California prepares to legalize marijuana on New Year's Day

As a non-user of drugs and cigarettes, I think legalising is a good idea. This is because pretty much everyone smokes weed. Ok maybe not me but when I say everyone smokes weed, I'm talking 99.99999% of the population. Making it legal will free up the already stretched police resources, so that officers can concentrate on actually solving crimes.
 
Pawnless Endgame said:
Making it legal will free up the already stretched police resources, so that officers can concentrate on actually solving crimes.
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No. Making it legal will cause many officers to be sitting around doing nothing. Police deal with a lot of pointless and harmless drug crimes. Most of these types everyday officers wouldn't have a clue how to solve a real crime, you need qualified officers for that sort of crime solving.

Society is lead to believe that the police are always stretched, this makes society want more police officers because it makes them feel safer and gives them a false sense of security. The only people who actually become safer and more established is the elite.

If you get robbed or stabbed or shot, chances are there will never be a officer nearby who will magically be able to provide immediate protection. There's no such thing as Bat Man, it's just a cartoon.
 
dowie said:
putting aside the keyboard warrior nonsense about taking the life of police officers this argument that "morally" the state does not have the right to regulate some drugs but you're happy that it can regulate others is rather dubious

it's got little to do with regulations being inherently immoral, you just don't want the state to regulate say weed etc.. it is simply your opinion/view - likewise the other poster who earlier wanted to argue that it was "illogical" to regulate stuff that can be grown naturally was making a pretty dubious statement
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It's not "keyboard warrior", nowhere did I state I was going to take someone out, I am trying to convey to you the seriousness of the transgression against an individual that a police officer is committing by making an arrest for recreational drug use. Whilst in this age of authoritarianism and victimless crimes people may have become accustomed to it, the taking away of someones freedom is not a trivial matter.

It is not a "dubious" argument. There is a very clear distinction between controlling substances that don't inherently affect anyone other than the person choosing to take them, and antibiotics, the misuse of which causes drug resistant mutants to evolve which affects the entire population as a whole. So there is no contradiction or logical inconsistency in stating that one type of drug regulation is immoral, and another is acceptable. It's a pretty standard, moderate, libertarian perspective.
 
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Been in Vegas since legalisation and tbh nothing much has changed, everywhere now stinks of weed but it did before anyway :p
 
It's a plant
It grows on the earth
It's never killed anybody
It's ridiculous that's illegal in the first place
It has so many health benefits
Yes I agree with California making it legal
Rest of the world, follow suit.
 
"Marijuana may not be deadly like other drugs, but it can impact physical and mental health."

Chronic cough and frequent respiratory infections
Mental and cognitive issues, including problems with learning and memory, hallucinations, anxiety, panic attacks and psychosis, especially in youth

A 2012 study indicated people who smoked marijuana before age 17 were 3.5 times more likely to attempt suicide than those who started smoking marijuana later in life.
Those dependent on marijuana had a higher risk of experiencing major depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
Subsequent research published in 2014 indicated daily adolescent users were 18 times more likely to become dependent on marijuana, seven times more likely to attempt suicide and eight times more likely to use other illegal drugs in the future.

https://www.promises.com/resources/overdose/many-people-died-weed/
 
As a teenager, I found it considerably easier to access cannabis than alcohol...

Might as well just legalise it and tax it. People are going to do it anyway, the profits might as well go to local growers and the tax man, rather than criminals.
 
hondo said:
I've seen too many youngsters escalate from cannabis, to the likes of heroin or cocaine :(
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And I can count plenty of people that smoked weed and did things all the way to cocaine, and then eventually stopped and still lead productive, good lives.

I still think people seriously underestimate how many people actually use reacreational drugs in this country, as they assume you can't without becoming some homeless junkie.
 
I love how liberal California generally is but their leading Democratic senator is anything but; anti-weed, was at least at one point anti-weed for medical purposes, anti single payer, voted for the war, voted for the Bush tax cuts and a whole host of Republican viewpoints. I think California can do themselves a favour by voting her out and electing an actual Democrat. The country and state overwhelmingly support the legalisation and she is stuck in the cretaceous period.
 
Chris Wilson said:
Would parents of young or teenage children on here be happy to find them partaking of recreational narcotics?
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Did it a lot between 17 - 22. Told my parents straight up what I was doing (infinitely better then trying to dodge them when I got home).

They where fairly cool about it. Never really talked to them about it since, so I assume they didn't care so long as I wasn't turning into a mean spirited yahoodlum!

Stopped smoking it regularly a few years back. Wanted to go completely straight edge for health reasons. Only time I do it now is whenever I visit Amsterdam.

I honestly don't think there's a credible reason for it to remain illegal over here. It's EXCEPTIONALLY easy to get hold of regardless of the law and ridiculously wasteful to police. What little studies there are that suggest negative health impacts are insanely hypocritical. Just look at all the substances that are already available for purchase/prescription abuse that are infinitely more dangerous.

Then there's the actual medical benefits. The fact that there's a substance out there that could possibly help my Nan deal with her Rheumatoid arthritis, but is impossible to attain lawfully is completely maddening. I know steps are being bad to adapt it, but still...
 
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Rotty said:
Been in Vegas since legalisation and tbh nothing much has changed, everywhere now stinks of weed but it did before anyway :p
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I didn't realise that it was legal in Nevada too; I thought it was only Colorado and now California.
Are there any other states where it's now legal?
 
I smoked weed and took acid in the 1970's. I went on to a productive and well paid career. I basically grew out of it. Legalising cannabis in my opinion and experience is an obvious step both in terms of the use of police time and individual freedoms.
 
Energize said:
It's not "keyboard warrior", nowhere did I state I was going to take someone out, I am trying to convey to you the seriousness of the transgression against an individual that a police officer is committing by making an arrest for recreational drug use. Whilst in this age of authoritarianism and victimless crimes people may have become accustomed to it, the taking away of someones freedom is not a trivial matter.
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I never said it was a trivial matter... it is still pretty silly to argue that someone should be able to kill a policeman if they try to arrest them for possession of drugs...

It is not a "dubious" argument. There is a very clear distinction between controlling substances that don't inherently affect anyone other than the person choosing to take them, and antibiotics, the misuse of which causes drug resistant mutants to evolve which affects the entire population as a whole. So there is no contradiction or logical inconsistency in stating that one type of drug regulation is immoral, and another is acceptable. It's a pretty standard, moderate, libertarian perspective.
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it is a dubious argument... morally they can't control drugs... oh but wait actually I agree with them controlling some drugs because I can see how they affect others - like I said heroin, crack cocaine, meth.. those affect the rest of the population too - they're not just controlled because the government wants to stop people's fun

what about other drugs used in medicine - are you against them being controlled by prescription or is it just antibiotics? Should people be allowed access to everything else over the counter at the pharmacist (or indeed if you're against regulations from any dealer/self appointed healer) and self medicate with stuff that is currently prescription only?
 
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I find it amusing that many here advocating the free legal access to recreational narcotics (as the government otherwise has too much control over what one can do), seem to be strong advocates of tightening the same country's gun laws... Given that US gun ownership laws aren't going to be changing any time soon I think i would prefer said owners had as tighter control over access to recreational drugs taken ad lib as possible. Where do I stand on this matter? Four square behind Duterte.
 
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