Should pot be legalized?

[Fixated]

Poll question: Should pot be legalized?

We need to have this poll every month or so, so here goes...

[brainshrub]

1. Who voted no and why?

[spychoactive]

7. someone really stoned i bet...

and they hit the wrong button...

if everyone that smoked pot could remember to vote, we'd be somewhere by now...


one love
spike

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. I've never used pot

or any illegal drugs, but I feel that this natural product should be legalized.

[aquart]

3. DRUGS SHOULD BE LEGALIZED.

Take away the terrorists' profit. Remove their incentive for peddling to children.

End the glamor.

[RBHam]

4. Prohibition = Crime

If you are for prohibition, you are pro-crime.

[A HERETIC I AM]

46. i agree. Mankind has been searching for ways to alter his state of mind,.

since time immemorial. Humans like getting buzzed. This will never stop.

[youngred]

5. very few reasons not to

and those are far outweighed by the positives

[jpgray]

10. Hey! We agree!

:D

[youngred]

15. of course

we're both smart young liberals ;-)

[Abe Linkman]

6. Better Question

Why should ANY substance that you eat, smoke, snort, or otherwise ingest, be a criminal offense?

[ringmastery]

14. you think cocaine and heroin should be legal?

Why?

[TexasMexican]

8. Fuck Yeah!!!

[camero]

9. The 2 most addictive drugs are legal

Alcohol and Tobacco. Europe has it right with the coffee shops.

[instantkarma]

11. I vote no.

I'm in favor of decriminalization. Take it off the books, period. Let everyone who wants grow it in their own little garden and thus destroy the profit motive.

[babzilla]

13. by that reasoning you could have voted yes

Apples are legal. Some grow them for profit, others grow them in their own little garden.

[instantkarma]

18. Legalization is very different

than decriminalization to me. Legalization creates more bureaucracy. Decriminalization takes it out of the realm of government control. I don't think apples are "legal." Rather it's the business of selling apples that is legalized. True, I could have my own little apple tree and I could pick them while they're in season (at a certain time of the year). Pot is a weed and can be grown year-round just about anywhere, indoors or out.

on edit: I'm not necessarily "against" legalization. I just would prefer decriminalization.

[A HERETIC I AM]

45. And still others grow apples and make apple jack....

and maybe sell it without telling the revenuers!

Thats illegal too, right?

[Nikia]

12. Yes

It is less harmful than the legal drugs. You don't have to worry about any inexperienced new users dying from it like you might for some other illegal drugs. I find it to be good stuff and not harmful to my life. For those who may develop life problems due to heavy use, having it legal could make it easier for them to seek support and help.

[spychoactive]

16. all i know is...

a month ago i would have voted 'yes' because of personal preference...now i am watching my mother...torn up from chemo/radiation...dying because she cannot eat, and is scared to break the law all the while knowing it would help, but she's too old fashioned to do it...

i'd give it up if it meant that people suffering could freely have, acquire and use it...

[Nikia]

19. It should definitely be legal for sick people

It is horrible that anyone should arrested for using or growing a substance that has been effective in treating their illness. It is bad enough that anyone should be arrested for pot, but to arrest the sick for it is evil to me.

[Wonk]

17. "HEMP for VICTORY" video online here

http://www.crrh.org/hemptv/docs_victory.html
http://www.crrh.org/hemptv/media/docs_victory.rpm

[cocoabeach]

20. Voted NO

Don't want my kids stoned...I want them productive and responsible 24/7. Never approved of drug use and never will. period

[DrWeird]

21. If you don't want your kids smoking pot don't let them.

Don't send consenting adults to prison because you can't keep your eye on your kids.

[RBHam]

22. So do you approve of alcohol use?

It's a drug.

So is caffeine and tobacco.

Should we make them illegal too?

Critical thinking is important.

[cocoabeach]

23. Yes Critical thinking is important...can you do it stoned?

NO! I don't want my kids to smoke pot. So you say don't let them? How many who have had the blessings of their parents to do so??

