Quote:
Originally Posted by tore
That's very nice, FB. I don't think it's a good idea for the US to legalize marijuana and you immediately connect that with extremist super-commy thinking about the government having to remove all freedoms of american citizens and the man not having a duty to prohibit everything which is not good. Do you know how incredibly exaggerating and paranoid your post comes across to me?
Not legalizing does not equal the US government stripping away all commodities and freedoms from US citizens. How are you even supposed to be able to feasibly discuss politics if you jump the gun like that every time someone makes an argument for prohibition? You'd think I was supporting concentration camps. If I was to use your way of arguing, I could say that legalizing pot will eventually lead to legalization of all other freedoms like rape and murder. Oh wait, that wouldn't really make sense, would it?
Maybe you should learn how to read between the lines. The example was merely meant to illustrate that negative effects of marijuana on society doesn't just come in the shape of things that reduce physical and/or mental health. It can be many small and even trivial things.
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Sorry for coming off that way. I think I'm probably too passionate about this.
Anyway, I just wanted to highlight the principle behind the matter. I'm not sure how much you know about pot historically, but I can tell you for certain that it was banned not by careful study and thought for the benefit of society... at least not in a way we might consider noble... but by outright deceit, racism, and political maneuvering.
Anti-pot laws began passing as early as 1915 and snowballed along with alcohol prohibition and has been a part of our legacy for years.
I'm not saying that current study of pot's effects are null and void just because prohibition had no foresight to these effects. Certainly there are negative factors we should consider when talking about legalizing pot. But the most damaging effect pot has had on society is the black market, cartels and crimes that were created BECAUSE of prohibition.
Look at alcohol prohibition and the ensuing birth of the mafia and the horrible crimes that resulted. You can't ignore the parallels.
Drug cartels survive because they monopolize the market of illegal drugs. If you lift the prohibition on pot, tax and regulate it, you pull the rug out from under the pot cartel's feet.
Looking over California's attempt to pass their state's decriminalization of pot, you see that it would be legal to buy, sell, grow, and possess pot. This means that there would literally be no black market involved. It would be akin to owning, manufacturing, and selling your own brand of beer. Aside from minors using against regulation, you cut the crime resulting from possession and distribution, the costs of enforcing it, and gain economic advantages by selling and taxing it at a state level.
What you're left with are concerns relating to psychological and societal side effects, which are still largely debatable at best.
Out of the years and years of study of the long term physical and psychological effects of using pot, there STILL aren't any definitive results that justify continued prohibition. Results that
are published are usually questionable and/or so insignificant and non-relevant that one has to wonder about the motivations behind this clawing, grabbing attempt to keep pot out of the hands of functioning, responsible
adults.
In a world where outlawing proven dangers to yourself
and others is second behind creating black market violence, criminal records and spending billions to do so over a substance who's theoretical effects are largely subjective should pull your head forward and scream into your face that this IS a matter of principle and priority, and that any supposed negative effect that still can't be quantified pales in comparison to the damage that prohibition has done and will continue to do if we don't re-think this thing.