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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/15/2007 6:11:01 PM | Because, like any other mind altering substance, its posative aspects and benefits
are outweighed by the negative and destructive ones.
Marijuana is an extremely powerful and addictive drug, and I know what Im talking about. I was a teenager in the 70's and played in bands for years. I know that a lot of people say its not, but youd be hard pressed to find somehow more frantic and obsessed than a chronic smoker whos run out of stash.
I had a roomate who used to pack a pipe before he went to bed, and would light up and draw before he opened his eyes in the morning. Society has enough problems without adding another one. Theres already enough neglected kids and losers on welfare. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/15/2007 10:06:52 PM | Pot is a crime because it is the only way that money can be made from the weed except on the black market, which is money that goes right back into our economy in the billions of dollars not only in the commercial sell of weed but also the taxes collected to pay for the DEA and other government bureaucracies to fight drugs and of course the seizures of money and property that are taken in police raids adds up to billions of dollars because pot is illegal.
I know people say you could tax the weed and the government could make money off of it but they are wrong.
If pot were legal no one would be buying weed any more because everyone would be, GROWING THEIR OWN. GOOD OL HOME GROWN.
Because we live in a free society with free enterprise, if weed was legal anyone could grow it just like home grown tomatoes. I know my front yard and back yard both would be nothing but pot plants so why would anyone buy it when you can grow your own legally. Everyone who has smoked weed at one time or another has grown a plant or two in their closet until they either got paranoid about it or got busted for it; is why only a few people are willing to take the risk to grow it. If weed were legalized you would see pot growing everywhere.
Weed was criminalized in 1937 after a misinformed movie came out about it being destructive called, “Reefer Madness”. The movie was just recently on HBO this past month and if you watched it, you would agree it was so misinformed and hilarious but in 1937 no one was really educated about weed and so they bought into the hype and weed was criminalized. Over the years so much money has been made off of pot being illegal that there is no way that it could be legalize now and not have a huge negative affect or repercussion on our economy. That is why pot is illegal.
It has nothing to do with if pot is bad for you or not, it’s all about making money.
People who sell weed like things just the way they are because the money involved.
The difference between weed and other prescription drugs is the average person can’t grow or manufacture a Xanax or a Valium but anyone can grow a pot plant. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/16/2007 6:11:45 AM | Travlr
Theres already enough neglected kids and losers on welfare.
And prove that this has anything to do with pot or any other drugs. I say there are lazy, antisocial people, period. Their substance abuse is a symptom of a far greater problem, not the cause.
But while we focus on the symptoms nothing gets done to address the "real" cause.
We will never improve the ills of our society as long as we are looking in the wrong places. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/16/2007 7:32:25 AM | prove that this has anything to do with pot or any other drugs
Thats a no brainer. There is a direct correlation between people who use
alcohol and narcotics, and poverty, crime, and child abuse and neglect.
Ask anyone who has ever worked in any kind of social services or law enforcement.
Its just common sense. Doing anything worthwhile in life, raising kids, building a career, contributing to society, is difficult and requires consistency, concentration, and willpower. One of the reasons arabic societies are so far behind the west is pervasive, endemic hash use. Potheads dont get much done. There too busy eating,
listening to music, or having sex, all worthile activities in their own right, but when your stoned its impossible to set your priorites right because you are using an hallucinogen .Theres a reason why they call it dope. You know theres a basic rule
when it comes to creating and maintaining a civilization. Just because you want to do something, and can do it, doesnt mean you should. People who want to legalize marijuana arent looking beyond there own selfish desires. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/16/2007 7:44:30 AM |
There is a direct correlation between people who use
alcohol and narcotics, and poverty, crime, and child abuse and neglect.
Maybe.. But as I suggested , you've got the cause and the symptoms reversed.
I would say decrease the Poverty and most of these issues would go away.
