Wouldn't it be safer?

[UFEZG]

Wouldn't it be safer if marijuana was legal? I mean, kids buy it from strangers whose nickname (something like The Striker or whatnot) is the only thing they know about them. If it was in grocery stores, behind glass cases, it would be safer, wouldn't it? The companies could follow regulations as to what goes in it or what comes out. It makes more sense than continuing to sell it on the streets. It's just like any other illegal thing: people are gonna do it, so it might as well be legal for everyone's benefit...

[WhisperingWoods]

I agree fully. There is more to add, but I'm lazy.

My dealer is a friend of mine, and a pretty smart guy. He is trying to profit off his sales, though, 'cause he hasn't got a real job. So that sucks. Another dealer I know is extremely cool, so cool that they'll bring the deal to you, wherever you're at, and give you a discount if they had a busy day and you had to wait for a while. They'll even burn a couple of their J's with you sometimes. Seem like real nice folk. I trust my dealers, usually.. althought the one guy can rip you off fat.

[Jezmund]

marijuana will never become legal for one simple reason: there is nothing more difficult than trying to motivate a stoner.

if marijuana were legal everyone would smoke just like everyone drinks now.

and America cant compete with countries like China if a majority of the workforce are stoners. Theres no way

Why do you think China finally decided to make opium illegal? After that China just took off

What definately could work though is designating certain cities like New Orleans, Seattle, Burlington vermont, and others to have smoke shops like they do in Amsterdam and regulating them ofcourse. Just like gambling in the US is legal in some cities. I dont think that would be very dangerous.

In fact that would be awesome. imagine the possibilities. it could earn extra revenue through increased tourism for cities that really need it right now:


like New Orleans!

[Radiohead]

This is very much true. In the late 18th Century China was so self-sufficient that they had barely any interest in trading with the west. Then they started using opium medically and after a few decades it was being smuggled in by the british for non-medical use which fucked up their economy until they criminalized it.

one of the few reasons why marijuana will not be legalized in the states.

[SG69]

Actually it can't be legalized because the DEA and all those other anti-drug government agentcies would loose money. Think about it, if pot were legel then they'd have nobody to bust and therefore loose profit and government funding. Pot being illegal sucks but the government does make money off busting people and growers and importers.

[WhisperingWoods]

Eh, isn't opium kind of addictive?

[paintballer687]

Actually it can't be legalized because the DEA and all those other anti-drug government agentcies would loose money. Think about it, if pot were legel then they'd have nobody to bust and therefore loose profit and government funding. Pot being illegal sucks but the government does make money off busting people and growers and importers.BUT if it was legal it would create a new economy that the government could take part in AND they could tax it...

[paintballer687]

Yeah, opium is addictive and it isn't really fair to compare it to bud..

But if it is legalized, the enthusiastic, hard working Americans would probably still not smoke... I don't think there would be that many non-smokers now that would start if it was legalized, 'cause honestly, what's really stopping them from smoking now? I think it would become bigger amongst the youth which could lead to a decrease in our work force for the next generation, though, but not by much. The kids with strict parent, high ambitions, etc. are still going to be anti-drugs, but the kids that aren't against it could start, and obviously the kids who are smoking will continue...

[adoutsider]

America is in some deep shit pretty soon with china and india. There already is very little chance of competing, there labor force is so much greator, and now that they are well on there way to industrialization, the U.S. will find a TON more competition. They constantly send citizens to the U.S. to get an education, and then they go back to their country to work, and compete with skilled american workers(engineers, computer stuff, etc.) And because america has to be "nice" to the rest of the world, and encourage free enterprise, they stand no chance.
The same way japan is taking over the automotive industry. Japanese companies can start up companies here, and pay the standard taxes that all american buisness pays, but when americans sell cars in japan they pay extremely engrossed taxes on every sale. Yet for some reason we keep buying jap cars, and not raising there taxes, just think if general motors went out of buisness? Thats about 10% of the american work force that just lost there jobs...

Something else interesting... Walmart. Every time walmart makes a sale... in any walmart in any country, a tally goes off someplace in china in some factory, and the VERY SAME DAY that product was sold, a new one is made, so walmart stock of items does not fall. If walmart was a nation, they would represent more than 10% of trade with china.

