420 Legalize it?

[Rated R Superstar]

With Saturday being 420, the question going around is; should pot be legalized?

What say you?

 

[Chris]

I don't smoke but also don't have a problem with others doing it. I don't see it causing anymore problems than alcohol.

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

Economically, the legalization of marijuana could help a lot with this "recession", a lot less money being spent to imprison smokers, new jobs being created for growers, not to mention the taxing they can do much like cigarettes.

Although you then have those that will say "We got weed legalized, now to get the next drug". And that is the only drawback I can think of, as it could very well create a snowball effect leading to the want of harsher chemical drugs to be legalized.

 

[Chriss]

Yes. It is as simple as that. Everything has two sides and this is just one of them. There are many more ways you can use marijuana than just put it in a bong and take a hit. People who care to educate themselves in this manner know that legalizing it could bring. You have to know what you are talking about. I'm not a fan of these kids just running around screaming "legalize it!" and they don't know shit, they just want to spend their parents money and get stoned but I also am sick of those "I have a stick up my ass" people who don't know shit either but act like they do.

 

[Rated R Superstar]

I don't even smoke it that much. I only really smoke it when I'm stressed out, which has been a lot lately. I hate read any reports of people starting fights while high. The most us stoners do is get hungry and want to chill out. People treat it as if we are criminals and scum. The economy can benefit from it. But I think one draw back is that we could see a lot of young kids could find ways of getting it themselves. That could be dangerous.

 

[Deezy]

Legalize it and tax the fuck out of it.

It would add sooo much to the economy and it will employ tons of people affected by war on drug policies and pot growers everywhere. Not only would you add revenue to your country, you would add jobs to people who would be deemed unemplyable because of marijuana laws. And a slippery slope to harsher drugs is a moot point, because you can say the exact same thing about prescription meds leading people down the path to hillbilly heroin, but because lobbyist groups haven't been spending 70 years creating a stigma against presciption pain killers like they have been for marijuana, I guess nobody makes that connection.

And I hate 420, it is such an arbitrary thing that people use to abuse a very useful tool in marijuana. This is like planking imo, it's fucking stupid. And it does more harm than good to anyone who is a wweed advocate.

 

[The Cork]

My biggest problem with legalising would be all the pics of 'bros' on my Instagram posting pics of their latest stash.

I don't think it's 'cool' at all anymore, and stopped smoking it regularly when I was 16. The only appeal back then was the risk of getting caught, now it's no longer taboo I don't see why anyone would want to spend their money on that shit. I haven't tried any of the "good" strains you guys get at medical marijuana stores though.

 

[Deezy]

Isn't Instagram already like that? I never understood how smoking something could be seen as some sort of status symbol or shows off how cool a person is. Just seems more like "I'm insecure, please like me!". Like people who post pics of them taking shots out of novelty glasses or a big ass bong. I pity them personally.

Anyways, take the taboo away and watch as use drops to all time lows. People only do things because they are told not to, prohibition in the States proved that, alcohol consumption was at an all time high, when it was illegal, then subsequently dropped when it was legalized. Then again, that itself could spark a rise in people taking harder drugs because it is the new taboo. Ugh, people are stupid like that.

 

[Ryan]

Here's how I see it. I don't smoke: I never have and never will but if you're going to make marijuana - a drug which is effectively not possible to be physiologically addicted to - illegal, then tobacco use should be made illegal. In ranking various drugs in order of their addictiveness, a doctor (I cannot recall his name) found that marijuana was the least addictive, even less so than caffeine, but that nicotine was most addictive, more so than even cocaine and heroin... but marijuana is illegal. That's before you even think about the fact that nicotine is highly toxic, so toxic that for hundreds of years it was used as an insecticide. Personally, I think smoking is disgusting. It doesn't matter what you're smoking, it's disgusting, period but if you are going to make smoking tobacco legal, then marijuana should be as well. Of course, there are political boundaries and really, the fact that marijuana is illegal has nothing to do with its addictiveness or health problems it may cause but that's just my two cents.

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

Legalize it and tax the fuck out of it.

