Posted on 08/01/2002 5:16:08 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
Edited on 05/07/2004 8:00:51 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
As we endeavor toward a more lucid and informed discussion of substance abuse, let's deconstruct the mystique of marijuana and recognize it for the dangerous drug that it is.
Marijuana is a substance that's worthy of our concern. It is the most prevalent of all illicit drugs used in the country. The 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse reported that 34 percent of Americans have used marijuana in their lifetime and 5 percent are current users.
(Excerpt) Read more at theithacajournal.com ...
"It takes a village."
I can't speak for everybody, but I buy my marijuana from a drug dealer.
What is your definition of freedom? Or will that remain your secret?
Does that make the french horn sound better?
My point! Why make it legal for even more way to get inebriated, when we already have enough legal ways?
However, you seem to be making the assumption that anyone who, say, smokes pot in their living room is immediately going to go out and commit a crime.
Another point. Do you see how narrowly controlled and how responsible legalized pot smokers would have to be for society to be safe? Do you think they will be? I don't.
You can't legislate morality with any great success. You can't expect most people to do something merely because there is a law for or against it. Morals and ethics begin at home. If parents don't want their kids using intoxicants, they need to teach their kids accordingly. Too many, and I mean WAY TOO MANY parents have no qualms letting the state raise their children for them. They have given up on taking personal responsibility. Most people in this country appear to have. Thats the thing about Socialism..it discourages personal responsibility.
Amen. One hundred amens.
It depends on how much of a Socialist you are going to be. Either you own your own body, or the State does. Which is it for you, then?
If it was up to me, the federal government would be a tiny outfit that fought wars, spied on Moslems and other bad guys, and kept business competition fair. That's it. So I hate big government, I hate the intrusiveness of the nanny state.
Does that mean I want to pay ever-higher insurance premiums because a flood of drug abusers are a drag on the system? Does that mean I want to go out on the fourth of July and risk being hit by a van full of stoned college kids? Do I want my children in school to hear from their friend that "pot's cool, even the government says so"? Answer to all the above: no.
Frankly, I am sick of having my taxes sucked out of me at virtual gunpoint, so that we can waste 10-20 billion dollars a year putting non-violent pot smokers in jail. Think of what we could do if we freed up those resources.
I honestly believe that the social costs, in dollars, of legalized marijuana would equal those of alcohol: $40 billion a year. (That number from memory.)
Marijuana? What's that?
lol, hey!! the french horn is a beautiful instrument (when played properly, of course). I'm going through music withdrawals since I have no piano, violin, clarinet, or french horn with me anymore (I've moved)
Yet you're leading the cheer for a War on Drugs that's led to the absolute destruction of the 4th Amendment?
"Marijuana is the fuse. LSD is the bomb."
- Sgt. Joe Friday
A dealer. He walks over here. And I walk just fine high. I can see just fine. And when I rarely do walk around high, it's on paths, not streets. Normally when I light up, I stay in the house and chill out.
You: "I don't want people smoking marijuana, in their homes or anywhere else. Smoking a joint is no different than rape or murder"
Me: "That doesn't seem reasonable."
You: "You want my children to live in a cesspool!"
I'm a big fan of the free market. I guess that point would have been better stated that drug money making empires rubs me wrong. But then, so does Tom Hanks or Harrison Ford getting $20 mill to make a movie, when a single cop or a fireman is worth ten times those silly Hollywood dorks. But I wouldn't change the system, I'd try to change the hearts of people.
Man, if the above doesn't just say it all. My comments can't add anything.
Get yo'self a nice Telecaster and learn how to play the blues, man!
Um. We have plenty of money for what we need. It's just like going out and buying a few 12 packs of cola....you make room in your budget for recreational items and snacks. And my favourite Jedi girl? hm....Probably Mara :P
All the pot smokers I've seen are quite real. I've never met one who has actually succeeded in escaping from reality...so I think you'd better be more precise. What you mean (I think) is that people smoke pot only to cease thinking about their problems. And that's bad?
Well, then. No more television, movies, fictional books, junk food, chocolate, parties, casual conversation. No more hiking, biking, casual sports. No more war and scape-goating of foreigners. Would you also ban research into esoteric subjects like mathematics...which one of my finest professors told me he engaged in whenever other aspects of his life became too difficult?
I'm sorry but I find your statement to be entirely without merit. After 40 plus years of smoking I have a pretty good idea about why I do it. It began as experimentation. I was very curious as to what it did. Then I wanted to master it, and I found it helped me perform better and appreciate more in certain situations. Finally it was great fun socially. I almost never smoked alone, and I found that smoking when one had serious problems was the worst time to do so.
I don't feel that my experiences are at all unique. And I don't need fools like you telling me to try Prozac when I prefer pot.
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