The legalisation of cannabis?

[hobz]

In reading an article id just like you to know : Aproximatly 800 people in CANADA have the right to smoke marijuana. In my home town of Calgary, Alberta, there is a man who has been fighting the law for years saying he should be allowed to smoke marijuana for a disease he has... don't know what it was.. (bronchitis?(sp?)). Anyways, another man in Manitoba who is legal to smoke it because he is eplileptic, cannot buy it from the governement, they wont sell it to him. He needs to smoke 5 joints a day(not everday), aprox 800$ a month or so to buy it from a dealer(not governement). Yet the canadian governement is burning LARGE amounts of marijuana. Now is this a waste of a valuable medical drug? or is it them being afraid, couldn't tell you. But this man has to buy it from a dealer named pierre, and has to drive for 5 hours to get it. As soon as the drugs go from Pierres hands to his its Legal. Now is this fair to have to risk this ? Being cought in a drug deal even though your legal ? Alchool is a much worse "drug" for society, althought Marijuana can be the gateway to many other drugs such as heroine, cocaine, and others. My opinion ? If your gonna keep tobacco and alchool legal, then why not make weed legal? If your gonna make tobacco and alchool ILLEGAL, then no dont.

[BKJ1216]

Here's what I think about this. Just make a lan specially designed for high people on all the roads. Make everything high proof so people can't accidently kill someone when they're high. Then legalize it so that the crime rate goes down because there aren't dealers going after eachtoher and stuff after that.

[hobz]

Dealers don't go after each other because of Marijuana, they go after each other cause of crack and heroine

[AnonymousCoward]

I'm in favour of the decriminilisation of cannabis, being a user since I was 15. I've tried a number of other drugs including LSD, cocaine, amphetamine, ketamine, ecstacy and heroin over the years and in the time of my experimentation have passed school exams, college exams and then university exams and held a steady job for years. Only when I started martial arts did I give up drugs (with the exception of space cakes - marijuana laced cookies and so on) because I felt that it was impeding my performance.

 

Through my experiences with drugs I've seen a lot of unpleasant things - Not everyone comes out of hard drug use OK, some of my friends have had trouble with psychosis, others with self mutilation, some with addiction and some with violence, but these were not the result of smoking cannabis, rather emotional problems assisted by hard drug abuse. If drugs weren't there, maybe they would be alcoholics, maybe they would do something else, I don't know.

 

The one thing is that I've never seen is anyone get violent on cannabis, it's just not that sort of high. As the joke goes, the most annoying thing a pot smoker will do is hold up the queue at the 24 hour garage. I just disagree with the fact that I, as a tax paying citizen, don't have the legal right to sit in my house and get stoned on marijuana.

 

Most of the drug criminilisation laws in the UK were passed in times of war or were reactionary laws - America, and increasingly the UK, see a lot of reactionary laws passed - such as the three strikes law introduced after a man with three previous convictions murdered a young girl. Cocaine was banned in the First World War after Generals were concerened about the effect it was having on their troops, before that, Cocaine suspended in Alchohol (Laudenum) was sold in every corner shop, and the Victorians poisoned themselves with arsenic to get high. LSD was banned in the seventies to combat punk culture.

 

All I can say is that from my experience, cannabis users are friendly, often intelligent people. Often young professionals or labourers who like to smoke a joint when they get in from a hard day at work. These people don't want to spend their money at a dealers' house or get involved with the law.

 

Why not let these people spend their money legally? In the UK, cannabis will shortly be demoted to a Class C drug basically because almost everyone in the UK has tried cannabis and thinks it's harmless, including many members of the government who smoked pot at university. This will mean that is still illegal to use it "in public", but basically all you will get is a caution - if the police can be bothered to arrest you. Three cautions and you will be up in front of the beak (magistrate), but still the penalties are low for posession (less than 5 grams) although dealers will still face court action.

 

In the area where I live, quiet dealers are left alone by the police, who know exactly who they are. But if there's any trouble, they get busted quick which I think is a nice approach to community policing.

 

I'm in favour of decriminilisation as a step towards legalisation and have emailed my MP to inform him of my views, which he also agrees with. I think it's right to remove the criminality and stigma from a harmless drug and to save money on policing and court costs prosecuting an individual for a victimless crime. As far as legalising other drugs, I'm not in favour, since I feel that many other drugs are very dangerous, especially heroin, crack and LSD and should be severly limited in their availability. I think LSD is only for the very responsible drug user as you can do yourself serious long term damage.