[WishIWasAHippie]

marijuana will never become legal for one simple reason: there is nothing more difficult than trying to motivate a stoner.

if marijuana were legal everyone would smoke just like everyone drinks now.

and America cant compete with countries like China if a majority of the workforce are stoners. Theres no way

Why do you think China finally decided to make opium illegal? After that China just took off

What definately could work though is designating certain cities like New Orleans, Seattle, Burlington vermont, and others to have smoke shops like they do in Amsterdam and regulating them ofcourse. Just like gambling in the US is legal in some cities. I dont think that would be very dangerous.

In fact that would be awesome. imagine the possibilities. it could earn extra revenue through increased tourism for cities that really need it right now:


like New Orleans!
Bullshit...I work harder than anyone I know at everything I do...as an example:

My sister let us use her condo for New Years Eve...the place was fucking trashed in the morning, I wake up, my friend Tracy stays with me to help clean. Note: Place is still incredibly trashed

We decide to smoke a bowl and clean, we clean up all the beer bottles, all the trash, 6 trash bags later, dishes done, house spotless, the place is cleaner than it's EVER been...my sister wakes up and leaves to hang out with her friend and tells us, "This is the cleanest it's ever been, thank you so much, throw a party anytime"...so we smoke 2 more bowls...and we decided the way her "fun" room looked was shitty, so we move all the furniture out, clean the shit out of it...go to home depot (smoked a bowl before we left) go to the grocery store as well, come back, clean the room continuosly...using the nails we got we hang these mirrors, move around the couches, organize the computer wires, fix the PS2 (all the while still smoking more bowls), clean the TV, move around the room...then we cook lunch so when my sister came home she'd have lunch...she comes home, nearly shits herself in joy at the site of the "fun" room because it's completely organized and completely functional before (you used to have to move a lot of shit around to get the pull out open, or 1 of the doors was blocked because of the recliner, the computer wires ran through the middle of the room, this desk was falling appart etc etc) and then takes us bowling and pays as a thank you

We get back, smoke a bowl, and I cook a fucking pound of fettucine alfredo, Tracy makes shrimp for it and cooks some awwwwwwweeesome buffalo wings for another day and wraps them up for Kristina

All in all, we spent $63.54 out of the goodness of our hearts on groceries and supplies, cleaned the house to emmaculate proportions, cooked and then I went to work after all of this...

So tell me stoners can't be productive.

[masked toker]

Bullshit...I work harder than anyone I know at everything I do...as an example:

My sister let us use her condo for New Years Eve...the place was fucking trashed in the morning, I wake up, my friend Tracy stays with me to help clean. Note: Place is still incredibly trashed

We decide to smoke a bowl and clean, we clean up all the beer bottles, all the trash, 6 trash bags later, dishes done, house spotless, the place is cleaner than it's EVER been...my sister wakes up and leaves to hang out with her friend and tells us, "This is the cleanest it's ever been, thank you so much, throw a party anytime"...so we smoke 2 more bowls...and we decided the way her "fun" room looked was shitty, so we move all the furniture out, clean the shit out of it...go to home depot (smoked a bowl before we left) go to the grocery store as well, come back, clean the room continuosly...using the nails we got we hang these mirrors, move around the couches, organize the computer wires, fix the PS2 (all the while still smoking more bowls), clean the TV, move around the room...then we cook lunch so when my sister came home she'd have lunch...she comes home, nearly shits herself in joy at the site of the "fun" room because it's completely organized and completely functional before (you used to have to move a lot of shit around to get the pull out open, or 1 of the doors was blocked because of the recliner, the computer wires ran through the middle of the room, this desk was falling appart etc etc) and then takes us bowling and pays as a thank you

We get back, smoke a bowl, and I cook a fucking pound of fettucine alfredo, Tracy makes shrimp for it and cooks some awwwwwwweeesome buffalo wings for another day and wraps them up for Kristina

All in all, we spent $63.54 out of the goodness of our hearts on groceries and supplies, cleaned the house to emmaculate proportions, cooked and then I went to work after all of this...

