Why isn't Marijuana legal?

[nixium]

I'm in Amsterdam, I'm pretty impressed with the way they handle it here. Each shop has strict limits and are extremely professional. It's been working for them for several years and the city hasn't burned to the ground.

So, just wondering. Is there a *good* reason why it isn't legal?

 

[Tab]

Originally posted by: nixium
I'm in Amsterdam, I'm pretty impressed with the way they handle it here. Each shop has strict limits and are extremely professional. It's been working for them for several years and the city hasn't burned to the ground.

So, just wondering. Is there a *good* reason why it isn't legal?

No, there isn't.

 

[Slick5150]

Because the prescription drug companies don't want it to be.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: nixium
I'm in Amsterdam, I'm pretty impressed with the way they handle it here. Each shop has strict limits and are extremely professional. It's been working for them for several years and the city hasn't burned to the ground.

So, just wondering. Is there a *good* reason why it isn't legal?

Good is in the eye of the beholder.

Some reasons:

- Cultural - many Americans are just against it. It's a 'split' issue like abortion.

- Left-wing conspiratial reason: big pharma doesn't want competition for their feel good drugs that can be grown for free by people.

- Gateway drug: the theory that people who learn to use a substance for mood alteration are more likely to try additional substances.

- Harms: increased use could be an additional increase in DUI, it causes cancer and some other side effects

- Left-wing conspiratorial reason: the law enforcement and prison industry special interests who receive billions from the government for the war on drugs against it

Do I need to list the reasons for it, from the 'freedom' issue to the billions saved in direct costs and indrect where those criminals would otherwise be taxpayers, to crime reduction?

 

[Thump553]

$$$. Too many police, prosecutors, counselors, politicians, etc. make their living off it being illegal. Plus the US has a very strong Calvinist tradition.

 

[Rainsford]

Because the people have been so conditioned to believe it's evil that any politician who strongly advocated legalizing it would be stoned to death by hordes of irate voters.

 

[bdude]

Originally posted by: Thump553
$$$. Too many police, prosecutors, counselors, politicians, etc. make their living off it being illegal. Plus the US has a very strong Calvinist tradition.

Unless its booze and ciggies.

 

[Stunt]

Because illegal drug producers are not incorporated to lobby government to modify laws.

 

[trance247]

I am voting yes on 2 in MA! 🙂 They will collect some much money in fines, watch city roads paved in gold! 🙂

 

[nageov3t]

racism

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: trance247
I am voting yes on 2 in MA! 🙂 They will collect some much money in fines, watch city roads paved in gold! 🙂

What is Number 2 in Boston?

Automatic seizure if caught with MJ?

 

[OCGuy]

Id like to know how many places Marijuana is actually legal, other than in small quantities in Dutch shops.

Why pick on the US?

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Id like to know how many places Marijuana is actually legal, other than in small quantities in Dutch shops.

Why pick on the US?

You righties are so defensive. It's not unfair to the US, he wasn't singling the US out for attack, the US is our country to set policy for, so he asks about the issue here.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Id like to know how many places Marijuana is actually legal, other than in small quantities in Dutch shops.

Why pick on the US?

Legality of cannabis



Topic: Why isn't Marijuana legal?

Because some of us are very proficient at growing really good stuff that would command premium prices on an open market.

😀

 

[chess9]

Because you will get emphysema, heart disease, possibly diabetes, and cancer. By the age of 50 you will be sucking down 5 lpm of supplemental oxygen and will be facing probable death before the age of 70.

Should we also pay for you to eat 10 double Macs a day so you can weigh 400 pounds and look like a Sumo wrestler? Maybe you should be able to drive 200 mph on your Suzuki down the San Bernardino Freeway?

Just say no to drugs.

-Robert

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: bdude

Originally posted by: Thump553
$$$. Too many police, prosecutors, counselors, politicians, etc. make their living off it being illegal. Plus the US has a very strong Calvinist tradition.

Unless its booze and ciggies.

Southern Baptists will always vote against alcohol, so long as they're able to stagger to the polls in the morning.

 

[Eeezee]

There's no single good reason. There are a few mediocre cons that are easily counteract by a few mediocre pros.

I think we should at least end the war on drugs. That's just a waste of money. Furthermore, it's a waste of money to lock up pot smokers in our prisons. Even if you don't want it to be legal, it should at least be decriminalized.

