| Legalizing Marijuana: Should We Make Marijuana Legal or Keep Marijuana Illegal? |
| Saturday, 02 May 2009 23:37 |
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As proponents for legalizing marijuana continue to make ground and gain
support, opponents to the endeavor continue to attempt to thwart that progress.
There will always be a faction of the society that wishes to control the actions
of others – no matter how benevolent and non-harmful they may be. Following is a
list of reasons for and against legalizing marijuana in the US:
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  written by D.J. , October 05, 2009 and shouldnt every adult have the right to choose whether to enjoy heroine themselves as well? and cocaine? and meth? No. horrible article. Horrible argument. "It generates a lot of money for local, state and national government agencies in America – Land of the Free" as an argument against? by legalizing marijuana, the DEA would save billions a year, and the tax on it would generate billions as well. However, this would only make it more accessible to teenagers. And marijuana is a gateway drug. AND it would cause less productivity in the mass of our labor force. Get your argument straight. written by BR , October 06, 2009 The Legalization & regulation of cannabis would only benefit our nation in the long run, the only negatives are that the artificially inflated black market would be lost (and the illegal jobs that come with it) & "legal" jobs in law enforcement & criminal justice would be lost. In the long run teens would have to surpass the system of regulation to acquire it much like the have to with alcohol as opposed to being able to by it in their own school, it would make the likely hood of someone using cannabis coming into contact with a hard drug dealer or user much less likely(to those who say that pot is a "gateway drug" as far as science can tell there are no gateway drugs,& if there are tobbaco, alcohol & caffeine are more likely to be "gateways"). written by Jay Fleming , October 16, 2009 Two things need to be addressed. First, as long as marijuana is worth thousand of dollars a pound, drug dealers will control where drugs are sold, to who, at what age, and the price, not the government. Second, we need some specific information on how we are going to keep marijuana away from kids. We need to do better than we do with tobacco laws. In some states kids can't buy tobacco products, but once they have them, there is no law about possession or use. We need to do better. Education works, look at how much we have reduced smoking without putting anyone in prison. written by G. Blerot , October 19, 2009 Marijuana is not legal because back in the early 1900's when the Mormons flooded back into Utah from Mexico (where they went because they had multiple wives, which had become illegal in the late 1800's so the Mormons went to Mexico but got bored and lonely so they moved back to Utah to be with their friends and family) they brought Marijuana, or hemp as it was known back then, with them. The church didn't like it so Utah became the first state to outlaw Cannabis. From there, or even before that other states were implementing bylaws and laws to minimize the use of Marijuana because of all the Mexican cheap labor that was using it as they had brought it with them. The Mexicans were taking jobs of Americans and they were working for less money. Soon, other states followed and things were said in congressional meetings like "cannabis users are peaceful and that cannabis could be used during a communist invasion, to weaken American will to fight." -H. Anslinger, and "“evil” marijuana dealer getting young teens hooked on marijuana, and leading to rape, murder and insanity." Now while most of us have experienced no need to kill someone while high on pot, during this era, where nothing was known about the use or effect of weed, people who had killed people were using the defense "smoking reefer made me do it." Their lawyers claimed it made the client "insane". For the insanity plea, the court requires an Expert on the drug, and this expert supposedly isolated the active ingredient on marijuana in the 1910's and injected it into the brains of 100 dogs. Some dogs died about 3% of them. Others may or may not have had other reactions. Since THC wasn't isolated until the 1930's by a German scientist, who knows what the expert injected into those dogs. But it wasn't the active ingredient. Apparently when this topic came to an FDA decision, people of authority were twisting the words of doctors who disagreed that marijuana was dangerous, to make it sound like marijuana is dangerous. So this entire law has been based on Lies, Racism, Hatred, and Invented Religious influence from the Mormon church. written by G. Blerot , October 19, 2009 This is just the industrial sector that influenced law. What even more so had an impact was the pharmaceutical