Do you think there is a general groundswell for changing marijuana laws?

[AngryAmish]

Not of titanic proportions but do you think there is an emerging consensus that pot is less harmful than alcohol and should be available to adults who choose to indulge?

Taxing marijuana may raise some money and eliminate the organized crime element who sell it currently. It is also stupid to be giving people felonies for relatively small crimes. 23% of the inmates in Illinois are in for drug crimes. This includes dealing and possessing any controlled substance - heroin, coke et al. But decriminalizing pot should prevent people from getting a record to begin with.

What is not needed is the potheads who bang on and on about what a magical plant it is, how DuPont does not want the competition and the like. That is just stupid.

I know a lot more alcoholics than people addicted to pot. (And for those who say it is non-addictive, there are two people I know who spend virtually every waking hour stoned. They are losers and if they are not addicted to pot I need to know a different word for being a constantly stoned loser other than addict. I also know many more people who are alcoholics.)

Anyway, do you think there is some daylight to change the laws? Is the fact that someone wants to put Michael Phelps in jail over something so trivial helping to make the case?

[Romulox]

1. I think Americans LOVE to tell others how to live their lives.

Marijuana is just the excuse; there is a streak of deeply illiberal, perhaps even authoritarian thought deep in the American subconscious.

[spanone]

2. marijuana is 1000 times less harmful than alcohol....believe me, i know.

but i doubt the reefer madness will go away in my lifetime....

[RadiationTherapy]

3. To your comment about the losers...

they are simply losers who smoke pot.

[winter999]

15. That's right.

There may be psychological addition, but there is no physical addition like nicotine, cocaine, or alcohol.

[tridim]

26. That fact becomes obvious the first time a cannabis user stops smoking for a week.

The only withdrawal effect I get is one or two nights of slightly restless sleep. Not a big deal at all, especially relative to substances like nicotine, caffeine or sugar.

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. We can hope. But I am not hopeful for any changes any time soon.

I can only wish.

[aquart]

5. I used to be against legalization.

But that was because I knew people who put themselves thru school selling the stuff and I didn't want to prevent others from making a living.

But I'm sick of the ridiculous drug laws in this country. It permeates everything.

Legalize, regulate, tax.

[asdjrocky]

6. Ca is reaping huge rewards from the taxation of medical marijuana.

The feds will hang on as long as they can because including pot in the so called war on drugs give them huge financial benefits.

Also, in Ca at least, there is no organized crime element to marijuana and perhaps that's because the laws here are a bit more laxed.

[AngryAmish]

11. You are kidding yourself about the ortganized crime element

I think even mm folks have to buy it somewhere. It is still illegal to grow and cultivate.

Any participation in the market bids up the price of dope. The profits made (by bidding up the price) are what draws the organized crime. Ever hear of the Tijuana Cartel? Gulf Cartel? Los Zetas? All of these exist because of users in the US.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

16. Actually, I think he's right about the organized crime to a certain extent

You should read this article from The New Yorker about how Medicinal Marijuana is changing the industry in California.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/28/080728fa_fact_samuels?currentPage=all

It hasn't completely eliminated organized crime, but the people growing and supplying the dispensaries are not gun-toting thugs either.

Anyway, as far as the criminal element goes, I think that's the strongest argument for legalization. I have to pay a thug a fair amount of money to smoke when I could just grow a plant or two of my own in my windowsill and never ever have to involve another person with my drug use. The laws currently in place only serve to make criminals richer and more powerful.

[AngryAmish]

18. I could be wrong about MM and organized crime

I'll read the article. Thanks.

[asdjrocky]

37. Nope.

Do you really think people that smoke pot are buying pot grown in Mexico? Seriously? Sure there is organized crime involved in drug trafficking, heroine and meth, you know, drugs that actually kill people.

Sure pot in Ca is a business, and in some ways I guess the people that cultivate and sell are organized to a degree, and it's because of that that no self respecting pot smoker or medical marijuana user would smoke anything from Mexico. We like quality.

[Le Taz Hot]

7. I'm in California so it's difficult to tell

as we decriminalized in 1t in 1978 and voted in MM in 1996. I think the rest of the country is still WAAAAAY uptight (flashback!) about it.

By the way. I'm one of those "potheads" to which you refer. Instead of calling people names, perhaps you can actually do the research yourself.

Why isn't marijuana legal? Because of uneducated attitudes like yours!

[Juneboarder]

8. I think it would be a great idea

Especially if it helps generate revenues off the taxes charged. Who can argue with that in a time of financial crisis that our country is presently facing?

