My feelings on Marijuana Legalizations
 

Why is Marijuana illegal?

Everyone knows why of course. The government says it is bad. And the government always knows what is best for me, just like a loving, replacement parent provided for me after I turned 18. Oh what ever would I do without politicians? How ever would I make tough decisions like whether or not I should smoke pot? I might actually have to gather facts and make my own decision about my personal health. How horrible!
Ok, listen up you, I just go along with anything and don?t think for myself, pansy. The government has no right to tell you what you can or cannot do in private. I certainly hope that is not in dispute. So, why is it that you think pot should be an exception to that? Why is it ok to send people to jail for harming no one but themselves? It isn?t and its total bullshit.
You might argue that the government has a duty to protect its citizens from themselves. Even if that?s true, the government set its own standard by making cigarettes and alcohol legal. Together, they kill 500,000 people a years. Prescription drugs? 100,000. Even NSAIDs, over the county pain medicines such as aspirin and ibuprofen can cause gastrointestinal problems resulting in 7,600 deaths per year (source 2). So what about the evil marijuana smoked by 8% of our populations (source 1)? If you count all the deaths that were it was even mentioned in 2001 you get 138 (source 3). So what sense does that make? Who decided to indulge this ridiculous hypocrisy and make pot illegal in the face of logic? Let me give a quick rundown.
Sometime in the 1920?s a guy named William Randolph Hearst, who was notorious for yellow journalism, owned a shit load of newspapers and really hated Mexicans. He also had a large steak in paper manufacturing companies (Source 4). Technology was suddenly allowing paper to be manufactured from hemp pretty efficiently (source 6) so it threatened his industry (declaration of independence was signed on hemp paper, btw). Partly because of his racism, partly to sell newspapers, and probably because the industrial threat, he started printing fantastic unfounded stories about the evils of a new drug (he is credited with pulling the term Marijuana from the Mexican language so people wouldn?t associate it with the already established and accepted terms, hemp and cannabis). Then enter, Harry Anslinger. He was appointed by Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon to run the new ?federal bureau of narcotics?. Mellon had a huge stake in Dupont chemicals which was also threatened by hemp. Long story short Anslinger made up a bunch of crap and testified before congress (source 4). Despite the arguments of the only sane people at the time, the American Medical Association, congress effectively banned it in 1937 (source 5). IF you don?t believe me go watch Refer Madness (1936), the hilarious, yet serious at the time, documentary he used to ?educate? the public. But hey, those people had an excuse, how were they supposed to know better? You don?t! You can verify facts on the internet any time!
So is pot really bad? I don?t know, I have never smoked it. Frankly, I don?t care. I don?t want to be legal so I can smoke it. I want it to be legal so they can stop wasting my hard earned tax dollars enforcing an ineffective, unconstitutional, all around stupid policy. I want it to be legal so when my kids go to high school they don?t have drug pushers trying to sell them shit I wouldn?t approve it. That?s right; prohibition of a substance creates a whole underground culture of crime. You?d think we would have learned that the hard way when we tried outlaw alcohol, but no!
So what advantages do we gain by pot being illegal? None! History has already proven that this doesn?t work. Alcohol is a serious problem. Alcohol causes a whole bunch of shit to go down that probably shouldn?t. That is why many countries understandably tried to outlaw it. But in the end, every single one of them, including the U.S. realized it just made the problem worse (further reading on this at source 7) and repealed their prohibition laws. In fact, according to the government?s own web page (source 8), when we asked our high school kids, the ones the government most cites its concern for in it?s anti-pot press whoring time, 86% of them said they had easy access to pot. Well, congradu-fucking-lations, you know you have an effective policy in place when 14% of out youth has to look around before they can buy their pot.
In the face of a lack of a real reason for marijuana prohibition, many people state the gateway theory. They say that smoking marijuana leads to other more dangerous drugs. They have all this wonderful evidence about how people who smoke pot are a lot more likely to do cocaine or whatever then people who don?t smoke pot. Wait a minute Sherlock; are you saying that people who use illegal drugs are more likely to use other illegal drugs than people who stay sober all the time? That?s a statistic too shocking for words!
The gateway shit is common sense and here is what else is. Government prohibition causes the gateway problem! If pot were legal and manufactured through corporations it would be seen in a whole different light than other drugs. You would no longer have your pot dealer carrying other drugs as well. Let?s take a look at the Netherlands, where pot is not legal, but decriminalized.
In the lovely Netherlands, despite being able to stroll right into your local coffee shop to buy some weed, the marijuana usage rates are roughly half of what they are in the U.S. More importantly, the usage of hard drugs sits at 1/5 of our rate. In addition crime is a whole shit load lower (Source 9). You see, marijuana is popular, and it probably will be for some time. The Netherlands knows this and tried its best to separate it from hard drugs. This pushes the hard drugs out of main stream culture and dramatically lowers their usage. So to some up, the ridiculous gateway theory is actual one of the best arguments for legalization.
I am dumb-founded every time the legalize pot measure barely fails to pass in Nevada. What are those people smoking? This is a no-brainer. For some reason people like to tell other people what to do. I don?t know why everyone can?t just mind there own business. How does it affect you if some dumb-ass sits around stoned? Sure pot it bad but so is red meat and salt. Does that mean it should be illegal? Not everything bas should be illegal. That would be ridiculous. Every time Dr. Pussy-whipped (Dr. Phil) gets on TV and parades his lack of testicles for all of America, it?s bad. But Dr. Phil has his rights and so do you. We need to legalize, regulate, and tax pot just like alcohol for people over 21. Here?s an idea, instead of sending everyone to jail why don?t we use that money to actually treat people or maybe even air some more of those gay above the influence commercials. You may think pot is bad for society but so is jailing people. So, start thinking for yourself. Do the research and make up your own mind about what?s best for America.
I suspect a lot of you anti pot people are Christian. Well intoxication might be a sin but you would do well to remember that God gave everyone free will. It?s not up to you to decide what someone else?s morals should or shouldn?t be.

