What will it take to legalize,or decriminalize marijuana in the USA?
13 states now have medicinal marijuana. Oakland is taxing the sale and is raising millions for their municipality.Jobs have been created for the grow houses and farms ,security being hired for the dispenseries.This is extremely obviously beneficial for all participating states.The feds have made enforcement there lowest priority. Which do you think will be the last state to wake up and take advantage of the popular movement?
What it will take is: “Too long.” We will have missed the boat (as far as any economic boon is concerned) and ruined countless lives before we wake up. USA is like that. Remember Prohibition?
You want the right to take an addictive medicine socially? Addiction is a prison, a psychological prison. What other legal medications would you use without medical need? I don’t think it ever will be legalized.
It won’t be legal until the government can tax the hell out of it.
Yeah, Paul, you tell them! They’ll never legalize addictive substances for non-medicinal purposes. That’s why they only sell cigarettes and chew in hospitals… and… um… you can only get liquor from a… err… pharmacy… oh… wait…
I’m completely against non-medicinal marijuana. It serves no real purpose, and only makes our society a worse place… but so does liquor, and tobacco, and religion for that matter. Just because I think you’d have to be an idiot to want to use social drugs doesn’t mean I have the right to criminalize stupidity.
I think that the decriminalization of weed is soon in coming, maybe even as close as 10 or 15 years. Other drugs, such as mush, will be maybe a decade after. The hardest drugs (ice, heroine, etc) will be a couple decades after that.
Legalization, though… that’s probably much further off. They may not charge you for using and having, but they will confiscate any they find. Honestly, decriminalization is enough for me, if, and only if, the government steps in and dispenses it, much like prescription drugs. Maximum amounts per time period, they give you a safe place to use, they would be cheaper (and safer) than the street drugs then, nevermind the prices now. Plus they could tax the hell out of it and make a killing.
I know this is much more than you asked for, but in my mind, it’s all one, and I can’t really separate the ideas.
Some people here are sooo funny talking about the gov NEVER legalizing addictive substances. Forget the fact that marijuana is safer than the OTHER LEGAL and VERY ADDICTIVE substances that are basically protected by the gov…. alcohol, tobacco, sugar, caffeine, weight loss ‘supplements’ that dont have to meet fda standards, plenty of otc meds like nyquil and cold meds that are addictive and used recreationally.
What its going to take is a massive amount of counter education to counter the effects of the false and exagerated information the gov has put out about it, for example what the DARE programs used to say and stuff like that. A lot of younger people are pretty well educated about marijuana, but I have met a lot of older people who have a lot of really weird ideas about marijuana, that seem to have come directly from gov misinformation…
Like the idea that our gov would never allow addictive substances to be legal???? Are you blind?? Not to mention, again, that marijuana is not chemically addictive. Marijuana is no more addictive than watching tv.
Paul Green is a moron, marijuana has no addictive property’s. But anyway, California will most likely be the 1st to have it completely decriminalized, then Im guessing every other state that has Medical Marijuana will follow. Detroit is going to be decriminalizing marijuana also this year, if the citizens of Detroit vote yes of course.
“More deaths are caused each year by TOBACCO use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), ILLEGAL DRUG USE, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders COMBINED.”
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/tobacco_related_mortality/
Here is a very well thought-out essay on the irrational views of supporters of the War on Drugs.
The author deals with the most common, and extremely flawed, arguments in favor of Drug Prohibition.
AMERICA’S UNJUST DRUG WAR
http://home.sprynet.com/~owl1/drugs.htm
Milk is a “gateway” to bourbon?
FBI Director Robert Mueller admits, on television, that NO deaths have been attributed to Marijuana:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfTQDuKpt-A
Alcohol use kills approximately 80,000 Americans annually.
http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/quickstats/general_info.htm
And, don’t look now, but . . . OMG! GASP!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729.html
Let’s take a second to analyze
#1 killer, beat out aids, heroin, murder, crack, cocaine, alcohol combined. Tobacco. 430,000 deaths per year. It’s weird to think tobacco receives govt subsidies and is grown with radioactive fertilizer. #2 alcohol 85,000 deaths a year , even caffeine will kill around 10,000 a year. Mary Jane? 0 from cannabis use. Anywhere, 10,000 years of use and 0 kills attributed to cannabis. Addiction is a problem with Mary though. Mary Jane has more than any other users in rehab than any other drug… But why is this? Because when your caught with Cocaine… prison, Extasy…. Prison, Meth…. Prison, now weed? You have your choice you can go to prison or you can head into a rehab clinic or treatment center. It’s the DEA showing that all these kids here are on marijuana. Only 3% of people in treatment were actually in need and willingly went into treatment.
Now addiction comes into play…
#1 – nicotine #2 – alchohol #3 – heroin #4 – Cocaine #5 – Coffee #6 – then marijuana.
Use marijuana for a year then stop then try the same thing with coffee….
Now is it a stepping stone? When on marijuana i don’t think i’ve ever said let’s go get ripped. I think i said give me chips and some water. Now 104 users of marijuana only 1 is a cocaine user. Less than 1 heroin. That’s like sayin i choose alcohol as my drug of choice, now does that mean I am a candidate for black tar heroin?
Laziness? WIll you be useless? Well then 50,000,000 americans are lazy, let’s also not forget that over half the canadian population has tried this drug. Look at the people who are smoking? Steven Jobbs – Apple Computers, Ted Turner CNN, Musicians, Virtually every presidential candidate has admitted to trying. Al Gore, Bush, Clinton. The people with personality problems and are lazy are going to lose their job anyway. Jesse Ventura YouTube it.
Potency? It’s Dangerous HIGH THC BEWARE!!!!!
That’s not changing and it’s saracasm. There is always a harder portion it comes in levels. Think about Alchol, 151 Bacardi or 5 o’clock vodka? You can abuse everything even cheeseburgers but you don’t see BK getting shut down. I can jam a fork in my eye, does that make that fork illegal?
You smoke too much, do you go home and beat your wife? No…. Do you go steal a car?? No! This is all black and white.
We are in prohibition for Marijuana…. what happened during prohibition of alcohol? Al Capone? V-Day massacre? Underground places? NASCAR? Alcohol poisoning went up 600% during prohibition
. Marijuana is a weed… It’s worth more gram for gram than gold.
We say keep it out of the hands of the kids? Well if the government regulated it and stopped allowing drug dealers to make 400K a year and fund wars. Wouldn’t this put the same regulation as alcohol? It’s easier to get marijuana than it is to get Alcohol.
But my rant is over… so think about it man. A few decades ago we saw this with alcohol….. History repeats itself. Enough said.