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<< Until people quit electing conservative anti-drug politicians who vote against it because mommy and daddy thought it was bad when they grew up >>
That's idiotic. Most Americans want it to remain illegal.
I would never vote based on that one issue and if you do you are an idiot!
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I'm not suggesting that you vote based soley on their position on marijuana. However, I would suggest that their stance on marijuana is probably indicitive of their open mindedness towards other topics. Since we all know most every politician is a hippocrite, I see someone that is for legalization as someone that will admit what he thinks and doesn't just follow what their parents or the government (or lobbyist) has to say.
Most Americans see it as bad because they have never tried it and/or because it's illegal and the school system has taught us for years that drugs are the worst thing on the planet. The same DARE officer that is telling you drugs are bad goes home at night and knocks off a six pack while watching prime time TV.
There are social problems associated with every drug. But, I think most people will agree that anyone who wants pot can find it with relative ease. The social problems associated with pot are allready prevalent whether its legal or not. There is a market whether or not it's legal. However, now you have guns blazing over territory rights and this, that, and the other. I doubt you see gang murders and things like that over a bottle of alcohol. If that seems far fetched, that is what happened during prohibition. Then, the government decided it wasn't worth it to let Al Capone and company continue their ways, so they legalized alcohol again. The same thing is happening with weed. The same thing is happening with crack.
I also think taxes and regulation on the drug would help the government. You may see throwing more dollars at the government as wrong, but without it, much of what we take for granted it lost. Why not use the money in education projects? There needs to be a serious revolution in the way we teach people about drugs. This crap about DARE and other programs is a complete waste of time. Drugs aren't going away. Like it or not, telling your kids everyday that drugs are bad is not going to make them go away. But, like with many topics today, the only way we deal with them is to declare them bad and try to teach kids, and others, to stay away and freighten them. I think the right way to deal with this is to teach them what they are and what they are for. They are for recreation. We are creatures and we have stimuli that detect good and bad. When I'm smoking a bowl, I know it's good. If Joe Blow next door smokes and feels bad, then that is how he feels and he probably shouldn't do it. However, limiting me is absurd. I have a full time job, contribute to society, and have absolutely no moral problems with smoking herb. But, I think this comes from studying the effects and evalutaing on my own terms why and when I smoke. There are plenty of people that probably can't decide this for themselves, but ask the bum downtown asking for spare change so he can score another bottle of Boone's Farm whether or not he can handle alcohol.
Another reason that legalization would be good is by getting kids and adults alike out of the situations they are forced to deal with when scoring a bag. Now, many have to go to crack houses and deal with shaddy characters and literally put their lives in danger. I realize they don't have to be buying it in the first place, but they are. Drugs have been around as long as man. People aren't going to stop using them because a government tells them they can't. Especially when some are legal and some aren't.
I say this because I like smoking. However, I rarely drink. I don't much care for it and I personally think it makes me unresponsive and feel bad. I have made my own mind up and I get mad that the government has taken my right to injest a cartain drug. I've been to Amsterdam several times and I've seen what social weed can be. I live in America and I've also seen what illegal drugs can produce, namely warzones in the suburbs and in the projects.
But, to each their own. We elect our politicians and I vote. I also explain my views to anyone that wants to listen and continue to smoke my herb. That's all I can do right now. Maybe in the future I'll run for office, but currently I am not in a position to do that.