It's a foregone conclusion that EVERYONE here
(except lurking LE) is Pro hobby.

BUT!! What are your views about marijuana?
Should it be a crime?, or is it a crime that it is criminal?.

 A recent discussion with a dear friend/provider brought this question to mind. My friend and I simply concluded that these political "camps" are surprisingly divided.

Is one moral and the other not?.
 Where do you stand?


 

yes ... pretty much ... neither of them are "criminal"  but they are both against the "law"  

stupid is as stupid does ... and the laws are stupid

*

I don’t think it should be a crime.  LE should focus its attention on other crimes, such as assault, robbery and murder. I have not smoked marijuana in over 20 years and politically, on most issues would be considered conservative.  I do think pot heads are idiot’s though but I support their right to be stupid.

Commercialize pot and treat it the same as alcohol. There would have to be measures passed to restrict commercial growing at home, that would be farming and should be taxed as such. Get caught high on the road and your ass is grass, DUI. Grown on commercial farms we would have a new cash crop, great new export crop. Easier to grow than tobacco and grows just about anywhere. Not to mention the fact that hemp is a great crop for other uses, although the hemp used for fabrics and other uses is low in THC.

Lawyers have pretty much made it impossible for this to happen. The lawsuits against anyone that started growing commercially would start almost immediately and destroy the industry. Only way it would happen is if there was a medical need for THC that the whole or a large part of the population would require it.

I'm not what one would consider an herbal nut or all natural, far from it. But the fact that marijuana is a naturally growing substance leads me to believe it here on this earth for a purpose. And not just to drive the snack food industry. It is repeatedly showing improvements in the medical/healing fields. I don't know the laws behind it all, and am not sure how many scientists are working to find the best possible uses for this naturally growing substance.

Personally, yeah, I've smoked a few. Most of them gave me a terrible headache, so why bother? However, a friend of mine hurt his back a few years ago and started growing his own, specifically designed for medicinal purposes. Two or three puffs off that and it's the first time in 12 years my ankle didn't hurt. Never got a 'buzz', just felt better. Sure, you could smoke yourself silly if you wanted to. It is America afterall, and we have such freedoms thankfully.

My own thoughts are, that marijuana will not be legalized until they figure out a way to stamp Bristol-Meyers or Phizer on the side of it somehow. The drug companies here, who are already incredibly rich and powerful, would stand to lose quite a lot if pot were legal. And my thinking, as mentioned in another post, think of the taxes they'd pull in! If it were treated as alcohol and cigarettes, man alive. (And on that note, why the crusade against cigs, and NOT alcohol?!?!)

I fell the same way about gambling and prostitution. Legalize it, tax it as Vegas does. I've not been there, but it's my understanding that despite the population boom, they have some of the finest neighborhoods, schools, teachers etc. anywhere.

My $0.05 worth,
Jimbo

Well, now that you asked..........

You can drive around a race track at 300 MPH legally,

You can get in a boxing ring and beat the living crap out of someone until brain damage sets in legally,

You can medicate yourself with OxyContin until you're dizzy and high as a mountain legally,

You can smoke a cigarette until cancer thoroughly rots your body legally,

But smoke a joint, get high, and go to prison ????

I think y'all see where I'm going with this......Why does the government get to pick & choose the ways we want to "harm" ourselves ????

-- Modified on 11/10/2003 6:41:47 PM

I do not smoke marijuana very often, nor do I smoke cigarettes... so am not an advocate of either. However, I don't see a lot of difference between cigarettes, marijauna or drinking... they are all habit forming, and are not good for your health when over-consumed. Just watch an episode of the Osbornes for illustration.

Keeping marijuana illegal however, supports violence, gangs and a black market economy. There are people getting killed everyday over the sale of drugs.

Thus, I'm in favor of making it legal, and letting us adults make up our own minds what bad habits we choose. Not because I particularly like marijuana, but because it makes sense. It's bound to happen eventually.. the government needs the tax revenue!

Actually pot is the most chemically complex drug know to man.  It has 421 chemical in it's unlighted state and when smoked it goes to over 1000.  Most of these chemicals they don't know a thing about.  THC the one they do know things about, but not all is the main thing in dope that gets you high.  Since the 60's when it was under 1% it has now risen to any where as high as 50%.  Back in the 70's they were just figuring out the damgege it caused at oh lets say 10%, what do you think it's doing now???   I have yet in my 15 years of working in a youth jail meet a kid who was locked up just for smoking dope.  There are other reasons why it's illegal, and most likely will stay illegal.

eom

safest psychactive drug around(except for the problems its illegality might cause you.)

Alcohol is much worse than than Marijuana in terms of what it does to a person and it's legal.

When was the last time you heard of someone being a "Mean Stoner"?  A hungry one maybe, but certainly not violent.

So I say legalize it, tax it, spend the money for education and since it won't be so much of a forbidden fruit, people will obviously try it but like alcohol not everybody will like it.

Yawn.

All this fussing, and alcohol (my favorite) ravages families, destroys friendships, ruins lives. In my opinion, I agree with those whom suggest here that there is great inconsistency in United States law pretaining to this particular plant.

Insofar as I'm concerned, it's really all very silly. There has /got/ to be some "real reason" dictating law here, or MaryJane would be legal-- some economic force must surely be at work.

