Medical Cannabis

[Set-In-Stone]

Absolutely.... The only real issue is the insurance/ medicine companies. The medical benefits of the Cannabis plant far exceed any other
medicine known to man, and thats a problem for big business. Imagine if you could "grow your own Advil, or Cough Syrup" Thats how the medical companies see it and fear the whole "legalization". Not to mention the side effects are way less harmful as other over the counter prescriptions. No one has ever died from a "Marijuana overdose". The politicians need to pull their heads out of their a$$es and get with it. We exhaust too much of our tax paying money to chase a war on Marijuana. That money can go to a far greater cause like patrolling our borders, ports, and the like. Also, whatever can help a person with their illness and bring hope/health to them and their families - who am I to judge?

The Man would rather keep Marijuana illegal, but let you drink all the alcohol you want, and smoke as many ciggs as you want with no issues. Of course, they also benefit from all the horrible after math, such as keeping hospitals filled with alcoholic related incidents, Cancer patients, liver failure, lung problems, as well as the drug companies from all the medicine you will have to buy. $$$$$
Cigarettes are the ONLY product regulated by the FDA, that if you use AS IT'S DIRECTED, is proven to cause serious health issues, and eventually, in some cases death. The whole thing is a joke if you ask me.

I vote YES, just so they can move on and start focusing on the REAL issues, like pulling our economy out of the gutter!

 

[PJ the Comic]

Lets not stop at pot, let's legalize everything.

Seriously is there a single heroin addict that can't seem to find their drug when needed? The answer is no. Our so called war on drugs has done nothing but make the Mexican Cartels wealthy and powerful. Just as prohibition did for the US mobs back in the day. Legalize everything, tax it, sell it at 7-11.

It will do the same thing in my opinion as parents who let their kids drink before the age of 21. It's simply takes the stigma of being cool away. If it's not a forbidden fruit, if you can buy it at the corner store the kids won't be hiding behind the dumpsters at middle school trying it with their friends.

PJ

 

[Hillbilly Steaks]

I say yes for sure!!! legalize it, give me my card and my quota of plants I'm allowed to have :love:

 

[khari]

I agree with the folks here. Legalize it.

 

[Allofus123]

GB?

I'm in..... :thumbs:

 

[Jonesy]

Welcome back BoTL, been a little while it appears, glad to see you around again.

But this may be a touchy or controversial subject ???

Aspire to be FOG, eh? Well you fail. :laugh:

Doc

Nope, it's just um, a highly controversial conversation.

Not politics or Religion, so it's fair game.

 

[ilikefishes]

Welcome back BoTL, been a little while it appears, glad to see you around again.

But this may be a touchy or controversial subject

Aspire to be FOG, eh? Well you fail.

Doc

Nope, it's just um, a highly controversial conversation.

Not politics or Religion, so it's fair game.

Oh, it is most certainly been kept illegal for political reasons.

 

[Devil Doc]

I have to disagree with you fishy. Here in NH, a very Conservative Republican legislature passed a medical marijuana law. Twice! It was vetoed by a Democratic Governor. Not what you'd expect, is it? It's ignorance and prejudice held by members of both parties. It transcends politics.

Doc

 

[ilikefishes]

Doc, I was unaware of that. Thanks for that info.

 

[Tall Paul]

I have to disagree with you fishy. Here in NH, a very Conservative Republican legislature passed a medical marijuana law. Twice! It was vetoed by a Democratic Governor. Not what you'd expect, is it? It's ignorance and prejudice held by members of both parties. It transcends politics.

Doc

Let's see who takes the seat after his retirement in November.

 

[Smokin'Sims]

I say legalize it as well. We can tax it (in a dream world it would lower tobacco tax), it helps people, and it has created more criminal organizations. Prohibition did the same thing, too bad we didn't learn from that.

Not just for medical purposes, legalize it for industry and for the farmers as well!

Exactly. Commercial hemp needs no pesticides or fertilizers, and can replace almost everything we currently use oil and petrochemicals to produce. Time to fix that wrong turn the Industrial Revolution took when it backed fossil fuel!

