I would definitely support legalization as long as its regulated properly. Even though I haven't touched it in about 9 years I prefer it over alcohol. It should be taxed heavily but I think cigarettes should be taxed the heaviest out of the 3.

Also, if it does get legalized I see some companies making monthly drug testing mandatory.

Anything (read: religion, games, sleep, sex, water, oxygen) is bad for you if used improperly. Cannabis is one of the least toxic plants in the world, yet it is criminalized almost as hard as coke. Nobody in all of recorded human history has ever died directly from using marijuana. For this reason alone you can counter each and every anti-legalization argument in existence, without even talking about its benefits to the economy, industry, medicine, etc..

Just because something is bad for or dangerous to you doesn't give the government the right to make a law against it. If this law passes, I'm taking a vacation to California with some friends to celebrate, we're all saved up and ready. Just waiting for the suits to sign the right lines.



This. 100 times. This.

That's a really immature statement considering the type of society we live in.

Hay there going to make us have insurance to so what does it F*CKING matter.

If you're having that much smoke, or hell any, you need to turn down the temp quite a bit, but make MINOR adjustments. Keep lowering it until you see a very light mist of smoke(almost invisible). You'll find yourself a lot higher. A vaporizer should have no smoke because it is not supposed to burn the weed(wich is why some people re-sell some of whats left to morons), just vaporize the THC.

Actually I think with how high of a percentage of the population actually smokes(You would be VERY supprised to find out how many of the people you know injest the stuff in some way.) The best idea would be to lightly tax it. If you highly tax it a lot of people would just quit smoking the shit and they would lose money. I mean quitting marijuana does cause withdrawls but it's not deadly as opposed to Meth and Heroin. The only withdrawls there are loss of appetite wich causes the rest of the withdrawls(neasia and white spots in vision.) It's kinda like driving versus the bus. The higher the price goes, the more you find people using public transportation to save money. If they have a lower tax on the stuff more people will end up buying it. Considering these days on the street you can get a quarter ounce(8 grams) for 80 dollars. But if you have a medical marijuana license you can purchase it through other legal growers and carriers for a minimum of $100 a quarter. If you tax it to much you are just gonna find yourself having the same problems as you do currently with people elegally purchasing it through street dealers. I think the laws should stay the same, accept instead of getting a Medical Card through your state and still being able to get in trouble federaly, they should make the cards legal country wide, so you dont find yourself answering the door to federal agents. Legalizing marijuana will definately help our country's debt and it is probably our countrys best chance at getting out of debt to be honest. Because like I said you would be amazed to find out how many people actually injest it daily. I have my medical card because of an injury I sufferd on March 26th of last year, and when I go to my caregivers house to pick stuff up it is very nerve wracking because I find myself walking into his house on a regular basis and seeing a police officer in uniform purchasing his own supply.

not true.[/quote]


And State what type of daily activities are healthy these days? The fat in your food makes you fat. wich can kill you.
The air you breath is so heavily poluted in some cities it is unhealthy for you to go outside for days at a time.
Kissing that girl you've always been so fond of can kill you VERY slowly and painfully.
Going to the grocery store can be deadly for more reasons than the obvious(driving can get you in a car wreck, walking into the store can get you hit, you could trip in a pot hole break you ankle and get an infection that will kill you, getting hit by a random metiorite) Those are the obvious reasons. You even think of the transferable diseases that are possibly on the fresh fruit your buying ?

So with all that aside, how does marijuana kill you ? It kills brain cells? Well as long as the laws are set right it should do so much more good for the community than bad. I mean I know people have gotten in car wrecks and died because they were to slow to get to the brake pedal, but that happens hundreds of times daily due to the trafic signs your supposed to pay attention to. But if you're smoking that much of the shit then you are abusing it and you most likely don't need it. But what about the people like me and that guys dad that survived for most likely a year or more extra? It can either help your life and make it a lot more enjoyable because of pain you may be suffering. Or it could extend it even. This is one subject that is a lose, lose situation when you are fighting about weather it's good or not. But no matter what type of fight someone has against it, it WILL do great things for your neighborhood, city, State and country. A lot more good than bad. And if our government and %100 of the members of our society ACTUALLY understood that, there would be no fight and it would be legalized imediatly. Then our country would slowly but surely be out of the massive debt it has dug itself into.

