Man Tells Cops that his Pot was Stolen!

[Ming]

There's a big difference between murder and smoking pot. Many could argue that smoking pot is not as bad as drinking... which is legal

[Arrian]

I get the "Sundance" channel, and the other night it was playing "Grass" which was narrated by Woody Harrelson and was all about the criminalization of pot in the U.S. Hilarious stuff put forth by the government before they did any real studies on it. They just made scary stuff up about it. "It will make you go insane! It's horribly addictive!"

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Or at least ingesting pot (eating it, drinking tea made with it). Smoking is harmful to your lungs, and those of anyone who inhales the secondhand smoke. But if you eat/drink it instead of smoking it, I don't think a very convincing arguement can be made that Pot is worse than booze.

-Arrian

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by yavoon
there's "futility" in lots of laws. heroine, murder, child abuse, etc...do u think the way to solve these is to decriminalise them? u just need to giveup on the futility of enforcement thing. cuz when someone thinks something should be illegal they aren't gna be like well "since ppl do it neway" I guess I"ll make it legal.

Let me guess: when people use the phrase "cost-benefit analysis," you assume they're speaking Swahili or something, don't you?

If not, can you possibly make an argument that the damage marijuana does outweighs the massive cost of policing pot use? (Remember, this is not just the cost of busting users and dealers, but also the cost of incarcerating people for years -- at tens of thousands of dollers per person -- and the cost of providing military and financial support to other nations for the purpose of policing pot.)

Bonus points if you can make such an argument about pot AND explain why alcohol shouldn't be treated the same way.

Otherwise, why not just admit that you don't think things through much, and move along?

[Willem]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly

If not, can you possibly make an argument that the damage marijuana does outweighs the massive cost of policing pot use? (Remember, this is not just the cost of busting users and dealers, but also the cost of incarcerating people for years -- at tens of thousands of dollers per person -- and the cost of providing military and financial support to other nations for the purpose of policing pot.)

And that's not to mention the increased public revenue that would be gained instead, if pot was legal and taxed like alcohol and tobacco.

PS If governments stopped wasting resources trying to stop it, and taxed it instead, they could easily lower income taxes a notch or two. Now wouldn't that do wonders for the American economy these days?

[Az]

If it was legal, Willem, you wouldn't be able to make a living in the last few years.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Azazel
If it was legal, Willem, you wouldn't be able to make a living in the last few years.

There's still independant wine makers, and micro breweries. If I had a good product, which I did, there's no reason why I couldn't have done the same sort of thing. Granted the profit margins would probably have been lower overall, but on the other hand I could have had a larger operation if I didn't have to hide everything and look as inconspicous as possible.

PS And I'd still be in business since I wouldn't have had to dismantle my operation because of a stupid car accident.

[alva]

Originally posted by MikeH
Yeah, very true. I'd like to see it's sale moved to licensed premises to get kids away from dealers.

Probably can't be legalised but could go along the Dutch model.

US is a problem though.

Add Belgium to the list, possesion is no longer illegal although you're still not allowed to smoke it in public.
Overall it's a very confusing law due to many consessions that had to be made in order to get the law passed.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Azazel
If it was legal, Willem, you wouldn't be able to make a living in the last few years.

Besides, by the time the government got their share of the taxes, the retail price would probably be about the same as it is now. And I could easily have undercut their prices to a few select customers. I would have made a little less money per ounce, but not much.

PS About the only people legalization would put out of business would be the middlemen and the small time dealers, the ones who are quite often selling cocaine and other more harmful substances as well. Growers might see a certain loss of income but they'd still be able to make a few dollars from it. The operating overhead is very low.

[Sava]

Ming, Rah, I don't know if you guys remember the show "In the Heat of the Night"... but I recently saw an old episode where the Chief made a comment about the drug war citing, "Prohibition didn't work, how can they expect us to stop this drug trade when there is the demand for it?". I laughed because this was like 20 years ago.

[Frogman]

Its interesting that in the US, cities can decriminalize marijuana. I went to the University of Michigan and in Ann Arbor, less than an ounce was a $5 fine. Of course no one got fined either so possession was basically legal.

The only problem is that as you go up the supply chain, you eventually have some real criminals involved.

[yavoon]

sorry rufus I dont cost/benefit my morality. and I imagine I'm not alone. mind u I don't care if marijuana is legal or not. just consider me the logic police.

[kittenOFchaos]

Originally posted by yavoon
sorry rufus I dont cost/benefit my morality. and I imagine I'm not alone. mind u I don't care if marijuana is legal or not. just consider me the logic police.

You don't cost/benefit morality???

You consider yourself worthy of the title of logic police and not "class A moron"?


Get real. The morality over whether OTHER people smoke weed should not have the least concern to you as it is their decision. First remove the rainforest in your own eye, etc...

[Willem]

Originally posted by yavoon
sorry rufus I dont cost/benefit my morality. and I imagine I'm not alone. mind u I don't care if marijuana is legal or not. just consider me the logic police.

I'd hardly say that agreeing with the prohibiton of a substance that is no more and probably less harmful than either alcohol and tobacco to be logical. Especially when that prohibition is costing taxpayers all over the world billions of dollars to enforce when it clearly is unenforcable.

Frankly your whole position isn't logical. On one hand you compare legalization of marijuana to murder, then you say you don't care one way or another. Just what exactly do you believe in, or are you only hoping on getting a little attention?

[Lawrence of Arabia]

weed should be legal because the consumption of it does not hurt anyone else.