Making it illegal is pointless anyways
I have been reading through this thread, and the legalize crowd talk about how either the dangers of the drug are overblown, or that people should be free to make choices about such things...free to make bad choices even.
The anti-drug crew says the dangers are every bit as grave as hyped; and that the self-determination things isn't a valid argument because drug abusers impact so many other people with their problems. Numerous personal experiences have been cited by these posters to demonstrate their point, and point taken.
But the fact of the matter is that these abusers and their problems obviously exist right now, while pot is still illegal. Keeping it illegal doesn't seem to mitigate the problems. If keeping pot illegal somehow eliminated the problems, that argument would be more convincing. But here we are, with pot being illegal, and yet we have all the problems and personal tragedies used as arguments by people to keep pot illegal; talking as if that was the future result of pot being legal. Yet it is the present result of pot being illegal. It doesn't seem to matter what the legal status of dope is, the problems are there no matter what.
But the biggest problem from drugs is goverment encroachment on personal rights, and abuse of the justice system. Even now we see a two tiered legal standard for rich and poor. If I'm poor and caught with weed, especially if I'm selling it, I have a good chance of a felony conviction, which closes doors for the rest of my life, and jail time. If I'm rich kid then I go to the Betty Ford clinic and write a book about it. Hogwash.
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