Legalizing Drugs

[Greggatshack]

Good to hear someone with LEO background agreeing so eloquently about what I've said for the last 40 years.

 

[mongo61]

The only drug to never kill anyone.

 

[tricolordad]

The only drug to never kill anyone.

Not true at all. How many people get killed by the guy more interested in his doob than the road every year? How many idiots get high then think they can fly and take a leap? How many people get high then try to swim? Are you telling me you can perform fine motor tasks exactly the same high as you would sober? Don't ask for a link, just google it. There's a reason it's illegal to drive under the influence. Like alcohol, use it at home, IDGAF, just keep your sorry ass out of public so nobody else gotta put up with your ****.

 

[mongo61]

tricolordad, no one has ever smoked pot and thought they can fly. You have watched too much Refer Madness in your day. Watch the video. Listen to what the retired COP has to say. Open your mind, not your mouth. Tobacco is way worse than pot. Alcohol is worse than pot. All I am saying is if those things (as well as others) are legal, pot should be too.

 

[gunnerbob]

The drug war is a scam, it's a never ending and un-win-able adventure designed to enrich those involved... including the manufacturers, transporters, dealers, AmeriKan and foreign gov'ts and the ever growing prison systems. Search the internet long enough and you'll find dozens of documentaries, studies and examples of fraud involved in one of the longest running scams ever put into place in the world.

As to pot, it should be legal... much like alcohol and tobacco. I personally think it, along with the other two, should be completely legal without gov't regulation and taxation. There's the zinger though, taxation... the gov't has to get its piece of the profit and there is no set standard or controlled global production network that the AmeriKan gov't can tap into, regulate and therefore TAX. It's always about getting a piece of the wealth, always.

Are there risks involved with drugs? Of course there are, we all know that. Should actions that involve the harm to others b/c of use of these drugs be prosecuted? Yes, they should. That is the essence of what a LAW should be put into place for, to provide a means of standard punishment to an individual who conducted an act which harmed another individual or their property.

 

[JimTh]

I was a trash can in the 60's and 70's when it came to drug use. Anybody that thinks pot needs to be legalized has never come under the psychoactive effects of pot or they have been trapped in the psychoactive effects because they smoked too much. The "buzz" you get from pot is extremely dangerous...it screws with time and spatial reality. It has also been categorized as a hallucinogenic drug as well. Those that deny this either have never smoked it or are too stoned to know the difference. It would be far safer for all you folks that think pot is harmless to legalize cocaine and meth because those drugs don't tun you into a fruitcake when you are under their spell...pot does. Do not smoke that crap when I'm around because I will start to "freak you out". Denial is not a river in Egypt.

 

[gunnerbob]

I was a trash can in the 60's and 70's when it came to drug use. Anybody that thinks pot needs to be legalized has never come under the psychoactive effects of pot or they have been trapped in the psychoactive effects because they smoked too much. The "buzz" you get from pot is extremely dangerous...it screws with time and spatial reality. It has also been categorized as a hallucinogenic drug as well. Those that deny this either have never smoked it or are too stoned to know the difference. It would be far safer for all you folks that think pot is harmless to legalize cocaine and meth because those drugs don't tun you into a fruitcake when you are under their spell...pot does. Do not smoke that crap when I'm around because I will start to "freak you out". Denial is not a river in Egypt.

Your statement shows ignorance, Jim. I've used pot, my experiences weren't yours... your over-generalization is the sort that strips free people from making their own mistakes, or not. Laws prohibiting drug use DO NOT prevent their use, only a person's own decisions do. Obviously, drugs being illegal didn't prevent you or I from doing them... did they? It being illegal didn't stop me from underage drinking years ago... I doubt it was a different story for you. People need to understand that laws preventing the use of something DO NOT prevent the use of whatever it may be.

Now, onto things such as meth and heroin... I do not believe you should be able to go down to the local 7/11 and pick some up. However, there is a difference between pot and "hardcore" drugs... most hardcore drugs are manufactured from synthetic compounds, unlike weed. Now we can go back and forth about the dangers of pot, we can also go back and forth about the dangers of alcohol! The dangers of tobacco! More people are involved in an alcohol related injury or death every year than almost any other substance! Let's not be naive about this fact, alcohol, when consumed in excess has serious potential hazards associated! However, where's the outcry from people here?

Let's just continue to fill our prisons with non-violent pot smokers... that's helping everybody, right?

 

[Riverkilt]

Used to grow and distribute the herb back in the day. Driving stoned was like going slow motion through a kaleidoscope. I'm amazed I survived and didn't kill, or hurt, anyone else. The question for me isn't so much whether I should have the right to smoke up and cruise down the rural highways or city streets, its whether or not I want some stoned driver headed my way in the other lane...or cruising the same streets as the people I love. A quick google will easily show stoned drivers kill and get killed. Marijuana as a drug may not kill directly (except for a herd of cows in Brazil that were fed it by accident) but it certainly kills from the "Hold my joint, watch this" behaviors of high folks. Botanical science has marched on and today marijuana with THC levels of 25% can be grown. Its so strong that instead of making folks mellow it gives them panic attacks. After years of personal use I cleaned up and have 20 years of experience with the effects of pot as an addictions counselor. I ain't making this stuff up.

Its bad enough with booze. Check out the reports of the Drunk Driver check points the cops set up on holidays. Drivers know the cops are gonna be out, but still the checkpoints nab about 15% of the drivers they check for being drunk. That means at least 15% of the folks you share the road with now are probably drunk! That's enough challenge for me. Don't want to add stoned drivers to that total.

And for the folks with medical marijuana cards that's not an excuse for driving stoned any more than having an Rx for narcotics lets you drive loaded on Lortabs.

Gonna be interesting. I agree the dinero is wasted on the "war." I fear the carnage on the highway consequences of legalization.

I deal with drug addicts and alcoholics every day....I can tell you they do not care about anyone else...they just want what they want when they want it and if they want to take a drive loaded they're gonna take a drive loaded....maybe while you and your loved ones are out there with them.

No easy answer on this one.

 

[Michael Ramsey]

Here's a thought, if you like guns... own one... if you don't... down own one....

That's what we as gun owners tell people who dont like guns... Why can it not be that way with weed? No matter what anyone wants to say, legalizing would have a very positive result in this country just like it has in Portugal. Everyone reacts differently to weed so one person may have a bad reaction but most people it doesn't have the same and will just give them the buzz. I should know, I'm one of the ones who cannot smoke weed cause my body rejects it and makes me violently puke... Should I say... "You cannot smoke because you'll puke all over!!" No, that would just be ignorant!.... How about I tell everyone and enact a law that nobody can drink alcohol because it too makes me puke?

Look up Portugal and see how crime, violent crime, drug use, new drug use and all the other drug related stigmas have gone down due to decriminalization....