The Mary Jane Think Tank - courtesy of Criminal Justice Professionals

Excellent ideas everyone.... if we give an inch, we may not know where in the hell we will end up. But we do have a catch 22.

My other question is...how is this going to look for the Obama Administration? He's making it tougher on tobacco, but then Capitol Hill is pondering legalizing Marijuana. Americans are quite sick of flip flopping.

Next, we all know that pot is addictive, and damaging. We all know that people do it whether it's legal or not. Yeah we have a catch 22....

I say we test trial legalizing pot. Sure....it will not help current legislative body's image. BUT - if it will hurt the drug cartels...go for it. They don't need anymore money to keep killing our Federal Agents and kids. And wait....

Put so many friggin' regulations and strict fines on producing and selling it that people won't like manufacturing it. A nice way to pay off the current deficit when the government fines the living piss out of those who want to do this. And the drug cartels will lose money as our government gains it. This is a procaution for later on down the road (see next paragraph).

Trial run - 

Allow pot to be legal for 7 years, or until the affects of legalization are more negaitve than positive (opt out option). Monitor the results. If we as a nation are going down hill, we will never again allow it to be sold legally. If it successfully takes money out of the drug lords' hands, and the rates of use are no different than what it was when it was illegal...then the case is closed.

We know what it is like on the one side (illegal MJ), but we need to be cautious about flipping to the other side. We could test run it (with voters approval).

The crime of marijuana smoking is not like that of sex crimes, or murder. Although the concept of giving into people whinning about it is another thing to be noted. The more lax this nation gets about it punishments, we are not going to be deterring crime. This stems from the Deterrence Theory. Most criminologists will tell you when you go soft on a certain behavior - you are not going to deter crime. So we can fix behavior concerning the use of legalizing marijuana by strict FDA and Dept. of Agriculture guidelines (as suggested by another poster). But what we will no longer be able to do is arrest people for it. If our citizens decide "Hey, it's legal! Let's try it!" The we will have a whole nation of pot heads running this country in the future.

And they may think legalizing narcs is a good idea because hey, they are too fucked up on the MJ drug to make intelligent decisions.

We need to understand that drugs control people. If some idiot gets it in their head that hey, I can rule this country and the world by druggin' every person up...whether that person does it willingly or unwillingly. Evil people will find a way to drug a non-suspecting citizen.

We would be in a lot of trouble. Courtesy of the United States.

Last edited @ 7/2/2009 4:27 PM

"Is your number still 911?" - Ofc. Rachel T.

RE: Should We Legalize Grass?

"Lack of discipline is our greatest fault" . Smoking marijuana is just another indicator of lack of discipline, and any country that condones such behavior is on a dangerous slippery slope.....

Yep

Yep...I have to agree. I've been playing both sides of the argument to promote a pro's and con's list of "what if we..." do or do not legalize pot.

Sure we could experiment and do a test run, but I really think the results are not going to support smoking pot as a fine and dandy way to get rid of problems. Quite frankly, it will only create more issues. It will allow us to say "here, we tried", but I think we will be messing with more problems to re-ban the drug.

I really would like to see the U.S. put her foot down (for once) and JUST SAY NO. That is my personal viewpoint.

"Is your number still 911?" - Ofc. Rachel T.

RE: Should We Legalize Grass?

Rach,

I still think many people have missed the whole point. The question has never been if smoking pot was good or bad, or if allowing it would solve problems in gangs or not.

Anyone with any intelligence knows that smoking pot is bad. It is bad for the brain cells of the smoker and it is bad for their lungs (it is still smoking).

The gangs will always be there. Well, almost always. We can lower their power and strength by legitimizing what they are supplying, but it just moves the power (read that as money) from the gangs to the companies. Just as ending prohibition lowered the powers of those gangs but left them in existence, legalizing pot will allow the curreent gangs to still exist.

The question, at least to me, is if the government has the authority to regulate my possession or use of any product. I can find nothing in the contract between me and the government (the Constitution) that allows this. So, allowng the laws to stand gives us an unconstitutional form of government and that always leads to bad things.

