Where do you stand on legalization?

[d4l]

I was just wondering where everyone on adisc stood on the legalization(complete legalization not decriminalization) of illicit drugs in general. It seems that all the presidential candidates are being shifty about their views(not that i can blame them) so i wanted to see where everyone weighed in.

Anyways as much as i would like to see them legalized i don't think it will ever happen as i don't think the government will ever come out and willing admit to lying to the population for 30+years.

also i sort of wonder if anyone has a plausible way that they could be legalized?

If it were legalized should everyone in jail receive a pass?

Could you still be disqualified from a job for use?

So what does everyone think?

 

[mm3]

In my views, I think that if one wants to, then let them. I'd give an appropriate age limit though, somewhere from either 19-21.

But, that's coming from a hardcore hippie...

 

[Raccoon]

I am absolutely for legalization of cannabis. Market it and regulate it just like tobacco/alcohol. There should be a blood test (or breathalizer or some such) to allow for enforcing a ban on driving or operating heavy machinery while high.

Jails and courts are full of people convicted for multiple counts of possession of small amounts of marijuana. The cost of policing it alone is staggering.

The revenue from taxation alone would justify legalization. I could go on and on but there are better informed people than me who can speak to this... The Marijuana_Party_of_Canada - or as I call them, the "other" Green Party
http://www.marijuanaparty.ca/index.en.php3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijuana_Party_of_Canada

 

[Eclipse]

I am also all for legalization of Marijuana. I think legalization of painkillers like vicodin, and percocet should be legalized too. Other drugs I think should stay illegal, they are all way too dangerous to be avaliable on the market.
Marijauna could be sold in packs (like cigarettes) with low to medium qaulity product for a decent price. Of course taxed by the government to help pull us out of this major deficet. Also they should make indivdual bags of high qaulity for sale that is not rolled, so it can be used in a pipe or rolled personally. With this having a high price and higher tax because of the qaulity. The regulation for Marijuana should be made for 21 and older. The benefit of legalizing this would make EVERY gang loose ALOT of money.
The reason I would consider legalizing narcotic pain killers is because of their wide variety in medical benefit and overall safety when used as prescribed, all just like marijuana. It can make you feel better when sick, by releiving runny noses, sore throats, headaches, sinus pressure, allergies, diareaha, and of course releiving severe pain like broken bones and cancer. Plus not to mention it's great euphoria that comes with it.

 

[isaactheman]

im for the legalization of Cannibis too... lol its proven to be healthier than tobacco.it doesnt contain poisen,tar,nicotine,or other harmful chemicals. its all natural baby! lol but for reals they should because my dad drank alcohol and smoked marijuana but guess what killed him first?? thats right THE ALCOHOL! If anything alcohol and tobacco should be banned because marijuana is safer than both! although i dont recommend it for people who are jus fine without it, it should be available in stores rather than having connections where it could be laced with cocaine or sumthing worse! =-/

 

[d4l]

im for the legalization of Cannibis too... lol its proven to be healthier than tobacco.it doesnt contain poisen,tar,nicotine,or other harmful chemicals. its all natural baby! lol but for reals they should because my dad drank alcohol and smoked marijuana but guess what killed him first?? thats right THE ALCOHOL! If anything alcohol and tobacco should be banned because marijuana is safer than both!

Its does contain tar ,but thats true of any burning plant material. marijuana has been shown to actually slow the spread and growth of cancer where as tobacco has been shown to promote the growth/spread of cancer. http://www.webmd.com/lung-cancer/news/20070417/marijuana-may-fight-lung-tumors

although i dont recommend it for people who are jus fine without it, it should be available in stores rather than having connections where it could be laced with cocaine or sumthing worse! =-/

marijuana be laced with anything unless you specifically buy it is a myth. It's simple economics a person trying to make money isn't going to throw in substances that cost significantly more then the product your selling for nothing.(as much as anti-marijuana group like to have everyone believe)

Anyway as far as i believe we should make marijuana legal and taxed by the government. I also think that we should make some of the weaker opiates legal to buy over the counter (yeah they feel good but opiates have a nasty habit of hooking you fast)

 

[ayanna]

Anyway as far as i believe we should make marijuana legal and taxed by the government. I also think that we should make some of the weaker opiates legal to buy over the counter (yeah they feel good but opiates have a nasty habit of hooking you fast)

I'm all for making marijuana legal...it's already legal for people with a medical prescription for it, so why not everyone else? Like (I think it was) Raccoon said though have tests so people don't do stupid sh*t like drive while 'high'. Yes, it DOES impair your motor skills, contrary to what you might want to believe, and like alcohol, should be regulated.