[DrWeird]

25. You can't think critically getting stoned?

Well gee-fucking-shit, I wonder how on earth I maintain my 4.0 GPA if I can't think critically.

Tell me why I should go to prison just because you think it will somehow keep your kids from experimenting?

[cocoabeach]

31. Don't want them getting stoned or going to jail

Does that make me fringe?

[Tinoire]

33. Well if it's legalized

you won't have to worry about them going to jail for it. You'll only have to worry about them getting stoned which they're going to do whether it's legal or not.

So I don't know... Could be just me... I'd vote for legalization.

Though I do understand your point as a parent. If I had children, I would not want them introduced to pot during the critical years of their secondary education- not unless they had already developed the strong sense that their studies must come first and that there's no smoking and driving etc...

I voted yes... It's up to parents to teach their kids wisdom and how to handle choice.

Now how do you feel about teen-age sex? ;) That's technically not even legal and we sure aren't going to stop that.

[Le Taz Hot]

38. Ya beat me to it, Dr.

I was JUST going to post my 4.0 GPA story. The trick, of course, is study stoned, test stoned. B-)

[bicentennial_baby]

43. LOL...always

Rawk! :smoke:

[bicentennial_baby]

42. Same here

I'm a stoner, and just last week my poli-sci teacher complimented me on my superior critical thinking skills! And get this, he's also a cop who thinks pot should be legalized! :smoke:

[RBHam]

26. So what if they do smoke pot?

You're OK with letting them turn into career criminals by sending them to jail?

Whether its legal or illegal, kids will smoke it.

Any analysis of the history of drug prohibition finds that prohibition leads to a black market and an increase in crime.

So if you favor prohibition you favor crime.

Simple.

[Nikia]

27. I think alright stoned, but glad I waited until adulthood

Pot affects one's thinking less than alcohol. People may have differing opinions on this, but I do not have the urge to do anything stoned that I would not normally want to do sober from a danger or immoral standpoint. Alcohol is more likely to encourage this kind of behavior.
I am glad that I waited until I was done with my education to smoke pot. Teenagers are going through many changes and need to be concentrating on their school work and productive extra curriculiar activities. I don't think teens should use it, especially regularly.
I didn't get much into alcohol as a teen. The alcohol that I drank, though, was supplied by my friend's parents, not bought illegally. If you don't want your kids using it, it is better if it is legal with age restriction and that you and the parents of your children's friends feel the same way about pot that you do.

[Terwilliger]

48. critical thinking is great...is it required 24/7?

My problem with your attitude is that it won't necessarily help your kids make the choice you want them to make...the naysayers scream about dangerous and deceptive pot is, and then kids see all the information that mitigates those claims...they see the hypocrisy and get it in their heads to try some

[LifeDuringWartime]

50. lemme guess…

never smoked pot before?

[Nikia]

24. Better chance getting stoned now than if strict legal age

If it were sold in stores with ids checked just as is done with alcohol, pot would be less available to teenagers. A recent article in my area's paper said that 38% of Wisconsin high school students use pot and almost all say it is relatively easy to get. With 38% of a teens classmates smoking pot, most teens have pot available to them if they would want to use it.

[BootinUp]

28. This is what I remember from the 70's and 80's too.

Better to remove (or at least greatly reduce) the incentive for criminal activity. In other words I would favor age restrictions similar to cigarettes or alcohol.

Any teenager that is working and has money can get pot now. I think it would be more difficult if sold by licensed outlets.

[KG]

30. only your parental control can keep your kids off drugs

laws agaist MJ won't keep your kids from toking up. that's your responsibility.

[sweetheart]

32. i'm not threat to your kids

yet you vote to leave me with illegal supplies, threatened with prison for my private life and putting cash in to a network of dodgey dealers and 3rd world insurgencies that i have my unregulated smoke.... thanks for nothing.

Next time your dog gets lost, don't ask me where he is... i'm no friend to someone that wants me in prison.

