Equilibrium

LOL of course never.

as long as the goverment doesn't create some sort of parasite that kills marijuana plants i dont think it being illegal is going to be much of a problem, not to me at least.

still puffing a joint on the drive to work would be nice, and i really hope i'm wrong.

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mufasa5446

i'm guessing the next ten years. There has been quite a lot of talk about legalization. there has seemed to have been more talk of legalizing and more places legalizing it for medicinal purposes rather the opposite. I think it's slowly, yet exponentially, integrating itself into a seemingly "natural" teenage thing and is becoming slightly accepted, if anything expected. I have definately noticed this in my area in the last couple years and i forsee it continuing.

IGemini

Unfortunately, just "talk" about legalization won't happen a lot. You can hear a lot of talk from one person, but that won't mean it'll happen faster.

There's no hope to be had for the legalization of a drug with as much money being spent on the War on Drugs and the resultant prison population on drug charges. Not only does this serve the purpose of removing a good chunk of people who would elect pro-marijuana (or so one would think), it also has the appearance of being virtuous by stamping out something that appears "evil" to the common public.

This is why I hate representative democracy. You can only vote for people and not for ideas, and too many people are single-issue voters, which end up screwing a lot of people. The concept of referenda in our system is the best idea by far, but very few states actually exercise it.

Ganjika

Fact: In Some Jurasdictions- You Can Lose Eligability For Student Aid For Bieng Found Using or In Possesion Of <Marijuana.

No Matter What Anyone Else Says, Telling a Child He or She Can't Go To College Just Becuase Of A Little Bit Of Cannabis (Or For Any Reason) Isn't Going To Fix A Thing.

~Luis H. (The Hippie)
Electric Space Odyssey

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disheartenedwamerica

Well no one can really know for sure, but my best educated guess is somewhere between now and ten years. Right now the government has themselves in a catch 22. According to the DEA, marijuana has no “known medical uses”. Though this is their hard-line stance, the U.S. government contradicts itself in two specific ways: A) the government gives a limited number of “approved” patient’s medical marijuana and B) Marinol, the pill form of THC is prescribed to patients. If there is no “known medical use” why in the world would they make a pill form of it, and even more-so, why would they give these “approved” patients actual marijuana? Marijuana has only really been illegal for 70 years now. In addition Canada is moving, albeit slowly, away from a prohibition model, towards either a decriminalization/legalization model.

The legalization model would remove the gang and organized crime element due to reduction in gross profit margins, making it the obvious better choice. If we look back to the times of alcohol prohibition what we learn is that due to the illegality of alcohol huge crime rings formed to deliver supply to a country with an obvious demand. The same is true for all illicit drugs, and since it is illegal these rings can charge a premium for the risk they take distributing their substance. Due to this, profit margins are high and it is a business of easy money. Money fuels problems and as we see fuels gang violence. Truthfully if we learn anything from history it is that prohibition of any kind does not work, it drives the activity underground into unsupervised locations and provides a black market with the opportunity of inflated profits. Simple economics proves prohibition does not work. In addition it is quite clear from unbiased research that marijuana is neither as dangerous as alcohol nor disruptive as other drugs. Luckily for us, we have the truth to back up our claims, and the false information and propaganda spread by the ONDCP and NIDA can quickly be cast aside for real, truthful information. This is the age of the internet and anyone willing to take the time to discover the truth can.

Unfortunately it is an uphill battle as BigPharma and the Alcohol industry are against legalization 100%. Think about it, if every American could grow their medicine, and their own non-toxic intoxicant these two companies’ profits would plummet. If you could have a medicine you could grow, with no painful side effects would you go to Pfizer and buy overpriced medications with side effects that could leave you sterile or could kill you. I don’t know about the readers of this, but I certainly wouldn’t. In addition if Americans had a choice between a toxic substance (i.e. alcohol) and a plant, with no possibility for overdose, no possibility for physical addiction, and other then problems associated with smoking anything (which by the way can be removed by a vaporizer) has limited drawbacks, which intoxicant do you think would be their choice. I won’t even start with drunk driving. Yet still these industries don’t want this competition. Funny isn’t it, that the government protects the pharmaceutical and alcohol industry and not the interests of the American people? Unfortunately it’s not that surprising if you understand the billions of dollars spent each year to send lobbyists to Washington to protect these corporate profits. Yet again though, I emphasize we have the truth to back up our claims, they have lies. This will not be an easy battle though.

We the people, have 80 years of fear mongering and stigmatization to break through before we can hope for this goal , and as I great president once said, “we have nothing to fear, but fear itself” .Still I foresee in the coming years that we will have marijuana shops much as we liquor stores today. It is just a matter of time. In addition I implore EACH AND EVERY person who reads this to not just post but also to go and talk to just one other person about the truth of this situation. It may not seem like individually you can make a difference, but even one more person knowing is a huge victory. It is my hope that one day responsible adult choice will not be persecuted by big corporations or senseless government. It is my hope that we can return to America the Free, not America the Prison. Until then I will continue to spread the truth, and when that day does come I hope to sit down with friends and spark a nice legal blunt to celebrate America the Free again. Thank you for taking the time to read this.


(Edited for easier reading)

feedyourhead

honestly, i do not see marijuana being legalized in the united states in my lifetime, considering it is illegal in every country aside from antartica in some form regarding posession, distribution and/or sale. i don't even want it legalized. take a look at amsterdam and how the criminal justice system operates along with the decriminalization of 'soft drugs' (i.e. marijuana and including psychedelic mushrooms). they are doing it the right way. what if big business got ahold of marijuana? they'd ruin it. how much better are organic fruits and vegetables as opposed to produce produced, sold, and distributed by larger companies? how about microbrewery and regional beer companies as opposed to national companies? it's all the same, IMO -- the smaller the company, the better the product. marijuana produced by big companies could be riddled with pesticides, preservatives, and may be of lower quality.* i'd rather be able to buy high-grade marijuana from a local grower and not have any consequence as opposed to going to the gas station to buy a pack of joints from, say 'Big Marijuana (hypothetical, of course), for personal use (not taking medical into consideration, which is an entirely different can of worms) for the reasons stated above.also, take into consideration that the united states has borne the reputation of being a 'nanny state' in recent years. hell, on my university campus we cannot even smoke cigarettes legally. anyone who thinks that marijuana being legalized in this country any time soon is out of their minds.

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Buzzby

Marijuana is completely legal in Bangladesh and Ghana. Antarctica is not a country. It's a continent.

While technically illegal, marijuana is effectively legal in many places. Take a look at the Legality of cannabis by country article in Wikipedia.

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Viper420

You forgot Tanzania. Be careful about using Wikipedia as a source. Sometimes they are right and then other times, they are way off base. In Somolia, they whack your head off or torture you to death.

Buzzby

Sometimes both. If you're lucky, the judge will run your sentences concurrently or, at least, put the beheading ahead of the torture.

The GCW

I treat it more or less like it is legal now.