It would add sooo much to the economy and it will employ tons of people affected by war on drug policies and pot growers everywhere. Not only would you add revenue to your country, you would add jobs to people who would be deemed unemplyable because of marijuana laws. And a slippery slope to harsher drugs is a moot point, because you can say the exact same thing about prescription meds leading people down the path to hillbilly heroin, but because lobbyist groups haven't been spending 70 years creating a stigma against presciption pain killers like they have been for marijuana, I guess nobody makes that connection.

And I hate 420, it is such an arbitrary thing that people use to abuse a very useful tool in marijuana. This is like planking imo, it's fucking stupid. And it does more harm than good to anyone who is a wweed advocate.

It's part of the reason I stopped supporting the 420 walks, if you talked to anyone other than the organizers, they wanted shrooms, ecstasy, or even coke legalized next. If it was the organizers, they would only go on about the benefits of hemp. If they had someone who would take the time to show the taxation of cigarettes( & alcohol up north here), how relatively inexpensive a crop it is to grow, how much is being spent to imprison dealers/smokers/growers/runners on a yearly basis, and then went on about the "green" concerns of hemp over traditional paper, or synthetic cloth, then there may be a way to change the governments mind, however, most supporters are just too lazy.

 

[Rated R Superstar]

I don't smoke it to be cool. I hate people who do because they all crazy about it and make a show out of it making the rest of look like idiots.

The thrill of being caught was a big part of me enjoying it at the time because it made things interesting. Now I don't care, I don't deal. I usually only have enough on me for myself anyway. Mind you I don't carry it with me everywhere I go because I work and I don't smoke it while I'm at work or before work.

 

[We Are Legion]

I smoked weed for nearly 10 years before I quit in 2008 so I have very strong opinions on this matter. Was going to post on this thread earlier, but I needed more time to post, so here goes...

While I didn't personally find the drug to be any more harmful than alcohol, I think the comparison is very weak considering the two effect the user in completely different ways and weed has far more propaganda floating around to support it because of it's ability to make people enjoy things more and take less time to recover from it's effects. And just the fact it's illegal obviously. But don't believe everything you hear just because you shared a similar experience with the person you heard it from. It effects people completely differently.

Though I think it's important to point out some things it does to the user unbeknownst to them while they're high. For one, it seriously increasing heart rate. People with heart problems and higher blood pressure can be seriously effected by the drug that many users aren't. Cardiac-related problems/failures are already the #1 killer in the United States and we don't need that death rate climbing. This is something a lot of these pro-weed people fail to understand, probably because they're stoned and just want to get their fix easier because they've become completely fucking lazy, which is another effect it has. Pro-weed lobbyists are also speaking from the perspective of someone who uses the substance very infrequently, not someone who depends on it every single day of their lives, and then they just brush it off dismissively when the more-dependent users are mentioned to counter their argument as if "Oh, that's just their problem. You need self-control, too. Like with ALCOHOL." Yeah, those people don't understand you near as much as they let on, believe me.

Now, I'm not saying that legalizing it would have any negative economical repercussions because it wouldn't. Frankly, I think the 1% would be perfectly fine with the idea of millions of complacent people working dead end jobs for the rest of their lives happily and settling for complete and utter mediocrity because it would keep the 1%'s financial interests at bay. Stoned people are generally spending all their money on shit like fast food, entertainment, and other things these sober rich people go to the bank with, so you would think it would be a win for them. I honestly have no fucking clue how it's not already legal. There's the myth about the companies who manufactured paper 150 years ago and that weed was only made illegal so that hemp paper couldn't compete anymore, but then when I sobered up and actually researched that allegation I found that it was complete and total bullshit.

The fact of the matter though is that THC is a substance that can dominate people's lives every bit as much as alcohol and nicotine. That's why I can never view the pro-weed people with much credibility because they're all just mentally-addicted fiends that are already breaking the law and really just pushing for less hassle in acquiring something they are going to get anyways. If the pro-weed community had more support from people who aren't users and aren't posting psychedelic pictures, spinning pot leaf GIF's, and typing in fruity-colored text to support their stance on the matter, the shit would have probably been legalized a long time ago. The people passing these bills remember the 60's, they remember the political chaos that generation pushed for, and they don't want to see it again. The pro-weed community seriously needs to change their tune on the matter because they are the biggest reason why it hasn't been legalized yet. No bullshit, I have seriously never found a better reason.

