I'm not a marijuana user, but I tried a few times. It was many years ago. I saw, that really nice people were doing it, fine intellectuals, and never caused violence. I noticed even that time, that those who were buying it, had to do secretly, and I see many jail terms for pocessing it.
Marijuana has great use medically.
I'm a Liberarian, and I support the legalization of Marijuana. Prohobiting something can increase crime, underground movements, and thing can turn not always into the right hands.
Libertarians believe of the legalization of Marijuana.
See more isuues on your freedom, and visit Michael Bodnarik website. After reading all your comments, I can se, that many of you already did it

I've been an advocate for the legalization of MJ for many years. I've also smoked MJ for many years, and I can say with confidence that I have never once robbed anyone in order to get it. I have also stopped smoking MJ numerous times for long periods of time (once for 6 months, and once for over a year) w/o withdrawal symptoms. The longest I've been able to go w/o a cigarette was one month and that was hell! MJ simply is NOT addictive.

As for health, it can easily be baked into cakes, causing the same effects as smoking it minus the health risks. And it can be used for medical purposes as well- treating some forms of cancer, insomnia, I've heard gloucoma, and arithitis. I'm also speaking from experience here. I suffered from cancer a few years ago. During the radiation treatment, I couldn't eat anything w/o vomiting it up minutes later. The only way I could keep the food down was smoking a little MJ before meals (sorry for the disgusting discription).

Also, as stated by some others, hemp can be used for a variety of products, such as food, clothing, rope, paper, etc.

When one considers the benefits of increased taxes, jobs, and a better environment, how could we NOT legalize it?

Oh and btw, F-R-O-G wrote:
I posted one small post and everybody jumps on it

More formally, we call that debating.

__________________
Love causes fear.
Love causes sorrow.
Those without love have neither sorrow nor fear.

Pot is not going to be a problem, if it where legal. Alcohol is more dangerous than pot will ever be.

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Yes, I am a mindless, Brainwashed, robot,
AKA an American Infantryman.
Yet somehow I think for myself.....

So, because alcohol is worse that means we should legalize pot? Nice logic. OK everyone, put down the bong, put the Huka aside, take off the gas mask and drop the Blunt. Here are some cold hard facts. Fact: Pot has serious health risks, contrary to popular opinion. Fact: Pot users on average make less than the average wage earner, not to mention the unemployment rate and the erratic, moving from job to job. Fact: Being under the influence of pot impairs your ability to drive, work, attend school and many other everyday activities. Fact: There are pot related deaths. Fact: Most pot users are not productive members of society. There are numerous other side effects and negative pot related facts. Bottom line is that pot is just as dangerous and detrimental to society as any other drug, including alcohol and tobacco. And before you start going off on me, I have used pot, I have been around pot users for most of my life and I have seen first hand how "Pot and other drugs" have equally ruined and negatively affected many peoples lives. Just some food for thought.

Serious enough to never kill someone.

If you live a wonderfully black and white world, marijuana would explain all of that, but there are thousands of other reasons all tied in with one another.

Which is why anyone with half a brain wouldn't be stoned while working, going to school, or driving, and deserve to be fired/expelled or lose their liscense/go to jail for doing so.


None caused directly from marijuana. The very few that are cases such as people falling asleep at the wheel, which should obviously be illegal.

Good job, you've won the award for most outright lie ever!

I've been at least acquainted with hundreds of pot smokers over the course of my life. With a few exceptions, every one of them worked and would be a "productive member of society" as you said. Those who didn't were just lazy, and regardless of what smoke they chose to inhale, would not be "productive members of society." Again, this is a wonderful example of you living life in a black and white world.

And I'm curious - what exactly constitutes a "productive member of society."

Honestly? No. I think if everyone on the planet smoked a little pot every once in a while the world would be a much better place.

It's never directly killed someone, has numerous medical benefits, it's just plain fun, and if you've been smoking pot, the chances of you harming in any way shape or form someone else are, if anything, lower than when you're sober.

