hifigator
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 6,387
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Post by hifigator on Jun 15, 2007 15:59:23 GMT -5
Incidentally, after about 48 hours of being on our board, the voting is running about two-thirds in favor of regulated marijuana, along the lines of tobacco. I didn't list particulars, but presumably, that would mean a heavily taxed industry where much of the profits must be spent on educating the public as to the dangers associated with the product, and only available to adults. I could live with that.
Also C2C, there could be another value to society of legalization. It may very well be that legal weed would result in less cig smoking. The opposite could also be true, but it would be interesting to do a little study.
As for the poll, I asked what view everyone had of marijuana.
The choices were:
It is and should be illegal, period. 12 votes It should be legal for medicinal use only, with presription. 18 votes It should be legal to grow and only for personal use. 4 votes I combined the last two categories, since they were essentially the same and there were 68 total votes for it should be regulated and taxed and not sold to minors, just like tobacco.
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Post by SoCal Hoya85 on Jun 16, 2007 13:08:06 GMT -5
This is anecdotal, but for me it is a more compelling reason to keep marijuana illegal than any argument about taxation or libertarian philosophy. Some of my close friends smoke or have smoked pot on a regular basis, and four of them have had their lives significantly damaged because of it. For privacy issues I'm not going to get into details, but the causation is not in doubt for me- these problems happened as soon as they started smoking.
Throw all the studies funded by people hoping to get rich or high from marijuana at me you want, but I think most people have seen with their own eyes the negative effects. It gets in the way of people's goals and even becomes a goal in itself. Worst of all it destroys ambition. I really hate it.
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hifigator
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 6,387
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Post by hifigator on Jun 18, 2007 11:48:23 GMT -5
This is anecdotal, but for me it is a more compelling reason to keep marijuana illegal than any argument about taxation or libertarian philosophy. Some of my close friends smoke or have smoked pot on a regular basis, and four of them have had their lives significantly damaged because of it. For privacy issues I'm not going to get into details, but the causation is not in doubt for me- these problems happened as soon as they started smoking. Throw all the studies funded by people hoping to get rich or high from marijuana at me you want, but I think most people have seen with their own eyes the negative effects. It gets in the way of people's goals and even becomes a goal in itself. Worst of all it destroys ambition. I really hate it. That's fair enough. I see your point here. Using that line of thinking however, we could also point to hundreds of thousands of lives lost or damaged due to alcohol. And I am talking about divorce, broken families and violence, not just the obvious drinking and driving. That doesn't invalidate your view in any way, but it at least calls into question whether the occurences of such, in and of themselves, justify criminalization. Personally I know many people who do smoke weed on a regular basis. As you say, for privacy reasons, I won't go into details, but the point is they are contributing parts of society. They have wives and husbands as well as children. They stay out of trouble and hold down good jobs. I also know a few who used to smoke but no longer do. A couple of friends had to quit for fear of being tested. One other joined the military and one other just decided to quit. He tells me a story of his toddler daughter walking into the room with his water pipe in his hands and he'd decided to stop. In any case, our little ancedotal evidence isn't scientific for sure, but if you look back to the first page, I did link some studies which detail related dangers associated with smoking pot. By all indications they are not as significant as alcohol.
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hifigator
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 6,387
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Post by hifigator on Jun 18, 2007 11:58:29 GMT -5
Actually SoCal, I don't know of a single major issue which resulted from marijuana use. I do personally know of tragedies in the form of deaths or wasted lives as a result of alcohol, cocaine and tobacco. I lost my aunt to lung cancer several months ago. We drove up to South Carolina to visit her and thankfully we left when we did. The kids were able to talk to her one last time. She literally passed away about 3 hours after we got there. It was almost like she was waiting. In any case, she was a victim of years of tobacco use. I am not going to go into details, but I do have several acquaintances who have had major problems arise from cocaine use and I think we all know someone past or present who was a victim of a dui at some point.
Seriously, in all honesty, I can't think of a single major event that happened because of pot use. The closest was someone getting busted for growing large amounts of weed. He certainly has some scars to show for it, but given that the issue is the legality of weed in the first place, then supporting the position that weed should be illegal "because" of the illegal actions is flawed. I am not arguing with your experiences, but making it clear that I have seen nothing of the sort. From that point, neither of us can make a conclusion with certainty then.
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