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To: CutePuppy
those who have been on the "fence" of favouring the marijuana legalization - "medical" or "recreational" - will now think hard if that's a good thing

Never mind that the illegality of marijuana hyperinflates its profits and channels those profits into criminal and terrorist hands. Pot smokers are slobs!

32 posted on 04/24/2013 9:33:24 AM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies (I'll stick to facts and logic, and not follow into the gutter those who make disagreements personal.)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies
Never mind that the illegality of marijuana hyperinflates its profits and channels those profits into criminal and terrorist hands.

Unfortunately, you repeat the [academic] assumptions that are not supported by any reasonable statistics, even from pro-legalizing groups (unless cherry-picked in an apples-to-oranges fashion, the same way the U.S. anti-gun groups use their "statistics" and "polls" comparing to "gun-controlled" European countries to sway the population) and have not borne in practice where tried (e.g., Netherlands, where it's de facto decriminalized, regulated, taxed and is legally sold in their "coffee shoppes") and have no relationship to reality.

Not to make this a long post, complete with facts and tables refuting your assumptions, for which you had no empirical basis, but just a few points to yet again refute the above arguments:

Legalization of marijuana in Netherlands (as so-called class D "soft drugs" which are "tolerated" as opposed to "unacceptable risks" class A/B "hard drugs" such as heroin, cocaine, ecstasy/"X", PCP etc.) had no effect of lowering the prices or reducing the illegal drug trade in both marijuana (to those who are otherwise ineligible) or the "hard drugs". Even most serious pro-marijuana groups acknowledge these facts, however some are trying to compare selected numbers to the U.S. "illegal marijuana scenario" rather than to their pre- Opium Acts Directive years or their European neighbors where the weed has long been and still is illegal, or to more homogeneous [than the U.S.} societies such as Japan.

For example, just one study by these groups, acknowledged that:

In fact, there is clear evidence that marijuana in Netherlands has become stronger, on average (higher percentage of THC content) than has been before decriminalization and than in neighboring "illegal" European countries, as well as relative to the average sold and consumed in the U.S.

From Strains of Dutch marijuana deemed to be on a par with heroin - In Holland Now, 2013 February 08

Also, take a look at California where the sham of "medical" marijuana trade has been in effect for many (?) years now. Many municipalities there have passed ordinances banning or severely limiting the "green prescription" dispensaries due to rising crime and legal costs they are experiencing.

So, do you really think that "new" enforcement and regulations will in any way diminish the power of the state or make it cheaper for taxpayers or reduce the crime or lead to better, more enlightened citizenship?

Re "channels those profits into criminal and terrorist hands" - it is one of the weakest and more dishonest arguments one can make about marijuana legalization.

First, there is not that much profit margin in the distribution chain of marijuana for criminals or terrorists to bother with it, as opposed to class A opioid trade (opium / morphine, cocaine etc.) and/or [semi-]synthetic drugs such as MDMA/ecstasy or many LSD-like derivatives.

Second, following the above logic of "depriving" the criminals and terrorists of illicit profits on drugs, should we then legalize/decriminalize class A/B and derivative drugs because that is supposedly the best and least expensive way of doing it?

I suggest, in the future, libertarians think things through and few steps ahead a little bit, before they trap themselves with such arguments.

33 posted on 04/25/2013 7:15:40 PM PDT by CutePuppy (If you don't ask the right questions you may not get the right answers)
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