Legalising Marijuana

[Garpal Gumnut]

Do any asf posters have an opinion on whether marijuana should be legalised.

A mate who suffers severe arthritis finds it helps him get up and about.

This is from CNN a TV station in the United States given to hyperbole and inaccuracy.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/21/medical.marijuana.policy/index.html


gg

 

[Agentm]

lsd is better

 

[wayneL]

Take it away from the crims.

Regulate it.

Standardise it.

Tax it.

Just like alcohol.

Win win.

 

[Tink]

I am anti drugs, so you will always get a NO from me on these topics.

 

[Wysiwyg]

I am anti drugs, so you will always get a NO from me on these topics.

I`m with Tink. Seen sporting potential, education aspirations and careers destroyed by the toxic weed.

 

[Krusty the Klown]

When you use logic in this matter, logic dictates legalisation.

There is no statistic that Marijuana has caused any deaths, it is not physically addictive (although it can be psychologically addictive like sex and World of Warcraft type games).

Alcohol causes many deaths and is the instigator of violence to other people apart from the user. It is physically addictive.

Tobacco causes death and disease and gives no change of consciousness or "buzz". It is physically addictive.

Marijuana does not induce violence like meth or alcohol. You cannot overdose on it and die.

Marijuana can be introduced in to the body through the stomach and induce a high without causing cancerous lung damage and death by smoking it.

Logic dictates outlaw tobacco and alcohol and legalise Marijuana.

I don't understand the demonisation of the the lesser evil marijuana when you have 2 worse legal drugs that cause so much death, violence and disease.

To quote Mr Spock - "It is illogical".

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Take it away from the crims.

Regulate it.

Standardise it.

Tax it.

Just like alcohol.

Win win.

Even though I am an anarcho-libertarian, and against more taxes, except for others, I must admit that this would be a good solution.

It would take it away from the crims , as you say wayne.

gg

 

[jono1887]

Hahaha, I'm actually writing an economics essay on this. Some stats I've come across:

- Its carcinogenic... but so are most other things..
- Studies have found risk of schizophrenia increases proportionally to the cannabis consumed before the age of 18 (study was over 30+ years), but we could just legalise it and put in age restrictions.
- It increases chance of dropping out of high school before completion.
- No associated risks with future job propects/income have been found.
- QLD govt. alone spent $3M a year on dealing with cannabis crimes.
- Estimates put the cannabis industry at $15bn annual turnover (imagine the tax potential for the govt!!)

 

[professor_frink]

I like my green home grown and tax free thank you very much.

 

[Lantern]

When has prohibition ever worked.

Legalise it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9to5UnAXVM

 

[drsmith]

- Estimates put the cannabis industry at $15bn annual turnover (imagine the tax potential for the govt!!)

1) If it was legal and commercially available how much of this would be a transfer from cigarettes ?

2) Given that it's easy to grow at home how would the government tax it ?
A solution that comes to mind would be to licence it's production so that small scale home production is cost prohibitive but that will only encourage the maintainance of a black market.

 

[Gone Fishin]

Once saw a guy dangling from a tree after using too much of the whacky tobacky. Another turkey thought he could fly after having some choof and decided to fly off a bridge onto a motorway. First guy needless to say never got to regret what he did, second one survived but was basically an immobile lump for the rest of his life. so I guess the stuff does not have any adverse effects. Lets legalise it and people can grow as much of the **** as they like without being prosecuted.

 

[professor_frink]

Once saw a guy dangling from a tree after using too much of the whacky tobacky. Another turkey thought he could fly after having some choof and decided to fly off a bridge onto a motorway. First guy needless to say never got to regret what he did, second one survived but was basically an immobile lump for the rest of his life. so I guess the stuff does not have any adverse effects. Lets legalise it and people can grow as much of the **** as they like without being prosecuted.

LOL

Following from Bill Hicks -

You never see a positive drug story on the news. They always have the same LSD story. You've all seen it: "Today a young man on acid...thought he could fly...jumped out of a building...what a tragedy!" What a dick. He's an idiot. If he thought he could fly why didn't he take off from the ground first? Check it out? You don't see geese lined up to catch elevators to fly south; they fly from the ****ing ground. He's an idiot. He's dead. Good! We lost a moron. ****ing celebrate. There's one less moron in the world.

