If Marijuana was legal, how many people would try it?

Question

I am 25 and tried it for the first time about a month ago. I don't think I got high from it but I'm not sure if I inhaled it right either...

Anyway..., from what I've heard the effects of MJ aren't as bad as what alcohol can do to you. So why is alcohol legal and MJ not?

If MJ were to suddenly become legal, but we enforced similar applied rules to the drug such as not using it on the job, and not using it on the streets, and not letting minors use it, and not smoking and driving. Would there be any more MJ related problems then we already have for alcohol related problems.

Personally I find cigarette smoking to be disgusting, and never ever plan to try one. The idea of smoking a joint I didn't find all that appealing either, and if there wasn't so much mystery surrounding it, being illegal and all, I probably wouldn't have tried it.

Also if you would include your age while answering this question, I would appreciate it :).

Thanks

Answer 1

Despite what people say history has proved them wrong. Marijuana didn't really come into the forefront until prohibition because it was legal in most states. Now with alcohol suddenly illegal many people became curious and tried it, some liked it most folk didn't and ended up buying illegal booze from Mafia owned and operated distilleries.

The main reason cannabis was outlawed was to deal with Mexican migrant labor during the depression. It was wildly known they grew and smoked the stuff for medicinal and recreational use. Busting them for a now illegal substance made it much easier to deport "this surplus population".

When marijuana was finally outlawed at the federal level back in 1937 it was again from pressure from governors from states bordering Mexico. Spin doctors of the time proclaimed to the American people that marijuana was highly addictive and made people violent.

"Give your typical bean field peon a few traces of this stuff and he suddenly thinks he's the emperor of Mexico and goes about killing his political rivals".

"Marijuana is the worst drug in the history of mankind."

"Marijuana use leads to pacification and communist brainwashing".

Those quotes and many others came from Harry J. Anslinger, America's first drug czar.

During the congressional hearings two brutal murder cases were brought up again and again. One had a 16 year old slaughtering his entire family with an ax after smoking some reefer. The other had a youth killing his mother with a cast iron skillet while high on pot. BOTH young men had LONG histories of mental illness, of course that wasn't mentioned. What was mentioned was regular pot smoking caused schizophrenia.

Long story short because of all the hype many people equate marijuana with cocaine, opium and heroin. In reality pot is far less addictive then tobacco and causes far less problems than alcohol. I never seen anyone get too stoned and start a brawl, seen plenty of drunks do so.

I'd like to see pot taxed and regulated just like alcohol and tobacco. It's possible. People who want to grow their own apply for a permit and pay a fee to grow up to say 4 plants per adult. Use the same laws in place for illegal distilling of alcohol to punish those who try and get around the laws regulating legal marijuana.

I know one thing once pot becomes legal gangs and drug runners suddenly will have to find themselves another source of income.

Answer 2

it was made illegal back in the day because hemp was a threat to the cotton industry.

MJ can't be overdosed on, and no one ever died from it. The worse it will do is give you extra phelm in your throat and minor irritation of the lungs. You can avoid this by just eating it. Note that I'm taking about clean MJ, when you buy some off the street you have no idea what else could be in there, or the grade of quality.  

Answer 3

Actually, I Like it the way it is now; not because I am against taking weed, but I'm against the Government making money off taxing us for weed.

Heaps of people do it now; undetected- the ones that get caught (at least here in Aus) don't get punished too badly. Funnily enough though, if it were to be legal, the percentages of people taking it would come down.

So- if it were legal yet the government had no profit in it; Brilliant- if not, let's keep it a bit underground- it's good to be anti-establishment, anyway.

The laws should be loosened definitely though; I can't stand the fact those cops have so much power.

I'm 16.

Answer 4

Hopefully most people, then they could make they're own minds up on the issue. When will we realise that criminalising drugs is essentially unconstitutional in that it limits freedom of an activity that does no-one else any harm. It's a human rights issue. Personally I'd like to criminalise watching TV - but I'm pretty sure that would get to the supreme court fairly fast...