Legalizing Marijuana

[Warsaw]

That depends on what is "legalization". If it only means you don't go to jail if police finds a mj cigar in your pocket, i think it's fine.

I wouldn't want people high on the streets, however, nor companies making this stuff.

Tobacco companies are rich enough by killing people with tobacco already. Hell, i wonder what % of the crap inside cigars is really tobacco, they smell like burning chemical waste, or something like that.

Well people are already high on the streets, though I agree. It will come down to a line. I think there will probably be special rules on it. you'll still see people smoking pot in the streets but they would anyway you know. The hard part is not to encourage people to be smoking weed on the streets. I worry that if we do make it legal people will smoke far to much in public. They will forget about the other half of the population who don't like the smell, or being around it, etc... Will have to be very careful in making rules that allow marijuana smokers freedom to smoke while trying to keep non smokers comfortable.

"I'm very against the use of drugs including marijuana and smoking because of their negative effects on peoples lives and their health. I don't drink either, there are many ways to enjoy life without those things. I think marijuana should stay illegal and all the kids that think it's cool or say "it doesn't have the bad side effects like they tell you" really frustrate me"

Peoples lives? Come up to British Columbia. You need to see marijuana from a different light. It's not like other drugs. Also don't bring the cool factor into it. No one smokes weed because it's cool. If they do please beat them up for me. I can see how you could get mad about people saying it doesn't have bad side effects. I don't think the side effects are major however. With prolong use I can see it, but it wont kill me. I could do a lot more damage if I drank. :P Aww yeah. Again I think it comes down to, my body, my pleasure, my pain.

One thing smokers would have to do is form a gentleman's mentality about smoking weed in public. If someone asks you to put it out you might have to in certain places. It's a drug... I'm not going to argue against that. If it was legal though it would safe everyone A LOT of trouble, and money. It would also make Canada's government very wealthy.

[Hamshank]

Its fairly obvious I've thought about it and picked the opinion of "it doesn't matter which side wins."

By standing by and let marijuana be criminalized you're on their side.

You obviously don't care where your tax dollars go to?

[DemolitionSquid]

By standing by and let marijuana be criminalized you're on their side.

You obviously don't care where your tax dollars go to?

I care, but its not like Canada is important in the grand scheme of things.

[Warsaw]

I care, but its not like Canada is important in the grand scheme of things.

Now you're just making me cry for no reason. And to think I was going to share my bacon, poutine, and maple syrup with you. Not anymore!

[DemolitionSquid]

Now you're just making me cry for no reason. And to think I was going to share my bacon, poutine, and maple syrup with you. Not anymore!

I live in Calgary. I can get all that stuff just fine on my own.

I have a lot of friends who smoke pot. I don't want to enable them because I see the effects it has on them.
I also know that having it illegal is causing a lot of crime for no good reason.
Marijuana simply needs the same rules and restrictions as alcohol, but its also harder to enforce those rules on marijuana.
So instead of sitting on the fence, I've chosen to just not care because the outcome has no real effect on ME. There's no laws against that, at least.

Hell, I don't even vote for our political representatives because no one running is worth my support.

[Norfindel]

Here, it was recently "legalized", but it's only legal to have it with you in low quantities, and you cannot smoke it in public. Basically, you don't go to jail if you're found in posession of this, but that's all.

I think it was a good compromise decision, as tobacco and alcohol are/can be very dangerous, and they probably are way too dangerous, as it seems like if you're young, your best bet at social life is to go to a disco, and get drunk to the spine.

I'm not really sure if marijuana can be compared with say, alcohol, or not, but alcohol in low quantities doesn't seems to have any long lasting effects, while smoking marijuana is said to have cumulative health issues, much like smoking tobacco.

[Hamshank]

Squid, don't you care about the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue in taxes, businesses, tourism, the misconstruction of the priorities of the police who should be attacking criminals not dopers, the money for rehabilitation of offenders, the lives ruined by criminal records and the loss on the economy (yea lets put a guy through school and spend hundred thousand dollars then hv him get arrested for smoking pot and lose his life; obama wouldn't hv become pres. if they caught him smoking pot), no industrial hemp production which is HUGE.....violence from drug cartels, drug dealers, etc. fueling organized crime

hemp as a fuel, paper, material such as a hemp brick, food, milk, etc.

hemp is great for the green revolution and hasn't been exploited yet, there is a huge market for it


1 trillion over 40 years has been spent in the US on the drug war, does that matter to you at all??????????

don't you care? or are you totally nihilistic to everything lol

In WA state alone just putting the people in jail with the legal costs and the prison housing costs taxpayers 300 million a year.
300 million of money wasted when there's a huge state deficit. 300 million when people are on the streets starving to death.
300 million, just in my state alone.

