For Or Against Legalization of Marijuana?

[EquALLity]

I watched a video prison lobbying recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxNiNv97ZdM
There are sources in the description.

All drugs should be legal

While I do agree with you, I do for different reasons. For, as a civil libertarian, I believe the individual should always have the option to do something & exercise freedom, so long as it does not limit or negatively impact upon another individual's freedom.

I agree with this, but then I think about how some people harm others while under the influence. Even with alcohol, it's a problem. Imagine if we legalized cocaine. But then, people just get it illegally, and there are tons of strong, cheap, technically legal and similar drugs that you can make anyway.

So what would be the point of making cocaine illegal? People can just make their own drugs legally. Wouldn't it be better to make all drugs legal, tax them, and make money?

But then, people are lazy, and might just give up at having to make their own/getting it illegally.

Difficult subject.

[Jebus]

But then, people are lazy, and might just give up at having to make their own/getting it illegally.

There is no one less lazy than a drug addict in need of a fix. The occasional user, however, might decide that it's not worth it if it's too much of a hassle.

[EquALLity]

But then, people are lazy, and might just give up at having to make their own/getting it illegally.

There is no one less lazy than a drug addict in need of a fix. The occasional user, however, might decide that it's not worth it if it's too much of a hassle.

I was talking about people who haven't yet tried drugs, but are curious and want to. I guess it could apply to occasional users as well.

So then this would mean less people taking really strong drugs. We would lose this if we legalize the powerful ones, and then more people would probably harm others while taking these drugs.

[mainerichards]

I'm up for legalization, because it's about that we take a look at the medical benefits of using marijuana and stop being one-sided about its harmful effects on human beings. We need to open our eyes and minds on what can be the answer to all our problems. We can know more about its benefits by checking out Budslist and other sites that provide enlightenment on the matter.

[Red]

cool

[Kyron]

I don't think there's any hard evidence to show that marijuana has any medical uses aside from a pain-killer. (Especially in regards to those idiots who shout "weed cures cancer") - I think people should be able to use recreational drugs if they should choose to without prosecution. If addiction is the worry, we should be funding mental health and rehabilitation clinics even more... Another thing, rehab should not be optional. Much like someone who is suicidal, they should no longer be considered responsible for their own safety and they should be helped without choice.

[Lightningman_42]

I'm highly in favor of legalizing marijuana, but not for the reasons that you might expect. I personally have no interest in smoking, and have graduated from UC Santa Cruz without having ever smoked anything (I know that's shocking*).

If I'm not mistaken, hemp production is illegal in California because it is so difficult (perhaps impossible) to distinguish it from the strain of Cannabis sativa used for drug production. Hemp is an extremely useful plant. It can be used for paper-pulp production, and grow much faster than trees, requiring far less land to generate the same yield as trees within a certain amount of time (thus more environmentally friendly). It can also be used to produce various ointments and oil, and of course hemp-milk!

I'd actually like more information on this though: would legalization of marijuana in California in turn guarantee legalization of hemp? It's the hemp that I really care about most.

*UCSC has a reputation as being a major "pot-school". Look up "4/20" if you want to know more.

[brimstoneSalad]

As far as I know, weed does nothing for cancer directly (though smoking could cause it, because of the smoke), it reduces some of the unwanted side effects of chemotherapy; it's sort of a modest pain reliever, and improves appetite.

It's hard to compare this kind of thing to placebo, though.

Great point AA. Don't forget Hemp seeds themselves. Better than hemp milk.

[garrethdsouza]

Sam Harris had drawn comparisons of the problems caused due to alcohol vs weed consumption in his book the end of faith. And weed turned out to come out much more favorably. Idk if he's consulted experts in the field though as that seems to be a complaint levied at him quite often, and Idk what's their take on it.

[EquALLity]

Today in school, this guy Kevin A. Sabet came in as a speaker. He worked for the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, and he's written a book called 'Reefer Sanity' (like 'Reefer Madness). His idea was that marijuana, according to science, has been proven harmful. Another large part of his presentation was that giant corporations want legalization, and are preying on kids with things like pot candies, and are the new 'big tobacco' (because of candy cigarettes, and because 'big tobacco' used to use 'medicinal tobacco' etc. to further its agenda).

I got to ask him a question, but only one because of time.

He had a number of studies (not sure how reliable- I remember he said that 'big weed' or something hired a scientist in Norway to disprove one of those studies, but that the researchers did it again, adjusting to the criticism, and got the same results) (one trying to prove that marijuana decreases your IQ by 8 points), and I asked him if they were about marijuana smoke or vaporization/edibles. He said that most were about smoke (didn't specify), but that recent studies have shown that vaporization is still harmful and gets more harmful as the temperature goes up. He also said that marijuana is harmful to the brain regardless of how it is consumed, and that therefore edibles are harmful too.

Interestingly, he seemed to be pretty against the War on Drugs. Someone in favor of legalization said something like, "Better corporations that the government can regulate get the money from marijuana than drug cartels."

Kevin responded by saying that marijuana use has increased since Colorado legalized, that no other countries have legalized (failed to mention that this is because of some international treaties and that Canada is working on it, though he did mention that the Netherlands is on that path), that 70% of tobacco sales in NY state are from the black market (failed to mention that this would be 100% if it was illegal), etc..

He also said that cartels would just find something else to replace marijuana with.

But he also said that he was in favor of marijuana decriminalization, just not legalization, and that he thinks people shouldn't go to jail for marijuana. He also said he was against our policies that lead to so much incarceration, and emphasized how we incarcerate so many people in America.

However, after that, he said that people don't go to jail for smoking marijuana.

Found this: http://www.drugwarrant.com/2015/10/kevi ... e-sanders/
Marijuana enthusiast? Because of that quote? WTF?

On top of that, in his speech, he mentioned how marijuana being 'natural' is irrelevant, and listed off some 'natural' things that are bad.
But then later, he was like, "The high you get from music, that's natural. But the high you get from marijuana is unnatural!"

I see he's been on the O'Reilly Factor, and some other things.

Anyway, thoughts?