& why?

YESSS!
Because it's only a plant!

http://www.abovetheignorance.org/

No why ? :

this is simple stuff, some people consume it and some others sale it... some does both, in my french economy class we call that underground business .
Leglizing marijuana will kill this underground business.. because the "dealers" will at first not be the only ones in the community to sale these type of stuff, wich means probably big companies will take over their business... really really bad stuff because :

if you take away the deal of the ones that sales... than what are they gonna do ? we need to look at the consenquences (sorry for spelling errors.. im still a french dude ) some people might say, hey if we take away there business and raise the prices than they not gonna smoke anymore... and some my say :

well it is a plant, doesnt do much harm.. just makes you feel right never tryed my self, i only drink... but the thing is... how are these dealers going to make money if we take out their MAIN business ?

in france, this underground business is HUGE, many people sale, many people buy... taking that away will push these dealers to sale other stuff... what comes after Marijuana ? Cocaïn !! yes it is, at least in france. Now think of it... whats worse ? :

having people sale Marijuana... or have them sale Cocain... that once cocain going to do the effect we are going to be like.. hey lets just legalize that aswell... and sale LSD or Extasy, or varients of that...

I personaly think its already shity like this, allowing these kinda of stuff will 1 kill underground economy... where some people might make some money out of it and get out of some little shits, 2 will push dealers to go sale cocain and that gonna be really bad to see.

but its just an opinion :/ .....

It's hard to say. At the end of the day there's little proof of its long-term negative effects, but on the other hand its abuse can cause substantial mental harm, like any drug (caffeine, alcohol). Restriction is one idea which doesn't seem to be causing widespread public decadence or a more accessible gateway to harder drugs, e.g. The Netherlands, but at the moment Britain's stance isn't so bad either with its classification as a class C drug and little prosecution prospects.

Its legality may either reduce or open abuse; ease of ownership is a difficult category to tackle. In its current state, apart from dealership and walking about on the streets with it along with illegal importing/exporting, sensible use of it as a psychoactive substance at home carries a shallow risk of indictment (talking from the UK), so the legal status is rendered somewhat irrelevant.

It's been rather long-winded, but what I'm trying to say is that there are so many possibilities that it's impossible to judge whether it should be made legal or not--not without a massive amount of research conducted first. Unfortunately governments aren't so quick to face this rather liberal issue so we may never know. Arguably it is not so different from alcohol, which carries a far more abusive following, so I think it should not run a serious legal risk for users. People who want it will get their hands on it, legal implications aside, so its status as a criminalising substance may have little bearing on its use.

Sitting on the fence for this one, but as I said it should be considered as a relatively minor crime in *most* circumstances (not dealing, nor other more degenerate scenarios more commonly associated with harder drugs) and, to be honest, viewed in a similar manner to alcohol.

that agreed.

What i hope re-searchers will not use the The Netherlands as an examples... i think mentalities are a way to different, and they are really different in all the countries, same as alcohol, for that just look at statistics.

Even it was legal, I wouldn't smoke it, and neither do my friends.

If they made it legal it would help the crime rate go down...I am sure it will happen in time, Beer used to be illegal in usa for a period of time, look at it now

beer was only illegal for a small amount of time..... (like taking away beer was going to stop domestic disputes, HA!)

anyways, so what? it makes you hungry, it makes you happy and it helps you concentrate.

emmmmmmm........ concentrate!

Funny enough, this topic reminds me of a marijuana incident happened sometime ago around here. It totally illegal to grow the plant here and anybody with a flowerpot's worth gets prosecuted. Apparently leaves of the stuff were sprouting up everywhere like weeds in a newly constructed prison. It was the prisoners told the guards and they themselves identified the plant. Big news, everybody from local enforcement to prison health care played the "Oops-I-didn't-know-that!" blame game.

Such helpful prisoners, though. Must have been a really minimum security prison...

