Magic Fox, while I respect your opinion on the dangers of marijuana, I just think that the incarceration of individuals for using such a substance in their spare time is ridiculous. We use many dangerous products in our every day lives, some that we take into our bodies, that also cause harmful effects. I'm gonna cite a non-article but
this cites articles that show the relative benignness of cannabis. However, I believe that smoking is a practice that probably should be discouraged and use methods that do not require the intake of ash and smoke such as oral ingestion through butters (used often in "pot brownines" or "cookies") or via vaporizers which don't require burning the plant.
In addition, the long term effects in of themselves are not in of themselves a good reason to ban a particular product to the point of completely making all use of it with exception of very closely monitored use in studies is honestly an absurd concept. Tobacco is known to have many negative effects and the government requires that products must display the dangers of smoking it (which is something I would be mighty fine with Marijuana).
There are chemicals in meat that are linked to Colon Cancer as well.
Again, I can't help but feel that a lot of your motivation is somewhere internal. Did you have some sort of bad experience with it? Not using it but I mean like someone drove high and got hurt or someone was high and an ******* or something. Not to criticize, but it really comes off that way. If you don't that's fine, but how about I propose this. Honestly, what I want to have is something about as well regulated as alcohol. I think it should be illegal to drive under the influence. I think that it should be illegal to smoke or be high in certain locations. I think that you must be 21 in order to legally obtain or use cannabis. I think that otherwise you should be arrested and have a zero tolerance policy. I think that companies legally can test for cannabis use after an accident but with a test that lasts no longer than a week from the incident. I think that these restrictions are fair, because they allow people who are older to have access to something without being thrown in jail for it, but also restricts its use to vulnerable parties or its use in risky situations. That's my whole jiff here.
In addition, for something that quite frankly is not going to be regulated because the problem keeps growing and growing, the government is sure
investing a lot in it. Regardless of your side of drug use, the government is most certainly losing the drug war. Cannabis use is growing in social acceptability across our nation and in other countries in the world, regardless of whether or not the country wants it. I'm not gonna play the constitution card because we all know where that leads but I personally feel that random drug testing at non-critical jobs (i.e. non transportation, driving or government jobs) is an invasion of our amendment rights of Right to Privacy, because unlike a driver's license (lol) there's not really a good reason that a company wants to know whether or not you use drugs outside of an integrity check. However, drug use is not necessarily inversely proportional to your integrity as an employee and are not necessarily correlated. Stress, psychological and physical disabilities and attributes can also affect your ability to work effectively but rarely in those cases are you discharged for that reason alone (unless the physical condition means you cannot physically do your job anymore).
Again, the argument is less "is it harmless" and rather "should I be spending time locked up in jail for the use or distribution of such a substance".
Please tell me that you agree at least with the fact that the way our criminal justice system deals with drug users is abysmal, treating them like criminals as opposed to people who are physically addicted to a substance and need help.