WHY LEGALIZE MARIJUANA?

Voy forum ^ | 2-19-2 | Marc-Boris St-Maurice

[Magician]

My first reaction is WHY NOT?

It’s a question of common sense.

Our marijuana laws do not work. They never have, and they never will.

Their stated goal being to rid society of the so-called affliction of marijuana use, the harsh reality is that since prohibition, usage rates have increased drastically.

Either we legalize it, and fast, or we get busy locking up millions of Canadians. With one out of three Canadians admitting to having tried marijuana, we may very well be locking up our best and brightest, not ruined by drugs, but ruined by the criminal sanctions that go with getting caught for what amounts to a common social practice. I can’t even begin to count how many elected officials admitted to having used it, yet everyday hundreds of average citizens are arrested for marijuana offences.

So, why are there so many users, and why is marijuana so easy to acquire?

In a strange twist, prohibition is to blame.

When a product is illegal, the profit margin skyrockets. Prohibition turns an agricultural product (a plant that’s very easy to grow) into a drug worth its weight in gold. Without prohibition, marijuana would cost pennies to produce. No wonder some adventurous modern day prospectors are setting up in their own back yards and basements to try and get in on the gold rush. Who could blame them? They aren’t hurting anyone, they’re making good money, and most of all customers are willing, grateful participants in the process.

We must come to grips with the fact that the demand for marijuana is never going away and find a better way of dealing with it. Imagine the billions of dollars spent on marijuana and enforcement going to more noble causes like health care and other social programs.

The general public understands this. Support for legalizing marijuana recently reached the much sought after 50%+1 majority. Recent polls show that 51% of Canadians support legalizing marijuana, a slim, but very real majority.

And with more and more advocates, the trend is just taking off. Several European countries like Belgium, Switzerland, Holland and Germany are successfully leading the way towards tolerance with legislation aimed at helping drugs users, not by treating them as criminals, but as human beings deserving of respect. There is no reason why Canada should lag behind. We should be on the cutting edge of this new international movement.

Now it is time to step onto the world stage and assert our sovereignty by legalizing marijuana once and for all. I would venture a friendly wager that the international community would stand by Canada on this issue. Our inevitable success would then make us a world leader in marijuana reform—an example for others to follow.

(I can hear it already): But marijuana is dangerous!

For the record, marijuana is NOT dangerous. It is no worse than coffee and much safer than alcohol. Marijuana is also much less addictive then cigarettes. Chronic use is rare as the majority do not smoke it everyday. Try that with tobacco!

What little risks that may be present with marijuana are no worse then any other risks deemed "morally acceptable". Should we ban music because, if played too loud it might hurt your hearing?

French fries and gravy are far more dangerous for our health then marijuana. Should we ban fast food and send overeaters to mandatory fitness camps?

Who are we, as a society to judge? What exactly are marijuana users guilty of? Who are they hurting? What have they done wrong?

To deny marijuana users the right to choose what they want to consume is nothing more than an arbitrary decision based on moral values, not public interest......

Legalization does not mean promoting use. It means providing medical care, support, education, quality standards and proper labeling. We then trust that responsible adults will make their own choices. This is what makes legalization healthy for our society. At least legalization would force retailers to be accountable for what they sell.

Under prohibition, the government has waived its responsibility for the well being of marijuana users, and is only responsible for their arrest and persecution.

This total disregard for their rights drives a wedge between them and the rest of society and breeds contempt for our legal institutions. If society does not tolerate pot smokers, how are pot smokers supposed to tolerate society? This does not make for a healthy social climate and even less a basis for sound policy.

If a policy so deeply flawed as prohibition not only fails to reach its goals, but actually makes the situation worse, it should be radically changed.

Prohibition is the problem, and legalization the solution.

In places where marijuana is tolerated use actually decreases.

Of course, don’t count on the politicians to have the courage to change the law—it’s not in their nature. Look instead to the Supreme Court. That is where most significant legal change comes from anyway. Gay rights and abortion issues were resolved there, and, some time this year our land’s highest court will also rule on the constitutionality of marijuana prohibition. I strongly urge government to make a wise decision and end this madness now. Millions of bright, productive, patriotic pot-smoking Canadians are counting on it.