All drugs should be legal and unregulated. I don't like the idea of the Federal Government using tax dollars to chase around (and pay to imprison and feed) crackheads, while the real criminals are still on the loose. (Child molesters, murderers, rapists, etc.)

All violence caused by drugs is a result of the current black market for them. Just like with prohibition, drug laws create a black market that is not subject to regulation via the consumer like a free market would be.

Marijuana should at least be made legal for medical purposes. I do not see why they can give Oxycontin to people but not Marijuana

Wow, your logic is so flawed I don't know where to begin. Underground business? You mean organized crime? These people aren't paying taxes on their "underground business" either. With "underground business" comes weapons, violence, and tons of illegal activity. People involved in "underground business" cannot involve the police in any disputes, so they are forced to solve their disputes through violence, blackmail, extortion, and other means. Where will these dealers go? How about getting an HONEST job! If marijuana was legal, a legitimate marijuana economy would emerge anyway.
To encourage people making a living as drug dealers is like encouraging people who are professional hitmen. They are both making their living dishonestly, and hurting the economy/general welfare of an area.
Underground business hurts legitimate businesses who have to pay taxes and settle their disputes legally.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7098340.stm

You think heroin and cocaine should be legal?

i am not saying what they are doing is correct.
I am totally against this underground business, the thing is some people i know, well most of them... sadly sale drugs... and sale weed... and listening to them.. they are definitely morons... but they have no choice.

Its to easy to say hey get a job... i got one ok... most of my friends don't... not that they don't want to.. but most likely because they don't find a job. its hard.

You saying my logic is flawed is wrong - yours is actualy even more flawed than mine. "they could just get jobs"

Now we actualy dont care if they have a job or not - things to know :

Where they live makes them easy to have these drugs
Who they hang with makes them easy to have these drugs - easy to sale these drugs
People around them don't help much even tho they should start by helping themselves.

My point :

Legalize marijuana and these people are not going to have anything to sale - its obvious :



and remember the illegal sales ? yes you do because you use to buy some no joking, but you still do...
Now what happened to people who sold the illegals merchandises ? well they got fucked coz they were not making any money anymore since government took control of it.

same for marijuana... legalize it and these people are going to need something else to sale :



this is totally wrong... it'll increase the amount of people stealing - increase violence - increase many bad things and the best one of it is an other way to make money... sale an other type of DRUG ! such as cocain lsd ... and the lists goes on and on and on...

Legalize that shit and itll make it worse. Best thing to do is try to find the sources and stop them.

http://ronpaul2008.com

Why on earth would you want it to be made Legal?!?! It's a drug and can kill people. That's why I say that it definately should NOT be made legal.

^ What about alcohol, then? I'd say it's at least 1,000x more likely to kill, but it's legal.

DRUGS DONT KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE KILL DRUGS

MJ is 100x safer then smoking a cig...

If people overdose on drugs, they do kill people. So drugs do kill people, and smoking is a drug also.

actually when the person dies the drug dies with them.....

???

Has anyone ever overdosed on marijuana?

This is what I feel:

1. In an old issue of MAD magazine I had come across a cartoon that presented one angle to this marijuana debate.

It suggested that since marijuana is safer and cheaper than alcohol [and tobacco], its legalisation will severely affect the powerful alcohol manufacturers lobby as people, after some initial doubts, will take to marijuana instead of the bottle.

While existing alcohol-drinkers will probably stick to their drinks, younger people, who have just reached or are about to reach the legally-accepted age-limit for drinking [and smoking] will take to marijuana instead of alcohol.

And economically speaking, losing this younger, upwardly-mobile-with-buying-power segment can indeed mean big losses.

2. Regardless of the various alleged and proven advantages of marijuana, we must admit that it is a psychotropic substance. And while it is safe and non-addictive and cheaper, it is a narcotic substance and introducing another narcotic [with offical approval] into modern society -- which has enough problems already -- may not be a good idea.

And while a majority of marijuana users will ...well, "use" it in a responsible manner, there will always be dorks who will not. These dorks may beat their wives, take someone hostage, rob old people and when caught, will try to shift the blame on to the marijuana they smoked.