Substance abuse is the Fruit not the seed of the problem. And ignoring that fact will only get us deeper into the hole. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/16/2007 8:41:45 AM | I would say decrease the Poverty and most of these issues would go away"
If you take an in depth look at poverty you see glaring patterns of behaviour .
Sexual promiscuity and substance abuse.They are linked in a self reinforcing loop.
Most of our social ills are linked to people bringing children into the world they cannot support or raise correctly. Crime, gangs, child abuse and neglect, and poverty. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/16/2007 9:19:46 AM | Most of our social ills are linked to people bringing children into the world they cannot support or raise correctly
Agreed.. So lets stop pointing at Boggie Men and attack the real issues? Poverty!
Sexual promiscuity and substance abuse are symptoms of this problem and before we can break that self reinforcing loop, we need to step back and look at the larger picture. Focus on a single brush stroke and you miss the painting. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/16/2007 9:54:02 AM | | Poverty has nothing to do with it. There's just as many wealthy people who do drugs and are sexually promiscuous. It comes down to personal responsibility and how you choose to live your life. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/16/2007 10:02:20 AM | "Sexual promiscuity and substance abuse are symptoms of this problem"
Wrong. There are people who find themselves in poverty because of age, infirmity, disability, etc, but for the most part poverty is caused by bad choices, self indulgence and lack of self control. I cant think of any reason why a healthy, young person should be abjectly poor. If you are spending whatever income you have on drugs how do you
not be poor. Show me a child in poverty, and I'll show you a victim of thier parents
bad choices. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/26/2007 12:28:33 AM | | In amsterdam when they legalized pot the crime rate droped. MJ for all. Smoke that shit till ya drop | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/26/2007 10:55:39 AM |
I know people say you could tax the weed and the government could make money off of it but they are wrong.
If pot were legal no one would be buying weed any more because everyone would be, GROWING THEIR OWN. GOOD OL HOME GROWN.
I disagree.To grow really good pot requires quality seeds and a pretty good knowledge of the cannabis plant's botanical characteristics.There's also the convenience factor.There will always be those who simply aren't into botany and can't be bothered.They will buy commercially grown weed and there will always be a demand for the varying blends and breeds of MJ.
I can see a potential for added state,local and federal income,providing licensing for commercial and domestic growers and of course,licensing for establishments to provide customers with weed as is done in the coffee shops in Amsterdam.
Clubs that serve alcohol have to have licenses to operate as do stores that sell liquor,beer,cigarettes and adult entertainment.This doesn't infringe upon the folks that want to brew their own beer or wine and the home brewers have never been a threat to the commercial sale of alcoholic beverages.Should MJ ever become legal,I can see it taking a similar route.
Show me a child in poverty, and I'll show you a victim of thier parents
bad choices.
You've obviously never been the victim of corporate downsizing,a debilitating injury or illness and have a lack of medical insurance or otherwise just plain bad luck.I agree that there is no shortage of stupid people who's priorities are seriously askew,but it's not that way for everyone who suffers financial setbacks and misfortune. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/26/2007 9:41:07 PM | | Legalizaiton of pot will free up police resources to take on criminals, and most people that smoke pot pay taxes. Legalization is the only way to win the drug war because too much profits to be made selling drugs. The goverment could legalize the drugs, and allow private companies the right to sell drugs in controlled settings, and have legal limits of the drug desired. Booze is dangerous as pot and more so because alcohol effects more areas of the brain in regrads to making simple judgements. Personally want drug laws similar to the nertherlands or else we will be still pissing money on a losing drug started by Nixon. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/28/2007 10:04:44 PM | I really haven't touched the stuff since high school, however i have been around enough to know the REAL effects of the stuff. it just dosen't turn people into axe weilding psychos like the propaganda the government wants to frighten uninformed individuals into believing. (if you knew how many people in the U.S. really smoked weed -you would be utmost amazed! ) -most people need something to keep them sane from the shit this country does to us...
