you are given rights, otherwise what you do would mostly be illegal. And I'm a Texan living in New York City. If the people of California had voted for this I wouldn't have had any problems with it either. But I would've enjoyed seein the Federal Government squeezing the genie back into the bottle.
For the record, I rarely drink and I've smoked twice in my life. I don't mind people doing these things but I would never advocate people doing them. They're just not good. If it was up to me, all the people that drank alcohol and smoked and did other things that were knowingly bad for their health would be forced to pay for their health bills out of pocket. No subsidy in any form (because the general public and government would be subsidizing their medical bills). If you are an adult of legal age you should know better. If you decide to continue destroying your body anyway, no one should help you. No compassion for the stupid.
Well, now I'm confounded because at least you appear to be consistent.
For the record, I am not advocating that people smoke just because I want it legalized. There is a distinct difference. I have always preached that the key to drug use prevention is education. That encompasses all drugs - legal, illegal and prescription alike.
I want it legalized because the needless torment of our own citizens needs to stop. I want it legalized because I believe it is my right as a human being to be able to ingest what I want to ingest, whether that be coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, LSD, marijuana, mushrooms, etc. I want it legalized because I see money being wasted on a failed a attempt at enforcement when instead we could be making money off of taxation, and nothing would change - except the fact that we aren't spending money prosecuting people for a victimless crime. Again - those that want to smoke marijuana are going to. Just like the people that want to drink alcohol are going to. I don't like alcohol, but I don't think people should be prohibited from drinking it.
I completely agree with you that people who destroy themselves should have to pay for their health care out of their own pockets.
There's one big problem with that viewpoint when it comes to marijuana, though - marijuana does not, and can not kill you. You can't say the same for alcohol. You can't even say the same for Tylenol.
This post is the most intelligent, thought provoking paragraph you've provided in the entire thread. I think we're starting to get somewhere now.
Do you realize that there are many scientists that believe that the desire to alter our state of consciousness is part of our evolution? Humans have been doing it since the beginning of our timeline. There is a reason generally lawful people(like myself) blatantly ignore such laws, laws that seem to go against the very foundation of what makes us human.
Again, the key to preventing people from wanting to do drugs is education. True education, not lies, like DARE. What happens when kids grow up and they realize that they've been lied to? They try things. Or worse, they don't realize it and continue to bleat the same lies over and over.
Again, I have never tried a hard drug like cocaine, meth or heroin and I never will. Why? Because I don't want to. I know how bad they are.
That's what you're missing here. Someone who smokes marijuana is not a loser by default, just like someone who drinks alcohol or smokes cigarettes is not a loser by default. They're just people, suffering from the human condition.
*shrug*