Bill To Legalise Pot To Be Introduced In House Tomorrow

[femurphy77]

I've never partaken, although opportunity surrounded me regularly in my younger days. I've been too many parties where it was available and made the choice not to. I am not opposed to its use and conditionally support its legalization.

That said let me play devils advocate here. Let's say that ganja has now been legal for 5 years and the cocaine users are now clamoring to legalize their drug of choice. . . .what now? And based on the people I know that partake of the aromatic herb being discussed I do not see a correlation between smoking weed and "graduating" to harder drugs.

Thoughts?

 

[steveh_131]

I think some people are misunderstanding what I meant. Anti-gunners and drug warriors tend to use the same types of arguments, such as false statistics, hysterical appeals to emotion, and threats of dire consequences, all of which are completely baseless and stupid, and none of them recognize how stupid they are no matter how you try to approach the subject and no matter how reasoned and well-thought-out and supported your arguments may be.

This is such a good point. Hopefully some of the anti-drug people on this site will read this and consider the double standard.

 

[Bunnykid68]

I've never partaken, although opportunity surrounded me regularly in my younger days. I've been too many parties where it was available and made the choice not to. I am not opposed to its use and conditionally support its legalization.

That said let me play devils advocate here. Let's say that ganja has now been legal for 5 years and the cocaine users are now clamoring to legalize their drug of choice. . . .what now? And based on the people I know that partake of the aromatic herb being discussed I do not see a correlation between smoking weed and "graduating" to harder drugs.

Thoughts?

They like their smoke and most do not feel the need to try other drugs.
I like my beer(a lot) and have never had the desire to drink hard liquor.
I think it is about the same in principle

 

[BigMatt]

I think marijuana should be legalized, but I don't like the thought of legalizing all of the meths, cokes, heroins of the world. But there is still a part of me that says, "Regulating what people put in their own bodies is wrong."

 

[Westside]

I think the whole drug classification system is a bad idea. If someone wants to ingest, inject, absorb, or whatever, I don't care. Just realize that you are just as responsible for your actions under the influence of said substance as your responsible for your action when you are "sober".

So if your drunk, high, or whatever, if you hurt someone your going to jail. and hopefully getting a ride in old sparky. I like Hammurabi he had a descent idea.

 

[ATOMonkey]

People are ALWAYS going to get high. ****, we have people snorting bath salts since cocain is illegal. People smoking incense since pot is illegal. People huffing paint and other crap.

It goes on and on.

When booze was illegal, people still drank. They drank really crappy booze that killed a lot of people, just like people OD'ing on bath salts since they can't get high quality coke.

It's all idiotic and a giant waste of time.

AND

I can guarantee there won't be hordes of zombies roaming around stoned, high, or otherwise. Why? Because you still need to be sober to function as an adult for most things.

 

[Stschil]

I've never partaken, although opportunity surrounded me regularly in my younger days. I've been too many parties where it was available and made the choice not to. I am not opposed to its use and conditionally support its legalization.

That said let me play devils advocate here. Let's say that ganja has now been legal for 5 years and the cocaine users are now clamoring to legalize their drug of choice. . . .what now? And based on the people I know that partake of the aromatic herb being discussed I do not see a correlation between smoking weed and "graduating" to harder drugs.

Thoughts?

The fact that MJ is Schedule I and Herion and Coke are Schedule II drugs is idiotic. All the opiates are extremely addicting as is cocaine and it's derivatives. Marijuana is not and has never been proven to be.

I personally only believe that it is a gateway in that due to it's being illegal, the user is in contact with people who would much rather see them hooked on something that is both more expensive and keeps them coming back on a frequent basis. And the fact that it's not something that big pharma could easliy corner the market on and profit from. Follow the money.

I've been to Amsterdam, you can grab a brew and head down the counter and blaze up a gov approved doobie too. It's not a big deal and there doesnt seem to be a huge amount of the population that is non-productive because of it.
Curiously enough, my visit there was as a guest/observer of the local Drug task force while following up a joint investigation with the German Police that I was a part of during one of my tours. The local Police answered my questions about it with candor and honesty. They didn't see a big deal with it either. They told me that issues involving Marijuana were about on par with alcohol and dealt with in about the same way.

As far as the coke and meth heads screaming for legalization, I'm inclined to think that it wont be an issue. It's not a large percentage of the population. And, for the most part, it's accepted that these are potentially bad substances for valid reasons, not governed by emotion,.

I think the push for legalization of Marijuana really stems from the fact that the only real reason it's been kept illegal is the emotion factor. Scare tatics used by the uninformed and uneducated. Science has yet to nail down any actual dangerous qualities. In fact, just the opposite has occured.

My two cents here.

 

[E5RANGER375]

legalize pot, legalize pot. or decriminalize it. its sooooo stupid we lock people up for pot. fast food businesses everywhere will be allowed to overcome the recession if we pass this! please, think of the clowns!