In closing, all i have to say is the founding fathers of this great country: -ALL OF THEM grew their own weed, distilled their own liquor and eventually got sick of the british telling them how to live their own lives -so they revolted, -and yes the constitution was drafted on what else other then....
HEMP!
-DO YOU EVER THINK THEY EVER EVEN ENTERTAINED AND IDEA THAT A BUNCH OF PURITINISTS WOULD MAKE A WEED ILLEGAL IN A COUNTRY THEY FOUNDED ON PERSONAL FREEDOMS? | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 8/28/2007 10:41:31 PM | | Page 57? Why is this thread still going? Every possible argument for against it, must have been mention a dozen times by now..... | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 9/6/2007 10:30:29 AM | Smoking pot is a crime to the GOVERNMENT because they can't tax marijuana freely like they can with tobacco. I am a fairly new stoner, only been smoking for about 4 years or so, and I have realized that pot has helped me with a lot of problems, from stress to ADHD. It has also helped my mother, who suffers from Crohn's Disease, Fibro mialga (I don't know how it's spelled!), Lupus, and Carpral Tunnel (Again, I suck at spelling.) Yes, I have tried harder things than pot before, but nothing gives me the same high consistency as marijuana. Besides, pot is cheaper than Riddlin and Adderol.
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 9/6/2007 11:56:55 AM | There are people that think that smoking tobacco should be illegal because it's air pollution and brings up preventable health care costs.
People smoking cigarettes can get selfish if they have kids or marry non smokers and only we can ban smoking in our own homes.
There are people that might just think outlawing pot and other bad drugs highly addictive could think that it's unconstitutional.
There was a time when alcohol was illegal and that created more crimes. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 9/6/2007 12:37:01 PM | http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/60959/
Top 10 reasons why it should be legalized. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 9/6/2007 12:51:37 PM | as an "ex" FAA inspector, i can tell you that smoking pot is not a crime "if " you are an FAA inspector. in his infinite wisdom, bill clinton unionized the DOT to pay back the huge donations made by unions to his presidential campaign. in the union contract, air worthiness and flight ops inspectors cannot be tested for drug use. (even though we performed drug tests on maintenance people and pilots) so...if you want to smoke pot...work for the DOT. happy flying!  | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 9/14/2007 3:24:21 AM | The facts are prohibition of any substance not only does not lower use it causes more crime. Organized crime would have to seek other sources of revenue if drugs were legalized. thus lowering crime significantly. Also the so called "war on drugs" kills more people than all the drugs put together. (including the legal ones.)
Let's not try and go there and say "we are trying to protect dumb people who can't think for themselves." First it is not the governments place to dictate what a person can or cannot do with their own body. second by making a law the people do not wish enforced begins the route to a police state. It is the only way to even dream of enforcing such an unenforceable law. (It will still fail even then.)
The only thing making a law like this does is cause the prices to go up ridiculously and cause more crime to happen from this rise in funds. It attracts more violent crime by being illegal.
Poverty is caused by allowing it's direct opposite to exist. (If you are going to allow filthy rich people the right to hoard money then you will always have poverty. The money that is hoarded by one is the money another man does not have. Capitalism unchecked is what causes poverty. It is just as dangerous as totalitarian versions of communism. It is extreme and unhealthy for a society. We need to move more towards the middle on this and a lot of these problems will ease off into non-existence if not rarity.
Drug addiction is often caused by boredom and unhappiness do to lack of opportunity. The drugs don't cause anything to happen. I am sick of people trying to blame substances for our problems. Ask any person who works a rehab they will tell you it is not the drugs fault it is a person who chooses to loose control and blaming the drug will not solve the problem one bit.
