Legal marijuana in the United States

[NomadicSky]

What if marijuana legalization was seen as an end to the probition area? Marijuana was legalized by sometime around 2005?

Most drugs remain illegal in the United States but earth based drugs (marijuana, peyote, ect...) become legal for all uses.

The United States now regulates and taxes marijuana in much the same repect that it does tobacco.

In some areas local county and city laws keep it illegal in some areas. However in many parts of the United States marijuana is sold in tobbaco stores and there are even a few "dutch" coffee shops that have opened up.

You can still get a dui for driving around high and you get punished for selling it untaxed.

What's the overall effect? Is the United States better or worse for it?

[Talkie Toaster]

I'd go for better. There would be fewer drug dealers, it wouldn't be "cool" because it wouldn't be forbidden, taking the fun out of it somewhat, you would have more successful people who weren't persecuted and refused jobs and education due to a small drug crime in their teens. Yes, you would have slightly lower overall health, but not as low as many people think.

[NomadicSky]

I really think less people would do it because now it isn't "cool". Teens wouldn't be able to get their hands on it as easy. (illegal to anyone under 21 at least for sale)

It would undercut the funds of many gangs.

[whaleofashrimp]

it will become less polerized...manyof the anti -marijuna people will realize how mild it really is and the pro- marijuna people will be more willing to accept it as just another drug with it's negatives (anxety attacks, at least in my case, reclusion) instead of some god-given panacea there pushing now

personaly I'd like to see everything legalized....true there may be health problems but the illicit black economy will be eleminated and it will force america to finaly face up to the social problems that encurage people to get high rather then just treating people who feel discontented,alienated and powerles in the face of our soul deadining socity like criminals

[Qazaq2007]

I am all for it, legalize pot, NOW!!!:D Realistically, not going to happen, ever, at least in our life time. The fact that pot is illegal, never had or never will stop me from getting and using it, I am just VERY careful in where I get it from. Just like most others here, I think there would be far fewer problems if pot was made legal. Pot is far safer than alcohol, and tobacco, despite the propagandistic lies to the contrary, but than again nothing is 100% safe, and yes that does include pot, hell even water can kill you, but yet we don't criminalize it.

[carlton_bach]

Could recriminalising marijuana become the next gay marriage?

Politically, this is going to be huge. Conservatives will rail against it and many fundies will see the hand of the devil at work. Whoever voted for it might forever be hounded by that move. Some churches would adopt a 'no marijuana' stance similar to what the LDS do with caffeine. Allowing the sale will have to be fought state by state, county by county, for decades to come. The spliff could become the pushbutton symbol of Librul decadence the way two men kissing is today (except it won't turn on some of the preachers quite so much).

I could also see big rifts opening up in the pro camp. Not everyone will be willing to fight the good fight until every last drugstore in Utah has Moroccan black and British Columbian super blend on its shelves. Most supporters are likely motivated by nothing more than the desire to stop the horrible injustices of the WoD. Some, though, will want to continue pushing the cannabis agenda.

In the long term, could this return cannabis to a role as a major nonfood agricultural?

[Tyr]

A lot better.

The police can concentrate on real crimes and arresting real criminals.

Illegal drug dealers' numbers are dropped drastically- though most takers aren't criminals the dealers often tend to be.

You speak of coolness...I wouldn't quite put it like that though. Alcohol is entirely legal but still seen as cool. Hell, even fags are by some stupid kids. But less people may well end up taking it still; in Amsterdam I know a lot of people who've never even tried it.
Also those who do take wouldn't get wrapped up with criminals and tempted onto heavier stuff.


I'd actually go further then this in a ideal world and say legalise all drugs. That's even more unlikely though.

[Corbell Mark IV]

..
Most drugs remain illegal in the United States but earth based drugs (marijuana, peyote, ect...) become legal for all uses...


I don't understand this seemly arbitary line and doubt that the push for drug legalization would end with this.

[Corbell Mark IV]

I really think less people would do it because now it isn't "cool". Teens wouldn't be able to get their hands on it as easy. (illegal to anyone under 21 at least for sale)



Might be a minor effect this way. However how hard is it for teens to get booze?


It would undercut the funds of many gangs.


It would reenforce an existing trend toward the harder stuff. :(

[ColeMercury]

It would reenforce an existing trend toward the harder stuff. :(
Why's that, then? :confused:

[HueyLong]

Why's that, then? :confused:

I believe he means a trend towards hard drugs in gang activities.

Which has happened for a long time now.

Knowing a few guys who sell pot, the gangs seem to have very little to do with it anyways.

[boredatwork]

I'ld prefer it - on general principle.

After all, there were no such things as drug laws in the US before the early 20th cent progressives and their various prohibition laws (alcohol, opium, cocaine, hemp). Since I don't much are for most of their policies, I'm happy to lump prohibitionism of various stripes in as well.

As a (more or less) classical liberal (IE: modern conservative) I believe that US citizens have the right to live their lives as they wish - treat driving/flying/operating intoxicated as such - the substance which produces the intoxication is irrelevant.

As for the effects of removing marijuana from prohibitionary laws - fewer arrests, reduced income to drug testing firms, resources reallocated to other crimes (almost certainly other 'harder' drug crimes, for political reasons) significant amounts of grey market economy in the US becoming less so (less b/c taxes still create a differential which may allow smuggling/blackmarke to be profitable, but still less profitable than a true illegal market) - which would raise the aknowledged GDP of some rural sections of the US (ironically, given our "Drug War" leadership, the US is (as far as is known) the world's largest marijuana exporter by volume & value).

Longer term - some number of hippies and ex hippies, having achieved their particular 'cause' drop back out of political agitation. A (probably similar in size) number of prohibitionist/puritanicals step up their political agitation attempting to reverse the 'mistake'. Long term effects are probably minor though.

