Quote:
Originally Posted by flamesfever
The government have, and always will, create laws to protect us from ourselves.
I agree that incarceration and ruining young lives, for smoking pot, is not justified. The questions I would like to see answered before changing the system, apart from decriminalization, are:
1. The possible long range medical effects on the developing brain.
2. Why are so many doctors against the use of pot? I would hazard a guess that the medical evidence is not definitive enough at present.
3. Will the true cost to the healthcare system be offset by the income from selling pot?
4. Are the problems, that other jurisdictions have encountered in legalizing pot, going to be factored into the final decision?
5. ETC.
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There's no way pot costs the health care system $6 billion a year - it would be impossible to pass legalization if it did. There would be stories on your Facebook feed every six hours about the amount of money we spend treating pot related ailments.
When it's legal we can research its medicinal properties - frankly I don't see cannabis as a magic plant. It's a great recreational drug. Its medical benefits seem vastly overstated because 'medicinal' is the only way to legally buy it. It hasn't ever been enough to say 'I'm an adult, I like this drug, I should be allowed to take it'.
The effects on marijuana on the developing brain are immaterial. There is currently no mechanism to prevent some unscrupulous character from selling weed to a kid. Legalisation puts that control into place.
Kids will always ask their older friends to buy for them. But now that older friend goes to a convenience store instead of a drug dealer. And how many 15-17 year olds REALLY want to go to a drug dealer's house or meet up with them?
Criminalising drugs does not protect people from themselves. It is a government washing its hands of the responsibility to protect its citizens. People are less likely to call for help in the event of an overdose because they fear a criminal reprisal. There is a story on the last page about someone dying in just this scenario.
This is a personal freedom issue. It's. It isn't a problem that's beyond our capacity to solve, and the rights of children here are secondary. Kids aren't allowed in bars or strip clubs or casinos or any number of other adult only establishments. That's the solution with pot. Kids aren't allowed to have it. If a cop sees you smoking it he can confiscate your stuff. If you buy for younger kids, there should be penalties. It doesn't need to be prison - an 18 year old senior doesn't have 2 grand to pay a fine, and he sure as #### won't want to give up the next ten weekends to pick trash as his community service. And then what? Drug dealers are going to start lurking around high school parking lots to sell $40 worth of weed to a teenager? That seems worth the risk. Teenagers aren't an especially mobile group, and it seems police resources could stop high school level dealing reasonably quickly when they aren't also forced to police grown ups who want joints.
When compared to other legal substances (including prescription pain pills), the inability to purchase pot legally is an arbitrary and illogical distinction.