should cannabis be legalized

[cthulhu]

i'm totally on the pro side!
i've been using it fo about know...uhhmm, can't remember..it so affects your memory and your performance in society..wait...uhm..for almost 25 years on a daily basis. i am 41 now and what i wote before of course was a joke.

it's really simple.
fist step: i'm a human. i live on this planet. and no one can tell me what i have to like, use or whatever.
second step: alcohol is allowed. it's a dangerous drug. it has the effect of you have to use moe to get the same result when abusing ist. pot doesn't have that. it's not habit forming. so you cannot allow the one bad drug and criminalize the lighter one.
third step: you mustn't criminalize a plant. if you go into the history of the prohibition and illegeklization, you'll find out that there are more industrial interest in prohibiting the plant than you thought (i just watched a doku on arte about the sugar mafia, how they managed to influence public opinion about sugar. in the 60's and 70's it was discussed as a poison. now we have diabetes and cancer and other illnesses whichg are linked to sugar overdoses. the consumption of sugar has doubled in the last thity years. you should think about these poisons and ban them)

i see society becoming more and more a power driven, soulless thing where performance is seen as everything and everybody tries to augment themselves. no time for dreamers, no time for unproductivity, no time for just being.

most of the negative effects of pot ae linked to that kind of view.
i like being lazy. i don't have to give anything to anybody. and that's just taking the agument before it comes. i went to school again at the age of 38 and have learned another pofession, just because i's curious and stoned and stupid by that to do so. so i'm not that lazy.

i really see more problems of the illegal status of pot than the effects it maybe have if legalized. i have those problems but i won't brag about it now. there are many studies out there. everywhere improvement when legalized.

i know people who misused it and got paranoid. but hey just left it. i know people who want to quit alcohol but they can't.
in my years there wee always times of not using it. there was misuse too. but that's about character of the person and not the drug.




i

[Anna Woman von NRW]

Yes.

This plant was brought under the control of the Criminal Justice system in order to prevent the supply of Cannabis  (ignore the rights and wrongs of that decision for now) and to reduce usage. That's why Cannabis is within the Misuse of Drugs Legislation.

Been an utter failure that idea hasn't it? What a fecking surprise! When has Prohibition ever achieved it's objective? Quite the opposite in fact. I can get my hands on anything from 1g to 1oz within an hour or so and from a number of "retail outlets". It's everywhere. 25 years ago there were only one or two "outlets" and stock levels were erratic and limited. Oh how the times change 

That policy has comprehensively failed. So how long do we keep wasting time, resources and money on this? Surely it is time to change direction and look for a different method of control that may achieve the desired objective? Quite frankly we are pissing good money away after bad.

The arguments against the use of Cannabis are actually health issues, both mental and physical. If we could change our angle of vision from criminal to health we might actually get somewhere in dealing with this in a realistic, pragmatic fashion but hey La-La land doesn't really exist does it?

When the dangers of smoking Tobacco were identified it was dealt with via health and licensing. Since then I believe there are progressively lower numbers of smokers. It would appear this approach may have some merit !

I am a very keen Gardener. Should I choose to I can grow Vitis vinifera, Humulus lupulus and Cannabis sativa. All 3 species will give me an end product which will get me off my tits. All 3 end products have associated risks of a broadly similar nature. 2 of those end products could win me awards, fame and fortune. The other could win me a few years banged up inside.  Why?

The Human species has been getting out of it's head since we first came outta the trees. Always have, Always will. Why do we think we can overide what appears to be an intrinsic part of the Human condition? Seems a stupid idea if you ask me - which Pol did  .

Far better, methinks, to be open and honest with this and call a spade a spade. Whether or not to smoke a spliff is no more or no less a decision than whether or not to have a glass of wine or beer. Any of them could result in damage to the body or mind in a wide variety of ways. It's down to an individual to make their own decision.

But hey I had a beer while typing this and I may/may not have smoked a big fat biffta at the same time so what do I know 

[Unruh]

The late Bill Hicks got to the heart of the matter pretty well. I'm paraphrasing but he said to imagine you're at some sports event. Two guys near you are raging at each other and violence is going to erupt any second. Have these two men been drinking or smoking pot ? He added that it's almost impossible for two stoned people to get into fistfights because before the first punch is even thrown, they forgot what they were fighting about. Since it seems alcohol does a lot more damage to the social fabric, it's pretty hypocritical to ban cannabis. I'll take the stoned guy driving 10 miles an hour over the drunk driver any day. The results of cannabis abuse seem to be vacuous stupidity. Back when I smoked too much of it I found myself doing things like leaving my wallet in the fridge. I also worked at a head shop for all of 3 days. That was my limit for the constant company of stoners. It's a grizzled old cliché but right - Everything in moderation. Definitely legalize it.

