Legalization of Marijuana

[NishiNushu]

I am currently in the process of writing an essay on the positive and negative aspects of legalization.

Opinions?
Facts?
Necessary points?
etc.


Discuss.

(This would help my process and also would be much appreciated )

[KDitty]

Be sure to include the fact that the $7 billion spent annually on the drug war could be matched or even surpassed with profits from taxed and regulated sale of cannabis.

Jobs would also be made to tend to the domestic cultivation.

people could be sure what they were getting was quality, as it doesn't have to pass through the black market

and on and on and on....

[Conniption]

Well the dumbest thing about the whole marijuana drug policy is that it's not even legal to grow industrial hemp in the U.S. which, of course, you can't even get high off of. Industrial hemp has many practical applications and is far less taxing on the soil then cotton. Really look into that issue because there is a lot involved.

I'm not totally for legalization mostly because I believe that the tobacco industry will take it over and ruin it for everybody (adding pesticides, nicotine, etc.). I believe that it will make it harder to be sure that what you will be getting is quality.

This might have been a Northern California thing but all of the growers I knew were either hippies or hillbillies. All of the dealers I knew were either friends or friends of friends who either depended on weed as their income or a supplement to their jobs (particularly college students). Hardly cartels here.

Obviously since I smoke I would like to see SOME kind of decriminalization (not to mention the release of thousands of incarcerated and enslaved inmates who put in jail for years for smoking a joint due to clearly racist non-violent drug policies - you could research how much it costs taxpayers to keep THEM in jail as well). A full legalization is not prudent, however, so we would have to come up with some kind of tier system depending on how much you possess / grow - something like that.

[NishiNushu]

Great info.

Thanks

[RaveRRabbiT]

Oh shit nisha, i think im gonna write my informative speech on this topic

[NishiNushu]

Originally Posted by RaveRRabbiT

Oh shit nisha, i think im gonna write my informative speech on this topic

Oh shit Ben, do it, it's a good topic.

[jawndoe]

Cocaine is listed as schedule 2 under the DEA guidelines (which means it can be prescribed) While cannabis is schedule 1 which means that according to the dea it has no known medicinal value. Yet nobody had ever died from OD'n on weed as opposed to coke where OD'n is real easy.

If possible don't focus on complete legalization and maybe a reduction in the scheduling and the benefits of medicinal use. There are TONS and TONS of sources to support that position.

[boatcult5]

I know that a huge reason marijuana is still illegal is because liquor companies don't want people to smoke weed, they want people to drink liquor. Liquor companies are one of the biggest lobbiests to Congress. It might also be important to note that studies have shown alcohol to be much more of a gateway drug than marijuana which I can definitely believe.

[MojoKong]

A big part of your argument should question why it was criminalized in the first place. It was basically the work of a fledgling pre-DEA director named Harry Anslinger, using a bunch of misconceptions and downright falsehoods (e.g. Reefer Madness, a government-made and promoted movie) to cause enough of a stir to keep the agency from the government chopping block.

[NishiNushu]

Thank you all for the awesome feedback.

I really do appreciate it.

[Jellybean]

california's #1 cash crop!

[mechanic]

Funny as it seems, I did a report in high school on Marijuana in general 1983, and the effects' yes it can contribute to the form of rope, cloths and yes the above'd mentioned cotton aspects. Big time money money!!!

I gathered my reserched from high times magazine in that time peroid no internet of course. 1983 hightimes mag... Also from some peeps that were 20 yrs my age, that I would get high with, gave me some keen insite to things of the past fer sure.

A- for not standing, rather of sitting on my desk chair. Old school...

peace-out...