 

[Soft Dough]

Do any asf posters have an opinion on whether marijuana should be legalised.

A mate who suffers severe arthritis finds it helps him get up and about.

This is from CNN a TV station in the United States given to hyperbole and inaccuracy.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/21/medical.marijuana.policy/index.html


gg

From the research I have seen it has a role as an anti-emetic and only a very limited role as an analgesic.

So I do not support it being used as an analgesic, when there are plenty of useful alternatives, for both Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.


There is also no argument I can think of to support legalisation of any more psychogenic agents. Perhaps some of the users disagree, but then again, as someone who used to deal with some of the "users" it definately makes sense to keep it as it is.

 

[DB008]

Simple answer; YES.

I believe that they are doing trials using THC Vaporizers for people with cancer and terminally ill patients for pain relief.
If my mother or father were sick in hospital (terminal) and asked me to get them some "pot" to make their life easier, l would try my hardest to get some, that's for sure.

 

[Mr J]

I am anti drugs, so you will always get a NO from me on these topics.

Do you feel this way about all drugs, or only for those that are currently illegal? If you give the nod to alcohol, why not marijuana? If you allow some and not others, why take a firm stance on all illegal drugs? I don't think it's logical to do that and then place all illegal drugs in the same group.

I like my green home grown and tax free thank you very much.

Depends how they do it. If they require producers to have licences (and I expect that they would), then your home-grown would still be illegal, and not taxed.

so I guess the stuff does not have any adverse effects

And nobody has ever done anything incredibly stupid while drunk?

 

[Krusty the Klown]

Do you feel this way about all drugs, or only for those that are currently illegal? If you give the nod to alcohol, why not marijuana? If you allow some and not others, why take a firm stance on all illegal drugs? I don't think it's logical to do that and then place all illegal drugs in the same group.

I concur

And nobody has ever done anything incredibly stupid while drunk?

Much more so and usually very violent, destructive and involving innocent people.

Any prohibitionists please name one incident where a person stoned on weed has harmed another person other than themselves.

LOL

Following from Bill Hicks -

I concur wholeheartedly.

When you deliberate this subject with logic and facts already in the public domain and not emotion - logic wins.

 

[Sugar Dunkaton]

I don't think that legalizing it is the solution. I for one do not want to have substance that alters peoples perceptions materially legally available, think about people driving high - and other activities where other people are in harms way from some one who is so bent they cant see straight. Im not a drug taker myself, but from everything I understand, weed is just a gateway towards other drugs, so having pot legalized, is just going to improve the numbers of people who cross over to harder drugs - but i am fairly sure that most people will get there anyway.

As for alcohol, I don't think you can blame alcohol for the violence, i think the people are to blame. I drink, and I occasionally drink too much - but i have never been involved in a scuffle. And yes there are some long term down side risks of alcohol abuse, but much like everything - moderation is your friend.

 

[explod]

Once a person reaches the age consent, and as long as the action in no way harms others, they ought to be able to do what they want, in toto.

The need for legislation on all matters would not be required, and some people would come to an early end which in the end cost us much less.

 

[Mr J]

I for one do not want to have substance that alters peoples perceptions materially legally available, think about people driving high - and other activities where other people are in harms way from some one who is so bent they cant see straight.

It would be treated no differently than drink driving. I imagine people who choose not to drink and drive would also choose not to drive while high.

Im not a drug taker myself, but from everything I understand, weed is just a gateway towards other drugs, so having pot legalized, is just going to improve the numbers of people who cross over to harder drugs - but i am fairly sure that most people will get there anyway.

A typical argument used, and in my opinion it is baseless. Many who would use it already use it, and most do not take harder drugs. I think that many who would try it but currently don't (due to availability or being illegal) are types that wouldn't touch harder drugs anyway. Marijuana is more often than not just a social drug, like alcohol.

As for alcohol, I don't think you can blame alcohol for the violence, i think the people are to blame. I drink, and I occasionally drink too much - but i have never been involved in a scuffle. And yes there are some long term down side risks of alcohol abuse, but much like everything - moderation is your friend.

So why the stance against marijuana? I'm also not sure why you talked of marijuana leading to drink driving and harder drugs, when here you say that it is the person that it to blame. You get drunk yourself, so you're obviously okay with alcohol, but why not marijuana? You support one which is no better than the other.