420 Policies and Laws

[lxskllr]

I have an issue with calling weed addictive, but even if we assume that's true, so what? It isn't any of the government's business. I'm a little surprised that someone who's dealing with this horseshit over tobacco would wish the same on another group.

[GoVegan]

I have an issue with calling weed addictive, but even if we assume that's true, so what? It isn't any of the government's business. I'm a little surprised that someone who's dealing with this horseshit over tobacco would wish the same on another group.

I agree with you to a point but I am not going to lose my job or kill somebody in a car accident while using tobacco. There are a lot of people getting prescriptions for medical marijuana that seem to be making marijuana use the focus of their life. I think that legalizing marijuana will do nothing but open a floodgate of problems we are ill equipped to deal with. You know that the government will be using any taxes collected from the sale of marijuana to fund many programs except for drug treatment programs. Smoking marijuana in California is not a big deal unless you make it one.

[texastorm]

Not sure I have ever heard of anyone killing someone while "high" on weed on the news. Nor any DUI death from pot. Not saying it has never happened, I just never hear about it. I DO hear stuff like that about alcohol all the time. I have heard of deaths related to the illegal sale of pot, but thats the nature of making something illegal, once its illegal only criminals do it. So when they ban snus, I will be a criminal.

[lxskllr]

Weed doesn't really affect driving /that/ much. It makes you drive like your old, and apparently all the states are ok with that. People could be popping pills, huffing paint, or drinking and driving. Weed is the least of the worries. Legislation is never a substitute for education.

[GoVegan]

Not sure I have ever heard of anyone killing someone while "high" on weed on the news. Nor any DUI death from pot. Not saying it has never happened, I just never hear about it. I DO hear stuff like that about alcohol all the time. I have heard of deaths related to the illegal sale of pot, but thats the nature of making something illegal, once its illegal only criminals do it. So when they ban snus, I will be a criminal.

You and me both!

[TommyGunBC]

Pot is not addictive at all , I have been using it off and on for 20 years and can easily go without it for as long as I need too , yes there are some people who can become addicted to anything and yes some people don't need pot and it can cause some problems for some people but alcohol is far worse they banned it in the 1920's and look what happened there the rise of organized crime , and we have the same thing today with pot and other harder drugs . I'm all for all drug legalization !

[raptor]

There are a lot of people getting prescriptions for medical marijuana that seem to be making marijuana use the focus of their life.

The hell does it matter to you if those people choose to use it?

You really believe that people will run around rampant once it's decriminalized/legalized?

[GoVegan]

The hell does it matter to you if those people choose to use it?

You really believe that people will run around rampant once it's decriminalized/legalized?

It does matter to me for reasons that I won't go into. Let's just say I work in a field where I see the direct results of drug abuse, including marijuana and that we all pay the price for it. I am not against people really using it in moderation and in the privacy of their own homes but that often isn't the case. I for one, am sick and tired of reading the news and hearing about some innocent person being slaughtered by someone who was driving or acting under the influence of some drug. I did google marijuana and car accidents and found plenty of evidence that marijuana has done plenty of harm. If they do legalize it, I just hope a good portions of the taxes collected will be used for drug rehabilitation efforts and to help compensate the victims injured by someone who hurt them while under the influence but that is wishful thinking.

[Owens187]

But marijuana leads to harder things......























....like junkfood.

[Bigblue1]

Help us Jesus, is all I have to say........

[visiON]

If smoking and alcohol are legal, there is no reason for weed to be illegal.

[justintempler]

Republicans Decriminalize Marijuana in CA

I didn't catch it the first time. sgreger your headline sucks. A Republican who says he was opposed to the bill signed it and his party (Republicans) were pretty much united against the bill.

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/...ture_passes_ma

California Legislature Passes Marijuana Decriminalization Bill

by Phillip Smith, September 01, 2010, 11:58am, (Issue #647)

Just hours before the state's legislative session ended Tuesday, the California Assembly voted to approve SB 1449, Sen. Mark Leno's bill to fully decriminalize simple marijuana possession. The bill passed the Senate in June and now goes to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk.



The vote was 43-33 and largely along party lines. Democrats supported the bill 40-8, while Republicans opposed it 23-2.

