Lain

As you all know, it's illegal to possess or deal out any sort of marijuana product under federal law in the United States.

LIBERTY
Individuals deserve the right to make choices for themselves.The government only has a right to limit those choices if the individual's actions threaten someone else. In my opinion, marijuana is one of the least dangerous drugs to be offered as long as you handle it in the same way you handle drinking. If you stay away from children and driving while under the influence, it's not plausible for you to break any sort of law, given that being under the influence of it is legal.

COST
There is also a lot of money involved in keeping this drug illegal; did you know the USA spends billions of dollars every year to chase after pot users? All levels of government in the country participate in the War on Drugs. We pay for food, housing, health care, attorney fees, and court costs in order to lock holders and dealers up. Furthermore, if it were to be legal, authorities would be allowed to collect taxes on it, helping us on top of saving billions of dollars every year.

Those are my two major points, but here are a couple others:

• Medicine: it stimulates appetite and relieves nausea (could be helpful for sufferers of AIDs and Cancer)

• Hemp: It is a useful natural resource, if marijuana were to become legal we could make do of its agricultural and industrial uses.

• Religion: Some religions tell their followers to use marijuana; just like Christianity tells their followers to drink wine or certain occasions. Hindus, Buddhists, Rastafarians, and some other (minor) religions use marijuana for religious ceremonies. Freedom of religion also comes into play with this.

I do not do weed nor plan to in the future, but I'm in full favor of it being legal. What are your opinions?

Pika

Honestly, the drug generally isn't more harmful than alcohol or tobacco if used in moderation....also limiting the use of the drug intrudes on personal freedom.
Legalization would mean a lower price; thus, related crimes (like theft) would be reduced imho.
There are medical benefits such as the those for cancer patients, street justice related to drug disputes would be reduced, It could be a source of additional tax revenues.


Police and court resources would be freed up for more serious crimes.
Drug dealers (including some terrorists) would lose most or all of their business, the FDA or others could regulate the quality and safety of drugs.
Like sex, alcohol, or cigarettes, marijuana is one of life's little pleasures for some people. Aside from recreational drug use, Cannabis has several industrial and commercial uses, as over 25,000 products can be made from the crop.
Drug busts often trap young people in a flawed system that turns them into lifelong criminals.

Layne

I don't think it should because of all the mayhem it would cause. Sure everything would be good in moderation & then it wouldn't be as bad(Like cigarettes), but not everyone agrees with moderation. Therefore the government makes it illegal to possess Marijuana.

Isle

I think you're over exagerating this to the China/Opium problem.

If we suddenly legalized it, would you do it?

By legalizing it, we get rid of A LOT of the mayhem, less blackmarket, crimes, and personally, instead of criminalizing those who partake of marijuana, we now offer them the oppurtunity to try to take back there lives without getting a negative label for when they try to get a job or being ostracized by society. Portugal did something similar to this, and while drug use didn't go down, a lot of the diseases which were by products did. (I think, something like this, don't quote me on it).

Of course, moderation is everything, though just because a small handful of people don't, doesn't mean we need to illegalize it, we have laws against hurting people and stealing (and "mayhem"), we really don't need to illegalize something that I feel is one of the more minor drugs.

Pika

It would create so many jobs.

I wouldn't do it if it was legal, though. I'm just not into it. I've eaten it in cake form before, though.

☆DBG☆

I honestly don't think it should because like all things, some people will abuse it. I've heard the stories about how it would create jobs and the government would get a lot of money but look at how many car accidents there are that are related to people abusing alcohol. Marijuana should not be added to the legal list because some people will abuse it.

Isle

Well, we have laws against drunk driving and texting while driving, should we illegalize alchol and phones too?

☆DBG☆

No because illegalizing alcohol has already been done before and that didn't go too well and why would phones be illegalized??? Its not a dangerous device at all.

Pika

Both valid and solid. I'm taking Isle's side in this though. Think about it. I honestly don't think it would cause problems. Some people might think it's a stepping stone to more dangerous drugs IE Heroin. Have you ever seen a news report, reporting a car crash because the person was high? It's unheard of. Granted, it still happens every now and then but it's never reported like drink driving is. If it's not a problem now it won't be a problem later.

Anpsi

I think the dealers themselves would be opposed to legalization because that would cause competition and cut into their sells. Some of these people can make a year's salary in a matter of months provided they have the right contacts. What's more is that they live a normal day to day life just as a non user would. However, I can't really say I'm for or against legalization as it probably won't have that big of an impact on me in the long run.