kjp420

I understand that it is hassle that Marijuana is illegal, but we only look at the positive of legalizing marijuana. Yes we will be able to smoke somewhat publicly (since now smoking ciggeretes is now banned in most public places, and I doubt there will be a difference in where marijuana can be smoked). And yes we won't have to work as hard to find it. Yet we will have to pay more for marijuana through some regulated price and taxes. And like we will have to deal with the chemical additives which are bound to end up being in the plant if legalized. Now we can hope that maybe we could get a regulation in which nothing would be added, but if legalized we may lose a lot of supporters because some people only like the plant because it is illegal. Also we have a long way to go to legalize it in the first place, some people think we are close because some states have passed bills legalizing medicinal use, but when not if the national government tries to crack down they will not have much trouble, although we have a federal government the central government can and will overrule the regional governments like they have before. Now think do we really even want Marijuana legal and do we want to go through the trouble of legalizing something we don't need?

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admiral nelson-youve got a lil admiral in u

Kushy

A hassle? 800,000 + marijuana arrests per year is not just a "hassle". Do you know how many people who have been through the justice system (state and federal) and had their jobs, education, and even entire lives fucked up because of this prohibition?

A black market drives prices up, not down. If anything, prices in the future will be lower, and the taxes will definitely not run the price higher than a black market system.

Why would there be more chemicals in the bud when it was legal and regulated than when it's grown in someones house and sold on the black market? Why would they even put chemicals in the bud regardless? I think you're forgetting we already have medical marijuana dispensaries in place... Why doesn't anyone complain about potential chemicals in medical bud? I don't see it being a problem to be honest..

Now I really don't get this... Explain to me why someone would like smoking marijuana based ONLY on the fact that it's illegal

In 1998 when California passed Proposition 215 to allow Doctors to suggest marijuana to patients, the federal government (under Clinton, and then Bush) at the time was completely against this prop. This prop meant nothing to them, and they continued to raid dispensaries for 11 more years...

Now flash forward 11 years... The federal government just decided that raiding these dispensaries is not something they should spend time and resources on and ruled that they will leave states alone to do their own thing.

If prop 215 (a state prop) had the ability to convince the federal government not to inflict with it, whats to stop a future state legalization bill from doing the same? Sometimes you can't deal with the feds (DEA) to begin with... Sometimes you have to work your way up from props, referendums, to state laws, and all the way up to federal laws.

Here's a suggestion. Why don't you go get caught by the cops with possesion and paraphernalia, and then once you've gone to court, lost your college scholarship, your job, and experienced what these laws are doing to our own citizens, then I think you're free to speak about what we need and don't need... While you wrote your post, there are hundreds of thousands of people sitting in state and federal prisons for possessing, growing, dealing, or running a dispensary for a plant called marijuana... I think that's more than enough reason to legalize it

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Finally de' herbs come around

Freedom_User

Sounds fantastic

This is a myth that constantly gets corrected around here. Marijuana prices are extremely high due to the black market. If legalized and regulated, marijuana itself would be cheap

In my opinion, this reason alone is pure selfishness. Minus the fact that hundreds of thousands of people get arrested every single year for marijuana possession. And you and I pick up the tab when they throw them in jail.

Or... How about you legally grow your own? Or... You can do it now and risk life long felonies to your record. But... By your logic, I assume that's what you want.

Um.... Organic? DONT EAT THE VEGETABLES! THERES CHEMICALS ON IT!

Do you know what the black market does to marijuana? It's grown by drug lords that don't give a damn about your health. You know, the guys that put led in weed just to get a few hundred dollars more. Oh, and don't get me started on the harms of mold.

Lose supporters only because they like it because it's illegal? Then there are not true pot smokers. They don't except the true potential marijuana has. And quite honestly, I would love all the posers out of my movement.

Ethan Nadelmann "I really feel that the wind's at my back and not in my face."
newsweek

So.... ... If we are not winning, we should quit? LOL

2-3 years ago Public support for marijuana legalization was at 35% Now, its at 44% What a great time to give up the fight for personal freedoms, aye?

WE ARE WINNING

Kinda like, how they no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries?

Hmmm... Let's see. Do I want to smoke a plant that is benign to the human body... But risk a life long record? Hmm... I guess I'll just keep my mouth shut. That way, my elected officials will assume that it's not an issue to me. That way, they can introduce harsher penalties for me.

Or how about I blindly look the other way, when non-violent drug offender gets thrown in a system that is ruthless.

Do you sleep good at night knowing that's how you look at the drug war?

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The feds continually use and twist this simple clause as an excuse to expand their own power - at the expense of our liberty.

"If you shot a ton of pot to the Sun, will it burn up and get everyone high?"

LegalizeNow!

I really can't say I agree with anything you wrote.

Frid

Of course we do.

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PSN:nightman15
Steam:Frid2
Join us in the chat! http://www.marijuana.com/chat

kings

Personally I don't wait it to be legal. I say this because the government (I'm referring to the united states government) will tax it so bad and it will get out of control. One alternative to this would be growing it but I've never grown it but it seems very difficult in my current area. The government will make it a sin tax along with alcohol and cigarettes to make up for their MASSIVE TRILLION DOLLAR DEBT.

Kushy

So getting it at a slightly cheaper price is more important to you than the lives of thousands and thousands of innocent people who did nothing but smoke a plant? Do you for one second believe that if the government ever did legalize it, they would just decide to NOT tax it? We have taxes on everything else.. why not marijuana? Do you believe we shouldn't pay taxes when we pick up a 6-pack or a pack of ciggs from the gas station?

Sykes

I would love Marijuana to be legal so people can finally understand it is a herb not a hard drug. I have "caught smoking marijuana and possession off paraphernalia" on my record forever, I would love to have that discarded. Only people who will not benefit from this is the Black Market (dealers etc). Growers will not like this aswell. Weed will be dirt cheap.

