WHY LEGALIZE MARIJUANA?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dane is a child, mentally, having never learned to grow up and accept responsibility for himself. He experimented with drugs, developed a PROBLEM with them (his words) and now is a complete statist thug. IMHO, this is a severe case of arrested (or UN-arrested and should have been) development. Perhaps someday he can get a life of his own and learn to leave other folks ALONE. It sickens me that I spent most of my adult life protecting morons like Dane so that they could spew this kind of garbage all over the Constitution.

Yes, I was growing up in the '60s and was peripherally aware of the drug culture. However, by the time I would have been a part of it I was already immersed in the warrior culture of the Marine Corps and I missed out (without missing) the dope and the love-ins and all. I actually am glad of that, as I can point out that I was not then, nor am I now, a part of that culture when I talk of the abomination of the war on Americans guised as a war on drugs.

However, to the JBT-wannabees, like dane and roscoe and ol' sparky and their ilk, that makes no difference. I should lay down my bong and sober up because drugs are EVIL, in and of themselves, according to the Gospel of the Drug Warriors, and I am evil if I want the government to quit making war on our own people and go back to obeying the Constitution. This is a mentality that I find SICK in the extreme and these drug warriors should, IMHO, be institutionalized and the ACTUAL JBTs imprisoned (after conviction in court) for the havoc they have wreaked on this country and the Constitution.

There are those who have ALSO condoned the rapes that occur in prison, saying that it's OK to lock up a pot-smoker with some aids-infected lifer thug, thus giving the non-violent smoker a DEATH-sentence for peacefully using a substance that the WODDIES find objectionable. It seems to me that this might be a fitting end to the WODDIES that advocate it...

This is too funny. I get a Libertarian "psychological" exam without even asking and with no "charge". Amazing.

Sheesh will some ever "grow" out of the sixties and leave the tie-dyes and Haight-Ashbury behind?

Sheesh will some ever "grow" out of the sixties and leave the tie-dyes and Haight-Ashbury behind?

You have demonstrated, yet again, that you are a mental midget, unfit for the company of grownups. You stopped reading just a bit too soon...

Yes, I was growing up in the '60s and was peripherally aware of the drug culture. However, by the time I would have been a part of it I was already immersed in the warrior culture of the Marine Corps and I missed out (without missing) the dope and the love-ins and all. I actually am glad of that, as I can point out that I was not then, nor am I now, a part of that culture when I talk of the abomination of the war on Americans guised as a war on drugs.

Nor have you ever learned to accept responsibility as your posts indicate. This is not from a "libertarian" perspective at all, but from an ADULT perspective. Further, I am, politically, a CONSTITUTIONALIST rather than libertarian, though the libertarian outlook is far more compatible to me than yours could EVER be, as you look more and more to bigger government to "solve" your problems. You are a sad case, Dane, with no socially redeeming values that I have ever noticed. Maybe you need to go out and SMOKE a bong to get to be human.... Somehow, the folks who DO confess to having smoked mj seem like they'd make far better neighbors than your type would. I could feel safe with them around, where with YOUR type I'd never know when you might have delusions and become a gooberment informant with a grudge because I wouldn't let you borrow my lawn mower. (Of course, IMHO, you have delusions of adequacy all the time, but that's just how I feel...) ;-)

There are those who have ALSO condoned the rapes that occur in prison, saying that it's OK to lock up a pot-smoker with some aids-infected lifer thug,

Huh? Wait a minute there dcw, here is a quote from the San Francisco Bay area and a person who calls hinself "Lucifer"

Lucifer T. Cheshire, a 6-foot-tall man clad in a leather jacket who said he smokes marijuana because he has AIDS, also joined in. "We're here to make sure they know how we feel," he said. "Pot is one of the few things that kept me alive."

LINK

Wow what a quandry for you dcw, here you have an "aids sufferer" saying he needs pot to keep him alive(a point you agree with) and yet you condemn those for putting "peaceful" pot smokers with those "aids-infected lifer thug".

If you were intellectually honest, iMHO, you would say that you wouldn't care about people being locked up with those "aids-infected lifer thugs", because pot cures everything, according to you and the person named Lucifer in the above italicized and bolded passage.

Dane, you obviously have sh!t for brains. I have never said pot cures a damn thing. Nor do I care whether or not it does, as it's outside the scope of my interests. But then again, I expect nothing more than this bilge from you, as your "mind" cannot rise above the gutter.

My SOLE interest in ending the war on Americans disguised as a war on drugs is because it is tearing up the Bill of Rights and making a mockery of the Constitution. Your drug usage of however long ago is of no concern to me, except that it lays bare your hypocrisy for all to see. If you had read the rest of my post, OR the posts of others, INCLUDING Jim Robinson, you would have an inkling that we might be more concerned about the future of the REPUBLIC than about which drugs we could use.

He's at it again. He's equating the violent thugs you were obviously referring to in your post to a guy on the street in SF who happens to have AIDS. Then he takes your words out of context and tells outright lies to support his second grade suppositions so he can then spew his petulant hyperbole. Thus avoiding reasoned debate and a true defense of his position. What's really sad is I think he actually believes he has any credibility at all. Most seem to have found that it is best to ignore him. He normally gets bored, piddles on the rug and leaves.

Most seem to have found that it is best to ignore him. He normally gets bored, piddles on the rug and leaves.

Sometimes I think it's better to encourage him. He's the drug war incarnate - infantile, illogical, self righteous, and obsessed. No one with an IQ above room temperature could read anything he posts and not come away with serious questions about what kind of mentality it takes to support the WOD.

So you are saying that you have no sympathy for the person who called himself "Lucifer" as posted in reply #529, even though he has AIDS and says that pot(the miracle cure) is what keeps him alive.

Wow you are admitting that "medical marijuana" is a sham.

My SOLE interest in ending the war on Americans disguised as a war on drugs is because it is tearing up the Bill of Rights and making a mockery of the Constitution. Your drug usage of however long ago is of no concern to me, except that it lays bare your hypocrisy for all to see. If you had read the rest of my post, OR the posts of others, INCLUDING Jim Robinson, you would have an inkling that we might be more concerned about the future of the REPUBLIC than about which drugs we could use

So the future of the republic stands on the right of smoking marijuana anywhere, anytime?

Is that what you are saying?

Good point. Although he does get seem to get underfoot quite often. It would be nice if we could chain him to the tree out back so he could do nothing more than bark at the neighbors.

Then he takes your words out of context and tells outright lies to support his second grade suppositions so he can then spew his petulant hyperbole.

LOL! "Lucifer" in reply #529 says that pot keeps himself alive and staving off AIDS by smoking pot. Aren't you all on his side? Isn't that what "medical marijuana" is all about?

LOL! You all(pot defenders) haven't learned the addage "If you lay down with dogs, you end up with fleas".

It is funny watching you all go into all types of contortions trying to slap the fleas.

Just repeated what the position of the Congress was on their website because I did not know the government position. In order to keep it in today's world under conditions never dreamed of in the 1700s, new laws have been allowed and interpretations based on today’s world applied.

If this wasn't done, they inferred the Constitution would have been amended far more that it has.

I offered my best evidence that drug laws are legal as that it hasn't been repealed in court. I don't claim to be a Constitutional Scholar.

Because wanting to do things that rot your soul and causes grief to all around you is evil. Your amoral views blind you on this.

The country was founded by Christians mostly. It is probably why we have done so well.

Be a man and responsible, give up supporting poor behavior. Also it is insulting a historic person who you are not even .000001% as when you post in their name.

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