I started this with a yawn because I'm not sure if the debate really had to do with Mary Jane or MaryJane; so I'd assumed the latter and returned to the endless hours of debate I've had earlier in coffee-shops.

I love coffee-shops, by the way. They're a great place to meet new people, to play chess, to eye before your loosing move the lady to whom those drop-dead gorgeous smile, legs, and hands are attached... even if you know you will never have her.

Oh... and it's time to call your favorite.

Not much difference than booze in my opinion.  I use neither, but we spend way too much money in this country dealing with stuff like this rather than the stuff that really counts.

WELL i HAVE TO DISAGREE WITH jETFISHES THAT pot heads are idiots. I know two people who smoke everyday. They are both brilliant. Extremely sucessful, and both make over 6 figures.
I am not one of those. Pot does affect me, usually because it slows down my ability to overcome objections. I'm in sales so this is important.
I would say it efect everyone differently. If it makes jetfish feel like an idiot he should stay quiet rather than label every user as one.
I don't like to drink. Beer bloats me, and i just don't have the urge to drink the hard stuff often. I will smoke a couple of drags off a J if I don't have to work the following day. Except on football Sundays. Got to get high and watch football.
Someone mentioned lawyers. Most of them f*ck everything up. We know who most of the lawyers are. God help them when we take back this country. Especially Ashcroft. That stupid Patriot Act of his.

The 420 chemicals is folklore, as is much of the information about marijuana. They can only speculate on the ill effects based on the delivery system, because a large number of pot smokers actually started smoking cigarettes first, and we already know that cigarettes are bad for you mmmmkay. Marijuana is no longer the gateway drug. As a addiction counselor was quoted in our local paper "Marijuana is the primary drug"

Marijuana tax hit the books in 1939,under Harry Anslinger's reign. This was the legislation that made consumption illegal. This was a law enacted based on tall tales of murderous Mexicans under the influence terrorizing the southwest....immigrant reefer madness.

Pot has been used as an intoxicant and medicine since a couple of thousand years before Christ, and will continue to be used long after we are dead and gone.

Sadly, marijuana will probably never be legalized, because unlike tobacco and alcohol, the government will not be able to derive revenue from it. I know given the choice, I'd grow my own before I would buy marjuana from Phillip Morris

"Did you ever wonder why getting high's a crime?"

I am not into drugs, I think they screw up your life (oh, unless you are one of those people who can use recreationly.)

As long as your are NOT wasted with me, its up to you. I don't like being with people who are so f#*ked up that they can't act right.

I don't prefer drugs. I don't need them.

Shaye

I'm clean and sober by choice (now!)

Legal drugs would blot a larger portion of society for a while but eventually Darwinism takes over. A lot fewer guys in prison too. Very likely cheaper for society.

That's how I vote...

Same view as this hobby.  If there's no unconsenting victim, then a crime has not happened.

Don't use myself, but agree that it is stupid that they prosecute it as a felony.

Make it the equivalent of a speeding ticket and move on to more important things.  (Actually, they SHOULD legalize but I'll settle for Canada's solution....  Vancouver is turning into Amsterdam.  And I mean that in a GOOD way.

I work as a merchant seaman and regularly am subject to random urinalysis as conditions for my job. I have NOT smoked pot in over 15 years, dating to back before I was in the service.

That said,  I am in total contempt of the prohibition against Marijuana and it ought to be decriminalized.

I look forward to my retirement.  Fuck Disneyland, I'm going to Amsterdam!!  I'm going to get the largest doobie I can find and make sure I light it and stick it in my mouth, and hold my upraised middle finger at the camera lens as I take a drag. That photo will be mailed to my senator, my congressman and the president.....  and then I will probably put the stuff down after I do that and probably never touch it again  (hell, too much good hobbying to do in Amsterdam anyways)

Hey Sangiovese, loved the coffee shop comment. I also love to play chess. I have met most of my civilian dates at coffee places. I like the vibe that a girl who works in a coffee shop gives off. Very down to Earth and most of the time in touch with what is important.
About this comment you wrote;

Insofar as I'm concerned, it's really all very silly. There has /got/ to be some "real reason" dictating law here, or MaryJane would be legal-- some economic force must surely be at work


I have heard that the oil companies have bought the blue prints for engines that can get 80-100 mpg. They have a vested interest in doing so. That said, I have also heard that Hemp can be used as a fuel source. I beleive methonol is made from corn\alcohol. (Please correct me if I'm wrong)Perhaps oil is at fault here? They maybe preventing it from being used.

Can you imagine THAT Thanksgiving?

An argument starts to break out on how to cook the turkey, and which kind of stuffing. Nobody can agree so they go smoke the peace pipe..

When they come back, they don't care HOW the turkey was cooked, or what the heck kind of stuffing - just pass it, and hope there's PLENTY!

What they smoked in the peace pipe was a mixture of tabacco, sweet grass, sage and something else. Or I could be mixing that up with what they used in the scared smudges.   It was not dope.  The plains Indians would eat peyote, or the medicine men did when they had there visions.

-- Modified on 11/11/2003 11:11:32 AM

Great topic for the name sake,not to get off topic,But I'm reading Hunter S. Thompsons latest,gotta luv it.I'm a long time fan.