Legalize it?

Philosophy Forums Society, Government, and Economics
21

I thought 19 million sounded a bit high for 5500 plants. Everytime I read things like this, in the paper or in our weekly LEI report, it’s always some outrageous figure, but if that’s what they think it’s worth shrug alright. I think cops go through some special drug training run by complete morons. It reminds me of Fear and Loathing – “If Margaret Mead, at her age, smoked grass…she’d have one helluva trip!” What? Who “trips” on weed?

The point is, though, that on a daily basis the “law” is destroying thousands of dollars worth of something that is sustainable and essentially harmless, while our country’s debt sits in the trillions.

22

See, in America, it’s not up to the government to bail us all out.

They provide a situation which allows us a black market with inflated prices.

That way, in tune w/ the American dream, those who are willing to take risks and hustle are able to come up.

Just think, if there was no black market, then the entire world of employment in all industries would be one where you had to know someone, or jump through hoops.

There’s a certain dignity in selling drugs and supporting yourself. You don’t have to answer to people, and if you don’t piss anyone off or rip anyone off, then you can make a decent living without a great risk of getting in trouble.

I’ve always said the dumbest thing you can do if you want to make alot of money is to clock in and work someplace all day.

Just think, Hypothetically, I can grow pot that sells for over $500 an ounce. I can grow about a 10-14oz every 90 days in a space the size of an apartment closet, (assuming I’ve got rooted clones). That’s enough money to buy a car, and pay rent, electricity and hell, if you’re tricky, you might even be able to gather up some tuition money that way. It’s not degrading, and it doesn’t keep me from the things I enjoy in my day to day life. You could, in theory of course, make 30k in a year off your closet, then make another 15k as a part time delivery driver, and as an unmarried person who doesn’t have a car payment, live pretty well only getting up to have to work maybe 3 days a week. Shit you can even be high if you work at a pizza place. You’d have time left to volunteer for charity.

If they legalized it, it might not be worth near that much. Then it’d be back to $10 an hour or whatever. Garbage.

23

What are your thoughts on, at the very least, decriminilization?

24

I think it’d save alot of time and money.

25

I’ll tell ya.

  1. It makes people unproductive in a country where a strong work ethic is traditionally required. Money problems are no problem when high. The global economy in the east would surpass us in the blink of a computer nanosecond.

  2. It IS linked to mental illness. Not everyone would fall victim to this, but many with a pre-disposition would. Maybe not you, but someone close to you will flip out and never return.

  3. The price would go down once legalized, so you make more money seizing the illegal money/drugs/“criminals” all at once, giving officals “just” cause to track the inner workings of groups of people. Just think, you can resell the drugs underground and confiscate it over and again. Taxes can’t beat that!

  4. The jails would be a lot less full. Not good for business. Personally, I think perverts and murders should all get life, no parole/executed. But perverts must be segregated from a violent population (I hate the murder’s moral code). So perverts won’t be making cheap prison goods next to Butch and Axel. Employees killing each other, bad business.

Do I think weed should be legal? No.

However alcohol has ruined more lives and families for generations. Each weekend the highway is full with drunk blackout death machines. My answer, it too should not be legal. Most won’t agree, but they can’t admit that being social without an altered mind has become impossible. Anymore, people don’t feel alive emotions without liquid courage. A sober stadium might not like the event.

Pass that.

26

Nano how do you explain college football crowds? They don’t serve booze in the stadiums, and I doubt the majority of people there are drunk anyway.

Also, sounds like you’re talking about indica-dominant weed. That’s the stuff that gives you couchlock and makes you lay around all day. Sativa-dominant strains actually have an energetic, uplifting kind of high.

Problem is that from seed to harvest, indicas finish in half the time, and produce more bud in weight per plant typically, plus they stay short and stocky like bushes which makes them easy to conceal in closets or pack in as many as possible in a commercial grow.

If production wasn’t under the pressure of being illegal, then it’s be no problem for people to grow nice uplifting sativas. It’s just that they get really tall, and can take months to completely flower. And given that you get less per plant, and they take longer, it’s just not as efficient to the black market grower.

So let people grow weed, and they wont have to go for weight and fast turnarounds, and most indica dominant weed will dry up. Sativas are better, but less efficient to produce in an illegal market. All those commercials saying weed knocks people down are referring to the effects of indica dominant strains which were bred as a response to a market demand for smoke and the illegality of growing. The government created that problem.

27

lol the govt is the problem sativa is the shit i love it seriously… they should legalize just becuase of a lack of legitimacy!

28

College football goers drink before and after. They are wasted at 9am. My point is that the altered mind is the social mind. I don’t think this is good thing, even a little bit.