So tell me stoners can't be productive.
that was a good counter images/icons/newicons/icon6.gif

[element7]

Well it seems that we might actually increase the workforce because if Cannabis were made legal the issue of drug testing would go away thus opening the doors to a very large body of people who currently won't work in certain companies or have been outright refused because of a positive result. The gist here seems to be that stoners are a bunch of lazy tards who can't do anything except smoke pot. WTF? That's gotta be one of the dumbest things I've heard in a long time and isn't too far from the anti-pot propoganda, actually isn't that what they spout in alot of them, if you smoke pot you'll just be un-motivated and waste your life away? blah blah blah.

[Jezmund]

very good point. Now that I look back I find that I too can get my shit done after smoking. And its safe to say that a majority of stoners arent gonna go to work stoned unless their either very smart or incredibly stupid. especially if theyre working in construction or at a saw mill or some equally hazardous job.


But it is the general assumption that stoners cant be motivated and that I think is the main barrier between us and legalization.

[element7]

very good point. Now that I look back I find that I too can get my shit done after smoking. And its safe to say that a majority of stoners arent gonna go to work stoned unless their either very smart or incredibly stupid. especially if theyre working in construction or at a saw mill or some equally hazardous job.


But it is the general assumption that stoners cant be motivated and that I think is the main barrier between us and legalization.Right on.

[ConcealedCulture]

I also disagree with the stoner laziness comment. I know many people who smoke all day long, while successfully going to full time college, and working on top of that. Opium cant be compared cannabis. Regular opium use is devasting, while regular cannabis use generally isnt for most people. Not only can people function while stoned on pot, there is no physical withdrawal symptoms when not stoned. This makes it easy to go through the school or work day sober, then chill at night and smoke.

And to answer the original question, it would be a lot safer. People wouldnt have to possibly get into bad situations from dealing with an unregulated, illegal market. The cannabis could be inspected for things like mold, and the potency and overall quality could be known.

[HerbalTea]

The only stoners it's impossible to motivate are already lazy, it's not the weed that steals your ambition. I know plenty of people--myself included--that get shitloads of things done while high, so don't buy into that crummy propaganda.
But back to the original question, another thing legalizaton would bring would be unadulterated product, in addition to the benefits Concealed has mentioned above. However, assuming pot were to be legalized tomorrow, I hardly think the gov't would allow it to be completely unregulated (or untaxed!). I'm guessing that most likely they would treat it like alcohol or tobacco products. In turn, this would mean...you guessed it...no sales to minors, or whatever arbitrary age limit they set.
As far as the intelligence agencies are concerned...who knows? The CIA has refused to be audited about drug related matters and monies since the 1960's. It'd prob'ly be a fair bet to say they're getting their own piece of the drug money pie, but they certainly can't admit to THAT now, can they?

[boothy]

I agree with WishIWasAHippie - my old boss was a stoner and so am I, and he ran an extremely succesful restaurant working full time with very little help. And that's hard to do btw ;)

[SliceNDice]

So...what can we all realistically do to make it legal?

[thedude21]

So i figure in a perfect worl the best way to go would be to own a plant. That way you know whats in it. If it were to be legalized (Possibly the next election in denver), I think it would need strict guidelines. Still growing your own seems to be the best option. Look at all the additives in tobacco, yuck.

[Elanor Culnámo]

marijuana will never become legal for one simple reason: there is nothing more difficult than trying to motivate a stoner.

if marijuana were legal everyone would smoke just like everyone drinks now.

I don't quite degree. I'm Dutch and as you may know, pot is legal in Holland. But this doesn't automatically mean everyone's smoking pot all day. I'm 18 and I've only smoked pot twice in my life and the majority of the people I know don't smoke it or hardly ever do. I mean, you're not drinking whiskey all day just because it's legal, are you?

[StonerBill]

Yeah, opium is addictive and it isn't really fair to compare it to bud..

