saggyjones
Well-Known Member
Should we legalize pot on a national level? I'd like to hear people's opinions.
I believe we should for the following reasons:
--Marijuana isn't linked to lung cancer, unlike cigarettes.
Cannabis Smoke and Cancer: Assessing the Risk - NORML
--Police arrested an estimated 786,545 persons for marijuana violations in 2005, and 88% were arrested for possession alone.
Marijuana Arrests For Year 2005 -- 786,545 Tops Record High... Pot Smokers Arrested In America At A Rate Of One Every 40 Seconds - NORML
Sending that many people to jail is a big waste of tax money for something so nonthreatening.
--2001 Total Deaths: 2,416,425 Cannabis Related Deaths: 138
truth: the Anti-drugwar Cannabis "Related" Deaths (2001)
-Now let's take a look at the alcohol related deaths.
--Marijuana doesn't impair driving ability as much as alcohol, as shown by this introduction to a study:
Here's another quote (facts are on that page but I'm simply summarizing the one above):
As you can see alcohol is a far greater killer than marijuana.
--A common argument is that marijuana leads to harder drugs. That's not the case:
Also, and I believe this is very important, legalizing marijuana will drastically reduce the amount of people who move on to harder drugs. Imagine this situation: A person looking to buy some pot goes to his neighborhood drug dealer because he can't grow it or buy it legally in a bar or something. He goes back a month later to buy some more and the dealer asks him if he wants to try some harder stuff. The person says yes and marijuana becomes a gateway drug to cocaine, meth, heroin, etc. If marijuana is legalized this won't happen because people won't go to drug dealers to obtain it.
--Another common argument is that by legalizing marijuana more people will use it. This is a flawed argument for two reasons:
1. As shown by the number of deaths in 2004, more users won't really make a difference.
2. Pot being illegal doesn't really stop people from buying it (this is based on personal experience, not any facts).
So in conclusion, if you're going to keep marijuana illegal why not make alcohol illegal also? I'm fine with both being illegal since I don't use either very much, but alcohol is a much bigger killer than weed, and it's not harming anyone, so why criminalize it? And as the bold text above states it's actually doing harm making it illegal.
I believe we should for the following reasons:
--Marijuana isn't linked to lung cancer, unlike cigarettes.
Cannabis Smoke and Cancer: Assessing the Risk - NORML
--Police arrested an estimated 786,545 persons for marijuana violations in 2005, and 88% were arrested for possession alone.
Marijuana Arrests For Year 2005 -- 786,545 Tops Record High... Pot Smokers Arrested In America At A Rate Of One Every 40 Seconds - NORML
Sending that many people to jail is a big waste of tax money for something so nonthreatening.
--2001 Total Deaths: 2,416,425 Cannabis Related Deaths: 138
truth: the Anti-drugwar Cannabis "Related" Deaths (2001)
-Now let's take a look at the alcohol related deaths.
--Marijuana doesn't impair driving ability as much as alcohol, as shown by this introduction to a study:
Here's another quote (facts are on that page but I'm simply summarizing the one above):
As you can see alcohol is a far greater killer than marijuana.
--A common argument is that marijuana leads to harder drugs. That's not the case:
Also, and I believe this is very important, legalizing marijuana will drastically reduce the amount of people who move on to harder drugs. Imagine this situation: A person looking to buy some pot goes to his neighborhood drug dealer because he can't grow it or buy it legally in a bar or something. He goes back a month later to buy some more and the dealer asks him if he wants to try some harder stuff. The person says yes and marijuana becomes a gateway drug to cocaine, meth, heroin, etc. If marijuana is legalized this won't happen because people won't go to drug dealers to obtain it.
--Another common argument is that by legalizing marijuana more people will use it. This is a flawed argument for two reasons:
1. As shown by the number of deaths in 2004, more users won't really make a difference.
2. Pot being illegal doesn't really stop people from buying it (this is based on personal experience, not any facts).
So in conclusion, if you're going to keep marijuana illegal why not make alcohol illegal also? I'm fine with both being illegal since I don't use either very much, but alcohol is a much bigger killer than weed, and it's not harming anyone, so why criminalize it? And as the bold text above states it's actually doing harm making it illegal.