Maybe in the short run but we really don’t know what will happen in the long run. Most likely marijuana consumption will decline in the long run. Keep in mind, tobacco has been legal for a long time but consumption has decreased significantly. Part of that is due to taxation but part of it is also due to the public image of smoking.Unless they repeal the law of supply and demand, repealing marijuana laws will increase marijuana usage. As the governor asked (above), do we want to be a nation of stoners? We ought to consider that question seriously.
Do you believe it is moral to put people in jail for consumption of drugs?You must be on them yourself to vote this way, who wants to belong to a nation of crack heads, and everyone is going around like a zombie, robbing people and places in order to get a fix. Get a grip.
Coming into this thread late I just want to pick up on this sentence here and state that legally there may be a line between use and abuse but in the reality of our Christian faith: there is no line between use and abuse of drugs.There is a line between use and abuse.
I see your considered angle on this but I still disagree although you make good points.Can you not see the distinction between making something legal vs endorsing it as a good choice? Tobacco is legal but is heavily discouraged and seeing declining use. Alcohol is legal but a rather large portion of the population rarely touches the stuff.
It is your prerogative to hold that your faith sees no line between use and abuse. My line revolves around the consequences in the materiel world. For example, one can use a video game for entertainment but one can also abuse it by spending most of one’s time playing the game to the near abandonment of friends, job, and personal upkeep. (I’ve seen this happen to a friend)
As said before I’d like our anti drug efforts to focus more on rehab instead of punishment. The number of raids, the force used, and other abuses by law enforcement in the war on drugs is reason enough to legalize but discourage drug use.
As someone with the game GratefulFred, I’d think your opinion would be somewhat different.MJ should remain illegal. The degree of punishment should be adjusted given the circumstance.
As the California Governor recently said, do we really want to be become a nation of stoners?
Because smoking marijuana does not have the same effects as smoking something with nicotine and chemicals? I’ll look for the research, but there is not a single death or diagnosis of cancer, brown lung, &c. by someone who has smoked on cannabis.In Australia, they are taxing cigarette smokers into oblivion. (Mainly to try and reduce the massive health-care costs related to smoking)
Smoking is banned in virtually all public spaces - train stations, restaurants, markets, indoor workplaces.
All tobacco advertising is banned.
Cigarette packets cannot be visible to the customer at the point of sale - customers can’t see any merchandising from behind the counter. Plain packaging of cigarettes is mandatory. (Dull, gray, black. etc)
The only color allowed on the packaging is government-imposed health warnings like these;
…so why would any government want to send a mixed signal to people by newly announcing that smoking marijuana is OK.
Even alcohol? That’s cool.Sometimes I feel the same way. I hate the idea of it, but feel like if people want to do that to themselves, they should have the legal right to… otherwise it is taking money out of tax payers pockets to keep these people in line.
All should be heavily taxed, heavily discouraged, and seen as a social taboo. I like what Lion said about the way cigs are handled in Australia, and feel like perhaps all drugs should be legal but should be treated the same way.
And of course, companies should be allowed to administer drug tests and refuse to hire anyone with it in their system.
This is not true. For those who are beginning, yes they can go overboard with their dose. Just like you can with alcohol or cigarettes, or pain killers.Pope Francis votes No: catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20140620.htm#head7
One difference between alcohol and marijuana is, you can use alcohol without getting drunk. That is not how marijuana is used because that would only be like one puff. Thus, there is no legitimate recreational use of marijuana. Therefore, I think it should be accessible only to medical researchers.
Actually, I think that we are not that far apart. My main issue is method and the unintended consequences. If a goal is moral, does the abundance of negative consequences make it prudent to enforce?People have a duty of care. If it takes support, and effort, then so be it. But one has a duty and responsibility to say that taking mind-altering and impairing drugs for recreation purposes is a bad thing to do. We can say that to ban Marijuana is a moral good and a religious good because religious views are also always the truly moral perspective.
Well, right now I am on massive amounts of drugs (pain killers) so I am not going to Heaven? If I ever get off painkillers, I’ll still be on brain/blood drugs, so I’ll not be going to Heaven?I also think all drugs should be legalized, in fact not taxed or regulated either.
Also, as a former user of psychedelic drugs of all sorts, including many most people have never heard of, I have to insist that ALL drug use is utterly abominable and mortally sinful.
Few people know that the word in sacred scripture translated as “sorcery” is in fact the Greek word specifically pertaining to drug use. Sorcerers shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. That means drug users. An uncomfortable and rough truth, but real nonetheless.
So then, why would I advocate for legalization?
Violence.
The violence brought by drugs is a product of their incredible monetary value, which is in turn a product of their illicit status.
The only way to end the violence is to devalue them as a commodity. The only way to devalue them as a commodity is to legalize them entirely, with absolutely no restrictions, no taxation, no regulation, nothing. Within a generation, their use, their cost, and their violent effects would be obliterated.
At the same time, a large social push to ostracize users would be helpful.
Pope Francis did nothing new. He agreed to a committee letter that said legalization of drugs is not good. What kind of drugs are we talking about, this is a really yellow way for journalists and teetotalers to say that the Church does not like something specific. This is a broad statement. The Pope is not referencing CO and WA, he is referencing the world.Agree with Pope Francis, with two exceptions:
Peace to all and God Bless.
- Authorized by a medical doctor for treatment of a specific condition;
and- medical research.
Why is it a canard?Medical MJ is a canard.
I know the angle you mean and it is a fine line between something not being good for someone and, as another poster mentioned, making for a claustrophobic society - a ‘theocracy’.Actually, I think that we are not that far apart. My main issue is method and the unintended consequences. If a goal is moral, does the abundance of negative consequences make it prudent to enforce?
I don’t think users of any addictive substance should be jailed. This is the fault of the police wanting to get convictions. Unless they pose a significant and evident threat and very real threat to society. I think they need to be put on programs. The reason they are not is partly the first reason I gave and because to jail users is easier and quicker and safer and cheaper for the police all the way through the process than going after the big guns.To say marijuana is bad is fine and true. Pressuring abusers into rehab is fine. The problem is that “ban” typically implies criminal penalties. Is it morally good to destroy someone’s life more so than the drugs would? Prison time and such are often much more detrimental than the drug use/abuse.
We are agreeing on this. If suppliers could be cut off from their market through programs for the customers then the war is won to some degree but we can’t make it legal. And we think that this would solve the problem of big-time gang crime…no way. Big gangs will find something else to do like deal more in guns and people-trafficking or find a way to put their fingers in the pies legally/but illegally.Broken families, civil forfeiture abuses, police raids on the wrong home resulting in home owners shooting cops whom they reasonable fear for their life from, intrusive bodily searches, and on and on. Basically, it’s a health and social issue not criminal. The totality of the law enforcement efforts have been an utter disaster.