Thoughts Apaches? Record-High 50% of Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana Use

[gazzthompson]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/150149/record-high-americans-favor-legalizing-marijuana.aspx

Though the poll is Americans, feel free people to comment on legalization in your own countries outside of US

[jamieooh]

i say go for it tax it like cigarettes . I still wont do that crap.

[Sixx]

Gazz, people are waking up.
The fear-mongering lying politicians are all dying off and bullshit government studies and false claims against marijuana are becoming a thing of the past.
You just have old codgers like Newt Gingrich spreading venom to keep the bullshit war on drugs going.

How much money wasted? How many fucking lives destroyed? How many non-violent offenders for marijuana offense get lumped together with rapists and murderers in prison?



THERE is NOTHING wrong with Marijuana when used responsibly by adults. I'm closer to the age of 40 now and I have been consuming Marijuana now for well over half my life.
I am a functional adult. Responsibility is the key word.... I smoked marijuana regularly prior to me joining the military and I was able to complete two enlistments without the urge to spark up once.


Marijuana a gateway drug? I always love that one......
I'd say daddy's booze stash and mommie's medicine cabinet are the real fucking gateway.

I piss on the corpses of dead prohibitionists.
I'm serious. I wish pain upon them for the pain that they have caused others.

[Sixx]

jamieooh

I doubt we could tax cannabis like a pack cigarettes .
And nobody would buy mass packaged shit in packs....it would degrade quality.

Cannabis is too easy to grow.
Buy a discrete indoor grow box like a SuperLocker or PC Grow Case
Buy some autoflowering dwarf strains

and you can harvest for personal consumption every 55-60 days.


Try that with tobacco......


We would have to have like a Permit or something that you apply for to get taxes from it.

[jamieooh]

no marlboro greens? I have heard big tobacco has plans to sell pot once it's legalized .

[LRB]

It'll never get legalised. Here's why:

There was a US government report released recently that stated that SMOKED marijuana had no health benefits whatsoever. Did you see what they did there with the wording?

Yep, they have paved the way for pharmaceutical companies to produce "marijuana pills" so that you can get high without having to buy weed from drug dealers, just as long as you can afford the 5000% mark up! (believe me, if you don't think drug companies are developing this, you're naive!) After all, they made it respectable for rich white people to be heroin addicts just by calling it Oxycontin. Coupled with the cuts to the FDA's "unnecessary" budget, this is sure to be speeded through Congress when it's introduced. After all, drug companies will make a killing & corrupt politicians will get paid, who wont benefit!? Oh yeah, the people who can't afford the "legal" version & continue to SMOKE marijuana, lock them up & throw away the key, they're dangerous hardened criminals!!

[Sixx]

You are right LRB. it's already like that now.....

There are two forms of pharmaceutical THC out there, Marinol and Sativex
Sativex is not available to US citizens.

Nobody wants that junk. it's not the same and it does not have the same therapeutic properties as the plant.
You cannot overdose on weed and die...but I bet you could destroy yourself with a pharmaceutical version easily.


My prescribed Vicodin and other narcotics from the VA....I flush them straight down the toilet.
Fuck that poison.

[eaglethebeagle]

Let me solve this problem for those of you who want weed to be legal.... First, someone write a list of counties where weed is legal next those of you who want to consume it legally move to one of those countries in the list. I deal with the pathetic pieces of shit that buy and sell that shit right next door to me. They fucking dont give a shit about anyone but themselves and I am basically beyond fucking over it with these drug dealing thugs who think they are lil wayne or snoop dog fucking shit for brains.

I have kids that play outside and ride their bikes around the street and these fuck stains nearly have hit my kids and other children on our street as they come and go for their personal drug fix. Sorry I dont give a shit who wants to drug themselves or even take their own life its your choice but dont force your shit on me and my family here in America. Live by the rules or move out. This country has had enough of the moral decline and its time to turn it around. Fucking political correct pussies wanting to please everyone including hippies and muzzies. Go fucking live in Europe and enjoy the socialism and etc.


I respect the shit out of those who serve America but you cant have it both ways. Cant be proud of America but hate the laws of the country and outwardly call for drugs to be legal.

Corruption and politics go hand and hand but two wrongs dont make a right either by saying corruption has stopped legalization of drugs when thank God corruption hasn't legalized illegal drugs.

We do have alcohol that gets me in a good mood so go get lit up with the legal stuff.

There is my opinion everyone has one.

[gazzthompson]

Im sorry you have to deal with Drug dealers eagle, Fortunately this is something ive never had to deal with. I dont see how wanting to change certain laws is Un-American? maybe i just dont get it being British but im proud of my country but believe certain laws could and should be changed , this is just natural evolution of a country.

You say "dont force your shit on me and my family here in America" This is fair enough, but why are you forcing your views on others ? is this not hypocrisy? if you dont want to smoke weed, or your family too then dont? why force this on others ?

Personally, i see no reason for Marijuana to be illegal. its not so much that i want it legal (so i can use it, cause i wont) i just dont see it being logical for it to be illegal whistle we still have alcohol and tobacco...

[eaglethebeagle]

drugs are harmful to people regardless the purpose behind using them for good or evil. There are some that have been molded into medicines so to help someone with a physical ailment. Sorry but just saying fuck it let everyone use all drugs and legalize everything because everyone should be able to make their own choice on whether to destroy themselves or not just doesn't make logical sense.

Drugs alter the mind and body and in most cases both at the same time. So I find it completely logical to say certain drugs are illegal and shouldn't become legal based on their ability to be abused or misused.

I dont buy the weed never killed anyone bullshit I have seen the reality of weed affecting a person and them actually driving into a ditch and dying. So dont start with that weed is harmless shit its bullshit.

Like I said I could give a shit if you do it and you do it in front of your kids and you do it with your parents and grandparents. I just dont want it fucking with my family and my families safety,

Alcohol and cigarettes are legal and whether they should be or not is another argument. Personally because alcohol is so abused and related to innocent death is why weed will never be legal.

They dont need more legal drugs coming into the main street causing more fucking insanity. There is already enough insanity with alcohol and illegal drugs.

[Sixx]

Eagle your problem has nothing to do with Marijuana.

Your problem is America. Our America now has no fucking values or morals. The bad outnumber the good.
It's time to wake up.
Maybe YOU should think about moving? Maybe getting a higher paying job to move out of the "hood"......oh wait, you can't. All of America is like that, there is no where to run now.......why??? It's not marijuana, that's for sure.

Your argument makes ZERO sense.

Ban CD's too......I had a troop in the military get distracted by inserting a CD in the radio and she went in the DITCH and rolled 5 times killing 2 occupants that were ejected.....oh and she drank a beer prior to that.

OMG we need to ban GUNS.....criminals have them and I'm sure those "pot dealers" next to you have some too huh? Oh what about the irresponsible parent that does not secure their firearms and allows their child to gain access.
BAN GUNS BAN GUNS.....BAN ALCOHOL....it messes with your head....ban tobacco...it messes with your head.

See?




Eagle buddy, we as Americans have BIGGER fucking problems in our country than a little psychoactive plant.
Our society as a whole is fucking sick....every year it just gets worse.

I'm more worried about a person TEXTING and driving and hitting children. I'm more worried about the scum that comes around my property looking for shit to steal to fuel their meth and PRESCRIPTION pill problems. I'm more worried about the increasingly violent people that are around me.
Worried about all the doped up people coming from the sanctioned drug den called a methadone clinic that is down the street from me, People passed out in their cars in the parking lot...and causing accidents when they leave. I'm more worried about about all the harmful shit in the food that my kids are eating.....
More worried about my kids getting bullied, cyber-bullied, assaulted on video and posted on youtube

I give you credit for staying in Florida though.....my family had enough sense to move out of Florida 35 years ago. But it didn't matter in the end because we are still surrounded by dirt bags and undesirables.


“Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda,
smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye can see.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“Make the most of the Indian Hemp Seed and sow it everywhere.”
~George Washington

"Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?"
- Henry Ford quote on Marijuana

"We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption."
- John Adams

[gazzthompson]

Just came across this:

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-medical-marijuana-laws-traffic-deaths.html


"Our research suggests that the legalization of medical marijuana reduces traffic fatalities through reducing alcohol consumption by young adults," said Daniel Rees, professor of economics at the University of Colorado Denver...

A few points to why i think it should be legal:

Limiting the use of the drug intrudes on personal freedom.
It could be a source of additional tax revenues.
The drug generally isn't more harmful than alcohol or tobacco if used in moderation.
Police and court resources would be freed up for more serious crimes. (do we really need to be spending millions/billions pursuing this? )
could regulate the quality and safety of drugs.

[LRB]

I recently read a story from Huffington Post about how marijuana possession arrests (not dealing) in the US is exploding, even though possession has been decriminalised in some major cities.

The story focuses on how police departments are so fixated on drug possession arrests, that other crimes may be considered secondary, including the woman featured in the story & how she felt ignored by Chicago PD after being assaulted, a worrying trend in my eyes! The story goes on to say that the reason this may happen is connected to the departments quota system & budget. Police departments are given quotas for drugs offences & this is tied to something called a "Federal Anti-drug Grant". Whenever a financial incentive is tied to a quota, it's obvious that the main focused will be shifted the the revenue stream, to the detriment of other crime. A few startling facts & figures grabbed my attention:

1) NYPD arrested 50,000 people for marijuana possession alone in 2010, despite the fact pot has been decriminalised in New York since 1977. However, displaying drugs in public is still illegal, so cops stop "suspects", get them to empty their pockets & if they have some weed on them they are arrested for showing it to the cops! According to a report from NY university there were 33,775 of these types of arrests from 1981-1995, between 1996-2010 there were 536,322!

