I believe in the decriminalization of all substances and the legalization of Cannabis. Criminalization created the cartels, less people would die as a result of owed money or gang wars based on drugs. I am also an advocate for the recreational use of psychoactive substances at one’s own will. What do YOU think?
too stoned to think
I agree. People should be trusted. If not, you distrust yourself too. So, the politicans we have aren’t the ideal ones. The take care of mentality has something conservative over it that is disturbing. Basically, it’s big business and other conservative powers that don’t won’t such legalisation, especially since it has proven to make free-thinkers of people under the most extraordinary pressure. Take Beatles for example. Suddenly they played somewhat other music with the white album as the outstanding one. There there isn’t so much streamlining and obeying commercial laws, as is the case with all the other albums, even Let It Be where Phil Spector was let in to destroy authencity and make it more commercial. So, there are many reasons behind the conservative forces that don’t want legalisation.
In spite of the fact that I am for legislation allowing and psychoactives I cannot imagine a gang warfare over the aforementioned drugs. Alcohol is far worse for the user and those around the user than cannabis. I have never heard about someone acting violent while under the effects of cannabis but I hear and see hundreds of people ruining their lives whilst under the effects of alcohol.
If you keep drugs illegal all drug-takers will be outlaws. Having stupid and reactionary legislation like this only decreases respect for the law, and as such increases crime. Yes, some of these substances are dangerous (not as much as some might have you think though). However, most of these dangers are to do with uncertain purity, contaminants from shoddy manufacture and so on, precisely the sort of thing legalisation would eliminate.
I believe what he meant was not violence committed by those under the influence, but by those who either will do anything to get it OR distribute it and use violence as a means of protecting themselves from the law/other distributors.
Legalisation would immediately remove the violence of the distributors and might allow more addicts to seek help, given that addiction would not be stigmatised so much.
When did turning production and distribution of things over to the black market ever make them safer anyway?
yes exactly thats why it should be legalised
First of all I have to say that I am for lagalising cannabis.
But the government is scared, because it associates cannabis with crime and violence. But from a biological point of view cannabis (which consits of Tetrahydrocannabinol also known as THC) doesn’t damage your bodies as much as tobacco does. It mostly influences the brains and helps to calm down and not to get violent (case of alcohol). If I may say so, alcohol is more dangerious than cannabis itself.
And crime comes from other directions like dealing with drugs. But IF cannabis was legal, I am sure, there would be less crime, because the addicted people wouldn’t need to get it from underground dealers …
p-ce 
I don’t smoke or drink or do drugs, and I’ve never had a glass of alchohol in my entire life. But I do think that all drugs should be legal, primarily because I don’t think that the laws and penalties we have really dissuade people from using drugs-- as the great philosopher Chris Rock says, if people wanna get high, they’re gonna get high. Instead of stings and arrests and military action in Columbia, we should put our resources into treatment and education, where they might actually be effective in reducing drug use.
I would only support legalization of marijuana if there was a stipulation that it can only be taken in the safety of one’s own home, or other private areas. I’d be willing to bet that given the 30 years and billions of dollars that have gone into researching tobacco’s ill effects, scientists would find just as much wrong with marijuana’s secondary effects. Incidentally, I’d like to see the same restrictions placed on cigarettes. If someone wants to destroy their own body, then that’s their choice, but when you smoke around others you’re endangering their lives as well.
I agree with oreagan’s point of view. I consider law as the force that ensures that what one person does, doesn’t impinge on another persons life. For this reason I am pro the legalisation of cannibis yet I think that like alcohol, it should have an age limit to prevent “children” getting hooked before they are fully aware of the consequences and willing to take responsibility for their actions. This responsibility only comes at the time when they can legaly be imprisoned for breaking the law, which in my country, is 18.
The legalisation of cannibis is fundamental to preserving the principle of subsidiarity. Why should someone else tell me what I should or shouldnt do when it doesnt impinge on anothers human rights? Once the law is in place to prosecute for ill use of the drug, (like alcohol) i feel it should be legalised.
Metavoid, from your link and the quotes you have provided I am led to assume that when you say marijuana should be legalized, you mean it in the drug prescription, heal illness, type of way…right? If not, well that’s all your argument allows you to say. Furthermore, just as Morphine is a dangerous drug it is legalized in the sense that doctors can prescribe it to patients for health reasons, I too think that Cannabis should be legalized in the sense that doctors should be allowed to perscribe it to patients who have an illness or physical problem which Cannabis has been proven to help or cure (atleast to some degree). I will not, however, agree that Marijuana should be legal in the sense that cigarettes are legal where anyone (of a certain age ofcourse) is allowed to go into a corner store and buy some. I’ve heard all the Amsterdam arguments and I’m not convinced. Especially since, I get just as many arguments from people from or who visited Amsterdam who say it is actually a problem.
What’s your take?
I meant that it should be prescribed. I do think that it should be legalised for recreational purposes along with all major recreational drugs save heroin, cocaine and amphetamines, but I am reconsidering my positions on those. I don’t want to waste you’re time, Gadfly but could you kindly counter our pro-legalisation (all the anti-legalisation arguments I’ve heard so far are pathetically weak)?
Cannabis is an interesting drug (sociologically). It is a gateway drug, although not in the sense that the reactionaries would have it; rather it is a route unto tobacco usage. When dopeheads run out of dope to smoke, they need something to plug the behavioural hole - the gap in their fingers - and that thing is invariably tobacco Tobacco usage in spliffs is also significant. This relationship would be confounded if cannabis were legalised, since it would be as easy to buy in quantity as tobacco is.
(This rests on the proposition that tobacco is more harmful than cannabis)