Two states legalize recreational marijuana

Perhaps we should consider repealing these idiotic federal drug laws and eliminate the conflicts of interest...

 

I am 100% good with this one. I don't smoke, but I will be (*)(*)(*)(*)ed if I am going to tell others what they can or cannot do as long as they are not intoxicated in public or operating a vehicle, etc...

Smoke out stoners... have a nice day.

Note: I would legalize almost all drugs... and they would be regulated just like alcohol.

 

I am not saying that this subject is undeserving of conversation. This is a discussion forum not a news site. There are clear rules on thread creation that require the OP to include opinions and elaboration from the creator of the thread. It leads the discussion in a direction, as posted the OP was a copy past with no discussion about the article. I was merely pointing the fact out and asking the thread creator what aspect we were discussing. Below is a crop from the thread creation rules so you can understand what I was talking about.

THE OPENING POST OF A THREAD SETS THE TOPIC AND TONE OF THE DISCUSSION.

It should contain a member's opinions or questions with sufficient elaboration to establish a foundation for respectful discussion and debate. Threads should not be posted in the wrong forum, or be duplicates of other threads and/or topics (creating multiple threads with fundamentally the same topic is not allowed). Images, links, quotations, etc., should be used to support a member's opinion, not to replace it. Thread titles should be a description of the thread topic (and if not they may be altered by the moderators). Whether a thread has sufficiently set a basis for respectful debate on the thread topic will be at the discretion of the moderators.

 

This will not come into play until 2014. There will be a year a law making to prepare. Like I said in other threads, Colorado has to do this right to show the rest of the country it was a good decision. The difference between Colorado and Washington is here in Colorado the law give us the right to cultivate it. This is also a huge plus for industrial hemp, making plastic, paper, clothes etc.

The benefits are long

absorbs CO2 five times more efficiently than natural forests.

requires no pesticides or herbicide

can be processed into ethanol and biofuels

Hemp fiber is longer, stronger, and more absorbent than cotton fiber

Hemp produces more pulp per acre than timber on a sustainable basis

Hemp paper manufacturing can reduce wastewater contamination

Hemp can replace most toxic petrochemical products. Research is being done into the use of hemp in manufacturing biodegradable plastic products

Hemp seed is high in dietary fiber, an excellent source of B-vitamins, and one of the world’s richest sources of Omega-3 and -6 essential fatty acids. It also contains all eight essential amino acids and is second only to soybeans as a complete protein (although it is more digestible by humans than soybeans).

And the list goes on. It is not just about getting high, Although that is a nice benefit also.

 

Perhaps? of course we should at least consider it and they should have an honest discussion about it. They should weigh states rights, public safety, costs of the drug war, problems from drug cartels and local black markets, and any other impacts that it may have. The only argument I have with the states rights argument is that we need uniformity across the country when it comes to drug policy. It should not be a 20 year felony in one state and be perfectly legal just over the border in another. We need to at least remove it from the schedule 1 list and allow companies to do studies on the medicinal values and work towards federal medical marijuana regulations. As a side note, I cant wait to take my vacation in Colorado this year, we had planned a trip to Nashville but decided that Colorado would probably be a lot more fun now.

 

Perhaps? of course we should at least consider it and they should have an honest discussion about it. They should weigh states rights, public safety, costs of the drug war, problems from drug cartels and local black markets, and any other impacts that it may have. The only argument I have with the states rights argument is that we need uniformity across the country when it comes to drug policy. It should not be a 20 year felony in one state and be perfectly legal just over the border in another. We need to at least remove it from the schedule 1 list and allow companies to do studies on the medicinal values and work towards federal medical marijuana regulations. As a side note, I cant wait to take my vacation in Colorado this year, we had planned a trip to Nashville but decided that Colorado would probably be a lot more fun now.

 

This is hilarious. The best the opponents can come up with is that it will increase tourism! Oh noes!

 

Currently the "Democrats" are buying weed from their children because it's an illegal commodity and the kids have better access than the parents. Kids have far more access to illegal drugs today than adults and the argument that kids would have greater access is really absurd.

 

Obviously it is an issue. The people of Colorado and Washington have spoken.