I challenge you to think of ONE, just ONE good reason pot should not be legalized. And before you even start punching away on your keyboard, do not give me any crap about pot does this or its bad for you in this way or it makes babies explode or whatever. Any argument about why pot is bad for you or society is invalid unless you can show that usage would increase with legalization. If usage does not increase pot is still doing the same amount of evil either way. And lots have studies and examples have already shown that?s legalization has a negligible effect on usage (10). Have fun with that one!



(1) http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/dcf/du.htm#general
(2) http://www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm#item1
(3) http://www.briancbennett.com/charts/...ot-related.htm
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger
(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_of_cannabis
(6) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp
(7) http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-157.html
(8) http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/dcf/du.htm
(9) http://www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm
(10) http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3383

Well its pretty obvious that the amount of pot users will increase ..:)

huhu huhu. sweeeet.

refer to #10.

:thumbsup
http://www.oneposter.com/UserData/Po...oster_3927.jpg

legalize the shit already.

it'll keep suburban white kiddies from getting jacked after school by gangstas for their weed. get thousands of people out of our over crowded prisons and make more room for pedo's. keep guerilla growers out of public parks and keep our citizens safer. the list goes on and on..

it's not like much would change in the US. you still have to drug test for certain jobs. you still can't drive under the influence. parents will still whip their childrens asses if they catch them in the backyard smoking and will still confiscate their glass pipes.

but of course the gov would lose to much money if they legalized marijuana. all that war against drugs funding, all those possession fines, etc.. so i don't see it happening anytime soon.

Who smokes here at all? I don't mean Mjane only.

I don`t smoke marijuana,i think it`s dangerous and i don`t recommend it,i`m against legalization,i hope that i will never be legal!

no they wouldnt, they would gain billions in taxes of it.

How do you know its dangerous if you never smoked.
Is that what your dad told you ?

Ok,

Not sure about the rest of the world, but in the UK, over the years, quality has gone WAY up, and prices contuinue to fall to this day. Value has never been better :).

Thats the beauty of a black market that doesnt get meddled with by beaurcrats, taxation, legislastion, THC level restrictions....etc etc etc etc etc

At the same time, in the UK, we dont have to worry about being busted, as long as your not next to school yard blowing blue smoke in a coppers face, you're ok.

Keep the G-Man out of it is my vote, but im with ya, kinda...:pimp

:pimp

Dear god! I'm so happy i live in Amsterdam!

I don't smoke it either. In fact, I have never even tried it. I also would not recommend it to anyone. Fortunately, I posses the logic to understand that this has nothing to do with its legal status.

Plus most of the drug companies would all go belly-up. Just think, if marijuana was legal all the <insert-made-up-ailment-here> people that would be using it instead of the side-effect ridden poinson from the RX?

All the stressed-out pill poppers out there need to hit it at least once to realize how stupid they are. Pass the chips.

odd with all the grammar issues i thought you were stoned:upsidedow


1 good reason to not legalize it would be...inhaling smoke of any kind is bad for you.....

but i dont give a rats ass if it is bad for me i will smoke it anyways cause i feel it is my right to fuck myself up if i want to:rasta

I hate when anyone support stupid laws just because they don´t like something. It´s like someone who hate cats claim a law against cats. If you think marihuana is dangerous is because you know nothing about that, if you know nothing, why would you support a law?? What we ask to people who make and approve laws is, at least, that they know what they are doing.

I dont smoke anything. No tobacco, no MJ, no crack, nothing at all.

But I really dont give a fuck what others do. Legalize it, its fine with me as long as people continue to leave me alone.

...NEWS FLASH marijuana is not good for you

Does smoking Marijuana make you not use the enter button twice in between paragraphs? I don't want no part of that devil drug!

Actually I smoked too much when I was younger, and couldn't read that. All the letters were swimming around. I'll just take your word for it that what you're saying is right. Damn... I need a cookie.

Neither are cookies, doughnuts, candy, hamburgers, nachos, soda, beer, steak, cheese, pizza, etc...

it may not be good for you
but what you don't get is that you can't say whats good for me and whats not
I can decide for myself, I don't need some fat fuckers tell me whats good and whats bad.

It's all comes down to the almighty dollar..the govt really doesnt give a shit if its good or not for you.

governments could save billions in law enforcement and make billions in taxes - legalize it! :rasta

I was bounced from a club yesterday for smoking weed