Bottom line is that if someone wants to smoke pot it's not hurting you in the least. After all, no one's forcing you to at all and if you want to work hard and not smoke pot and be a "productive member of society" you have every right to. You don't have the right to restrict another's right to whatever they so please with their body as long as they aren't harming someone else, which they aren't.

Are you suggesting that people don't have the right to ruin their life if they want to?
Not to mention, most of the people who let their lives get ruined by drugs are...well, absolute idiots, and regardless of whether or not the drug is legal, they're going to screw up their life. I've been around many pot smokers who do great in life, and love every minute of it.

Uh huh.

I'm curious, by the way, have you ever been to Holland? It's really interesting. You see, 60% of the people in Holland use drugs. Holland also has the 1/4 violent crime rate, 1/4 the homicide rate and 1/10 the incarceration rate as that of the United States. A clear example that legalizing drugs will not cause their use to skyrocket or destroy society.

Also, has it occured to you that by legalizing marijuana, it would be much easier to keep it out of the hands of kids? Drugs are going to exist whether you like it or not, and there are not pot dealers with "No pot under 18" signs. It's much easier to get marijuana if you're a teenager than it is to get tobacco. Illegal drug use amongst teens is much higher than tobacco and alcohol use amongst teens.

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"Violence isn't always evil. What's evil is the infatuation with violence."
Jim Morrison

I think you beat me for the biggest outright lie. "It's my body and I am only hurting myself", "it's not hurting you or anybody else". Congratulations, you have just used the biggest cliche in the history of the world and the biggest lie ever perpetrated. When someone says they are only hurting themselves, they are trying to fool themselves into believing it. In reality, you are hurting every single person in your life, other peoples lives that you come in contact with and the lives of people you do not even know. It is selfish to think you don't effect other people and ignorance at its finest.

I also would like to congratulate you on being the only omnipotent person I have ever met. Pot has never directly killed someone, amazing you know that for a fact. Amazing and completely inaccurate. Obviously you are going to keep spouting inane and fictitious statements that you can show know proof of. So i am not going to get in a childish argument over it.

I will say from personal experience with numerous people I have known personally, Pot is as destructive and additive as any other of the "hard drugs". It destroys the brain(actual causes shrinkage of the brain as well as destroying cells), adversely effects mental processes(is a contributing factor in many suicides every year), and literally turns users into Zombies.

And as of now it is illegal. Just the fact that you use an illegal, controlled substance is destructive to society in so many ways I will not get into them. I can tell you from experience that it destroys the human spirit and leads to a very lonely, sad existence.

And if you want statistics or facts about it, I think I can come up with something.

How, precisely, am I hurting someone if I enjoy a little marijuana in the privacy of my own home?

You're in the affirmative position (people have died from marijuana) and I'm in the negative position (people have not died from marijuana). Any burden of proof is on you.

Marijuana has no known chemically addictive properties. A person being addicted to marijuana is not different than a person being addicted to...playing their guitar, for example. It's not chemcially addictive in any way, and extremely easy to flat out stop if you feel you're being negatively affected by it. It's drugs like heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, etc. (and tobacco and alcohol - the two most dangerous drugs in existence) which actually can cause harm to others if the user takes them through aggression, etc. and which causes thousands upon thousands of deaths every year which we should be fighting. While the government spends unimaginable amounts of money fighting "the evil of marijuana" and putting people in jail for it, drugs like cocaine and heroin are being that much more easily perpetuated.

So? Someone destroying some of their brain cells is not going to hurt you. And again, anyone who's even of average intelligence will understand that all things should be used in moderation. It's easy to use marijuana in moderation, since it isn't addictive.
Adversely affects mental processes, sure. It's a drug. That's what they do. However, it doesn't cause agression in any way, so I don't see how it's harmful to other people. I would also like to see a source as to marijuana being a contributing factor to suicides.

I've been using marijuana for a good many years on a fairly regular basis. I also run a 5k every morning. Zombie? Not so sure about that.

It used to be illegal for interracial couples to marry. That doesn't mean they were hurting society by doing that. Just because a law dictates something does not make it so.

