75 years ago, the 18th Amendment was repealed.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

[Whiskey Delta]

"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?


"Uuuuhhhhh, the joint?"

So really, what is your point beyond a personal 'feeling' that marijuana is 'bad' or that people can't be trusted with a freedom that makes YOU uncomforable?

What separates your bandemonium from the ill considered and similarly baseless antipathy that Sarah Brady has against The second ammendment?

You simply have no concrete, fact based evidence that legalization would do anything other than what I have indicated.

Care to share something a bit more ....objective?

[The_Game]

I suggest you expand your scope of reading and viewing materials beyond The History Channel and High Times magazine.

As far as "spouting off", you're the one who started in with "head up their ass" rhetoric, boyo.

Onto another point:

If anyone thinks having a glass of wine or a beer with dinner sets a bad example to children, all I can say is, we're from different worlds... and further conversation is pointless.

Likewise, anyone who wants to cavalierly dismiss any rancor felt for those who would smoke a joint in front of their kids as "think of the children" alarmism.

Of course, anyone under the age of 30 in this thread, without children of their own yet, can pretty much STFU on general principle anyway, since their opinion on this subject, and pretty much any subject relating to things more important than speculation on the next American Idol winner, is immaterial.

I'm getting too old to suffer fools gladly... especially dope-advocating fools.

Wow.

I'm pretty well stunned.

<EDIT> I stand by what I said on this line, but on second thought, no sense getting an infraction.

Remember who'll be running this country when you're bones rotting in the ground.

[Robert Kayland]

So really, what is your point beyond a personal 'feeling' that marijuana is 'bad' or that people can't be trusted with a freedom that makes YOU uncomforable?

What separates your bandemonium from the ill considered and similarly baseless antipathy that Sarah Brady has against The second ammendment?

You simply have no concrete, fact based evidence that legalization would do anything other than what I have indicated.

Care to share something a bit more ....objective?

I've seen first-hand what continued dope smoking does to young folks, all the way back from my Army days in the early '70s.

And I'm not going to waste further time trying to convince you or your ilk on the deleterious nature of these things.

If you want to live in a world that's nothing more than an Amsterdam, Haiti, or Brazil writ large, more power to you... like I said before, this country's pretty much finished anyway, so if folks want to open up hash parlors or opium dens or believe that this country was built when every form of dope was legal and most people were addicts, then go ahead and worship whatever gods you wish... I'll wake you no longer from your "loved Egyptian night", as Kipling so aptly put it.

[Robert Kayland]

Remember who'll be running this country when you're bones rotting in the ground.

I think we've already gotten a good taste of how "The Woodstock Generation" has run this country... and those of you advocating that same tired 'anything goes in the name of personal freedom' morality, or lack thereof, will certainly continue to be running this country when I'm long gone... you'll continue running it all right... into the ground.

[The_Game]

And that's the great part about America.

We have the freedom to do something, even if it kills us in a spectacular way.

[Robert Kayland]

And that's the great part about America.

We have the freedom to do something, even if it kills us in a spectacular way.

If that's your creed, then like I said, we're from different worlds... in mine, such nihilism isn't held in high esteem, and where there is no common ground, discussion is immaterial. Godspeed to you and your fellow freedom lovers in the attainment of your self-stated ideals in spectacular fashion.

[mpi]

i think more than 20 years in law enforcement already counts. as for the spouting off thing if you took personal offense at that then i apologize. if the drug war was anything more than smoke and mirrors then we wouldn't live in a country where you can buy drugs anywhere and could find anything you want in even the smallest communities.

It can't be stopped, it can't be even slowed down. the people of this country want drugs more than almost anything else that exists. If there was no great demand then there would be no great supply!

before prohibition you could buy nearly any drug you wanted over the counter. coca cola starts with the word "coca" for a reason. we were better off in those days, at least sociologically, than now. in case you missed it freedom is always better that prohibition whether it be drugs or guns.

[The_Game]

Hell, my workplace is a drug-free zone, and there are deals going down almost daily that management KNOWS go on, but can't prove.

And this is a small company of maybe 300 people.

[Whiskey Delta]

I've seen first-hand what continued dope smoking does to young folks, all the way back from my Army days in the early '70s.

And I'm not going to waste further time trying to convince you or your ilk on the deleterious nature of these things.

