Marijuana criminalization - Page 4 - Political Forum

nemesis · 05-14-2008, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taliesin

I didn't say that I wanted to put everyone who has ever smoked pot, cigarettes, or consumed alcohol into jail, I just said that they should be illegal. When something becomes illegal, you don't arrest everyone who has ever done it.

What exactly do you think making something illegal does? You can be thrown in jail for use of just about every illegal substance in existence for a first time offense. Decriminalization would reduce the status of a drug to just fining people. If that is what you advocate then you are in infact for decriminalization.

Here's an argument I just thought up...

Quote:

17,941 people were killed due to drunk driving accidents in 2006. Roughly 438,000 people had smoking related deaths in 2006. And roughly 8,000 people were killed due to driving accidents due to drugs such as marijuana in 2006 (just ask and I'll go find the sources). That means in a single year, these three substances killed nearly half a million people.

Now you say that our taxes would increase sizeably with all the new people in jail. I agree. How about these half a million people whose lives we save every year share the tax burden with us? The increase in taxes then wouldn't be quite as extreme as you suggested.

And just because Prohibition didn't work doesn't mean that it never will. Our invasion of Canada during the War of 1812 didn't work. That hardly means that any US invasion of Canada will fail. All Prohibition's failure taught us was the incorrect way to impliment criminilization of alcohol.

The problem is prohibition almost certainly won't work. It requires a degree of social engineering on part of the government the populace almost certainly won't tolerate or a significant philosophical shift on part of the population itself to something more like the Middle East or South East Asia (Japan, Korea, etc China).

Marijuana as Unlimited also pointed out actually has become more popular since it was made illegal. If prohibition worked it wouldn't even be an issue for me because I don't drink or smoke, but from what I can tell making something illegal doesn't actually make things better. The US has a higher percentage of it's population in jail then any other developed country in the world and it's not because Americans do more drugs. That is a much greater burden then any number of people who die from any particular drug, because not only do those individuals spend time in jail which costs more money for whatever time they were in prison then the average American can make in the same length of time, but once they get out they have permenant criminal record that makes getting a decent job more difficult, increasing the chances that they will use government services, go back to jail or both.

To add to your statistics, how many people do you think die from transfats? How much of a burden do you think it puts on our healthcare system? If it kills 100,000 people a year should we ban it?

PayingAttention · 05-14-2008, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nemesis

To add to your statistics, how many people do you think die from transfats? How much of a burden do you think it puts on our healthcare system? If it kills 100,000 people a year should we ban it?

How much more of a burden would these people be to the healthcare system if they actually lived?

Matthew.lincoln · 05-14-2008, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taliesin

Marijuana is a substance that impairs judgement. If a person on marijuana gets in a vehicle, the chances of him or her killing someone is increased. That's my opinion on why it should remain illegal.

Alcohol impairs judgement, why not make laws that create it legal under certian surcumstances. For example, no legal amount is authorized while driving a motor vehical, and if a law is broken under the influence the crime is slightly modified. This gets rid of the problem or atleast justifies things.

sirhc · 05-14-2008, 11:40 PM

ok, I'm gonn put this argument down once and for all. i live in australia, pot is common down here. say it becomes legal, ignoring all the side effects. focusing on the good things like being relaxed and happy.

what happens when parents start getting high. unlike alcohol you can smoke all the pot in the world and have no risk of ODing or getting a mean ass stomach pain.

i could easily imagin mr. and mrs. smith sitting on the couch high as a kite while the kids do god knows what. the parents are so far gone they wouldn't cook much. and what they would cook wouldn't be healthy.

like alcoho and cigirets there would be laws to stop kids smoking it. if u can leagly be stoned all the time then i can imagin mr and mrs smith not going near the kids or sending the kids out side while they smoke like chimines. coz smoking around kids would be just as bad as giving em pot and most likely be just as illegal in a legal pot world. there are already enough problems with parents not feeding their kids, sending them to school in last weeks clothes and letting the kids do anything else. these types of people spend all their money on alcohol and cant afford to pay to send their kids on school excursions, how do you think they would last with pot?

I recon legal pot would see the destruction of mankind in... 2 generations.

sure there would be people but they wouldn't even slightly resemble anyone you know today.

ThresholdOutlet · 05-14-2008, 11:44 PM

The best cooks in the world are potheads.

sirhc · 05-14-2008, 11:53 PM

THAT IS UR COUNTER?!?

u are obvioulsly oblivious to the fact that being high will stuff u up enough to think what the dog is eating is the best thing in the world.

most of my employment has been in the food busness and i have never seen a pot head chef, butcher, or even guy who delivers the stuff.

Taliesin · 05-15-2008, 12:24 AM

I was focusing my argument on saving lives, but I like sirhc's argument that marijuana legalization would destroy the standard of living that we enjoy today. I hadn't even considered the ramifications on child rearing. Sirhc is right that to legalize marijuana would endanger the lives of uncounted children.

choclosteve · 05-15-2008, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sirhc

THAT IS UR COUNTER?!?

u are obvioulsly oblivious to the fact that being high will stuff u up enough to think what the dog is eating is the best thing in the world.

most of my employment has been in the food busness and i have never seen a pot head chef, butcher, or even guy who delivers the stuff.

Nah, I think you saw a lot of pot heads- you just didn't know it. Ever hear of the munchies? Just like drinkers, there're some that do it heavy, and some lightly. I have a girl friend who only tokes when she wants to be horny. In my state, folks have been getting medical marajuana cards for pain, nausia, ms, glaucoma, cancer, etc. 40% of US now live in states with medical marajuana laws passed by petition of the people (politicians will not touch it).

Taliesin · 05-15-2008, 01:17 AM

My state voted it down. So there is still a lot of people who are against legalizing marijuana.

choclosteve · 05-15-2008, 02:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sirhc

ok, I'm gonn put this argument down once and for all. i live in australia, pot is common down here. say it becomes legal, ignoring all the side effects. focusing on the good things like being relaxed and happy.

what happens when parents start getting high. unlike alcohol you can smoke all the pot in the world and have no risk of ODing or getting a mean ass stomach pain.

i could easily imagin mr. and mrs. smith sitting on the couch high as a kite while the kids do god knows what. the parents are so far gone they wouldn't cook much. and what they would cook wouldn't be healthy.

like alcoho and cigirets there would be laws to stop kids smoking it. if u can leagly be stoned all the time then i can imagin mr and mrs smith not going near the kids or sending the kids out side while they smoke like chimines. coz smoking around kids would be just as bad as giving em pot and most likely be just as illegal in a legal pot world. there are already enough problems with parents not feeding their kids, sending them to school in last weeks clothes and letting the kids do anything else. these types of people spend all their money on alcohol and cant afford to pay to send their kids on school excursions, how do you think they would last with pot?

I recon legal pot would see the destruction of mankind in... 2 generations.

sure there would be people but they wouldn't even slightly resemble anyone you know today.

I've talked to a lot of Dutch folks about their legalized pot, and they say they have a lower % of users than countries like US, where it is illegal. Seems they get a lot of tourism sampling the cafes. Good for business. Haven't been there yet, but talked to folk who have. Nice country. Hear they have good places to eat and drink.