Poll: Weed - Legal or Illegal?

[mikespoff]

Really all drugs should be legal, if you are stupid enough to take heroin and then you die, that my friend is survival of fittest and we could do with a few less idiots procreating.

I'd rather call it "Natural Selection" than "Survival of the Fittest"

Call it what you will but pandering to the idiots to protect us all is insulting and backwards

Hard to call it "survival of the fittest" when someone freaks out on a bad drug trip and kills someone else...

you are right and making drugs illegal stops that how?

it has nothing to do with the argument for legalisation, it is just fear mongering, driving while drunk is illegal yet alcohol isn't, why anything different for weed?

I may be missing your line of thinking, but the way I read your post, it looked like: "drug abuse only hurts drug users, we should stop protecting them by having drugs illegal, just legalise drugs and the problem will take care of itself as the drug users all die off".

So based on that assumption, I was just pointing out that drug use doesn't only hurt drug users.

 

[Even McNobleface]

it's like Mr. Mackey says. "there are times when you get suckered in by drugs & alcohol & sex with women, m-kay, but it's [WHEN YOU DO THESE THINGS *TOO MUCH*], that's you've become an addict & must get back in touch."

 

[the-squid]

That would be wrong.

I witnessed one personally.

Firm numbers are however difficult to determine with an illegal substance.

Animal tests have shown that extremely high doses of marijuana is needed to have lethal effect.
In fact, tests show that you would have to consume 40,000 times as much marijuana as you needed to get stoned before you will overdose. That?s a ratio of 1:40,000!!

Lets say you would get stoned from 1 joint, that means that you will need 40,000 joints to get a overdose of marijuana.

I don?t know about you, but I smoke an average of 2 joints per day, that is like 672 joint per year. It would take about 60 years for me to smoke 40,000 joints at the rate I am smoking. There is no way that anyone could overdose for marijuana, period!

Now lets take alcohol, the ratio on alcohol varies between 1:4 and 1:10 depending on the person?s health.
So if you would get drunk from half a bottle of whisky, 2 bottles later you could die from a overdose of alcohol!

In America, every year 10,000 people die directly from a alcohol overdose and don?t get me started on alcohol related deaths, we are talking 110,000 deaths per year on alcohol related deaths. Think about driving with alcohol etc.

No one EVER died from a marijuana overdose. Can I get a Amen!

 

[Aesthetical Quietus]

This is just an honest question - I'm curious how many people on Escapist are for weed legalization and how many are against it. Feel free to give reasons why you feel the way you do, but let's keep it civil.

Personally, I am for it. Smoking weed is like smoking tobacco (which is perfectly legal), granted that the chances of lung problems and cancer are much higher with marijuana then tobacco. Smoking weed is also much more dangerous, in my opinion, than drinking (which is perfectly legal). More people have died from drunk driving and drinking-related things than from getting high on weed. Again, this is just my opinion and how I feel.

Uh, you have "Smoking weed is also much more dangerous.." and then go on to contradict it with "More people have died from drunk driving..."

You might want to fix that.^^
Personally, I'm for it. It mellows people out, I have never seen anybody want to fight after smoking. Every weekend I see people fighting after drinking.

I literally can not see a reason for keeping it illegal. They'd make more by legalizing and taxing it, granted that's contradicted by the Health System costs but that is then countered by your saving of imprisoning those that have been jailed for Weed. [I'm doing assignments and stuff right now, so you'll excuse me if that didn't make perfect sense. I'm having a hard enough time talking in English, I keep going back to code.]

 

[Mrrrgggrlllrrrg]

Illegal I vote, why you may ask. Medically the way the american medical system views it as medicine is to smoke which in all that is holy goes against everything the medical field is for, and "compassionate" use is not a worthy reason to violate what medicine stands for. Isreal has it right.


Now onto recreational users, I dont like you, alcohol is a bad enough intoxicant why make it worse by adding another option to endanger the lives of innocent people. Hell all intoxicated driving should automatically revoke your license.



Now time for personal vendettas, I hate hippies, all of em.

 

[NuclearPenguin]

We don't have cheese curds, but otherwise, we do have the rest but it doesn't come in a white container that insightly informs you "God damn you're fat."

Actually, we do have that. It's called "Keso". It's essentially just cheese curds.

Well. Time for me to get a hell of alot fatter. You should not have informed me of this.

 

[Tipsy Giant]

Really all drugs should be legal, if you are stupid enough to take heroin and then you die, that my friend is survival of fittest and we could do with a few less idiots procreating.

I'd rather call it "Natural Selection" than "Survival of the Fittest"

Call it what you will but pandering to the idiots to protect us all is insulting and backwards

Hard to call it "survival of the fittest" when someone freaks out on a bad drug trip and kills someone else...

you are right and making drugs illegal stops that how?

it has nothing to do with the argument for legalisation, it is just fear mongering, driving while drunk is illegal yet alcohol isn't, why anything different for weed?

I may be missing your line of thinking, but the way I read your post, it looked like: "drug abuse only hurts drug users, we should stop protecting them by having drugs illegal, just legalise drugs and the problem will take care of itself as the drug users all die off".

So based on that assumption, I was just pointing out that drug use doesn't only hurt drug users.

