The Case For And Against Marijuana Legalization Round Two
I got this article from CannibisNews.org
The author fills the article with so many lies and propaganda statements that I had to comment there as well as post on my blog here so that I could post links and references to prove my points. His article is at the top and my responses are below.
Teahupoo
California — Many people blame the government for the war on drugs because the government
More..refuses to legalize the drug. But the war on drugs isn’t as shortsighted as proponents of legalization would like to think. Legalizing marijuana will not solve all of our drug war problems and certainly won’t make our country a better place to live.
Advocates of legalization propositions say that a federally regulated marijuana market will drive the cost of marijuana down, decrease the crime rate and thus decrease the wasted efforts put forth by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The federal government spends billions of dollars each year in an effort to undermine drug distribution throughout the country. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2006, about 6,000 people a day used marijuana for the first time, a total of 2.2 million Americans. Of these, 63.3 percent were under age 18. So when the government legalizes pot for people over 21, as any of its attempted legislation has stated, it won’t suddenly eliminate the demand for marijuana of those underage users. The war on drugs will continue.
The concept that marijuana is less harmful than cigarettes or alcohol may be a true statement to some degree but isn’t a cause for legalization. Standards should not be set on degree of harmfulness, but degree of helpfulness. Also, let’s not forget that the tobacco industry won’t just step aside to let a brand new business take over the market. Should marijuana become legal, who do you think will first start the mass manufacturing? My guess of Marlboro is a good one. But Camel is a decent choice, too. And if Marlboro wants to keep people smoking pot just like it does with tobacco, it may start putting a couple “harmless ingredients” into the mixture to help a little. After that, it’s anyone’s guess as to which of the three drugs is the worst for you.
While the revenue stream may be helpful to the economy from a monetary standpoint, at what cost do we seek out this fortune? Juxtapose thinking only with a monetary mindset, why shouldn’t California lower the drinking age to 18? Our tourism industry will increase tenfold, with millions of 18 year olds trekking across our border in search of their state’s forbidden fruit. Besides the fact that the federal government would revoke several of our subsidiaries, the reason we don’t do this is because of the health impact it would have on the general public and state-to-state relations. Having a bunch of 18 year olds driving across the border to get drunk and then driving back home isn’t a good thing. The cost outweighs the benefits, just like with marijuana. The cost is far worse than the potential monetary benefits.
I’m all for medical marijuana. If you’re in pain, it’s no different to be prescribed marijuana rather than morphine or Vicodin. But I’m not about to push for the full legalization of the latter two drugs either. Legalization is incentivizing, and the costs of incentivizing weed among our nation’s youth are scary, at best. While there may be some four million people smoking weed in our country now, imagine encouraging it among the rest. I can’t think of a better way to stimulate our economy than to inject into it a tool that entirely destroys ambition and motivation. Excuse the language, but nothing says “fuck it” like a big dose of THC in the morning. Instead of mandatory 15 minute “smoking breaks” for cigarette-smoking workers, employers will have to implement new hours for pot-smoking workers: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Wednesday. Nike may have to change their slogan from “Just Do It” to “Just Don’t.” I can see the potential now.
Daily Nexus columnist Shaeffer Bannigan can see a red-eyed, stoney version of Joe Camel now.
Source: Daily Nexus (CA Edu)
Author: Jonathan Nightingale
Contact: opinion@dailynexus.com
Website: http://www.ucsbdailynexus.com/
OKAY
Didn’t that sound as if it were written by someone channeling Harry Anslinger?
Here is my response back:
This guy actually gets compensated to write garbage like this?
This article is so full of lies and propaganda it could gave been written by some government hack.
Like this B.S. statement:
“Of these, 63.3 percent were under age 18. So when the government legalizes pot for people over 21, as any of its attempted legislation has stated, it won’t suddenly eliminate the demand for marijuana of those underage users. The war on drugs will continue.”
Really? I don’t recall going to a drug dealer to get a six pack or a bottle of booze when I was underage and don’t know anyone who does now. They simply get it from an older friend. That wouldn’t change, the only thing that would is that instead of going to jail or prison the person would receive the same punishment as they would for supplying alcohol to a minor.
