Legalization of Cannabis in Colorado -

[garbageraider]

:idea: First off, while I am not a cannabis user, past or present, and don't have any sympathy for those who abuse the drug, I do have a live and let live philosophy of life. If an adult wants to use cannabis responsibly, let them do so. I know that this is a worldwide forum, but here in the United States at least, we spend vast amounts of money to incarcerate adults for simple possession when we could be making millions in revenue off taxing cannabis sales. Legalizing cannabis and taxing it, as under the regulations established in Colorado, is rational and pragmatic. I personally think that it's long overdue. That being said, there are arguments for the prohibition of cannabis, but regulated legalization is the most sensible to me, no matter how I look at it. What do the other members of this forum think? I'm interested to hear some thoughts, especially from persons outside the United States.

 

[Watcher]

I live in Canada, and I can only see it as a good thing. It's also pretty heavily protested up here to eventually legalize it and make it a federally given right.

Like look at this woman with Cerebral Palsy who can barely speak. Marijuana does something the entirety of modern medicine cannot do, it lets her speak.

[youtube]EozRhoPKfjQ[/youtube]

In Washington alone, it was suggested that based on just confirmed pot smokers in the state, if it was legalized it could bring in 2.5 billion dollars in tax revenue.

The reasons to legalize outweigh the reasons to keep it illegal by a gross margin. Generally speaking whenever I talk to someone who doesn't want pot legalized their reasons usually amount to "It smells bad" or "lazy people smoke it" or "it leads to other drug consumption". When other drugs like nicotine, alcohol and even prescribed drugs produce significantly heavier side effects and addictive capabilities. Yet they are legal but Pot isn't.

 

[exball]

Ehh, if someone wants to smoke weed that's their choice. No skin off my back.

 

[Bob's Fries]

Time to head back to Colorado, land of my childhood and land of legalized weed.

 

[Vodka's My BFF]

So, wait, you mean to tell me that the entire time I lived there it was only kind of legal? Shit. The way everyone I knew was sparking up around me, I thought it was the state sport.

 

[The Dude]

I think it should be legal on the Federal level. It's stupid to have it illegal when tobacco and alcohol are legal. It's no worse for you and as long as you're not driving under the influence of it then what's the problem? In a world that's gone to shit, what's so low about getting high?

 

[pickleniggo]

Honestly, weed is pretty harmless and legalization could really only lead to good things for the country. It's still a pretty messy situation. Would jobs still drug test for pot? Could you smoke outdoors like you would cigarettes? And of course, every 80's PSA would have to be redacted and we could never trust the likes of the Ninja Turtles again.
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[garbageraider]

I think it should be legal on the Federal level. It's stupid to have it illegal when tobacco and alcohol are legal. It's no worse for you and as long as you're not driving under the influence of it then what's the problem? In a world that's gone to shit, what's so low about getting high?

Well, I'm active duty military, so it's almost never going to be legal for me. (not that I would want to smoke anyways) What I see happening in the future, is over the next few years, several more states legalizing receational cannabis. I think the most probable states that might legalize in addition to Colorado and Washington are California, Oregon, New Mexico, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. However, after president Obama leaves office, a new administration will move in, and they very well could enforce the federal laws on cannabis. Case history on this issue is not in-favor of states' rights. Look at Gonzales vs Reich under the Bush administration, where the federal government ruled even medical cannabis authorized under state law still prosecutable under federal statute. I would hate to see real progress reversed in court by a decison based upon ignorance and deferrence to an antiquated standard that was known to be flawed even in its own time, but that very well may happen several years in the future.

 

[Watcher]

I think it should be legal on the Federal level. It's stupid to have it illegal when tobacco and alcohol are legal. It's no worse for you and as long as you're not driving under the influence of it then what's the problem? In a world that's gone to shit, what's so low about getting high?

Marijuana's a whole lot better for you than Alcohol or cigarettes are.

I remember I was shocked to find out that getting drunk is actually the liver and brain's response to being poisoned. Taking really low dosages of known poisons can produce the same effect as alcohol.

Never mind the damage to the lungs cigarette smoke produces.

 

[Marvin]

That cannabis is illegal is retarded.

... and don't have any sympathy for those who abuse the drug ...

Heh, how do you do that?

Really, as I understand it, cannabis isn't any more physically addictive than apples. Even if it is, still, if you're trying to impose negative effects on yourself by using cannabis, you're pedaling uphill. Hell, even just the physical problems with inhaling smoke can be negated by vaporizing your weed or something like that.

