Why is pot not legal?

[downwardspiral 0]

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There is a very good reason it is considered a Gateway Drug" -duh- because, it is.
Who all have firstly tried Pot before moving on to other, *a-hem* "stronger" stuff??
No, ya don't need to agree, but it is true.

Although I am no longer, I once was very much involved in the marijuana lifestyle. The term "Gateway drug" is pure political BS. I have never seen any friend or associate turn to "stronger" stuff because of their pot habit. It never gets to the point where pot simply stops working. It just doesn't happen. And yes...I don't agree because it's not true.

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[skybill 19]

Hi Dave,
10-4 on the Texas thing. That's just the tip of the ice berg that sunk the Marijuanatanic!! I'll dig into my archives and find my stash of books and papers on the subject and we can compare notes.

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

[somethinelse 0]

"...rise above the ignorance"?
Excuuuuse me.
WEll, friend, I have been there and done that, so I know where of that I speak.
I am a child of the 60's, and to be perfectly honest...
Although I no longer "get high" from 'anything', years ago, I started with pot... and went on to "try" a lot of other stuff.. too... and later on, needed to clean up my act. So I stay away from that now.
And believe you me,
I have talked with a lot of my skydiver friends, and a lot of us, are what you would call, "addictive personality types" and you really never know...
And to start with, you never really know at first, do you? until you know...
Like I said before, I HAVE BEEN THERE, and done that. So I know that YES there are lots of folks who do, I did (past tense) go on to do or at least "experiment" with (a lot?) of other stuff... and go on to think, hmmm, if that does this for me, what will something else "do"??
It's the way it is.
Some people can "take it or leave it" or are 'fine' with the milder mellow, others not so much.
Some people will and do go on to the stronger high and become addicts.
I could've been one of them, but early on, saw the possibility, and veered away from that becoming a reality for me.

[Cashmanimal 0]

I saved easily $1000 last year smoking instead of going to the chiropractor. I am a "one o those stories," I guess you could say.

I broke my pelvis in a baseball game in high school. Since then my back has been so royally fucked that at times I can't sit in chairs and am in constant pain. The only thing that kept it in check was going to the chiropractor twice a week for months at a time, then taking time off because I was out of money.

California restricts how much work a chiropractor can do to you (electrode stuff, all the special treatments). My chiro back home would give me the full shabang for about $20, but in CA the $55 price tag PER VISIT, twice a week for a basic adjustment was absurd. Health insurance paid for the first $750 in treatment, nothing after that.

I got a doctor's recommendation for medicinal marijuana and it has changed my life dramatically. I brought documented proof of my ailments to a doctor who reviewed my case and approved me. Now, instead of spending $100/week to spend 3 minutes in an office with a sweaty dude crackin' my bones, I can spend $40/week on high grade bud from the dispensaries (imagine TGI Friday's, except good, and instead of food they sell weed). Once educated, you honestly can take really good care of yourself.

I prefer smoking it because it brings on the immediate high. I will usually do it right before bed with a heavy indica ("sleepy time" bud), and then do specific stretches to help relax and re-align my back and hips. I have never slept so well, so comfortably as I have in the past year of doing this. I can sit through an entire class comfortably without shifting in my chair all the time. I take lots of art classes, and I would have to get up 2-3 times in a 2-hour class to pace around because it hurt, and now I only get up when I am bored.

I don't think everybody should be allowed this privilege. It's abused, I see it all the time. But if I can afford it, and I can smoke and possess it legally, maintain my part-time job, and keep a 3.7 GPA as a full-time student, I think I should have that right.

And pretty much what everybody else said, it's not legal because the government can't regulate and tax it. (although I might point out that when purchasing in Santa Cruz, California, patients pay California state sales taxon their weed). There's your answer in one sentence. I can (legally) have 13 plants in the county I live in in CA. 13 plants is MORE than enough for me, and if I had the time to invest in growing, I would. But since I can't, they provide very, very safe environment where I can go to obtain what I truly consider to be medicine. 98% of people don't have the time, space, or technology to produce their own alcohol, or grow their own tobacco fields. A pack-a-day cigarette smoker would destroy acres of land growing tobacco (HORRIBLE for the land), while a 2-joint-a-day marijuana smoker can maintain a few plants to provide their relief.

I have learned a lot since becoming a patient. It's honestly not a plant high school and college kids buy to get stoned and play guitar hero while eating 7 bags of Funions (although, it really is). It's also not as if I can buy and sell and share my bud with anybody. If I get pulled over in my car by an officer of the state of California and i am smoking a joint, I simply have to show my paperwork (on me at all times), have them call a number to verify my status, and then I get let off (from the weed, anyway). But if I have someone else with me who is high I could face some serious repercussions. There is extensive jail time for selling my medicine, just as there are repercussions for those selling their vicodin or adderol or norco's or whatever chemical prescriptions are floating around on the market.

It's not like I get to go buy and share... there ARE rules!