Most sincerely, Marc-Boris St-Maurice Le Parti Marijuana

[Protagoras]

He agrees that Federal involvement in the domestic WOD is unconstitutional.

Hey ya gotta hand it to him, for once he made sense. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

But he doesn't seem to feel inclined to answer the question concerning his past substance abuse, which means,,,well, you know what it means.

[southern rock]

There is no groundswell of favorable public opinion supporting legalization.

Well then, thank God we do not live in a democracy, where I would need a "groundswell of favorable public opinion" before excercising my rights.

[Ken H]

Voters in Arizona, California, and several other States did approve medical marijuana referenda. The numbers were pretty overwhelming-- at least 60% approval, if I remember correctly.

Shouldn't that be respected by the Federal government under the Tenth Amendment?

[FreedomFriend]

Hey, it was obciously marijuana smoke coming from these houses, and they were all boomers. I'm not going to lie about it, but it's the truth.

Furthermore, observations are just observations. That is, the observation of a pizza delivery driver are just as valid as those of one attending a concert. They're both real life situations. While I'll agree that one is more likely to see pot-smoking at these concerts, it in no way takes away from the observations of an individual who delivered pizza for over three years, and who witnessed at least eight to ten pot-smoke houses, of which all but one were of the boomer generation.

[Protagoras]

Shouldn't that be respected by the Federal government under the Tenth Amendment?

That won't happen because they don't believe in the tenth amendment, or most of the others for that matter.

Any governor worth his salt would tell the feds to remove themselves from his state if they persist in violating the powers delegated to the states and the people.

[dcwusmc]

To: ThomasJefferson

Hey CJ, ever use an illegal substance?

Ideologues are ever the busy-bodies, always sticking their noses into other people's business.

456 posted on 2/21/02 8:28 AM Pacific by Cultural Jihad

Can you believe what you just said? This is YOU, to a TEE! WOW, I am stunned, shocked and AMAZED! So does this mean you're going to call off the WOsD and leave other folks ALONE now???????????? You're going to HONOR the Constitution from now on??????

[txhurl]

Hey, where'd all the idealogue, boomer WODers go?

[dmz]

i meant no offense to your days as a pizza delivery guy, just don't think that we can draw *any* conclusions from your observations, as you say they are just that...the concert comment was made to only to counter the notion that boomers are the major source of pot smoking

[dcwusmc]

Government may, to you, represent your wishes, but in our Constitutional Republic, FedGov is supposed to be chained to the explicit powers authorized it and NO OTHERS. And there is NOTHING in the Constitution which gives FedGov ANY authority, despite YOUR WISHES, to ban or outlaw possession of ANYTHING, period. Fact is, only THREE crimes are listed as coming under FedGov jurisdiction... care to guess what they might be? I've posted them enough. Yet no WODDIE has yet responded to my challenge to show me any other authorization FedGov may have to pursue this insane "war". Your WISHES cut no ice at all with the CONSTITUTION and you know it IF you know how to read and can comprehend words with more than one syllable. Which is something I am not sure WODDIES can do.

[dmz]

which commandment was it that codified pot as an illegal drug and therefore *wrong*. Is there a mainstream Christian faith that promotes the use of legal drugs? any drugs? The founding fathers did NOT make marijuana illegal. Jesus Christ never mentioned pot in any statements attributed to Him. So where do you get off putting words in the mouths of both the founding fathers and Jesus Christ. In the middle ages you would have been stoned (pun intended) as a blasphemer.

[dcwusmc]

He!! if I know, maybe they're like the wicked witch in Oz, that vanished in a puff of (mj?) smoke when touched by goodness and TRUTH.....

[vin-one]

What Dane has been missing he has been on this thread for three days, bashing everything I have said.
The WOD'ers just can't seem to understand it is nunya(none of your dang business) what I put in my body
Nor the gov't either, let me do what I want as long as I don't hurt anyone.
Leave me the hell alone, and while your at it stop taking so much of my money every two weeks.......
(gasping for air ,,,;puff puff puff,
rant over

[dmz]

I beg to differ, it really IS funny

[Cultural Jihad]

Far out, dude.

