Lit_Match

Marijuana isn't evil
02-24-08|PressConnects.com|Pete Haahr

Cannabis should be legal and taxable for its many medical, recreational and industrial uses.

While marijuana isn't harmless, as the Office of National Drug Control Policy tells us, we all thought it was, it's easily the least harmful recreational drug, legal or not. It's also much safer, more affordable, and has fewer side affects than "more effective" -- not necessarily better -- medications, many of which are highly toxic and addictive.

It's virtually impossible to die of a cannabis overdose; alcohol poisoning alone kills over 100,000 Americans annually--about 20 times as many as all illegal drugs combined. Unlike alcohol and tobacco, cannabis isn't physically addictive and doesn't kill brain cells. Tobacco is radioactive and as addictive as heroin; alcohol is the No. 1 date rape and "gateway" drug.

Why waste billions of dollars and arrest hundreds of thousands of non-violent people for a drug one of the Drug Enforcement Agency's own judges called "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man"? Legalizing marijuana would actually make it harder for minors to purchase than it is now -- drug dealers seldom ask to see ID.

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Donation links to NORML (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) | MPP (Marijuana Policy Project)

drkseph

Drug dealers never ask to see ID, because they don't care. I've seen dealers sell to 12 and 13 year olds and I've seen 14 year old dealers before. It's much, much harder for a minor to get tobacco and alcohol products than it is to get cannabis, because they are sold by licensed vendors who must see ID for anyone who they believe looks under the age of 27 (I used to work at a counter in a grocery store that sold cigarettes and thats what they told us to do, card anyone who looks like they're under 27) while cannabis dealers obviously don't have to because they are operating illegally anyway, and all they care about is a profit. If cannabis was legalized it could be carefully regulated and the government would certainly try to educate the public about cannabis to point minors away from cannabis.

VapeNator

hey - not all cannabis dealers are heartless bastards who will do anything for a profit. Most are not.

Mine is a normal dude who is providing a valuable service at considerable personal risk. He would never sell to a child and he doesn't make tons of money, either. He doesn't ask for id, though . .ha ha.

I agree with the article and with legalization. I agree it will remove the criminal element, make it harder for kids to get and all that. I'm just sayin' . . . marijuana isn't evil - let's not make marijuana dealers out to be evil, either.

Buzzby

REALITY CHECK: Alcohol kills 100,000 Americans every year but only about 3% of those die from alcohol poisoning. The rest die from the long-term deleterious effects of alcohol on the body.

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