 

[orange]

I personally only believe that it is a gateway in that due to it's being illegal, the user is in contact with people who would much rather see them hooked on something that is both more expensive and keeps them coming back on a frequent basis.

This is a good point. Another thing - someone trying marijuana for the first time might have an eye-opening moment of wondering what else the government has been lying about all this time..

oh gawd the gateway theory is real! run for the hills!

 

[ghunter]

People are ALWAYS going to get high. ****, we have people snorting bath salts since cocain is illegal. People smoking incense since pot is illegal. People huffing paint and other crap.

It goes on and on.

When booze was illegal, people still drank. They drank really crappy booze that killed a lot of people, just like people OD'ing on bath salts since they can't get high quality coke.

It's all idiotic and a giant waste of time.

AND

I can guarantee there won't be hordes of zombies roaming around stoned, high, or otherwise. Why? Because you still need to be sober to function as an adult for most things.

Very true. My favorite example is Iran, a place not known for its warm and fuzzy criminal justice system. That country has junkies left and right. If a bunch of ruthless Mullahs can't stop people from getting high, what chance does a dysfunctional, declining Western society like ours have?

 

[NYFelon]

This is a good point. Another thing - someone trying marijuana for the first time might have an eye-opening moment of wondering what else the government has been lying about all this time..

oh gawd the gateway theory is real! run for the hills!

I made this exact point in another thread.

 

[DragonGunner]

I'm against legalizing it....please feel free to hate me, I'll take it as a compliment.

 

[misconfig]

I'm against legalizing it....please feel free to hate me, I'll take it as a compliment.

No reason to hate someone over sheer ignorance; you simply need to be educated on the true definition of freedom and liberty.

 

[jbombelli]

I'm against legalizing it....please feel free to hate me, I'll take it as a compliment.

Care to post some reasons why that aren't based on false statistics, hysterical appeals to emotion, or baseless threats of the world coming to an end?

 

[Phil502]

I think the gateway thing is real, in that you usually smoke pot first, then try other stuff later on like coke etc. I wonder if more people smoking pot will lead to more abuse of other stuff. I don't think smoking pot is a horrible thing, but there is going to be some consequences to legalizing it, still too many people doing hard time for a recreational hobby, probably no worse for you than alcohol, when alcohol is used in moderation.

 

[jsharmon7]

This was doomed from the beginning. As I said in another thread, the fact that Prop 19 in California died tells me that the general public isn't quite ready for marijuana legalization. I have to say that my experience has been that pot smokers don't cause trouble. And I've seen heavy pot smokers quit cold turkey with absolutely no problems. If they legalize/decriminalize pot I don't see it having a negative effect on society. Heroin, meth, crack, etc. though, I've yet to see a regular user of those drugs act as a productive member of society. I'm sure there's somebody out there, but I haven't met them.

 

[NYFelon]

This was doomed from the beginning. As I said in another thread, the fact that Prop 19 in California died tells me that the general public isn't quite ready for marijuana legalization. I have to say that my experience has been that pot smokers don't cause trouble. And I've seen heavy pot smokers quit cold turkey with absolutely no problems. If they legalize/decriminalize pot I don't see it having a negative effect on society. Heroin, meth, crack, etc. though, I've yet to see a regular user of those drugs act as a productive member of society. I'm sure there's somebody out there, but I haven't met them.

Other than traffic stops, or other mundane issues such as a neighbor dispute, how often do productive members of society run afoul of you in your professional capacity? I just mean, in most cases, normal productive members of society just work, family, eat, sleep, repeat, you know? They don't have time to create cause for you to meet them.

 

[ATOMonkey]

It doesn't really matter if someone ruins their life over drugs or not.

The purpose of government is not to save people from themselves, it's to ensure liberty.

 

[ViperJock]

It doesn't really matter if someone ruins their life over drugs or not.

The purpose of government is not to save people from themselves, it's to ensure liberty.

Smoking a little pot is different than "ruining their life over drugs." The problem with people that take it that far is that they begin to be a threat to the rights of others. If they threaten the rights of others, then it really DOES matter to the government whos job it is to protect the rights of all the citizens, not just the drug users.

 

[jsharmon7]

Other than traffic stops, or other mundane issues such as a neighbor dispute, how often do productive members of society run afoul of you in your professional capacity? I just mean, in most cases, normal productive members of society just work, family, eat, sleep, repeat, you know? They don't have time to create cause for you to meet them.

I was speaking in a more general sense, not just in law enforcement. In my life, I have known drug users (aside from those who only smoke pot) and none of them have been productive members of society. They were habitual thieves, couldn't hold a job, would lie to you if you asked them what time it was, couldn't take care of themselves or their kids, etc. I don't know if the chicken came first or the egg so to speak, I just haven't ever met a productive member of society who used those types of drugs I mentioned.