Legalisation of Cannabis

[Warbie]

Let me ask you, what does a kid in the UK have to do to get alcohol? Does he just go up to a liquor store and purchase alcohol.

Pretty much, yes. (unless he's obviously a very young kid. Most teenagers can get booze whenever they want without hassle (or know many other teenagers who can)

Ok, so lets break this down. Your reasoning for not allowing millions of people to smoke in peace is because SOME people MIGHT think the government is endorsing weed (even if they run many anti drug ads) and because SOME kids MIGHT find it easier to get weed (I still disagree with this but lets just leave it for now). These reason completely overshadow the following reasons:

I think it'll be many people who feel cannabis has been deemed as 'safe enough', like cigarettes and alochol (which are fully accepted in our society. Cannabis isn't, yet). I also think many more children who wouldn't have tried, or who couldn't get it, will (however, this is probably more to do with how the UK deal with age restrictions and enforcing them)

Thousands of families suffering because their family members are locked up in jails because of it.

That's harsh, and they have my sympathy. Maybe the law is way too strict?

Millions of people have to pay huge fines (which many times put them in a depressed state leading to more drugs). My roomate at one point had to pay around $8,000 for a couple roaches in her ash tray.

Again, that's a nonsense. The law sounds ridiculous.

Many people remain unemployed or lose their jobs because of drug testing.

While I don't agree that they should lose their jobs, they should be aware of this and take some responsibility for their actions (unless they're naive) Would this change once cannabis was legalised?

Many people are put in to bad financial status because of the current cost of weed. If it were legal this cost would decline greatly.

Then they shouldn't buy weed :/ These are the stupid people we were talking about earlier. (the thought of cheaper weed doesn't make me feel anymore comfortable either)

Billions of dollars are currently going in to the underground economy because of pot.

Agreed.

We are spending billions of our tax money to pay for people locked up in prison for relatively minor drug charges.

That's such a waste :/ The law itself sounds like it's the problem here (ridiculous in the extreme)

If we taxed it we could be making billions to build school, jobs, and many other things. Hell, you can take a small percentage of that and start clinics to help people with drug problems.

Agreed. While i'm uneasy about the government making money out of drugs, it's better than the criminals getting it.
(*rant* where the money goes is another matter. In the UK it'd almost certainly go to more useless admin positions, 'millenium domes', wars few people believe in - all while hospitals are being closed down and teachers get pay cuts :/)

 

[burner69]

That's never worked for alcohol or ciagarettes in the UK - I don't see why it would for weed.

Most teenagers will be able to walk into a shop and buy cannabis, fullstop. If not, as you said, there's plenty of 18 year olds (which will be the age limit in the UK) around to pick up for them. I doubt there will be a limit on how much you can buy. Again, that rarely worked in Hollland (and even when it did, how hard is it to stagger to the next coffe shop?).


Sure. While definatley better, it doesn't make me feel much more at ease. Not when I can look out the window at any time and see kids smoking cigarettes who should be playing pokemon/conkers/army.

I certainly couldn't get served for booze until I was 17, and a good number of my mates were the same. Of course there were occasional exceptions - and it dosen't make the argument that they can get it underage pretty much anywhere now.

Agreed, that there is the problem of moving from one coffee shop to the next - but just how far will Big bro go to get his younger sibling some dope? He'd be trekking all over the place. I'm sorry, but I stand strongly by the notion that it'd be much harder for kids to pick up dope.

 

[Warbie]

Where abouts did you grow up? if u don't mind me asking.

There are many areas where underage drinkers are common place. I remember being served in pusb in penge, catford, various places in London, Coventry, Leeds (all over the shop) when I was around 15. There still are many offies that turn a blind eye (usually in the more shitty areas) Some would sell us booze in our school uniforms at lunchtime :/

 

[burner69]

Where abouts did you grow up? if u don't mind me asking.

There are many areas where underage drinkers are common place. I remember being served in pusb in penge, catford, various places in London, Coventry, Leeds (all over the shop) when I was around 15. There still are many offies that turn a blind eye (usually in the more shitty areas) Some would sell us booze in our school uniforms at lunchtime :/

Stoke, I believe voted the crappest city in the UK two years running
Seriously? 15? I think I got served in one crappy out the way pub at that age, or it might have been 16.

I do believe that if weed was legalised the restriction laws, advertising laws, and punishment for abusing the system should be rigerously enforced.

