Quote:
Originally Posted by BudderMC  Err, I'm not trying to start anything up, but I'm one of the few who are against marijuana legalization (in this thread at least). Admittedly, I don't know a whole lot about it, but I don't see the need for it to be legalized. Could someone enlighten me a bit? :P |
very briefly:
At the moment, even possession is illegal in most states, i think. This means that the enormous demand for cannabis is met by drug cartels and gangsters. I'm not using any references at the moment, and i know there are difficulties in establishing statistics when the black market is involved, but I think the cannabis economy in america is in excess of $50 billion per year (estimates will surely vary). At the moment, all of this money is controlled by criminals.
Since Reagan's war on drugs, cannabis use has
increased.
The way i see it, if you legalise it and establish control, you can more effectively tackle problems of addiction and abuse, much like what is done with alcohol and tobacco currently. Additionally, compared to alcohol and tobacco, cannabis is far less damaging to the body.
That's some of my rationale, anyway