Should Recreational Marijuana Be Legalized?

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So how do the youth of today get around? All the young people I know drive. Single driver cars are common. Not so much in the 1960s when people had families. And people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, etc. are driving. They are part of the potential market. Some of them may be aging Hippies who thought they had a right to smoke dope all along. Like I said, I was there. It was dumb and harmful. Still is.

Organized crime will invest. They will take their cut. Besides, their boys on the street don’t sell bootleg alcohol. They sell marijuana and other illegal drugs. Some people don’t want their face on a security camera in a legal dope store/outlet, so they will still buy from the guy down the street like they have been.

And legal problems may become an issue in accident insurance claims.
 
Kids today use Uber, electric scooters, bicycles, mass transit, etc. It is currently a big city phenomenon and depends on the city but many kids don’t even get excited about getting a drivers license!

I’m undecided on organized crime and the pot issue. Looking back to prohibition is the only reference we have so far and legalizing alcohol did remove the crime from alcohol. I think it will with pot, too but it’s too soon to tell.

Look, I’m not in favor of anyone smoking pot. I’m also not in favor of our youth going to jail over it and ruining their lives with a criminal record because of their stupid experimenting. It’s a hard call either way.

I just think regulating it is better than leaving it in the hands of organized crime and I don’t see a better solution for that than regulation. The tax benefits being used to find solutions is a win in my mind. Having everyone decide it’s a stupid drug that benefits no one would be ideal but I tend to be more realistic.
 
Agreed. It would be the last straw for me!

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AZ42 said:
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Cruciferi:
Don’t Huff, Don’t Puff, stay away from that stuff!
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Yes, it bad. But is this the governments prerogative? Where does it stop? Should they criminalize all things that are bad for your health? Alcohol? Tobacco? Sugar?
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For things that impact on the wider public safety and the public purse, yes, that is why we accept authoritative governance. With marijuana, the public safety issue is not just driving stoned. The industry likes to present the product as the face of chill and laid back but the mental health industry knows the truth of its connection with psychotic and anti social conditions which also impacts of families and the public’s safety
 
No, because although what you ingest is usually your business, we live in a Welfare State where everyone is on the hook if drug users can’t hold a job and must pay their bills $$, so it is everyones business. Get rid of Welfare State then use whatever drugs you want.
 
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Lev said:
For things that impact on the wider public safety and the public purse, yes, that is why we accept authoritative governance.
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But are what cost? I think a big driver of drug legalization efforts are because we have seen the enforcement cause as much or more harm than the drug itself.
 
Cannabis is very bad for the mind and no pot warrior will convince me otherwise.
 
Research into cannabis should be allowed, so we can get scientific evidence of its effects on humans. Then we can sort out precisely to what degree it is harmful, and whether it is just the extremely high concentration of THC in modern weed that’s the problem.
 
I’m in favor of decriminalization and a move to the Portuguese model that emphasizes intervention and treatment.
 
I saw my stepson’s life badly affected by it. Definitely not for legalizing it, but punishment should be fines for use, heavy fines for sale, and jail for DUI.
 
Convert3 said:
I saw my stepson’s life badly affected by it. Definitely not for legalizing it, …
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If you extended this to alcohol, meat and smoking I’d agree that you’re consistent. Addiction to substances, can be dangerous to your life. But I don’t believe criminalisation is the key, and I don’t believe an addict is helped by being put into debt to the government.

“The great problem [re: Prohibition] is that we mix up the cause and the effect. There are two kinds of drinking. If a man is happy he drinks to express his happiness. That is good drinking. Then there is the case of the man who is so unhappy that he drinks in the search of happiness. You do not get at the root by stopping his drink. To get at the root you must change the industrial system that makes him unhappy. It is not only to have a more even distribution of wealth, though that would do much. In addition we must bring back old customs, dances, songs, beliefs: the things that kept man happy before modern industry was born.[2]” - Chesterton, On Prohibition
 
Why start with marijuana and get intervention and treatment later? Don’t use it and you won’t need treatment.
 
Pattylt said:
Looking back to prohibition is the only reference we have so far and legalizing alcohol did remove the crime from alcohol. I think it will with pot, too but it’s too soon to tell.
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Charles Krauthammer (RIP) had good point on this: “Alcohol is far more dangerous than pot. However, we already tried to ban alcohol and it failed miserably because alcohol is too ingrained in the culture. Ideally if you could reset society, it would be best if we had one where alcoholic was illegal and pot was legal.”
 
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edwest said:
Why start with marijuana and get intervention and treatment later? Don’t use it and you won’t need treatment.
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The majority of people who use marijuana recreationally don’t become addicts. My mom, my father, my big sister, my big brother, my little sister and most of my friends have used it occasionally. I haven’t, but I don’t see it as anymore dangerous than beer.
 
Lev said:
The industry likes to present the product as the face of chill and laid back but the mental health industry knows the truth of its connection with psychotic and anti social conditions which also impacts of families and the public’s safety
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True, however look at the reverse. If someone goes to jail for having weed, that would likely do no favors to their mental health. I wouldn’t mind the government confiscating it, but jail time for possessing it is out of line. Ideally, prison should be where people who are a danger to society are kept. Is the pothead really such a danger he needs to be locked up with murderers and robbers?
 
Research has been done.

There is Marinol, a synthetic form of THC.
And there is Sativex.

It’s like saying an accredited lab cannot study a live, deadly viruses.

My questions are: Who guarantees purity and quality? Surely growers will have to prove they are doing their job.
And who will monitor the packagers and distributors?
Who decided that marijuana was safe enough for use by the public? Anyone?

So far, things are not going well.

 
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