If you have actual info that could be useful and relevant. Specifically illegal marijuana and other drug use prior to legislation and then illegal drug use after some time.

A country that had always allowed marijuana use or unofficially allowed it might be interesting, but I'm not sure if it would be representative of our situation.

Weed is easy to grow which means anybody could grow his own weed and big business would not profit! Such an evil drug big business could not profit from must remain outlawed! Not to mention the possible uses of marijuana as medicine that would hurt big pharma big time!

There are a lot reasons why it is illegal, it's just not those they officially claim!

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I could see that. While you could grow tobacco. I get the impression the sheer volume smoked would make home growing impractical. Whereas I think with weed you consume a much smaller amount of material. Yes?

Hell no

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It's a post 9/11 world.

I live in a small town in Quebec, Canada and first off I would like to say a huge NO to the assertion that marijuana is legal here. Unless I imagined spending a night in the cell with the local homeless dude.

I can tell you that it is demand that drives the marijuana trade. Not one single dealer has to "push" his product. More often than not you hear the complaint "(*)(*)(*)(*) the town is dry man" and everyone starts fiending and calling everybody they know who has even mentioned pot. These potheads (and they are a very large portion of the population here) are not doing marijuana because its illegal, hell if it was legal there would be massive celebrations in the streets. We do pot cause it is the only thing that can make the conjugation of french verbes the most hilarious thing since the word pickleweasle.

In all seriousness marijuana is in a totally different league from chemicals (as we call anything stronger than pot). It is a completely different market of user and I don't forsee any huge spike in ecstasy consumption if pot is legalised.

My former roommate used to live on a tobacco farm. I can tell you from the little I know based on that and based on being a tobacco enthusiast, a bit of a pot smoker and someone who is interested in drugs in general on a scholarly level as well as an experiential one, that tobacco is a much harder crop to work with than cannabis. Growing tobacco for smoking is extremely difficult, while growing pot for human use is pretty (*)(*)(*)(*) easy. I know complete imbeciles who've grown pot plants in their home. But ignoring that anecdotal evidence, everything I know tells me that someone could easily grow cannabis for personal use in their home, while the same would be quite a bit more difficult with tobacco.

I'm too high to answer. I'm going to go heat up some microwave burritos and watch old movies.

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Two "no's" make a "yes". Can't argue with math.

I dont really believe in the premise that people smoke weed because its illegal.

The biggest group you will find doing things simply because they are told not to would be teens. Its a naturally rebellious age as well as an age of experimentation.

If weed were legalized it would get mostly the same restrictions as alcohol or cigarettes, so it would STILL be illegal for those who do so because its illegal. Therefore, most likely no shift to harder drugs would occur due to its legalization.

You might see some slight increase in usage if it were illegal because you also have a group (most that are beyond teen years) that will not do it because its illegal and will not risk consequences of illegal behavior (risk of job loss, drug testing at jobs, risk losing custody of children etc).

If we look to the one nation its been legal in for decades now we see that they did have a slight increase in usage after legalization but that was followed by a decrease. You also dont see a shift that means higher usage of other drugs either, that usage is also a bit decreased as well and still remains much lower than the US and lower than most of the rest of europe as well.

Possibly the reason is that their education and treatment of the issue is more honest and the funds they allocate for prevention and treatment is more effective in garnering less usage than criminalizing is. They dont have to spend quite as much on law enforcement, legal proceedings and incarceration...that gives them a distinct advantage.

Overall, I dont think most people continue drug use or drinking because they wish to rebel or even try it due to that reason...mostly the drive is to change our state of mind..humans like that and always have.

BREAKING NEWS:

The only people who smoke weed to rebel are teens, and most teens who smoke weed, drink, right? Drinking is legal, but teens still do that. Argument crumbles.

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