My experience is the exact opposite. This would indicate that marijuana is not the factor which leads to a lonely and sad existense, merely that some people who smoke marijuana also have a sad and lonely existence. The correlation is not at all conclusive.

Let's see em.

__________________
"Violence isn't always evil. What's evil is the infatuation with violence."
Jim Morrison

You are obviously going to just give me statements that you can not back up factually. I believe your long term use of Marijuana leaves you unable to come up with a convincing argument, so I will leave you with some reference material:
http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/marijuana.html
http://www.nida.nih.gov/drugpages/marijuana.html
http://www.vh.org/adult/patient/psyc...ons/mjade.html
http://www.aafp.org/afp/991201ap/991201b.html
http://www.drug-rehabs.com/marijuana.htm
http://www.camprecovery.com/marijuana.asp#one
http://www.4therapy.com/consumer/con...ategoryid=538&
http://www.gdcada.org/statistics/marijuana.htm

Interesting links. I've a few as well:
http://www.mpp.org/science.html#16
http://paranoia.lycaeum.org/marijuan...ogy.html#myth1

And despite having given me a nice little list of health risks associated with marijuana, you still haven't showed that people directly die from its use. Health risks do not equal a reason for prohibition, as those health risks are only associated with the individual using the marijuana. You also haven't responded to any of my base arguments. I'll lay them out in more detail:

Individual Responsibility

When it comes to marijuana, it boils down to the individual's choice of whether or not to use it. The government's responsibility is to keep people safe from other people. Use of marijuana does not cause harm to anyone other than the individual user, and you haven't explained why it does cause harm to other people. If an individual cannot be trusted with choices about their own body, what can they be trusted with? Perhaps we could outlaw pre-marital sex. After all, it poses health risks in some cases which could endanger the life or health of the individuals partaking in that action. Why, then, is pre-marital sex not illegal? There would surely be an outrage is such a law was passed. The answer is that we, as a free democratic republic, recognize the right of the individual to take responsibility for their own bodies, and the consequences of what they may do to them. We recognize the right of an individual do basically do whatever they want, so long as it does not infringe on another's right to do so, and does not pose a high risk of creating a significant threat to others in most cases.

I'm guessing that you're going to say that marijuana will harm friends and family members emotionally. Again, this boils down to the issue of personal responsibility. It's not illegal to be mean to someone. If marijuana is truly as negative as you claim it is, people aren't going to use it.

Money

Keeping marijuana illegal, instead of legalizing it and restricting things such as public intox, DWI, etc. is costing the government, and consequently every American citizen a lot of money, through forcing tax payers to pay the bill of prison costs, etc. According to this analysis:

• It Costs Over $7 Billion Annually to Fund U.S. Marijuana Prohibition(*)
  Nearly Three Quarters of a Million Marijuana Arrests Occur Each Year
  $4.2 Billion in Lost Productivity Wasted by Locking Them Up
  135,488 are Currently Behind Bars for Felony Marijuana Offenses
  $2 Billion Annually to House Them
  20,000 Defendants Locked Up Awaiting Trial for Felony Marijuana Charges
  It Cost About $85 Million to House Them
  $2 Billion Likely Cost for Marijuana Arrests Since 1998
  An Estimated $257 Million Spent on Probation Costs From 1998-2001

Also, the hemp plant has many industrial uses.

Some other interesting sites as pertains to the financial aspects of marijuana (among others) are:
http://www.mjlegal.org/cost.html
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4428

Prohibition doesn't stop usage

In fact, the prohibition of marijuana is really not a strong deterrent.

Marijuana is more available in high schools thanks to the fact that most drug dealers don't bother to check and make sure that their buyer is 18. It's also been suggested that marijuana has the "forbidden fruit" effect, actually increasing usage due to legalization.

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"Violence isn't always evil. What's evil is the infatuation with violence."
Jim Morrison

I agree with you about legalizing marijuana. Drug dealers make millions of dollars because its not readily available, so a drug dealer can ask whatever price and the avid addict will pay.
Also, its common knowledge, that whenever someone tells us not to do something, we just want to do it more. If we were allowed to buy and consume marijuana, the temptation would wear off a little.