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

[Dinsdale]

Yes I would prefer the constitution was followed and amended as prescribed.

I don't think for a second there would need to be 2000 additional ammendments. There would be a lot less bad law.

Be carefull what you wish for. Do you think 'snake handling fundy hypo-christians' can never get the short end of the re-interpretation deal. Constitutional ammendments were deliberatly difficult to pass, stacking the supreme court has been relativly easy.

[Dinsdale]

Don't call me a woddy.

Them's fighten' words. ;-)

[jodorowsky]

"Where's Dave? Dave's not here!" by Cheech & Chong, your mentors.

Your scan buffer is not long enough, Automated Computer Antidrug Guy! That was a quote from the wonderful C.S. Lewis.

When your designer looks through this log he should get motivated to fix this crippling bug. It would flag you right away in the Turing test.

[A CA Guy]

If he or you have a better way to enforce laws against illegal drug use, fine, start suggesting reasoned answers to problems you see and not the fringe view of just let all the people have their own drugs and get loaded as they see fit!

There will never in our life time be permission for illegal drugs to be abolished. It will be there because everybody knows it is an evil deal that hurts the users, those around them and society at large.

I would not be against finding better ways to enforce drug laws that are more able to prevent unintentional death. Nothing is perfect. There is no utopia. Even today we accidently kill some our own guys by accident or misscommunication in military actions.

So I am for looking at safer enforcement to stop dealing and using, but you have to be from another planet to ever think in our life time illegal drugs will become legal. Dream on - but keep your day job kiddo!

[Virginia-American]

Oops, I meant that for the Guy from Out Left! Sorry! I forgot you were in the to list.

[A CA Guy]

I'm not calling for censure, just don't understand how liberal loving topics can be on a conservative site?

Drug dealers would fall in love with your for your views as well as the ACLU. That should be a big red flag for you.

We are allowed free speech to some extent here, but it is all up to the owner of FR as to what may NOT be here. It is their baby, we are just lucky to be given occassional attempts to burb it!

[palo verde]

Seems to me loving liberty
and wanting it for oneself and others
isn't anti-God
neither is it Liberal
Liberals believe government should be our mother
I think the sole purpose of government is to protect our liberties

[A CA Guy]

Read the opposites of FR on Democrat.com. They are the illegal user's brethren!

[Virginia-American]

...you have to be from another planet to ever think in our life time illegal drugs will become legal...

I've known plenty of people who were alive in 1937, when MJ (the subject of the thread) was first made illegal. Some of them, like my mother, thought that it should still be legal. (She was an old-fashioned Virginia Democrat, ie quite conservative)

As far as I'm concerned, it's just another failed New Deal boondoggle, and like most of them, its diehard defenders all get a paycheck from it.

[Heartlander]

Dude, so like we legalize marijuana, like that would be so cool. I mean, like, the government can’t control it any more than – I don’t know – hell, abortion is legal. Like, we can kill little babies and we can’t smoke pot – what’s going on here?

It’s like, dude, who makes up these rules anyway, ‘man’. It’s like, who do these government dudes think they are, ‘God’?

It’s like, who determines what is right and wrong anyway ‘man’?

[A CA Guy]

Your version of Liberty is doing everything you'd expect in anarchy. That is illogical.

You are for freedom in its most outrageous form, that is a total form of anarchy! A quite evil form of it, if you include illegal drug use.

[Virginia-American]

I'll take your word for what's on at Duh, but there don't appear to be any liberals in a position of authority or power (or even influence) who actually want to fire 10000+ federal employees and reduce the budget by five times ten to the tenth dollars. Who are the jackass party counterparts to George Schultz, William Buckley, Gov. Gary Johnson, et al?

[A CA Guy]

The society became more educated and civilized about it and has changed due to that.

People have seen over time the evil it is about as it ruins the lives of so many people.

[Cultural Jihad]

Does throwing an otherwise law-abiding, peaceful person in prison with violent criminals; seizing all of their belongings; and generally ruining their life for smoking a doob fall into that category?

Those are all separate issues, and expressed in hyperbole, aren't they? I don't know of any state which jails anyone and seizes all their belongings simply for consuming marijuana. A hundred dollar fine is much more devastating to a homie than it is to a yuppie, yippie, or hippie. You hear about the life sentences in Texas for one mere seed, but perhaps only Texans have a Constitutional right to an opinion about that, on whether the DA and the jurors in Texas violate anyone's rights there.

On the other hand, I hear that many illegal drugs make their consumers paranoid.

"Just look what monocaine addiction has done to me!"

[A CA Guy]

Libertarians and other drug users or enablers reflect in their views the loss of morals that have declined throughout society.

We were founded as a mostly Christian nation. Those values helped mold our success as a nation. As Americans loose our souls to humanism and become more and more pagan, you get evil like abortion.

[A CA Guy]

They share many agendas.

[Dinsdale]

Drug dealers would fall in love with your for your views

That's just silly. Do you think Al Capone was dancing in the streets when alcohol prohibition was repealed?

[Virginia-American]

And I thought Roe v. Wade was because the Supreme Court had gotten used to ignoring restrictions on federal power, partially because of the WosD.