Now obviously not all potheads are total failures in life, although frankly most of them are. But it's the people who've had success despite their using that need to step forth and do the campaigning. Only problem with that is those people don't want to jeopardize their careers and reputation on something that really isn't that important to them compared to what they've actually managed to accomplish in life... which is a very wise non-play on the matter. Do you just expect those people to publicly admit they break the law just to give a few stoners who still live at their parents' house at age 30, smearing themselves in peanut butter while watching porn and playing video games a break in life? Get fucking real.

I just think the pro-weed community has gone about it all wrong and exposed themselves as complete idiots and they do it seemingly without regard to whether or not they're dealing with a serious issue. But that can be said for any pothead that deals with any complicated situation in life with an extremely willfully-naive and lax association with it. You can say what you want about that stance on the issue, but the fact of the matter is that I've been down I-420's rainbow-colored roads and seen all their radioactive elves and I really don't care what a few stoned jackasses think about it either because they just want things to be their way, which is the same exact reaction any addict feels about conflicting opinions... completely unwilling to see the other side of the matter and gleefully unwilling to compromise.

Now I'm sure some of you will read these references to "addicts" and "addiction" and immediately hit that reply button below just so you can slam on your CAPS LOCK and tell me all about how marijuana isn't addictive just because they read that on the internet a few times. You know what... FUCK YOU. Any substance that is frequently abused regardless of the additives can develop a serious psychological dependence by the user to the point they can't function optimally without using the substance. This includes everything from working, driving, being happy, to just developing a fucking appetite for marijuana users. This is a fact and it is not refutable. Instead of researching drugs on Erowid, try actually researching how the human body functions because you'll get a much better idea of why this is not just a simple matter of legalizing. But potheads are too laid back to actually learn something that complicated. But it's okay, I understand. Been there many times, as I said.

The bottom line is that if I was looking at this issue from a strictly economic perspective, I would immediately legalize it because it could only lead to good things for the current economical structure. But if I'm looking at this from a personal perspective, frankly I think we have enough oblivious idiots walking these fucking streets these days and I don't want to see more of them. Because unlike most potheads, I have a life. I live in a big city and I commute and interact with many people every single day of my life, and take it from me, people are fucking STUPID as it is. And the fact that the awareness of driving and operating machinery is so non-effected by weed makes it that much more likely people will use it when they do those things. Think people drive slow and brake without warning too much now? Wait until you get a bunch of potheads in those gridlocks every morning. Fuck. That.

And yeah, I know I must sound like a COMPLETE TRAITOR to my former brothers on this topic, but seriously, how hard is weed to get, really? And how many times do people actually get tickets or taken to jail for it these days? Practically never. No one goes to jail because they have a fucking dime bag in their pocket, it just doesn't happen. Unless you have an extremely large quantity of it because you're a complete fiend or you're pushing it, you aren't getting busted for weed. The worst thing that could happen would be if you were underage and they might call your parents and tell them what you were doing. OH MY GOD WHAT A NIGHTMARE! And even if it was legal, you would absolutely have to be the same age to use it as you do alcohol or cigarettes or any other similar substance. The law wouldn't change for a minor regardless, it would still be illegal for them.

Ugh... that's it I'm done for now.

 

[Chriss]

Legion for president.

 

[We Are Legion]

Yeah I mean don't get me wrong, I don't regret my experiences with weed or the fact I can't remember hardly anything about 2005-2008 because I was smoking almost an ounce per week... it was fun and it was fine for my situation at that time, which was really just work and a lot of nothing else. But whatever. I have a much better understanding of marijuana, how my life was using it, and how my life is without it. Trust me, I'm glad I fucking stopped. My life changed more between 2008 and present day than I ever would have imagined in my wildest stoned daydream. That's real talk. I'm living in a totally different country now for fucks sake.

 

[monkeystyle]

Although you then have those that will say "We got weed legalized, now to get the next drug". And that is the only drawback I can think of, as it could very well create a snowball effect leading to the want of harsher chemical drugs to be legalized.

Why not legalize everything? You're never going to stop people from doing drugs. At this point, combating the sale of any drugs is just throwing bad money after bad. The only thing left to do at this point is legalize, regulate and tax. If people are going to be stupid, you may as well make some money off of them. Also, you have the added benefit of reducing prison costs and forcing every single drug dealer in the country to get a real job.