f so, how do you expect the government to control marijuana distribution. Also, would you limit it to just medical use only, or allow it for recreational uses as well. What limits should be put on it and why is it better for marijuana to be legal than illegal.
I am taking this as a survey question for a marijuana report for my sociology class. I need to know the view points of today’s society. I thank all of you who have wished to participate in answering these questions.
yes it should….alcohol should be illegal
Yes – it should be legal.
Yes.
Now for a story.
I went to a Greatful Dead concert and met a security guard that was an off duty cop. I asked him what he thought of all the marijuana being smoked. He shrugged his shoulders, then said that he’s never had any trouble at a Dead concert, but where alcohol is consumed, its trouble and at rap and rave concerts, its nuts.
He’d rather deal with 100 stoned hippies then 1 drunk any day.
I rest my case, Your Honor.
Peace
Jim
.
smoke on
It is legal in California with limits…
Of course it should be legal, and handled the same way cigarettes are handled. It would be another source of income for the government. But, here’s the real problem:
Unlike tobacco, pot can be grown by anybody. If it was “legal” there would be millions of plants grown in millions of backyards and how would the government collect taxes from those people?
Pot is less harmful then alcohol, that’s for sure. But, if it were legal, it would be too easy to get and the government wouldn’t be able to control it. They have no incentive to legalize it.
Yes, it should be legalized. It should be treated like alcohol. That way the laws and distribution systems are already in place. We’ll have a few more stoners in society, which might mellow us out a bit, but ultimately as a society we will spend tons less money on law enforcement, imprisonment and fighting growers and importers.
Personally I dont think anything you put into your own body should ever be allowed to be considered illegal, so long as you arent hurting anyone else with it.
A person is not the property of the government, their body belongs to them, and they should be legally allowed to put whatever they wish into, on, and through it…..anything else suggests that you “belong” to the state, which you most certainly do not.
Do i think people should smoke crack? Do meth? Frequent prostitutes? Be a drunk? No of course not, but they should be legally allowed to do it until they are harming someone by doing it. If a crime is purely victimless then its ridiculous to say “its just wrong because we say so”…B.S.
Paris is exactly right…..de-criminalize it. I want to live in a world where what I put into my body is my own business and no one elses, i dont want to have to show id to buy something that is my choice to do, i dont want pot treated like alcohol for one because pot isnt anywhere near as dangerous as alcohol…
Yes it should.
Alcohol is a way worse drug than marijuana.
I went to a Rolling Stones/ACDC concert a few years ago. There were 400 000 people in attendance and there was pot being smoked everywhere. The police were so friendly and didn’t give anyone a hard time over it. The only violence that occured at the concert was from people that had been drinking.
You gave all the reasons not to legalize in your first paragraph. No, not legalized, but de-criminalized. If marijuana were to be legalized it would be controlled by the government. Pot would very expensive, you’d have to be 21, show an ID, and sign into the pharmacie’s/liquor stores “Narc Book”. When you buy it, the price and potentcy, the amount of tax, would all be regulated. It would be available only at certain hours and certain days, and you’d be photographed. Everything the government controls, they F – up. Also, much of the fun associated with marijauna is derived from the fact that it IS illegal. Just imagine what the feds could do with your signature in the narc book, your photograph, and credit card information.
Yes I think it should be legal. A- for the tax revenue it can generate if regulated, and B- for the tax money it can save that’s wasted on locking up a harmless pot smoker for simple posession.
I think a good model for regulation would be Holland/Amsterdam. It’s illegal to sell it on the streets, eliminating the criminal element. Only coffee houses and licensed/regulated businesses can sell it. It’s also illegal to grow without a license, and in your home you can only grow a certain amount, enough for personal consumption. It’s not illegal to posess, or to smoke in the privacy of your home. Jouristictionally, cities and counties can vote whether they want a licensed “retailer” to be allowed in their city (while it’s legal in Holland, not every town is fond of it), therefore more liberal cities that want to sell and regulate it can, and cities that don’t want it can have it their way too. Kind of like casinos, strip clubs, and alcohol/dry towns in the U.S. The big advantage would be that mere posession, which is what 90% of marijuana charges/arrests are for, wouldn’t be an issue. As well, in Holland, you can only have a certain amount in your posession, if you have over that amount you can get busted for intent to distrubute, as it should be.
So with proper regulation, legalization of marijuna can be a positive thing. I think the problem in America is the “stigma” some people have that it’s like crack or heroin or something.
Lastly, in Amsterdam durgs like crack, coke, heroin, etc, are considered “hard” drugs and are highly illegal, where marijuana, and believe it or not, even mushrooms, are categorized as “soft” drugs and legal. Both marijuana and mushrooms are regulated and neither can have any chemical or man made additives or it makes them a “hard” drug, so it is all natural.
Holland interestingly has one of the lowest crime rates in Europe. Smoked in front of a cop right before going into a museum with no problems at all.
Also think there should be an age limit.
