Originally posted by Rickson:
It can not be like alcohol. Good thing none of you are doing anything about this. Other than chating about this being legalised.

Please give more detail about how this can and will be used.





Many folks have already laid out ideas and ways that, with some work, it could work. Why can't it be like alcohol? They're extremely similar in what they provide for the user. Forget for a minute that marijuana is "illegal"... I think that might be where you're tripping on this. "Weed is illegal, alcohol is legal, they can't be the same." Let that go. I can probably guess some of the reasons, though:

Alcohol doesn't affect bystanders like secondhand smoke does.

Marijuana smoking in designated bars or in your own home. Will people break the law and smoke outside in public? Sure they will, just like people that sit in the park and knock down a 40 or a pint.

Marijuana smoking leads to harder drug use. We can't protect the kids if we make it legal.

I dont buy the "gateway drug" argument. First time I got drunk (Bud Dry... f**k it, I'll date myself ) I was 15. Tried marijuana when I was 18 in college. I've probably smoked about 75 times since then (I'm 31 now)... maybe once a month or so in college, and I haven't had any in about 3 years now. I have never, NOT ONCE, had the desire to try anything harder (LSD, mushrooms, heroin, ecstasy, etc.), and I have many friends who are in the same boat. You either want to try the harder stuff or you don't. Hell, alcohol is the real gateway drug. First time I smoked weed I was drunk off of my ass.

People will just grow their own, so the government won't make any tax money on it.

This is going to happen regardless. Look at the people homebrewing their beer. Where the difficult part comes in is setting up the system to legitimately sell it. I don't think that's a huge sticking point, though. They did it 70 years ago when they repealed the Prohibition Laws... most people can't fathom having to bootleg alcohol 'cause it's been legal for as long as they know. Why couldn't marijuana be any different?

Bottom line is, we could argue this all year. One side of the argument sees a bunch of dirty, lazy, falafel-eating Deadheads that just want to get high all day on legal pot. The other side sees a bunch of militant nerds that want to harsh their buzz and create a conformist America. It'll never change.

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