Gedrin
Member!
I beleive that marijuana should be legalized. You may ask what is my situation? I am a 20 year old college syudent. Then you may question my proclivities. I have not nor will I ever smoke pot for recreational use even if it is legalized. So then why do I care?
Here are a few good reasons.
There are already many worse substances that are legal
First off if we use the DEA's version of legality there are degrees of illegal. There are 5 schedules of drugs 1 being worst 5 being least bad.
To start out we can see in schedule 5 several preparations of opiates. Which are apparently according to the DEA less addictive than marijuana.
Next we have drugs like Diazepam also known as valium in schedule 4.
Now we come to the barely legal to prescribe schedule 3. Anabolic steroids, barbituates, Marinol(synthetic THC), LSD precursors, and some more opiates.
Next we have schedule 2 which contains: PCP precursors, cocain some more opiates, cocain, ritalin(confuses the hell out of me),
Now the most dangerous of all drugs schedule 1. PCP, LSD, marihuana and others. According to the DEA these drugs have no medicinal uses and have a high potential for abuse, and there is a lack of accepted safety for the drug.
Anything wrong with this picture? How is it that cocain is worse than marijuana. And to prove that this is not some horrible lie heer is the ling to the DEA websites drug schedule http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/scheduling.html and what the schedules mean http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/csa/812.htm#a
Paralells in alcohol prohibition
What happened when prohibition ended to the alcohol empires that the mobs had built when prohibition ended? There was no need for them, and they either found something else or collapsed.
To spell it out a little better if marijuana was legalized there would be a lot of lost revinue for hmm say drug dealers. Those inclined towards switching to another drug would already be selling it.
The rift between law enforcement and regular people
Another important point is the rift between law enforcment and people. Especially in poorer areas or slums ghettos whatever you call them. Marijuana is typically viewed as a benign drug by the general populus, and possibly law enforcement. This is dangerous for both sides and leads to a whole host of problems.
skews perception of other drugs
If marijuana is one of the worst drugs according to the government then maybe they are lying about some of the other drugs. Kind of a natural thought even if in most cases it is false it is very dangerous.
DEA funding argument
If you legalized marijuana and made it so that you had to have a licsense to grow and sell it there would be immense revinues generated. Even without such a system if the government just grew it cheaper than it could be sold illegally by others effectively destroying their business. This would of course save the amount of money spent on marijuana for other drugs.
The medicinal argument
Even if all of those other arguments didn't d oit for you this last one in my opinion is the best. Marijuana is an EXTREMELY effective anti-nausea drug making it great for aids and cancer patients who need to gain weight.
I am interested to see what other people think, but please be mature I don't want this thread ending up in the asylum.
Here are a few good reasons.
There are already many worse substances that are legal
First off if we use the DEA's version of legality there are degrees of illegal. There are 5 schedules of drugs 1 being worst 5 being least bad.
To start out we can see in schedule 5 several preparations of opiates. Which are apparently according to the DEA less addictive than marijuana.
Next we have drugs like Diazepam also known as valium in schedule 4.
Now we come to the barely legal to prescribe schedule 3. Anabolic steroids, barbituates, Marinol(synthetic THC), LSD precursors, and some more opiates.
Next we have schedule 2 which contains: PCP precursors, cocain some more opiates, cocain, ritalin(confuses the hell out of me),
Now the most dangerous of all drugs schedule 1. PCP, LSD, marihuana and others. According to the DEA these drugs have no medicinal uses and have a high potential for abuse, and there is a lack of accepted safety for the drug.
Anything wrong with this picture? How is it that cocain is worse than marijuana. And to prove that this is not some horrible lie heer is the ling to the DEA websites drug schedule http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/scheduling.html and what the schedules mean http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/csa/812.htm#a
Paralells in alcohol prohibition
What happened when prohibition ended to the alcohol empires that the mobs had built when prohibition ended? There was no need for them, and they either found something else or collapsed.
To spell it out a little better if marijuana was legalized there would be a lot of lost revinue for hmm say drug dealers. Those inclined towards switching to another drug would already be selling it.
The rift between law enforcement and regular people
Another important point is the rift between law enforcment and people. Especially in poorer areas or slums ghettos whatever you call them. Marijuana is typically viewed as a benign drug by the general populus, and possibly law enforcement. This is dangerous for both sides and leads to a whole host of problems.
skews perception of other drugs
If marijuana is one of the worst drugs according to the government then maybe they are lying about some of the other drugs. Kind of a natural thought even if in most cases it is false it is very dangerous.
DEA funding argument
If you legalized marijuana and made it so that you had to have a licsense to grow and sell it there would be immense revinues generated. Even without such a system if the government just grew it cheaper than it could be sold illegally by others effectively destroying their business. This would of course save the amount of money spent on marijuana for other drugs.
The medicinal argument
Even if all of those other arguments didn't d oit for you this last one in my opinion is the best. Marijuana is an EXTREMELY effective anti-nausea drug making it great for aids and cancer patients who need to gain weight.
I am interested to see what other people think, but please be mature I don't want this thread ending up in the asylum.