I don't see how its immature, care to explain? By "type of society we live in" I hope you don't mean "free"

Yea the biggest problem would be trying to eliminate the illegal pot considering it's a multi-billion dollar business in America. The increase crackdown on illegal pot would definitely offset quite a bit of the profits from the legal pot. I don't think the drug dealers would go away quietly either, especially that billionaire drug trafficker that made the Forbes list of richest people in the world. It would definitely be hard to tax the legal stuff in a way to challenge the price of illegal pot. The only solution I can think of is if the legal stuff is a lot more potent :D


Found an interesting article:

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/64465/

If weed gets legalized, it WON'T BE A MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR business for the cartels anymore. The supply will go through the roof and buying/selling pot won't be as much of an interest to them, it would even put many of the "smaller" ones out of business or force them to move to other things. The best way to kill a black market is to kill the profit by making whatever product legal again. Black Markets are created by politicians making something illegal, and die when its made legal again. Remember alcohol prohibition? Sure there will still be untaxed, unregulated "illegal" weed on the streets for a few months, maybe even a couple years. But think how much money we'd save. Jobs we'd create. Think how much money they'd LOSE. That's the whole point. We wouldn't need to increase crackdown on illegal pot, just go our own way with legal pot and the illegal shit will albeit disappear with a little time. Drug cartels won't disappear, no shit, especially the bigger ones. They'll just move on to heavier shit, and we'll have that much more money to fight their smuggling. Its win-win-win.

TL;DR version:
If the shit was legal and you could easily grow your own or buy it at a smoke shop, would you even bother buying from your dealer anymore? I wouldn't. Even if taxes makes it a little more expensive.

[edit]

^ from your own article.

This might be a little off-topic, but the "War on Drugs" has made (just for an example) Heroin 600x cheaper than it was in the 70s, and easier to get than a pack of cigarettes - dealers don't give a F*CK if you're 18 or not. Laws against drugs are "feel good" laws, and nothing more.

looks like all the weed dealers would just have to upgrade to crack

BUt the thing is, IF it is legalized, it doesn't mean that it's going to be completely legal. You're not just going to be able to go buy the stuff just because you are 18. I'm not quite posotive on what the guidelines will be because I haven't looked into it at all. But from the things I am hearing it's going to have the same rules and regulations as it does now(for the people that have a medical license to smoke it I mean.) The legalizing of it is just going to make it a prescribable drug. Like I said i'm not sure if i'm correct, but you will still need a license/prescription to legally purchase it. Wich is the reason illegal drug dealers will still be around for a long time. They will proceed to fight the system as long as there are restrictions to the legalities of it. It will definately make buisiness much harder for them. But these days even people with state issued medical cards do not buy the stuff in a legal fasion. They still go to the illegal dealers instead of caregivers. Because it is much cheaper. Because they know that as soon as they are away from the person they purchased it from, they can not get in any trouble. The only risk they take is the second they make the transaction.

And about the difference between goverment grown and street grown. There is no difference. You can find just as good of stuff that is illegally grown. It's just not as much of a guarantee. But if your supplyer has been growing for years then he has had the time to perfect the process. In those cases the stuff can be even better than government grown.

Very true. Oregon is amazing like that! But I think the whole not passing Legal Marijuana just because gay marriage didn't pass shouldn't mean anything. I mean there are a lot more religious aspect to gay marriage. For some reason a lot more people have a problem with gays in our community. Wich I don't understand. If you let them get married they're a lot less likely to be making moves on you lol. Seems like it would help the community and there would be less assault charges haha.

From What I gather, it seems like it will be regulated a lot like alcohol.

http://www.taxcannabis.org/index.php/pages/initiative/

I don't believe the government has the right to regulate what you put into your body. But hey... There are a lot of thing I don't agree with.

hehe, seriously though-- why wouldnt there be the equivalent of a Sommelier for weed? I for one would pay a premium for GREAT weed that's consistently great. I CANT STAND buying or trying weed that's dry or harsh. It's a waste.

These guys could open their own legal weed shops and charge a premium in exchange for their expert opinion and their knowledge of an individual's tastes. They'd be at a "head" start over non-dealer business owners because they already have a huge client list.

Since the type of society we live in has a good amount of idiots in it that cant think for them selves we need government to tell us whats best for everyone and we should just do as they say. TOTAL BULLSHIT

Sorry but you're wrong Vision I'd rather be free to injest whatever substance i wish as long as it doesnt affect anyone else. Im ok with puting a warning on it just like booze and ciggs but to outlaw a naturally occurring plant that has more uses than you can shake a stick at is bullshit. Sometimes I feel as if you're a statist and wish the government had even more control over our lives.

Dont forget a reason to have a MUCH BIGGER police force / Prison system than we actually need.

I don't see why the gov'ment is against it really.

A)It gives them a change to tax something else that will MOST DEFINITELY SELL.
B)Some crisis' will more than likely be avoided if someone just smokes a fat J.
C)Pot isn't really the cause of any major catastrophic events.

I'm like Gman. I've seen first hand what drugs can do to people. Unfortunately, both ends of the spectrum. What he says about his dad, good man btw, is true. Every word. I've never seen pot do a bit of evil in my life.

Other drugs on the other hand, I have. So I'm all for pot legalization. If it keeps folks off of the harder stuff hey, get you some. Also, the fact that pot can actually help in the medical sense should be investigated and researched throughly. All these pills and shit they always stuff people full of is bullshit. Let a fool smoke some green and he'll be alright....depending on the person I s'pose.

Also, the snack industry would F*CKING sky rocket....so pot MIGHT make America even fatter....why knows?!

:D

I remember they have something like that somewhere in Europe its basically a coffee shop for weed