At Ask Me Help Desk you can ask questions in any topic and have them
answered for free by our experts. To ask questions or participate in
answering them you must register for a free account. By registering you
will be able to:
Get free answers from experts in any of our 300+
topics.
The ACLU of Washington has producted a 30 minute infomercial on pot legalization. Rick Steves, the travel guru who has a show on PBS is the host. It's only available here so far, but I'll bet it shows up on youtube in short order.
I find it cool that Rick Steeves is the host/moderator. I've watched his travel shows quite a bit....who knew?
Hello NK:
I knew. He's appeared at the Seattle Hemp Fest and has been a long time supporter of legal marijahoochie. Here is a video of him being interviewed by an excop at a Norml conference.
Yes, make it and maybe a few other things legal, tax it and fund perhaps health care or some other program. That would allow the drug agents to zoom in on the serious and dangerous drugs.
Despite the fact that I grew up listening to The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Rush, etc., once upon a time, I'd say, "Not just no, but HE!! no!"
Now though, I'm not so sure. These days I can look back with a bit more perspective. After the USSR fell and after we whipped Saddam back to Iraq, the good ol' US of A was looking for ways to justify the staffing levels that existed in units like mine. They ended up turning us loose on the dopers in Central America, and some in California. Yeah, I know you can't use troops for law enforcement, but they found a way around it. Anyway, I got to work with a lot of DEA guys, most of whom were OK. Some were real P's of S, but you find that almost everywhere. Anyway, to make a long story short, we busted far more marijuana haulers than anything else, and they were pretty easy folks to get along with. When we did bust a coke runner or kill a meth lab, that was nasty, nasty stuff.
I'm not going to sit around here and say that pot isn't harmful. I will say, however, that the risks it carries are comparable (different, but comparable) to alcohol use and tobacco use, both of which are completely legal--and taxed EXTREMELY heavily.
So I gotta agree with the Padre--go ahead and legalize marijuana, tax it, and put the money somewhere good. Being a teacher, I say bolster public education, as that's where we're sorely lacking in this country. There's probably a lot of other things that could benefit from that money. Shoot, throw it back into law enforcement to help the cops bust the guys that are making the REALLY bad stuff.
I don't necessarily like marijuana, but truth be told the only reason I haven't tried it is because it is illegal. Legalize it, and I'll most likely have a go at it, just to see what the big deal is.
I feel that my personal preferences will not change, though: I still love a good Irish beer and Italian and French wines. At least they won't make me cough.....
Make pot legal but then decide how much is legal and how much is not legal? Two plants? That ought to hold the average person for awhile. Ten plants? Twenty plants? Then ask if the home grower is just growing for their personal use, medicinal use, or to sell to underage people.
I am not against legalizing pot but I can see a kettle of trouble. AS with anything!
If they legalize it you'll just have to deal with the anti-smoking tyrants
It seems we've had this conversation before somewhere. Personally I don't see the weed as that big of an issue, I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to legally sit on your deck and have at it. Some of our DPS troopers around here will have to find a new specialty if they legalize it, they seem to have a knack for sniffing it out along I-40 - 486 pounds a few days ago if I recall.
Legalize them all even crack and heroin, tax them like tobacco and alcohol but make sure to undercut the black market. That way you decrease the funding to many terrorist and organised crime outfits. You would have to redirect police activity from drugs into the areas of arms and people trafficking as these organisations will still want to make money and I believe these will be the main replacements.
With government control over the quality of recreational drugs there will be less deaths and less strain on healthcare systems. There are a lot of drugs which are stupidly dangerous because they are often dog worming tablets or other rubbish instead.
I think the hardest moral part is deciding who gets to distribute the drugs. Is it against a doctor's Hippocratic oath to sell heroin to an individual when they know it will harm them? Is it for doctors at all? Would you need government drug dealers or would they be available without prescription? Would a person's health insurance premiums be higher depending on their drugs of choice?
Perhaps cannabis is a good starting drug to test these situations.
I’ve been listening to the “Chatter” of the possibility of legalizing Pot for 40 years and more…I’ve felt hope after hope smashed to pieces…I’ll believe it when I see it.
Linear Mode