If it was the drugs fault every person who ever tries them would be helplessly addicted we would all be helpless addicts. This is not what happens at all, some loose control some dont. The victim mentality of oh poor me the big bad drug has got me, is the problem not the drug. The drug is what it is period! It is the human who chooses all the other choices and society currently allows people to blame all of their issues on drugs. What a crock of sanctioned irresponsibility. Also you name a few examples of drug addicted people in poverty. Far more people I know who do drugs are quite wealthy and successful. It has nothing to do with what they choose to do. By what you are saying you would have to blame the drug for their success too. In fact the drug has little to do with either success or failure. (unless you are selling them or busting people who are selling them. :P )
This has far more to do with your parents socio-economic standing and who you end up meeting in your life than what drug you do. If you are born wealthy you will have opportunities others will never see in their life. If you are born in poverty chances are very high unless you win the lottery, meet someone and make it big in the music industry, get great at sports , or get into organized crime which has always got its start from prohibition in this country, that you will die in poverty.
There are few opportunities for those who want out of the bottom rungs of the social ladder. You want the answer LACK OF HOPE! this is what feeds addiction, promiscuous sex etc. Add to the fact that people who sell drugs make a good amount of money because of their legal status BAM you have all the crime and gangs you speak about. It is the prohibition that is causing the problem not the use of the drug itself.
Read any study done into this and it always says that the prohibition of a substance causes far greater problems than the substance itself.
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 9/23/2007 9:01:57 PM | In Oregon, smoking pot is a crime because the voters want it to be. In the 1970's and 1980's, pot advocated repeatedly collected enough petitions to put de-criminalistion on the ballot, and every single time, it was defeated by a land slide. I personally don't care if people unconcerned about the health effects (male sterility, lung cancer, etc) smoke pot in their own homes, and would fight for chemotherapy and glaucoma patient's to be able to use it without stress. Smoked-up people who get behind the wheel are lethal weapons. Judgement is impaired at least as much as with alcohol. When I was in high school, my best friend was stoned and driving. She took a little bump in the road two fast, rolling the vehicle and killing her boyfriend. Trying to escape reality by pointing out that this is "anecdotal," is typical, too. If so many deaths have occured that we all know someone who got killed, it means too many people are getting killed. People who drive stoned are murderers, because they should have known better.
I realize I sound like my mother, but I really wish I could share the sweetness of a mind that developed unimpaired by mood altering drugs. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 9/24/2007 10:54:46 AM | @Matisse808:
You will never cure human irresponsibility by the prohibition of a substance.It's just unrealistic to think you can.The laws against drunk driving can and are being used against people impaired on other substances.The term "DWI" was replaced with "DUI" in most states,meaning that if you are impaired by alcohol,illegal drug or legal medication,you can and will be charged.This business of saying that an officer can't tell if a person is stoned is complete BS.A field sobriety test will catch ANY impairment if done correctly and a urinalyses will show the presence of THC.
You're right in that no one should drive under the influence of anything,but what's the difference in a person who relaxes at home with a beer or glass of wine or mixed drink and the same person relaxing in their home with a joint?No one has answered this question to my satisfaction. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 1/28/2008 12:04:10 PM | this is to all the right wing extremist that seem to think that smokin pot is any different than having a glass of wine.....if your stupid enough to say that alcohol is not a mind altering drug then please dont read on........
first off.....how many pot heads go home and beat there wives and children cause theyre sstoned
second.....not condoning driving when stoned but how many famillys do you see killed because someone was stoned and at the wheel
third......its a gateway drug (you morons) i remmeber have one too many tylenols when i was young and realized wht drugs do.....how about whn i got my apendix taken out and was given morphine......i started singing i got a lovely bunch of coconuts
not saying that pot is not a drug ....... it is a drug and sshould be treated as one
it is addictive and it does have side affects
now that ive said that though it really irratates me when cowardly iggnorant people trash on a such a useful medicine because its what they hear and of course our minister wouldnt lie.
people please stop being ignorant and find out for your self
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 1/28/2008 1:54:52 PM |
it is addictive and it does have side affects
I wonder about the term "addictive".It gets thrown around left and right and no one seems to want to differentiate between what is physically addictive and psychologically addictive.I've used pot off and on for over 35 years and have gone long periods of time,as long as a decade without it.Never once have I ever experienced anything resembling a withdrawal.In fact I really didn't even miss it.So much for pot being addictive.Least as far as I'm concerned anyway. | |
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| Why is smoking pot a crime?
