$10.7 billion a year

[Optimus Prime]

$10.7 billion a year, to fight marijuana. Yet Bush vetoes a bill expanding medicare to sick children from $5 billion yearly to approximately $12 billion yearly over the next five years.

Those are some priorities, **** the children and catch the dope smokers. Good on ya Dubya.

 

[dan_esf_fanatic]

$10,7 billion......Jesus people. Out of that reason alone, legalize the damn thing. It isn't dangerous, and it definitely doesn't bring out the worst in people. While alcohol can do that. If anything needs to be illegal, it's alcohol. While I have tried it a few times, and to be honest I liked it, it destroys people. And I'd gladly sacrifice the 'pleasure' of getting wasted on some occasions for the countless lives that can be saved and improved, which were ****ed up by alcohol. That's kinda the problem with people these days. If you stop a guy on the street ,that likes to drink but isn't an alcoholic, and ask him 'would you stop drinking if you knew that alcohol causes *insert number* of deaths each year?' And most people would go 'gtfo' at you, simply because most of them doesn't really give a **** about other people that they don't know. While this might seem logical to some of you, it's definitely not the way to think. So here's the idea: Ban alcohol, legalize weed. A friend of mine almost killed himself with whiskey half a year ago, and some of my friends slept in trenches simply because they couldn't get back to their mommies and daddies without passing out and there were no sober ones (usually me and one of my friends) to carry them home.

I really don't get the logic behind that. Alcohol being legal, and weed being illegal. Does anyone see the logic behind that?

 

[Zeonix]

$10,7 billion......Jesus people. Out of that reason alone, legalize the damn thing. It isn't dangerous, and it definitely doesn't bring out the worst in people. While alcohol can do that. If anything needs to be illegal, it's alcohol. While I have tried it a few times, and to be honest I liked it, it destroys people. And I'd gladly sacrifice the 'pleasure' of getting wasted on some occasions for the countless lives that can be saved and improved, which were ****ed up by alcohol. That's kinda the problem with people these days. If you stop a guy on the street ,that likes to drink but isn't an alcoholic, and ask him 'would you stop drinking if you knew that alcohol causes *insert number* of deaths each year?' And most people would go 'gtfo' at you, simply because most of them doesn't really give a **** about other people that they don't know. While this might seem logical to some of you, it's definitely not the way to think. So here's the idea: Ban alcohol, legalize weed. A friend of mine almost killed himself with whiskey half a year ago, and some of my friends slept in trenches simply because they couldn't get back to their mommies and daddies without passing out and there were no sober ones (usually me and one of my friends) to carry them home.

I really don't get the logic behind that. Alcohol being legal, and weed being illegal. Does anyone see the logic behind that?

You're thinking in terms of black and white, right and wrong. Quite a bit of the taxpayers' money has been spent fighting the War on Drugs, sure, but billions of dollars have also been made by certain individuals. As I stated in the Stephen Colbert thread, certain people believe their interests supersede that of the nation's. As long as people are unwilling and afraid to investigate the true crimes of these people, they'll go unpunished and hundreds of thousands of Americans will be put behind bars because they chose to set a plant on fire and inhale.

 

[Chakra-X]

Eh, maybe my opinion is invalid because of the "you can't knock it until you try it", but I don't like the idea of a foreign substance making me all goofy. Alcohol or drugs.

Though this amount of money being spent is rather silly. Alcohol has caused so much more problems in this country, and seems to be much more dangerous. Banning that will not work after the prohibition act. Neither will the war on drugs. I'd rather see these efforts against illegal fire arms.

While the idea of escaping from reality is very interesting, the connotations at my age make it seem very angsty. "Dude I was so wasted last night, my parents grounded me for year" or "Haha I'm smokin' weed all day tomorrow", just seems so cliche at my age. But the way drugs affect the human mind, in safe doses, just seems crazy.

Relaxing on the couch with a joint after a tough day seems safer than getting rowdy at a bar drunk off your ass.

 

[tolore]

Relaxing on the couch with a joint after a tough day seems safer than getting rowdy at a bar drunk off your ass.

you can relax on the couch drinking a beer too though.

Everyone i've met personally that has done marijuana while i knew them turned into a pretty big loser all around(school, friends, hobbies all kinda went down hill). On the other hand i know plenty of people who drank(although at the age that i knew them it was still illegal and stupid) but still did well in school and kept up their activities and friendships. You can say alcohol is worse all you want but i've personally never seen it pan out that way.

Also before anyone goes off on my about how they're super awesome and do marijuana, i realize that nothing is 100%, and that i'm sure some people can handle it just fine. From my experience most people can't, and had to put a lot of work putting their life back on track.

 

[Zeonix]

If you abuse marijuana and do nothing but get high, you're obviously not going to achieve anything. It's the same as if someone does nothing but get wasted. How productive would they be? I'm sure if you switched your friend's drug of choice from alcohol to weed, they'd still be productive because that's the type of person they are. Being a pothead is but a symptom of a much deeper problem.

