New York Times Editorial: Repeal the Ban on Marijuana!

[OverVolt]

Its only a gateway drug because you have to get it from a drug dealer...

 

[DucatiMonster696]

Won't happen there are soooo much money to be made by private prisons for drug offences.

If you don't think there are public government forces at work who aren't equally vested in the continued criminalization of Marijuana you are a fool.

 

[RandomWords]

Meh. Marijuana's role as a so-called gateway drug has always been contextual & highly exaggerated. It's because dope dealers sell whatever kind of dope they can & because people like to get high. If you go to Willie to score & he's out of pot but has other stuff, you just may try it. You already know that the govt is lying about marijuana, so the tendency to discount their message about other drugs will be strong. That was exacerbated years ago when pot supplies would dry up from time to time, at least locally. Now, when you go to the pot shop, they have pot of several varieties, along with extracts like hash, BHO & even edibles. No cocaine. no qualuuds, no hillbilly heroin, no meth. In that context, it's no more a gateway than going to the liquor store. Long term brain & lung damage? PUh-leeze. That boogeyman can't even stand up w/o being held up by ignorance & fear. There is no fatal dose for cannabis. It can't kill you, unlike alcohol & nicotine which def can. Marijuana is easily the least harmful of all widely used intoxicants. For the vast majority of people, being arrested is the most harmful possible outcome of its use. Food stamps & welfare? Gawd. Small time dealers are already on food stamps & welfare if they qualify, which of course they do having no real job per se. Sheesh.

This - the only time that marijuana actually hurts someone more than cigarettes or alcohol is when it is laced with something - all the more important to legalize it and have some unlaced marijuana being distributed.

Besides - it isn't marijuana itself that is just illegal but the whole plant - and there are a lot of benefits this plant brings.

There is no slippery slope or gateway drug - those are just things made up to scare those who might try something illegal but not if there are ghosts under the bed... it's a way to sway a vote against it without any actual scientific proof.