time. It made my life more livable and that was precious to me. Now I live in another state where I cannot receive it and life has become more of a struggle again. Not looking for sympathy, I just wanted to explain it as truthfully as possible. It was interesting though - when I got off the high profile pain meds I had to go through physical withdrawal. When I had to stop using medical marijuana I never experienced any sort of withdrawal.

Answer 4

There is absolutely NO logical reason Marijuana is illegal. Perhaps legalizing is to harsh a term for politically correct United States. It should be decriminalized!!!!!!! Perhaps to satisfy "some" big brother groups need to control others will and choices it could be regulated and taxed as alcohol and cigarettes

I am sick of government attempts to legislate morality. Before it was criminalized 100,000's of citizens enjoyed it as a simple course of life. It grew wild in many areas. The only thing that making it illegal did was to help develop the illegal drug markets and law enforcements overwhelming responsibilities. It is/was a victimless crime. Now has billions of $$$$$ in the law enforcement, prosecution and detention of otherwise law abiding citizens. The criminalization of marijuana has done NOTHING to improve society.

Marijuana is a herb which throughout ages has been used in ritual, recreation and medicine. There are many therapeutic and health benefits in treating ailments and illnesses.
Recreational use has less side effects than those of alcohol. The argument that it is a gateway drug is no more valid than alcohol or cigarettes or anything else. By that argument couldn't the stresses of life be a cause for drug use? People are accountable for their own choices and yes even people who smoke marijuana make choices everyday. If people have addictive personalities then they have a natural tendancy to become addicts of "something" anything as long as it fulfills the physical desire. There is no logical, reasonable, physical or economic reason for marijuana to be illegal so I think it should be legal.

Answer 5

I say legalize it.

The reason is because I think the criminalizatino of Marijuana was initially installed because of social norms. Alcohol has proven much more dangerous, and has taken way more lives than marijuana has. By criminalizing a soft drug like marijuana, you're basically turning law enforcements attention towards something not harmful, when it could be turned towards something worth looking at.

Alcohol is a normal drug in our society, so we tolerate it. When folks turn 18 (21 in the States), they drink.. it's expected and even encouraged sometimes. But you're never going to hear a parents encourage a kid to smoke pot. This is because of social norms. Even though pot is way less dangerous than alcohol (ie: you can't OD on marijuana), it's been labelled "bad" for so long people actually believe it.

I say our society should move beyond that. If drugs were criminalized due to their danger.. nicotine and alcohol would have been illegal a long time ago.

Answer 6

It's FAR less harmful than tobacco or alcohol. I read a study today, I don't remember the link, just google it, but it was even talking about how even though some studies have shown that THC is more cancerous that nicotine when smoked, that at the same time it inhibits cancer cell growth.

On top of that, I have glaucoma as a result of having cataracts and subsequent surgery to remove them (I was born with it) at 3 monts old. The Travitan eye drops I have to take as soon as I take my lenses out, ONE bottle costs roughly $120. A MONTH. As far as someone who doesn't believe that marijuana helps glaucoma far more cheaply (An ounce would last me at LEAST a month, and costs $60 for mid-grade), I went in to the optomitrist stoned once, my eye pressure was down from a dangerous 30 (I don't know what that measurement means, it's just a number to me, I just know that over 25 is harmfull), to 6!!!

I'm aware there are States that have medical marijuana, but the amount of bureaucracy and money that has been spent just to get that passed is absolutely rediculous. WHY? Because the urban myth prevales that it's BAAAD. WHY? OH JUST BECAUSE IT IS.

Give me a break. Land of the free, my As..

As far as affecting your judgment... No sh... What do you think alcohol does. To a caffeine or nicotine addict, without their vice, their judgment also becomes affected! Abuse of anything is bad. I've never seen someone get baked and beat someone up, or get baked and race head-on into oncoming traffic.

Answer 7

Legalize it. Prisons could free up much needed space for the like of rapists and child molesters. It is funny but sad that someone could potentially do more time in jail for having a bag of grass than a child molester. If you don't believe me look at all the sick f*cks that were finally put away only after kidnapping, raping, and killing some poor child, even though they were classified as a sexual predator. The government could tax marijuana just like cigarettes. Drug dealers would have to declare income and pay taxes just like the rest of us working people.

Answer 8

Legalize, as well as other illicit drugs, at least those that come from a plant. Not so sure on those strictly produced in a lab.

In any case, this 'war on drugs' is utter nonsense. It's ineffective, a waste of tax dollars, has had a negative impact on personal liberty/privacy, and has resulted in the deaths (not to mention harassment) of countless innocent civilians.

I have come to this conclusion based on common sense and logic reasoning.

Answer 9

Legalize it and tax it. It would cut down on crime, create legal jobs, stop people form cutting it with things like formaldehyde.
Think about all the money that could be made from selling it, and all the money that could be saved by getting people out of jail for small amounts of marijuana, it would clear our court system and open up more money to focus on cleaning the streets of real drugs like Crystal and Heroin.

Answer 10

I personally do not use it nor have I ever been tempted. I have seen what effect it has had on people I know. To believe you can inhale all the crap in a burning plant that has such a profound effect on you does you no harm is ridiculous. Smoke inhalation is damaging. The residual chemicals are damaging. I often wonder about people who won't eat a cheese burger because of fear of toxins yet they smoke pot.

As far as the effect on society as a whole, my main concern is people driving or operating machinery under the influence. It is much harder to detect than alcohol. Unless or until someone comes up with a detection method that is at least as effective as what we have for alcohol, it should not be legalized.

I also fear the inevitable increase of minors accessing and using it and the gateway drug effect it definitely has on some people

Only dopes use dope!

.

Answer 11

My state has legalized marijuana; it is federal law that prevents the legal possession of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Marijuana is a drug that is hard to overdose; the participant would fall asleep first.

Also, it does take the edge off of painful injuries and afflictions.