Are you for or against marijuana being legal?

I don’t care what people do with their bodies as long as they don’t hurt anyone else or force it on anyone else. As far as I know, marijuana is about as safe as drugs get, so sure, I’d support legalizing it. I’m not going to lose any sleep if it stayed illegal, either, but the more freedom, the better, right?

I’ve seen to many friends’ lives ruin by this drug. I guess if legalised it will be taxed and may help stomp out crime.

Never touched the stuff myself

I’m for the legalization of marijuana, albeit with heavy regulation (same as my take on alcohol and cigarettes.)

I honestly don’t care either way. If they legalize it, it will end up being regulated and taxed (which people will then complain about). If they don’t, things stay the same and people continue to complain about it.

I’m all for legalizing it, mostly so people will stop complaining about it being illegal.

I’m all for it

Strongly, strongly, strongly for. It’s far less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes. Problem is that most people assume that anything called a ‘drug’ must be addictive and destructive.

I’m for it.

Pro

I want it to be legalized so that pot smokers have nothing to talk about ever again.

not a single against it yet. This makes me all warm and fuzzy… on the inside.

I would like to see it legal especially for chronic pain sufferers. It does help relax you but it should be sold like liquor or other strong meds. You have to sign for it and are only allowed so much a month. I tried it years ago and it helped. I do know that some idiots mix it with booze and other stuff to get a bigger high,which is not smart. I’d rather someone smoke pot than drive drunk. No matter what happens, someone is not going to be happy.

Legalize it,for the exact reason @mowens stated :)

Imprisoning people for marijuana use is a very poor use of tax money. I would favor the kind of regime that Holland employs to regulate marijuana.

I’m on the libertarain side on this question. Let people do what they want so long as their actions hurt nobody else. We know alcohol can be abused. In fact, alcohol abuse is demonstrably worse than marijuana abuse. Alcohol is highly addictive, debilitating, and potentially deadly. But used in moderation, it enhances human life. Well intentioned do-gooders pushed through Prohibition and the consequence was an explosion in organized crime and the substitution of poisoned bathtub gin full of lead from car radiators in place of safe, commercially brewed booze. The Mexican Drug cartels, rich and powerful enough to challenge the Mexican Federal Police and even the Mesican Army, are what we get for making marijuana a profitable contraband instead of a taxed and regulated commodity.

We should treat drugs just as we treat alcohol. Educate kids in school regarding the dangers of addiction and abuse. Tax and regulate sale to adults. Criminalize behavior of those who cannot or will not restrain themselves to safe, moderate use.

I have imbibed here and there over the years but am not attached to how it goes.

Either/or.

Yes, it’s an individuals own biz. as long as they are using responsibly, meaning…get high and go nowhere, don’t drive and/or stay in one place, preferably at home or in a camping situation where one is not taking any risks or comprimising their ability to work in a state of sobriety.

I’m for legalizing it, for many reasons. With restrictions set into place – no selling to minors, no driving, etc.

Legalize it!

Legalize it.

Legalize it with some kind of oversight. At the very least legalize medicinal marijuana.

I feel like both alcohol and cigarettes have more potential for detremental affects on people than marijuana…if those are both legal, I’d say it only makes sense for it to be legal as well.,

legalize it as well.
Medical marijuana is important. to all states. not just 15.

It is much safer than booze and not a gateway drug.

What a less crowded prison situation. I think the states need the tax money. I know mine does. 49th in education.

Pursuit of happiness, liberty, freedom

For. What people do in private is their own businsess (though I think there should be laws against driving while high, just as there are laws against driving while drunk).

I had my foot operated on last month. The next day, I was popping pain killer after pain killer because it hurt so bad. After taking 4 throughout the day (way less than most people would have taken, I believe) I tried to eat for the first time that day (hadn’t had an appetite since I started taking them) and took about 4 bites, felt awful, and a half hour later I vomited about five times. All from the painkillers.

The next day, and for the week or two after that, when it started hurting, I took a few hits of weed. Medical marijuana too, mind you, because it’s legal for medicinal purposes here in Boulder. It took the pain away, made me happy even though I couldn’t walk or do much and it was 100 degrees out, and it didn’t make me lose my appetite. I could eat normally, function, not vomit, be happy, not rip my boyfriends head off every time he came in the room…..

So….yeah

@deni – Actually pot makes most people hungry. Don’t ask me how I know that ;-)

I think it should be illegal..

@HungryGuy I know…I actually think that’s one of the only down sides to weed. Depending on the type of marijuana I smoke, I sometimes get the munchies so badly that I will eat and eat and eat and once the high is over, I feel super full and awful. The other down side I think is the burn out, which can be awful depending on a lot of factors including how much you smoke.

Sorry to be an old sour puss, but I’m against making it easier to obtain for recreational use. I’m not anxious to share the road with people who can get high on pot as easily as they can on alcohol, or doing business with people who are high.

