some habits are cool to keep
I posted this under a different thread and it’s more relevant here.
Don’t you think a decent legal system should accurately mirror our intuitive moral beliefs? Smoking marajuana isn’t nearly as harmful to oneself or others as drinking alcohol or other activities, why should be people be imprisoned for doing it? Branding otherwise law abiding citizens as crminals for smoking weed makes them think less of the law and those who legislate and enforce it - which is not healthy.
You want to be breeding a nation of people who think that the law is essentially a good yard stick by which to measure right and wrong. Sending people to jail for such harmless reasons simply breeds contempt, and makes them think that the law is an a[SIZE=1]55[/SIZE]. Which ultimately means they will be less likely to abide by it, a far more dangerous thing than a few bleary-eyed pot-heads.
Same goes for your comments regarding seatbelts, parking fines etc. When the government uses it’s powers to demand money from citizens in a way that makes them feel like they are being taken advantage of, that too causes people to disrespect authority. If I was allowed to take drugs and park where I liked, I don’t think I would have broken a law yet, and I know I’d therefore have a lot more respect for it.
Hey urban do you have a link to that thread so I can paste my reply? I couldn’t find it when I searched 
If not I’ll just type it out again.
Sorry sushi - I should have thought to paste your reply too. For what’s its worth this was how the rest of it went:
Sushi:
Jailtime for smoking pot is overkill for an offense that isn’t harming anyone but yourself, I agree. That said, that doesn’t mean it should be legal. There should definately be mandatory rehab and a fine for people caught smoking pot. Call me crazy, but I also believe that alcohol and tobacco should not be legal.
Legalizing marijuana, however, would be a HUGE mistake!!! We would be doing our citizens no favor by letting them smoke pot and kill their brain cells. People also can do some pretty crazy sh;t when they are high. The government has a responsibility to protect its citizens. Letting people smoke pot, get drunk or take tobacco does not protect them in more ways than one.
MARIJUANA: People more likely to make dumb choices when they are high. In order to protect others the government has to outlaw this.
ALCOHOL: Dumb choices agoin as well as domestic abuse while being drunk is reason enough, IMO, to outlaw alcohol.
Those reasons combined with the healthcare and welfare costs that us nondrinkers/potheads/smokers have to put up with in order to care for the pothead without a job, the alcoholic with a failing liver and the smoker with lung cancer show we need to ban all harmful addictive substances.(except for medical use)
the healthcare and welfare costs that us nondrinkers/potheads/smokers have to put up with in order to care for the pothead without a job, the alcoholic with a failing liver and the smoker with lung cancer show
Urbanscrawl:
Why should decent people be punished for the associated actions of a small minority? I don’t think it right or sensible to judge whether the government should legislate regarding something on a worst possible scenario basis. If you were to fairly judge whether you prohibited everything like that then - mountain climbers, who might break their neck and take up valuable time and hospital resources, gymnastics, motorcycle riding even getting into a car would all be forbidden because they might be consumptive of the nations resources.
Far more important than all this is peoples freedom, to argue that government should stop people making choices, dumb or otherwise, is to advocate a removal of their freedom. Ok, if someone is going to do something bad to someone else then fair enough - that’s why we have the legal system that we do. But if they are acting in a way that only affects them, as David said - why should they not be allowed to do it?
[quote]Call me crazy, but I also believe that alcohol and tobacco should not be legal.
You’re crazy. 
In addition to what I’ve said above. If people didn’t have a means of letting off some steam from time to time the whole place would go BOOM[/quote]
Thanks, scrawl 
I tried searching for the thread but I couldn’t find it… I’ll reply tomorrow-I’m too sleepy now.
For those that thought they knew what they were saying when condemning Habitual Marijuana Users: Click here and read this MSN article
Still, researchers say impairments were less than what is typically found from using alcohol or other drugs.
But i thought pot was evil and bad, and killed brain cells… :sigh:
I’ll repeat my earlier prognosis, which is, it’s not which drug you are doing that changes you, its what you are doing while on the drug that has the potential to change you… If i smoked out everyday and watched TV, i would eventually be a fat, lazy, zombie, but if i were to spend my time practicing guitar licks, i would most definately show improvement in that particular area.
Now, let me make it clear that im not advocating the use of Marijuana, im just saying, it should be more of a personal choice, much like alcohol is. 
Sadly, our prison’s are overcrowded because our leaders think that locking up minor drug offenders is the equivellant to rehabilitation… :sigh:
This is it - the question we have to ask is, do we really want to put a person that smokes a spliff every now and again in jail?
Is it not simply insane? :crazy:
It may be insane, but as long as it is profitable you’ll find it will continue.
sending weed smokers to jail isnt profitable at all… But the reason it’s illegal is that the state doesnt make any money on weed - it’s not costly to grow and sell. Tobacco and Alcohol on the otherhand are taxes heavily and despite smoking bans and not selling alcohol to minor is still a very profitable economy… (that’s why prohibition sucked in the end - people were making alcohol and getting drunk yet the govmnt didnt get anything for it)
since marijuana is used for healing i dont see why people cant smoke it (tobacco does only bad thing to your health)
and it makes people happy :beam:, I smoke pot and I will continue even though it’s prohibited
I presume you meant politically profitable? ie: It’s not legalised because politicians that were pro an illegal substance would look weak. Far better to look “strong” and throw innocent people into jail.
the reason it’s illegal is that the state doesnt make any money on weed - it’s not costly to grow and sell. Tobacco and Alcohol on the otherhand are taxes heavily
It’s not because the government isn’t making any money from it that it’s not legal - clearly if they legalised it - they would tax it and make money. The decision is not a financial one. Your point about prohibition however is absolutely right. Sometimes it’s better to legalise and regulate something than to simply ban it. Prohibition created gangters like Al Capone because it meant that there was a huge market that could only be managed illegally.
I would like to know who voted ‘no’ in this poll and why 
- I don’t as yet see any cogent arguments here for cannibis’ being illegal.
1). They can’t tax what’s not sold. I could go in my backyard right now and plant enough marijuana for my entire family for the whole year. The government wouldn’t make much money at all from this.
2). Politicians make millions each year from tobaco companies who pay them to keep it illegal. If marijuana was legal, phillip morris stock would do an enron.
3). I voted no. Although I’ve never smoked pot, from my understanding, it makes you just not care. It makes people not care about stuff such as their job and family. When they stop caring they stop working hard and they just slack off and then in the long run, it does mess up their lives.
edit: When they STOP caring, not when they start caring. I love my typos, always totally change the meaning of what i’m trying to say.
sending weed smokers to jail isnt profitable at all… But the reason it’s illegal is that the state doesnt make any money on weed
I could probebly come up with a couple pages on society and how it is profitable to produce a split between the wealthy and the poor. This also ties in with the war on drugs and why it continues. That is the arguement I would make if I had the time to write it out. But yes… in general, I believe that there is profit to be made in sending some of the population to jail. That profit takes the form of assets in some cases, or simply power over others, in other cases.
3). I voted no. Although I’ve never smoked pot, from my understanding, it makes you just not care. It makes people not care about stuff such as their job and family. When they start caring they stop working hard and they just slack off and then in the long run, it does mess up their lives.
Only for some people. I know more than a half dozen smokers who are happy, well adjusted, caring individuals. It depends upon the person and their perticular circumstances.
I voted no. Although I’ve never smoked pot, from my understanding, it makes you just not care. It makes people not care about stuff such as their job and family. When they start caring they stop working hard and they just slack off and then in the long run, it does mess up their lives.
Ok. At least that get’s the worst reason for not legalising marajuana out of the way. :beam: It should be illegal because it makes you not care? by that rational if you are doing something that makes you “not care”, that something should be made illegal.
It would be a wonderfull world if noone slacked off, but you can’t advocate putting slackers in prison - get real. A world where that happened would be hellish. 
no way… let’s put all the slackers in jail… that would solve so many problems. Heck, slackers are the only thing that counters communism. If we got rid of them, it would be utopia.
time to throw my 2cents in…hey, i new to the forums…
anyhow…i can’t remember who (<<used to be a…um…stoner) but a few people actually gave ok arguments on why its illegal…
heres a thought… and it wasn’t mine…a stoner said this to me…
until they can figure out a way to test you to see if you high while driving…it won’t be legal…
…and that other stuff.:pope:
There was a car program in the UK that demonstrated that it didn’t affect your driving - if anything it made people, because they were a little more careful, better drivers.
Having said that I found myself pulling onto the A3 one time because I had inadvertantly been following the car in front of me, which had initially been going the same way as I had.:crazy:
well the first time i EVER drove high was after about 8 4ft bong hits. and as much as i am not proud of driving drunk (which i don’t do anymore but when i was younger…) it was the hardest time i ever had to drive not matter what drug i was on.
I guess the biggest argument is: Sure canabis can impare your judgmnet, and like Naliwarcowz said, make you not care, even if its not completle exact. And all that good stuff,
But alcohol, is just as bad if not worse and it IS legal! Thats why it dosent make said!
“Liquor and Drug administration dont want a drug free america! They want an america free of drugs that are their competition, Prozac dosent want to go up against Marjiuana, IT will lose!”
-Bill Mahr
p.s.
Its true, many of my freinds instead of taking prozac, smoke bud. They say its alot better, no side effects… supposidly prozac side effects are pretty bad.
recent study by USC shows that alcahol causes more braindamage than even a moderaty/heavy pot smoker. Lower IQs are only present while youre stone. BTW pot should be decriminalized and more or less GOV’t regulated.
