[Carlhole]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'W')hy not legalise pedophilia so that all those bad child porn merchants are not making vast sums of tax free money?

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carlhole', '
')Also, it's completely irrelevant whether or not you disapprove of pot. It's illegal status has NOT prevented it from become an $8 billion industry in California alone. Pot is not hard to come by at all. It's available just about anywhere. What's California going to do about it? Make it more illegal and watch it become a $12 billion dollar industry?

The idea is to legalize the sh*t so that the bad guys aren't making all that tax-free money, free up the police and court systems, disallow any advertising, and use some of the funds for anti-pot-smoking advertising. That's what a responsible state would do. The Drug War has already been tried and its a bust. It doesn't work.

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carlhole', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'W')hy not legalise pedophilia so that all those bad child porn merchants are not making vast sums of tax free money?

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', '
')All laws legalising pot will be reversed in due course.

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')---It can't be taxed, because anyone can grow it.

[americandream]

We aren't just talking about California here. We are talking about the legalisation of pot, as it is being done in California, not just California's legalising of pot. Or else we would not have been trying to make excuses for this nonsense or sweetening it with the fact that some suit is involved.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carlhole', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'W')hy not legalise pedophilia so that all those bad child porn merchants are not making vast sums of tax free money?

[americandream]

Legal or illegal, it keeps the proles distracted, fighting for "rights", whilst their rights are taken away.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'P')ot is illegal for five reasons, several of them actually rational:

---unlike alcohol, pot use is not self-limiting. A person will not literally drop dead from it, nor will they even keel over from over consumption. It just makes the smoker dumber.

---unlike alcohol, pot can not be accurately measured, and so behavior can not be managed when necessary (high risk jobs of responsibility, etc.). It is not possible to judge THC content visibly and know when to stop. Nor can it be chemically measured blood by police to know when to arrest.

---it is a useful tool, a convenient devise to control poor folks.

---its illegality enriches police departments and politicians.

---It can't be taxed, because anyone can grow it.

I'd be awfully surprised if CA legalizes or allows it to stay legal. And I do benefit from it.

[Tyler_JC]

We don't get to choose whether or not California has marijuana!

We only get to choose whether or not California's marijuana industry will be legal or illegal.

Every study I've seen shows that, on average, the net effect of marijuana legalization is positive. Again, on average, crime would decrease, prisons would empty out, legal jobs would be created, tax revenue would increase, total government spending on the drug war (i.e. rehab centers) would decline, etc.

Yes, marijuana addiction is bad for society and legalization could increase the levels of marijuana use. But is that worse than the current situation? With billions spent locking up small time dealers and criminal gangs raking in billions in profits?

As for child pornography, I firmly believe that as a moral issue, there are certain things that must remain illegal regardless of the utilitarian benefit.

[TWilliam]

The only 'socially destructive' aspect of cannabis is it's tendency to attenuate human acquisitiveness, which is certainly destructive to a society predicated upon the maximization of said acquisitiveness.

Given the multiple issues that we as a species currently face --many, if not most, of which are directly attributable to Western greed run amuck-- perhaps that is not a bad thing.

Anyway, long story short... ANYone who believes that prohibition should continue is quite clearly insufficiently informed. There are mountains of research as well as millennia of cultural experience the world over that make it quite clear that cannabis is largely benign and quite certainly the single most useful and beneficial plant on the planet. The is no legitimate justification in existence for its proscription...

[americandream]

Hogwash. Many of the pot smokers I have met are possibly the most self-centred, acquisitive types I hve ever encountered. Not only are they arrogant, they are utterly self-centred and totally engrossed with their right to deal with hemp whilst their countries (mostly westerners and japs) runs havoc over the third world.

The paradox I have encountered with these people is not dissimilar to the so-called mystics and new agers, who are quick to embrace the military machine in a spirit of reconciliation, yet oblivious to little kids being systematically barbarised in out of the way places such as Fallujah.

They are a menace to the radical left, bleeding it of any effectiveness whilst they distract and mislead with this drug nonsense. Since when did getting stoned become a political issue?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TWilliam', 'T')he only 'socially destructive' aspect of cannabis is it's tendency to attenuate human acquisitiveness, which is certainly destructive to a society predicated upon the maximization of said acquisitiveness.