~Boar

I don't agree with this statement, but I believe this is due to my ignorance. It just seems counter intuitive to me. I'm sure something has evolved to eat/infect it. I don't know why it wouldn't deplete the soil of nutrients over time either. You can shoot me some info to explain these points if you like. I know the USDA has a huge field of marijuana in Mississippi and conducts all sorts of tests. I just didn't work much with them while I was there.

 

[sar127]

Gotta admit, I'm still on the fence with this, lot of good points here though. Two things I'm completely for however are medical use and decriminalization - reducing it from the ridiculous schedule 1 classification to 4 or 5. Sched 1 includes heroin, lsd, ecstasy, marijuana and peyote (also politically motivated I imagine). Even cocaine is only sched 2!

My remaining skepticism with legalization lies with the logistics. I don't think legalizing it just gets rid of ALL the problems. Just like with controlling alcohol there's many hidden costs to the govt that poeple tend to forget like policing drunk drivers and underage drinking, injuries and deaths emerging from those accidents, court fees, emergency services and healthcare costs associated with accidents or illnesses stemming from long term use, rehabilitation centers, safe distribution, and general compliance just to name a few. And more importantly, I understand that the alcohol tax doesn't even begin to cover all those costs.

I imagine the same would apply to marijuana.

 

[Jonesy]

Welcome back BoTL, been a little while it appears, glad to see you around again.

But this may be a touchy or controversial subject

Aspire to be FOG, eh? Well you fail.

Doc

Nope, it's just um, a highly controversial conversation.

Not politics or Religion, so it's fair game.

Oh, it is most certainly been kept illegal for political reasons.

Doesn't matter. We're not talking politics nor religion, so what's the problem? Those are the only taboo subjects here and it falls into neither catagory. It may have been kept illegal due to politics, but we're not dicussing Obama/Bush, Pelosi/Boehner, so it doesn't quite meet the political criteria.

 

[Jonesy]

Welcome back BoTL, been a little while it appears, glad to see you around again.

But this may be a touchy or controversial subject ???

Aspire to be FOG, eh? Well you fail. :laugh:

Doc

Nothing against you WKOTI, but it does seem like you're trying to climb the ladder fairly quickly. Banging on the 2 year door gains you knowledge and a certain amount of respect, 5 plus years gains you respect (for the most part) and the title of "prick"! LOL

 

[thefatguy]

Gotta admit, I'm still on the fence with this, lot of good points here though. Two things I'm completely for however are medical use and decriminalization - reducing it from the ridiculous schedule 1 classification to 4 or 5. Sched 1 includes heroin, lsd, ecstasy, marijuana and peyote (also politically motivated I imagine). Even cocaine is only sched 2!

My remaining skepticism with legalization lies with the logistics. I don't think legalizing it just gets rid of ALL the problems. Just like with controlling alcohol there's many hidden costs to the govt that poeple tend to forget like policing drunk drivers and underage drinking, injuries and deaths emerging from those accidents, court fees, emergency services and healthcare costs associated with accidents or illnesses stemming from long term use, rehabilitation centers, safe distribution, and general compliance just to name a few. And more importantly, I understand that the alcohol tax doesn't even begin to cover all those costs.

I imagine the same would apply to marijuana.

As far as a tax not covering expenses I think you're wrong. Most of the things you speak of are and should not be paid by tax dollars. As far as court fees, they are paid by the people who are convicted. I don't even want to get started on how our court systems are a business, from the police officers to the prison systems. Everything is a business, if you tax something, the government gets their vig, errrrr, cut and the things you mentioned are paid from the people using these services.

 

[sar127]

Gotta admit, I'm still on the fence with this, lot of good points here though. Two things I'm completely for however are medical use and decriminalization - reducing it from the ridiculous schedule 1 classification to 4 or 5. Sched 1 includes heroin, lsd, ecstasy, marijuana and peyote (also politically motivated I imagine). Even cocaine is only sched 2!