My line of thinking was that if we pander to those incapable of making wise life choices, then we all lose out because some people are irresponsible . Those that use drugs and have the ability to hurt others, would either do so with the drugs when they are illegal or whilst using some dangerous legal substitute.
My main point is that with freedom comes responsibility, if you want drugs to be legal treat them with respect.

Never let laws be passed incase "some idiot" hurts someone, otherwise steak knives should be illegal incase a nutjob stabs someone.

 

[Even McNobleface]

This is the only kind of weed I see.

Illegalize this son of a *****!

& that's what I see when I'm ON weed.

 

[RatRace123]

I don't like it, but I also don't like booze or cigarettes, so I say legal.
Legalize it, regulate it, enforce "stoned driving" laws; then let the potheads have a grand ol' time, I say.

 

[The Gnome King]

Well, to be fair, my ex had to go to the hospital the first time she smoked it but that was due to a pre-existing case of epilepsy.

Hmm, I was unaware that smoking pot could bring on epileptic seizures. Interesting.

 

[Even McNobleface]

also i'm i'm pretty sure no-one else has yet.

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[NuclearPenguin]

Well, to be fair, my ex had to go to the hospital the first time she smoked it but that was due to a pre-existing case of epilepsy.

Hmm, I was unaware that smoking pot could bring on epileptic seizures. Interesting.

Alcohol and the like also triggers it. Flashing colors and such do not. (For her that is)

 

[Pinklespork]

I've had this conversation many a time with people who are against weed, people who are for it, indifferent to it and those that smoke it on a regular basis. And even my mum, actually.
Having never had the opportunity to try, but have sat in a room full of creative, zany stoners, I don't really see what the problem is. It's essentially the same deal as with alcohol, really. Legalise it, sure. Not hurting anyone by doing that. The reason pot has this nasty aura floating around it is because it's forbidden, and thereby it becomes a yucky criminal activity to distribute and to buy it.
For one thing, the government clearly has little concept about how much money they'd make from fashioning pot shops like they do with tobacco shops and bottle shops. Not only that, but it'd be less about people sneaking around to X's house and not getting caught. No one's going to be attacking another guy because he didn't pay up because if it were legal, it'd be a matter of having the money in the first place to go to the shop and buy it. It's when you start selling the stuff out of your backyard that it becomes illegal. Just how alcohol would be, too, if I started distributing and making the stuff in my bathtub.
Cheers, guys!

 

[Pinklespork]

Oh, but I do think that the nastier drugs like ecstasy, cocaine and heroin should be kept illegal.
That stuff makes you batshit insane, it does. I'm not condoning that /anyone/ drive, turn up for work or take care of a child while completely stoned, but marijuana has a far smaller and less detrimental (short term) effect than the worse stuff I mentioned earlier.
Pot grows in the ground, after all. Meth comes from a dodgy meth lab. The 'ingredients' going into that aren't going to be any safer or better coming out of a professional Meth 'R' Us shop at the local shopping centre.

 

[NuclearPenguin]

also i'm i'm pretty sure no-one else has yet.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/K-_qwaCFRes" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Uh.
Just .
Quote me to see how I did that.

 

[infohippie]

Oh, but I do think that the nastier drugs like ecstasy, cocaine and heroin should be kept illegal.

Ecstasy does not belong in your list of "nasty" drugs - please see this study [http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2810%2961462-6/fulltext] or this quick overview [http://www.dailytech.com/Study+Alcohol+is+Deadliest+Drug+More+Dangerous+Than+Heroin/article20038.htm] if you can't be bothered with the whole study. MDMA is nowhere near as harmful as most drugs, including alcohol.

 

[ENKC]

We don't have cheese curds, but otherwise, we do have the rest but it doesn't come in a white container that insightly informs you "God damn you're fat."

Actually, we do have that. It's called "Keso". It's essentially just cheese curds.

Well. Time for me to get a hell of alot fatter. You should not have informed me of this.

Quote incorrectly attributed to me.

 

[AngryBritishAce]

what ever, people are still going to fuck their lives up anyway.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

Legalise / decriminalise ALL drugs and provide help and support for addicts. Cannabis has greatly improved the quality of my life, but the stigma that comes with it is incredible.

I also hate the unbelievable hypocrisy when it comes to drugs. "You get high?! What's wrong with you?! Oh, yeah, as I was saying me and my mates are going to get totally smashed at the party tonight!"

Either it's all okay, or none of it's okay.

 

[Hiikuro]

Oh, but I do think that the nastier drugs like ecstasy, cocaine and heroin should be kept illegal.

Ecstasy does not belong in your list of "nasty" drugs - please see this study [http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2810%2961462-6/fulltext] or this quick overview [http://www.dailytech.com/Study+Alcohol+is+Deadliest+Drug+More+Dangerous+Than+Heroin/article20038.htm] if you can't be bothered with the whole study. MDMA is nowhere near as harmful as most drugs, including alcohol.

I just want to throw this in here, which as far as I know is the video version of the same study. I found it to be extremely interesting at least.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6108672696241807159

Though I am not going to join in on the discussion, I've spent far too much energy in my life thinking about (as in reading about, studying) drugs, now I just want to avoid them as much as possible (that is not to say that I am opposed to most of them, but the topic has caused me too many headaches and depression).