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Post by UniversalAris on Feb 26, 2017 21:05:27 GMT -8
Marijuana is a dangerous drug that is commonly accepted as a substance that is harmful to the body. Legalizing this substance can stop the illegal laundering and black market associated, but can cause addiction to those that would never have used it otherwise. Marijuana being illegal has also decreased the overall use of marijuana nationwide in the United States. The government could also put a sin tax on the drug providing funding to different areas of government. Should marijuana be legalized? Is medical marijuana acceptable or is all marijuana legalization unacceptable? Is there a better alternative to this debate? Please respond with your ideas on the subject and build upon others.
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Post by Mittens on Mar 29, 2017 8:48:14 GMT -8
Not only should Mary Jane be legalized, but all drugs. From heroin to LSD. In fact, I have a three point plan to legalize and even boost the economy with these laws.
Step 1: Legalize every drug. Every single one. Step 2: Treat it like legal Mary Jane and tax it and allow stores to sell it. Put a Federal tax on it and put a large portion towards Rehabilitation programs. The rest goes towards other domestic sectors like infrastructure and education. Step 3: Release all persons in jail for drug offenses, provided no other outstanding charges (like say if they also had a murder charge attached to their sentence, they would stay and serve that out).
By doing this plan, the cartels down south would evaporate for the most part, and we would also take an enormous load off of the jail system that is vastly overflowing currently. We can put the proper criminals like killers and rapists behind bars and not poor little Tyrone who just wanted to feel good.
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Post by Cнroмα on Mar 30, 2017 9:25:16 GMT -8
For the most part, I agree with you on this, however, I do not agree with the legalization of all drugs and releasing prisoners who are in for drug offenses.
Prisoners are in there for a reason. They broke the law. Even if you legalize many of the drugs currently on the market, the person still broke the law and should be punished. For example, if someone is jailed for shoplifting a candy bar. Would you want to release them back into the wild even if it was not that bad of a crime? What's stopping them from going off and robbing something bigger, such as a television, a Xbox, or how about a bank?
As for legalizing the drugs to the point they could be sold in stores, you would be trusting the people of this country WAY too much. What if you get 500 people all high on LSD, and they think everyone is trying to kill them? Imagine 500 people running through the streets killing anyone they see on sight. It would be mass murder. I do not mind if all drugs are legalized to the point for medical purposes, however, some drugs have no beneficial portions, for example, krokodil. Krokodil is a drug which will literally melt one's flesh. Taking it is a death sentence. Would you really want to legalize that, even for medical purposes? If the drug has medical benefits, by all means, take it. But if the drug kills you and you are able to purchase it at your local Wal-Mart, then this country is going to fall down the drain, and fast.
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Post by Mittens on Apr 11, 2017 8:23:38 GMT -8
For the most part, I agree with you on this, however, I do not agree with the legalization of all drugs and releasing prisoners who are in for drug offenses. Prisoners are in there for a reason. They broke the law. Even if you legalize many of the drugs currently on the market, the person still broke the law and should be punished. For example, if someone is jailed for shoplifting a candy bar. Would you want to release them back into the wild even if it was not that bad of a crime? What's stopping them from going off and robbing something bigger, such as a television, a Xbox, or how about a bank? As for legalizing the drugs to the point they could be sold in stores, you would be trusting the people of this country WAY too much. What if you get 500 people all high on LSD, and they think everyone is trying to kill them? Imagine 500 people running through the streets killing anyone they see on sight. It would be mass murder. I do not mind if all drugs are legalized to the point for medical purposes, however, some drugs have no beneficial portions, for example, krokodil. Krokodil is a drug which will literally melt one's flesh. Taking it is a death sentence. Would you really want to legalize that, even for medical purposes? If the drug has medical benefits, by all means, take it. But if the drug kills you and you are able to purchase it at your local Wal-Mart, then this country is going to fall down the drain, and fast. First off, sorry I've taken so long to reply. Now on to your post. The example you give is a huge stretch and if I may be honest, kinda crazy. If something like hundreds of drugged out individuals running through the streets killing people were to happen, odds are it would've happened by now considering the United States' drug issue. In regards to Krocodile, if someone wants to put their own self through such circumstances, then that is their decision alone as long as it does not affect any other individuals. Portugal accomplished this in 2001, and instead of arresting people they treated them. That's the most important step- getting addicts help instead of warehousing them in tightly packed jails that should be meant for killers and pedophiles. Areas that have either decriminalized or altogether legalized some or all drugs have seen either no increase in usage or have actually seen a decrease.
