<p>Again, brain cells are yours to kill, once you reach adulthood. I'm sure a district court somewhere ruled that we're free to do what we want with our own bodies. Even if they didn't, it's none of anyone's business what you do in the privacy of your own home. If you want to OD on drugs, or get high as a kite on pot in the privacy of your own home, feel free.</p>
<p>To whoever posted that story about the rich guy campaigning to have marijuana made illegal:</p>
<p>You have the facts somewhat right. The man was actually Harry J. Anslinger. He waged a personal war against marijuana, writing op-eds, campaigning in Congress, and so forth, saying things like marijuana caused Mexicans to murder, made white women have sex with blacks, and all kinds of other racist stuff.</p>
<p>That is my first argument against marijuana prohibition. People often say "but it's banned, there must have been a good reason for that in the first place" - to which I say "do unqualified racism, and blatantly baseless assertions count as good reasons?"</p>
<p>Anyways, I could get into more detail about why marijuana is basically pretty innocuous (and have, on the parents' cafe), but I won't here. I'll simply say this: my body, my choice. Period. Obviously it must be outlawed in public indoor venues, no driving and smoking, whatever, so no infringement upon rights occurs. But when it's an issue of me and what I choose to ingest, the government and everyone else needs to butt out.</p>
<p>Finally, for whoever posted that someone's son ODed on pot: false. False. False. The LD50 value of pot is such that he would've needed to smoke about a pound of marijuana all at once to OD, and he wouldn't get through more than a couple of joints before passing out. So that definitely, definitely didn't happen. More likely, he was poisoned by or had an allergic reaction to some adverse contaminant in the weed (PCP, whatever). That is not the same as an OD.</p>
<p>futurenyustudent-- I support the legalization of marijuana... you can read my 2 earlier posts (pg 3 I think). I was just replying to someone's claim that smoking marijuana has no negative side effects, which is very untrue.</p>
<p>I know. I'm simply expressing my opinion that I don't give a flying **** what you do to your own body.</p>
<p>I'm going to change the thread title around: why should pot be legal?</p>
<p>^^^actually, you cant do whatever you want to your body</p>
<p>Did you know that it's illegal to commit suicide???</p>
<p>it's only illegal if you fail...</p>
<p>Legalize anabolic steroids, then we'll talk.</p>
<p>Another substance which has been hyped beyond belief. Steroids shrink your balls! They cause cancer!!! Oh, no...retards.</p>
<p>They do that when pro athletes (see: dumbasses) abuse them. In moderation there's nothing wrong really, and again since the stuff actually helps your body even when you're NOT terminally ill, it should be legalized waaaaaaaaay before pot, so weed still has a long ways to go (I'm anti-pothead and all, but all the herb fanboys in this thread would jump on me for styling on them).</p>
<p>
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Who gets hurt when people get loose, tipsy, giggity, or high?
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</p>
<p>Trust me, I'm all for marijuana being legal. I have chronic pain and am dead set on moving somewhere when I go to college where medical marijuana is legal so that I don't have to take pills everyday that have horrible side effects for my pain. But don't say that getting tipsy etc can't hurt anybody, because it can. Especially if they're driving. Like I said though, I'm all for pot being legal.</p>
<p>Considering how readily available pot is, it might as well be legal. It's not as if I have a hard time getting it.</p>
<p>I don't see why it shouldn't be legal. From my perspective, addictive drugs (including alcohol and tobacco) can do much greater harm than non-addictive drugs, like marijuana. Obviously, driving under the influence of marijuana should be illegal, but otherwise, why should I or the law care if someone else wants to smoke a joint?</p>
<p>Is there really an effective distinction between psychological and physical addiction?</p>
<p>Haha, I had to debate this topic in like 9th grade for debate team. Most anti-marijuana, pro-alcohol campaigns (ie the government) are complete ********... the health risks are such that if you're against one, you have to be against the other.</p>
<p>I don't like smoking but my friends do... idk, people should be allowed to do whatever they want.</p>
<p>As someone with intractable migraines in a non-medical marijuana state, I'd like to see more state medical and Federal medical laws first. I want to work law enforcement after college so I'm not going to smoke it illegally, but even my doctor has suggested it. Baby steps, MM first, then decriminalization, then legalization.</p>
<p>
[quote]
why should pot be legal?
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</p>
<p>arresting, charging and imprisoning people for the possession of marijuana is worthless. there are plenty of drugs (crack and methamphetamine, for example) that cause large-scale damage to society; i would rather the "war on drugs" have all their police, judicial and penal resources available to go after those drugs</p>
<p>Furthermore, as somebody else said, pot is essentially "legal" anyway - people buy, sell and smoke it without ever running into any sort of trouble - so just tax the damn thing.</p>
<p>Pot makes me giggle.. but unfortunately i can't smoke it because i cough too much lol... =/</p>
<p>Oh btw it costs like 8 billion dollars a year or something ridiculous to enforce current marijuana laws (that fail)</p>
<p>H.R. 5843 just got introduced on Friday. First decriminalization bill in like 25 years. Support it: <a href="https://secure2.convio.net/mpp/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=177&autologin=false%5B/url%5D">https://secure2.convio.net/mpp/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=177&autologin=false</a></p>