How would legalizing pot happen?

The most logical argument by far. Obviously hard to refute. I agree driving impaired is dangerous to everyone regardless of what you are impaired with. No one has the right to take the safety away from anyone else.  The fact that there is currently no 'Pot detector' invented yet still is a weak argument. Cannabis may be harder to detect than alcohol but it does not seem to stop people from getting busted while being high, in states that consider the sole act of having thc in your system a crime. I am talking about ingestion, not possession.  Most impaired drivers are stopped through their driving behavior, given field sobriety test, in addition to a breathalyzer. The breathalyzer is to help determine HOW MUCH alcohol they have in their system. Even if the driver is well under the legal limit , the officer may use descresion based on the field test and still decide the driver is too impaired to drive.  In my opinion you can tell if most people are high. Not just red eyes etc. Most people are terrible liars while high.
"are you high"
me while high " what? eh ehhh...no, little laugh, yeah I am"

When someone has smoked pot, you can usually smell them, just like you mentioned about alcohol, but in my opinion much more, unless they take steps to cover it up , like changing clothes, colonge, toothbrush.
As far as professionals like doctors and such, I would hope any doctor, worksite planners, civil engineers as such, that holds such a high level of responsibity would choose not to recreate while on the job. It's very hard to get that far in life, to the point where your actions affect people living or dying in your profession if you are a habitial abuser of anything.  Most things you do wrong have consequences.
Cannabis hardly impairs motor cordination the same way alcohol does, but it does let the brain think in non linear patterns.
The biggest risk while driving high is perception, and judgement, both are needed to be a safe driver. The same reason cannabis can help jazz musicans breaking away from the tradition restrictions of music, is the same reason it can make driving dangerous, easy to become distracted.  I am an advocate for responsible recreation. 
I am sure if the research was done, and no physical detector is possible (unlikely) I am sure scientists could formulate some combination of field tests along with mental tests like the alphabet style tests that could eaisly help officers detect impairment. Bottom line, we trust law enforcement to be able to make the choice if someone is too impaired to drive.  Like a said before , you can still get a dui if you are under the drinking BAC limit, if the officer feels you are a danger on the roads. These guys are trained and skilled for a reason.
I do applaud you for bringing in some logic!  I just find it's still kind of weak. I am sure there are doctor that are imorally treating patients while high, I mean shit, there have been horrible doctors that have raped patients while they are asleep.  Something tells me those type of incidents are more often than not influenced my habitially alcohol abuse. Considering the stereotypical stoner is generally "non violent" most stereotypes have truth in it some where. Alcohol is well know for bringing out anger and abuse.

FYI: Weed isn't legal in Amsterdam.

damn guys...ol' girl with the boobs in her avitar is callin' you guys out.

but seriously...baby steps guys...you gotta crawl before you can walk.  there's a lot of people out there that still believe the bullshit propaganda that has been spewed out for the past half cenutry.  it's going to have to become medicinal only before we can ever make our way to having the same status as tobacco and alcohol.

I never said out of debt, just out of our economical shit hole we are in. Medical is such a small fraction of how much weed it out there being sold, cali itself would pull in a bil a year if they taxed all the weed being sold their.

And yes, hemp would also help our economy too.

i'm not really sure if you guys are arguing about the potential revenue flows that would be created both from taxing smoke and the sale of hemp, but either way it obviously wouldn't be the worst decision this country has ever made...

Im probably not the only person on this sight that thinks this, but i do not think green should be legalized. I think the government should stay out of it. It should be decrimanalized meaning the government would get rid of any penalties for carrying, growing, buying, or selling. Therefore it would wouldnt become a big cash crop that a large company would make money from and control. You would still buy form one of your dealers who would still buy from his grower. The only difference would be is that it would be legal.

no but seriously "government weed" is pretty dank.

wrong. they do it here in Aus its not as common as random breath tests for alcohol but they do not have a big van unit that sits on the side of the road and the police pull evry1 over, dnt knw if you guys do that in the states...?? and then they "breath test" you for illegal drugs, i dnt knw if its breath or what but i think it is, actually i think its saliva

That argument would have held up slightly years ago but it really doesn't have much validity today.


As a few people have said Australia is trying to work out the kinks in a product they have that can test for people under the influence of marijuana. So strides are being taken.

Also, any time there is a need for a product that is hypothetically not difficult to produce will be made. When alcohol prohibition was first repealed in 1933, the country had no way of testing for a person being under the influence of alcohol. It wasn't until 1938 that they had an "exact" system to test for that. So roughly 4 years of a guessing game. I'm sure that if the government requested it, the product testing for Thc or other cannabinoids could be created within a year.

And I'd like to address the argument that everyone seems to make about doctors and lawyers being high at work. I really just don't understand it. It's about self-regulation. Sure your doctor or architect could come to work high as a kite, but would the other co-workers be ok with that? Would their employers be ok with that? Would the people they are servicing be ok with that? If a doctor was known to be high while performing his duties, I'm confident he'd be out of a job within a month. There's just no way that people would accept having an altered mind at a professional job.

i love made up facts, "causing much of the youth to neglect their studies"

making it legal would ruin it for me I just want it to be decriminalized. So if I get caught with an oucne or less they fine me $100 and send me on my way I'd be ok with that

Didn't feel like reading the thread, so i am sure someone already said it.