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Post by ariferrari on Apr 12, 2017 8:47:15 GMT -8
Not only should Mary Jane be legalized, but all drugs. From heroin to LSD. In fact, I have a three point plan to legalize and even boost the economy with these laws. Step 1: Legalize every drug. Every single one. Step 2: Treat it like legal Mary Jane and tax it and allow stores to sell it. Put a Federal tax on it and put a large portion towards Rehabilitation programs. The rest goes towards other domestic sectors like infrastructure and education. Step 3: Release all persons in jail for drug offenses, provided no other outstanding charges (like say if they also had a murder charge attached to their sentence, they would stay and serve that out). By doing this plan, the cartels down south would evaporate for the most part, and we would also take an enormous load off of the jail system that is vastly overflowing currently. We can put the proper criminals like killers and rapists behind bars and not poor little Tyrone who just wanted to feel good. Though I think most people might find this strategy a little extreme, I happen to agree with it. However, I think that in order to understand it people have to think about drugs like they think about alcohol. Both have their own negative effects on the brain, but they can both be used to have a hell of a good time. And like alcohol, I say that we should make it illegal for minors to purchase or use these substances before they are old enough to "understand" the scope of what they're doing. In addition, people in jail for drug offenses ( asides of course for allowing minors to come into contact with them ) should definitely be released. What harms the individual more, spending years in jail or getting high, and allowing others to do the same? And is it not the government's responsibility to do what is best for the individual? Who is it really helping to keep these people incarcerated, the people, the public, or those who profit off their backs?
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Post by shadowtolight99 on Apr 13, 2017 13:08:28 GMT -8
My whole view on this is that no matter whether it's legal or not, people will do drugs. The only difference is if we legalize drugs, we can harm the illegal drug trade and put an end to it. We can also tax the hell out of drugs and use that money for rehab centers or you know, start paying off the national debt which is like $20 trillion now.
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LSDMB
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Christian Trinitarian Universalist
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Post by LSDMB on May 3, 2017 9:54:22 GMT -8
Some might try to trivialize the issue of legalizing marijuana by saying it isn't that important "cuz its just people wanting to get high" but that severely underplays the issue of people getting jailed, getting fined, and getting criminal records for BS reasons.
And some might try to play up the dangers of marijuana, even though marijuana is impossible to overdose on, it's effects aren't remotely conducive to violent behavior, and its less addictive than caffeine and alcohol which most adults in the United States consume on a regular basis without developing any serious problems. I smoked weed on a regular basis for the latter 5/8 of my time in high school and still graduated in the top 3.5% of my class.
On top of the morally unjustified screwing of people's lives with legal force, the criminalization of marijuana is authoritarian BS with no respect for individual liberty to partake in a relatively safe act that doesn't harm or infringe upon the rights of other people. It's also hypocritical when much more harmful substances are legal. It's also a complete waste of taxpayer money and law enforcement resources, and a waste of economic and tax opportunity by stifling an obviously profitable economic sector.
On top of this, it is also a carryover from a time in which racism actually influenced our laws, and it is a huge example of government corruption when one of the main reasons the government is against it is because alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical, and private prisons lobby against it. It is also the biggest example of government deceit I can think of. The government has for the past several decades spread lies about marijuana that aren't even remotely true, within the past couple years one of the heads of the DEA refused to admit that marijuana was not in fact more harmful than heroin, and marijuana still remains as a schedule I drug despite being far from meeting any of the requirements of a schedule I drug while Crack and Meth are schedule II drugs.