 

[fskimospy]

It all started out in a burst of nativisim/racism around the turn of the century. Before that time pretty much all drugs were legal.

Right around the turn of the century racism against 'the chinaman' caused opium to be banned.

Next it was negro cocaine fiends.

Finally it was marijuana from the dirty Mexicans and the reefer madness it provoked.

If you look at the history of drug prohibition, particularly in the first half of the 20th century, you will see a heavy duty linkage between racist and nativist tendencies that fueled a public hysteria about one negative reference group or another and the effects that their drug of choice would have on our society.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: chess9
Because you will get emphysema, heart disease, possibly diabetes, and cancer. By the age of 50 you will be sucking down 5 lpm of supplemental oxygen and will be facing probable death before the age of 70.

-Robert

Can you prove any of this?

 

[Kadarin]

Circular reasoning: It's illegal because it's "bad", and it's "bad" because it's illegal. That and it's generally political suicide for a politician to come out in favor of decriminalizing it.

 

[Farang]

A good documentary to watch on this subject is Grass. It says that initially marijuana was outlawed in towns in the Southwest as a means to persecute Mexicans. When the fight against heroin and other illicit drugs began, Harry Anslinger, our nation's first drug czar, was having a hard time making any impact on the smuggling of drugs into the country. At first marijuana was not the prime target, but because he was more successful in confiscating it, he made it a point to have big headlines for every marijuana bust and promoted it as the worst drug to make it seem as if his campaign was successful. This is when you get the ridiculous propaganda films of how it makes you murder people, go insane, etc. Over the years the reasons why it is so bad has slowly evolved from that into what we see now--that it basically just makes you lazy and unmotivated.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Rainsford
Because the people have been so conditioned to believe it's evil that any politician who strongly advocated legalizing it would be stoned to death by hordes of irate voters.

Nah, Ron Paul is still alive. 😀

 

[Vic]

It contradicts with the Protestant work ethic.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: nixium
I'm in Amsterdam, I'm pretty impressed with the way they handle it here. Each shop has strict limits and are extremely professional. It's been working for them for several years and the city hasn't burned to the ground.

So, just wondering. Is there a *good* reason why it isn't legal?

Many Americans have been indoctrinated with an anti-American communist-like ideology which holds that individuals are the property of the government and that thus it's acceptable for the government to tell individuals what to do with their own bodies "for the good of society". The same goes for prostitution and suicide as well.

In other words--a great many Americans are, in actuality, anti-American, stupid, ignorant, and in some cases even evil--and that's why certain individual rights such as marijuana, suicide, and prostitution are illegal in America.

 

[chess9]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: chess9
Because you will get emphysema, heart disease, possibly diabetes, and cancer. By the age of 50 you will be sucking down 5 lpm of supplemental oxygen and will be facing probable death before the age of 70.

-Robert

Can you prove any of this?

I can't prove a thing, but quite a few researchers have provided significant evidence of emphysema alone. It should be noted that those who smoke MJ inhale much more deeply than cigarette smokers, and they get signs of emphysema 20 years earlier than cigarette smokers.

"Marijuana is inhaled as extremely hot fumes to the peak inspiration and held for as long as possible before slow exhalation. This predisposes to greater damage to the lungs and makes marijuana smokers are more prone to bullous disease as compared to cigarette smokers."

Patients who smoke marijuana inhale more and hold their breath four times longer than cigarette smokers. It is the breathing manoeuvres of marijuana smokers that serve to increase the concentration and pulmonary deposition of inhaled particulate matter ? resulting in greater and more rapid lung destruction."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/re...08/01/080123104017.htm

And this from WebMD:

"In our clinic we have encountered several young marijuana smokers with no history of tobacco smoking or other significant risk factors who were diagnosed with lung cancer or other ... cancers. It's certainly reasonable to suspect there could be an association with the development of emphysema." Though more study is needed, he says, "for the recreational user with a full life expectancy, the potentially harmful effects of marijuana smoking are a legitimate concern."

http://www.webmd.com/news/2000...ar-marijuana-emphysema

These same, or similar, concerns were expressed about cigarette smoking in the 1950's and 1960's, but they were poo-pooed by people who knew much better, like tobacco farmers, cigarette smokers, and advertisers/manufacturers.

Lots of people are in the line to Darwin's Waiting Room.

-Robert