While this may not give them any legal advantage, it will certainly give the anti-marijuana lobby enough fuel to begin the "We told you this would happen..." chant.

3. Marijuana should not be legalised. However, authorities and the people should recognise that it is safer [than a lot of other stuff that's out there -- alcohol and tobacco to name two such legal substances] and not habit-forming and therefore not in the same category as "hard drugs" like cocaine.

Smoking marijuana or carrying it [in a quantity suitable for personal use only] should not be considered a major offence and marijuana users [like those who drink alcohol and/or smoke tobacco] should not be looked upon as drug-addicts.

Note: Since marijuana is usually available in a city's "shadier areas", the limit on amount carried by a person may actually discourage him/her from smoking the stuff, since each 'pot session' would mean a trip to those "shadier areas". And anyone caught carrying it in large quantities will be charged with major drug-trafficking offences.

I may be wrong, but that's what I feel personally.

with cigarettes, you can have overdoes on nicotine, but I'm not sure about MJ.

Yeah lets just make all the drugs legal, so 8 year olds can go to school high. Look at all the people in schools who do drugs. There all drop outs and bums. They should change the laws so anyone who gets caught with this stuff gets put in jail right away. Start teaching them lessons and shit. Drugs are the biggest bull shit ever. People who do drugs are stupid kids, who think they are cool and follow other idiots around. Grow up kids.

WTF.
its always the nerds that do mary j. and its always the posh smartypantses that get high in the washrooms at recess. tbh i give more respect to people who smoke marijuana cus they wanna be part of the crowd, than those who do it because they're depressed.
if you seriously think that the people who do weed are the dropouts, i think you should take another look. the retards are the ones who smoke tobacco. tobacco is a killer, but nobody has ever died from smoking marijuana. marijuana is cheaper, more pleasant and more acceptable that cigarettes. legalizing drugs would simply allow more control over them, because they would not be being sold in the backstreets of moss side anymore, where you can't get a spliff without being offered a load of other contaminated poisons too.

But maybe once it's legalised then all the fun will be taken out of it & its taboo status, like homosexuality after the UK's Buggery Act was annulled in 1967! It's just not been the same since then!

Alcohol is legal but you don't see 8 year old kids going to school drunk. There would obviously be an age limit on the drug if it was legalized. The kids in school that smoke Marijuana generally do harder drugs and abuse them therefore are "bums". I'm not saying that Marijuana should be legalized, but there are many legal drugs that are much more dangerous than Marijuana such as Oxycontin and Vicodin.

Marijuana does not affect mental faculties. Take a look at these research results:

1. WebMD news report

2. New Scientist article

3. Science News article

[Links courtesy: www.abovetheignorance.org]

I know it is hard to change an opinion once it has been fed and nurtured for years, but at least try to find out both sides of the issue before coming to a conlcusion or blindly condemning those who smoke marijuana.

Its okay if you don't ever intend to smoke it -- no one will force you to. But don't force your opinion[s] upon those who do and label them "drug addicts", which is what I want to say.

Cheers!

not saying eight year olds, but alot of people in my school actually do...

There is so much misinformation in this thread it almost makes me sick.

First off, the active ingredient in marijuana is THC, and it in no way, shape, or form can kill you or harm you. It's the plant matter in marijuana that contains the carcinogens. And, to combat that, there are things called Vaporizers, which vaporize the THC by heating it up, and you get none of the plant matter. Safe.

Second off, no one has EVER died from smoking Marijuana. You can NOT overdose on THC.

And finally, the only reason it is illegal is because of racism against mexicans and Du Pont. I'm not going to explain why, you can go to wikipedia for your answer if you care enough.

Everything should be legal and taxed by the government. Who the fuck is the government to tell us what substances we can't put into our own bodies? What the fuck is it to them? Get off my dick and let me live my life!


Smoking is a drug? What???


