# Any reason why marijuana is still illegal? Any GOOD reason? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 13, 2003, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704 "2003-12-13T01:29:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![2Thick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/a88e57/32.png) [@2Thick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2Thick)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/21 "2003-12-13T07:52:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > \*\*I was gonna post a great response > but then I got high. > I was gonna argue lots and lots > but then I got high. > What I was gonna say has been forgot > and I know why. > Because I got high > Because I got high > Because I got high. \*\* 😃 😛 😃 ---
**Author:** ![IWLN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5ac83/32.png) [@IWLN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IWLN)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/22 "2003-12-13T07:57:00Z")
#1 reason not to leagalize marijuana. It makes _you_ a lousy lover.☚ ---
**Author:** ![ekow2kn3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecc23a/32.png) [@ekow2kn3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekow2kn3)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/23 "2003-12-13T08:08:03Z")
it would mess up the economy, ppl might stop buying as much tobacco and alcohol, and no major company could have a monopoly, there has to be some way to conrtol production and with all the dealers already and the fact you can grow it yourself it might lead to disastrous effects, also, soon people will start asking for stuff like cocaine to clean their sinuses i just think it would start a chain reaction of weird things that aren’t supposed to happen… excuse my lack of clear thought, im high right now…j/k 😉 ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/24 "2003-12-13T08:10:09Z")
Personally, while I’ve got nothing against marijuana myself (though, unlike Bill Clinton, I never inhaled _nor_ smoked the stuff), I’d prefer to take the opposite tack and see tobacco and alcohol made illegal. Okay, okay, keep the booze, but can anyone tell me why tobacco _isn’t_ illegal? ---
**Author:** ![2Thick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/a88e57/32.png) [@2Thick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2Thick)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/25 "2003-12-13T08:15:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > \*\* > > Okay, okay, keep the booze, but can anyone tell me why tobacco _isn’t_ illegal? \*\* Because the only reason the US exists is because of tobacco. ---
**Author:** ![Soup\_du\_jour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Soup\_du\_jour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup_du_jour)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/26 "2003-12-13T08:27:38Z")
> [@](#): > > From 2Thick > This is a half-truth. > > It raises the demand and use temporaroly, but it will ease back to original levels or even lower within a few years. > > These are facts from Holland and other countries (or parts of countries) that have either legalized it or decriminalized it. I seem to recall Amsterdam’s rates of potsmoking going upwards since legalization. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/27 "2003-12-13T08:43:35Z")
**2Thick** , I support legalization (because I think keeping it illegal is a tremendous waste), but I’d be surprised if what you said is true. It’d be hard to measure anyway, and I think the Dutch are kind of resentful that Amsterdam has become a haven for stoners and druggies. > [@](#): > > Okay, okay, keep the booze, but can anyone tell me why tobacco _isn’t_ illegal? Are you serious, **rjung**? Think about the problems the US has with the drug war. If you ban tobacco, you multiply them a ten times over (I think that’s a conservative estimate). You’ve just made more than 40 million people criminals. Tobacco is the most addictive drug out there, so a lot of them won’t quit. And since it’s a crime committed by so many people, you’ll have to prosecute a lot of them. That will overtax our law enforcement even further, overcrowd our prisons even further, and make our courts even more clogged. Those three problems are already tremendous, and that would make them orders of magnitude worse. We already devote more law enforcement to drugs that anything else - which, consider the problems America is having (cough cough terrorists), is a very bad idea - and we certainly can’t afford to make that more severe. And that’s not even getting into the tobacco industry lobby, which is obviously powerful. ---
**Author:** ![\_possum\_stalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b77776/32.png) [@\_possum\_stalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_possum_stalker)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/28 "2003-12-13T08:44:06Z")
This has got to be the closest thing to a consensus I’ve ever seen in GD. ---
**Author:** ![Stoneburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Stoneburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoneburg)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/29 "2003-12-13T11:20:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by 2Thick \* > \*\*This is a half-truth. > > It raises the demand and use temporaroly, but it will ease back to original levels or even lower within a few years. > > These are facts from Holland and other countries (or parts of countries) that have either legalized it or decriminalized it. \*\* I _think_ you didn’t realise I was talking about Sweden. Here, marijuana is very marginalized compared to (my impression of) the US. It is my impression that it is fairly common to use it in the US, and that most people have tried it, that it is on par with booze for youngsters etc. Here that is not the case, and the social stigmata as well as law enforcement makes marijuana less attractive. Removing anti-incitaments will obviously have stronger effects the stronger the anti-incitaments are. I know for a FACT that usage would go up because I would start smoking it, I know some others who would probably start, and a few people that would do it a lot more often. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bandanaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ab097/32.png) [@Bandanaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bandanaman)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/30 "2003-12-13T12:00:13Z")
Um…what was the question again? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/31 "2003-12-13T12:24:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by IWLN \* > \*\*#1 reason not to leagalize marijuana. It makes _you_ a lousy lover.☹ \*\* How so? Maybe you’ve been doing it wrong. Does it go something like this: \*“Hey, whatcha doing down there?” “Oh wow, I mean like wow, it’s like a beautiful flower man, I mean, wow!” “I meant whatcha doing down there looking at the pattern on the carpet when you should but up here pleasing me!”\* Because, that wouldn’t be good at all. ---
**Author:** ![ekow2kn3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecc23a/32.png) [@ekow2kn3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekow2kn3)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/32 "2003-12-13T13:26:02Z")
tobacco equals jobs and industry, we would put millions out of jobs and be a third world country ---