If you want to live in a world that's nothing more than an Amsterdam, Haiti, or Brazil writ large, more power to you... like I said before, this country's pretty much finished anyway, so if folks want to open up hash parlors or opium dens or believe that this country was built when every form of dope was legal and most people were addicts, then go ahead and worship whatever gods you wish... I'll wake you no longer from your "loved Egyptian night", as Kipling so aptly put it.

You need to come off the high horse before you fall and break a hip. What makes you so sure that you are correct, and that other are wrong? Just because you 'say so'? That is pretty much the tact used in elementary playgrounds. If you want to simply and arbitrarily submit that everyone is wrong and cover your virtual ears, then so be it. I can summarily dismiss your opinions as you have others. I will post this for the edification of those who have not yet written off this country as you say you have.


Societies have suffered the ill effects of a variety of intoxicants, including the alcohol that you see no problem with.

Gotta tell ya, after 28 years in the medical field, I have seen greater ill from the effects of alcohol that you seem to accept, and much less from the illicit drugs.

I have also observed that Darwinism is pretty much still in effect, and those bent on personal destruction and idiocy will do so despite the constant nannying that some seem to prefer. The nannying carries with it enormous fiscal, political and societal cost as well, but the fearful commit to their prohibition stance despite history and common sense showing their error.

What do I want?

I want to live in a country where freedom loving people know what the Hell Freedom means, and not have "what's right and proper" being dictated by people who claim to be sober but suffer under the influence of ignorance and fear driven hysteria. There seem to be people out there whose sole 'education' on the topic was watching "Reefer Madness". In any event, the cost of prohibition was terrible, and the prohibitionists claimed the same territory that you seem to cling to. Who has history proved wrong in this case?

Furthermore, if this country is so washed up, what do you suppose made it that way?

Has FREEDOM made it that way, or the incremental marginalization of people who didn't want or need the gov.org to show them the way, enforce the way and punish those who dared refuse the paternal heavy hand of the government.

Prohibtion doesn't work, period.

Doesn't matter who is offended.

Since you like literary references so much, I will include mine from Horace Walpole:

"Life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think".

Cheer up.

[Robert Kayland]

i think more than 20 years in law enforcement already counts. as for the spouting off thing if you took personal offense at that then i apologize. if the drug war was anything more than smoke and mirrors then we wouldn't live in a country where you can buy drugs anywhere and could find anything you want in even the smallest communities.

It can't be stopped, it can't be even slowed down. the people of this country want drugs more than almost anything else that exists. If there was no great demand then there would be no great supply!

If you truly have 20 years in law enforcement, then perhaps your outlook has been colored by the type of folks you've been attending to in your daily job, and that makes you think "people in this country want drugs more than almost anything else".

The circles in which I travel evince no such thing. (Buncha freedom-hatin', church-goin' killjoys!)

And given the firsthand experience you've had in re witnessing the behaviors of users of dope, I'm surprised that you would even advocate any sort of legalization... that doesn't jibe with the vast majority of LEO's that I've heard from in my lifetime.

before prohibition you could buy nearly any drug you wanted over the counter. coca cola starts with the word "coca" for a reason. we were better off in those days, at least sociologically, than now. in case you missed it freedom is always better that prohibition whether it be drugs or guns.

I'll call this rampant speculation, at best, as to the sociological health of our society back in those days, and how much credit can be assigned to the availability and legality of what are now illegal drugs. I'm sure the average American back then was no habitual user of Absinthe and such, nor were the collective judgments of our Founding Fathers clouded by a haze of marijuana smoke, much as those who gleefully point out that Washington et. al. might have had hemp on their farms would like to imagine. That's the same misguided mentality of the high school drop-out who proudly points out that Walt Disney himself quit school.

As far as stretching the dope issue to include guns and freedom thereof, I credit that sort of mindset with the same mentality that lumps women in with minorities... in short, no credit at all.

Societies have suffered the ill effects of a variety of intoxicants, including the alcohol that you see no problem with.Gotta tell ya, after 28 years in the medical field, I have seen greater ill from the effects of alcohol that you seem to accept, and much less from the illicit drugs.

And because alcohol itself has admittedly led to much misery in this society, we're to embrace yet another method by which people can find an avenue of abuse? Physician, heal thyself! By your own words, then, legalizing a substance can and will lead to further abuse of said substance.

This horse you accuse me of riding might seem high to you, but that's an understandable perception from one whose horse is used merely for stalking.