Should Marijuana Be Legalized?

[Lishay18]

yes i think marijauna should be legal so america could make tax money off of it
and like others said its not addicting
it doesnt cause as much damage and disturbance as alchol
some doctors are even prescribing it to patients for certain illnesses
i dont think people should do it just like i dont think people should drink but i dont think it should be illegal to me its just the same as alchol - put an age limit on it and dont let ppl drive or work high

[bob0070]

totally it should be )

[walksalone11]

dont let ppl drive or work high

I hate it too when I am in a hurry and someone is doing about 12 1/2 miles an hour in the hammer lane, but I have never seen anyone's driving become extremely hazardous when they spark up. Never witnessed anyone get belligerent when smoking either.

Allowing alcohol while banning weed makes no good sense what so ever.

[bob0070]

Yes. It's only illegal because the gov would lose trillions.

[kikofc]

It's already "legal" here in California, and it's awesome.

Quality and safety control of the product, potential tax revenue source, and its much safer than cigarettes or alcohol... Why wouldn't it be legal (rhetorically speaking)?

[Jerry1216]

NO! Alchahol should be illegalized This trash is destroying our country!

[Shutmeup3030150]

I think its a personal choice, it shouldn't be illegal, because no matter what, people do it anyway. Its a personal choice, what a person puts into their body is up to them. Same with cigarettes & alcohol, its a personal choice. Yes, it may be bad for you, but look at the millions of people who do these things.

[bub2631]

Well I'm from Louisiana...I think we will be the last state in the union to legalize medical marijuana and any other form.  The congress has never even brought up the issue.  Ugh.  So we can be last in that category too....LOL

 lol Louisiana got some good weed , one fo the best weed i've smoke is from New Orleans, My band had to performe over there 3 years ago, I Love New Orleans 

LOL, Yeah, its practically legal in New Orleans. You can smell it on bourbon street and when people pass.  You also get tons of people asking you to buy some. HEH.  What is the name of your band? and where did you guys play?

[2persian4u]

no cuz then the goverment will charge 100X more then how much u can get it on the streets, and dont forget taxes the goverment would charge for weed.

But that's the point! No one cares "where" you got your herb, as long as it's decriminalized! I say Decriminalized and legalize Marijuana in order to get out of the recession with the tax revenue which would be booming AND the tax money being saved from sending men and women to jail for possession of a very harmless drug such as Marijuana! I just wish everyone would do their research on the drug. It's MUCH safer than alcohol and cigarettes, and no one has EVER died from just using it, how many people do you hear dieing from alcohol poisoning or drunk driving or lung cancer? Furthermore it has medicinal properties! 

[Falconer02]

If all of a sudden weed is for sale at the store like ciggerettes all I can say is the END is definitley near.

AMEN! The end of illogical bannings and the end of a big chunk of ignorance and naivety! Couldn't agree with you more!

Ever seen the commercial with the Egg "This is your brain" then the egg frying in the pan "This is your brain on drugs"

Yeah people always remember that commercial because of how over-the-top it is. The commerical was talking about heroin. NOT MARIJUANA! Maybe you should go watch something before quoting it. Face it, you're tackling a topic you know nothing about.

no cuz then the goverment will charge 100X more then how much u can get it on the streets, and dont forget taxes the goverment would charge for weed.

This is honestly the only decent argument one can have against MJ besides people smoking it publicly. And it still has its flaws.

[Administrator]

Some things to consider:
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (under the US Dept of Transportation) recently studied the effect of marijuana on driving ability and found that the effects were relatively minor, particularly when compared to alcohol. http://www.ukcia.org/research/driving.htm  An interesting result they found was that in urban driving, test subjects who had consumed alcohol thought they weren't impaired when in reality they were;  test subjects who had consumed cannabis thought they were impaired when in reality they were not.  The literature on this subject is pointing out more and more that although marijuana is certainly a factor in car accidents, its the vastly more common alcohol that tends to impair drivers and cause fatal accidents.