[90-percent]

9. Pots biggest public health hazard?

Pots biggest public health hazard is our medieval draconian cruel laws on the books about it.

The hazards of being subjected to America's criminal justice system and then the AMerican penal system will do much more damage to a young soul than a trainload of pot ever would.

The second liability on the public good is that it teaches disrespect for the law - because it's an "everybody does it" public acceptance of weed, but the risks are this jail stuff and it's unjust to imprison a small unfortunate few while the majority goes on smoking and disrespecting the stupid laws that don't deserve much respect to begin with!

And don't dismiss the corporate underpinnings of why we got such stupid pot laws in the first place. Dupont may have been in that process, but it was more William Randolph Hearst's protecting his own paper interests over the hemp alternate that helped us get these ignorant laws in the first place in the late 30's.

-90% Jimmy

[mike_c]

10. the alternative word you're looking for is "choice...."

Marijuana is not addictive, despite government sponsored propaganda that stretches the term to fit, no matter how unjustified. Still, some folks just make bad choices-- and the wake-and-bake lifestyle you allude to might not even be the actual worst choice they've made.

I've smoked pot since I was fifteen. I'm now in my mid-fifties, a successful scientist and academic. The fact that some folks who make poor life choices also smoke a lot of weed doesn't mean that smoking weed is necessarily a "loser's" choice in itself.

[AngryAmish]

14. If you knew these guys you would clearly call them losers

Heck, I don't care if anyone smokes pot (short of driving while really stoned yada yada yada).

Just don't pretend it is some sort of noble thing.

[Occulus]

33. I know the exact types you speak of, personally

and thus can confidently state that their lives would still be very messed up without the presence of cannabis.

With it, they're relatively harmless to the people around them. Without it... I think they'd likely end up being complete assholes about their other problems, lose their friends, and generally spiral downward.

[Webster Green]

46. Stoned drivers are safer drivers..

There are studies. I don't feel like looking up links for you though. You are too lame to waste time on.

It is indeed a noble plant. It is the most valuable plant known to man (with the possible exception of bamboo)

You don't know fucking shit!

:rofl:

[Warpy]

12. Addiction has two components:

physical dependence and irresistible cravings. People can be dependent on drugs from insulin to pain medication and suffer terrible physical consequences when the drugs are withdrawn, but experience no cravings.

With grass, the people who want to sleep their way through life (your "losers") might crave being numb, but there is no dependence component. They will have no physical symptoms when the town goes dry but they will be very unhappy at being fully awake in the world.

Pot is simply not addictive. There are no physical symptoms on discontinuing it suddenly. There is no craving for the drug, itself, only a longing for the state it produces.

Yes, some people want to numb out all day every day and they will be heavy users. Not all of them are losers, though. Some of them are quite high functioning, I've known them.

However, people who want to numb themselves will always find a way to do just that, whether through pot or alcohol or Valium or old time religion. Pot is the least harmful of any of them.

[reggie the dog]

42. weed does not numb me

I still feel when I go up a hill on my bike and I still enjoy my children.

[Warpy]

44. Nor me, as I recall

But are you the type of person who smokes all day, every day?

[reggie the dog]

45. pretty much

I usually eat breakfast before I first smoke when I do not work but I wait until after work to smoke when I do have to work, so 4 days a week I start smoking in the afternoon.

[Donnachaidh]

13. wait until the anti-smoking hall monitors go apeshit over any talk of

legalizing marijuana.

I don't see it happening. WHY legalize something that is going to be difficult if not impossible to regulate? Do you think any of the drug cartels are going to give up their untaxed, unregulated income? Do you think the police forces that make extra money by seizing the assets of marijuana dealers are going to be happy about the loss of that income?

There's too much money to be made by all sorts of outlets, who would lose income if it was legalized.

[pretty]

17. how can anyone even afford that right now?

So the answer to your question is: No.

[reggie the dog]

43. grow your own outside or in the windowsill and it is free

were it legal most smokers would do so, as they do in Spain.

[Webster Green]

19. It is a magical and a noble plant!

DuPont (and others) did indeed fear the competition from hemp, and were part of the smear campaign which got pot outlawed in the first place (in 1937).

It is not addictive either. You need to do a little more research before you go off about a subject that you aren't too familiar with..

