Earlier today I posted a blog about how I thought that marijuana should not be legalized. A close friend of mine read the blog and told me what she thought. And she may have actually changed my mind. Something about the way in which she articulated her point drove me to reconsider the subject.
" I totally disagree with you about legalizing marijuana. It absolutely should be legalized. I don't think people are interested in legalizing marijuana just to get high, because those people, in all likelihood, already smoke pot. I have never even considered smoking pot and I think it should be legalized.
Marijuana is about as harmful as alcohol (possibly even less so, since it doesn't cause liver damage or addiction). There absolutely should be laws against driving while high, but this is a different thing than actually smoking pot. It does not distort your judgment to the point where you're like, 'Hey, you know what would be a good thing to do, now that we're totally baked and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle has just ended? Go driving!'
What legalizing marijuana would do is the following:
--stop making criminals out of people who smoke pot
--organize the selling of pot. If people were allowed to purchase marijuana through stores, they'd be less likely to buy it through drug dealers. This would cut down on drug-related violence and other crimes.
--help the economy. The war on drugs currently has a budget of $30 billion. Legalizing marijuana could lessen that economic strain. Furthermore, the government could tax the purchase of marijuana and use it for health care, national security, whatever."
It's funny how someone you know saying the similar words to people you don't can be a lot more affective. Thanks Jaime!
Btw though, my mind is not going to change on the subject of changing the drinking age. I still believe that should stay at 21. I think what happened with this issue was that I thought that I should be against the legalization of marijuana, but I didn't really have much of a reason aside from just thinking it was the right side to be on. Now that I've heard from other people about the subject I understand why I was wrong.
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I'm not really sure how I feel about the subject...on one hand I think it should be...it would be a huge, taxable industry and with the proper regulations could work well...but on the other hand even if is only as harmful as alcohol it is ranked up there with cocaine and other narcotics and legalizing one would push to legalize others..but I think this is a good blog that brings up a valid perspective
First off loved Harold and Kumar reference, hilarious movie! Ok, I don't think that smoking should be legalized. You can find pot actually quite easily, there isn't a lot of drug related violence from that, its mostly the more hardcore, expensive drugs. Despite the fact that a lot of people smoke, it does more than screw with your heart, lungs and brain, it zapps up all your ambition. Do people really not have anything better to do than sit around for hours and hours and smoke pot?
It also causes not a physical addiction but a mental one. Imagine if it became legal, you would get tons of school kids completely lazy, getting high off the mary jane constantly because they think they need it.
We've tried making alcohol illegal, that didn't work. And smoking really is a bad addiction, that millions of people are hooked on.
And then if they would legalize it they would have to have an age minimum, so what's the point? Kids smoke so either way it will be illegal.