Once the government thinks it can regulate something it has no legitimate authority to regulate, it can only continue to grow in that fashion. And it has continued to grow. The latest proposals to force everyone to buy health insurance are just one more example of this growth.

We need to get our government back under control. We need tor e-establish the principles of freedom and self-responsibility in this country. And yes, to do this we need to establish self-discipline also. People do need to just say no to drugs, but it is the individual person's job and not the government's to do so.

RE: Should We Legalize Grass?

And Steve has hit on the ONE arguement that I agree with inre. legalisation. Is it really the Government's job to tell us what we can or can not do? What about personal responsibility?

Personal responsibility

Well...as the constitution is written: No - the government should not be telling us what we smoke, how many sex partners we should have, or what type of education we should get.

And the people on capitol hill probably don't want to hear this, but it is the truth and I have my ears listening to U.S. citizens nationwide...people are pissed that the government is too far into a DICTATORSHIP-like behavior with its supposingly free citizens, and we are not following our constitution. Even foreign nationals who are over here either on a visa, or fleeing from war are surprised that the United States is as restrictive on its citizens as it is.

The truth is...powerful people have found ways to control a mass amount of people for more power and ultimately - money. Tools include mass media, and drugs.

My problem is - I cannot believe how many stupid people we have in this country who cannot keep from puffing on a damn roach that is harmful to them. And we also have people who are not as strong to say no against peer pressure leaving us with future addicts. Since the future rests with our young generations - when do we give our government the authority to bring irresponsible people back in line? Example - our financial system. With all the deregulations, our nation's real estate system collasped, our banks milked the federal government of money through clever fraud and then asked for bailouts from their irresponsible spending. And still want to their Exec's bonuses.

The thing is this - we need a balance between government regulations and freedom of choice. Not all people have the decency to keep from driving a country down the toilet. This makes us susceptible to a weak country that can be easily overtaken because its citizens engage in damaging behavior.

As a common law legal system, we need to find that common consensus as a nation to regulate behaviors that are known to cause serious issues. I guess the people (meaning U.S. citizens) need to vote on what we as a nation want; legal marijuana or not?

"Is your number still 911?" - Ofc. Rachel T.

RE: Should We Legalize Grass?

Not to get into politics, but it wasn't deregulation which caused the real estate system to collapse but regulation. Specifically, regulations sponsored by ACORN which forced financial and real estate institutions to lend and sell to poor minorities who couldn't possibly pay back the loans. When these people defaulted, as was inevitable, it put more strain on the system. It didn't help matters that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with the help of certain Congressmen and Senators, kept falsifying their financial reports to cover up the mess caused by poor lending practices...the same poor lending practices championed by those folks (Chriss Dodd and Barney Frank, not to name names or anything) who championed 'minority lending'. When President Bush tried to deregulate the housing market they rose up in arms and shut him down, claiming we didn't need deregulation, but more regulations. Meanwhile, they blocked every and any attempt into auditing Fannie and Freddie, claiming they were doing well.

Anyways, just another example of the Government meddling where it shouldn't and causing problems.

Re: Should We Legalize Grass?

I found out yesterday that Mexico has "legalized" most drugs that are in quantities for "personal use". Interesting, no?

Karl in Phoenix

Re: Should We Legalize Grass?

Well, I just had to respond, your post is sitting here so dead.

We should just find everyone who has drugs and put them in shame stocks in the street, and let passerbyers throw vegetables at them. And let the dogs on the street lick their fetid sores. Maybe chop off a head or two. Like they did in the good old days of 1744. That would rid us of this drug problem. Today the druggies are considered the victims of Law Enforcement because they go to jail for 5-10 years. HA!

Last edited @ 8/25/2009 5:17 AM

Re: Should We Legalize Grass?

Many credible law enforcement officers and criminal justice professionals support the legalization of marijuana and other drugs because they have witnessed the failure of the drug war and its violent consequences. If you are one of these officers, please check out Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com). Our organization exists to shine a spotlight on these credible views, and we have about 80 speakers who present this message on our behalf. If you are interested in applying to become a speaker, please feel free to contact me at shaleen.title //at// leap.cc.