But if it is legalized, the enthusiastic, hard working Americans would probably still not smoke... I don't think there would be that many non-smokers now that would start if it was legalized, 'cause honestly, what's really stopping them from smoking now? I think it would become bigger amongst the youth which could lead to a decrease in our work force for the next generation, though, but not by much. The kids with strict parent, high ambitions, etc. are still going to be anti-drugs, but the kids that aren't against it could start, and obviously the kids who are smoking will continue...
i disagree strongly. most people do not smoke because of reasons: its illegal; its a 'drug' and thus carries all the negative stigma of being something social authorities frown apon and something religious figures smite

[StonerBill]

Bullshit...I work harder than anyone I know at everything I do...as an example:

My sister let us use her condo for New Years Eve...the place was fucking trashed in the morning, I wake up, my friend Tracy stays with me to help clean. Note: Place is still incredibly trashed

We decide to smoke a bowl and clean, we clean up all the beer bottles, all the trash, 6 trash bags later, dishes done, house spotless, the place is cleaner than it's EVER been...my sister wakes up and leaves to hang out with her friend and tells us, "This is the cleanest it's ever been, thank you so much, throw a party anytime"...so we smoke 2 more bowls...and we decided the way her "fun" room looked was shitty, so we move all the furniture out, clean the shit out of it...go to home depot (smoked a bowl before we left) go to the grocery store as well, come back, clean the room continuosly...using the nails we got we hang these mirrors, move around the couches, organize the computer wires, fix the PS2 (all the while still smoking more bowls), clean the TV, move around the room...then we cook lunch so when my sister came home she'd have lunch...she comes home, nearly shits herself in joy at the site of the "fun" room because it's completely organized and completely functional before (you used to have to move a lot of shit around to get the pull out open, or 1 of the doors was blocked because of the recliner, the computer wires ran through the middle of the room, this desk was falling appart etc etc) and then takes us bowling and pays as a thank you

We get back, smoke a bowl, and I cook a fucking pound of fettucine alfredo, Tracy makes shrimp for it and cooks some awwwwwwweeesome buffalo wings for another day and wraps them up for Kristina

All in all, we spent $63.54 out of the goodness of our hearts on groceries and supplies, cleaned the house to emmaculate proportions, cooked and then I went to work after all of this...

So tell me stoners can't be productive.

well the problem with this arguement, and the restraunt one boothy included, is the nature of the work. these things are close range and directly applicable. you clean and you can see the cleaning occur before your eyes, around your hands. it is constantly engaging until the room is cleaned, and orientated optimally.

i personally found cleaning things was the best job to have when stoned.

but there are a lot of things that the country relies of its academic and corporate world - proactivism, assertiveness, and intensive organisation, communication, financial negotiation, etc. think of all the manual labour - cleaning isnt that physically exertive. people who smoke are definately going to be physically lazier overall.

another problem is the plain fact that you can work while stoned, but you cant really work while drunk. its much easier to tell when someone is drunk and thus prevent them from doing something dangerous. stoned people can seem totally sober but might lose concentration in dangerous tasks that they thought they could handle.

there are lots of ways which free usage of marijuana can be harmful to commerce

inflexly, stoners would buy at LEAST twice as much grocery as non stoners. less spending on gambling probably though, perhaps less on cigarettes.

i think if heaps of people were smoking pot, there would be heaps more people smoking and driving and i think that could become a danger because its very hard to physiologically set a detector of being stoned, on legal terms. there isnt a brethaliser, only a mouth-swab which cant tell if you smoked just then or a few hours ago, or a few hours before that after eating lots of munchies and are still stoned but indetectably.
drunk drivers swerve and the like but stoned drivers are probably only noticable in the second when the accident happens.

[Ragin Cajun]

I've been screaming this for a long time.

Here's a scenario for your mind's viewing pleasure.

Joe Schmo walks into the local head shop. Behind a glass display are various packs of doobies, complete with their accompanying packaging, designed to make you choose that brand.

Said packs of juicy THC goodness contain 4 doobs. You decide you want a bit of Purple Haze today. The clerk rings you up. Price? $14.95, thank you sir. Said customer would whistle on the way home being able to get 4 J's for $16, including the state sales tax. Dunno about where you are, but a decent doobie goes for $5 where I live.

