A simple poll about the legality of marijuana.

If you wish more options, let me know.

Marijuanna is known as a gateway drug for a reason... Many people addicited to "harder" drugs got their start with MaryJ...

I think two options are correct. Pot should remain illegal, but one should not get a criminal record for simple possession. There are millions of people in America who have received a criminal record for simple posession of less than a gram of pot. Higher fines should be levied for simple posession. Trafficing and growing (more than 5 plants) should remain criminal offences.


That argument is so stale, has no basis in reality, and shows just how little you know about the subject. Do you think the shrub smoked pot before he got into snorting coke?

Many people have gone to bigger and harder drugs...

Many alcoholics start with beer. Marijuana seem to be one of the only issues in America where we legislate based on what the losers do. Imagine if we legislated the automobile industry similarly.

They will always balance the risks with the benefits of any drug, and so far, the risks outweigh the benefits...

Howso? Is this just your opinion, or is there evidence?

Okay, let's look at some of these really quickly:

Note the word "may" and complete lack of link to a source or the methodology of the study

Again, no source on this one. Also, no mention that nobody who smokes pot smokes at the same rate as a tobacco smoker, unless they're asking for it.

Note that the same study mentions the same rate of risk after smoking tobacco or drinking coffee.

A "mention" can easily mean that marijuana is one of a number of drugs responsible for said emergency room visits. This "factiod" deliberately obscures that. The fact remains that there has never been a death on record attributed to marijuana.

This information is widely cited by drug policy officials, who have sometimes confused Drug-Related Episodes - emergency room visits induced by drugs - with Drug Mentions. The Wisconsin Department of Justice claimed, "In Wisconsin, marijuana overdose visits in emergency rooms equal to heroin or morphine, twice as common as Valium." Common Sense for Drug Policy called this as a distortion, noting, "The federal DAWN report itself notes that reports of marijuana do not mean people are going to the hospital for a marijuana overdose, it only means that people going to the hospital for a drug overdose mention marijuana as a drug they use"

Sorry if I question the methodology of a study on marijuana conducted by James Dobson, but he doesn't seem to share it : )

Note that this stat doesn't tell you how many of this improbable number were forced to go by court order for possession : )

Again, no source on that one : )

And you can either pay out the nose for them or put them on your insurance!

One wonders why! Afraid of the competition?

Many users complain that not only is the cost of Marinol greater than the cost of the amount of marijuana needed to produce the same effect, but it is also lacking in many of the properties of the whole plant, which contains hundreds of different cannabinoids. In addition, it takes over an hour to reach full effect, making it difficult to maintain an exact level of effect (which is important to most medical users), as well as making it useless to people suffering from nausea and vomiting, since they simply vomit it out before it has a chance to work.

A "culture" that would be less likely to exist without the taboo of being illegal.

In addition, it seems like the Institute on Drug Abuse uses that same slippery slope fallacy.

Rob Kampia of Marijuana Policy Project stated in a September 5, 2002 press release, "The government reaches that exact same conclusion regardless of whether drug use is going up, down, or staying the same. If use is going up they say, `We're in a drug abuse emergency; we need to crack down harder.' If use if going down, they say, `Our strategy is working; we need to crack down harder.' A cynic might think they had made up their minds before even looking at the data"

While there is no evidence of physical addiction, you can become psychologically addicted to anything. Note the vague wording.

Funny, Canada, Germany, Israel, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Britain, Hawaii, Maryland, Maine and Washington DC seem to disagree with that assessment and have either lagalized medical marijuana or pushing legislation toward that end.

I believe marijuana should be legalized and I'll tell you why. First of all, though, let me say that I haven't smoked a joint in over 25 years and wouldn't smoke one for any reason today. Now with that said, I don't believe that it matters if pot is good for you or not or if it leads to other drugs or not.

The fact of the matter is that it is as easy to get a joint today as it is to get a can of beer. The illegal drug industry is a multi-billion dollar unregulated industry, capitalism at it's finest so to speak. I know that there are a whole lot of people who never want to see pot legalized because it is will really cut into their income. Where is all the money going? Someone has control over a whole lot of money and that equates to a whole lot of influence and power.

I have no doubt that some is being funneled into political funds for politicians who fight to assure that pot remains illegal. How about terrorist organizations? Can we say with certainty that no drug money is being controlled by any terrorist organization. How about organized crime. Any money going to them? Again I ask where is the money going and how much of it is our country losing out on from the income that it produces?

I really believe that having a legal, regulated marijuana industry is a better alternative.