75 years ago, the 18th Amendment was repealed. Should we do the same for marijuana?

Seventy-five years ago, the 18th Amendment (allowing federal prohibition of alcohol) was repealed. Should we now repeal the Amendment allowing Congress to prohibit marijuana?

Oops, it seems like the feds didn't let that pesky Constitution thing get in their way this time. Nowadays, all three branches of the federal gov't have defaulted on their duty to uphold the Constitution, and instead just cite the Commerce Clause ("The Congress shall have power ... To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes") to allow almost any federal laws. (Take a look at Gonzales v. Raich; the Supreme Court ruled that the power to regulate interstate commerce includes the power to completely prohibit marijuana that is grown and consumed entirely within the borders of a single state.) Even if you believe that prohibition of marijuana has been a net good thing, note that the same perverse interpretation of the Commerce Clause is what permits all the bullshit "reasonable" federal gun-control laws.

While I personally don't use currently-illegal drugs and wouldn't even if they were legal, I think that drug prohibition has been a net harm to our country, just like alcohol prohibition was. Where do criminal gangs get their money today? Selling illegal drugs. Just like the criminal mobs in the 1930s got their money by selling illegal alcohol. So, if politicians really wanted to deal with the street violence, they should bankrupt the criminal gangs by decriminalizing drugs instead of scapegoating law-abiding gun-owners.

See also http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122843683581681375.html

Marijuana should be legal, I'm not so sure about the others. Cocaine is highly addictive, as is crack, heroin, etc etc. Marijuana is easily grown, its a plant, and its addictive properties aren't high at all. Alcohol is more addictive then marijuana.

We can't regulate Marijuana no matter what. Cocaine and opiates, on the other hand, are grown in other countries and shipped here. If we focus solely on those drugs coming in that can't be produced here, and make the stuff that can be grown here legal, I think we would be able to cripple gangs quite severely, without have a ton of coke heads running around.

The government even gives it out for medical use to some people, who smoke it many, many times a day and live perfectly normal lives, even if the idea behind it might be challenged.

I think the reason some drugs get such a bad rep is because the people who use them, are already doing illegal things anyway. Most people who live law abiding lives will not touch any drug. Its the criminals that use them, and only the criminals, so people blame the drugs for the criminals problems. Its simply the fact that they're the only ones who will take the risk of it.

Let it be legal. No harm.

Yes. Marijuana hasn't hurt anyone. By the logic that it does, alcohol should still be illegal. Great thread on ARFCOM where someone tried to argue that marijuana brought out crminal tendencies in people. Sounded like something out of reefer madness.

They call it "dope" for a reason.

Then again, this country is finished anyway... so why not add a few more hopheads to the mix.

http://www.indium.com/_images/0807/j...bb_dragnet.gif

/that's right... I said hopheads.

Smokin' dope is harmless and cool... so let's start 'em out young!
http://www.greatgradesguaranteed.com/images/weed.jpg

No, thanks... we'll stick with our beer!
http://www.dailyhaha.com/_pics/beer_drunk_baby.jpg

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Originally Posted by jsb889

Cocaine is highly addictive, as is crack, heroin, etc etc.

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Nicotine is highly addictive, and you only need to be 18 to buy cigarettes at any corner store.

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Originally Posted by The_Game

Nicotine is highly addictive, and you only need to be 18 to buy cigarettes at any corner store.

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Tobacco-related health problems plague this country to the tune of billions in health care per year... not to mention the ruined lives.

So... this is an argument for legalizing dope how?

Marijuana should remain illegal. period.


You try being a child in a house that the next ounce of pot was more important than keeping food in kitchen cupboard. Really makes a person want that shit legalized, now doesn't it?

Yes the same could be said about alcohol, over the counter drugs, prescription drugs, and numerous other substances; but my personal experience doesn't entail abuse of those substances.

The point about legalizing drugs is an interesting one. It brings out all sorts of prohibitionists points which could easily be used (and are) to cast doubt on all sorts of 'freedoms' we enjoy, including the incremental loss of 2A rights, and 4th A too.

The prohibitionists would do well to remember that the abolitionists who stalked the beer halls back in the 1920's and whose temperence movement created the vollstead act, created in the wake of prohibition the majority of our organized crime families and more than a couple crooked political families (Like the Kennedys) who used the ilicit trade of alcohol to stoke their political furnaces.

Similarly today, our government spends a king's ransom on interdiction and prosecution, and we pay more in housing offenders. Furthermore, the unseen cost of encroachment of freedoms and empowering the government to strip rights is countered by the horrendous trade imbalance we currently have with drug producing countries.

Furthermore, Narco-Terrorism would founder if the currency attached to such trade were able to be tracked, as it would be if street drugs were legal and taxed, and controlled like liquor, beer and tobacco.

Don't get on the high horse of the health costs, unless you are willing to lose junk food, cigarettes and booze.

Remember several things about MJ, Coke and Heroin: They were ALL legal at one time in this country, back when the government was small, taxes were low and you could buy a Thompson Submachine gun at your local Hardware store. I think things were generally better then, why don't we desire a return to when freedom was not a farcical notion along the lines of "Harry Potter"?

You can't parse freedom.

Either individuals are free to pursue "Life, Liberty and Happiness" or we are not. You can't start the endless nannying about what will happen to those of our society who are too weak to resist temptation. Those types will always exist, and they will always act to their own detriment irrespective of the law.

You cannot legislate morality, as history has shown.

Any attempts at this are fraught with problems which in my opinion outweigh the social cost to the rest of us who are smart enough to be trusted with freedom.

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Don't get on the high horse of the health costs, unless you are willing to lose junk food, cigarettes and booze.

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"You're against marijuana?! Well, you'd better be against Twinkies as well!"

Riiiiiiiiight.

Ahem... cigarettes were already mentioned in the prior remark about health costs, being even more nefarious than dope... ergo, certainly no justification for the legalization of yet another pestilential substance.

As far as alcohol vs dope goes, well...

Sitting around the dinner table with the boss, or the neighbors, or just the family (young children included), what would make you feel better as far as the message being sent? Seeing someone partake in a glass of wine/beer, or firing up a joint?

http://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:...com/stoner.jpg
"Uuuuhhhhh, the joint?"