legalize it already

[deadheadskier]

I've written this before and it's unpopular among the stoner crowd but I'm against legalizing marijuana. My concern is over the draconian laws they're going to pass where you give an implied consent to a blood test for drugs the same way you now give an implied consent to the police giving you a breathalyzer test. I really don't want some moron cop with an attitude vampiring blood out of my arm because my eyes are bloodshot from swimming laps in the pool.

Police in some states (I believe Texas is one) can administer a roadside blood test already on drunk driving suspicion.

People get DUI's for driving while under the influence of drugs all the time without any set standard like BAC level for drinking and driving.



In regards to marijuana, it is metabolized extremely fast in the body. Pretty much an hour after use a blood test won't be able to determine how recently and how much marijuana was consumed. A blood test can detect the presence of marijuana in the user for nearly a week after usage, but the short term diagnostics aren't there like they are with a breathlyzer test for alcohol. There are currently zero standards for measuring marijuana intoxication and consumption levels. Current blood testing procedures can't provide that information after basically an hour of use.

I'm not sure whether the legal status of a chemical really has all that much relevance in the debate honestly. Even with illegal drugs, if there were accurate means of testing quantity ingestion and intoxication from such drugs like there is with alcohol, they would be currently employed by law enforcement. Think about that.

You're entitled to your opinion, but I think your fears of roadside vampire testing due to bloodshot eyes on the way home from the pool are rather sensational.

[Edd]

I agree with Snoseek that legalization is coming but I'm less optimistic about how long it will take. Once the old guard dies in great enough numbers it should happen. I think alot of older folks are just misinformed and the attitudes are so ingrained that there is absolutely no convincing people that it's much ado about nothing.

On TV these days you notice much greater pot use than in the past. Regular, everyday folks getting stoned because that's just what many people do. Non-violent, tax-paying, educated, pay their bills on time kind of folks.

I've often wondered how much of a hand the alcohol industry has in preventing legalization.

[hammer]

I've never tried it and I'd never go near it (and I'm practically a non-drinker as well) but I don't see the big deal. Make it legal, regulate it, and get some tax revenue out of it like we do with other "sin" substances.

Seems to me that tobacco is a lot more dangerous long-term (father died from lung cancer and mom has lung problems, both likely due to decades of smoking) and that's been legal since when...forever?

[Glenn]

We spend a lot of money enforcing the laws on it. I often wonder if it's worth it. Arrest one supplier...another pops up. The drug trade is a huge source of crime as well. One only has to look at prohibition and what that did for the rise of organized crime.

[marcski]

What I find interesting in this whole debate is that but for perhaps our lovely Gov. Cuomo, it's the conservative republicans, who are always expousing the evils of big government and excessive regulation, that are the ones that seem most against legalizing it and decriminalizing it.

[deadheadskier]

I've often wondered how much of a hand the alcohol industry has in preventing legalization.

I would say the prescription drug companies play a very large roll. Partnership for a Drug Free America was started by the Johnson & Johnson family. Many of their major sponsors are pharmaceutical companies.

Companies like Pfizer stand to lose billions if people start growing a product in their yard to treat certain ailments as opposed to buying their expensive synthetic drugs that often carry horrible side effects.

http://www.drugfree.org/about/our-pa...ors-supporters

[bigbog]

For those in favor, would you want to do it infront of say your 5yr old kid? (And then try and explain to them that smoking ANYTHING isn't healthy??

If the answer is "no" then why bother in the 1st place??

Maybe we should keep the use of sedatives, possibly observed by children, confined to big-pharma pills and alcohol...? Is smoking a whole joint any different than guzzling down beer after beer in the middle of your tv room on the weekend till one becomes blind drunk?
Moderation in certain areas = what kids are not being taught. There are activities for kids...and there are activities for adults...no? Study hard, work diligently but have some choice of personal freedoms at home once you've grown up...but live in fear of a police state once home...y/n? In public = should be a crime...just as alcohol consumption...agreed.

[Nick]

personally i think it's like anything else. you abuse it and it becomes an issue. I'm not a smoker but I know folks that smoke a couple times a year and are 100% normal. I also know some folks who smoke daily and even when they aren't high they just look demented and half brain dead. YOu know, like this;



Anyway. I thought I heard last week that this was going to be coming down in MA to. Have to see if I can find where I read that.

[2knees]

I smoke 2 joints before I smoke 2 joints
and then i smoke 2 more.

[SkiFanE]

Maybe we should keep the use of sedatives, possibly observed by children, confined to big-pharma pills and alcohol...? Is smoking a whole joint any different than guzzling down beer after beer in the middle of your tv room on the weekend till one becomes blind drunk?
Moderation in certain areas = what kids are not being taught. There are activities for kids...and there are activities for adults...no? Study hard, work diligently but have some choice of personal freedoms at home once you've grown up...but live in fear of a police state once home...y/n? In public = should be a crime...just as alcohol consumption...agreed.

Moderation. My 16yo has been to Colombia 2x (actually 3, but she was just a baby first time), and is spending Junior year of HS there next year (leaves in July..sniff sniff). Everyone thinks of the country as drug ridden, dangerous, etc.. But did you know they have no laws against drugs and no drinking age? They just send all the drugs to the US, bwahaha. It is so socially 'bad' to do drugs, that noone does, even though they can. My girl went to a quinciniera party for her 15yo cousin when she was 14yo in Medellin. She had a beer, no big deal. But she also said how much more responsible adults are with alcohol, there were no drunk adults there, according to her. If you compare it to a wedding (she's been to many)...think of all the adults by last call that are stumbling drunk...none at that party. She went last summer at 15yo and went to teen parties with booze, no problems. They even have these 'chiva' buses that are parties on wheels in Bogota that teens/young adults hang out on and drink on...but again..they aren't falling down drunks out of control, just normal teens. I have zero fears of her going there next year. She doesn't go to her HS dances b/c of all the drunks there...and if she wanted to go to one, I'd be in fear...how crazy is that?!