- Particularly in California, much of the marijuana consumed is supplied by Mexican cartels who use the profits in their *bleep* war against Mexican police - a tragedy that has gone on for far too long.  If it were completely legalized, this substantial (billions of dollars a year) revenue source would be cut down as CA growers large and small get into high volume production.  It would also be good for State and National parks here in CA, because some Mexican cartels have huge growing operations hidden deep in these forests, and the environmental impact is very negative and very significant.

- A substantial portion of the cost of marijuana (right now, while it's still mostly illegal) is the cost of the risk taken by the growers and suppliers.  If you make it legal, there is no longer the risk of criminal prosecution, and thus the price goes down.  Further, if it were legalized, far more people would get into growing (especially given the high rates of unemployment) and flood the market with product.  Even assuming a pretty crazy 20% tax on its sale, it's hard to imagine that marijuana would get more expensive if legalized

[meanween]

marijuana outlawed for all the wrong reasons.....such outrageous actions by individuals back in the day causing it to be banned.  like music..ooooh my goodness no!  And another reason here...mostly *bleep* envy but you can't use that excuse back then so you have to come up with something like this gem here.


Racism was part of the charge against marijuana, as newspapers in 1934 editorialized: “Marijuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.”

Nice..banned by idiots.

[meanween]

Here's some awesome quotes from Harry J. Anslinger, who worked hard with William Randolph Hearst, to make marijuana illegal on a Federal level.
Oh BTW, Hearst invested heavily in the timber industry to support his newspaper chain and didn’t want to see the development of hemp paper in competition.  He also lost 800,000 acres of Timber land to Poncho Villa, so he hated Mexicans.

Also, Hearst and Anslinger were then supported by Dupont chemical company and various pharmaceutical companies in the effort to outlaw cannabis. Dupont had patented nylon, and wanted hemp removed as competition. The pharmaceutical companies could neither identify nor standardize cannabis dosages, and besides, with cannabis, folks could grow their own medicine and not have to purchase it from large companies.

Here's some great quotes from both these guys.  Ok, now it makes perfect sense why it's illegal...stupid me.

    “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”

    “…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”

    “Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.”

    “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”

    “Marijuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing”

    “You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”

    “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

And he loved to pull out his own version of the “assassin” definition:

    “In the year 1090, there was founded in Persia the religious and military order of the Assassins, whose history is one of cruelty, barbarity, and murder, and for good reason: the members were confirmed users of hashish, or marihuana, and it is from the Arabs’ ‘hashashin’ that we have the English word ‘assassin.’”

[2persian4u]

Here's some awesome quotes from Harry J. Anslinger, who worked hard with William Randolph Hearst, to make marijuana illegal on a Federal level.
Oh BTW, Hearst invested heavily in the timber industry to support his newspaper chain and didn’t want to see the development of hemp paper in competition.  He also lost 800,000 acres of Timber land to Poncho Villa, so he hated Mexicans.

Also, Hearst and Anslinger were then supported by Dupont chemical company and various pharmaceutical companies in the effort to outlaw cannabis. Dupont had patented nylon, and wanted hemp removed as competition. The pharmaceutical companies could neither identify nor standardize cannabis dosages, and besides, with cannabis, folks could grow their own medicine and not have to purchase it from large companies.

Here's some great quotes from both these guys.  Ok, now it makes perfect sense why it's illegal...stupid me.

    “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”

    “…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”

    “Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.”

    “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”

    “Marijuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing”

    “You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”

    “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

And he loved to pull out his own version of the “assassin” definition:

    “In the year 1090, there was founded in Persia the religious and military order of the Assassins, whose history is one of cruelty, barbarity, and murder, and for good reason: the members were confirmed users of hashish, or marihuana, and it is from the Arabs’ ‘hashashin’ that we have the English word ‘assassin.’”

WOW! I had no idea.. where can I read this.. 

[bub2631]

Money and/or Power in the wrong hands are freakin scary!  Remember the Japanese americans losing everything they had and put into internment camps while german pows were actually treated better in america...Also, that idiot MaCarthy and his communist witch hunt...Killing millions of Indians...Blah...We aren't the perfect country if you look at our record, but I guess we are better than others...Talking to you Fox Noise.