So, the economist and time agree: It's about fucking time to LEGALISE IT

[The Johnny]

GO FOR 23 !!111!

EVEN THO NOW THAT I POSETD ITS RESET TO ZERO

HAHUHAUHUAUHAUHAHUAHUA

[Z³]

If weed were legal, enough people would still grow their own that it'd be pretty awesome.
I'd like to legally buy weed at the farmers market.

[East Coast Hustle]

that would be OK, but it would never happen like that.

[Eater of Clowns]

Big cotton is why you can't smoke weed legally.  They fund the research because commercially grown fiber hemp is indistinguishable from recreational marijuana and as such a functional product it would jeopardize their hold on the fabric industry.  Open your eyes, man!   

[Z³]

that would be OK, but it would never happen like that.

I'm sure people would still grow, it might not be as widely available in that format, but people would.
If there are recreational brewers, there would be recreational growers.

[Fuquad]

that would be OK, but it would never happen like that.

I'm sure people would still grow, it might not be as widely available in that format, but people would.
If there are recreational brewers, there would be recreational growers.

I'm not seeing much(read: any) "recreational brews" being sold at farmers markets.

[Z³]

that would be OK, but it would never happen like that.

I'm sure people would still grow, it might not be as widely available in that format, but people would.
If there are recreational brewers, there would be recreational growers.

I'm not seeing much(read: any) "recreational brews" being sold at farmers markets.

Well, not necessarily at a farmers market, but none-the-less my point is that even if it were legalized... it wouldn't completely stop people from growing their own. on the other hand, I can see how the price for home grown weed would skyrocket as the supply decreased.

So yeah, that, I guess.

[AFK]

Why not?  What harm does it do?  

why not require everyone who buys a beer to undergo screening for alcoholism ? and who do you want intruding into peoples lives like this? the gov?

Alcohol is legal, marijuana is not.  Is it arbitrary?  Sure.  But show me human-made laws that aren't arbitrary.  But a simple screening is harmless and would take an hour, max, of a person's time.  And if the person really does have a problem they would reap huge benefits from being referred to treatment.  I look at it in the same way that a person has to take a defensive driving course for certain driving violations.  It's a formality one has to go through when they violate a certain law.  If they don't want to go through it, either don't violate the law, or become a lot better at violating it without being caught. 

i don't think they do, for most kids the barrier is believing it may harm them, i cant imagine a kid who thinks "WOW i wish i could do drugs i would LOVE to do drugs... but they are illegal so i wont.".. it doesn't seem very realistic  (or even common enough to  be a group large enough to measure as a statistic)

Sure it is.  It's kids who have healthy relationships with their parents and who are very concerned about not being "failures" in their eyes.  (yes please note the quotations, I'm not saying someone who uses pot is a failure)  There are plenty of kids with similar motivations.  Teens by their natures are risk takers.  That's why it is important there are barriers both policy wise, and those created by parents through their parenting. 

if pot is legalized  part of the laws surrounding it need to address preventing its being glamorized (no advertising) and laws for selling to kids should be tightly enforced and carry heavy punishment to prevent the spread of easy access to kids that you worry about, but its hard to say that criminalization is some how better than taking such steps as part of the legalization process would end up being..

It's not hard for me to say.  One of the biggest access points for alcohol is relatives and known adults.  If you have more of these access points with legal marijuana, it's really a no-brainer that it will be more accessible.  And again, I know it is already quite accessible, but I firmly belief the needle needs to move down.  Any measure that it moves up is unacceptable in my view. 

[AFK]

First of all, people try all kinds of tricks with weed to make it seem better than it is, second of all, I'm not sorely misinformed, I agree that its should be legalized. I just love how you jump to conclusions all of a sudden making me out to be the bad guy when I merely state my opinion to you. Thanks for showing me your the idiot.

other than adding water to make it weigh more (old trick easy to spot), i have never heard of anything being added to pot, ...its a plant.. either it came from good seed and was grown right or it wasn't there is nothing you can do to change it or make it worth enough more to make fucking with it worth the time..  i call BS

Actually, since a lot of pot is grown using hydroponics, it wouldn't be too difficult to add extra chemicals to the marijuana by simply introducing it to the water.  The capillary action will draw the stuff right up.  Some already use this to color their product by adding food coloring.  It may not be very common, but it's certainly not outside the realm of possibilities. 

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

I think, if you take the time to look, you will find for every negative research done on marijuana, you will find a positive one.  

Many things that adults do are not good for them, but as adults they have that option.  Alcohol has a legal age limit.  Cigarettes have a legal age limit.  Do teenagers drink and smoke?  Oh we all know they do.  So if the government did legalize marijuana, then they would have a legal age limit.  Would kids still do it.  Of course.  

That being said, we all know there are different grades of marijuana.  Different strains and these have different levels of THC.  Those of us who smoke have all had some bad weed, good weed and awesome weed.  Depending on the time of the year you may have more seeds or less.  There is always those couple of times a year when everyone you know is dry.  It's the market of weed.  