Believe me, I used to smoke a lot. Back then I would have had no problem with it being legal. Then it bit me. My life has never been the same since. I know others that have been damaged big time. If you told me this when I liked smoking, I would have dismissed it while packing a bowl. Now I know the long term risk.

Instead of making drugs legal, society should become something you want to engage in, not escape from.

29

I’ve been smoking weed since like 1994. Long term risk?

30

I put in countless hours of work when I was a major pothead, most of them while I was actually high. I wasn’t unproductive. I went to work every day, I paid taxes, I paid my bills on time. Most of the people I knew/hung out with were potheads, who also went to work every day, paid their taxes, and paid their bills on time. How would we have been able to afford to keep smoking weed if we weren’t working to get the money we needed to buy it? “Money problems are no problem when high,” that’s just silly. Money problems are money problems no matter what.

I’ve known many potheads throughout my life, and I’ve never seen one of them “flip out and never return.” Who the hell flips out from weed? I’ve seen people who maybe didn’t enjoy smoking weed the first time they tried it, but as soon as they came down they were fine, and had the choice as to whether they wanted to do it again or not. I’d like to see some sort of proof of this, someone flipping their nut irreversibly because they smoked weed.

This may be the only valid point you have.

Whose business is it bad for, to keep small-time drug dealers/users out of jail? It’s costing us millions of dollars a year to keep non-violent criminals in prison. That’s my money being spent to give someone three hots and cot, god damnit.

You’re entitled to your opinion, even if your logic is flawed.

31

i think not. if anything its a good thing… the longer the better.

32

I don’t care.

33

Blurred,
You already droped righteous indignation out of the park, because your question is why we have not legalized marijuana etc, so that we can sell it, tax it, etc. So, in this world of taxable drugs, who continues to care about overdoses (which really should not be the satndard for policy since people overdose on a lot of other things, like cocaine, that could be put on the government’s tax list), or that people spend millions for prescriptions or that people die while driving drunk? Those are arguments for making more drugs illegal due to these negative effects. But if the money is what we care about, then who cares what the effects of these drugs are so long as they generate revenue for the tax-man?

34

I do see what you’re saying but the overall point, omar, is the hypocrisy here. Marijuana is illegal in the U.S. because “drugs are bad, mmmkay”. One must argue the affects of different substances because the argument used to keep marijuana illegal is that it is bad for us, but if you look at the facts, it’s certainly no worse than anything that is legal.

35

Good weed can certainly induce minor hallucinogenic effects - just like a variety of other narcotics. So what exactly is your definition of “bad” or “not bad”?

I firmly support any individuals choice to consume any substance they so desire - but not because I’ve signed off or subjectively apply my value system to define what’s “suitable” or not. Rather, I support that choice in accordance with an individuals natural right to their life - so long as their actions (say, after consuming a massive amount of coke) doesn’t violate or threaten the same rights of any other individuals.

The argument that you, armed with all the data in the world, believes or can prove that weed “does no harm” (in controlled purities and amounts) - and should therefore be legalized - is a weak argument and no better than your opponents who claim the opposite. At the end of the day, it’s an individual decision - whether it’s alcohol, drugs, sex, guns or rock n roll. To argue anything less is to miss the point. In my opinion of course.

36

6 Things You Won’t Believe Are More Legal Than Marijuana

http://www.cracked.com/article_18732_6-things-you-wont-believe-are-more-legal-than-marijuana.html#ixzz1131FD58l

37

I always like Robitussin, bummer… and Nyquil too.

38

Blurred here’s the thing.

I don’t have right to say what you do with something like weed.

But if weed is legal, I want crack cocaine to be legal. And I am persnonally totally serious about that. Weed has made me paranoid. And cocaine has made me burst with elation (in the past). If that was legal, I’d never touch alcohol.

Many weed smokers can’t tolerate the non-weed crowd viewpoints. But if cocaine people get in the way of the harmless weed people’s chance of legal weed, they mainly won’t tolerate that either.

I don’t use this word often. But that’s hypocritical.

39

What intoxicants tend to make people commit more violent crimes? Lets dismiss DUIs OK we know there are idiot drivers sober or stoned. Lets just talk about intentional purposeful deliberate I am going to harm someone crimes. I would say that whatever those intoxicants are they should be illegal, unless of course its beer, then F** you all… We are keeping my beer legal. :smiley:

40

If harder drugs were legal the desperation that creates crimes would be handled differently.

All I know is that when i drink, I’m a raging drunk. Legal or not, I should never drink.

For me, cocaine was such an internal thing and silence was preferrable.

I’ve never tried meth. But it based on feelings, not loss of teeth, the feeling sounds better and longer lasting.