Washington Needs to Legalize Cannabis: Voters may relax the rules Tuesday, bringing the total to 32

Wall Street Journal ^ | November 5, 2018 | John Boehner

[NobleFree]

It's been my experience that people who don't smoke pot, don't know what they are talking about when it comes to what pot does to you.

LOL! You've noticed that too?

[NobleFree]

Marijuana is definitely a drug.

Absolutely - and like other drugs such as alcohol, regular use is not a good idea. But banning those drugs is an even worse idea, whose main effect is to enrich violent criminals.

[NobleFree]

The measure should be USE of pot, not availability. Or, even price.

Another important measure is how much pot spending goes into the pockets of criminals. Legalization will reduce that, to the benefit of us all.

[Parmy]

Because the controlled price is so high due to taxes, there is a very vibrant black-market in marijuana.

[Ken H]

"I agree strident testing is warranted for those particular industries."

PEE INTO THIS CUP NOW!

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

[NobleFree]

Because the controlled price is so high due to taxes, there is a very vibrant black-market in marijuana.

In some jurisdictions - just as in some jurisdictions high cigarette taxes fuel a black market in that drug. The answer, of course, is not to ban but to cut the taxes.

[HotHunt]

Roger that! :-)

[Parmy]

When are taxes ever cut when they are sin taxes? Answer, never!

[steve86]

“What do you propose to do with drivers who are just “healing themselves” who injure or kill your kids with erratic driving???????”

Please post some evidence that pot leads to “erratic driving”. It is more like uniformly slow and over-cautious from what I’ve seen. I think you will find that other substances are involved when driving becomes erratic.

[Missouri gal]

Check the National Highway Safety stats. You are NOT getting the full story from lamestream media. DOUBLE fatalities in Colorado and some other states that legalized weed. Marijuana is attributed for a large chunk of injuries throughout the U.S.

[steve86]

My area of Washington State is conservative and the Washington State Patrol definitely is not shy about revealing accident information in any part of WA. Please post verifiable statistics about fatalities that occurred with the at-fault driver proven to be under the influence of THC only and no other drugs or alcohol. You will find that it is a pretty short list.

Now I will concede that driving under the influence of marijuana or other sense-altering drugs is a foolish thing and I don’t want to see people doing it. I am especially concerned about people getting a delayed “rush” while driving — even a couple seconds — which would be extremely disorienting. But OTOH, a recent controlled test showed that motorcycle racers were able to continue racing without crashing, even after consuming strong marijuana concentrates progressively through the experiment.

[Missouri gal]

National Highway Transportation Safety Administration nhtsa.gov. Accidents related to marijuana have long been known and are skyrocketing. Same in the work force.

[steve86]

Throwing around the phrase “related to marijuana” and proving causal relationship with marijuana use are two different things. You need to be more rigorous in your arguments.

[NobleFree]

“DOUBLE fatalities in Colorado and some other states that legalized weed.”

Says here it’s a 6% rise: https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3698495/posts

[terycarl]

Please post some evidence that pot leads to “erratic driving”. It is more like uniformly slow and over-cautious from what I’ve seen. I think you will find that other substances are involved when driving becomes erratic.

Driving under the influence of ANY mind altering substance is illegal....hence, dangerous.....booze, pot drugs, whatever....penalties should be swift and severe.