 

I am familiar with a town here in CA that greatly expanded its downtown bar scene to "increase business and tax revenues".

The cost of policing the ADDITIONAL alcohol driven fights, medical problems, car crashes, jailing and everything else, along with people passed out on lawns, vomit on sidewalks and yards and extra security is at LEAST DOUBLE the new tax revenues.

These are all actions which marijuana not only does NOT promote, it DISCOURAGES violence, nausea, and extreme behavior.

If they had simply installed pot-smoking cafes with the usual MASSIVE sin taxes on marijuana, the city would be WAY ahead. And a nicer place to live.

 

Social conservatives like you are the reason Mitt Romney got his ass kicked.

 

No, that ballot measure barely failed. Still illegal in Cali.

 

You are living in an alternate reality apparently because legalization by definition rids us of the "black market". For instance, when alcohol prohibition was repealed, the black market for alcohol all but vanished.

You have no evidence to support this.

Again, you have zero evidence to support this. You are just a puritan who wants to impose your morality on others and will find any excuse for it.

 

I'm not. Most so-called "liberals" are just phonies who worship authoritarian, big government. That is why they supported Obama for President. His DEA will be sure to give the residents of Colorado and Washington a visit.

 

im down with marijuana being legal all over, especially if we get to tax it as it will make some huge revenue for the country. BUT........i would like to see laws implemented on it like we do with alcohol. no smoking weed and driving, 21 and over only, etc. etc.

 

^^^100%...

 

I'm a medical marijuana patient in Washington. This will not affect med marijuana paitents. There will be a blood test for driving.

 

Sure it will, the increased availability will drive prices down some making your meds cheaper.

 

I agree, waaaaay overdue.

 

Ha, Colorado and Washington prove to be the two smartest states in the nation. Congratulations.

As I understand it, the Feds aren't suppose to react once a state takes action. I mean, this isn't slavery, but if the Court wants to do another type of Dred Scott decision then I think that would only further damage Federal credibility.


Also, John Denver was once a tourist...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRLmEPhnx0w&feature=related

 

I am assuming we are discussing marijuana. That is the subject of the thread. Regardless, there is no proof that the current international enforcement regime works. If we consider the two extremes, legalization and criminalization, with regards to more addictive drugs and narcotics, one producing negative externalities, the other one in of itself, then a middle ground between the two needs to be established. According to most scholars on transnational drug trafficking, that middle ground should be regulation. I would go one step further to include decriminalization.

 

My boss is from Portugal, he claims it has lowered the addiction rate in Portugal. Unless you have better info, I will go with his data.

 

Not in play the state legalized it and its legal under the law to use it in the state similar to prostitution in Nevada its a state law. The Federal Law makes it illegal but enforcement would need to be under Federal Law, without the states help. So I would think enforcement would be limited to large players similar to Prohibition they focused on the large players since states rarely enforced the laws.

I will note Prohibition died to states simply ignoring the Federal Law so if all 50 states enanct these laws it would make enforcement very much virtually impossible for common possession and use of the drug.

 

update:
Marijuana possession cases in Washington state going up in smoke

I agree with this measure.

 

Actually, there is *another* reason to legalize and regulate pot, and it's not just to stop choking the courts and loading taxpayers with the cost of incarceration and to cut organized criminals off at the knees and to increase tax revenue...

... there's something else, and this is going to sound ironic but...

... It's because the pot has become too strong.

It used to be that pot could be classified as a safe drug, because it didn't hurt anything other than deposit tar in the lungs, but a few years ago, the growers developed strains that were in excess of 36% THC.

There's more than 100 isomers of THC, and it turns out that *some* of them, in very high doses, *can* produce a kind of psychosis.

Believe it or not, we need to regulate pot in order to control the dose, and control which isomers of THC are in the pot.

I grew up in a pot-cultivating region, where good bud was always cheep and easy to find, which means basically everyone I knew was a pothead, and now I know long-time users among that group who've cut back or stopped simply because they can't handle the extremely strong stuff; they've noticed some of those psychotic effects from the super-powerful stuff.

If regulated, packs of joints can be marked with the percentage THC rating, plus the isomers of THC in the pot can be controled.