sector. Imagine a plant that anyone could grow in their own grow room, greenhouse, backyard, or farm. It would grow in ditches, along highways, and railroad tracks, as it once had. It would have been produced to next to nothing so there would be a huge supply. Economics 101: Profit = Demand over Supply Large demand over short supply means large profits. Large demand with a Large supply means less profit to be had per product. There are over 25000 products that can be made from Marijuana. More than crude oil. It also makes medicine that can eradicate a large portion of the medicine industry. Let's be honest here. When you hear the word medicine, what do you think of? "Makes you better" "Healthy" "Cures" "Pills". Common thoughts. "Why would I want to put them out of business?" Well when you think of Medicine what you should be thinking is "America's #1 cause of accidental death" "misuse" "Addiction" "Narcotics" "Major profits for pharmaceutical companies". These profits would be in the hands of consumers because of the supply and demand rule. Cheaper ways to medicate with little or no negative side-effects. "Why would I want to put them out of business?" People now say marijuana is bad. They know it is bad from all their experience they've had regarding marijuana. "It's not as natural as it was in the 60's." No, that's because now its grown in 100% ideal conditions. Not along railroad tracks and in ditches. This means that you need less of it for a better effect. Less smoke, less harm. No smoke, no harm. Marijuana has been used for millenia for cooking and food products. In fact, by using Marijuana in addition to other crops of North America, we could next to eliminate world hunger. That is with all the benefits of marijuana combined. Now, I'm trying to look at this issue from both sides of the table. There are good reasons to re-introduce marijuana back into society, a few which I have covered here. Let's try to think of why marijuana should stay illegal for recreational use. If marijuana become legal that will mean there will be marijuana farms. Thousands of tonnes of marijuana growing, flowing freely in the world. Anybody could, theoretically, have literally pounds of pot on his person and no one could do anything. Marijuana would become so vast and accepted that it would create the next Big Tobacco companies. Small producers would be forced out of business by larger companies that industrialize marijuana to turn huge profits. People would be able to buy 25 one gram cigarettes in a pack for a few dollars, like they do tobacco cigarettes now. They would introduce foreign addictive substances into their product and we would have a new cancer, respiratory, and heart and stroke issues we would have to deal with. And in the years to come what will we all say? "The doctors used to say marijuana was beneficial to use." written by G. Blerot , October 19, 2009 This is just the industrial sector that influenced law. What even more so had an impact was the pharmaceutical sector. Imagine a plant that anyone could grow in their own grow room, greenhouse, backyard, or farm. It would grow in ditches, along highways, and railroad tracks, as it once had. It would have been produced to next to nothing so there would be a huge supply. Economics 101: Profit = Demand over Supply Large demand over short supply means large profits. Large demand with a Large supply means less profit to be had per product. There are over 25000 products that can be made from Marijuana. More than crude oil. It also makes medicine that can eradicate a large portion of the medicine industry. Let's be honest here. When you hear the word medicine, what do you think of? "Makes you better" "Healthy" "Cures" "Pills". Common thoughts. "Why would I want to put them out of business?" Well when you think of Medicine what you should be thinking is "America's #1 cause of accidental death" "misuse" "Addiction" "Narcotics" "Major profits for pharmaceutical companies". These profits would be in the hands of consumers because of the supply and demand rule. Cheaper ways to medicate with little or no negative side-effects. "Why would I want to put them out of business?" People now say marijuana is bad. They know it is bad from all their experience they've had regarding marijuana. "It's not as natural as it was in the 60's." No, that's because now its grown in 100% ideal conditions. Not along railroad tracks and in ditches. This means that you need less of it for a better effect. Less smoke, less harm. No smoke, no harm. Marijuana has been used for millenia for cooking and food products. In fact, by using Marijuana in addition to other crops of North America, we could next to eliminate world hunger. That is with all the benefits of marijuana combined. Now, I'm trying to look at this issue from both sides of the table. There are good reasons to re-introduce marijuana back into society, a few which I have covered