As for other 'drugs', I don't think so. If you need them, the doctor will give you a prescription for them, otherwise, nuh-uh.

In Canada, anyway, you can buy codeine over the counter (in cough medications and in pain relievers) but it's definitely a smaller dose than what you'd get in a prescribed version of the same medication.

I take T1s (tylenol with codeine) occasionally. T3s are better. I have also been prescribed muscle relaxant with codeine (although I'm out at the moment).

As far as I know it (codeine) is the only narcotic you can buy 'over the counter' but it's in such a small dose you'd probably have to drink the whole bottle of cough syrup to get the effects and then you'd probably just vomit it all back up again 'cause it's sickeningly sweet (to cover the bitterness of the codeine)

So, yes to marijuana, even tho' I've never smoked it and never will, and no to other 'recreational pharmaceuticals'.

 

[PuddleFopsKit]

I also say yes to Cannabinoids. The governmet spends millions of dollars in an attempt to regulate it, (and failing miserably..) and prisons everywhere are getting loaded up with people who moke it. That just doesn't fly with me..

Fact is, the government could make a ton of money with cannabis, whether it be hemp to use in the manufacture of hats, ropes, and bags, or legalizing it due to it's medical benefits. The only probelm with the legalization of it, is that the govn. will do the same thing they did to Tobacco, and make it really bad for you. Most people don't know this, but growing your own Tobaco, is a very good idea, as it is much more natural and doesn't contain the wierd chemicals.

As far as other drugs, meth, cocaine, opiates- I have to say no. None of those have anyy significant medical benefit, and therefore should remain illegal since they are far too dangerous to use responsibly.

 

[Darkfinn]

IMHO... if people want to rot their brains out... let them...

What goes on in a person's private home shouldn't matter... as long as it isn't hurting anyone else.

Legalized drugs should be treated like alcohol. Don't get high and drive... don't be high in public... but if you want to smoke up or shoot up at home... noone should stop you.

 

[Charlie]

Well for the currently illegal drugs, leaving aside cannabis for the moment, I think they should definitely remain illegal. I'm not going to go through every drug and complain about them, but on the whole they are illegal for a reason.

Cannabis is a bit weird, but I think it should remain illegal (as a class C drug in the UK). It's a dangerous drug, and it's not really healthy for people to use often. The way it is now, you can get hold of the drug (fairly) easily, if you get caught with it there's no real consequence, but it's still illegal so you can't just do it anywhere. Seems to work pretty well.
You could argue that alcohol is as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than cannabis so maybe that should be illegal too. I think that both drugs can be used rightly and wrongly, but the thing is that alcohol kills a lot quicker (which is a good thing). I don't really care about people drinking themselves to death, because it doesn't cost me much (in taxes). Whereas cannabis can cause mental illness, which is harder to treat, and therefore more expensive to treat. It's probably fine in moderation, but people never get that so it's better if it's illegal.

Don't know anything about the American situation. But if you don't pay for other people's health care then I guess you wouldn't care about how people kill themselves.

 

[Chillhouse]

IMHO... if people want to rot their brains out... let them...

What goes on in a person's private home shouldn't matter... as long as it isn't hurting anyone else.

Legalized drugs should be treated like alcohol. Don't get high and drive... don't be high in public... but if you want to smoke up or shoot up at home... noone should stop you.

Exactly. Who is the government to tell people what they can and can't put into their bodies? Were even seeing things right now where trans fats are being banned from restaurants. Soon, if we keep heading up this path, we'll see real butter being banned.

 

[Mr Alex]

Some should be illegal, some should be illegal.

Think about it, dangerous ones, illegal, non dangerous legal. Makes sense to me, its your choice.

 

[g6s]

IMHO... if people want to rot their brains out... let them...

do you know any of the side effects of smoking? how about this: eating fatty foods kills more people every year than smoking... and cannibas is an immeasurably small portion of those killed. i can name a few famous people that openly smoked, and were intelligent (carl sagan anyone?)

please, stop coming on and telling us recreational users that we're "rotting our brains out." it's rude and unproductive.

 

[Charlie]

please, stop coming on and telling us recreational users that we're "rotting our brains out." it's rude and unproductive.

I think that it does hold some truth value.

Conclusion: Cannabis use moderately increases the risk of psychotic symptoms in young people but has a much stronger effect in those with evidence of predisposition for psychosis.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7481/11?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=1&author1=Henquet&andorexacttitle=and&andorexacttitleabs=and&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&volume=330&fdate=1/1/2002&tdate=3/31/2006&resourcetype=HWCIT

A 2007 study of studies published in the Lancet concluded that cannabis users are 40% more likely to be sufferers of a psychotic illness than non-users

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6917003.stm

Maybe "rotting your brain out" is a bit too strong, but there's definitely reason to think that using cannabis often can cause problems with the mind.

Although with that said, alcohol used often can cause just as many problems. But still, I really recommend that drugs should be used in moderation (if at all, obviously!). Especially if you have existing mental disorders, or have traits of them, or have a family history of mental illness. :stopsign:


I might as well mention the argument that legalising cannabis would make so much money through taxes that it would be worth doing so... I think that if legalising it was good idea financially then it would be legal. I mean come on, the government are always wanting to make money aren't they? If it was worth legalising it would be legal, in my opinion.

 

[g6s]

your first article points out this in the objective: To investigate the relation between cannabis use and psychotic symptoms in individuals with above average predisposition for psychosis who first used cannabis during adolescence.

your second article spends the later half giving evidence that offers different opinions about the study. it isn't entirely a credible source. you might as well quote wikipedia and tell me what it says is true.

i'm not saying there aren't negative effects; i'm tired of people telling me how bad things are for me, when they themselves don't have a clue as to why they're saying it.

show me real evidence that recreational use of marijuana is bad, or cut the "it's bad and yucky" crap out of your posts.

 

[Eclipse]

I think that it does hold some truth value.


http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7481/11?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=1&author1=Henquet&andorexacttitle=and&andorexacttitleabs=and&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&volume=330&fdate=1/1/2002&tdate=3/31/2006&resourcetype=HWCIT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6917003.stm

Maybe "rotting your brain out" is a bit too strong, but there's definitely reason to think that using cannabis often can cause problems with the mind.

Although with that said, alcohol used often can cause just as many problems. But still, I really recommend that drugs should be used in moderation (if at all, obviously!). Especially if you have existing mental disorders, or have traits of them, or have a family history of mental illness. :stopsign:


I might as well mention the argument that legalising cannabis would make so much money through taxes that it would be worth doing so... I think that if legalising it was good idea financially then it would be legal. I mean come on, the government are always wanting to make money aren't they? If it was worth legalising it would be legal, in my opinion.

This is going to be fun....

Okay all the first link proved that you showed is people with history of psychosis have a way greater chance of expeirancing psychosis compared to people who have no expeiranced psychosis...so how does that make it dangerous? do you even know what psychosis is? I would like to hear your own definition without looking it up.
Now on the second article it is a tiny bit more promising in showing dangers of canabis. Okay so canabis can possibly cause psychosis, I am aware of this. Do you know what this chance is? I know it is less than 1% of smokers gain psychosis from it, less than a half percent even. I have seen this statistic somewhere. So here are some articles I will pull out of my secret stash to prove it is not bad for your brain, but possibly good for it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4286435.stm
We do not even have a cure for that disease yet and very few medicines to help with it, which do not do much help. While on the other hand marijuana has been proven to significantly delay or prevent this disease.
Even more so I am going to shatter the most common bad myth about marijuana, that it is worse than ciggarettes to your lungs. ,<-----completly false
http://www.webmd.com/news/20000508/marijuana-unlikely-to-cause-cancer
That is from John Hopkins a WORLD FAMOUS hospital in which people come all over the world to get treatment from. The reason marijauana is safer than tobbacco smoke is because it only contains ONE carcinogen(chemical that can cause cancer) but ciggarettes contain SIXTY NINE cacinogens!!!! Although it is true marijuana usually does have more tar, but that does not make it more dangerous. It has been found there are chemicals in marijuana to event prevent cancer by promoting cell deteriation so it falls off an dies instead of staying attached and turning cancerous and cloning itself a million times over.