I think it should be legal on the Federal level. It's stupid to have it illegal when tobacco and alcohol are legal. It's no worse for you and as long as you're not driving under the influence of it then what's the problem? In a world that's gone to shit, what's so low about getting high?

Well, I'm active duty military, so it's almost never going to be legal for me. (not that I would want to smoke anyways) What I see happening in the future, is over the next few years, several more states legalizing receational cannabis. I think the most probable states that might legalize in addition to Colorado and Washington are California, Oregon, New Mexico, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. However, after president Obama leaves office, a new administration will move in, and they very well could enforce the federal laws on cannabis. Case history on this issue is not in-favor of states' rights. Look at Gonzales vs Reich under the Bush administration, where the federal government ruled even medical cannabis authorized under state law still prosecutable under federal statute. I would hate to see real progress reversed in court by a decison based upon ignorance and deferrence to an antiquated standard that was known to be flawed even in its own time, but that very well may happen several years in the future.

Well yeah, it's still illegal if the federal drug laws are still intact, but I think without widespread state support, it's going to be a lot harder for the DEA to actually enforce said laws. I mean, we don't have that now, but gradually they'll only be focusing on big-time drug traffickers. They simply wouldn't have the manpower to pester every last (or hell, even many or most) guy who wants to light up a joint.

Also, as far states go, c'monnnnnnnn Maryland! (Goooo Del. Heather Mizeur!!)

 

[Niachu]

Ah, cannabis. It's legalized here so I can't throw a rock without someone around me mentioning it at least once.

I don't support it as recreational use, especially not for teenagers. As I understand it, people who smoke it regularly suffer changes in their brain structure that result in poor working memory and stilted brain development. I don't condemn those that do use it recreationally (as long as I don't have to listen to another tangent about how lighting up everyday is, like, totally great for your health), and getting thrown in prison for possession of a few ounces of the stuff is nothing short of ridiculous.

I'm aware of its medicinal uses, and those who need it in that sense shouldn't be denied it.

 

[Foulmouth]

I'm from western Australia and they decriminalised it (making it about the same as a speeding fine) over here a while back and then recriminalised it .
It's bloody stupid though, the cops won't bust people unless you're growing tons of the shit or you put your joint out on their face so why bother using up police time and resources on something that next to no-one considers a crime ?

 

[caffeinated_wench]

I'm from western Australia and they decriminalised it (making it about the same as a speeding fine) over here a while back and then recriminalised it .
It's bloody stupid though, the cops won't bust people unless you're growing tons of the shit or you put your joint out on their face so why bother using up police time and resources on something that next to no-one considers a crime ?

Good fucking question.

It's just wasting money and resources needlessly. We already have enough problems with that in the US. Can we just save that for ACTUAL serious crimes? Y'know, like murder?

 

[Null]

Australia suffers from the same Conservative ideologies as America, oddly. When it comes to how to treat its workforce and social safety nets, Australia puts its money towards its people, but when it comes to 'moral' issues, the US and Oz aren't too different and sometimes Oz is a bit further down the road. One thing that comes to mind is their video game censorship. One law in particular determines the age of women by their breast size, so flat-chested women are treated as children, so any characters exposed to violence or sex are banned. I learned this while playing the MMO "All Points Bulletin" where the sliders for tit size sliders only went between huge and fucking massive specifically to avoid this censorship.

As far as drugs go, I think people do them to self-medicate other problems in their life. Nobody becomes habitual in any activity unless they benefit from it somehow. I would like to see all non-synthetic drugs (including opiates) legally regulated and marketed, but shit like meth and bath salts are disgusting.

 

[Watcher]

One law in particular determines the age of women by their breast size, so flat-chested women are treated as children, so any characters exposed to violence or sex are banned. I learned this while playing the MMO "All Points Bulletin" where the sliders for tit size sliders only went between huge and fucking massive specifically to avoid this censorship.

So wait...

Smaller bare breasts are more controversial in Australia than larger ones?

As far as drugs go, I think people do them to self-medicate other problems in their life. Nobody becomes habitual in any activity unless they benefit from it somehow. I would like to see all non-synthetic drugs (including opiates) legally regulated and marketed, but shit like meth and bath salts are disgusting.