When the Gov't figures out the profit to be had, I think this will all be a pointless argument. Some people will grow, MOST people will just go to a dispensary and buy it. I don't remember the exact number, but I am almost certain I read a statistic that CA dispensaries made hundred of millions of dollars in profit in 2006 (I would love if someone could take the time to verify this real quick). I still support the notion that if dispensaries offered marijuana at prices far below street value, we would see a dramatic decrease in the street activity (it will NEVER go away). At the current time, they try to compete. It's still $$ driven, like everything else in this country. It'd be neat if Walgreens was my hookup at some point.

It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

[Cashmanimal 0]

In case nobody felt like reading my novel, the bottom line was the government can't regulate and tax it (to the extent they would like).

It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

[Andy9o8 0]

No disrespect intended, but your personal experience (which I'm not disputing) is not persuasive as an issue argument. You had a predisposition toward substance abuse that was independent of MJ. If MJ hadn't existed, you probably still would have fallen into your vortex, just with another substance (possibly alcohol) as your gateway.

[base283 0]

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"THERE IS A PROFOUND DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOMEONE WHO BREAKS THE RULES AND SOMEONE WHO DOES NOT ACCEPT THE RULES. ONE IS A TRANSGRESSOR; THE OTHER IS A REVOLUTIONARY."

Awesome! what a nugget. Is it yours?
Take care,
space

[tkhayes 140]

heroin is 'natural' to, does not mean it is good for society to partake in it on a regular basis.

I think pot would be legalized if they have a similar roadside test and standards for THC blood levels that could determine 'impairment'

Without such a test, it remains illegal. I bet if someone came up with a breathalyzer and a level of potency for pot in your system, it could easily be legalized and managed.

If you just legalize it, nothing to stop people from smoking a ton of weed and getting on the road. They already do I know, but I am still nto interested in some guy who smoked 10 doobies driving behind on a Saturday night......

[prodiver913 0]

but you cant just pick a poppy plant and smoke it. Thats what I am saying dude. I understand your saying about roadside tests and maybe someday our government will lighten up and at least do that.

I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.

[skybill 19]

Hi space,
Not by a long shot!! The origin is lost in obscurity I'm sure. Interesting concept to research!

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

[Andy9o8 0]

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If you just legalize it, nothing to stop people from smoking a ton of weed and getting on the road.

Sure there is. Most states already have criminal statutes broadly prohibiting driving while intoxicated on any substance, including prescription meds and any other non-alcohol intoxicant. It's not just restricted to alcohol. Some statutes specify benchmarks for defining intoxication, others simply allow it to be an issue of fact for the jury to decide. As far as I know, most challenges to most statutes on grounds of ambiguity and/or vagueness have failed.

[popsjumper 2]

It's the convenience store owners. They already have enough bozos robbing them of money. The last thing they need on top of that is a bunch of bozos robbing them of munchies.

Do realize what the profit margin is on a bag of Cheetos?


Besides that, if pot were legal, who in the world would be working keeping the economy going? The only people still in business would be munchie manufacturers and Guitar Hero developers.


And just think of what it would do to the detention business! Who is going to subsidize all those empty jail cells? You?

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[JohnMitchell 14]

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heroin is 'natural' to,

Nope, Heroin in refined, just like nasty white sugar. Opium in natural.

Hey, remember that alcohol used to be illegal (not for possession, but to manufacture, transport, or sell) and pot was legal in our country back in the Roaring 20's. The repeal of the Volstead act and the passing of the Marijuana laws reversed that situation.

I used to tell my kids to ask the old D.A.R.E. teachers about that. Don't know what the answers back were.

The biggest problem? Culturally, we still identify with that first boat load of Pilgrims, grim little Puritans that they were. They didn't come here to escape intolerance, they came here to practice it without outside interference.

[skybill 19]

Hi John,
'Hit the nail right on the HEAD why don't ya'!!!! You gotta just love it!! Another little twist for heroin, where did it come from and why?? Back in the Civil War, both sides were using large caliber ammo traveling at relatively low speeds ballistically so if ya' got hit by one of these projectiles you either got killed or if it hit an extrimety, you got amputated!! Wasn't much around to kill pain in those daze but Morphine/opium was available. Lots of Soldiers got "addicted" to Opium/Morphine and it came to be known back then as "The Soldiers Disease" Someone came up with the idea of using herion to get these troops off Morphine/Opium. Kinda like a "methadon Program of today?? I don't know how accurate this info is but I read about it in several accounts of the era. I would be open to hearing more conclusive info providing there is some good substanciation of the accuracy.
The part about alkyhaul and pot is most cool, yo got it!!
Remember Harry J.??

Most cool about the "Pilgrims" I had an old Geography/History Prof. in College who tossed that idea out to the class!! What a concept, and I just came from Catholic School!!

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

[chuckakers 370]

The reason pot isn't legal is...uh...because...um..................damn............I forgot. Oh well.....what was your question again?

Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX