should pot be legalized for recreational use?

That's a big HELL YES.

One of the dumbest laws in human history.

I agree with everything you said. If I wasn't so tired right now, I'd write a long essay on the subject.

 

I don't know if it's true or not but they keep saying how quickly weed depletes the brain mass. A pot user of 20 years will have a depleted brain and forget things etc... I guess that's why they say smoking weed makes you feel stupid. However, I don't think alcohol does as much harm to the brain as weed does. Alcohol kills your liver and kidneys though.

I don't know...which is worse? Who knows.

Weed is no biggie...it kills your judgment and makes you paranoid but the high isn't all THAT high. it sure doesn't make you fall on your ass like alcohol.

Who cares about it though? Try both of them...and then move on. You gotta try everything at least once I did...way back in high school.

Another thing...why do so many people drink??? anything with alcohol in it (except Smirnoff ice and the like) tastes horrible. Same goes with cigarrettes...

 

u get hangover from drinking too much alcohol but u will only pass out from smoking too much weed . so if one is going to abuse alcohol there is much more painful consequnces , the headaches , the dizziness n feeling really sick to keep the person from abuse it again! but with weed there is almost nothing to stop a person to abuse it , its too dangerous to be leagalize .

 

Legalize it - then I could smoke my booze.....

 

You mean like Woody Harrelson and other Hollywood potheads?

Well, first of all, if I had my way I'd make alcohol illegal too, but I realize that will never happen. So, I'm not some alcoholic saying mar1juana should be illegal. Now, Legalizing mar1juana simply because it's "no worse than alcohol "isn't much of a reason at all. I agree that is probably true, but that doesn't really do much to persuade non-stoners like myself. While mar1juana may not produce health problems, it still has similar effects to alcohol as far as slowing reaction time, impairing judgement, etc. These are things that could result in harm to other people. I don't really care too much about harm done to the users themselves; after all, they're the one's who made the choice.

Also, I know from personal experiences with an ex-friend of mine that mar1juana <i>is</i> a gateway drug. Just because some of you know people or are people who smoke mar1juana, remain productive, and never try to get a bigger high, doesn't mean that is always the case. I believe mar1juana is not a good thing, end of story! So, obviously my views are going to be different from someone who thinks pot is completely harmless.

However, a good way to persuade non-stoners, such as myself, would be to tell me how much taxes it could save, and come up with a clearly defined plan of what the surplus of tax money would be used for, and let the people decide if abandoning the patrol of mar1juana would be worth it. That is the <i>only</i> way you could persuade me, and for me it won't be easy, because I actually believe the war against drugs is a noble cause, even if it is undeniably difficult.

Lastly, I hate how mar1juana stinks. I never want to smell it when I'm in a building or even when I'm walking down a public street. The only way I'd agree to it is if people were only allowed to smoke in their own backyards.

 

Pot doesn't kill people. People on pot kill people.
Make people on pot illegal.

 

honestly...i have no idea...i don't have any experience with it other than the experiences of friends...i'm tempted to say, "yes", though.

 

Now may not be the right time to legalize pot for the unwashed masses. Now is the right time to legalize it for medical uses. The majority of US voters also support this compassionate use of pot. Between the Democrats and those crazy "Cassionate Conservative" Republicans, there should be enough votes in the Congress to get the job done.

 

Interesting op-ed in the National Review of all places:

Fight Bombs, Not Bongs
Misuse of resources.
http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock030403.asp

Some excerpts:

And his muscle matched his volume. On the very day that New York state officials announced that they would dispatch 113 vans to detect and combat chemical and biological weapons, Washington arranged a massive attack on this harrowing menace.

"Including federal, state and local officials, our estimate is about 1,200 were involved, just on that day," Drug Enforcement Agency spokesman Will Glaspy says by phone. Among them, "easily hundreds" of U.S. agents were deployed "about 103 U.S. Marshals alone," Justice spokesman Drew Wade adds. "It was just exhaustive." The Feds responsible include prosecutors in eleven U.S. attorneys' offices from southern California to western Pennsylvania. Rather than guard America's docks and porous borders from the next Mohamed Atta, Customs and Immigration and Naturalization Service personnel joined the anti-pipe posse.

This federal overreach featured an unhealthy dose of rhetorical overkill. "People selling drug paraphernalia," said acting DEA chief John Brown, "are as much a part of drug trafficking as silencers are a part of criminal homicide." Yes, and wineglass makers cause drunk-driving deaths.

This is futile and foolish.

"There is no evidence that these laws have any impact on reducing drug use whatsoever," said Drug Policy Alliance founder Ethan Nadelmann. Household products, such as empty toilet paper rolls and foil, can serve as crude mar1juana pipes. Unless Aschroft eradicates Charmin and Reynolds Wrap, people who choose to smoke mar1juana will do so. Also, they simply could visit tobacconists and buy pipes like the one Sherlock Holmes puffed, perhaps inspiring intense laugh attacks.

Drug warriors must recognize that some eleven million American adults enjoy getting high at least annually — to relax and endure these nerve-wracking times. Some brave this endless winter, the drooping Dow, the Columbia disaster, the Rhode Island nightclub inferno, and growing war jitters by sipping martinis. Others play Lotto or visit Vegas. Still more sleep around. In excess, these behaviors can ruin one's health, fortunes, or both. Yet only smoking grass yields jail time. This is silly, illogical, and wicked.

Adults who use drug paraphernalia while handling automobiles or wrecking balls deserve punishment. Minors should steer clear of the stuff until adulthood. That aside, mood enhancement should be none of government's business.

— Mr. Murdock is a columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a contributing editor to National Review.

 

Here’s a little advice ( take it or leave it ) to our younger members from someone who has tried almost everything.

I have been able to watch a couple of my friends that have grown up with over the years and they have been smoking pot for about 20 years now. ( They can remember anything !!!!!! and they have a habit of repeating things they say because they cant remember if they told me already !!!!! ) Sometimes I don’t even have the heart to correct them.

The difference between alcohol and pot is, there are many stages for drinking. You can have a little buzz ( a couple of beers ) all the way to piss a$$ drunk. ( not good )

But with pot, being stoned is being stoned. ( no difference, until you come down )

Now don’t get me wrong, I think they are both bad and must be used in moderation. But, I would much rather have a couple of drinks then smoke a joint.

Try this little experiment. Without doing anything yourself, watch a group of you friends have a couple of drinks and have an intelligent conversation, Then another time watch the same ones
get stoned and try the same conversation. ( big difference, everybody has a hard time being on the same page)

Well, enough rambling for now. I apologize in advance for my poor grammar,

Samurai.

 

Alcohol is more of a gateway drug than anything else, most teens start by drinking, then move on to other things... shoot, underage drinkers account for one-fifth of U.S. alcohol consumption

 

Just out of curiosity and to find out if I am in the minority or majority, who on here has and has not smoked mar1juana?

 

Never smoked it.

 

Drunk people speak very well, especially when they're yelling and spitting all over you. I have to respectfully disagree with this, I have heard some pretty outward thinking discussisons between people who are stoned sometimes very far out discussions, usually drunkin discussions end in yelling, arguments, and to the extreme fights.

 

I've never touched the stuff, but I say legalize it.

Tax the stuff and pay off the national debt. Not to mention the money/jail space we would save on enforcing the dope charges.

 

Never done it.

Don't legalize it. Why now try to legalize somethign that is (for all purposes) bad for you. Don't get into the argument comparing it to alchol or nicotine. If you want to make a case that they are legal so should weed, that's fine but's it's irrelevant. All that is relevant is should weed be legalized.

 

never touched it

 

I agree, “ drunk “ people can be very obnoxious and belligerent, But I said a couple of drinks not drunk.

I just think there are different levels of intoxication, not the same with pot.

 

same here.