here. Let's try to think of why marijuana should stay illegal for recreational use. If marijuana become legal that will mean there will be marijuana farms. Thousands of tonnes of marijuana growing, flowing freely in the world. Anybody could, theoretically, have literally pounds of pot on his person and no one could do anything. Marijuana would become so vast and accepted that it would create the next Big Tobacco companies. Small producers would be forced out of business by larger companies that industrialize marijuana to turn huge profits. People would be able to buy 25 one gram cigarettes in a pack for a few dollars, like they do tobacco cigarettes now. They would introduce foreign addictive substances into their product and we would have a new cancer, respiratory, and heart and stroke issues we would have to deal with. And in the years to come what will we all say? "The doctors used to say marijuana was beneficial to use." written by G. Blerot , October 19, 2009 Sound familiar? It's exactly what they said about tobacco in the early 20th century. Before big tobacco started screwing around with the chemical make-up of smoke able tobacco. With everyone smoking it at anytime of the day, while they work, while they drive, while they walk down the street, it would be so common, imagine a world with roaches instead of cigarette butts. People who couldn't get marijuana legally would just walk down the street picking up butts. Like they do with tobacco now. It has to be established that the public littering of marijuana cigarette butts, or roaches, WILL NOT be tolerated, as young children can easily get their hands on high potency marijuana, which, theoretically, could impair the child's judgment with his immaturity and induce harm to himself or others. As would alcohol if it were in the child's reach. I am not comparing marijuana and alcohol because there is no comparison in my point of view. Alcohol definitely impairs peoples judgment. We know this as fact. Marijuana, questionably impairs peoples judgment. Alcohol in large quantities can kill you. Marijuana, in large quantities makes you want to sleep, maybe gives you a headache, actually it kind of makes you want to stop smoking for the night. Alcohol breeds addiction. Marijuana can be abused, however I feel the worst thing about marijuana is the fact that currently it is pretty expensive. A regular smoker of pot can easily smoke $25 of pot a day. About the same amount as an average alcoholic. Abuse of a legal marijuana would be no different than smoking cigarettes. Being responsible is the responsibility of the person who chooses to smoke up. It is not the responsibility of the government. Think about it. If someone goes out and gets drunk, drives their car into a little girl and her mother and kills them both, it is the responsibility of the person to go to jail and serve their time for manslaughter or whatever the courts deem a fair punishment. If someone high on pot goes to work at a factory, messes up and kills another, it is that persons responsibility to go to jail and serve time for manslaughter. Just because marijuana is legal does not limit the person's responsibility who uses it. The point is, it doesn't matter what substance you ingest. You are responsible for you own actions. If something bad happens because of marijuana being illegal do you think the government will take responsibility? I don't think so. written by G. Blerot , October 19, 2009 "What could they be held responsible for by keeping it illegal?" Well, ruining the globe, for one. Remember the whole paper products speech? Well that is just one very tiny thing that could have stopped the rain forest from being annihilated, taking away natures air filter. Your car can't run without an air filter. Also, oil wouldn't have been so depended on for the last 100 years, burning millions of years worth of carbon deposits that they just pumped out of the ground. Marijuana fuel is carbon neutral. Which means that we are only transferring the carbon from one form to another (balanced). Not taking it out of the ground which had no effect on the earth while it was in the ground, but burning millions of years worth of it, threw the atmosphere and environment completely off balance in a very short time. We have unleashed an uncontrolled experiment on the earths life support system in which we have no idea of the outcome. Am I to blame? Are you to blame? Or is the government to blame? Were they just trying to look out for your best interest, when they signed deals and made inordinate amounts of money from big corrupt capitalists? Or were they the capitalists looking out for themselves? Who is responsible? Back to the recreational use of marijuana. What could cannabis possibly improve if it were used for social and recreational reasons? Well, crime would be down. It would be so cheap and easy to produce, people wouldn't have to worry about getting