 

[Eon]

you can relax on the couch drinking a beer too though.

Everyone i've met personally that has done marijuana while i knew them turned into a pretty big loser all around(school, friends, hobbies all kinda went down hill). On the other hand i know plenty of people who drank(although at the age that i knew them it was still illegal and stupid) but still did well in school and kept up their activities and friendships. You can say alcohol is worse all you want but i've personally never seen it pan out that way.

Also before anyone goes off on my about how they're super awesome and do marijuana, i realize that nothing is 100%, and that i'm sure some people can handle it just fine. From my experience most people can't, and had to put a lot of work putting their life back on track.

the deadbeats you speak of would be dip****s without weed.

 

[J-Dude]

J-Dude, are you old enough to vote?

I turn 20 this January -_-

And personally I find my opinion as valid as anyone's. You all can be all gung-ho about barring religion from politics, but guess what? Impossible, unless you make some rediculous new law (wouldn't put it passed you guys) that barred you from practicing law unless you're atheist, then one way or another religion IS going to find it's way into governmental decisions because people typically make moral choices based on what they believe to be right. You act like religion is such a bad thing, but without it, would there be any reason other than stability to have a system of ethics? No, without it, there would be anarchy, and then where are we? No better than animals. I suggest you take that into account before you crucify religion (pun intended).

 

[frsrblch]

You act like religion is such a bad thing, but without it, would there be any reason other than stability to have a system of ethics? No, without it, there would be anarchy, and then where are we? No better than animals. I suggest you take that into account before you crucify religion (pun intended).

A society needs ethics to function. Religion teaches ethics. Therefore, society needs religion.

Nice logical fallacy you got there.

 

[Zeonix]

I turn 20 this January -_-

And personally I find my opinion as valid as anyone's. You all can be all gung-ho about barring religion from politics, but guess what? Impossible, unless you make some rediculous new law (wouldn't put it passed you guys) that barred you from practicing law unless you're atheist, then one way or another religion IS going to find it's way into governmental decisions because people typically make moral choices based on what they believe to be right. You act like religion is such a bad thing, but without it, would there be any reason other than stability to have a system of ethics? No, without it, there would be anarchy, and then where are we? No better than animals. I suggest you take that into account before you crucify religion (pun intended).

Separation between church and state, J-Dude. It's in the friggin constitution. It only seems impossible to separate the two because extremely religious people vote for extremely religious politicians who create laws based on their extremely religious outlook on life, that end up affecting people who aren't of the same faith. I don't care if you're religious. I don't care what you or what religious politicians do on their spare time. Just don't impose your religious beliefs on me. I don't want to be affected by them, and I don't want my country headed on a collision course with the rest of the world because some guy wants to bring about the Apocalypse, and the only way to bring about the Apocalypse is for certain events to happen (which he has no problem trying to incite). Except the Apocalypse CAN'T happen, according to your religion, if everyone is expecting and anticipating it's arrival. So there goes that.

Religious people shouldn't even dare to preach about their "superior moral code". They've done some ghastly things throughout time while spouting "the word of God" and reminding us how corrupt and evil (and now liberal) we all are.

"Oh, those aren't REAL Christians/Muslims/Jews/Whatever. They didn't know any better!"

Except they knew their holy book of choice inside and out and believed with all of their hearts that what they were doing was right, in much the same way religious people of today feel the same way. Everyone is right until they're wrong, and they only admit they're wrong when there's no way for them to excuse themselves. Then it turns into a "Oh, our bad. We're different now." type of thing.

We don't need religion to teach us what is right and what is wrong. It's ingrained in mankind.

 

[Avenger]

Society doesn't need religion any more. That's silly to say. People need religion because they don't want to think more about how things might've happened. I agree with that, but I still don't go running around believing in some almighty entity I've never seen, only heard of by a bunch of people most psychiatrists would call "schizophrenic".[/religion semi-almost-closeto-flame]

Anyway, legalizing drugs would make a lot more people try it. No matter what druggies say, drugs aren't, and never will be a positive thing. The only time drugs are used in medicine is when their negative consequences are outweighed by their positive consequences.

THC is illegal, highly illegal in all forms here in Norway. It's working out great. The idiots who do smoke/do it, are usually not among the smarter people, and the smart ones I know have admitted that THC made them dumber, gave them poorer memory and a shorter attention span.

I don't see why THC, nor any drug should be legal. Drugs increase suicide-rates, and are generally a lot worse for your body than anything else you can stuff into it. Using drugs in general usually don't have as much an effect on the body as it has an effect on the mind.

Psychoactive drugs often give the users schizophrenia of many types.