However, I certainly think it should be easily available for medical treatment.

Does anyone know if it’s good for relief of osteaarthritis pain. I have to take Valium as a muscle relaxant and Oxycodone as a pain killer when it flares up and pinches a major nerve bundle running up my neck and down into both shoulders. That combo works, but it also is pretty hard to concentrate when it kicks in.

@ETpro You should give it a shot. They gave me Oxycodone for my foot too and so that is what I replaced with weed….it really did wonders.

There are many obvious cons to marijuana legalization. I do not think people should be put in jail or have their lives ruined by harsh anti-drug laws however. I would support being required to obtain a license from the state to privately grow it (even though THC is a federally controlled substance, this federal ban should be eliminated and left up to each individual state to decide upon).

@ETpro I guess you could smoke it because you are self-employed? Am I correct? Unfortunately, some of us here on Fluther still would not be able to smoke it (even if legalized) because some of us have jobs that give random drug tests on a regular basis.

I’m strongly for legalization even though I don’t use the stuff myself. It’s a waste of resources enforcing these laws and we’re locking up harmless people. Legalize and tax it.

@deni Thanks. It’s decriminalized at amounts under an ounce here in Massachusetts. And ounce would last me a few years.

@Jabe73 Yes, I’m self employed. No worries about a boss firing me for flunking a drug test. But I do have to remain cogent enough to talk to clients intelligibly when they call, and to do their work professionally when they aren’t on the phone with me. Oxycodne in sufficient quantity to manage my pain can make that difficult.

@ETpro I would rather smoke medical marijuana than take a ton of pills.

To be honest, I don’t care. The only thing that bothers me in this whole arguement is people that get caught with it and the whine about the “injustice”. The way I see it, whether you agree with the law or not, if you get caught breaking it you have no one to blame but yourself.

“The more freedom, the better, right?”

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard, so if freedom is a good thing, more freedom must always be better? Well, do we really want everybody running around doing anything they want? Wouldn’t that be societal chaos?

what @stranger_in_a_strange_land said. But you have to be of age and it should be taxed. I think it would eliminate a lot of crime, wouldn’t it? I’ve heard California would go bankrupt if it were legalized. You will Never eliminate weed because it’s a weed! Those guys burning it just look silly.
It may be a gateway drug but so is alcohol. If used for thousands of years for pain it is much safer than vicodin and percocet. I do not like giving the pharmaceutical industry even more power by what I believe is their lobbying against legalization out of greed. I don’t smoke. But I bet Andrew Weil does.

@ETpro While not exactly the same, I have bulging disks in my back and neck as well as a pinched nerve that sends pain shooting down my legs. Its all from a car accident. Drs prescribed me percs for it, but I stand very strongly against the use of opiates. Weed works about a million times better anyway, and when it wears off I am at the same level of pain I was before, not like with percs that puts the pain about a million times worse.

@Austinlad hmmmm portugal seems to be getting along just fine with their NO DRUG LAWS. but yeaaaa societal chaos….. <rolls eyes>

@Austinlad, I would totally support anyone doing anything they wanted as long as they only involved consenting parties in their shenanigans. Too bad most people are too dumb to leave people alone who want to be left alone.

Ah, @ Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard, I see you’re 20. Now I get your views.

Have fun in Portugal, @uberbatman.

BTW, @uberbatman, your comment, ”...hmmmm Portugal seems to be getting along just fine with their NO DRUG LAWS. but yeaaaa societal chaos….. <rolls eyes>”) seems to imply I said legalized pot would lead to societal chaos. I didn’t, and I don’t believe that. What I posited was—and I think it’s important to clarify this to the three people who may still be on this thread—“do we really want everybody running around doing anything they want? Wouldn’t that be societal chaos?.

A good example of taking something out of context to give a completely different message than the one intended, like Fox News did when they showed an edited clip of the USDA’s Shirley Sherrod.

@Austinlad then what exactly did you mean? We are after all discussing drugs and the freedom of using such. You said it would be chaos. Maybe I misperceived this, please, clarify.

Completely for it. I know, it’s shocking.

100% For legality especially if thats what the “people want”. It infuriates me that the csa is preventing people from getting what they want through voting.

It should be legal and cheap and shut everyone up who acts like theyre soooo cool for going against the law and making their mommies mad and shocking officials. God, just let them smoke themselves into oblivion. Watch it lose its appeal. It would be like drinking a beer and we might have less crime.

@superjuicebox That’s why I have consistently said in most of my old posts on this issue that the federal regulation against it as a controlled substance should be eliminated and left up to each individual state to decide upon.

@Jabe73 Yes, it really should be. I don’t think the commerce clause (what enables the csa to exist) was meant to enable such control and power over the local people’s through out states and cities.

They should make it totally legal then tax the living hell out of it.