Posted: 1/28/2008 2:24:56 PM |
Smoked-up people who get behind the wheel are lethal weapons. Judgement is impaired at least as much as with alcohol.
Indications are actually quite the opposite of your unsupported guess here.
In 1974 Car and Driver magazine did a test. They took 5 staffers, outfitted them with nomex suits and helmets and put them on a race course with a slalom to measure real world reaction time. Day 1 they took a baseline score of all 5 drivers times through the slalom . Then they smoked one joint each and did it again. Then the smoked another joint and repeated it.
The next day they ran the slalolm again to verify their baseline scores were the same or better and then proceeded to take one drink and take the test again. Then another drink and another test.
On the third day they ran the test again with one drink and one joint.
The results were interesting and not what they expected. After one joint the reaction times were quicker and every one of the 5 drivers posted better scores through the slalom because of their heightened sense of awareness and faster thinking. Two joints scores were slightly lower than baseline. The alcohol test runs were significantly worse and the absolute worst was booze and pot by a large margin.
Lots of drugs enhance human performance. Amphetamines have been banned for decades in sport - and not because they make people "more impaired than alcohol". Olympic divers have gone on record as saying they use LSD to help them concentrate - it's undectable in the blood.
When I was in high school, my best friend was stoned and driving. She took a little bump in the road two fast, rolling the vehicle and killing her boyfriend. Trying to escape reality by pointing out that this is "anecdotal," is typical, too.
Your opinion concerning one data point does not constitiute any sort of "reality".
It's "typical" because it's true. You have no idea how pot contributed to their demise. She may just have been a bad driver.
If so many deaths have occured that we all know someone who got killed, it means too many people are getting killed. People who drive stoned are murderers, because they should have known better.
50,000 poeple are killed every year because of drunk driving and the depressant effects of alcohol on the human nervous system and commensurate lack of mental and physical abiity are well understood. I can't even find figures that show how many people have died becuse of marijuana affected driving, only that nobody has ever died from an overdose of pot, ever.
So, while it's true that people sholdn't drive while impaired, evidence so far suggests it's legal to drive while slightly impaired (remember, one drink and you have slower reaction times) yet illegal to drive while exhibiting better reaction times because of pot. Obviously if somebody smokes too much they shouldn't drive. Duh.
There's a comedian I saw 25 years ago who told this joke: "The difference between pot and boose when driving is this - if somebodys drunk, they think they can drive and keep going and the more they drink the more they can think they can drive. But if some guy is too stoned he'll pull over and go ``dude, i'm too wrecked to drive. lets pull over and smoke another joint". It's only funny because, like nearly all jokes, it's very true.
But it's these kinds of hypocracy that make sensible people question the wisdom of the continuance of an illegally obtained prohibition to a drug that's been used by mankind for 10,000 years and was a standard over the counter medecine until 1937 has been used by such people from Queen Victoria, Thomas Jefferson, Elvis Presley, John F Kennedy, Newt Gingrich, Harrison Ford, Richard Feynman, Winston Churchill, Michael Bloomberg (NY mayor who when asked if he ever smoked pot, he replied, "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it!"), Robert Altman, Robert Mitchum, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jack Nicholson, Pablo Picasso, William Shakespeare, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Ted Turner, George Washington, Ernest Hemmingway, Stephen King, Walt Disney, Aldous Huxley, Count Basie, Dr Francis Crick, George Soros and other noted underachievers.
Hunther Thompson smoked weed and snorted cocaine with George W. Bush and had to have Bush removed when he drank too much and passed out in Thompsons bathtub at his 1974 superbowl party, | |
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