marijuana legalization

Great Debates
#1

With all the reasons to legalize marijuana, why hasn’t it been done yet?

Most of the myths surrounding marijuana have been dispelled over the past 60-70 years since legislation prohibitting it, but there are still many more out there.

Numerous medical and psychological studies have shown that the only long-term effects of marijuana are respiratory diseases such as cancer, bronchitis, emphysema, etc. Since when are these reason enough to make a substance illegal? Studies show it does NOT cause brain damage, psychosis, schizophrenea, ‘laziness’ etc. Marijuana’s side effects disappear within 3-4 days.

Marijuana does not cause violence

There are no withdrawal symptoms from marijuana, meaning no physical dependence

There is no way to overdose on marijuana

Marijuana’s supposed role as a “gateway drug” can mostly be attested to having to buy from drug dealers, resulting in greater exposure to harder drugs

A Canadian governmental panel, following an extensive study, has recently reported that marijuana should be legalized.

Many legal activities taken to to the extreme are bad for you and can be abused, i.e. television and MacDonald’s, but we deem everyone responsible for their own limitations

There are a few other beliefs of the negative effects of marijuana which can be dispelled through education. Why hasn’t it been legalized?!

#2

sorry, i guess this has probably been debated on here billions of times, and i imagine people are sick of it, i just haven’t found any on this topic through the search, and i’m wondering what public oppinion is, along w/ how to change it

#3

No, actually, we haven’t talked about it in a while, and it might make a nice change from Iraq. :smiley:

Reasons not to legalize marijuana–because it’s a “gateway drug”.

Because once you smoke that first “joint”, you are doomed. You are destined to join a street gang, to learn to play the drums, to begin playing “soul music” with a band in bars and clubs, and then your grandma’s husband will die of liver failure, and she’ll move back to Puerto Rico, leaving you all alone, and you’ll start sleeping in subways, and then you’ll learn to read music, but your music teacher will turn out to be a homosexual pedophile, and he’ll show you some dirty magazines, and then your band will get better and better, and start playing all the hottest clubs, and you’ll get to meet Al Green, and the Temptations, and have women falling all over you, and you’ll have an apartment near Rockefeller Center, and then you’ll start snorting cocaine, and then your mother the smack addict will die, and then your career will really take off, and you’ll be playing backup for Roberta Flack, and traveling all over the world, and riding in limousines, and then you’ll have become a crack addict, and then you’ll start missing performances, and then you’ll start trying to get some therapy, and you’ll try some New Age stuff, and then you’ll meet a girl who’s a Christian.

And then you’ll find Jesus.

And then you’ll wind up doing drum demonstrations and giving your testimony at high schools.

And all because you smoked that first joint.

So, kids–don’t do drugs.

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#4

The legalization of marijuana is a sensible and sane legislative suggestion. The politician who will stand up and support this sane and sensible suggestion might as well nail his pecker to a tree. Witness the conniption fits they had about whether Free Willy actually had a toke! A politician can be venal, lecherous, corrupt, war-mongering, sanctimonious, and stupid.

But not high. No, that is too many.

#5

Legality nonwithstanding, smoking weed is still astoundingly stupid.

I’ll never understand what compels someone to willfully give up logical reasoning and clarity of judgement in return for a sense of happiness that exists only within their minds, and shuts them off to the real world.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go to church. :d&r:

I kid, I kid. :wink:

#6

Astoundingly stupid, eh?

I’d probably have to disagree with that. Lifelong pothead, author, and astronomer Carl Sagan might, too.

If you think getting stoned “compels someone to willfully give up logical reasoning and clarity,” well, then, I don’t know. Maybe you’ve never smoked pot. Or maybe you smoked it once or twice, started seeing stars, and decided that it wasn’t for you.

The simple fact of the matter is that most experienced smokers don’t get that way. The first several times one smokes it, it’s a tripped-out, almost psychedelic experience. Keep on smoking, however, and all it really does is mellow you out.

To be quite honest with you, I smoke a hell of a lot of pot. I toke every single day when it’s available and I’ve been doing so for 9 years.

I go to work stoned (RELAX : I sit in an office and peck away on a keyboard all night - not exactly a safety threat), yet my boss praises my accuracy, speed, and attention to small, but potentially problematic details that he would have missed.

I do 90% of my studying stoned, yet consistenly get very high grades (rarely less than A’s) in my classes. Instructors frequently come to me with questions, and most of the other students consider me the “resident nerd,” so to speak.

I also enjoy reading a considerable amount of prose while stoned. I devoured the 2000-page War and Peace in a little over two weeks, almost entirely while stoned. Despite the so-called “short-term memory loss,” I didn’t have a lick of trouble distinguishing among the 400 Russian characters.

I was also quite stoned when I took the Cisco CCNA Exam, yet I scored a 972 out of 1000.

I’m not saying any of this to boost my ego, but rather to make a point. Marijuana isn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be! Sure there are some stoners who sit on the couch all day and night and do nothing, but there are plenty of sober people who suffer from the same affliction. It could reasonably be speculated that lazy people are more inclined to use marijuana because the relaxation it provides suits their lifestyles. This fact certainly doesn’t mean that all potheads lazy. Even the master, Cecil himself, has offered up this viewpoint.

As for the “sense of happiness that exists only within their minds, and shuts them off to the real world” comment, I have this to say:

Pot does not always make me feel happy. I’m not looking for some drug to put me in a constant state of euphoria. If I was, I’d probably be hooked on heroin, cocaine, meth, or some other nasty drug that I’ve never tried and never will.

Pot doesn’t block out all the bad feelings like alcohol or crack would, but rather lets me back up from some of the emotional entaglements and reflect on my problems in different ways. To see the forest for the trees, if you will.

It also seems to put people more in touch with their creative sides. Paul McCartney once said that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band would have never happened without pot.

As to the OP, Pulling the Strings, the default search criteria is set to only look for posts from today and yesterday. Change it to any date. Search only in the forum Great Debates, and search only in the topic, not the whole post. It’s quicker and less of a strain on the boards if you do it that way. Plug in a word like “marijuana,” “legalization,” or “decriminalization,” and you should get plenty of results.

Now, if you kind folks will excuse me, I’ve got a pipe full of some more, uh, tobacco to smoke. :slight_smile:

#7

Personally I like to think that the marijuana prohibition laws are going to become so obsolete that they just won’t bother taking them off the books because the paperwork would be more effort than it’s worth. Chalk me up as another person who has absolutely NO trouble getting weed and smokes it whenever he likes. In fact, once I’ve finished this post I might very well spark up another joint, just to make a point :). The only difference legalisation laws would make to me is that I’d be able to smoke outside on the street but when I’m high I prefer to sit in, do a bit of writing, maybe watch some sitcoms and chill out so it wouldn’t affect me much anyway.

Marijuana prohibition laws are weak, ineffectual, driven by puritanism and worthy only of scorn. Let’s all just stop worrying about them and get high :slight_smile: