Quote:
Originally Posted by MAXUM
I don't care about tobacco, it's not a mind altering and motor skills inhibiting substance. While it may not be good for the consumer, it's potential damage to innocent bystanders is relatively minimal.
For pot use I can't believe this is necessary to be explained - so I will ask a rhetorical question. What possible GOOD can come to us for making pot legal?
|
For one, we can stop wasting money, and lives, fighting the "war on drugs" that has NEVER made any real progress in stopping the drug trade. Billions of dollars wasted, and DEA agents killed every year fighting against a non-threat (in the sense of marijuana).
Quote:
Originally Posted by MAXUM
Furthermore I will ask another question because it's sure to happen at a later date and time. IF this were made legal everywhere then where do we cross the line in making other drugs legal for "recreational" use?
|
An interesting thought exercise, but I don't think there is groundswell support for legalizing other drugs right now. I don't think other drugs have shown the same general lack of negative affects, and potential positive affects, that marijuana has.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MAXUM
Why not just legalize everything? Who's to say that crack, heroin or any other illicit drugs should be any less legal than pot or alcohol?
|
If any of those were shown to have either measurable benefits, or lack of side-affects, then I'd be in favor of considering legalization for those, or other as-yet undiscovered drugs in the future. But it's pretty easy to demonstrate the addictiveness and negative affects of crack or heroin. So I don't think you have to worry that legalizing pot is going to suddenly cause crack to be available at your local CVS.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MAXUM
I'll ask another question, in areas where pot, alcohol or any other drugs are being used and abused what becomes of those people? Most end up a bunch of losers incapable of being productive members of society never mind the crime and violence it brings with it. Why in the world would we ever want to encourage any of this?
|
There are many many substances that are abused by some individuals. I don't see that as a reason to limit general availability of something that has not been shown to have addictive or harmful qualities in that manner. Many people have no interest in being a part of a functioning society and will abuse leisure time substances for various reasons. You could remove all drugs and alcohol from the world and those people would not suddenly become productive members of society.
Along the same lines, what about all the people jailed and/or forced to incur large fines for being caught with very small amounts of pot? What about all the cases of police using petty drug arrests as a means to hassle and incarcerate people unnecessarily? If your concern is for the overall welfare of society, legalizing and taxing pot will do far more to improve the general state of society than sticking with the status quo. Drug/DEA units can concentrate on things like meth labs, which pose risk to people simply in the general area, which is not the case with pot. Cities and states can use the tax funds to offset other taxes, or provide more general budget.
Your arguments sound like a lot of the paranoia-mongering from people who speculate on improbable outcomes vs. looking at actual data from current legalization efforts and experiments.