11-04-2015, 03:37 PM
(11-04-2015, 09:49 AM)PDub80 Wrote: 1.) I have a serious fundamental problem with people's growing desire to chemically change the way they feel. I look at drug use (and alcohol abuse) as a selfish act that removes someone from their real world responsibilities and life. We as a society have enough forms of recreation to be distracted or waste time. To add another that physically/chemically impairs is just ludicrous to me.
I have seen so many friends and people I grew up with become infatuated with getting high that it dominates a lot of their thoughts or activities and, in some cases, it has limited their life's potential. One of my life long best friends started smoking occasionally a few years ago. Now, at 35, he can't go anywhere other than work without being bored or wanting to smoke. He is habitually/mentally addicted. I can't, in good conscience, vote to give that the go ahead as a way of regular life for upcoming generations.
Side note: I find it funny that people even need to have weed legalized at this point. 2.) CLEARLY... CLEARLY people who want it have very little problem getting their hands on weed. Legalizing seems more like validation or confirmation of the psyche of drug users more than it is about health, wellness, taxes, or availability. Almost as if users need society to tell them it's ok to get F'd up or that we all feel the same pain or struggle with boredom and the desire to feel different.
1.) Obviously you have your opinion and are certainly entitled to it. But so is everyone else. Just because you have a problem with people's desire to chemically change the way they feel doesn't necessarily give you the right to control their choice to do so.
The last I checked alcohol is legal, right? Throughout most parts of the world. People use it in a variety of ways. Some use it to relax or unwind, responsibly. Some use to socially. Some use it with dinner. Some abuse it. Etc, etc, etc. What exactly would be the fundamental difference between allowing people the same options and choices with marijuana? Afterall, we're talking about a much, much less harmful drug. (See alcohol vs marijuana abuse in physical impact, social impact, relation to violence, etc.)
I mean, you can say "I don't like alcohol either". That's all well and good, and you're entitled to think that way. But it is legal. And it will remain so.
2.) Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. GREAT point. Anyone who currently wants to smoke week can smoke weed. It's not hard to get. So why not regulate and tax it. If you're not preventing anyone from doing it then why not a.) make money on it, b.) keep money out of the hands of both drug dealers and cartels, c.) regulate, so that it is as safe as possible?
You know how marijuana can be a gateway drug? Because some shady ass dealer sells that and about 10 other things. And he says, "hey, try some of this" and bam, you know how are giving someone access to not only weed, but a number of other things. That would not be the case in a retail store.
People should be allowed to make their own decisions, especially with something as harmless as marijuana. Our time and resources would be better spent attacking the heroin epidemic, which was largely driven by prescription drug use. Many people who are against "altering your mind" don't even bat an eye and the abundance of opiate prescriptions (vicodin, percocet, oxycotin) that lead to sever heroin epidemic. One that causes death after death, breaks up families, violence, theft, millions in tax dollars and tons of resources to house and rehabilitate criminals.
It makes no sense to not regulate and tax something that you're preventing zero people from doing. And if people recall how alcohol prohibition went then they should remember that it paved much of the way for organized crime. (See: Capone, Al.)