Put a mad tax on it. also if it was legal the government would not have to waste the ridiculous amount of money they do on enforcing it. basically, the government would make bank and the president would not be reelected,

what makes you think people don't already do this?

This argument has a lot of holes in it. Who's to say said doctor/crane operator/architect/civil engineer isn't going to work high now? Why would legalization change the habits of current users? That doctor might be blazed as fuck right now cutting somebody up, how would you know? The only difference in usage trends would be in first time users trying it because they can. That might lead to more users, but not more dangerous habits.

I wouldn't change my smoking habits if pot were legal, the only thing I would do differently is light up in public, and that would most likely NOT be legal.

As for the driving impaired argument, I feel safer riding with some people when they are stoned out of their mind than with some people totally sober. Some people just suck at driving, if you want safer roads then we need stricter driver's license tests and regulations.

Pot can change people for the better or worse, it all depends on that persons personality. When I smoked occasionally I noticed NO effects in my social behavior or motivation to do things. I have also gone through stages where I smoked a lot, and I mean a lot of pot, and I have noticed a decrease in motivation and shit like that, but I don't blame pot for that. That's just my personality, I have to push myself to work hard. I am a smart kid, scored very well on my ACT but had an ~average high school GPA. In my mind, marijuana only amplifies certain traits of your personality, so in theory "a worthless stoner" would be just as worthless if they didn't smoke pot, it's just their personality amplified so they reach that stage quicker.

Also, government grown bud wouldn't be shitty, or expensive. Alcohol is legal, there is a government tax on it, but there are crafters of fine alcohols still, right? Why wouldn't there be top of the line tree too? Pot is very expensive now because it is illegal, if it were legal it could be sold for an average retail markup.

I'm out of time, but that's what I could type out. Peace.

Steezy seems to have so much factual evidence, to back up his statements. I love it!

  You sir,  unlike steezy, do speak the truth, and take into the fact reality. I know I am overly optimistic, but I do feel the more we hope, the better chance things will change.

 As this thread may have become somewhat of a flame war, and I am sure many people hope this thread dies fast, it does seem to of brought up many viewpoint from both sides.  Discussion is great, and I hope some people have had a chance to think about the issues being brought up. People have the right to make up their own minds based on reality, and not late 30's propaganda.

 Steezy has an obvious blind hate concerning cannabis. I don't know how old he is, but I don't think he has lived enough life in the real world to really see the effects of the drug war.  Steezy in my opinion you hate stupid people, which is more than ok. It is ridiculous to say the cause of stupidity, or ignorance is from cannabis use when there are Millions of habitual users that lead great lives and contribute greatly to society. Stupid people are always going to exist, and with the popularity of the Internet, too many people are using google as their memory, instead of learning and understanding the subjects they wish to know.  

Feel free to question any of my statements , and i can provide you with facts/stats etc.  My opinions are my own, and may not be able to provide documentation, but I have formed them based on reality. Your opinions seem based on your contempt for other problems caused by many different things, the majority of them far from cannabis use.

id be swimming in g13

as i have been saying if weed is legalized it should be a reward for doing things like that. it could be used to motivate the kid with a 2.0 and a 19.

Not necessarily, the stock market crashed in 1929, alcohol was legal in 1933, but the depression didn't end until 1944 at the start of WWII

Honestly, I hope it stays illegal.
I can probably get it just as easily now than I could If it were legal.
Plus the gov't would probably tax the shit out of it.. and I'd imagine the higher the quality, the more you'd have to pay for it. Plus I don't think I'd have as much fun knowing it was legal haha

This spot on thank you

well unless you are one of the few making a ton of money off the black market, that's hard to say. Legalizing is nothing about how easy it is, or could be to get. It's the fact that you enjoy it being illegal , when I highly doubt you would enjoy the aspect of it being in the back of a police car, on your way to jail. Also good luck finding financial aid , or high paying job with a drug conviction.

aahahaha too bad I already have you at 10/10

Patience.  It will most likely be legalized for medical use reletively soon, because its really hard to argue against that.  However, this will most likely be bad for the efforts to have it legalized emtirely, and will set that back.

I wouldn't worry about it though, its barely even illegal now anyway.

silly thread.


your thread repliers are making me chuckle silly thread

i love how on all other threads, people are immature iditots, but on this specific topic, they all have their own deep political insight stacked with facts and statistics.  

keep on keepin on newschoolers

Grow your own, yes, like you can brew your own beer

Refine it into hash oil, no, like you can't distill liquor

your words are wisdom with all the experience you have obviously had on ns to come up with such an amazing belief.... i bow to you

im honored to be the thread creator.

My older boss once told me "I never thougth I'd see a black president in my time"...

I wonder if legalized marijuana will be much the same for my time...yes, very different, but ch'ya know.

you do know the us deficit is $1.7 trillion

we aren't talking about buch's debt we are talking about the recession.