This is one of the most embarrassing, stupidest, freedom infringing laws we have in the US to date, and the longer it stays around the more people's lives will be unjustly screwed over because of it.
Bottom line is, if someone wants to smoke weed in their free time and not screw with other people, that's none of the government's business, and certainly not the business of moral busybodies.
And medical marijuana should absolutely be legal. It is used to help cancer patients, my friend has sleep paralysis but never struggles with it if he smokes a little weed before going to bed, my dad's friend has PTSD from war but marijuana helps him deal with it, and there are numerous examples of children with epilepsy who used to deal with seizures several times on a daily basis that left them unable to function, however when using CBD (an extract from marijuana) the seizures were reduced from several times a day to a few times every couple months. The fact that the US government continues to argue that marijuana has no accepted medical use is beyond stupid, though that's not really surprising given that the government is extremely reluctant to even admit marijuana is less harmful than heroin.
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LSDMB
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Christian Trinitarian Universalist
Posts: 15
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Post by LSDMB on May 3, 2017 10:02:20 GMT -8
Not only should Mary Jane be legalized, but all drugs. From heroin to LSD. In fact, I have a three point plan to legalize and even boost the economy with these laws. Step 1: Legalize every drug. Every single one. Step 2: Treat it like legal Mary Jane and tax it and allow stores to sell it. Put a Federal tax on it and put a large portion towards Rehabilitation programs. The rest goes towards other domestic sectors like infrastructure and education. Step 3: Release all persons in jail for drug offenses, provided no other outstanding charges (like say if they also had a murder charge attached to their sentence, they would stay and serve that out). By doing this plan, the cartels down south would evaporate for the most part, and we would also take an enormous load off of the jail system that is vastly overflowing currently. We can put the proper criminals like killers and rapists behind bars and not poor little Tyrone who just wanted to feel good. I generally agree with you when it comes to legalizing psychedelics (if my username wasn't a dead giveaway), since my experiences with psychedelics have been some of the most positively transformative experiences of my life and the best days of my life, and I think that opportunity should be open for other people. On top of this, psychedelics generally aren't addictive and don't have a very high potential for dependency, and generally don't motivate violent behavior. I can't say I'm sold on the idea of legalizing other drugs however. I see the arguments for it, but with the opiate epidemic currently in the US I'm hesitant to think legalizing super-addictive drugs like heroin and fentanyl won't cause more harm than benefits to society as a whole.
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Post by RadioactiveHaggis on May 3, 2017 16:39:12 GMT -8
I pretty much agree with the perspective of a few people on this thread, namely Mittens's initial premise that all drugs should be legal. It is not the position of the state to enforce what people can and can't put into their bodies, regardless of the risk to their health. If they are consciously aware of the risks and still go along with it, then that is their problem.
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Post by Mooks on May 9, 2017 7:53:43 GMT -8
The whole legalizing marijuana ordeal has been going on for far too long. Now, I personally do not partake in its uses, keep that in mind. But, the issue on whether it should or should not be legalized is pretty useless. You might as well let people smoke it whenever they want, and here's why: Legalizing the marijuana would reveal so many things about the US. Not only would you help patients, you could start weeding (ha puns) out the people who just want to smoke all day and get high. For example; Let's say a man who smokes marijuana occasionally is finally allowed to do it whenever he wants. This man works construction. He decides that he is going to be high all the time because...well, now he can. Do you think he would be fit to work heavy machinery? No, of course not! If you doubt that this scenario could ever happen... You are truly wrong, friend. This is America, and unfortunately the world is just bad already. We could start hiring people who actually need jobs and replace those who do not want to work. If someone wants to waste their life with marijuana, or any kind of drug really, they should be allowed to. Why not let them ruin their own lives? I know it sounds a bit...harsh. But, sooner or later people will start realizing how bad drugs are.
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