I've never tried drugs, but then again I'm smart enough to never try something I probably won't be able to drop. No matter how smart you consider yourself, once you try, you're already in the drug's grip. At this point you start arguing to yourself that "it's not that bad", and eventually decide "it's not bad at all, in fact it's awesome!" because you don't realize what effects it's actually having on you.

Barghh, enough ranting. Moar sleep. [/roar]

 

[Zeonix]

Society doesn't need religion any more. That's silly to say. People need religion because they don't want to think more about how things might've happened. I agree with that, but I still don't go running around believing in some almighty entity I've never seen, only heard of by a bunch of people most psychiatrists would call "schizophrenic".[/religion semi-almost-closeto-flame]

Anyway, legalizing drugs would make a lot more people try it. No matter what druggies say, drugs aren't, and never will be a positive thing. The only time drugs are used in medicine is when their negative consequences are outweighed by their positive consequences.

THC is illegal, highly illegal in all forms here in Norway. It's working out great. The idiots who do smoke/do it, are usually not among the smarter people, and the smart ones I know have admitted that THC made them dumber, gave them poorer memory and a shorter attention span.

I don't see why THC, nor any drug should be legal. Drugs increase suicide-rates, and are generally a lot worse for your body than anything else you can stuff into it. Using drugs in general usually don't have as much an effect on the body as it has an effect on the mind.

Psychoactive drugs often give the users schizophrenia of many types.

I've never tried drugs, but then again I'm smart enough to never try something I probably won't be able to drop. No matter how smart you consider yourself, once you try, you're already in the drug's grip. At this point you start arguing to yourself that "it's not that bad", and eventually decide "it's not bad at all, in fact it's awesome!" because you don't realize what effects it's actually having on you.

Barghh, enough ranting. Moar sleep. [/roar]

THC doesn't lower one's intelligence, as proven by recent studies. Yes, it slows down your reaction time, yes it messes up your short-term memory (which you regain pretty much the day after you stop smoking), but that's about it. Now compare that to alcohol which actually damages your body just by consuming it, add in all of the side-effects, and then throw in the number of deaths and injuries caused in alcohol-related incidents compared to weed-related incidents. Don't compare people who do nothing but get high all day to other people unless it's to an alcoholic who can't function because he gets drunk all day. If you need to, compare someone who smokes 2 or 3 times a week (and less) to someone who drinks that many times a week, and even then, alcohol is far more dangerous, mostly because weed isn't dangerous at all.

Psychotropic substances don't magically give people schizophrenia. If there's a history of psychological problems in your family, then you obviously shouldn't try to use any kind of psychotropic substance. If you're depressed beforehand, don't use any kind of psychotropic substance. If you're an idiot, don't use a psychotropic substance. This is all common sense. You don't let the blind operate heavy machinery, right?

If you're unable to drop a drug that isn't even addictive, the problem isn't the drug. I've smoked weed once and I didn't enjoy it. It felt empty to me. I've tried shrooms and it was probably the best experience of my life. And guess what? The more you use it, the less effective it is so it's impossible to abuse. As for heavier stuff like DMT and LSD, just stay away from it if you're not ready to have your life altered. Those aren't "fun drugs" that people should just play around with and one shouldn't rely on them as a source of inspiration or happiness, or anything really.

As I said before, if you abuse anything, it'll destroy you. That's how it goes. Use in moderation, be smart about it, and don't be a sheep. What do I mean by being a sheep? Don't use a drug just because everyone else is or your friend is trying to force you into it, and don't believe everything you read regarding psychotropic substances because a lot of it is just propaganda, and there's no real scientific evidence to back up the claims that it'll destroy you.

 

[Eon]

Yea, there's not really any evidence that LSD alone "Causes" shcizophrenia whatsoever, it's lingering effects are very small, yes you will have "flashbacks" because your first few LSD adventures are HUGE experiences on your brain trying to process so many new experiences at once, it'll be engraved into your memory, the only LSD accidents are dumbasses who are inexperienced take it alone and think they can fly, that's why the majority of psychoactive trips are used in groups, so people go on their adventure together and help each other through it, as I said before, it's the ghetto chemists adding their own "Secret ingredients" that really **** with people.

Vox and maybe a few others who have experienced LSD (Vox used life altering as a description, so true) it will honestly change the way you view EVERYTHING in life, I honestly believe the stuff it does is simply amazing on the plane of thinking you can go into.

as far as DMT, which is mindblowing even more than LSD, DMT is the chemical your brain releases to make you dream (dreaming meaning, everytime we sleep, we trip for 8 hours) and DMT...wow.

Peyote however, blew DMT and LSD out of the water, when I was in arizona, we were hanging with an old friend and he took us to some cermony for his Native American tribe, and I got passed a nice cup of pure peyote to drink from (Peyote is legal to the tribal ceremonies by the way, heh.)

To this day I always strive to return to AcidLand and the Spirit World again, but alas, so hard to acquire. =(