75 years ago, the 18th Amendment was repealed.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

[Whiskey Delta]

The alcohol abolitionists used the same tact as you, moral high handedness and absolute steadfast clinging to their own ignorance.

History has proven them wrong.

I need say no more.

[The_Game]

The hardest drug I use habitually is coffee, yet I'm still all for personal freedoms, despite knowing that even if it were legal I'd probably never even try it. "It" being anything harder, that is.

[jahwarrior72]

maybe my opinion is colored by my experiences. i personally have no negative feelings or memories associated with weed. most of the people i knew who smoked it weren't bad people. they weren't career criminals, or have drug/alcohol problems. many of them were in professional fields. for the most part, it was treated like alcohol, when used recreationally. that's how i think it should be viewed now.

i grew up in a pretty bad neighborhood, so i was exposed to the impact hard drugs had on people's lives, and the community around me. when i was very young, heroin was decimating the bronx and harlem. as a teen, crack swept throughout NYC. i have lost many friends who'd be my age now, to addiction, murders, and jail, because of it. i would never want any of those drugs to be legal, but let's face it: the War on Drugs was lost years ago. why are we wasting the time, money, and manpower on arresting and prosecuting people for marijuana?

what's even more ridiculous is the fact that the growing and cultivation of non intoxicating hemp is also illegal. we have a source of cheap and quickly replenishable wood, fiber, organic oil, and fiber, and we don't use it. 3 cheers for the War on Drugs.

[Vig]

what's even more ridiculous is the fact that the growing and cultivation of non intoxicating hemp is also illegal. we have a source of cheap and quickly replenishable wood, fiber, organic oil, and fiber, and we don't use it. 3 cheers for the War on Drugs.

What else do you expect from America these days? We just love to make war--the war on poverty, war on drugs, war on terror. We're the only nation to actually declare war on inanimate objects. But if we aren't fighting another armed force we loose, guaranteed. Look at the war on poverty and how badly we lost...against poverty, loosing even more money in the process.

Until we elect common sense to office we have no hope of getting out of this way of thinking.

[crakkajakka15]

YES pot should be legal....period. Marijuana is not a drug. No pothead I have ever known has hurt anyone. Think about all the money we spend on putting and keeping people in jail over pot. Think about the money the government could make off taxing it....but what do i know....hell there have been studies that show cigarettes and alcohol are worse for you than pot.

[crakkajakka15]

[I]"

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?"

Some countries that is perfectly acceptable to "fire one up" after dinner with the boss...yet their country probably has half the problems that we have here

[D-FENS]

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.

That's a pretty arrogant thing to say. Maybe you took a wrong turn on your way to your prayer group but blindly casting such a wide net won't yield too many "amens" around here.

Thinking before you type may help prevent retarded posts.

[Michele]

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.

Gee, I always thought along with age came wisdom.

[mpi]

Sir you are certainly quick to denigrate my lack of experience, or was it my wealth of experience.......I'm not sure which because you seem to flip flop on that one.

legal or illegal.......makes no difference to availability so why are you so set on throwing good money and lives after bad? it just doesn't work, never will. I've seen too many good cops killed and hurt in this futile exercise. How about you? ever been shot in the line of duty? ever put your ass on the line to deny a drug to somebody and realize that all your efforts simply meant that the junky had to walk an extra block to get a fix? guess not!

how much of a study have you made of the conditions in our society in previous decades in relation to drug availability? your arguments are empty and smack of the same sort of empty, thoughtless emotion of the anti gunners. You have no interest in logic or facts, and in fact they will only serve to muddy your fantasies.

if you legalized all drugs tomorrow you would bankrupt most of the gangs and organized crime overnight, just like prohibition nearly ruined their counterparts of yore. In fact if they hadn't had other illegal enterprises to fall back on they would have dried up and blown away.

Drug laws are to blame, not drugs, for most of our current problems in this area. this I know for a fact, first hand. the fact of it's illegality enhances it's price and it's demand. another fact!

As far as religion goes.....that's an argument you'll have to forgo as well, as i am a devout Christian and have no interest in drug use, legal or illegal! Although, oddly enough, i have helped jail plenty of upstanding, religious types for just these sorts of violations.

[awkx]

As far as stretching the dope issue to include guns and freedom thereof, I credit that sort of mindset with ... no credit at all.

Well, in our precedent-based system of Constitutional law, they are intimately related. The same logic that allows the feds to prohibit/regulate marijuana also lets them prohibit/regulate certain classes of firearms.

Furthermore, the same argument used against drugs is also used against firearms. "Drugs cause crime and violence, so we should outlaw drugs." Well, just substitute "Drugs" with "Guns", and you have the anti-gunners' argument. Certainly some people abuse guns/drugs, but this is no reason to punish those who use them responsibly. Empirical evidence overwhelming shows that marijuana can be used responsibly. And even for harder drugs, like crack cocaine and crystal meth, I think the gov't should focus on the actual crimes that drug-addicts commit instead of the victimless "crime" of using the drug itself.