Re: Pastor Dead
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Macduff</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: queequeg</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Actually, it's been more like 45 years (Johnson administration) and as usual the psuedo-intellectual bromide, "lets legalize it so we can tax it", is lazily floated as a solution...
Your clear inference is that it's okay to tolerate or encourage (lets be real here as only imbeciles {and dopers} think narcotic use would decline in such a legal environment) other people to fuck up their lives as long as it generates revenue. Revenue that will undoubtedly be pissed away to promote yet more corruption, unaccountability and further need for yet more tax revenue...
Of course it won't be your kids that will be victims of the new tolerant approach. Just other people's kids. And people you don't like very much?
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I don't consider myself an imbecile of any sort, however I do believe in the legalization of marijuana. You said narcotics in your post, so it's possible that you're referring to medical narcotics used illegally, in which case I'm in full agreement.
Regarding marijuana, I just don't see how it does enough harm to make it illegal. Unlike several legal things, namely alcohol and tobacco, pot isn't physically habit forming. Nor does it cause cancer at a higher rate than tobacco.
Yes, it alters your state of mind. So does alcohol. The Policemen that I've talked to have stated that it's easier to subdue someone high rather than someone who is drunk. How many times do you hear of someone going on a rampage after smoking pot? Unless you count rampaging through the fridge...
I wrote another paragraph about the possible reasons marijuana was originally banned but it sounded a bit too much like conspiracy theory so I'll just refer to
http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/ this site.
I've got a bit more to add to the argument but I'll post it later. It's nice out and I'm going swimming.
Before anyone says that I'm just a dope smoking hippie, I want to state that I haven't smoked pot once. Or tried any other drugs. I've been around them plenty of times but it's just not my scene.
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So as an admitted non-imbecile you acknowledge the inevitable increase in the abuse of marijuana and other narcotics in the event of such legalization, and you are okay with that as long as the various governments get more tax money to piss away?
I'm interested in just why it is that tragedies like the one discussed here avail themselves to those who pipe up about the need for legalization of narcotics as a harbinger of good tidings in stark contrast to the obvious (to the visionaries) folly of the present posture of drug prevention. Is it the need to appear "above" the pedestrian masses and their group-think? Or is there another motive?
I have no doubt that some of this "pragmatism" is profit driven; People who stand to benefit from more widespread drug use are clearly among those who merely claim to be frustrated with the seeming fruitlessness of the last 45 year's effort. Add to that number the indifference of those who care only to satisfy their own desires regardless of the toll it takes on people they do not know or care for. And of course those who benefit from a distracted, frequently inebriated society of consumers of the largess of the ruling benefactors.
I see only downside.