Legalizing Marijuana

[Bela]

Your main opposition to marijuana legalization: the alcohol industry

 

[Polizard]

Any drug can have an affect on people over a long period of time were as cigarettes and alcohol affect you body with cancer liver problems heart disease ect. Marijuana also can have a terrible long term effects on individuals i have seen personally with my aunts ex husband how it can turn a hard working electrician into a schizophrenic with terrible illusions and who always thinks people are after him. Also im pretty sure excess use lowers your immune system causing you to get sicker more often

 

[Kim Do-yeon]

If you legalize Marijuana goverments will take control of it and then put taxes on the product and then the prices of ounze's and eight's will go up.

 

[Steven]

If you legalize Marijuana goverments will take control of it and then put taxes on the product and then the prices of ounze's and eight's will go up.

That's a good thing, more revenue. YAY!

 

[FreakyLocz14]

If you legalize Marijuana goverments will take control of it and then put taxes on the product and then the prices of ounze's and eight's will go up.

While I'm an anti-tax kind of person, I believe that vice taxes are a good source of revenue because they are unnecessary vices that politicians on both sides of the two-party system can agree to.

 

[The Trotsky]

By keeping it illegal, we give money to the wrong people. Crooked people who may end up lacing that joint they sold you with something a little more...or worse.

Just wanna say, I hate this argument. Finding laced weed is so, so rare and unrealistic. No drug dealer wants to waste money putting expensive acid or hallucinogenics in to their regular old weed, it's just not cost effective. I don't think they're that malicious, to ruin their business, and for what?

Any drug can have an affect on people over a long period of time were as cigarettes and alcohol affect you body with cancer liver problems heart disease ect. Marijuana also can have a terrible long term effects on individuals i have seen personally with my aunts ex husband how it can turn a hard working electrician into a schizophrenic with terrible illusions and who always thinks people are after him. Also im pretty sure excess use lowers your immune system causing you to get sicker more often

Not to put down your uncle or anything, but marijuana has never been proven to lead to psychotic disorders. There were some studies that suggested weed may hasten the onset of some diseases, but that's it. Yet, there are also doctors who prescribe medical cannabis to patients to help treat scizophrenia. And the immune system thing is false. Weed actually makes you healthier in some cases, including but not limited to cancer, glaucoma, and artery/heart disease.

If you legalize Marijuana goverments will take control of it and then put taxes on the product and then the prices of ounze's and eight's will go up.

An unfortunate casualty

That's a good thing, more revenue. YAY!

While the stoner in me actively protests cost hikes, the intellectual in me understands that it's a good thing long-term. :'(

 

[Dawn]

Not to put down your uncle or anything, but marijuana has never been proven to lead to psychotic disorders. There were some studies that suggested weed may hasten the onset of some diseases, but that's it. Yet, there are also doctors who prescribe medical cannabis to patients to help treat scizophrenia. And the immune system thing is false. Weed actually makes you healthier in some cases, including but not limited to cancer, glaucoma, and artery/heart disease.

Y'know what drives me crazy? When I tried to find evidence to support/disprove what you said. I immediately found myself facing two seemingly good studies giving two completely contradictory conclusions.

I can't justify trusting any evidence when clearly /someone/ has a personal agenda influencing their studies and based on that I also can't trust what anyone else says because they've no doubt gotten their info from some said studies.

And then people bring up the conspiracy theories about which side is falsifying their evidence and why and at some point I just give up.

It's like arguing about whether someone layed hands on you or not in tag. Except in this case, tackling said person and hitting him until he admits he has been tagged would be completely appropriate, at least to me it would be, as this sort of public confusion is unacceptable.

I think the truth needs to become clear one way or another.

 

[Pekin]

I like weed. Legalize it.

I use the ever-winning argument that it being illegal is a huge contradiction in the law, which has already legalized tobacco and alcohol, both of which I also enjoy every now and then. If people don't want to go near it, people who do smoke, should of course respect that. We should all be allowed to break down our bodies, if we want to, but we shouldn't smoke those who choose a healthy life right in the face, that's just being rude.

 

[Kobold Asylum]

I wish it was legal. People smoke that nasty knock off stuff coz it's legal. That **** will kill you. If weed was legal, then nobody would buy the knock off stuff and things would be safer. Take it from an ex pothead.

 

[Masqueraine]

Of course weed should be legalized, and taxed. It's incredibly pointless to leave it on the black market where it will benefit criminals, when you could legalize it for medical and recreational use at a profit while at the same time preventing x amount of monies from going into the wrong hands. It's unreal how easy it is for children to get right now, legalizing it isn't going to effect whether or not people do it. They're already doing it.

 

[Vrai]

Correct me if I'm wrong, please, but... if weed is legalized, doesn't that make people more willing to be underground with it? No one really wants to pay taxes on these drugs that they've never paid taxes for before and received the vast majority of the revenue themselves. Isn't it more likely that people would go underground regardless to flat-out avoid paying those taxes for selling weed and thus kinda debunking a fairly large part of the argument? ;o;

 

[Nihilego]

Absolutely not. I don't get why people try to use the "it's better than cigarettes" argument to justify it. You can't go and break someone's leg and then say "well it's not as bad as murder so it's ok". Even if it's not all that bad for you, it will get abused pretty hard. It's not addictive in itself but the feeling you get from it is. Before you know it people everywhere will be simply abusing the ability to get high legally and it'll more than likely start causing social problems. And then what? We can't just say "actually it's causing problems so banned again" or anything like that. It'll be near enough impossible to remove again. Whoops, there's another completely legal social problem, fitting right in with cigarettes and, if abused, alcohol.

 

[Esper]

Correct me if I'm wrong, please, but... if weed is legalized, doesn't that make people more willing to be underground with it? No one really wants to pay taxes on these drugs that they've never paid taxes for before and received the vast majority of the revenue themselves. Isn't it more likely that people would go underground regardless to flat-out avoid paying those taxes for selling weed and thus kinda debunking a fairly large part of the argument? ;o;

I would assume that if it were legalized then law enforcement would be able to focus more on those sellers who aren't doing it the legal way. Buying from illegal sellers then would be more risky. The legal sellers would probably also help law enforcement crack down on the competition or at least pressure people to do things legally. There are a lot of factors going in to why people would put up with taxes. I'm sure quality of the product, having a better understanding of where your money is going to, not wanting to feel like you're doing something illegal when you don't have to, and probably other things go into it.

 

[Masqueraine]

Correct me if I'm wrong, please, but... if weed is legalized, doesn't that make people more willing to be underground with it? No one really wants to pay taxes on these drugs that they've never paid taxes for before and received the vast majority of the revenue themselves. Isn't it more likely that people would go underground regardless to flat-out avoid paying those taxes for selling weed and thus kinda debunking a fairly large part of the argument? ;o;

Nah, I don't think so. If weed was legalized it would prompt people to not necessarily be open about their use, but to acquire it legally for numerous reasons.

One would be simply to avoid doing something illegal. Why go through the trouble of dealing with black market prices and illegal street dealers when you could take a walk to the local dispensary and get it cheaper, taxes included? It's illogical, nobody is going to risk a criminal record at a loss to themselves. Much in the same way alcohol did, weed will cease to exist on the black market in its entirety. The only thing illegal associated to weed is going to be adults providing it to minors, but like I said before, insane numbers of kids are already doing it. It's easier to obtain than alcohol, which is honestly hilarious to me considering its legal status.

The only people who support marijuana prohibition are drug dealers and the uninformed, both of which are working together unfortunately.

 

[Oryx]

Absolutely not. I don't get why people try to use the "it's better than cigarettes" argument to justify it. You can't go and break someone's leg and then say "well it's not as bad as murder so it's ok". Even if it's not all that bad for you, it will get abused pretty hard. It's not addictive in itself but the feeling you get from it is. Before you know it people everywhere will be simply abusing the ability to get high legally and it'll more than likely start causing social problems. And then what? We can't just say "actually it's causing problems so banned again" or anything like that. It'll be near enough impossible to remove again. Whoops, there's another completely legal social problem, fitting right in with cigarettes and, if abused, alcohol.

That analogy only works if murder is legal. :/ The point is that they're better than cigarettes, which aren't illegal.

 

[ThisOrTheApocalypse]

It shouldn't be legalized, the thought of everyone high, at least those who do it, all the time is just disturbing.

 

[twocows]

It shouldn't be legalized, the thought of everyone high, at least those who do it, all the time is just disturbing.

Hugging shouldn't be legalized, the thought of everyone hugging, at least those who do it all the time, is just disturbing.

 

[Ghost]

I believe it should only be prescribed for medical reasons. Age doesn't matter, you kids smoking just about everything these days. If they can't get it they grow it. It's not always what we believe and what should be legal because just about everything get around one way or another and the law never catches it.

 

[Aljam]

At the moment, the provincial government in Ontario is being pressed to legalize marijuana due to the fact that an Ancaster man grew some weed because the government was taking too long to give him his medicinal weed. He got arrested and brought the situation to court. The court was basically at a stand still and they let him go. Only 2 things come out of this, Canada, or more specifically Ontario can either legalize marijuana or make medical marijuana more available, or face hundreds or thousands of people taking their charges to court as well which would waste money, in fact, a supreme court judges are looking over the law right now as the deadline for this is July 13th. Weed is a perfect opportunity to get governments out of debt and make money. Also weed would've been legalized by Layton if Canada didn't have 2 left wing parties. I personally see no problem with it being legalized as it isn't even harmful at all. It can be addictive to people who have addictive personalities but for most people it isn't even a problem. I myself have tried weed and it isn't even all that bad, because I smoked it, I didn't go into harder drugs like meth or heroine, and in fact I was perfectly fine and functional around 20 minutes later. A lot of people grew up with all the hype thinking weed is bad and dangerous and I myself was hesitant at first, but there was no problems associated with weed.

 

[Katja]

My opinion is pretty simple on this.

Cigarettes are legal and they harm your health.
Marijuana doesn't harm your health, but it's illegal. Doesn't make much sense to me...