Marijuana Debate - Miami, FL

Do you own your body and cognitive libery or does the government?

far better for you than tabacco and drinking! and both of those are legal!! cmon now!

if an explanation is necessary then we're all doomed.

The biggest reason pot isn't legal is because corporate America doesn't control the means of production and distribution. Basically, pot production is done by small-time growers for their own consumption. Since there's no money in there for corporate America, there's no organized lobby to get the attention of our government.

I wouldn't say that pot is safer than alcohol, but it's certainly not any more dangerous than is alcohol.

It eliminates the illegal selling and puts laws and restrictions into affect towards who to sell to.

Bored in Toledo wrote:

I wouldn't say that pot is safer than alcohol, but it's certainly not any more dangerous than is alcohol.

Let's see... alcohol kills an average of 85,000 people in the US per year.

Marijuana has never killed a single person.

Legalize Freedom!

Bored in Toledo wrote:

The biggest reason pot isn't legal is because corporate America doesn't control the means of production and distribution. Basically, pot production is done by small-time growers for their own consumption. Since there's no money in there for corporate America, there's no organized lobby to get the attention of our government.
I wouldn't say that pot is safer than alcohol, but it's certainly not any more dangerous than is alcohol.

Actually, if weed were legal and it were sold in stores like cigarettes are, your average pothead would much rather goto a gas station and buy a pack of joints rather than taking the time and effort to grow their own. And if it is sold just slightly cheaper than current street prices, then no one would buy from the dealers. They could have American farmers grow it, and big corporations roll and distribute it, and gas stations sell it. Then the government can tax it, and we would all buy it. There is plenty of money to be made by corporate America and the government, and it would create thousands of jobs right here in America. I would love to see the day that I could buy a pack of joints that is helping support our country through taxes, jobs, and profits to corporations instead of profits to criminals.

This can be applied to any and all drugs. If poppies and coca were grown in fields in America and processed by pharmacuetical companies and sold at CVS, there would be a massive decrease in worldwide crime. Drug cartels and many local street gangs would go out of business overnight. No one would buy illegal and impure drugs from gangs that are supplied by cartels that use violence to protect their turf, product, and profits. Without people buying their drugs from criminals the $300billion that is spent on drugs every year would goto legitimate companies and the government rather than going straight into the hands of the gangs and cartels.

People are going to do drugs regardless of their legality or who profits off of them. This was proven during alcohol prohibition and has been proven again by nearly a century of drug prohibition. ALL drugs need to be legalized, regulated, and taxed. No one should have the right to decide what anyone else does with their own body. 100 old men sitting around a room in washington(the senate) should not be able to tell me that I cannot smoke pot in my own home, and by the same token they shouldn't be able to tell a heroin addict that they cannot take the medicine they need to function on a daily basis. If we legalize drugs and call heroin by its real name, diacetylmorphine, then maybe there won't be such a huge stigma against addicts.

Hell yes I support it!!

Hemp cannabis can save the world both medicinally and industrial.

Heavy Fed wrote:

<quoted text>
Let's see... alcohol kills an average of 85,000 people in the US per year.
Marijuana has never killed a single person.

I disagree. I'm sure that somewhere along the line that pot has killed someone(or at least contributed to someone's death). Someone completely stoned is dangerous behind the wheel of a car just as someone drunker than hell is dangerous driving. Of the two, I do think someone drunk is more dangerous driving than someone that is merely stoned.

As for other health effects, heavy users of pot probably have an increased risk of the same cancers that cigarette smokers get. I doubt it's ever safe to inhale any kind of smoke into one's lungs. So, there probably has been deaths from lung cancer and emphysema in pot smokers. I'm not sure if that's ever been quantified by medical studies, but I reckon it probably has.

Having said all that, I am 100% in favor of legalizing pot.

Lets all smoke a doobie, aaaaahh.

Bored in Toledo wrote:

<quoted text>
As for other health effects, heavy users of pot probably have an increased risk of the same cancers that cigarette smokers get. I doubt it's ever safe to inhale any kind of smoke into one's lungs. So, there probably has been deaths from lung cancer and emphysema in pot smokers. I'm not sure if that's ever been quantified by medical studies, but I reckon it probably has.
Having said all that, I am 100% in favor of legalizing pot.

There was a study that involved pot smokers, cigarette smokers, and people who smoked both pot and cigarettes. The instances of lung cancer among those who smoked only cigarettes was high, those who smoked only pot were 0, and those who smoked both pot and there was a lower rate of lung cancer among those who smoked both cigarettes and pot. This study proved that marijuana does not cause lung cancer, it actually decreases your chances of getting lung cancer.

Emphysema on the other hand is a different story. Marijuana does cause emphysema, sometimes moreso than cigarettes do. This might be a result of pot smokers usually not using a filter in their joints and the fact that pot smokers take much larger hits and hold the smoke in for much longer than cigarette smokers do.

There are dangers associated with smoking pot, but they are all a direct result of inhaling the smoke itself, not from the pot. All of these dangers can be avoided by using a vaporizor that heats the marijuana to a point where the psychoactive chemicals are released as a vapor but the plant matter is not burnt, or by just eating the pot instead of smoking it.

err... there was a typo in the second sentence of that first paragraph, should have read "and those who smoked both pot and cigarettes had lower rates of cancer than those who smoked only cigarettes."

damn pot...

marijuana is at worst no worse than alcohol and driving while under the influence of marijuana is not potentially deadly.

You know what else isn't fatal but against the law anyway: public nudity! If I want to air out my balls so they can catch a nice breeze and cool off, I should be able to do so without having the government dictate to me what I can or can't do!

Thaddeus Apricot wrote:

You know what else isn't fatal but against the law anyway: public nudity! If I want to air out my balls so they can catch a nice breeze and cool off, I should be able to do so without having the government dictate to me what I can or can't do!

Let me tell you, there is nothing like being naked while you are out side.

Thaddeus Apricot wrote:

You know what else isn't fatal but against the law anyway: public nudity! If I want to air out my balls so they can catch a nice breeze and cool off, I should be able to do so without having the government dictate to me what I can or can't do!

I see what your getting at here, but there is a major difference. You can be nude all you want to be in your own home or on your property as much as you want. You aren't forcing anyone else to see you naked as if you would be in public. Marijuana however, cannot be smoked in the privacy of ones own home. If marijuana were legalized, it wouldn't be legal to smoke it inside of buildings(just like how you can't walk around a supermarket smoking a cigarette) or in a public place like a park or outside of a school. Smoking marijuana on your own property does not interfere with anyone else's life in any way at all. Just like walking around nude in your house does not. The difference is that the police won't kick in your door and arrest you for being nude in your house.

weed should be be legile point blank damn spellin off kuz im high right nowlol

http://legalizationofmarijuana.com/

Stats on the deaths from legal drugs and pot