That’s great if it helps for you, but chamomile also helps some people, and you don’t need a card for that. It ought to be the same with cannabis.
The reason I have such disdain for the whole medical marijuana movement is they’re so desperate to get high legally that they’re willing to transfer the monopoly of authority from the police to the medical establishment instead of claiming that right for themselves. They’re trying to play Dad against Mom to get an extra 30 minutes of curfew. They should just be pointing out that adults who don’t commit crimes against others should be free to mind their own business.
I do believe there are legitimate medical uses for THC, but they’re more in the realm of treating malignant pain, wasting syndromes associated with cancer and diseases like HIV, and battling the side-effects of some chemo and radiation therapy.
Handing it out 'will he nil he" for depression, headaches, high blood pressure, ‘seizures’, etc. is not good medicine.
My biggest concern is that if we legalize pot, the current supply chain will start pushing other, far more nefarious, drugs even harder.
I’d love to see it legalized, at least for medical use, however. My mother has scleroderma and she’s in pain most of the time. My SIL is undergoing treatment for Stage 2 brain cancer, and the last bout of radiation left her very nauseated. If pot can help them manage the pain, I’m all for it.
That’s an interesting point. Did the repeal of Prohibition put Edward G. Robinson type gangsters out of business, or cause them to sell drugs instead? Probably more went out of business than sold drugs.
There will be a test on Tuesday.
I voted “same as tobacco” because I don’t like that it’s illegal for adults ages 18–20 to purchase alcohol. If there are physiological reasons that 18-year-olds aren’t adults, change the definition of adult.
I have never used marijuana and I can’t stand the stench, which is exactly how I am about tobacco. I can see no benefit to making the stuff illegal, but I’d rather keep people from using it where I have to deal with secondhand smoke.
I really enjoyed everyone’s in put on this.
Unfortunately my opinion on the matter hasn’t changed.
Alcohol is already an issue amongst our society. Marijuana would be adding another.
I appreciate that people already do use it, however legalizing it presents the next aspect of the issue, which is moderation.
I’m afraid given the current moral compass of today’s society and what other vices they entertain, I cannot trust them to use aforementioned moderation when it comes to drugs.
Additionally, by legalizing it, we suggest it be taxed/regulated and etc. This is problematic as well as it creates more excuse for government to be involved in what is effectively a moral decision by the individual. That new participation by the government gives them more power, which is never a good thing.
To end this, I would be happy to see alcohol banned as well, but we tried that and reconsidered.
We have a good thing going in that we managed to make and keep marijuana illegal. There’s no evidence that makes the idea of legalizing it worthwhile.
Other way around. There’s no evidence or reason or justification that makes keeping it illegal worthwhile. The prohibition of it in the 1930s was motivated by sheer racism. As long as white people had their medical marijuana tinctures (used by doctors in the 19th and early 20th century), and rural black people and Mexicans smoked their joints, all was well. But once white people started puffing on joints like people of color, oh my god, panic, send in the Marines. It was an affront to segregationism, which ruled in those days.
I don’t think so. My understanding of the “gateway drug” argument is that people, once they try one drug, are more likely to experiment with others. I don’t necessarily buy that because I know plenty of people who use, or have used, pot who never went on to harder drugs.
No, my argument is more from a business standpoint. Currently, there is a black market for pot. It is a very lucrative business, of course, and where you find tons of money, you find ruthless people. I find it hard to believe that if pot were to become legal, thus drying up their profits, that they’d simply fold up their tent and go home. Perhaps they’d stay a black market dealer and still be content. But my fear is that they won’t be, and will move on to peddling something else instead, such as meth or heroin instead, since the infrastructure is already in place. And I’d much rather they peddle something innocuous than something nefarious like meth.
I actually have no problem with teenagers smoking pot. I would restrict it to over-18 legally, though, so that kids won’t be able to be high all the time until they have the experience to see why that’s not practical.
I’m hesitant to tax it, because I don’t want it to come across as being about the economic benefits; my fear is that, if a marijuana tax doesn’t raise a lot of revenue, people will say “we tried this experiment, and it didn’t work.” To my mind, the reasons to legalize it aren’t financial. I also don’t think a tax would be effective, since an infrastructure for the provision of marijuana to people who want it without attracting the attention of the authorities already exists.
That’ll vary depending on how green your thumb is. I, myself, can cause silk flowers to wilt.
Plus, homebrewing is probably easier (particularly for people living in apartments) because they can buy all the ingredients at the store. If they had to grow their own hops & malt, homebrewing would be incalculably more difficult.
This. Less time and money spent in courts, less money spent on enforcement, no money spent on pot smokers in jail. Money comes in from fines and/or the community is served by community service.
Marijuana is hard to grow? Man, it’s the number one cash crop here in Tennessee, as it is among many other states. You can barely contain the stuff here once it gets started. In fact, there’s a little-known research partnership ongoing between UT and the University of Amsterdam where they’ve had success in hybridizing marijuana with kudzu. It’s a joint program between the two schools. The research site is just across the holler from another locally famous garden patch tended by a legendary farmer known as Billy Bob Bass…
I rarely drink, never smoke. I don’t see any sizeable difference between marijuana and the other two (except maybe you argue it carries the most annoying external effects of both - lack of judgment/control and secondhand smoke/odor).
There were some studies recently that showed that pot has an effect on neurological development for those under 18, but not for those who have reached adulthood. Just another reason to limit it to 21 (or 18 perhaps).
I’d vote to treat it just like alcohol.
Saraya’s argument is interesting and makes sense from a purely “practical bottom line” sort of logic, but I’m personally more inclined to side with the “keep it allowed unless there’s a strong reason to ban it” line of thinking.
Because conservatives and liberals largely don’t agree on this issue.
Huh? The government is already deeply involved. So much so that it’s incredibly expensive and damaging. Legalizing it will get the government less involved.
