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[Luke]

Yeah, I smoke pot like a chimney.

Come on Hatta, no one smokes pot out of a fireplace.

[MrPopo]

I say legalize the shit. If any drugs should be illegal it should be alcohol and tabacco which actually do cause society problems. Never happen though because there is big money behind them.

Are you seriously claiming that marijuana doesn't cause society problems?

[Hatta]

Any problems marijuana may cause are dwarfed by the problems prohibition causes. I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to identify any serious problems caused by marijuana. The shit is effectively legal in Holland and Portugal and they haven't collapsed yet.

Think of it this way. It would be easy enough to claim that video games cause societal problems. People lose their jobs and families to WoW addictions. Some would argue that violent video games cause societal violence.

Does that mean that we should prohibit video games? No, such a ban would be unenforceable, criminalize a large portion of the populace for no good reason, take a large chunk out of our economy, etc. The exact same arguments apply for marijuana.

[DownSince86]

Yeah, I smoke pot like a chimney.

Come on Hatta, no one smokes pot out of a fireplace.

I dunno man, I've seen pot heads build some crazy pipes and bongs in my time.

I'm not going to enter the debate about weed begin illegal. If your going to break the law and smoke it that's your business and no one elses, just don't cry about it when you eventually get caught. I have several friends serving time in prison because they got caught transporting pot, growing pot, smoking pot, or selling pot. For the most part all of them were law abiding citizens outside of the fact that they smoke, grew, or sold it and the cold hard fact is pot ruined their lives. Most of them have children too and these kids will not be seeing their parents for long time, and even after they get out of prison most of their kids will never see them in the same light again.

That said what really pisses me off is this: Prisons are no longer maintained by the government because it is cheaper to let a private corporation build and maintain them. These corporations make a huge profits based on how many people they have locked up at any given time and their stocks go up and down based on the number of people in prison. Basically if your an inmate your a piece of property and in my opinion that is no different than slavery.

What we need to do is separate these non-violent offenders who are addicted to a substance from the rest of the prison population. We need to treat addiction instead of making a profit from it. We need educate people about the dangers of substances instead of scaring our children and uneducated brothers with stories of people cooking babies while on LSD. Also in my opinion we have bigger problems than pot anyway; What about meth? What about cocaine? What about heroin? those are three substances that do a lot more harm to people than pot ever will. I've seen them destroy more lives in my short time on this earth than I care to count and I'm not talking about people getting locked up in prison here, I'm talking about people who killed themselves, killed others, abandoned their families and friends and ruined themselves all for the sake of their addictions.

Also I'm not trying to say weed isn't addictive because it is and I've seen it first hand. I've seen many people sit on their asses for years on end caring about nothing other than getting that next toke. There are plenty of users out there that are not what I would consider casual pot smokers, I used to be one of them.

I watched this movie awhile back and I think it is worth a watch for anyone with an opinion on the subject: (American Drug War, the last white hope). It may change your opinion a little, it may not. Either way it will educate you a little more about the subject.

[Limewater]

Any problems marijuana may cause are dwarfed by the problems prohibition causes. I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to identify any serious problems caused by marijuana. The shit is effectively legal in Holland and Portugal and they haven't collapsed yet.

Think of it this way. It would be easy enough to claim that video games cause societal problems. People lose their jobs and families to WoW addictions. Some would argue that violent video games cause societal violence.

Does that mean that we should prohibit video games? No, such a ban would be unenforceable, criminalize a large portion of the populace for no good reason, take a large chunk out of our economy, etc. The exact same arguments apply for marijuana.

I don't think that's what MrPopo was saying. It's simply humorous that so many people who smoke pot stubbornly refuse to believe that it can have any negative effects or consequences for anyone anywhere. That appears to be true regardless on anyone's personal stance on legalization.

[Octopod]

I say legalize the shit. If any drugs should be illegal it should be alcohol and tabacco which actually do cause society problems. Never happen though because there is big money behind them.

Are you seriously claiming that marijuana doesn't cause society problems?

Feel free to enlighten me.

[Hatta]

For the most part all of them were law abiding citizens outside of the fact that they smoke, grew, or sold it and the cold hard fact is pot ruined their lives.

Wrong. Unjust laws ruined their lives. Bigotry ruined their lives. That's why I get so upset when I see people defending the war on drug users. Good people are having their lives ruined for no good reason. That is the truth of marijuana prohibition. It's nothing less than persecution.

[DownSince86]

For the most part all of them were law abiding citizens outside of the fact that they smoke, grew, or sold it and the cold hard fact is pot ruined their lives.

Wrong. Unjust laws ruined their lives. Bigotry ruined their lives. That's why I get so upset when I see people defending the war on drug users. Good people are having their lives ruined for no good reason. That is the truth of marijuana prohibition. It's nothing less than persecution.

I understand what your getting at and do agree with it. However these people knew the risks before they got tied up in the drug game so they willingly set themselves up for it. I think a lot of people forget about the fact that it was a personal choice and concentrate too much on the law/drug aspect of the whole thing.

It is kinda like getting a seat belt ticket; Everyone complains about getting fined for it and cries about personal freedoms but they could have avoided the issue all together by using a seat belt in the first place. I've never met anyone that got a seat belt ticket in their own drive way just like I've never met anyone that got arrested for smoking pot in their own home.

I guess what I'm saying is if your going to break the law at least be smart about it. If you want to change the law go out and try to change it. It will continue to remain illegal until the people rise up and do something about it.

and here I am entering the debate after I said I wouldn't -,-.

[Limewater]

It will continue to remain illegal until the people rise up and do something about it.

There you go, people! If you want marijuana to be legalized, you just need to VOTE HARDER! Unhappy with the current law? VOTE HARDER! Feel like your personal freedoms are being violated? Obviously you DIDN'T VOTE HARD ENOUGH!

Yay Democracy!

[Luke]

Obviously you DIDN'T VOTE HARD ENOUGH!

Voting hard is actually pretty embarrassing. I tend to poke out of the curtain.

...I've never met anyone that got arrested for smoking pot in their own home.

I have. Personally, and via watching COPS.