Comments on: Obama: Legalizing Pot Won't Grow Economy
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- Exactly! Eliminating a HUGE "gateway" drug!
Alcohol isn't a gateway drug because using a fake ID to buy some or having your older brother pick you up a six pack does NOT involve doing business with a sketchy character that is also trying to sell you an array of highly addictive and destructive drugs! - Reply to this comment
- Sigh...
1) Marijuana is not any worse than alcohol
2) If you don't want to smoke, don't
3) Sin taxes are great economy boosters!
4) See my earlier comment--elements the "gateway drug" aspect of marijuana
5) ***Pharmaceuticals are legal and far more destructive to your physical health as well as incredibly addictive!!!***
6) This may allow hemp to get a foothold in America (maybe we could be the front-runners in hemp production and use--that would be beneficial to our economy!)
7) Safer, healthier methods of obtaining and smoking marijuana would be a direct product of legalization--thus making this drug HANDS DOWN less destructive than alcohol (which is highly addictive and makes people do incredibly studpid things!)
And I can go on...but I fear nobody has read this anyway... - Reply to this comment
- This is exactly what SHOULDN'T be happening! Prescription drugs are HIGHLY addictive--marijuana is NOT (plus, in my experience, I'd rather there were people on the road who had smoked a joint rather than those who had popped some valium and had a glass of wine!!!)
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- PLEASE READ THIS IS IMPORTANT
OKAY, all economic incentives aside, this would truly solve the greater issue of drugs in America!
Marijuana, a drug with consequences/negative aspects that are (at most) equivalent to those of alcohol, is ONLY a "gateway drug" because it is illegal. When teenagers go and get alcohol underage, they do not have to stop by the drug dealer to get it. Since a vast percentage of Americans DO use marijuana, we can all assume that this same number is interacting with a drug dealer who eventually will offer their customer something else that they have to sell (pharmaceuticals, cocaine, heroin, you name it).
Thus, you put marijuana in the same position as alcohol as opposed to grouped along with an array of highly addictive and life-destroying drugs, and you decrease the overall use of TERRIBLE drugs in America. - Reply to this comment
- I support the legalization of pot. the sales would have a significant impact on our economy.it could be taxed and packed simialr to tabacco products. 21 years to buy and sell the packs for about $5-$20 a pack based on "grade"(regular, mid-grade, and high-grade). the U.S govt can grow it or just tax it.
For the home growers, there should be a $50-75 charge for a permit to allow a single-family residence to grow up to a certain amount of plants in there homes. - Reply to this comment
- Marijuana...The Legalizing Of It Could Change A Lot...Did Any Of You Know That It CAN Cure Cancer? Or Alzheimer Disease? Or What About ADHD? Or ADD? How About Marijuana Promoting The Brain To Make More Brain Cells? And They Said It Couldnt Be Done. The American Government Doesn't Want The People To Know This. How Do I Know This. With A Little Research. Did You Know That A Italy Scientist Found All This Out. Cured Over 1000 People Of Various Illnesses. And Came To America To Spread The Word. And The AMERICAN GOVERNMENT Didn't Like That Idea Because There Is More Money Treating People Then Giving Them The Cure. So They Arrested Him And Charged Him With Trafficing Marijuana And The People He Cure WAS NOT Allowed To Testify For Him. You Really Want To Know Something Else... Henry Ford Made A Car Entirely Out Of The Male Hemp Plant... Smashed The Back Window Of This Car And It Did NOT Shatter....I Think Now That The Government Is No Longer For The People I Think The People Should Disband The So Called American Government. And Start Our Own. Did You Know That Right Is In The Constitution? Thats Right I Think Its Time To Put America Back In The Hands Of The People. Not Those RICH ********. All They Care About Is Money. So The Point Of This Is. That Marijuana Is Not Harmful. And It Could Make Us A lot Of Money. They Just Don't Want That Cuz They Think It Would Be A Waste Of Money And Time.