Not a month goes by that we don't hear about some new study showing the positive benefits of Cannabis. :hippie:

[rollin74]

20. I can't speak for the rest of the country

but here in Nevada we have voted on proposals to legalize marijuana twice in recent years

2002 39% voted in favor of legalization
2006 44% voted in favor

there was a major media blitz by elected officials and law enforcement against the idea. They even tried to scare the public into thinking that they wouldn't be able to enforce DUI laws if it passed. :shrug:

[nichomachus]

21. If there was some way

the corporations could monopolize the production and sale of marijuana, it would be legal by sunset today. The problem is that you can grow enough yourself to supply your needs and the corporations wouldn't make any money. That would cut into their alcohol and tobacco profits -- and that just ain't gonna happen. Ever.

[wroberts189]

22. Potheads? Losers? Nothing but slander...I know PHD's that smoke.

People that make well over half a million a year.


You ever tried it?

[Mad_Cow_Disease]

32. This is a weak argument...

I know Repukes with multiple PHD's, and that face doesn't make their political views any more relevant.
The point I'm trying to make is citing an extraneous example proves nothing.

I think there is a stronger correlation with people we deem as nonlosers/successful and the choice made to not take part in an illegal activities.
We can logically assume losers exists as products of poor life choices. All other information aside: Generally speaking, breaking the law is a poor choice.

Said in other terms... losers tend to choose to smoke pot more often than nonlosers, however smoking pot does not make one a "loser".

[Stinky The Clown]

23. I think there is a drift toward acceptance ..... but a groundswell? Nope.

This is a very slow moving train.

[wroberts189]

24. Where the hell are you coming from ? You Amish?

How are you even able to use a computer being Amish? Is that not against your dogmatic rules?

I am sorry but these holier then thou posts because thy dareth smoketh the sacred plant just make me angry ... even though your point about decriminalization is good.

This is supposed to be a land of freedom and self responsibility ...to me this means in basic terms do as you want as long as it's in peace and yes ..harmony with others.

[struggle4progress]

25. Country's gotta make some financial choices. Money spent incarcerating pot smokers is wasted.

Let's be smarter and save money

[pilsner]

27. My employer will still drug test even if it's legalized

I support decriminalization. But I don't smoke it anymore to make sure i can keep my job.

[EstimatedProphet]

28. No, I don't think it's even on the radar of most Americans as an issue

[reggie the dog]

29. hemp

this is about dupont and hemp prohibition. Any cannabis legalization effort should include both recreational and industrial cannabis. The USA is one of few first world coutries that does not allow hemp cultivation.

[HuckleB]

30. No, I don't.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

31. "They are losers"

So.

How many Olympic gold medals have you won?

[lib2DaBone]

34. I hope we see relief from this horrible fake drug war....

Our jails are over flowing with non-violent drug offenders. You can lose your home and car for simple possession of something less dangerous than caffeine or nicotine.

Bush put Tommy Chong in jail for selling glass pipes via email. (wtf?)

Now they want to crucify Mark Phelps for s stupid photo.

Get Larry Craig and his Senate buddies out of the bathroom stalls and let's concentrate on stopping this reefer madness.

[JitterbugPerfume]

35. legalise and regulate

it is foolish not to!

[Greyhound]

36. This post demonstrates the very problem. Lack of consideration

and near total ignorance, both of which are easily corrected with little effort. Blanket condemnations, casual dismissal of facts, and a sadly judgmental attitude of others not like you, are all symptomatic of the basic apathy and lack of compassion so prevalent in our society.

Good luck.

[robinlynne]

38. i'm sorry. I just can't care right this minute.

[juno jones]

39. I know this one guy who smokes a lot

About an OZ of green bud pretty much to himself in a week or so, stoned all the time.

He owns his own (legit, respectable, even) buisness and probably grosses around a half a million a year.

I also know a few stoner losers too, but they are harmless and I would not morally censure them as I, in my wide and varied life surviving at the bottom of the dunghill, have known many more meth addicts and they are by far the scarier ones.

[ThomWV]

40. Not that I've noticed

Not that I know anyone who really cares very much. I know lots of folks who smoke a little weed, but they are old farts who aren't a bit concerned about being busted for possession as they burn a bowl watching Rachael at 9.

[liberalpragmatist]

41. I'd say decriminalization is more likely than legalization

At least for now. Once that's done, then perhaps we can move to the next step.

But frankly, decriminalization would be fine with me, at least compared to the ridiculously draconian laws we currently have.

[anonymous171]

47. Also the stoner "lifestyle" will fade out.

I'm all for legalization. I have never tried marijuana (I don't like smoking anything really) but I thinks its harms have been greatly exaggerated and its benefits minimized.