Half of that $14.95 would go towards costs, advertising, profit, etc. The other half would go towards fed.gov taxation. That's $7.45 (rounded down, for obvious reasons) of pure profit. Since it is now legal in the same form that alcohol is, many more people would be tempted to try and possibly be regular users of this newly-legalized product.

Such an action would take great steps in eliminating the national deficit. Certain safeguards would have to be taken in order to secure the grubbermint's money, of course. For example:

1. Homegrowing would still have to be illegal without a proper license, such as a state license granted to microbrewers of beer. Yeah, I know, it sucks for us growers, but certain sacrifices have to be made, ya know?
2. Uncontrolled importation would have to be illegal, unless it went directly to a distribution center where it could be properly taxed. Such an action would cause an effect similar to that of imported beer/liquor...albeit on a much larger scale. BC bud and Dutch bud would be considered more 'elite.' Higher taxes could be imposed on imported bud, just for shiggles.
3. Drive drunk? Get a DWI, lose your drivers license, etc. Same could go for DUIM (Driving Under the Influence of Marijuana) although i do say you'd probably have to be pretty stoned in order to this to be detected....and we might have to go by the law enforcement officer's word on it. I'm still trying to think of a way around that...not an easy answer comes to mind.
4. Hashish could be done this way too, but taxed even higher. I've never done hash, so I don't know the street value. It would be in higher demand than even pot, so the grubbermint could claim even more taxes.

I'd love to see this happen...but i'm not holding my breath. I remain optimistic while all the while keeping realistic.

RC

[StonerBill]

how would you prevent people growing it? at the moment its one of the most punishable crimes. at the moment, growers can be found by tracing dealers. if weed was legal, there would be no traces to weed growers because people would jsut say they bought it from a store.
at the moment they dont go out of their way to bust single plants, even if they will bust it if they found it.

if weed was legal, there would be practically no reason to go bust individuals except to save the economy much less money than it takes to pay officers to go searching for dope plants.

making growing illegal but smoking legal doesnt work you dont need heaps of equiptment to grow weed, but you do to make decent amounts of alchohol, and moonshine is horrible compared to commercial drinks, unlike a plant

[mushroomherb]

marijuana will never become legal for one simple reason: there is nothing more difficult than trying to motivate a stoner.

if marijuana were legal everyone would smoke just like everyone drinks now.

so, weed leagalization would stop a fuck load of violence and shit. what they should do is this:
make it leagal, only regulate it like they do tobaco, a fine for minors and a fine for doing it in public...problem solved!

[mushroomherb]

The only stoners it's impossible to motivate are already lazy, it's not the weed that steals your ambition. I know plenty of people--myself included--that get shitloads of things done while high, so don't buy into that crummy propaganda.
But back to the original question, another thing legalizaton would bring would be unadulterated product, in addition to the benefits Concealed has mentioned above. However, assuming pot were to be legalized tomorrow, I hardly think the gov't would allow it to be completely unregulated (or untaxed!). I'm guessing that most likely they would treat it like alcohol or tobacco products. In turn, this would mean...you guessed it...no sales to minors, or whatever arbitrary age limit they set.
As far as the intelligence agencies are concerned...who knows? The CIA has refused to be audited about drug related matters and monies since the 1960's. It'd prob'ly be a fair bet to say they're getting their own piece of the drug money pie, but they certainly can't admit to THAT now, can they?
i agree completly(you should make the laws)

[lonewolf313]

I think if marijuana were legalized it would save the failing American economy. We could revive all of the wasting farmlands of the Mid-west and the South with marijuana agriculture and create a value-added marijuana tourism industry. I believe if it were made legal as corn per say, there would be a increase in usage at first, and a decrease in alcohol and meth use which would significantly impact increasing America's overall productivity in the long run. If marijuana and hemp were our main cash crops we could save our trees in the National forest, and it's better for the land and goes 10 times further than cotton or trees industrially. Legalization could also impact America's nutrition crisis in that hemp seed is one of the healthiest foods. Hemp you can sleep in in, wear it, live in it,eat it, run your auto on it, write on it, wash your hair with it's extracts, ect. it can do anything oil can do and do it better. We could turn our economy around if we learned to embrace one of God's most special gifts to man kind - marijuana.

