The government doesn't regulate what goes into cigarettes, so what will be different about marijuana if it's legalized? Corporations are just going to throw a bunch of harmful chemicals into it and make it more addictive/harmful. The furthest I think we should go is decriminalization.
Being a user, and a smoker, AND a drinker, i haven't died yet. I think it should be legalized, cig's are worse than marijuana, and yet there legal? Not only that, but the benefits of marijuana would be enourmas. It would definetly bring down crime rates, be used for medical purposes, and everyone would be chill. Lol There really isnt a difference between marijuana and tabaco, besides the euphoria.
This is true, I've smoked weed, not cigarettes. Cigarettes are far worse for your health due to the face that they are packed with Chemicals. Any sort of smoke you breathe in is bad for your health but there is ways to make it not as bad. Like a vaporizer, It vaporizes the smoke so you're breathing vapor rather than smoke. To my understanding this is the cleanest method so far for using marijuana, and joints being the worse.
Because you can't just take the tobacco plant and smoke it. You have to refine it and theres a much longer process than marijuana. Marijuana grows, you hire a clipper, and the actual flower (aka BUD) is smoked. You don't have to put it through a refinery. That's why it would be hard to regulate who grows it. I'm pretty sure Blunts are a bit worse than Joints. Blunts use cigar paper sauce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blunt_(cigar) and so your techinically smoking tobacco pulp and weed. But vaporizing and edibles are indeed the best and healthiest way to smoke/take/vape whatever the verb is. Vaporizing has no negatives and neither do edibles.
meh, there's too much of an underground populous who know about marijuana and it's ability to stay completely natural... If corporations tried to use additives, buyers, quite simply, would not buy. I would be willing to put money on that. Though, I will say that I could see corporations using nicotine in some packs, just to blend the cigs & doobs for customers who do happen to smoke both.
I guarantee tobacco products went through a manufacturing process when they were first pioneered by large corporations. And companies who make less addictive products will surely run out of business if they can't compete with the major corporations. Soon enough, buying straight up weed will become illegal because the government wants to tax it(like moonshine) and you'll wind up with more problems. Just my prediction.
That's a bad comparison. It's legal to brew beer and wine, but moonshine is illegal because it's bloody dangerous. If marijuana becomes legal than there's no reason why having your own plant would be illegal. You make a good point about where the commercial life-cycle of cigarettes ended up. But again, the alternative of having your own plant (which is much more practical than say, growing your own tobacco, for many reasons) would have a competative effect.
Actually, like moonshine it becomes a revenue problem. It's taxes the government cares about. If marijuana were legal, they would tax the **** out of it. And they should, it would be a major stimulant to the economy. This is why it would be illegal to grow in your home without some sort of prescription or permit. Look at prescription drugs. Oxycotin for example, is dangerously addictive and has a very high overdose rate. Perfectly legal. It's practically heroin, but because it's manufactured by the pharmaceutical companies, the FDA has no problem taking a cut of the revenue being brought in by patients and addicts.
Any tax is a ridiculous tax. Street value of nug is typically 50 for 3.5 grams. That alone is rather steep, considering it's a nearly free produced product. It takes grow lights (ie. electricity bill), fertilizer, some nutrients, water, time and tender care to grow quality marijuana. That really amounts to nothing when the people are making 400 an ounce, 6400 a pound. The government knows that they can do this and regulate a healthy marijuana economy. It will permit regulars, and at the same time, keep heavy profit.
Here's my view: Marijuana should be decriminalized for minors and legalized for those over eighteen. Marijuana cannot kill you via overdose, and has not been directly related to death. It is less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes, especially since it is not physically addictive. If you let it get out of control, yes, it can become mentally addictive, but that is far easier to break than a physical addiction. Aside from that, if legalized, the government would be able to tax and regulate it. With the tax and sales money, it would provide a hefty profit, especially in this recession.
Come again? Did you say decriminalized for minors, and legalized for those over eighteen? Where's the logic in that?
He asked what the logic behind your idea would be. Why decriminalize for youths? No other drug is decriminalized, yet legal at another age. At least I don't believe so.
I say decriminalize for youths because there's no reason for it to be completely illegal. People will get it regardless, and sometimes people merely use things like Marijuana and alcohol underage to be rebellious. It's less dangerous than alcohol and the other major drugs out there. But then again, it does impair the brain development, but not as much as those other drugs. That's why I say the criminal penalization should be relaxed, but not dropped for youths. It should still be punished, but just not as harshly. I feel that the cases will be fewer without the majority of the black market trade of Marijuana out there. For instance, think of it like the Prohibition. Black market trade of alcohol skyrocketed during that time frame, but when the Prohibition was repealed, the black market for alcohol crashed. The same thing would probably happen in this case. That's just my opinion, though, so feel free to disagree.
I view drug users as pathetic, and somewhat pitiful. If you have to go on autopilot, and inhale **** just to feel happy, that's sad. I don't know about you guys, but if I want to feel happy, I'll take a girl out on a date, get a breath of fresh air, or eat a piece of tasty cake. I don't want some false happiness that wears off in a couple. I don't want to be in some daze where I don't know what the **** is going on, or have a hard time making decisions. I don't want to kill my brain cells just for the fun of it. Who would? I have little respect for drug users. They become those who give into peer pressure, and then spread it to others. They become the addicts on the streets. They become the idiot teenage drivers that kill families because they drive while their high. Why would someone want to be affiliated with that? Why would someone want to say that's their idea of a fun time? It's stupid. Idiotic. Retarded to say the least. A few days ago I was on live with a couple of my friends. A kid that goes to my school came on, and was talking about doing drugs later. When he asked me if I wanted to come over and do it too, I told him I didn't do that kind of stuff. He then said "Alex, what the ****? I thought you were cool". This is the kind of **** I shouldn't have to deal with. I don't care who you are. I don't care if your a staff member of this site, I don't care if you're famous, and I don't care if you are just a regular kid looking for a good time. If you do drugs, I lose all my respect for you. And before you guys start making fun of me for being drug free, or saying gee, this guy is being pretty harsh, you should know that one of my best friends died from drug overdose. You have no idea how bad you can hurt those who care about you. So no. I don't want marijuana to be legal. All the more excuse to do it.
You know how many families are sitting at home right now without a loved one due to a fatal car accidents as a result of alcohol? Plenty. While there are cases of fatal car accidents as a result of marijuana, in comparison to alcohol, the results are phenomenal. Also, when linking cannabis to fatal car accidents, the majority of suspects also have alcohol in there system. I don't condone driving while under the influence of marijuana, but I also see little risk in doing so. Check this site out if you're looking to expand you knowledge further on the subject of marijuana and human performance. Also, saying a friend died on a drug overdose is very vague, considering how many drugs there are today. You need to be more specific, however I'm sure you were avoiding mentioning the actual name because you knew it would have little to no effect on peoples stance toward the decriminalization/legalization of marijuana. While it is a sad loss, it has little relevancy to the current issue unless marijuana is to blame. I've lost plenty of family members to cancer caused by cigarettes and alcohol related problems. However, my family has never suffered the loss of a family member due to illegal drugs (fortunately).
Well, teens still use cigarettes and alcohol as a main drug resource. Should we decriminalize those? Cigarettes don't impair the user at all. Just dangerous. Alcohol shouldn't be legal, either. I think that's why marijuana is fought so heavily against. The government doesn't want to legalize another mind-altering drug. They messed up with alcohol in the first place, but hey. Business is business, no matter how many deaths you're responsible for. People are obnoxious. That's why there was a problem during the Prohibition. They couldn't just go, "hey, maybe alcohol IS bad!" and leave it there. But to each his own, I guess. And drugs are always going to circulate in countries. It doesn't matter how much money the government spends on the war against drugs. And Zander, agreed(for most of it).
I suppose it should be used wisely, not exterminated. I stand essentially neutral in the legalization arguments, since I am not a user of the plant. My two closest friends started smoking Marijuana around the beginning of their freshman year of highschool. As you might assume, they were swayed by peer pressure, a means of escape, and the image they could possibly portay. That being a "cool" one, of course. I thought to myself, "why should it matter?" I had already made it clear to them I was not interested in engaging in this type of thing, in which they accepted my claim. Also, it was not affecting the relashionships I had built with them over the years, so the impact of their decision making remained insignificant even to this point in time. Really, I don't give an eighth of a **** if anyone uses Marijuana. As long as it doesn't cascade into the usage of severe sedatives or hallucinagens, it's not in my best interest to tell you what's right or wrong.
That is an extreme over-simplification of what happened during prohibition. Even giving you the benefit of the doubt, I suspect that you don't have even a fraction of the pertinent information on the topic, in a wide array of fields ranging from history to psychology. Your argument for comparing the possible future of legal weed to the commercial life-cycle that tobacco followed is honestly one of the best arguments I've ever heard for opposing legalization. It is of course hypothetical, and I'll see if I can educate myself on that if you promise to to the same on prohibition. Try not to think in such black-and-white terms. @Zander... I think I know where you're coming from. There is a real human tendency to have an aversion to perceived "slippery slopes". But you're assuming attributes of marijuana that simply aren't true, as they are for just about any other drug including the legal ones.