If you care donate to Sensible Washington, a local initiative to legalize marijuana and let's start a wave of change across the continent.

All it takes is a few states and the Federal government is going to have to radically change policy. If this starts going in the US it will happen in Canada too, which it almost did already, Federally.

It's going to be on the ballot in California, it might in Oregon and it might in WA.

If it is legalized even only in California that will be great, but still isolated.

this can turn the whole west coast into the green coast

[DemolitionSquid]

Squid, don't you care...

No, I really don't.

[hyde]

I live in Calgary. I can get all that stuff just fine on my own.

I have a lot of friends who smoke pot. I don't want to enable them because I see the effects it has on them.
I also know that having it illegal is causing a lot of crime for no good reason.
Marijuana simply needs the same rules and restrictions as alcohol, but its also harder to enforce those rules on marijuana.
So instead of sitting on the fence, I've chosen to just not care because the outcome has no real effect on ME. There's no laws against that, at least.

Hell, I don't even vote for our political representatives because no one running is worth my support.

Heh, I live in Calgary too. This place is too conservative/clean for legalized weed to really run through. Even if they allowed it in certain "Coffee Shops", i'd imagine not many places would have it. Places in Kengsington/17th Ave would get pissed and say "HAY WE DONT LIKE THOSE KINDA PEOPLE COMING IN AROUND HERE , CLOSE YER DAMN SHOP!! YER ATTRACTING THE WRONG KINDA PEOPLE!!"
Anyways, our clubs here still discriminate on race and our biggest event is a week filled with gypsie rides and faux-cowboys. I gotta get outta here.

Squid, don't you care about the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue in taxes, businesses, tourism, the misconstruction of the priorities of the police who should be attacking criminals not dopers, the money for rehabilitation of offenders, the lives ruined by criminal records and the loss on the economy (yea lets put a guy through school and spend hundred thousand dollars then hv him get arrested for smoking pot and lose his life; obama wouldn't hv become pres. if they caught him smoking pot), no industrial hemp production which is HUGE.....violence from drug cartels, drug dealers, etc. fueling organized crime

The problem is, Weed is taken very lightly here in Canada. It basically is legalized on a personal level so long as you do not have large amounts of on you. If you're caught, you're usually just told to go home and/or have your weed confiscated. So me and DemolitionSquid (And probably a lot of other Canadians) don't see it as much of a problem. But it is a multi billion or trillion dollar business in British Columbia (I think 40-50% of all Weed in the US is from British Columbia, Canada . Isn't it ? )
I can understand where you are coming from in an American perspective. I've watched a few documentaries on this and how it is in the States, it's like you guys treat it like Cocaine/Meth in some states. We just give people a slap on the wrist so long as they are not intentionally distributing/growing it.

The extremist measures on weed in the states feels like its linked back to the crazed moral/culture warrior republicans. And with that in mind, I don't think they'll be welcoming the idea of legalizing "pot" anytime soon...Canada is pretty liberal, even our conservative party is a bit liberal on things.

I think the ideal spot for the US is some middle road. They need to legalize it in some manners or some local authorized coffe shops like how they do it in the Netherlands (Amsterdam is in the Netherlands right??..) .
Wide spread legalization won't fly, not until the day an Aethiest President is elected.
And I think wide spread legalization would be bad too, it's still a great gateway drug and the moronic street myths around it still puzzle me.
Like how it can't cause cancer, or how it's "good" for you, etc. The fact is, you're inhaling incinerated vegetable material - which is a carcinogen.

They should just legalize the THC inhalers, I wonder how many pot junkies will stop because they'll look like a serious Asthma victim .
That way, people can get high and not let the damn smoke linger around all over the place and avoid the majority of the carcinogens.

[Warsaw]

THC inhalers? I'm on. I would do it. Why do I care, I'm high.