Posted on 09/06/2002 8:59:47 AM PDT by MrLeRoy
It's enough for a big thumbs up ... or a big light up, if you prefer.
Canada should legalize marijuana use by adults, a Senate committee recommended Wednesday. The report comes on the heels of a two-year study of public policy relating to pot.
The present system of prohibition on marijuana just doesn't work, the committee found. Obviously, the committee learned something from early 20th-century history, when alcohol was prohibited in the United States. Then, prohibition simply gave gangsters a product to move and people to shoot.
Instead of the current system that penalizes people for having small quantities of pot on them, there should instead be a regulated system for marijuana, perhaps like our current system for alcohol, the committee determined.
"Scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is substantially less harmful than alcohol and should be treated not as a criminal issue but as a social and health issue," said Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, the committee chair.
It's true that taking pot still involves the harmful intake of smoke, which the committee recognized. But, as the committee pointed out, it's more of a health issue than anything else.
In addition, making pot legal would clear the way for our police to tackle other, more harmful crimes relating to the public good. Really, would you rather see a pot smoker or a child molester behind bars?
Whether the federal government will ever adopt the Senate recommendations is up in the air. Hopefully the feds won't throw up a smokescreen on this to cloud the issue, and goes ahead with legalization.
Care to make a substantive contribution, then? How does supporting a New Deal-era interpretation of the Commerce Clause further the conservative agenda?
don't lose their thinking/reasoning...at all---or...so quickly!
Most never had any to lose to begin with(either way)!
then?
Why don't people grow their own tobacco?
Provide evidence that users of illegal drugs "lose their thinking/reasoning" more often or more quickly than users of alcohol. (Hint: "evidence" does not mean people you know or stories you've heard.)
Why don't people grow their own tobacco?
I would guess any number of reasons. Tobacco is much more difficult to grow then cannabis, not everyone lives in the right climate, if you did grow tobacco you would still have a very hard time adding the nicotine, etc (if you were looking for something close to a commercial cigarette) and so on.
After all that, you would then have to decide whether it's worth it. (although I live in NYC where a pack of cigs now costs $7.00 so who knows)
That's funny -- coming from you of all people
Sorry f.C, you cannot make this claim without backing this up. I smoked my way through undergraduate school and I'm currently in medical school. Anecdotal? Yes, but obviously my thinking skills were not affected. You can't study, go to class, or take a test stoned (some do) and make anything of yourself, but to say that recreational use ruins one's thinking is just untrue. However, even if it did, would this still be a reason to restrict the liberties of the individual to their own property - their bodies. Should we make injecting draino straight into the brain illegal? You can't think too well after that and it might kill you. What's the difference?
No, it's not.
ditto
1/ditto. Ditto -1. So there.
In less than an hour, alcohol can inhibit your ability to drive, lowers your cognetive skills, and can depress your entire system to a point where your heart will stop.
Marijuana is a depressant, and an appetite stimulant at the same time. It would take a truly super-human effort to OD on it. Does not need to be swallowed, and kept down, like orally administered appetite drugs. The plant itself has textile qualities that rival wood pulp, soybeans, and cotten together.
I would say that those who would worry about a speck in their neighbors eye, has some log farming of their own to do.
Well put.
How is engaging in trivial debate of an arcane topic a productive use of my time?
Get the issue before SCOTUS and I may have more to say on the matter.
Our drug laws have been challenged tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of times in court.
I see no need to alter or change them, only a greater committment to enforcement and prosecution.
I'm not trying to be a wise guy or add another issue, but how exactly does one who believes that intoxication is a sin reconcile that with Jesus turning water into wine?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.