2) Former NYPD narcotics detective Stephen Anderson recently testified in court that it's common for cops in the department to plant drugs on innocent people to meet quotas, a practice for which Anderson himself was then on trial.

All this is bad news for actual victims of other crimes, people feel they are ignored because cops focus on crime that generates revenue at a time of department cutbacks. This has already got out of control. I assume everyone has read the story of the former Marine gunned down in a "drugs raid" on his home, despite the police having little to no evidence of his supposed crime!

I think all this effort is wasted by criminalising high school kids, old folks etc... who just want to enjoy a little bit of weed. Prohibition never works, look at the mess caused in the 1930's!

Edit- I can't post the link to the story, I'll get someone to post it for me.

[Cole_Himself]

Say what you want here's my opinion. People who would regularly smoke weed like they smoke cigarettes would be leaches to society. You can't be a working member of society when you're high, that's all there is to it. Yeah the occasional smoke every few days won't ruin you, but when you can regularly get easy access to it who will do that? None of the pot heads, that's for damn sure. I'm not trying to offend anyone here but don't lie to yourself people. If my parent's hadn't smoked pot then my dad would still be here and I wouldn't have grown up in such a poor household. Absolutely every single person I know that regularly smokes weed has at least tried a harder drug. Keep it illegal.

[eaglethebeagle]

This reasoning that weed is a right being withheld is stupid. My point is alcohol and cigarettes ARE legal and it can be argued that they are both as bad or worse than weed in their own respects. What I am saying is more drugs available to the masses is just fucking stupid and that is why it takes a doctors supervision with legal medicines so that the individual can be supervised while using any drug that can cause potential harmful side affects. Cigarettes are being removed from society are they not? Both my parents smoked growing up but times have changed for the better have they not? I personally dont want to go to a nice restaurant and sit down to a meal and be forced to smell someone smoke their nasty menthol sitting next me while I eat.

My kids shouldn't be forced to breath in some nasty chain smokers second hand smoke while they come and go from the hospital or medical treatment facilities we have to visit on regular appointments.

So you want me to agree that after weed is made legal I should just accept that the stoner standing outside the hospital entrance getting his high and blowing his smoke where my kids have to walk through it is a sane idea? Fucking.... A... wake the fuck up and get with reality.

No people shouldn't drink and drive thats fucking stupid but its rampant even with good intentioned people they get lit up and think they can still drive only to go plow into some innocent person and end that persons life while they walk away unscathed because they were passed out during the impact.


The other thing is this argument that all the well intentioned weed advocates grow their own or someone that is short of sainthood grows their weed and so they dont contribute to the criminal networks that lead back to the cartels and funding those men and women who enjoy hacking off the cock and head of some unfortunate fellow hanging upside down still alive and conscious during the cartel fun Friday chop slash and hack festivities.


Why dont you people who think weed should be legal also advocate for cocaine and heroin legality? Meth should be legal should it not? Your freedom to use your preferred drug doesn't stop with weed does it? Why should it based on the arguments that its a freedom being withheld from you?

[Kurticus]

Eagle, if weed became legal or decriminalized, it would be given similar restrictions to those of alcohol. You would not be allowed to smoke in public, show your stash in public, drive while high, etc. Also, for you to compare Marijuana to cocaine, meth, and heroin is completely ignorant. You do know that Marijuana is less addictive and less harmful for you than tobacco, alcohol, meth, heroin, cocaine, even fucking Coffee.

[gazzthompson]

Link posted on LRB's behalf as he cant.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/drug-war-incentives-police-violent-crime_n_1105701.html?page=1

You make some good points eagle, but i feel they all have solutions. As per above, legalization would presumably put it in the same classification as Alcohol , and im not sure what the laws are in the US but consumption of alcohol in public is illegal here in the UK, so this wont be problem.

And comparing weed to cocaine and heroin is silly, weed should be the same 'class' and classification as alcohol, so comparing weed to cocaine and heroin is as silly as comparing alcohol to cocaine and heroin, two very different beasts .

@Cole_Himself

ive seen studies that show marijuana is not a gateway drug, also consider this.. why have they tried harder drugs? could it be the source they are getting the marijuana from? a drug dealer? well lets take it out of the hands of drug dealers, put it in shops and get people away from the harder drugs so they are not regularly exposed to it.

[Sixx]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msOfDHsa6YE



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsU2wlu5TfY



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvULz5IeiSA




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiWeyMleLio