A record-high 50% of Americans now say the use of marijuana should be made legal; 46% say marijuana use should remain illegal.
As recently as five years ago, the public opposed it 60/36.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/150149/Record-High-Americans-Favor-Legalizing-Marijuana.aspx
I think more and more people are looking at the situation from a Libertarian approach. The comparison between Mexican drug cartels of today, and the Italian Mafia of Prohibition is strikingly similar…which is another incentive to take way the cartel’s business.
However, I don’t have a whole lot of faith in the majority of the US population not to become addicts. Whether it be marijuana, or some other type of legalized drug. The #1 cause of death in the United States is not auto accidents anymore, it is abuse of prescription drugs. China destroyed itself as a society and nation in the mid 1800s after most of its population had turned into opium addicts. Even the Netherlands, which was full of “coffeeshops” which legally sold marijuana, are becoming more restricted and regulated as the detox centers are being over taxed with patients, and the job force is resorting to bring in immigrates who aren’t drug users to be productive.
The #1 cause of death in the United States is not auto accidents anymore, it is abuse of prescription drugs.
Where are you getting that from? That’s a pretty loaded statement. Drug users in any culture only represent a very minor segement of the population. Even if it was legal, I think there are a great number of people who wouldn’t touch it.
The problem with marijuana is that the habitual use of any chemical, be it a plant or pill, will over time result in changes to your behavior.
The simple fact is, there isn’t a drug around that does anything to your your brain can’t do on its own. All drugs do is manipulate the natural chemicals in your brain. This causes many changes to the natural levels of these chemicals, many of which are directly tied to mood, sleep, etc.
Anyone who says marijuana isn’t “physically addictive” doesn’t have any sort of a grap on the pharmacology involved, and is using a fools argument. The whole notion of good and bad drugs is a worthless.
That being said, I don’t think making marijuana legal is going to upset the fabric of society.
The issue I have is that if a majority of the people don’t respect drug laws, by enacting and enforcing them, you only breed contempt for the system. I believe this is one of the issues that states need to addressed by popular vote and let the people decide.
You should probably spend some time in Humboldt, Mendocino, and Shasta Counties in California and get back to us.
I don’t think California represents the majority of American culture, nor is it a microcosm of a culture who smokes pot. California’s fuckedupedness stretches way beyond that.
I dated a girl from Orange County. I’m done with California.
So where do you gentlemen stand on alcohol? You know the completely legal substance that is more widely available than Milk or Orange Juice in all 50 states.
Khan, what do you think the current ratio in America is in regards to the total number of people who consume alcohol responsibly VS. those who become full blown alcoholics?
bp, is a drug only available in a pill or plant form?
since you have assigned marijuana as a drug due to it’s ability to change your chemical balance in your brain over time, obviously than that same drug label has to be applied to alcohol given its a much stronger intoxicating substance which has much stronger inebriating effects…as denoted by the stats like as I type a drunk driver killed another person, a drunk father beat another child, or the alcoholic battling depression finally ended the misery by taking their life while under the influence. marijuana would be legal if it had matching great stats to claim like that:confused:
So how does my reply tie into what the OP posted…most people can only stomach so much hypocrisy even within themselves, i.e. any person who drinks an occasional glass of red wine at dinner or drinks a cold snack at a tailgate eventually has to be honest with themselves and realize that they are consuming a substance(usually very frequently), and by extension supporting the legalized status of it that is so exponentially more dangerous, deadly, and detrimental to society as a whole than marijuana could ever dream of being.
If you drink alcohol even in the rarest of occasions, and you don’t support the legalization of marijuana…than you are flat out a hypocrite of the highest magnitude. Most people can only have that label on their back for so long before they let rationality take over and in this case support a substance that is far less harmful than the one currently in their hand, fridge, or cooler in front of them.
Before I get called a pothead…just the opposite, I hate alcoholics and the retarded shit they do every single minute of the day with their perfectly legal substance.
For the record, I wouldn’t date a chic from Orange County either as that County clearly is one of the dumbest in the Country. It has nothing to do with their hardcore love affair with shortbus cruising Bush and his controllers either:haha:
I’m sorry I didn’t address all the physical forms drugs may take in my post. :suicide:
People always go to the pot vs alcohol argument.
There aren’t good and bad drugs.
I would also advise everyone on a gun forum about admitting the habitual use of a controlled substance.
There is a lesson in the fact the British subdued China by supplying it with opium
Stupid people breed much faster than the rest of us. This kind of trend is inevitable.
very well said 
and also it seems our values and beliefs and country are all falling apart faster than ever these days with the kind of people we have now
they do that and the fall of the country as we know it is not far behind
I can honestly see MJ being legalized within the next decade. I support the legalization purely on the basis of taxing the hell out of it. No, I don’t smoke it, so many are inclined to think that based on my position.
But looking at statistics, alcohol does kill more people than MJ. If anyone wants to dispute this, google it and look for any reputable sources.
I honestly dont think that the number of pot smokers will have some dramatic increase if it is legalized.
I think it should be legalized.
I do not smoke now and i honestly probably would not smoke if it was legalized. I am a cop and honestly i dont give a rats ass about some body with a marijuana for personal consumption. I am more worried about the cocaine, heroin, meth and crack which contain a ton of harmful chemicals. Plus the only violent people i have ever dealt with concerning marijuana are the dealers. Make it legal and we essentially can get rid of the illegal street dealers.
I agree with you. I dont think it will be dramatic. Their already doing it, in fact everyone is doing it! I have stoped being shocked when I hear that so and so smokes Every single person in mine or my wifes family smokes with 3 exceptions that are all cops or mil. It dosent effect the 3 of us we would not even know they were doing it if that didnt tell us. Imagin how many people you know like that?
My buddies that smoke told me one night when we were all hanging out that the general consensus was that they dont give a fuck if im a cop or not, that they were gonna smoke anyway. I laughed and told them to smoke up cuz i dont give a shit. I know people from all walks of life from cops to doctors to attorney’s who do it.
It needs to be legalized and we need to take advantage of the economic advantages it would bring.
Meanwhile in Alabama, a law is going into place next Monday that will make herbal and synthetic “fake marijuana” a controlled substance. Good job, Montgomery. You’re about to turn a bunch of people who were conscientiously operating within the law into criminals overnight.
Legalizing pot may be gaining popularity on the national level, but locally it feels a bit darker lately.
Kind of like how casino money was suppose to go to schools, and how the taxes on cigaretts were suppose to really help out…
Sin taxes always have the best of intentions, but after a while the government becomes addicted to the revenue…and thus, the government becomes dependent upon the sin.
Ive been to Amsterdam many times, and I have close blood relatives in Holland right now. Much like the rest of Europe they accepted in huge numbers of 3rd worlders which took their “liberties” and ruined them. The last time I was there the only time we got hassled was 3rd worlders asking us if we wanted heroin and opium.
You can go into a coffeeshop there, and no one is going to hassle you to smoke weed. We went into many and never even got mentioned unless you asked.
The same thing in Germany. The only time I got offered drugs there was Turks in a park.
When I was a sat dish tech I went into lots of homes that reeked of it. I can’t stand the smell of it myself but I imagine there are lots of people who are “friends” with neighbors who have no clue.