It is also a proven and well known fact that in countries with legalization or decriminalization the use among teens is lower than it is here in the U.S. In states with medicinal marijuana laws use among teens is not increased.
Total B.S. argument.
Here’s another one:
“The concept that marijuana is less harmful than cigarettes or alcohol may be a true statement to some degree but isn’t a cause for legalization. Standards should not be set on degree of harmfulness, but degree of helpfulness. Also, let’s not forget that the tobacco industry won’t just step aside to let a brand new business take over the market. Should marijuana become legal, who do you think will first start the mass manufacturing?”
It isn’t a concept moron, it is a fact. Alcohol, Tobacco, and prescription drugs, sponsors of Partnership for Drug Free America, kill over a half million people a year while there has never been a death attributed to usage of cannabis.
Degree of helpfulness? Where do alcohol and tobacco fit into that line of thought?
The tobacco industry? Who gives a damn what they think.
That is the whole reason this happened to begin with, the government let itself be influenced and controlled by big corporations that had EVERYTHING to lose monetarily by allowing the cannabis sativa plant be grown for either hemp or marijuana, hemp was what they were most afraid of.
This is another ridiculous point.
The government could set up an entire new division of the Department of Agriculture to deal with Cannabis Sativa, and YES, that is the department that should be handling the issue, not the DEA. Cannabis is easy to grow.
If it were LEGAL, people could grow their own without fear of loss or imprisonment so there again your whole idea is wrong. Yes there will be some who would rather just buy than grow their own but the government could regulate the new industry and sell licenses just the way alcohol licenses are sold now, this would be done on a state by state basis which is what should be allowed anyway.
The Federal Government violated the 10th amendment by implementing the marijuana prohibition in the 1st place. They are continuing the violation by keeping the prohibition of cannabis alive, raiding medicinal marijuana clinics, prosecuting people like Charles Lynch, and arresting nearly a million people a year on marijuana offenses.
This guys closing arguments are so prejudicial that anyone with any semblance of intelligence could see right through it. That one belongs right up there with “gays are perverts and child molesters”.
EVERY study done among other countries has shown that decriminalization or legalization has NOT increased usage.
His statements here show that he is completely uninformed and uneducated about the issue and I personally wish people did switch from alcohol to cannabis, we would have less traffic fatalities and less violent crime just from that alone. Cannabis and Driving
The last part of the article states the following: ” I can’t think of a better way to stimulate our economy than to inject into it a tool that entirely destroys ambition and motivation. Excuse the language, but nothing says “fuck it” like a big dose of THC in the morning. Instead of mandatory 15 minute “smoking breaks” for cigarette-smoking workers, employers will have to implement new hours for pot-smoking workers: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Wednesday. Nike may have to change their slogan from “Just Do It” to “Just Don’t.” I can see the potential now.”
What a totally idiotic statement to make.
To make the statement that people who partake of cannabis are ALL lazy people with no ambition and motivation is the most ridiculous statement in this entire article. (Tell that to Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin “Everything”, who says he partakes on a daily basis.)
So I guess that means we should assume that everyone who drinks gets tanked up before work too, right?
These are the kinds of opinions and statements that caused cannabis to be treated as it it is right now and the same confused, brainwashed, and uneducated mindset that is keeping it status quo.
If you REALLY want REAL CHANGE we are going to have to stand up and make it happen ourselves. It will take more than the feeble and meek protests that are occurring now, and in my opinion, trying to get it done by separation into medicinal marijuana, hemp, and decriminalization/legalization movements puts our cause in a position of weakness.
The founding fathers fought against unjust laws and said it was our duty to do the same. From Thomas Jefferson:
“If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. ”
What the hell is wrong with people today?
Maybe Eric Holder was right, maybe we really are a nation of cowards.
Teahupoo
Clickable links and resources:
http://vaporizersales.com/blog/the-case-for-and-against-marijuana-legalization-round-two/
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Added: Apr 30 2009 In: yoursay
Recorded on: Apr 30 2009
By: Teahupoo 
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