If pot were legal, what sort of conditions on its legality do you think would be reasonable?
For example, would you want it to be easily for sale at the consumer level (as in, you could pop into a convenience store and pick up a dime bag along with your condoms and diet coke), or would you prefer it to be behind the counter at the pharmacy and you have to ask for it? Or would you prefer to have to get it through [del]dealers[/del] independant, private contractors?
Would you want restrictions on its use in public, or would you be OK if someone could blaze up a joint in any area where smoking (of tobacco) is allowed?
Would you favor restrictions on smoking in the presence of children? Would you want it available only to people over 21? Over 18? Over 16?
I hadn’t really thought about this, but it is interesting. I would say:
It should be sold in the same way as alcohol, with licenced sellers and only from approved premises. Its use in public would be restricted the same way as alcohol too, so I wouldn’t say it should be OK to just light one up wherever.
No restrictions on smoking in the presence of children per se, but places where its use is allowed in public would have similar rules to the current alcohol controls.
I would set the minimum age at 18 - I would also set the drinking age to 18.
I’d say the same restrictions as alcohol. I guess the restrictions on alcohol vary widely by state, so maybe that’s not a useful distinction.
It would be sold by a licensed dealer to people that are 18 or older (I also agree the drinking age should be 18.) I’m fine with both alcohol and pot being consumed in public, although inebriation should be reprimanded.
I’d like to see it legalized, full stop. Anyone can grow it, sell it, buy it or smoke it wherever smoking is allowed. Perhaps, maybe, if you twisted my arm, I’d agree to an age restriction.
I’m not at all convinced that marijuana affects motor skills and driving in a negative way - for every study that says it does, there’s another that says it doesn’t, or even has a positive effect. There’s not a clear cut enough danger to me to restrict personal freedoms for something that may or may not be harmful.
While I’m at it, I’d like a unicorn that farts rainbow colored bubbles.
Not motor skills, but the ability to concentrate on the task at hand. I’d worry if I tried it I’d forget I was driving. I was, however, slightly better at MarioKart after hitting it. sigh
Plus, I’m not sure driving counts as a “freedom”. I’d be OK with states being cautious about letting anyone drive while stoned. At least until we get pretty clear cut answers that it doesn’t have a negative effect on driving skills.
It should be treated like cucumbers or eggplants. You can buy it at a store if you want. You can grow it if you want. You can sell it to other people if you want. Fuck “sin taxes” and other restrictions. If weed is legal, it should be legal all the way.
Part of me wants to say make it like alcohol (although how do you know when you can drive home from the pot bar without getting busted? You can get a DUI in Illinois for just having herb in your bloodstream) so I can pick some up at the same places that they sell beer and what not, but then again, I don’t want to buy weed from a large company. I say legalize it, but make it a crime to move it state to state so production must be local, and make it have to be certified organic so that the right people stay involved. Legal weed should be more like granola and less like Camel Lights.
Sold like cigarettes, available at just about any convenience store/Target/Walmart/grocery store/etc. 18 to buy, only since that’s the arbitrary number our country decided makes an adult. No smoking indoors in public places (same as cigarettes), but outside, knock yourself out. Not sure how driving would/should be handled - if forced I’d rather ride with a stoned driver than a drunk driver, but given the slightest option I’d decline from riding with any impaired driver.
I don’t even partake of the herb (one bad experience with serious paranoia is more than enough, thanks), but still: <Insert obligatory rant about how marijuana is in no way addictive and the only real harm comes from inhaling smoke (which of course is never healthy), yet I can go out and drink my liver away compulsively and develop a pack-a-day habit…>
the other end of selling it like alchohol means producer regulation. That would mean that growers/producers would be able to supply consistant quality and characteristics.
Additionally, just like there are soft and hard liquors, would there be a differentiation between loose “leaf”, “bud” and more concentrated forms like hashish and resin/oil?
As a person who doesn’t drink or use any drugs or drive, I have to say I MUCH prefer being a passenger with a driver who is smoked pot - no matter how stoned - to a driver who has been drinking - no matter how little. Pot makes one more cautious while alcohol makes one more reckless.
Hmm…it has been many, many years since I last had a joint…sorta miss it.
But I digress.
I can remember going off with Gary, Gene and myself in Junior College one afternoon in the middle of the cornfields of Illinois…happily sharing a joint and peacefully driving off the road and about 100 yards smack dab into a corn field without one of us noticing we had driven off the road.
So how about we make driving and smoking weed a bad thing.
Other than that, I certainly don’t find smoking marijuana any more dangerous than drinking beer or vodka or whatever, and I don’t think I have ever heard of a bar room brawl of stoned dudes.
I’d like it to be legal too, but I tend to go the other way on commercial availability. I am not sure I want to provide Philip Morris an avenue to enrich themselves by intoxicating us and then selling us Cheetos. So my instinct would be that you can grow/process all the pot you can smoke or give away, but no buying or selling except for medicinal purposes. And no advertising. The same should go for alcohol and nicotine IMO.
And no driving while high either. It’s bullshit that you’re a better driver when you’re high. You might be capable of driving very carefully and not take crazy risks, but your reaction time is fucked and you won’t be able to avoid a child running out in the street.
I think it should be legal as well. I don’t think I’d like regulations similar to booze; I think home grown, personal dealers, etc. is the way to go. It would be interesting to see the advertising gimmicks, though…
“No stems no seeds that you don’t need…Acapulco Gold is…(inhale) badass weed!”