[JohnnyM]

Most people use cannabis without any problems. Some people do have problems with it. Are those problems best solved by treating it as a criminal issue or a social/medical issue? I'd suggest the latter and think it should be decriminalised

[Unruh]

"If it neither knocks me on the head or picks my pocket, then it is not my concern" - Thomas Jefferson. Good rule of thumb, that.

[Unruh]

Sometimes it makes me paranoid. Big whoop. I'm paranoid already

[Master Ray]

Sometimes it makes me paranoid. Big whoop. I'm paranoid already

There's no need to be paranoid, pal, as I was saying to everyone else on this Forum when we were talking about you via PM's...

 

 

[Unruh]

I know. My dog told me.

[Amandistan]

Yes. Alcohol is legal and it's much worse for you. Weed doesn't destroy your liver and make some people a violent idiot.
Nicotine is more addictive and it's legal.

[Johnz]

I used to be all in favour of legalizing it. Now I'm not so sure.  While it's ok for most people, it's not as safe or benign as some people would like to believe.

I think decriminalisation is a perhaps a better solution.
 
Alcohol may be worse but is that really good selling point for dope?

[PompeyFC]

Maybe people wouldn't get paranoid if it was legal.

[ldopas]

Why do we keep comparing it to alcohol and saying that drinking gives you liver damage and makes people violent? Of course it does if you drink too much.

In fact logic should tell you if you overdo anything there can be consequences. You can keep your hands in clean room temperature water too long and it cause you skin problems.

So lets look at it intelligently. Why take cannabis? Well its for the effect, not the taste, one reason. Why take alcohol? For its taste and/or its effect, two reasons? So if you are saying that alcohol and cannabis are basically the same thing, they are not.

Of course some idiot can smoke a spliff or drink 6 pints and get in a car and kill people. So in the end all we are talking about is people and their behaviour. But unless I'm corrected, the only reason we use spliffs is to get high, you cannot say that about alcohol. I, incidentally, would say the same about the person who only drinks to get drunk, which sadly is quite a lot of us.

IMO if we are going to ban anything it should be smoking!

[Unruh]

Another benefit to decriminalization is that it might stop, or at least vastly reduce, the horrific slaughter taking place in Mexico and throughout Central America. The roots of that violence would seem to be the feeding of America's gargantuan drug habit. However, as the state trooper who was arresting me just the other day (once we'd both determined we were both actual human beings) said, he had previously worked in narcotics and saw many efforts at decriminalization and none had worked. He also really dug Breaking Bad so we spent the rest of the ride to jail talking about that.

[Amandistan]

I think it is an intelligent statement. Alcohol is also destructive. Weed just makes you eat, forgetful and a bit paranoid at worse.

Most alcohol does not taste so good. certain types do. An occasionally stoning session does not hurt. Drinking everyday does.

The point is it's all self destructive. Weed is at least natural. Prisons are over crowded with people who smoke weed. It's not a criminal offense.  Luckily some US states are moving in a progressive direction. Strangely before the UK which is a more liberal country.

[Pol]

Of course people smoke spliffs to get high , that doesn't mean you need to get wasted exactly the same as having a beer or having 10 vodkas or whatever. Does alcohol really taste that great imo no far from it , hey I like the odd pint but your wines and spirits come on they aren't exactly refreshing.

I don't think anyone is saying cannabis and alcohol are the same, everyone is saying though surely cannabis is no worse than alcohol and the reason one is banned and the other isn't is all about profits and tax revenue for big companies and governments.

As a ex smoker I'm probably not best placed to comment, but of course if someone tried to bring tobacco today it would never be allowed. Its a nasty highly addictive drug with fatal side affects n not only for the user but those around them. Again controlled by powerful rich companies and tax hungry governments.

Again I would like to add that I don't smoke cannabis and rarely drink so I like to think that my opinion is unbiased, disagree if you want