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- It would be a good move to legalize pot. imagine no more drug dealing and related crimes from drug dealers all for something harmless, we all know it is harmless and it could raise more money for the government also. Also with legal government dispensarys who would want to go through the shady process of finding a drug dealer.
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- Exactly! Eliminating a HUGE "gateway" drug!
Alcohol isn't a gateway drug because using a fake ID to buy some or having your older brother pick you up a six pack does NOT involve doing business with a sketchy character that is also trying to sell you an array of highly addictive and destructive drugs!
- Exactly! Eliminating a HUGE "gateway" drug!
- Tax payers like to know there money is being spent wisely but in the case of anti drug or specifically anti marijuana groups this is not necessarily not the case. It is estimated that if marijuana prohibition was removed, regulated and taxed the U.S. government could expect 10-14 billion dollar revenue. This number was calculated by a Dr. Jeffrey Miron a visiting economics professor at Harvard and in fact over 500 other prominent economists around the country agreed.
To read more about the economic benefits at
http://blog.talesfromtheswamp.com/2009/05/11/economic-benefits-to-legalizing-marijuana.aspx - Reply to this comment
- this is absolutely rediculous. obama did every drug in the world, is a flip flopping propagandist and he has terrorist ties. hes a total liar and im not going to trust a man who is friends with william heres, farakhaan, the dictator of africa and jesse jackson. marijuana is non habit forming a normal cigarette smoker smokes a pack or two a day. a marijuana smoker smokes every once in awhile. there is no evidence on a marijuana death, cancer causing chemicals or harmful side effects. our economy would generate billions of dollars and stop the mexican drug cartels.
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- I think thats stupid and it would most definitely boost the economy. Marijuana is illegal and its still the #1 cash crop of America. Why would they not want apart of making all that money?
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- This is a no-brainer.....but then again so is barry nobama
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- I like that Berkeley skirt lifter.
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- Far_Point 200 Because it is our right to live as we choose. It is none of anybody else's business govt or not how any one of us lives
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- That too makes a lot of sense.
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- Three talking points for conversations with news people or politicians:
1) Between the money spent on finding, arresting, prosecuting, and locking up marijuana users AND the lost opportunity for tax revenue on the individual's purchase of this widely used product, our national pocketbook is losing out on tens of billions of dollars every year.
2) To collect taxes from the grow-your-own community, we could consider a $100 per year permit for a dozen plants, splitting the proceeds between the Federal government and the participating State(s).
3) It's time to put the criminal drug dealers out of business and let ordinary Americans pay a fee to grow a little marijuana in their own back yards. - Reply to this comment
- One American, you truly are an idiot. By the way when you turned old enough to enlist where were you? As for me, the day I turned 17 I was sitting in front of an army National Guard recruiter to gladly put my life on the line to defend your right to choose for yourself. Why are you so dead set against my right to choose for myself?
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- Maybe it's just me but my right to live as I choose is worth more to me than any paycheck.
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- For those of you who don't smoke marijuana because you choose not to that is your business, just as I choose to smoke it and that is my business.. But if you don't do it because the government or your company boss says you can't that makes you a coward since you are not willing to stand up for your right to live as you choose. Some of you might say just drink it's legal. I don't drink I don't like alcohol. I like marijuana. Just because you don't like it you have no right to tell me I can't do it and I will not stop. Where are all you stoners out there? Why don't you grow a pair and speak up? I am. I have no fear. Why do you?
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- How many Americans have died in vain to defend your right to choose for yourself? Are you still so willing to give up all your rights.
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- No, scrap what I said about it being your business if you want to give up your right to choose for yourself. 26 years ago I carried an M203, for those of you without military experience, that is an M16 rifle with a grenade launcher mounted underneath the barrel. Now I do my fighting with the pen. Back then I took the risk along with 2 million other soldiers to lay down our lives in the defense of your right to choose for yourself. I will not let you relinquish that right if there is anything I can do about it.
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How gold pays for 