Main Entry: smoke
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): smoked; smok·ing

intransitive verb
1 a: to emit or exhale smoke b: to emit excessive smoke
4: to inhale and exhale the fumes of burning plant material and especially tobacco; especially : to smoke tobacco habituallytransitive verb

Right.

Medical Marijuana should be legal on all states, a lot of people could benefit from it.

this is true... and should....

I am no longer a smoker.I was introduced to it through people I worked with,Everybody I knew practically did.I smoked all through my late teens and on through my twenties,but I have finally stopped.To date I am 4 years clean from smoking it.And I think it should be legal.Its beyond me why going out and getting wasted on booze is legal and marijuana isn't.It has two totally different effects upon people.

I do believe the the "the system" understands that keeping maryjane illegal is far more lucrative for them than making it legal.They are about taking everything as opposed to a small tax per sale.

maybe for the 'people' who want it to be legal, why not become 'test subjects' for the effects of it. lmao

Sign me up, I'd like to find out the positive effects of Purple Kush

Haha....
Call marijuana user's druggies, or call them patients of medical "purpose". I don't know what to think about this, however I do believe they need to try it in a screwed up state. See what happens over the course of 10 years, and legalize it or make it illegal it depending on what happens. School related use increases among teens, etc...
-Paranoid

The argument that always pissed me off was the new rhetoric of it being a "gateway" drug, following that line of absurd thought would lead one to call for outlawing sex because it leads to violent rape crimes.

Well, I agree and disagree.

The herd who take marijuana out of peer pressure and outright hedonism (i.e. destructive) rather than enlightenment and the opening of the mind and senses (constructive) are influenced in their drug taking by those around them. In this convention your analogy to rape was wrong, because for the aforementioned herd, drugs are very much a social thing. There's nothing stopping people working their way up the drug chain once the barrier is crossed--I've seen it happen. Smoking a bit of marijuana with friends is very different to when out clubbing and someone offers you ecstasy--but it's the whole concept of the boundary; you're either a drug-user or you aren't.

Yes, many people have their own limits drawn, but the mindless majority cannot discern between the two areas of drug-use (in this case, psychoactive vs. stimulant) and have difficulty saying no, especially in the current social climate and misinformed youth.

Putting this into a strict sense of context, marijuana should not be considered a gateway drug in itself. It's not the drug's fault, it's society's fault and the user's fault. However the whole aura of the drug and its status as everyone's first [illegal] substance makes the scenario surrounding the drug very much a gateway into other areas.

Marijuana shouldn't be grouped in with those other drugs. If the media/government would stop trying to push it into the same group people would be able to make such a distinction.

Besides, theres no proof that ecstasy in and of itself is really bad, very few people die from taking it etc... its just a club drug

Its a war on freedom, people can kill themselves and destroy their liver with alcohol, fuck up their lungs with tobacco, all because those two items have a large history especially tobacco, being the core part of agriculture in many states (and in europe too)

But its NOT okay for a simple herb like weed to be grown and sold when its been shown that its not even as dangerous as alcohol.

See, if alcohol were part of the "drug culture" which it easily could be if history had changed in certain ways, it could be called a "gateway" drug. Instead its very positive, associated with sports and "all men drink beer" etc...

and who will pay for the medication?

imo, marijuana shouldn't be made legal. Its just a matter of who's making money. Big companies or the good guys.

Who pays for the medication? why of course, the PEOPLE do because we lack a good healthcare system in my country

sigh...

Besides, those things rarely make you go to the doctor, they just kill you slowly and you are aware of what they're doing but its often an addiction.

i got that line of the news this morning
two old ladies were having a debate about wether or not people have the right to binge drink and the government representative said "and who will pay for the medication" and that shut the other woman up. i thought it might shut you up but it didn't quite work.

Private healthcare 1
Public healthcare 0

NHS can suck my balls. 3 years ago I laughed at private healthcare. Now, if I had enough money, I would go private in the blink of an eye.

the NHS are awesome.
free drugs.

Free MRSA while you're at it.