Given the multiple issues that we as a species currently face --many, if not most, of which are directly attributable to Western greed run amuck-- perhaps that is not a bad thing.

Anyway, long story short... ANYone who believes that prohibition should continue is quite clearly insufficiently informed. There are mountains of research as well as millennia of cultural experience the world over that make it quite clear that cannabis is largely benign and quite certainly the single most useful and beneficial plant on the planet. The is no legitimate justification in existence for its proscription...

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', '
')Yes, marijuana addiction is bad for society and legalization could increase the levels of marijuana use. But is that worse than the current situation? With billions spent locking up small time dealers and criminal gangs raking in billions in profits?

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TWilliam', '
')Anyway, long story short... ANYone who believes that prohibition should continue is quite clearly insufficiently informed. There are mountains of research as well as millennia of cultural experience the world over that make it quite clear that cannabis is largely benign and quite certainly the single most useful and beneficial plant on the planet. The is no legitimate justification in existence for its proscription...

[americandream]

The cosy alliance between the right and bogus left exposed for all the world to see.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('timmac', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TWilliam', '
')Anyway, long story short... ANYone who believes that prohibition should continue is quite clearly insufficiently informed. There are mountains of research as well as millennia of cultural experience the world over that make it quite clear that cannabis is largely benign and quite certainly the single most useful and beneficial plant on the planet. The is no legitimate justification in existence for its proscription...

[americandream]

There are more worthwhile savings to be made in not pursuing wars of aggression abroad than letting our commons' senses be addled by drugs.

edit: My girlfriend is surrounded by pot smokers at work. I've just asked her what her opinion is of them. Her words: "Mostly dumb though some are aggressive." I've met a few of these specimens. One of these lunatics disapproves of women working and smokes dope like a chimney.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('timmac', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', '
')Yes, marijuana addiction is bad for society and legalization could increase the levels of marijuana use. But is that worse than the current situation? With billions spent locking up small time dealers and criminal gangs raking in billions in profits?

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'H')ogwash. Many of the pot smokers I have met are possibly the most self-centred, acquisitive types I hve ever encountered. Not only are they arrogant, they are utterly self-centred and totally engrossed with their right to deal with hemp whilst their countries (mostly westerners and japs) runs havoc over the third world.

[timmac]

Maybe if you and your girl friend there AD smoked a little yourself you might be able to relax and see a different side to those folks..

I mean really now you are not a easy person to get along with on this forum as well.. [or at least for me that is]

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'e')dit: My girlfriend is surrounded by pot smokers at work. I've just asked her what her opinion is of them. Her words: "Mostly dumb though some are aggressive." I've met a few of these specimens. One of these lunatics disapproves of women working and smokes dope like a chimney.

[TWilliam]

Oh and one more thing... substance abuse is a symptom, not the disease...

[americandream]

At least read my posts before rabbiting on. I was raised in South Africa and have experience of dagga going back to when I was knee high to a grasshopper unlike you Johnny come recentlies to pot and "world cultures" in the West. And before you tell me that this or other specialist hasn't quite pinned down the toxicity of pot, for crikeys sakes, we don't even know whether burning CO2 is going to toast our asses or not or whether running ponzi scheme capitalism will be here in the next decade.

Marijuana is a mugs game. Every pot smoker I have met is dysfunctional. EVERYONE. Their ideal of radicalism is the freedom to get stoned and the freedom to get stoned. Marijuana is another bored, well fed westerners little distraction, like religion, the new age, the Secret and all the other bullshit, distraction whilst crimes are committed apace. There's even a few new agey types peddling the latest mystic bunkum (and good bud I'm sure) to the troops in the Green Zone.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TWilliam', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'H')ogwash. Many of the pot smokers I have met are possibly the most self-centred, acquisitive types I hve ever encountered. Not only are they arrogant, they are utterly self-centred and totally engrossed with their right to deal with hemp whilst their countries (mostly westerners and japs) runs havoc over the third world.