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Smoke Moar.

If you read this you must smoke a bowl.

MetallicaFan495

You misunderstand the whole idea behind legalizing marijuana. Legalizing has nothing to do with people accepting smoking weed. It has to do with putting people in jail for non-violent crimes..well thats one of the reasons.
Do you realize that there is medical cocaine but still its this much of a hassle to get medical marijuana? The major point of legalizing weed is so we can destroy the black market and keep it out of kids hands. The price of weed wouldnt go up at all, in fact it'd be the opposite (if we have our goals in the right place.) Think about it this way, and ill just give a short example. A dealer sells his mids for 10$ a gram. What if a gas station sells it for 2$ a gram (in california they wanna make it so you can get an eighth of DANK for 5$ so my numbers arnt THAT guessed)...after a certain point the dealer would have NO urge to sell it anymore. Most dealers dont sell because they have some weird love for weed....you have to look at the profit margins. When I dealed for a little bit, I made like 200 bucks a day profit, and its a great thing theres 365 days a year. If a dealer can no longer make profit he will not continue to sell. One of the major problems with unregulation of weed is because a drug dealer isnt going to card you, as long as you have money your set. Think about how difficult it is for a teenager to get ciggs and alcohol (unless you have a friend of age like me and some other people.) The point is whether you have a friend of age or not, it makes it THAT much harder to get. Lemme give you a different example....take health teachers for example. If you tell a little kid that heroin is as bad as weed and these drugs will kill you....well unless he is sheltered and never has fun at least once in his life he will probably experiment with weed. Once he realizes weed did nothing of the sort, how do you think he'll feel about heroin? And we're talking about uneducated kids who all they hear is "drugs are bad dont do them." And lets be honset most kids try weed once in their life. I hope im making sense, please tell me if you dont understand. But about the last sentence of your post, that we'd be going through all this hard work to legalize something we dont need. Constitutionally speaking, why should the government have control over what you put in your own body? If you live in a medical marijuana state go to your nearest hospital and explain to cancer and AIDS patients that "they dont need marijuana." Im sure they will beg to differ...and these are people who have tried the pills, and still state that marijuana WAS THE ONLY THING that helped them. This isnt just an excuse thats being used over and over, its been said by hundreds and thousands of people. Do some research on the medicinal uses of this plant, and you'll instantly being to wonder why 90% of the prescription pills are even being used. Still dont understand what I mean? Look up the drug oxycontin or vicadin (those are 2 of MANY). I know friends right now who are struggling with addiction to these pills. The funny thing? They started out with prescription and started buying on the streets when their prescription ran out. Its a damn shame....

Believe it or not man we're closer than ever to legalization, in fact im hoping that it will get done by 2010 or 2011, which isnt that long compared to the 72 years of prohibition. I hope I helped you understand this topic better and feel free to ask any questions.

SenorSmokesALot

Even though the other posters have already answered the question I'd also like to add my two cents.

It is ignorant for someone who smokes marijuana to not want it to be legalized. None of the OP's arguments are valid.
1. It is absolutely false that marijuana will cost more than it does now. The price of marijuana is grossly inflated due to it's being on the black market. Even with taxes the price of marijuana would be equal or more probably significantly less than it is now. Furthermore, much of the marijuana sold illegally in U.S. today is funding Mexican drug cartels and gangs throughout the U.S. Wouldn't it be worth paying more (which we absolutely would not) to take that money out of killers and rapists and instead putting it into our government that is in so much debt so that it may circulate it through the economy and save us from one of the greatest depressions our generation has ever seen? If marijuana was legalized you would also have the option to have a plant which would cost next to nothing to maintain.

2. There is no reason to believe that just because marijuana is legalized that additive will begin to appear in herb. I'm sure most of the smokers of the U.S. would not want the herb industry to end up like the cigarette industry. Even if that did happen I am absolutely positive that there will be stores that sell organic marijuana. Again, considering you can own a plant will fix this "problem" as well.

3. If there are people who only like marijuana because it's illegal they don't deserve to smoke it.The only people I can imagine who would like herb because it's illegal are punk kids who think that they are doing something cool. Note that a large part of the marijuana community are adults who don't think like this. If legalized, more people would smoke marijuana because it's legal. I don't know how to argue this without circular reasoning. It just makes sense. And if it were legalized why would we need support to legalize it? I think you have overlooked the fact that many people smoke for medical purposes and that almost 1 million people are arrested every year for marijuana charges. Are you telling me that every single person who could benefit from marijuana medically and every single person who is in jail because they smoke like marijuana being illegal? If some people only like marijuana because it's illegal, surely some people don't smoke because it's illegal.

4. We are very close to the legalization of marijuana. The fact that state governments are passing laws that contradict federal law proves that the people of the U.S. want a change. The fact that there are people in California that are legally smoking in their state is fact that we are close to legalization. If you can't see this then you're not looking hard enough.

I find this total post to be very infuriating. You are passing on false information and even if only one person believes what you say that's one person who has been falsely informed, one person who has become ignorant because of this post.Can you tell me why weed is illegal in the first place? The fact that the federal government is stopping it's people from doing something that is not harmful or dangerous is a strike against our personal rights. Legalizing marijuana would save thousands of lives from gang violence, would save millions of people who have been imprisoned for doing something that is not harmful to anyone, would save millions of people from feeling agonizing pain every day because they can't smoke to relieve it, would save millions of people from stress related disease. Not to mention the financial, political and emotional benefits. Oh, but yeah, I guess I can see your point. As if. No cheers for you.

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"Herb is the Healing of a Nation" ~Bob Marley

"I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?" ~Willie Nelson