Comments on: Make Marijuana Legal

Guest Column: The Drug Policy Alliance's Founder On Why Marijuana Should Never Have Been Made Illegal In The First Place

[rsmik]

You need to show your ID to buy cigarettes and alcohol but minors can buy pot on any street corner without showing ID!
Posted by dfnj2009 at 6:45 PM : May 14, 2009

Can you provide exact street addresses of those corners? I want to do some comparison shopping.

[rsmik]

If pot was legal everyone would driving in the right lane doing 30 looking for the nearest rest stop to buy Twinkies.

[democracy1]

i think the people recognize that not all use is abuse, but policy does not recognize that. the prohibitionist rhetoric says that all use of illegal substances is abuse, whereas with the governmentally blessed drugs, abuse is far more obvious. that inflexibility of their policy makes them look foolish.no one believes what they have to say. it is 2009, not 1937 and obvious that the government is just holding on to it as a cash cow. it has nothing to do with health and safety of the . it's all about the money. we do not have leaders, we have testicularly challenged vote seeking harlots. the tide is changing, albeit at geological pace.the bullsquat policy is in the last throes of life. is there a more failed domestic policy than prohibition? if so, probably not many.
Posted by honestabe8 at 6:56 PM : May 14, 2009

EXACTLY!

It is much less harmful than alcohol and has essentially been demonized, relative to alcohol, for purely political reasons.

[adcrac]

A project is needed where two groups are tested: one with people drinking alcohol, and one with people smoking marijuana. Potential guinea pigs would sign up for sessions. At these sessions, one for alchohol and one for marijuana, test would need to be performed as users used. The test would show that alcohol is far more dangerous and detrimental to society. Car crashes, family abuse, fights, killings etc. all connected with alcohol consumption. No such things with marijuana. Filming these sessions, and then showing them to those who oppose legalization and those who can pass bills to legalize would go a long way to strengthen the cause.

[dfnj2009]

You need to show your ID to buy cigarettes and alcohol but minors can buy pot on any street corner without showing ID!

[democracy1]

democracy1: i agree. sometimes people achieve fame and fortune despite their addictions. But. that is not the common path
Posted by honestabe8 at 6:31 PM : May 14, 2009

My point was that pot is much less addictive than alcohol, and yet alcohol is legal because we recognize that not everyone who "uses" it "abuses" it.

[cattlekate1]

Legalize it. Tax it. Enjoy it in moderation. Keep Big Pharma outa it.

[democracy1]

Most of the pot-heads I knew in the past went absolutely NOWHERE with their careers
or lives .... your "too good for its own good" line is N-U-T-S.
Posted by JAMESC2002 at 3:42 PM : May 14, 2009

There may also have been many people who did smoke it and DID go very far in life, but you wouldn't have known because they weren't extreme and obvious about it.

The same could be said about alcohol; the abusers are rather obvious and don't get far in life, while people who can drink moderately don't necessarily stand out as "drinkers" and can become quite successful.

Moderation in all things...

[displeased]

Most of the pot-heads I knew in the past went absolutely NOWHERE with their careers
or lives .... your "too good for its own good" line is N-U-T-S.
Posted by JAMESC2002

I know people who don't smoke who also went absolutely NOWHERE with their careers or lives.

[biggcheese1]

I would go many steps further. The biggest problem with drug use is not the drug use, it's the criminal element involved with supplying drugs. When people buy drugs they are supporting murderers, con artists and a cauldron of other nefarious characters that should be eliminated from society. So, here's my plan. The government grows, makes and distributes all the drugs people want for free except for weed. It would be made legal and sold at a reasonable price to those who could afford it. This will immediately get the crooks out of the drug business. All a person would have to do is register (name, address, etc.) and take home his/her drugs. Then, in a few years, after new products are developed to painlessly aid users off the drugs, they can be weened. Because of the registration, the Department of Weening would know every user's identity and could, humanely, help them stop using...which is what they really want to do anyway. Let's face it, living a happy, productive life really is better than sleeping in one's own urine and going through life in a daze. isn't it?