Bringing marijuana back to American agriculture would encourage young people to come back to the farms reversing the depopulation trends throughout the rural Mid-west and West.

Weed doesn't make everyone lazy, however some poeple use it as an excuse to be lazy, there's a big diffence in causality there. Marijuana in and of it's self doesn't cause laziness.

Weed should be as free as corn, anyone should be able to grow it and benefit from it. Marijuana is one plant that has the least toxic qualities of any plant, you can't overdose on it. Comparing marijuana to opium is like comparing marijuana with cocaine, they are totally different. Opuim is like the best marijuana on the plant times 100 with effect, the the long term outcomes of usage patterns between the two are like venus and pluto in relation to the solar system, a big stretch to say the least.

[KParker730]

yeah too bad our government doesnt see things like you do

[Warrior Stylee]

My uncle is an amp-ut in a weel chair smokes cannabis instead of taking the systems shit like morphine.
He was on the news awhile back trying to legalize pot for disabled people,
as you know its a herb that helps repair the nervous system and with its other qualities its a perfect remedy. Ofcourse people agreed & vice-versa, my point is,
it has a different use to everyone.

And I hate the fact were slaves for the government (in more ways than 1) we can't do simple things like have a smoke & feel free and motivated to maybe paint your house neon green instead of paying tax's etc. and being a boxed well thought out citizen.

anyways good thread imie outie.

[AcousticPeace]

it would be a lot safer if marijuana was leagal and controlled by the government. cuz they could grow some really great shit... im tellin ya. if the government would just compromise with drug use. maybe we'll get there one day.

[skyjewelz]

Even though i'd like weed to be legal i'm not shure selling it in stores would be a good thing. It would be like cigarettes, the government would inject the joints with chemicals and stuff...just another way to control us.

[mr.morrison]

yea. it sounds nice and convienient to just walk to 711 and buy 5 joints, but they would put even more addicting and harmful chemicals then they do with ciggs. maybe they can have a limit on plants you can grow? like 2 plants max. they know most people wont go through the trouble to grow their own shit so most will still buy from stores. but id much rather grow my own.

[skyjewelz]

I thought it was illegal to grow tobacco, if so wouldn't it still be illegal to grow plants yourself if the government had control and sold in stores?

[ginseng23]

I don't think it will be legal anytime soon. Too many ignorant people will continue to vote against legalizing it who dont know the history of why it even became illegal. It isnt because its bad. It is based on quite a few things but two mainly: racism and economics.

Economics- The government knows that it is natural and a plant and if it was legal alot of people would grow their own and say forget buying from the gov since it isnt a hard plant to grow. I have heard it grows like a weed and needs minimal care once established. The other side of economics is the dea and police would lose jobs busting people since pot is currently the most widely abused illegal drug in the USA.

Racism- Initially it was blamed on the mexicans for seducing white women and was used as a scapegoat much in the same way as the germans accused the jews for causing the social problems in germany. That is racism also. Marijuana would become the scapegoat just like the jews would be for all of nazi germany's problems. There is a saying i learned from a philosophy class: In order to overcome ignorance sometimes it is important to know a little bit about the history of whatever particular subject u are talking about. If people want to just be ignorant about why pot is illegal then let them i guess. Doesnt mean it should be illegal though cause most are ignorant about why its illegal.

Back to the economics the fda reacts the same way. They will say negative stuff about herbals all the time and for the same reason. If its natural and a plant u can grow yourself they cant make money off it. Alcohol is alot harder to grow than a weed( cannabis for instance). Its alot easier and cheaper to go buy it from the store. I figured out the cost of ingredients and it would be just as cheap to buy from a store than brew your own. Probably taste better at the store unless u really good at brewing.

Tobacco also would be hard to grow in alot of places especially for the amount most addicts need. 20 cigs a day times 365 days a year is alot of plants.

[rob1134]

"Wouldn't it be safer if marijuana was legal? I mean, kids buy it from strangers whose nickname (something like The Striker or whatnot)"

I thought this was kinda funny, my dealers name is Hacksaw, i also know another dealer who calls himself Fresh G or some stupid shit. Just thought i should add that.