Vanishing the Parasitical-Elite Class

What are we talking about? We are talking about a parasitical-elite class that has created an anticivilization on planet Earth. We are talking about a parasitical-elite class that after 2500 years has finally overwhelmed its host -- the producers of objective values and genuine jobs...the sole providers of life and prosperity to mankind. We are talking about a malignancy of parasites who drain and destroy those value-and-job producers. We are talking about forever vanishing professional value destroyers and their anticivilization. We are talking about limitless wealth, health, and happiness available to everyone on Earth. ...We are talking about the mystic-free Civilization of the Universe enveloping planet Earth, perhaps as early as 2001.

"No, that could never happen," everyone exclaims. "Not in a generation, a century, or even a millennium."

Such an exclamation is valid within today's hoaxed anticivilization. But, anyone who steps into the Civilization of the Universe will exclaim: "Parasitical elites? An anticivilization built on force and deception? ...Everything was so irrationally destructive and boring back then. What is there to remember about such a value vacuum -- such nothingness?"

Indeed, parasitical elites are subhumans or humanoids who lack the requirements for supporting human life. They lack honest character, long-range principles, real power. They live by manipulating truth to bleed others -- by undercutting objective law, societal well-being, and human happiness. They bring society only losses and suffering. Thus, all memories of those parasites and their hoaxed civilization will vanish as the Civilization of the Universe brings to Earth the excitement of boundless prosperity and happiness.

How can such certainty exist about vanishing the parasitical elites and their anticivilization? That certainty rises from new knowledge: As demonstrated in Zonpower, every hoax and illusion is revealed on exposure to the Civilization of the Universe. Stripped of their illusions, parasitical elites go down the memory hole in whirlpools of absurdity. Also washed away will be politicians living as destructive humanoids, bureaucrats violently enforcing harmful political agendas, judges applying ego "justice", and prosecutors ignoring objective law and justice. ...They all will vanish down the drain of public ostracism.

As the Civilization of the Universe envelops Earth, genuine value-and-job producers from hard-working laborers to multimillionaire entrepreneurs will assume power. This anticivilization will then end. ...What guarantees the end of this anticivilization? Relentless self-spreading Neo-Tech guarantees the end of the parasitical-elite class and its hoax-built anticivilization.

Source: Are you Zon?

[dmz]

on no, don't listen to 3 dog night, they're a total buzz-kill - LOL. What you need is some John Sebastian, followed by some late '60's grateful dead.

[Cultural Jihad]

After 9-11, people are getting leery of others with these really weird ideas floating around in their heads.

[dmz]

well, Dane let it slip that he was a soph in high school (15 years old or so) in 1980, makes him about 35-36 years old now. Nothing he knows about the '60's drug culture is known first hand, probably only knows Leary from the Moody Blues songs, the 80's "drug culture" was NOTHING like the '60's or '70's version. Those '80's dopers were all coke heads (nothing like a huge generalization, eh?), spinning violently out of control. They smoked pot to take the edge off of their coke buzz when it got too intense. Dane, it all makes sense to me now. You probably had dozens of friends go from snorting powder to shooting coke to smoking crack, and now they're probably dead, in jail, or largely brain dead. Me, I followed Neil Young's advice, put it in your lungs, not in your arm. Dope smokers are WAAAY mellow compared to your coked-out buddies.

[Dane]

well, Dane let it slip that he was a soph in high school (15 years old or so) in 1980, makes him about 35-36 years old now. Nothing he knows about the '60's drug culture is known first hand, probably only knows Leary from the Moody Blues songs, the 80's "drug culture" was NOTHING like the '60's or '70's version. Those '80's dopers were all coke heads (nothing like a huge generalization, eh?), spinning violently out of control. They smoked pot to take the edge off of their coke buzz when it got too intense. Dane, it all makes sense to me now. You probably had dozens of friends go from snorting powder to shooting coke to smoking crack, and now they're probably dead, in jail, or largely brain dead. Me, I followed Neil Young's advice, put it in your lungs, not in your arm. Dope smokers are WAAAY mellow compared to your coked-out buddies.

LOL! Your above italicized passage is a dictionary definition of the addage, "the blind leading the blind", IMHO.

[dmz]

which makes us both blind, I guess. I'm blind from my dope smoking I guess - you...'cuz you've buried your head in the coke, I mean, sand