**Author:** ![ekow2kn3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecc23a/32.png) [@ekow2kn3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekow2kn3)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/33 "2003-12-13T13:27:47Z")
plus, its kinda like prohibition, we’ll have speak easies for tobacco ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/34 "2003-12-13T15:30:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by 2Thick \* > \*\*You do realise that people who are introduced to the criminal justice system through possession of small amounts of marijuana are stripped of any reasonable opportunities? > > This is far more damaging than the myth of pot making you lazy. \*\* There really aren’t that many. My husband works in a huge prison. Once, I asked him how many people were in there for possession of “personal use” amounts of pot, and he laughed at me. In our state, it’s a misdemeanor. You get a ticket, and a fine. The only people he has in that prison incarcerated for drug possession are people who were imprisoned for having vast amounts-- dealers, in other words. Sure, miscarriages of justice happen. We’ve all heard the stories of a kid going down the river because an over-zealous judge sentanced him harshly for having a joint in his pocket, but it’s certainly not the _norm._ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/35 "2003-12-13T17:30:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Stoneburg \* > \*\* > I know for a FACT that usage would go up because I would start smoking it, I know some others who would probably start, and a few people that would do it a lot more often. 😉 \*\* It would probably go up here in America, too. The increase would be largely due to ex-pot smokers like me coming back into the fold. There would most likely be a corresponding decrease in the use of alcohol as people who use it as a (piss poor) substitute for mj quit drinking and turned back to our drug of choice. I’ve just been thinking, I’d like to take a look at the stock portfolios of the most ardent anti-legalization politicians. I’d be willing to bet that there is a lot of heavy invesment in alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical companies. **Lord Ashtar** , I think the Marlboro Green story is most likely a myth. Cannabis being grown for its psychoactive properties is fairly labor intensive relative to tobacco. A big corporation with its eyes on the bottom line (not to mention stock values) isn’t going to want to invest in hiring the people they would need to go out into the fields and tend the plants, uproot the males before they can pollinate the females, carefully harvest the plants, clip the excess leaf from the buds, etc. They want to grow things that can be grown on huge plantations and harvested by machines that don’t want health care benefits for themselves and their baby machines. MJ is best grown in small patches, or even in indoor grows, by people who have the time and inclination to look after the plants. It’s probably one of the few crops that would be more profitable for the small family farmer than it would for a big agricultural corporation. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/36 "2003-12-13T17:45:52Z")
Tobacco use is fairly ingrained into the culture. There are a lot of people addicted to the stuff, and suddenly illegalizing it would create considerable social upheaval, as well as a golden opportunity for black marketeers. I’ve often wondered how we’ve managed to illegalize tobacco to the extent we have today. I quit smoking ten years ago. Around that time, they were clamping down on smoking in stores, and malls were starting to establish “smoking zones” – meaning you couldn’t smoke anywhere BUT these zones. I thought it was outrageous at the time. Now, you pretty much can’t smoke anywhere except outdoors. And even some sections of the great outdoors are verboten, too. I never thought they’d successfully turn prisons into smoke free zones, but they have. Admittedly, prisons are supposed to be drug free, sex free, and crime free zones, too, but this seems to be a bit of a joke. I do think that children beneath a certain age should not have access to marijuana; a person should at least have reached an age where he SHOULD have developed some smarts and judgment before being legally allowed to spend all his time stoned… ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/37 "2003-12-13T17:55:31Z")
> [@](#): > > Because the only reason the US exists is because of tobacco. Alcohol too. We started out being the nation that drank the most, and alcohol was a HUGE industry for a long long time. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/38 "2003-12-13T18:42:41Z")
Warning: anecdotal evidence following. My impression from The Netherlands is that legalizing marijuana doesn’t lead to long-term usage. When the subject comes up, I only hear people saying that they did smoke marijuana incidentally or regularly when they were young (15-25 range), but stopped after some time. Smoking pot is not a cool thing, and most adults completely stop. Of course, it seems lots of kids use ecstasy these days. So it may be a shift in fashion. BTW I’ve never smoked marijuana, since I don’t smoke and found the pot-crowd unattractive. I’m not exceptional. ---
**Author:** ![IWLN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5ac83/32.png) [@IWLN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IWLN)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/39 "2003-12-13T20:16:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Great Unwashed \* > \*\*How so? > > Maybe you’ve been doing it wrong. Does it go something like this: > > \*“Hey, whatcha doing down there?” > > “Oh wow, I mean like wow, it’s like a beautiful flower man, I mean, wow!” > > “I meant whatcha doing down there looking at the pattern on the carpet when you should but up here pleasing me!”\* > > Because, that wouldn’t be good at all. \*\* Yah. Kinda like that. :rolleyes: Seriously it does reduce testosterone levels(or so “they” say) and I wish there were a way to limit use until adulthood, but then who would the adults buy it from? I would vote to legalize it and would be an occasional user. It would be preferable to the “day after” too many Long Island ice teas. It appears my state’s budget could benefit from this too. Apparently we make the good stuff here. I didn’t know that. 🆒 > [@](#): > > “Washington-grown marijuana is reputedly the Cadillac of pot, fetching up to $3,000 a pound in California and up to $6,000 a pound in New York, where it is prized for its high level of the chemical tetrahydrocannibinbol, or THC, which produces the marijuana high, Perniciaro said. (Lt. Ron Pernicairo of the Snohomish County Drug Task Force.)” (County tops list of best pot farms, The Herald, January 27, 2002) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704/40 "2003-12-13T20:54:47Z")
**IWLN** , the “reduces testosterone levels” thing is more myth than fact. What happens (with regular users, anyway) is that initially the testosterone levels drop, but as the body gets used to having cannabinoids around, levels go back up to normal. There is no connection between mj use and infertility, BTW. It’s all there at the NORML site. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reason-why-marijuana-is-still-illegal-any-good-reason/218704.md?page=3)