My remaining skepticism with legalization lies with the logistics. I don't think legalizing it just gets rid of ALL the problems. Just like with controlling alcohol there's many hidden costs to the govt that poeple tend to forget like policing drunk drivers and underage drinking, injuries and deaths emerging from those accidents, court fees, emergency services and healthcare costs associated with accidents or illnesses stemming from long term use, rehabilitation centers, safe distribution, and general compliance just to name a few. And more importantly, I understand that the alcohol tax doesn't even begin to cover all those costs.

I imagine the same would apply to marijuana.

As far as a tax not covering expenses I think you're wrong. Most of the things you speak of are and should not be paid by tax dollars. As far as court fees, they are paid by the people who are convicted. I don't even want to get started on how our court systems are a business, from the police officers to the prison systems. Everything is a business, if you tax something, the government gets their vig, errrrr, cut and the things you mentioned are paid from the people using these services.

And here I'm afraid I'm teetering on the line of appropriateness, but I disagree that govt is/should be a business, without getting too political, I believe that govt is there to provide the services that are specifically NOT profitable i.e. police, fire, etc.

According to this site, the '09 US federal alcohol tax total revenue was a little under $6 million http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=399. I'm pretty sure that doesn't begin to cover the costs of everything I mentioned. And sure, people pay court fees and things, but most of those services are still subsidized by the govt by at the very least a little bit.

Good talk, hope you don't mind a little friendly discourse.

 

[Not A Nice Person]

It's no great secret that the privatization of our prisons has gone hand in hand with mandatory sentences for drug possession---when you're in it for the $$$, gotta keep them cell bunks full! ???

Honestly, I don't think we'd see much uptick in use even if we, like PJ suggested (and I'm for) legalized ALL of it. As far as I'm concerned, if it came from a plant, make it legal, tax the bejeezus out of it, and sell it through state/federal head shops (like the state liquor stores). Farmers/industry get access to hemp, prison occupancy drops 25%, the DEA gets defunded or merged with the ATF or FDA, the cartels go belly up, and we stop finding decapitated bodies on the Mexican border. :thumbs:

And at the end of the day, everyone interested in that sort of thing can already get it anyway, just like Cuban cigars. People that aren't, like myself, aren't going to suddenly start just because it's legal. Well . . . maybe for the holidays .. . :whistling:

~Boar

 

[sar127]

According to this site, the '09 US federal alcohol tax total revenue was a little under $6 million http://www.taxpolicy...t.cfm?Docid=399. I'm pretty sure that doesn't begin to cover the costs of everything I mentioned. And sure, people pay court fees and things, but most of those services are still subsidized by the govt by at the very least a little bit.

Good talk, hope you don't mind a little friendly discourse.

Sorry I'm an idiot, didn't read the by [thousands of dollars] note underneath the title, lol.

 

[thefatguy]

I'm not so sure we disagree, I don't mind at all.
I too, think our government shouldn't be a business, but I don't have a solution.
The link you have just shows revenue, I'm not sure what you think this money should go to our where it goes now. I don't believe its the governments responsibility to provide health care or rehabilitation. When I say government, by the way, I mean all of us because it is our tax dollars we speak of. Do our tobacco tax dollars get spent on people with mouth our lung cancer? I don't smoke marijuana, but I do smoke many cigars and enjoy a few drinks and I don't want the government, aka us, to tell me I can't our kill me with taxes. I do, however, understand that government is a business and requires revenue. I think the problem comes in to view when they realize they can make more money from one group or another whether it be tobacco users, drinkers, marijuana users. Or some other group.

Ian

 

[jfields]

I imagine the same would apply to marijuana.

I really don't have hard facts obviously, but I don't see the percentages really changing a whole lot from what they currently are. I don't see use increasing with the whole forbidden fruit stigma removed.
Not that I condone it, but I've never heard of a someone plowing his car into a family of four while high, or going home and beating the piss out of his wife and kids.

So, that removes the whole hidden cost concern for the most part. Our court and prison systems would actually see some relief with all of the possession and distribution charges becoming a thing of the past.