[littlejoe]

37. Hey cocoabeach, by your reasoning,

anyone who uses pot, either recreationally or for medicinal purposes, cannot be productive. That is simply not true. There are over 60 million people who use pot, 45 million on a regular basis. Are you trying to say that they are non productive? Wyhat your sons do while at home and under age is your busines. What they do once they turn 18 is their business. If they chose to smoke pot, for whatever reason, would you want them locked up for it? When it comes to the argument of whether we have control over what we put into our own bodies, the government needs to but out.

Now, naturally along with the right to put into our own bodies what we so choose, comes the responsibility to not place other people or property in jeopardy.

[arewethereyet]

40. I can appreciate that however laws don't aid this position

I don't approve of them either but the folks who want them, get them despite the billions being spent. And for a bonus, we get gangs and rampant violence that doesn't always stay contained "over there".

I can teach my kid why drugs are a poor choice and for me it will be easy, as a person she knows just got arrested for murder in conjunction with his drug issues. I would rather have junkies get their drugs at the pharmacy or whereever insted of threatening behavior at school.

I'm not asking you to change your values at all, just consider how best those values can be achieved.

[KG]

29. decriminalize it.

legalization infers it would still be under some sort of control.

edit for clarity.

[arewethereyet]

34. of course it should

as should all drugs.

So long as you don't infringe on someone else's life, liberty or property, feel free.

That does NOT permit you to whine at your employer if he prohibits drug use and tests for it.

We spend billions fighting a war that we do not intend to win (drugs can be eliminated quickly and cheaply) on judicial and criminal costs that further no end and we enable a gigantic underworld rife with violence and lost taxes.

Legalize it all, sell it at 7-11, Wal-Mart anywhere at all and gain the tax benefit from the sales. The side benefit is that gangs cease to have a reason to exist, little children don't have to ponder the choice of a life with money and fame and an early death vs a humble life with dignity.

I've really never heard of a good reason to do this short of "drugs are bad" (think Southpark).

Its a free country... isn't it ?

[SuffragetteSal]

35. Here is my recent letter to a newspaper

regarding a news story they reported:

I just couldn't help myself with making a comment on your local story (on-line edition) regarding the 75 pounds of cannabis seized December 4 and the subsequent years of prison time tax payers will be paying to keep Mr. 'E' and many like him incarcerated. Light bulb goes on...and yet dear national treasure illegal pill popping Rush Limbaugh remains free and employed! Just amazing.

Everyone in my ex-home town now knows how I feel about this subject...good.

[frank frankly]

36. yes and yes

yes

[GobGoober]

39. Absolutely, 100%, no doubt about, pot should be legalized

Let us grow it in our back yards!

The pot laws have really fucked up the Cannabis Drug Cultivar. The thousands of "strains" out there represent a miasma of genetic soup. Nearly everything has Afghani as a genetic ancestor these days to get the short, fast maturing pot. Pure Sativas are treated like gold and ar very difficult to grow indoors because of height concerns.

Legalization would get us back to a place where definite land based open pollenated cannabis was once a gain existant.

Today's pot is so lousy compared to the really great cultivars of the 70's.

[spychoactive]

47. amen!

the hydro crowd is in heavy denial re: the afghani sprawl in their strains...

vote sativa!

one love
spike

[Walt Starr]

41. The War on Drugs has been wonderful for organized crime

Just ask the BFEE.

[guajira]

44. Yes - Legalized and Regulated

Same laws as alcohol should apply.

[plurality]

49. push for pot!

[evil_orange_cat]

51. everything should be legalized...

yes, even crack and cocaine... why? because prohibition doesn't work. And people who suffer from addiction need help from rehab, not prison. That's not to say you should be able to buy crack at Jewel, but since prohibition isn't working, I'd rather Jewel get profits from crack or cocaine instead of Columbian drug lords. That way we can tax it an use the money to fund rehab and addiction counseling programs

Plus, I don't believe one human being has the right to say what another can or can't do with his or her own body.