Should say, it’s not legal in Holland, still on the books as a law, but decriminalized, meaning they don’t regulate that law and there are still rules that must be followed. Or if you start a fight and get arrested and have pot on you, they can still press charges for it, but a small posession charge alone will get tossed from court, so the cops don’t bother.
Don’t support legalization of marijuana, but decriminalization. They are two different things.
It sure would save the government a lot of money, reduced court cost, reduced enforcement cost, reduced cost of government programs for rehab, and increased revenue from legal sale. Also, it would be legal for farmers to grow a different species of the plant (hemp) that has a large market base.
The government would control marijuana in the same manner they control tobacco and alcohol.
Hi Mohsy,
(I can tell that you’re smart… and cute)
*********************************************************
Honestly No.
The arguments that marijuana should be legal because alcohol is legal, are naive in that they ignore the terrible consequences of legal alcohol. Alcohol has caused so much suffering and pain. (Ask a true alcoholic or their family)
To legalize a second mind altering drug is going to destroy more lives and add misery.
However, in my opinion there should be a different approach to marijuana.
Because it is a drug, I think that it would be a better tactic for the drug enforcement programs to focus on allowing marijuana users to voluntarily enter special prison hospital programs where they can have marijuana. in prescribed amounts, for as long as they want to remain there. There would be no charge to them for their marijuana prescriptions or for the cost of their incarceration as they have entered voluntarily.
In effect they would be incarcerating themselves as the price of their addiction.
Then, in order to leave the hospital the would have to stop using for a certain amount of time, (maybe for one month) in order to completely detox and insure that they are not going to want any more marijuana outside of the prison hospital program.
Good luck on your report. Think outside of the lines…
**********************************************************************
plz pick mine 4 bst answr
thin-Q
u r sweet if u do.
No. If marijuana was legalized what would all the Mexican drug dealers do. You have to realize each one of these drug dealers supports a dozen illegals living right here in the USA. The number one import from Mexico is marijuana. Marijuana is imported by Mexicans who know a white man with money. If marijuana was regulated it would be as messed up as the oil or pharmaceutical market. At this point Marijuana is privatized and legalized. A quarter million Mexicans cross the border in Laredo each day. This is just one border town. Get real how hard do you think It is to get weed in to this country? The government has no intentions on regulating a drug like marijuana. It is only recreational and highly profitable and untaxable. Wake up.
YES. Taking away someones rights and freedoms because they posses part of a plant that has been shown to have medical benefits and does not cause any physical harm to the user shouldn’t be legal. I don’t smoke pot myself so i do not have any personal agenda. Seriously though, making plants illegal is just pointless!
1. Cannabis and hemp are the same. Marijuana was the Mexican name given to Cannabis
2. Cannabis was first cultivated in China around 4000 B.C.
3. The original drafts of the Declaration of Independece were written on hemp paper.
4. One acre of hemp will produce as much paper as four acres of trees.
5. Hemp is a source of fiber for cloth and cordage for rope.
6. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp. Washington declared “Make the most of the hemp seed. Sow it everywhere.
7. Hemp seed is nature’s perfect food. The oil from hemp seeds has the highest percentage of essential fatty acids and the lowest percentage of saturated fats.
8. Sterilized hemp seed is commonly sold as bird seed.
9. Rolling papers, like Bambu, are made form hemp paper.
10. In 1937, the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act prohibited the use, sale and cultivation of hemp/marijuana in the United States.
11. Five years later, during World War II, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the film, “Hemp for Victory”, which encouraged American Farmers to grow hemp for the war effort.
12. Hemp is cultivated all over the world. Today China, Korea, Italy, Hungary, Russia and France are among the countries that grow hemp for fiber, paper and other products.
13. Cannabis is classified as a schedule 1 drug by the Food and Drug Administration. Designated as a narcotic, it cannot be prescribed by physicians to patients on a federal level.
14. In 1988, the DEA’s own administrative law judge concluded that “marijuana is one of the safest, therapeutically active substances known to man.”
15. Cannabis can be used as a medicine to treat nausea, pain and muscle spasms. It alleviates symptoms of glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, migraines an other debilitating ailments.
16. Thirty-five states have passed legislation permitting medical use of marijuana.
17. More than 400,000 Americans are arrested each year on marijuana charges.
18. More than 400,000 Americans die from diseases related to cigarette smoking each year. More than 150,000 Americans die of Alcohol abuse each year. BUT IN 10,000 YEARS OF USAGE, NO ON HAS EVER DIED FROM MARIJUANA.
Yes, marijuana should be approved by the FDA for medical applications for a multitude of debilitating diseases and conditions. There is no other drug known to man which has so many different benefits, works as effectively, and has as few side effects as marijuana.
People argue that there is no way to tax marijuana because anyone can grow it. The same was argued about alcohol in the 1930’s. Alcohol is so simple to produce that anyone willing to learn how can produce more than enough to consume in a month’s time with the space, tools, and products found in nearly every home in America, yet alcohol is effectively controlled, taxed, and sold by thousands of licensed vendors every day in every single state in the nation.