Under current California law, possession of less than an ounce of pot is punishable by no more than a $100 fine, but is still a misdemeanor. That means people busted for a joint or a half-bag must be arrested, booked, and appear in court, and they get a criminal record. It also means meaningless work for the police and the courts.

Marijuana possession is the only California misdemeanor with a set maximum fine and no possible jail time. The Leno bill changes the offense to an infraction, meaning no arrest, no booking, no court appearance, and no criminal record.

"The penalty for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is a fine of $100, with no jail time," Leno said on introducing the bill. "If the penalty is $100, with no jail time, that is an infraction. That is not a misdemeanor."

Keeping simple possession a misdemeanor has had "serious unintended consequences," the San Francisco Democrat said. "As the number of misdemeanor marijuana possession arrests have surged in recent years, reaching 61,388 in 2008, the burden placed on the courts by these low level offenses is just too much to bear at a time when resources are shrinking and caseloads are growing."



Sacramento, CA United States

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

It does matter to me for reasons that I won't go into. Let's just say I work in a field...

You're a professional nanny?

Personally, the last thing I need government for is to protect me from the potheads.

[GoVegan]

Something tells me my opinion in not the most popular on this thread. All I am saying is that the marijuana laws are pretty lax and very easy to circumvent already. I have never heard of anyone in California getting busted for smoking or possessing a small amount of marijuana unless they were doing something really stupid. I am advocating that we leave things the way they are. I also believe that if marijuana is legalized, we need to monitor the situation carefully to make sure that negative impacts are minimized and that marijuana users have access to an affordable treatment system if needed.

[raptor]

I am advocating that we leave things the way they are.

"The United States leads the world in the number of people incarcerated in federal and state correctional facilities. There are currently more than 2 million people in American prisons or jails. Approximately one-quarter of those people held in U.S. prisons or jails have been convicted of a drug offense. The United States incarcerates more people for drug offenses than any other country. With an estimated 6.8 million Americans struggling with drug abuse or dependence, the growth of the prison population continues to be driven largely by incarceration for drug offenses."

"The number of people in state prisons for drug offenses has increased 550 percent over the last 20 years. A recent JPI report found that the amount spent on “cops and courts” – not rates of drug use -- is correlated to admissions to prison for drug offenses."

"While the number of offenders in each major offense category increased [from 1995 to 2003], the number incarcerated for a drug offense accounted for the largest percentage of the total growth (49%), followed by public-order offenders (38%)."

"Of the 253,300 state prison inmates serving time for drug offenses at yearend 2005, 113,500 (44.8%) were black, 51,100 (20.2%) were Hispanic, and 72,300 (28.5%) were white."

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/63

The situation isn't right the way it is, and hasn't been since the War on Drugs was escalated in the 1980s. What we've seen is paramilitarization of the police, grossly oversized prison populations with a large majority serving time for nonviolent drug crime, and a system to perpetuate apartheid/Jim Crow. A good portion of that is through people getting busted for cannabis, which certainly causes a helluva lot less problems than alcohol or tobacco smoking.

What bothers me is that you're someone who works closely with people suffering from drug abuse but cannot get beyond the propaganda sown by the government. This includes statements such as cannabis is dangerous, cannabis is a gateway drug, the blanket "drugs are bad" without even considering other viewpoints. This isn't heroin decriminalization, which I don't think this country is ready for. If you see cannabis users in whatever system you're involved in, it's most likely because they do other, stronger drugs as well.

Are people going to smoke and drive? Yes, and that's why we have DUI laws. Cannabis doesn't impair vision and reaction time like alcohol does, so I won't be worrying.

Will more people use cannabis? There might be a small spike after full legalization, but what people will notice is like homosexuality, cannabis use will be more visible.

What of the children? Well, we will need to take a different approach to drug education. These days, drug ed is all "drugs are bad, here's why they're bad" but it never answers why people use them anyway. So kids explore. I personally did not realize that nicotine gave a euphoric/stimulation feeling until college. Drug ed should provide all that information, why people use them, what are the consequences, so as young adults they can make a conscious decision about whether or not to use them. Everyone tries, I have, and I made a decision that I'm fine without.