Agree with you there. And I don’t doubt that most people use it for recreational rather than medical purposes. Lot’s of people have a beer or two to relax. People do the same with MJ.
It’s been interesting going through the hoops to get a card for my Mom. Just wanted to stress that it does help.
I’d prefer it to be legalized and regulated for a few reasons, not the least of which is that right now you have no way of knowing what’s in your weed besides weed. People get…funny about that shit.
And I voted for 21+ because I’ve seen an increasing number of reports that it definitely can be harmful to developing youth, as well as contra-indicated in cases of folks with severe bi-polar problems, so I’d prefer someone were fully grown, as it were, before they take on a recreation that could cause some serious and possibly permanent harm while they are still developing. Well, that was an awkward sentence, but yeah.
Legalize it for people over 21.
More than enough studies out there that prove it’s less harmful than booze. I have enough friends that don’t like drinking but like smoking the odd spiff now and then. They lead productive lives, pay taxes.
I don’t buy the well kids will have more access to it theory. Infact they wouldn’t; the dealers they get the weed off now don’t check for ID. I once lived in a neighbourhood where small groups of teenagers would be hanging out at the corner store, these kids where always smoking pot behind the the store. But they’re hanging out at the store because they’re asking adults going in to buy them some beer.
This would only work mind you if the government doesn’t get stupid about it, and charge outrageous amounts. If there’s a selection of weed available and a very cheap price. Weed connoisseurs would be buying this weed and saying gooodbye and thank you to their regular dealers.
If some adults want to come home on a Friday night and have a spliff instead of a couple of beers, I don’t think it should be a crime. I’ve always found the biggest proponents of keeping weed ilegal are people that have never smoked it.
I want it to be like alcohol BUT, I do not want it imported from any country where it is illegal, and for there to be huge penalties for having that.
I voted for regulated like alcohol, but marijuana is so easy to grow that that is actually a little difficult. If people are growing it in their backyards, it would be impossible to keep it away from children. If you criminalise growing it, then you still have to enforce that, and establishing provenance will be a hassle.
Homebrewing decent beer is easier, and there’s no reason to fear for the children. People are also already growing at home.
If it was treated like alcohol, you’d have an exemption for a small number of plants one could grow at home for personal use. Similarly, one can’t brew thousands of gallons (well you can) but you cannot sell it. They will crack down on that.
100% legal. Drug laws are evil.
Around here, you need to be an adult to buy home-brewing supplies, and people usually store it inside. I dont see how you could stop kids getting hold of seeds, or raiding their neighbours garden.
My first thought was to say treat it like alcohol for its mind-altering properties, but maybe it makes more sense to just deregulate it completely. If its legal to grow, then prices will drop, so you would get as much tax as you think, so what will would you gain from regulation. You could still have laws against DUI, if that is an issue with marijuana, and maybe hash-cafes could ban you from bringing your own the way restaurants do with alcohol.
But teen-age binge drinking is a real problem here, and places that sell alcohol have become much stricter about not selling to minors, which seems to have some positive effects. If marijuana is harmful to developing teenage brains, then fully legalising it sucks for them.
I guess Im not really sure what I think; its more complicated than it seemed to me at first glance.
I’m fine with 21+, because I work with juvenile delinquents and I can really tell the difference between those who smoke and those who don’t. Can’t vote in the poll because I use Tapatalk, and for some reason it doesn’t support polls.
If pot became legal I’d probably never drink again.
Too late to edit, but actually you dont need to be an adult to buy home brewing supplies, thats interesting.
I swiped a wine making kit my parents were given when I was 15. My buddy had a rec room downstairs for his room. We made five gallons of apple wine and hid them in his commodious closet. I tasted it, found it ok, and waited six months to drink it. The son of a bitch had drunk it all!
In retrospect, I suspect his parents found it and he was embarrassed to admit it.
There have been some good studies that have shown that marijuana seems to trigger earlier onset psychosis (and perhaps trigger psychosis when the person otherwise wouldn’t have developed it) in people who are vulnerable to developing psychotic illnesses. I know a child psychiatrist who will tell parents of teenagers who have schizophrenia in family “Warn them not to smoke marijuana” for this specific reason. Unfortunately, because the propaganda wars are usually focused on the extremes of “It will kill you” vs. “It’s the safest thing ever”, most people don’t seem to be aware of these kinds of “somewhere in between” risks.
That’s exactly the kind of thing I’d like to see seriously nailed down before anybody goes to the table to debate illegal vs. prescription only vs. grow your own.
I am always heartened that the marijuana legalization debate is, ISTM, the one “hot-button” issue that Libs and Conserves most agree upon. If people who hold such different political views agree on this, why is it still illegal? (I actually pretty much know why but it’s ridiculous).
Is there any other issue deemed by so many to be so controversial yet is so universally agreed upon across the body politic? It’s just so weird! It makes me :mad: and also 
Legalize. I’ve never had a hangover from smoking weed, or found myself getting into a brawl. If inmates were given a jay a day there’d probably be fewer riots. In fact, everything’s a riot (funny.) And drivers who are stoned instead of drunk are hypervigilant; since time seems to slow down anyway, 35 mph seems like breakneck speed on a city street or backroad. You don’t run a stop sign. You tell yourself, for what feels like five years as you’re coming up on it,…stop sign coming up. Stop sign coming up!..and you come to a complete stop (as opposed to a rolling one.) [Insert joke here.]
There are risks with everything but Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and domestic violence don’t seem to happen with the use of weed. In fact, what’s more likely is that a big bowl of popcorn gets made and all sit on the couch to watch Shrek once again. Even if there are no kids. IME
And that’s exactly why marijuana should be available to anyone–not just folks with a prescription. Doctors wouldn’t have to worry about who may have legitimate needs for pot and who just wants to toke up if pot were available to any and all adults.
It should be regulated and sold like liquor, to adults over 18. (Legal drinking age around these parts.)
Wa State has a ballot measure to license and regulate marijuana. Official info, if anyone is interested:
https://wei.sos.wa.gov/agency/osos/en/press_and_research/PreviousElections/2012/General-Election/Pages/Online-Voters-Guide.aspx
Wow, the poll results are even more pro-legalization than I’d predicted they’d be. I know that this board has lots of libertarians and cultural liberals, and that, being generally well informed, Dopers (ahem) are aware of how pot use risks compare to, say, alcohol…And, I know that this poll is likely skewed toward those who notice “Marijuana” in the title, which is to say away from many folks who are pro-status-quo…
But still, I gotta say…
You guys/gals sure are a bunch of stoners! So many of your posts are coherent and informative…how do you pull THAT off? 
Here in Michigan I have it on authority that getting your “card” is as easy as paying a couple hundred bucks and saying you have chronic pain. And it is being taxed…you have to renew your card every year= money for the state. I do beilive the majority of people getting it do NOT need it for pain management, but I do think it should be legal.