The problem I have with all non-synthetic drugs being legally regulated and marketed is that Pot has medicinal uses as well as a lot of long term benefits in legalizing as a whole. Such as freeing up the prison system and the potential billions of dollars with regulating it. With other drugs it seems more like people go into that looking for "a greater high" and willingly take the potential both short term and cripplingly long term effects of stuff like Crack Cocaine. Keeping it illegal just feels like a bar to entry, to me personally.

 

[Payday]

I don't support it as recreational use, especially not for teenagers. As I understand it, people who smoke it regularly suffer changes in their brain structure that result in poor working memory and stilted brain development.

Actually the stilted brain development is the same with alcohol as, for the most part, your brain doesn't really stop developing until you're about 25.

I support cannabis legalization however I doubt I'd ever really smoke it myself. It probably wont bring a complete end to the illegal drug trade, buut it could help out a little, plus it would save a fuck ton of money if we didn't go after idiots who were lighting up when we could be putting that money to something not as stupid.

 

[Smokedaddy]

It's far more benign than alcohol, that's for sure. I don't want the guy next to me on the freeway toking up, but what he does in his living room at home is his business and nobody else's. The U.S. government created the Mafia with Prohibition in the 1920s, exactly like the War On Drugs has created the drug cartels and gangs. If it were legalized everywhere in the country tomorrow, is there one person who doesn't smoke pot today that would become a stoner? I really don't think so. People who want to smoke it do so, those that don't, dont. The law doesn't enter very much into people's decision to partake or not.

The War On Drugs is a war, after all. The government is the occupying army, the populace are indigenous peasants. Meanwhile, the army is powerless to stop demand, so they declare there will be no legal supply. Since law-abiding citizens can't be suppliers, there are criminals to do the job. It's like when they repealed the awful 55-mph speed limit -- everyone did exactly the same thing as they did the day before, there wasn't any difference. No difference besides the hundreds of millions of people who weren't breaking the law, that is. Laws that sound good when preached by Congressmen to other Congressmen but don't make sense in reality do nothing but teach contempt for law. Legalizing pot won't cause our schoolchildren to walk around in a slobbering daze and sell herb to each other at gunpoint, but it will clear out a gigantic legal backlog, save a Titanic amount of money every day, and maybe people can respect the police a little without feeling stupid.

The number of marijuana-related deaths will stay exactly the same as it is now. Since record keeping began, there have been a total of zero. But there's still plenty to be proud of -- at least it was expensive, insulting, arbitrary, and created lots of criminals.

No one ever got their date real stoned and then invited the lacrosse team over for a group game of hide-the-salami while she was out of it. You can't say that about alcohol. THC isn't a toxin, unlike ethanol. It works like an opiate -- there are cannabinoid receptor sites in the brain that it binds to. Why that quirk ever evolved is completely unknown, but it's a normal function. It's absolutely not physically addictive, though people have become mentally addicted to it.

People shouldn't be allowed to drive stoned any more than they can drive drunk. I don't want people walking down the sidewalk puffing on a fat one anymore than I want them sipping out of a paper bag. I don't think it should be given, sold, or used regularly by anyone under 18. I also don't want to worry about someone's badge deciding to come in uninvited to stop the scourge of wanton indulgence in criminal activity while playing videogames. (Disclaimer: yes, this is hypothetical; no, I don't have any pot and haven't for a long time. The principle remains the same.)

 

[garbageraider]

It's like when they repealed the awful 55-mph speed limit -- everyone did exactly the same thing as they did the day before, there wasn't any difference. .

Damn. You're old enough to remember that? They bumped the limit up to 65MPH in 1987, and ended most federal speed controls in 1994.

 

[Niachu]

I don't support it as recreational use, especially not for teenagers. As I understand it, people who smoke it regularly suffer changes in their brain structure that result in poor working memory and stilted brain development.

Actually the stilted brain development is the same with alcohol as, for the most part, your brain doesn't really stop developing until you're about 25.

You're right. I feel the same way about teenage drinking for that reason. Also unrelated, I never get invited to parties.

 

[Mauvman Shuffleboard]

It's like when they repealed the awful 55-mph speed limit -- everyone did exactly the same thing as they did the day before, there wasn't any difference. .

Damn. You're old enough to remember that? They bumped the limit up to 65MPH in 1987, and ended most federal speed controls in 1994.

Smokedaddy may or may not remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, records are a bit unclear on that one. He also may or may not have came back from the dead three days later but that's another tale for another time.