it. They wouldn't associate with criminals who not only sell pot, but sell guns, stolen merchandise, and other very dangerous substances. Let's say you go to your dealer for some weed, uneducated about the use of pot and other drugs, and he tells you he's out of weed, but he has a point of crystal meth he can sell you for the same price. "It's like the same as weed, just lasts longer" he tells you. Well now, my friends reading this very long and I'm sure boring article, I ask again, who is to blame? It is the responsibility of the government to educate each and every citizen. Not the drug dealers, or the criminals, or the police, or doctors. Everyone should know, from a valid source, what they are ingesting whether it is legal or not. And I am not talking about the reefer madness propaganda the government spewed out in the 1930's that came from misinformed, frightened heads of state, with racist ideals, and views that they could lose a lot of support from big corporations. That was total idiocracy at its finest. Can you imagine a government that banned a perfectly good, useful, natural plant for it's own benefit, rather than benefiting the entire country? It all came down to greed. And it's time for the government to give something back. The time is now. We can save the planet. We need to "Go Green". Set Mary-Jane free. She didn't do anything wrong. It wasn't her fault. And it wasn't your fault, government. But you can fix this. Just make it legal. Support it. Do whatever you have to do. We need a change. The entire world is crying for a change. And this is that change. It's so easy, isn't it? [If a plant were to grow it would need to take carbon to make it. Carbon from the earth makes it grow. Naturally. When the plant dies, that carbon is released back into the environment.] written by G. Blerot , October 20, 2009 "Sorry. this was cut and pasted from one of my essays and is missing a section. Here is that missing sections. My apologies, and thank you for reading": Who are the politicians afraid of? Themselves? How much hatred in your government are you tolerating? Racism? Lies? The north American governments namely the US, influence a HUGE part of laws that govern other countries. It's called the American dream. What was once a fantasy in the 1800's, to come to "America, the land of opportunity, where you can make a new life." And millions of you had done just that. Do you think there were laws against a plant in other countries other than America before? Why would a plant be illegal anyways? It's just a plant, right? Wrong. It is thee plant. OK lets put it this way. Marijuana fiber is much more durable than cotton. It grows between 6 and 12 times more during a harvest than cotton. It also produces crops faster than cotton. It need's NO pesticides to grow a healthy crop of marijuana. Yet 28% of the pesticides manufactured on earth are used for cotton fields. Pesticides are made from petro-chemicals. That's right. OUR future oil reserves are being used so that cotton farmers have their fields. So marijuana is a huge agriculture if you think about it. It can produce the worlds clothing. And don't think of the hemp clothing that looks like strands of hay weaved together. Hemp makes rope down to fine cloth. I'd say cotton farmers were entirely to blame, with their influences on governing bodies, but I'd be lying. Think big cotton farms, lots of tax dollars. Rich Americans that own these farms influencing the government to make hemp illegal for the survivability of their farms and mass amounts of time and money they put into these farms only to see cheap marijuana take over. They would lose everything, and big oil tycoons that know they won't sell as much oil if marijuana was supplying all the cotton, and more, needs of the world. It takes a lot of oil to produce a little cotton. Marijuana also makes very high quality paper products. Trees cut down to make paper take 50 to 500 years to grow, while hemp can be cultivated in as little as 100 days and can yield 4 times more paper over a 20 year period. Marijuana also makes fuel that burns clean. It produces 10 times more bio-fuel than corn. So the oil companies and forestry industry also had very substantial impact on the legality of marijuana. written by Michelle , January 15, 2010 No one address' the fact that Marijuana not only affects the person smoking it, but causes those around the person to get a contact high. Years of secondhand smoke health problems has shown that smokers do not tend to be considerate to those around them, and there's no reason to believe pot smokers will be any different. I don't have to worry about getting drunk standing next to someone who is drinking and it isn't right that a person should have to worry about getting high against their will because it will be legal to smoke pot outdoors and at restaurants, bars etc. Write comment
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