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Lothar121

Up In Smoke: Legalizing Marijuana
Jonathan Shalom | New University | 02/20/2006

Grass. Weed. Cannabis. Ganja. You can visualize what I’m going to be talking about at this point. Growing up, your parents instilled in you all the negatives associated with the drug, but do the negative aspects of legalizing marijuana really outweigh the positives?

Numerous studies have documented the negatives of getting high off of weed. Scientists claim that aside from marijuana’s weak association with depression and anxiety, it can cause brain deterioration of “critical life skills” over time.

The same study further finds that marijuana users impair their ability to memorize and organize information, ultimately functioning at a “reduced intellectual level.” Funny, since half of the people I meet hourly already function on a “reduced intellectual level,” and they don’t even smoke marijuana.

More recently, research has made an aim to focus on the positives of the drug. The use of medical marijuana to treat chronic pain sufferers has helped these people live nearly pain-free lives, even after they tried numerous other treatments in an attempt to control their pain.

Other arguments against marijuana include “dangerous” behavior, such as driving under the influence or being “boring” as the life-like marijuana commercials out there portray various situations. In other words, the advertisements tend to stretch the truth just a little bit.

How about the one where a group of guys smoking weed in their car in the fast-food drive-thru lane run over a little girl on a bike? Private organizations like these invest hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, on commercials like these that depict such incidents that rarely ever happen.

Needless to say, similar arguments could be made about alcohol … and they were, back during Prohibition in the United States. After a few years of the government attempting to impose its morals on its citizens, it got smart and realized there was money to be made.

The fact of the matter is that legalizing marijuana can help boost the economy, which benefits us all in the long run.

Through the implementation of high taxes and regulations on the drug, profits in the billions would help the country by pumping money back into social programs such as Medicare, Social Security and education.

Instead, the United States government just stores all drugs acquired from drug trafficking laws into its 60-plus locations around the country, letting the potential moneymaker gather dust.

Think I’m crazy? Maybe, but before you jump to any hasty conclusions, consider cigarettes for a moment. Cigarettes alone are the second leading cause of death among males and females. Thanks to their addictive nature, lung cancer accounts for more deaths than any other cancer.

Yet studies show that the addictive properties of alcohol, cigarettes or even cocaine exceedingly overshadow that of marijuana’s.

Bringing this drug into the mainstream can undoubtedly provide many economic benefits to our society. Although some aspects of weed has its negatives when abused, proper oversight and regulation of this drug, like any other, can potentially make its use beneficial.

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Dennis

Just like a little wine benefits health, a little Cannabis in moderation is actually good for you.

Buzzby

Mr. B.:"Son, it's time we had a little talk about marijuana."
Young B.:"OK Dad, what is it that you want to know?"
Mr. B.:"Seriously, B., there is one thing you really need to know about marijuana."
Young B.:"What's that, Dad?"
Mr. B.:"Don't get caught with it!"


Studies have shown that 40-year heavy cannabis users show no difference from the population baseline after a month of abstinence.


Most of those commercials are paid for by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), our tax dollars, to the tune of $120,000,000 a year.

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alexnalaska

Prison Industry.............Does that not sound WRONG to you?

Not only could they make money off legalizing it , but they would save billons by letting those poor folks that got caught, out.

USA =1/3 making the other 2/3 pay their way.....I like that.

Canada is so far ahead of USA now w/matters on weed that USA is outta the loop. If we were to legalize. The gov would have to find then buy seeds......lol......canada has some, but I dont know if they will trust the usa gov. I wouldn't.

johnnyd

I'd love to see Canada legalize marijuana. That would really throw a monkey wrench in the works, wouldn't it? With that HUGE unguarded border between the the US and Canada, marijuana would flow accross the US borders like the Niagara Falls.

 

alexnalaska

It is already flowing.....lol. Those canadians will get it right soon, and leave the us in the dust. I have plans on taking my skiff up the stikine river into canada this summer or next. i will never return..............yeah me. Remeeber the passport law that goes into affect in 08. the canadians are going to lock us out. Like we try to do to the mexicans. But, wasn't this the mexicans land....oh im not suppose to say that....aye.lol see im getting the language down, aye......

johnnyd

To be realistic about it though, with the conservatives in charge of Canada, I really don't see any change in the marijuana laws in Canada. If anything, they'll get tighter. Just my 2 cents.

MrIMStoned

oh im not suppose to say that....aye.lol see im getting the language down, aye.....

It's spelt "eh?". "Aye" spells i not a. Americans could never master such a shibboleth. Your too self-concience with your eh?'s, too loud, too nasally. It must flow naturally into a sentence. It must never stand out and never have attention called toward it yet remain inextricably linked to the harmonious whole. It should trip melodiously off the toungue.Your eh?'s are too demanding when they need to be cajoling.

The main problem with americans trying it is that they make a statement and tack on an eh? at the end. When what you need to be thinking is how to state that as a question. The "lol see im getting the language down, aye...." would be in canadian "lol im doing priddy good with the language, eh?"

And this concludes my canadian english lesson for today. Tomorrow we'll talk about the lowback vowel mergers.

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"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable what then?"

THC Fiend

This article is rather pointless, in my humble (yet always correct ) opinion. Just re-read it and see if you can agree with me. It just states a couple of the 'assumed' negative effects of marijuana use, then it says: but the greedy government could make money. That's the end of the article? OK. Yes, I knew that. Thanks.

Canada will not legalize any time soon, I am sorry to say. Damn those capitalists in charge... haha, our PM actually SHOOK his kids hands when he was saying goodbye as opposed to the 'traditional' hug, what a ****ING CREEP!



His drug policy is as stiff as his posture, sadly, and Canada is taking a step in the wrong direction.

I do admit, however, that Canada is closer than the US.

Except what the **** happened with hockey?? Same with America!!! North America didn't even make the semis AHHHHH!!!!

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"Nietzsche is dead."
-God

brevity is... wit

TheNewGuy

How could Canada have let this happen? Have they seen what our conservative government has done for us? Were they like "Man, your country is going to hell in a handbasket...we should do the same thing!"? Marijuana users better get off thier asses before this stuff gets even more out of hand than it already has.

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"Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power." ~P.J. O'Rourke