 

It's time for costructive debate on the issue I feel.

 

By the way, fields and fields of help are grown in the UK, and if you smoke it, you only get a headache!

[BKJ1216]

I thought I woudl mention that I have never done any drug and I'm pretty proud of it.

[omnifinite]

Kudos, BKJ.

[Martial_Artist]

I voted no. Then again, if I was the grand potentate of the world I would also ban alcohol, cigarettes, pornography, and some other things I consider useless to the human race.

 

For me, in my experience, those who use any kind of drug have a deeper psychological reason for trying to escape life through chemicals. Mostly, that reason is weakness. Weak people use drugs recreationally. By weak I mean: weak-souled. I've traveled much and it's the same everywhere.

 

Then again, this is America and freedom was won. Unfortunately that means having to put up with those who abuse freedom. It all boils down to when we were children and taught, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. And even doing so doesn't prove you are expressing freedom by doing so. Just because you have the right to smoke and ruin your body and soul doesn't mean you should.

 

I've heard the arguments that marijuana is "safe". Mind-altering is not safe. External substance to get high? Doesn't sound very intelligent to me. Want high? Get a better life. Finding escape or "relaxation" in a drug is weak.

 

I voted no because I don't think it should be allowed public use. Even now it's easy to obtain. I wouldn't make it any easier. I don't believe there is any valid reason to make it accessible to everyone. Those who want it can apply for it using medical reasons. Recreational use, I don't believe such a reason is valid for a mind-altering(you get high, right?) drug. So I vote no to make it legal.

 

Letting everyone do whatever they want just because they have the right to doesn't mean tey should.

 

It's your right to do whatever you want to your body. But that doesn't mean I have to condone it.

[omnifinite]

And kudos, Martial_Artist. That's basically how I feel about it. It's good to hear it out of someone else's mouth.

[BKJ1216]

I voted no. Then again, if I was the grand potentate of the world I would also ban alcohol, cigarettes, pornography, and some other things I consider useless to the human race.

 

For me, in my experience, those who use any kind of drug have a deeper psychological reason for trying to escape life through chemicals. Mostly, that reason is weakness. Weak people use drugs recreationally. By weak I mean: weak-souled. I've traveled much and it's the same everywhere.

 

Then again, this is America and freedom was won. Unfortunately that means having to put up with those who abuse freedom. It all boils down to when we were children and taught, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. And even doing so doesn't prove you are expressing freedom by doing so. Just because you have the right to smoke and ruin your body and soul doesn't mean you should.

 

I've heard the arguments that marijuana is "safe". Mind-altering is not safe. External substance to get high? Doesn't sound very intelligent to me. Want high? Get a better life. Finding escape or "relaxation" in a drug is weak.

 

I voted no because I don't think it should be allowed public use. Even now it's easy to obtain. I wouldn't make it any easier. I don't believe there is any valid reason to make it accessible to everyone. Those who want it can apply for it using medical reasons. Recreational use, I don't believe such a reason is valid for a mind-altering(you get high, right?) drug. So I vote no to make it legal.

 

Letting everyone do whatever they want just because they have the right to doesn't mean tey should.

 

It's your right to do whatever you want to your body. But that doesn't mean I have to condone it.

Yeah but you have to ask yourself what good is it to keep it illegal. I mean no matter how illegal you make it people are still going to buy it. And the more people you arrest for it the more our prisons get filled up and in the end causes things like prison violence and what not.

 

Not only that a lot of cops really dont care anymore if you do smoke it. I have a couple friends who smoke it and one of their step dads is a cop. I really don't think people take canabis seriously anymore. It's probably because most people are smart enough not to drive around when they're buzzed. I think that's when most of the deaths caused while people are under the influence happen, in veihicles. So it really don't matter if it's legalized or not becuase people will still do it, but we may as well legalize it so we don't have to keep paying taxes on our flooding prisons.

[hobz]

Well, then States should adopt Canada's ways, basically you don't get thrown in jail unless you have a whole shitload of it, otherwise you just get a fine.