Should "Pot" Be Legalized?

I'm all for making items like cigarettes luxury items, booze too. Add in legal drugs and there would be a great windfall!! Then we could afford to let the rich not pay taxes.

And Squid, your new Avatar is making me queezy, bring back the Prius Chick better a nice looking woman than that ugly dude.

 

I voted yes. If it was regulated, it would probably be less of a "problem" than it is now. The use of the hemp is the important part. Hemp has been proven to be more useful than cotton in the past. It also grows faster " from what i've heard".. anyone have data on this?

If the government were to grow hemp they could use it in food, clothes, and almost any other material. If they were to grow a "pot" it would ge regulated. The government could grow it for much less than anyone else, so the market for it would be destroyed because of the price drop. However... i don't think they could destroy the productivity of California growers. It's just better quality here.

 

:lol: You're worse than I am, Nate. "Well, Napoleon, it looks like you don't have a job. Why don't you go out and feed Tina?" :lol:

 

You don't smoke [enough] dope.

Speaking of good stoner movies: Harold and Kumar go to White Castle is always a good tribute to the weed.

 

I think I know what you mean. I was talking about it with my carpool partner the day after we'd watched it. After half an hour, I thought there really must be something better to talk about and we should move on. Well, it's been 6 months and we're still talking about it.

 

Probably because there aren't any car chases or anything getting blown up

 

Yeah, that's a great movie too. Very well done. Doogie Howser was a real bonus, too.

 

So true. I wish I was one of those folks who could quote from movies. This one was one of those (as with White Castle) where you just end up snorting your chocolate milk out your nose!

It doesn't take as much attention to be entralled by a car chase and things blowing up.

 

all right. everyone who says it does no harm- you're partially right. in adults... no long term harm, really. more and more use leads to tolerance, etc that come with the territory. this requires more and more drug to activate the receptors and causes a disturbance in the natural signaling system that is present.

my qualm with legalization is that it does cause neurological developmental problems. the endocannabinoid system is crucial to development of neural networks involved in learning and memory, especially during adolescence when these higher functions are being refined. pothead kids become slow-witted adults. no joke.

as you can easily associate, cannabis affects this system. THC is a partial endocannabinoid receptor agonist.

nicotine affects a good number of systems too... but nicotinic AChRs are much less involved in development of higher brain function than CB receptors.

alcohol affects a number of systems too... and temporarily affects learning and memory, but these functions are generally well restored in all but the most chronic users.

strictly from a biochemical/physiological standpoint, it's a bad idea.

and no, i'm not a conservative.

 

So as long as we keep it away from the kids... like every drug should be, including cigarettes and alcohol.. and away from people who want to have kids.. we should be fine.

btw.. it does build a tollerence.. good point.. but it's of no use, unless it's a huge plan of mass distruction. I can see it now. Terrorist making huge crops of marajuana that they plan to burn in the middle of cities to get everyone high.. lol.. stocks would crumble... lawyers wouldn't be able to argue.. everything would be forgotten for a couple hours. lol.

 

So we won't legalize it to keep it out of the hands of kids? Here's the wake up call you requested...

 

Actually, it is very hard to characterize increased regulation of recreational drugs as either left or right. There are a lot of libertarians on the right, who are opposed to the War On Drugs for the silly, ineffective, and unending intrusion into civil rights at massive taxpayer expense that it is, and there are plenty of nanny-staters on the left who welcome the opportunity to show off how authoritarian they can be.

And then there is just politics, for example, Bill Clinton stated in an interview with Rolling Stone immediately following his presidency that he supported the decriminalization of marijuana--but on his watch, the number of arrests for marijuana more than doubled.

Really, it is at least if not more likely that any real drug law reforms will come from Republicans rather than Democrats--because for whatever reason, nobody cares about the youthful "indiscretions" of Republicans, whereas an Democrat who proposes change will be widely accused of trying to deal crack to your kids.

 

The netherlands is a terrible comparison on many fronts. The 'American Culture' is so much different than 'Dutch Culture'. You did not make any case on how legalized pot would improve the social fabric of the United States. Legalized pot would just accelerate the creation of a permanent Amercian underclass.

 

the simple truth is how responsible are we as adults? You don't give a cigarette to a kid. You don't keep it in his presense. You don't blow smoke at a kid.

In the long run it won't matter if it's legalized or not. The people who use it, use it. If they are not responsible, then they shouldn't have it. Either way, responsible or not, people who should not have it will get a hold of it. Just like kids drinking underage.

If it it legalized there should be laws.. like the little rules i stated. You can't smoke when pregnant. unfortunetly there i snothing stopping the male from smoking before he gets his g/f or wife pregnant. Then again.. i think cigarettes are just as bad if not worse. I've never heard of anyone dying of cancer from weed. *shrug* I've seen some dumb SOBS though. They have never been harmful to other *cough* alcohol *cough*

All in all, i think all drugs are bad. People will still use them though.

 

what does that have to do with culture?? You already have a permanently accelerating American underclass. Decriminalization might eliminate petty street crimes related to dealing with it and empty lots of jails, unless you are considering building jails at tax payers expense a benefitting factor to the economy. I am not sure what the percentage of the crimes related to possesion of marijuana is, but I think it's quite substantial

 

Jeff Spicoli was a terrible stereotype, most potheads actually lead very productive lives full of achievement and happiness!

 

And how the heck did these Dutch pot heads manage to build the best levees in the world? They must have been smoking heavily from the childhood!

 

Frankly I think that if it were legalized then it would be taxed and therefore a good source of income for the Government.