Please someone try to knock down marijauna as a negative thing again, and I will prove that it is not all over again. I wrote a paper on it for English, studied it for own self interest, and have had many many many years of expeirance to say the least.

The government tells all lies, because they want you to be SOOOO AFRAID of it they want you to not even want to try it once. Why do they not want people to smoke this? I am not really too sure. I think they are just afraid of people figuring it out its potential and wanting to explore other things. Plus the government has been telling these lies about it for like century now!!! They do not want to go back on it and admit they were wrong.

 

[CarKid]

Eh ohnestly this is kind of a touchy subject. I don't know what to say on this. In my high school days I smoked a ton of weed and helped alot of people get it also. Ohnestly you can smoke enough that it will mess up your memory. I have to admit, my short term memory sucks now from all of the partying that I did in highschool. But keep in mind that wasn't just smoking. If you are for legalizing weed, keep in mind that weed is a gateway drug. You will start with pot and then move on to other stuff. You can argue this is not true but look at all the crack, cocain, heroin etc.. addicts that started just my smoking some weed. So honestly, my opinion is that it should not be legalized as of now. I believe that it will just lead to other problems and where do you draw the line. If you legalize pot, should you legalize opium, heroin, crack, cocain, acid? Where do you draw the line. Well that is my opinion on this matter.

 

[d4l]

Eh ohnestly this is kind of a touchy subject. I don't know what to say on this. In my high school days I smoked a ton of weed and helped alot of people get it also. Ohnestly you can smoke enough that it will mess up your memory. I have to admit, my short term memory sucks now from all of the partying that I did in highschool. But keep in mind that wasn't just smoking. If you are for legalizing weed, keep in mind that weed is a gateway drug. You will start with pot and then move on to other stuff. You can argue this is not true but look at all the crack, cocain, heroin etc.. addicts that started just my smoking some weed. So honestly, my opinion is that it should not be legalized as of now. I believe that it will just lead to other problems and where do you draw the line. If you legalize pot, should you legalize opium, heroin, crack, cocain, acid? Where do you draw the line. Well that is my opinion on this matter.

While weed may put you near harder drugs it has no bearing on whether you do them or not. if you want to do them then your going to regardless.

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/study-say-marijuana-no-gateway-drug-12116.html

 

[Sawaa]

While it may be fair to claim that "Well, some people are prescribed pot, so shouldn't it be legal for all?", the case is also true with amphetamines like dexamphetamine for kiddies with ADD. Sure, it's legal for them; does that mean by the same logic it ought to be legal for everybody?

 

[Eclipse]

While it may be fair to claim that "Well, some people are prescribed pot, so shouldn't it be legal for all?", the case is also true with amphetamines like dexamphetamine for kiddies with ADD. Sure, it's legal for them; does that mean by the same logic it ought to be legal for everybody?

Amphetimines should not be even prescribed in my opinion. Specially not for ADD or ADHD because amphetamine is EXTREMELY dangerous. It is the weaker brother of ICE/Crystal Meth(methamphetamine), just in a pill form, passed by the government. Here is all the negative effects of amphetamines...

increased aggressiveness
paranoia
dry mouth
headache
increased heart rate (tachycardia)
increased breathing rate
increased blood pressure
rise in body temperature
fever and sweating
diarrhea or constipation
blurred vision
impaired speech
dizziness
uncontrollable movements (twitching, jerking, tremors, etc...)
insomnia
numbness
irregular heartbeat (palpitations, arrhythmia)
impotence / inability to achieve erection in men (high dose or chronic use)
convulsions (high dose)
dry, itchy skin (chronic use)
acne, sores (chronic use)
pallor (high dose or chronic use)
psychotic episodes (rare except in overdoses or after chronic use)

These were side effects for adderally also known as dextroamphetamine, which is what is found in your speed pill from the street, and also commonly found in more than a 3rd of ecstacy pills on the street. Adderall has also killed kids from heart failure/attack in adolesence and preteen ages, which happened when it was being taken as prescribed!
That sounds like no fun at all, legal or not. Plus they have different alternatives for ADD/ADHD medicine now instead of prescribing the deadly and addictive adderall and ritilian. There is a new drug called Vyvanse, check it out, it is an amphetmine too, but much safer.