 

[RZAL]

Yea, why not go ahead and legalize it. I never met a violent person smoked up on pot.

 

[Midnight Cowboy]

To the 34 people who voted 'no' on this forum poll, I ask why? All drugs, not just cannabis, have to be legalized. There should be farms across government owned land curning out marijuana. The government should sell it at pharmacists and bars, tax the shit out of it, sell it so low that no dealer could ever compete. Ecstacy should be sold in nightclubs in government stamped carboard boxes, people would know that it would be cleaner and purer and better than anything a dealer would cook up. Heroin addicts would be able to inject themselves with sterilized needles in a bar, rather than trying to find a good vein in a doorway at some warehouse using a needle he found in puddle.

Most people are rendered criminals because the law says they are. Criminals for possesing drugs and criminals for using drugs, people are ashamed to get help for addiction because of the social stigma. People are terrified to call the hospital to help someone in an overdose because of the inevitable explaination to the paramedics. Yet these people are not criminals, who are they hurting? No one butselves, I've done pot and even some cocaine once or twice, never heroin because of how f 'ing easy it is to get addicted and then the withdrawal symptoms. I'm labelled a criminal because of the law, but the real criminals? They can be traced down the line... from the poppy fields of Afghanistan, to the guy who my friend got his seeds from. Then there are the people who are MADE criminals because of the law.

They are the addicts, the poor. The people who once they sell their possesions to pay for their heroin addict, need to steal. They have no alternative.

I read a book just a few days ago about the implications of the legalization of all drugs, "High Society" by Ben Elton. In one of the many stories from the book, a teenage runaway finds her away into the hands of pimp. He takes her back to his place and injects her, she has to whore herself out to pay for her addiction and because she knows no one else who can supply her a fix. In fact when the pimp is arrested for shooting someone, his girls contemplate whoring themselves further just to raise his bail. It's depressing to think that this is happening in real-life. People are made criminals because they have no alternative.

Face it, the war on drugs is lost. It has about as much effect as a bucket for a tidal wave. Everytime a shipment of drugs is seized, what does it do? Drive up the price so minutely, that by the end user, no one can tell the difference. Did Prohibition do anything? People kept drinking, albeit illegally, people died because of 'wooded alcohol' and the Government's own law made Al Capone. Drug-use isn't going to sky rocket once it's legalized, people who never did aren't going to say "Wow, drugs are now legal, I should get some smack!" People who do drugs will always do drugs, people who don't will go back to their church-group and pine for 'back in their day'.

Finally, if you need a selfish reason, think about the money. It is said that in Britain, $4.50 out of every $5 pack of cigarettes goes to the Government in Tax. People whine on about the health concerns of smoking, yet the Tax on cigarettes virtually pays for the health system. Imagine $10 from every coke line? The Government would be able to slice income Tax by half and afford some decent schools, win re-election and win again from that moment till the end of time.

Why the F##K is every goddamn conservative, right-wing-"christian", moral-majority, Jerry Falwell, republican nutcase so frigthen to accept that the law doesn't work. The answer is so incredibly obvious. The over-whelming logic is blinding and yet no f 'ing person in government is prepared to do a goddamn thing.

 

[NJspeed]

Can't play HL2 without it!!

 

[burner69]

Very well put.

Incidently, it's estimated that the government would make around £4bn extra a year in Britain which would have no strings attached.

Just a fraction of that would cover any health problems with drugs (which are, by the way, grossely exagerated - although still there), then throw several million at the police to sort out any pissed off dealers out of work.
Though with all that extra cash it'd hardly be difficult to put more jobs on offer - and with 50% of the prison population being released overnight (not quite but hey) it wouldn't be hard to lock up any naughty ex-dealers.

I'd really like a debate with someone who's pro-prohibition, and find out where they're getting the idea from that it's working. Seriously.

 

[$niffy]

Well you know cigarettes arent laced with cocaine now do you? Anything could be inside marijuana..its not exactly the purrest drug.

I'm glad your banned, your a ****ing idiot lol

 

[who]

Yea, why not go ahead and legalize it. I never met a violent person smoked up on pot.

damn right, alcohol is far worse for people, take into account legalisation will mean more ganja-cakes and less smoking, makes it even better and your lungs wont expire 40 years early

Well you know cigarettes arent laced with cocaine now do you? Anything could be inside marijuana..its not exactly the purrest drug.

... what a tit!

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Stop resurrecting old threads for the sake of it.