[XNM]

Yeah, legalize it. Marijuana and peyote are plants that just happen to have psychadelic effects. The problem though is that Marijuana grows like a weed, and think about this:

A forest fire near a small town. Marijuana was in the forest. Whole town gets high. That might be fun though :P.

Around where I live, they busted this Marijuana growing place right in the mountains nearby. A little while later there was a fire around that same area, so if the plants were still there...whoa dude I can see the air.

Also if marijuana was legalized, Bill would turn the white house into the green house, lol.

[Berra]

It would cost the taxpayers billions in farm subsidies.

[XNM]

It would cost the taxpayers billions in farm subsidies.

Prolly not. It would benefit farmers if they grow hemp, which is used as food and has a lower THC content than pot.

[Torqumada]

Yeah, legalize it. Marijuana and peyote are plants that just happen to have psychadelic effects. The problem though is that Marijuana grows like a weed, and think about this:

A forest fire near a small town. Marijuana was in the forest. Whole town gets high. That might be fun though :P.


Things like that have already happened.

Torqumada

[whaleofashrimp]

A lot better.

Th. Hell, even fags are by some stupid kids.

....WTF!? can you please clarify what you mean by that statement? are you saying saying that homosexuality is the hot new fad that the cool kids are getting into? ...i wish i went to your highschool

[whaleofashrimp]

Might be a minor effect this way. However how hard is it for teens to get booze?



It would reenforce an existing trend toward the harder stuff. :(


um...from what i remember of highschool ;) WEED was a hell of alot easyer to get then booze, of course i grew up in a college town so weed was everywhere....I ended up quiting weed when i turned 20, I realized that the only reason I was doing it was to hang out with the "cool" people....dumbist reason to do anything.

yeah some of the stoners have gone on to harder stuff like mushrooms or cocaine. but most of them have reigned themselves in. the ahvolholic kids are the one's with real problems...I know 3 people faceing failing livers, almost all moved on to pain-killers...a few ended up dealing speed or coke and are in jail....and about 9 people from the class of 03 have gone on and died 11 in in drunken driveing accedints..3 o.d. , 4 in drunken fights or deals gone wrong and 2 in iraq...and thats only the obituarys I stumbled on . it could be more, Im not sure...of those 11 , only 2 were stoners...one guy, travis got into concaine bad got into dealing and ended up with a bullit in each lung in a deal gone bad...the other "robo"(namned for his chronic cough syrup use from 8th grade up) died in iraq...the rest were into booze

[whaleofashrimp]

I'ld prefer it - on general principle.

After all, there were no such things as drug laws in the US before the early 20th cent progressives and their various prohibition laws (alcohol, opium, cocaine, hemp). Since I don't much are for most of their policies, I'm happy to lump prohibitionism of various stripes in as well.

As a (more or less) classical liberal (IE: modern conservative) I believe that US citizens have the right to live their lives as they wish - treat driving/flying/operating intoxicated as such - the substance which produces the intoxication is irrelevant.

As for the effects of removing marijuana from prohibitionary laws - fewer arrests, reduced income to drug testing firms, resources reallocated to other crimes (almost certainly other 'harder' drug crimes, for political reasons) significant amounts of grey market economy in the US becoming less so (less b/c taxes still create a differential which may allow smuggling/blackmarke to be profitable, but still less profitable than a true illegal market) - which would raise the aknowledged GDP of some rural sections of the US (ironically, given our "Drug War" leadership, the US is (as far as is known) the world's largest marijuana exporter by volume & value).

Longer term - some number of hippies and ex hippies, having achieved their particular 'cause' drop back out of political agitation. A (probably similar in size) number of prohibitionist/puritanicals step up their political agitation attempting to reverse the 'mistake'. Long term effects are probably minor though.


the problem is this well end up destroying the local economys of many already suffering rural communities. let me explain
in the last few decades as agriculter becomes more and more controlled and mecognized the agro-firms are buying up more and more land..the family farm is a dieing relic...without a source of income these rural communities will dry up. luckily we have wars against nouns in this country which get LOTS and LOTS of people incarcerated every year....they have to put them somewhere, so they build these prisons in the boonies...*wink crumple your nose the community is saved!!! there are jobs ! prosperity! now in order to keep it that way we have to make sure our politions keep feeding people to the pen...tougher laws,long sentances, new nouns to fight! *equals* more prosperity...heck with that amount of prosperity we might be able to buy back the family land and farm it part time

this is my theory on why rural communities....with people that claim to value such notions as independence,liberty and JUSTICE, keep electing people who want to curtail and control your liberty as much as possibal.

[carlton_bach]

....WTF!? can you please clarify what you mean by that statement? are you saying saying that homosexuality is the hot new fad that the cool kids are getting into? ...i wish i went to your highschool

I suspect the usual Anglo-American linguistic confusion. Fags are cigs.

[Talkie Toaster]

I suspect the usual Anglo-American linguistic confusion. Fags are cigs.
As soon as I read the word "fag" I knew this would happen. Silly Americans :P

[whaleofashrimp]

errr....apologies. made me think europe was funner then even I imagined

[PaleHorseRiding]

As soon as I read the word "fag" I knew this would happen. Silly Americans :P

I had a british guy ask me if he could bum a fag I was like there is a gay area of town that away I am sure there you can find someone willing

This was before I knew fag was brit slang for Cig

[alt_historian]

I don't know if it's a generational thing, or just because I watched a lot of Red Dwarf when I was young, but I usually call them 'ciggies'.

Anyway...
all that's needed, as some others have said, is to remove weed from the Temperance equation - or, ideally, for that not to happen at all. Then, New York's coffeehouses become famous for more than just their coffee...