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Lothar121

Marijuana Should Not Be Legalized
Colby DeMarco| The Free Lance-Star | 08/28/2005

I'm writing in response to a recent letter to the editor ["We should regulate and tax marijuana, as with alcohol," Aug. 24].

Kirk Muse suggests that we should "regulate, control, and tax the sale and production of marijuana and sell it in licensed business establishments like we do with tobacco." I have to disagree.

Is there really an option of controlling the distribution of marijuana? I don't think I want my fellow teenagers driving under the influence of marijuana, as they do with alcohol. Putting an age limit on a drug or drink doesn't control youth from getting hold of it.

Legalizing marijuana for nonmedical purposes shows our youth that it's OK to get high, once you're old enough. Although I'm only 13 years old, and don't have the experiences of my elders, I can see the flaws in Mr. Muse's idea.

The only thing legalizing marijuana would produce is more bloodshot eyes.


Colby DeMarco

Orange

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TheNewGuy

Teenagers are purchasing weeds anyways...but the way they buy it now they have to go through shady deals with people that might lace it with something. If you controlled it, it would be safer than going to someone on the street.

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Lothar121

It isn't a black and white either or issue. The proper question to be asking yourself is "will it reduce youth access?" not "will it eliminate youth access". Nothing will eliminate youth access, but we should look at ways to minimize the harm.

I would point out to the author of this letter that scientific surveys have consistently shown that our youth can obtain marijuana easier than alcohol. Alcohols cards, marijuana does not, go figure.

Reality check. Nobody says it would eliminate youth access, it would simply reduce youth access. Think of it like a slider:

(***)= % of youth having access to cannabis

Prohibition
more access|||||| ***|||||||||||||||||||||||less access

Taxation/Regulation
more access||||||||||||||||||||||***|||||| less access

So it's quite simple really. It would reduce access, not eliminate it. It is more than apparent that the author just didn't look into the issue very far.

There is also no conclusive evidence that marijuana legalization would increase use. States that reduce penalties for marijuana have not experienced a necessary increase in use. That's one point. The other point I would like to make is increased enforcement of marijuana related laws has not detered use either.From the Justice Policy Institute Article:

Despite this increase in spending on drug control from $65 million to currently $19 billion, and the imprisonment of 30,000 people for a marijuana offense, marijuana usage has remained relatively unchanged regardless of arrest rates going up or down.

http://www.marijuana.com/420/showthread.php?t=40641

The infamous

MAN I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW STUPID PEOPLE ARE!

i live in VA and have to put up with this. i know just how many KIDS, and i mean kids (13-15yrs old). Smoke weed. And how much easier weed is to get than cigs or alcohol. why not just legalize it? so the government can make money too(taxes). Its really stupid how these people say its going to make it harder to obtain if it remained illegal. WE ALREADY HAVE IT. Stupid ****s.

sorry if i'm breaking any rules...but this stuff just makes me mad.

Thanks for reporting it though

Lyte it up 420

i can't believe how fast everyone's jumping down this kid's throat. He's 13, probably strait out of dare and obviously has no idea what he's talking about. I give it a year or 2 before he comes over to our side.

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uniquexperience

Well.. it might take him some time.. Maybe get him a girlfriend who smokes. :spark:

Buzzby

Other than infamous, who's 14 himself and is now banned, no one was jumping down the kid's throat. They were challenging his misstatement of the facts. How is he ever going to learn the truth if no one disputes his erroneous beliefs?

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Hawg

Very well put Buzzby, there are many different kinds of education.

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Figures don't lie but liars can figure

SkyTripper

Legal or not......marijuana IS HERE TO STAY!
Readily available to ALL who wish to have it.

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king cola

"Is there really an option of controlling the distribution of marijuana? I don't think I want my fellow teenagers driving under the influence of marijuana, as they do with alcohol."

Theres nothing stopping people from driving while under the influence of marijuana to begin with Legal or not theres going to be people driving stoned. Even with alcohol, legal or not people would drive drunk. It's a weak statement for them to make. People should know somethin anyway, my parents knew this, when we were younger and left the house there was nothing they could do to stop us from smoking pot or drinking. My parents used to do the samethings when they were younger so they were a little more understanding about it, but i let them know that i would never do hard drugs and never have. Some people say oh well if your parents did such and such a drug you will do it, i disagree with that too. My father was addicted to a off topic drug way before i was born, he got himself to quit, told us his story about it, i never did try it and and never will.

"Putting an age limit on a drug or drink doesn't control youth from getting hold of it."

Getting alcohol was always a little harder to get when we were under age than marijuana was! I really can't believe how stupid these people are, there is no way they can 100% keep alcohol or marijuana out of a teenagers hands legal or not lol. By making it legal it might reduce it a little more.

"Legalizing marijuana for nonmedical purposes shows our youth that it's OK to get high, once you're old enough."

Ok and again what about alcohol? It's ok to get drunk once your old enough lol. I hear people all the time brag about how drunk they got, i will admit that i have done the same, we all just laugh about it. Someone brags about how stoned they got off pot though and people flip out over it I even had friends abusing legal prescription pain killers when they had no pain at all. Should we ban them too?

Just because pot becomes legalized doesn't mean everyones going to do it, there might be a increase followed by a decrease in it's use. When i was drinking under age i found that i drank more then, than i do now that i'm over 21 because it's nothing new. The same might happen for pot if it became legal. If people have teenagers that smoke it now, they might not even know it and they might be driving stoned now and again, the parents probably wouldn't even know it so either way it doesn't make much sense to keep it banned. Even for legal prescription drugs people aren't supposed to drive under the influence of them but i'm sure theres a few that do.

One thing i also just noticed that i didn't think about, they talk about teens driving stoned if it's legalized, are they forgetting that they wouldn't be teenagers using it, you would have to be 21 years of age to buy and smoke pot if it was regulated? Even with the age limit set at 21, yea there will be teens still using it, legal or not theres nothing you can do to keep it out of anyones hands and like what someone said, pot is here to stay.