If marijuana were legalized and distributed by pharmaceutical companies, and moved to a schedule two drug, it would be no harder to control than any other pharmaceutical drug on the market today. It would not be legal for the average citizen to manufacture it, just as it is not legal to manufacture morphine in your home, but like morphine, could still be distributed by licensed professionals to people with prescriptions from legitimate doctors for real conditions and diseases that can benefit from the use of the drug.
Contrary to what a previous poster stated, hemp and marijuana are not the same thing.
While both hemp and marijuana are cannabis plants, the hemp strain contains almost no THC, the active chemical in the cannabis plants in question, while our marijuana plants contain much higher levels of said chemical. Technically the same plant, yes, but one vast difference sets them apart. This brings us to the topic of legalizing the cultivation of hemp in the United States.
America is the only highly industrialized nation in the world that does not grow hemp.
Why should we be able to grow hemp? The reasons abound…
1) Hemp can be used to fabricate paper which is far superior to paper produced from wood pulp, with far fewer chemicals which are harmful to the environment…and more of it per acre (400% more to be exact).
2) Hemp seeds can be used for food to make everything from bread to ice cream and cooling oil
3) Hemp is also a renewable source of fuels for cars, trucks, and any other mode of fuel driven transportation used anywhere in the world today.
4) The fuels produced by hemp are cleaner burning than gas and diesel…How much cleaner? well I don’t know an exact percent figure, but a good example is an experiment done in 1995 where the experimenters used ethanol fuel made from hemp seeds to drive an engine 3,500 miles. when they opened the carburetor they couldn’t even get the finger of a white glove dirty by sticking it in the barrel and rubbing it around.
I have just spent a lot of time telling you why marijuana should be legalized for medical applications and why hemp should be grown in America. Now, let us take a look at why it hasn’t happened yet.
In 1933 when prohibition ended in the U.S. many law enforcement officials were out of work, and needed new jobs. You guessed it! It wasn’t long after that when marijuana was added to the schedule one narcotics list, placing it in a category with the most dangerous and harmful drugs such as heroin, morphine, and opium. Before that it was taxed by a law that was put in place in 1937 that said you could only legally possess marijuana if you purchased a stamp. The problem was that the only agency able to issue these tax stamps was the U.S. Treasury, and they weren’t giving any out, making marijuana essentially illegal before a law was ever passed in the federal government to make it a controlled substance. Why would the government go to such lengths to take such a benign, useful, substance out of the hands of America? Well, when we look at the industrial atmosphere of the times it becomes a lot more clear than the skies which were blackened by the tons of burning oil and oil byproducts.
Plastics were being produced from oil products, cars were running off of oil products, and politicians were lining their pockets off of both industries. With marijuana in the picture hemp was sure to be legal, and for Dupont and the oil companies to exist, something had to be done to rid the nation of a product that could be used to produce superior products at lower costs and with less impact on the environment…it’s just that simple. The outlaw of hemp and marijuana has nothing to do with how safe or useful it is. The “war” on marijuana is not about protecting the masses. The prohibition of possession, consumption, and use of cannabis products is a tactic of corporate espionage, as well as a sociological defense against free thinkers…but the fact that marijuana promotes social values and attitudes that are unwelcome in a capitalist, market based society is another story entirely.
feel free to ask me questions – killgeorgie@gmail.com
I see people throwing around so much information that isn’t true in these comments. I encourage you people to lay down your bong and go read something about what you like to do…you might be surprised at what you learn…
I’ll take the liberty of correcting some of the false statements that I see for the benefit of anyone else who may read this and think they learned something which is actually just ignorance abounding.
1 — It sure would save the government a lot of money, reduced court cost, reduced enforcement cost, reduced cost of government programs for rehab, and increased revenue from legal sale.####### This is false. Local and state law enforcement agencies as a whole make a lot more money from confiscating drugs, drug funds, and drug transport vehicles every year than they spend.
2 –… voluntarily enter special prison hospital programs where they can have marijuana. in prescribed amounts, for as long as they want to remain there. There would be no charge to them for their marijuana prescriptions or for the cost of their incarceration as they have entered voluntarily.########You, sir / madam, are an idiot…
3 — If it was “legal” there would be millions of plants grown in millions of backyards…
######## i could start today and make enough alcohol on Monday to get me wasted for 3 days…i still have a bottle of crown in my cabinet. alcohol is easy produce but few do it. the same would be true for marijuana
sorry. ran out of time. maybe more later.
well first of all FUCK YEAAAit is rediculous to aloww beligerante drunks waller around in their alcohol ,and not let stoners enjoy a good smoke .alcohol is apearently twice to 3X as strong. REPUBLICAN DUMBASSESS. everyone smokes weed, but some just dont admiit to doing it because its not legall. its grown from the earth and harvested and smoked no chemicals or help from man.unlike ciggerets and shit so … lets get it legall
fuckn niggers