So we come to, who profits if it is legalized?  The government of course.  Do I want to pay a boatload of taxes on my weed?  Do I want to have to go to the liquor/weed store to get it?  Not really, but it would certainly make life easier if I could.  I do think what was purchased legally would have THC limits and such, so the quality of marijuana purchased legally is up for debate.

Legal or illegal, some kids are still going to try weed, alcohol and cigarettes.  Thinking that keeping it illegal will keep the kids off weed is not going to happen.  It is illegal for them to drink alcohol, yet according to MADD over 5000 kids die each year because of drinking and driving. And I do not know how accurate that really is.  Again, I say, for every study done on marijuana that ends up with the "It is a terrible thing" there is also one which is the complete opposite.  

The economy could certainly use the boost, but considering a pack of cigarettes is over $5 now I can only imagine what the government would charge for weed.....  Would I still smoke if the price was insane?  I really don't know.  

[Cramulus]

I don't have anything to add, but I will say that I enjoy reading these threads due to the spectrum of viewpoints and backgrounds everybody's coming from.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

First of all, people try all kinds of tricks with weed to make it seem better than it is, second of all, I'm not sorely misinformed, I agree that its should be legalized. I just love how you jump to conclusions all of a sudden making me out to be the bad guy when I merely state my opinion to you. Thanks for showing me your the idiot.

other than adding water to make it weigh more (old trick easy to spot), i have never heard of anything being added to pot, ...its a plant.. either it came from good seed and was grown right or it wasn't there is nothing you can do to change it or make it worth enough more to make fucking with it worth the time..  i call BS

Actually, since a lot of pot is grown using hydroponics, it wouldn't be too difficult to add extra chemicals to the marijuana by simply introducing it to the water.  The capillary action will draw the stuff right up.  Some already use this to color their product by adding food coloring.  It may not be very common, but it's certainly not outside the realm of possibilities. 

No No No No No!

Now look, I'm fine with everyone having their oppinion. I approve of RWHN's concerns about kids and their interactin with drugs... I've never seen a kid on pot that has ended well and I've seen a number of kids that smoked pot as teenagers that fucked their life. So you get no argument there.

HOWEVER, this shit about laced pot and secret chemicals in hydro... its not only false Drug War BS, its not SCIENCE.

In hydroponics, you can add some things which will slightly modify your marijuana's growth and production, fertilizer. You can also, add something with a high glucose content toward the end to 'sweeten' the flavor of the bud. However, having played in that world, having seen more hydro setups that I can count right offhand, and from having had many, many, many years worth of discussions about growing pot...

There is no evidence that anyone has discovered a way to put harmful stuff into pot via hydroponics. In fact, such an act would likely kill your plants. People that are growing hydro are growing prime weed. You don't grow middies in hydro, you grow beautiful rich flowers with no seed in perfect growth environments. So you get the best that genetic strain has to offer... you don't NEED OR WANT to fuck that up.

Let me break it down on the money side:

Grow pot $
Sell Grown Pot $$
Grow Hydro $$
Sell Hydro $$$
Grow Hydro with Evil Chemicals $$$
Sel Hydro $$$

Note that its more expensive to grow hydro with evil sooper skeret chemicals in it... but no one is gonna pay you more than the going rate for Hydro. Hydro is your top seller, adding shit to it doesn't make it a topity-top seller, it makes you lose customers.

I have seen instances where someone has sold joints laced with bad drugs... but thats why no one in their right mind buys prerolled joints. I also recall some news stories about an incident in England where people were sticking small bits of glass in the bags, however, it was quickly obvious, and the glass beads were not medically harmful.

We can discusss subjective stuff like legalization... but let's not bring up boogy men that are as believable as Stony Claus the merry old elf in green that leaves you a 10-sack in your stocking.

[Cramulus]

what about food coloring though? I can see how making the bud kind of reddish or purple would justify a higher street price.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

what about food coloring though? I can see how making the bud kind of reddish or purple would justify a higher street price.

Well, food coloring is possible, though its not really gonna fetch a higher price. There are lots of pot strains which have strong non-green coloration, but that has a lot to do with the genetics, not chemicals. The difference between a legit strain color and food coloring would be pretty obvious.

However, its certainly possible that someone would try that. But food coloring isn't gonna make you trip or get sick. Hell, its not likely to even increase the value of your pot...

[Triple Zero]

hehe.

I'm all for legalisation, but my argument against it being, the medical marajuana we purchase is THREE times the price of the kind you get from a guy in a bar.

Then there's the sales tax on top of that also.

I think it would be cool, but ultimately too expensive. Like the coffee shops in Holland.

our medical pot is more like three times as shitty as the regular pot. but I think the costs are covered by healthcare (otherwise I'd assume they would just as well go to a coffeeshop instead, much nicer atmosphere too :-P)