Legalize it.
I’m in favor of legalizing other drugs as well, but I think it might be wise to legalize marijuana first, and wait awhile to let society get used to that before legalizing other drugs. I’m not sure why I think that.
I wanted to vote legalize all drugs with no controls(aside from manufacturing quality control rules, ofc), but alas thats not an option.
Over 18, just like cigarettes. Smoking cigarettes is more harmful than smoking marijuana. Making marijuana illegal is more harmful than smoking marijuana. If illegal, it’s a commodity worth murdering for. Legal, it’s just a plant anybody can grow in their backyard or garage. Add up all the violent deaths that come from trafficking, all the years lost in prison to dealers and end users alike, all the money spent by law enforcement to combat it, I can’t imagine you’d see anything approaching that kind of damage to society with legalization.
I picked 18 as well. If you give the 18-21 crowd the room to smoke pot, it might keep some from the urge to drink as much. My 18-21 year old self made much worse decisions under the influence of alcohol than from pot.
Kind of a funny poll- I do think that it should be a state-by-state decision and not the Fed’s business, but I also think states should probably set the legal age at 18. All the multiple choice options are not mutually exclusive.
I’d go for the alcohol regimen. Place it at the drinking age, tax it, regulate its sales and distribution and where/when you can use it in public, allow “dry” counties or towns if they so feel. Push to develop a reliable technology to detect intoxication levels so as to control DUI.
I went with 18+, let states decide, and “don’t care”.
It keeps the prohibitionists and MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) happy.
States used to be free to set their own drinking ages, which led to problems in border areas because some states (the ones with more God-botherers, generally) set the age at 21, and some at 18, so 18-20 year olds would go across the state line to get drunk and then drive home again. This was called the “bloody borders” issue.
So, the Reagan-era Congress tried to set a national minimum of 21 (initially over Reagan’s objections, until he realized there might be votes in it). Since they couldn’t technically mandate a national minimum drinking age, they said, “well, you can set your drinking ages at 18, but we won’t give you any highway funding. Fair?” See the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1986.
Of course, it wasn’t fair, but it worked. Nearly all the 18+ states switched within the year more or less every state went to 21. Louisiana held out for a while thanks to a sort of loophole (illegal to buy at that age, but not to sell to people that age, making enforcement virtually impossible) but the Clinton government closed that loophole in 1996.
Where’s the option Legalize all, without strict controls, except man-made pharms?
Legalise it. I think all drugs should be legalised, but without strict control.
This crowd already smokes pot like there’s no tomorrow. Believe me, they don’t care one way or the other whether it’s legal or not. And they also drink like there’s no tomorrow, and they sure as hell don’t care if that’s legal or not. Honestly I think legalizing pot would have very little effect on the actual partying habits of the 18-21 demographic.
Do all of you people who support taxing it realize that by doing so, there will still be a black market in tax-free pot? This is already happening with cigarettes and it’s been going on for years. And do you tax-supporters think that people growing pot in their yard should also be taxed? I don’t see the point in taxing it. It should just be legal, no strings attached. You don’t have to pay a tax to grow a tomato vine in your yard.
I have a hard time coming to a clear decision on this. While on the one hand, it’s crazy that MJ is illegal while alcohol and cigarettes are, on the other hand legalizing it would have it be just as available to people who otherwise might not use it, and the last thing we need are as many potheads as there are smokers and alcoholics out there. This is why I voted for making it a state-to-state issue. Let them have it out in California and Alaska.
On the other hand, making it legal might make people lose interest in the drug altogether - I’m convinced that most people just use it (or at least brag about using it) BECAUSE it’s illegal.
Can’t we have an option for “legalize it, but don’t allow usage of it in public places?” … that’s kind of the way alcohol and cigarettes are handled right now.
It would prevent those 18-21-year-olds from being thrown in jail and clogging the legal system with essentially harmless potheads. I agree the illegality of marijuana currently prevents very few people from smoking it.
It’s also pretty obvious that the government’s hoards of cash put into anti-drug campaigns does approximately squat once someone smokes it and realizes they’re not on a one-way crash course into the other drugs weed is supposedly a gateway for.
Of course tax-free marijuana is the ultimate goal, but I think people that support legalization/taxation are just being *realistic *in that the government isn’t going to change such a huge policy without being able to profit from it.
I don’t understand how it’s a gateway into drugs more than alcohol, or cigarettes are, or pain meds, or Ritalin, or Xanax, ect… My friend who looks just like me doesn’t drink or smoke cigs… he just does this *‘one’ *thing.
I like the idea of legalizing marijuana, and then all the other street drugs after that idea has settled in that it isn’t the end of the world as we know it. As far as I know, Canada has de-criminalized marijuana, and people smoke it or not as to their preference without a lot of concern as to whether or not you’d go to jail for it (pretty much the same as drinking alcohol).
Imagine drug addicts going to their local drugstore to get their fix, and buying it from a pharmacist who advises them on health concerns and throws in a few free syringes. How is that a worse thing than the current system of hardcore addiction? I truly hate the idea that ignoring the reality of problems like drug addiction and teen pregnancy will make them go away.
I would like an option of legal pot for those over 21 but, only pot grown in the USA. South American countries have too many problems due to the huge amount of cash the drug lords have and cutting them off would be a good thing.
Of course it would be heavily taxed.
And no farm subsidies for pot growers either.
I have no interest in using it and don’t personally see much of an issue. So I voted don’t care one way or the other.
Oooh, I like Zebra’s idea about domestic pot only. Tell the conservatives that we’re only trying to reduce our dependence on foreign weed! 
Antinor, I appreciate your position, but the issue has more far-reaching societal implications that do in fact affect your life.
For one thing, as has already been mentioned, the War On Drugs is both expensive and futile, so even people not interested in smoking it might be interesting in not pissing away billions more dollars every year on a wasted effort (heh).
There is also the not-inconsequential fact that the U.S. jails and legal system are both clogged with inoffensive potheads caught with a joint in their pocket but otherwise totally harmless. Do I need to elaborate on how problematic that is for everyone?
Also, the fact is that inoffensive potheads caught with a joint and otherwise totally harmless are then put into prisons with much more hardcore criminals. I witnessed this 1sthand in college. An acquaintance of mine got caught with guess what in his pocket, did a short stint, and then when he got out, he knew all these people who were mixed up in much more serious criminal activity. That story did not end well.
I think that a 21+ requirement for beer drinking is incomprehensible just about everywhere else in the world (with the exception of quasi-theocratic countries that treat alcohol as verboten for adults,) and seems almost purpose-built to foster unhealthy attitudes and behaviours about alcohol use in young people.
(Legal for 18+, me.)