I don't know shit about politics.
I am for the legalization of marijuana for a few reasons. Medicinally, I see no reason why it shouldn't be legalized. It has helped more people than hurt from what I have seen in my life. I, personally, think alcohol is a far more hurtful substance to individuals than marijuana is. Viewing the stereotypes alone we have angry drunks versus carefree, loving hippies. Which would you prefer to be surrounded by? I know, we tried prohibition and failed (I am nowhere near even advocating that we attempt prohibition again, I am merely stating that we have worse things legalized as far as I'm concerned) and although we haven't had anywhere near the same level of backlash with marijuana I can only think of a few reasons why it shouldn't be legalized.
Really, perhaps the only reason I think there are any issues with the legalization of marijuana is because we don't have a breathalyzer-type instrument to tell you when someone's high. Society being the way it is, they'll want to regulate what you do on the job (and rightly so in some cases: i.e. driving heavy machinery) and currently the only means of figuring out whether you've partake or not is via urine or blood samples and the shit remains in your system for up to a month so that's not particularly helpful.
It seems to me though that the fight for legalization has been going on for decades and this may not be the time for it to pass. It saddens me, a bit. It appears to me that we are entering a conservative era and... I feel like I have missed out on something important and grand.
6 comments:
I believe it will pass. There are a lot of liberal and moderate cities in California. If it were any other state it wouldn't even be considered. Still vote :)
I meant to include this but I guess I forgot, haha.
Some time ago I was discussing the prop with Cesar and I admitted that I didn't think it would pass. So we decided to make a ten dollar bet on it, to which he replied, "So... you're still voting yes, right?"
Of course I am! And I would also love to lose the bet and I would gladly hand over the ten dollars if marijuana were legalized. I legitimately think there is no reason why it hasn't been legalized yet.
But I've also seen the documentary The Union. And in it are quite a few older gents taking about the legalization of marijuana, and they also discuss how 20-40 years ago, when they were young 20-somethings and the discussion for the legalization of marijuana was being thrown around they were convinced that within 3 years it would be. And today people are saying the same exact things.
It just seems far-fetched to me that it wouldn't be legalized in what was considered the hippie era but it would today when our society does seem to be leaning more towards the conservative side.
I saw that documentary too and I would completely agree because it does seem like we'd be hitting a conservative era. But the reason I believe it'll pass is because of this right here, what we are doing. Facebook, myspace, blogs, etc. All these communities online and how information travels so much faster then it would have back then. I think people are becoming more open minded because there's so much in our reach now. Especially through Youtube. Maybe not from the elder, but definitely our generation and the next. Plus, we did a poll in our politis class and the majority of the people voting yes are whites and blacks. (Come on hispanic people!) But we will see. I think the biggest concern is the children, but most people don't realize it would be harder for children to get if it were legalized. I hope you fork over your 10 bucks some time soon :)
From what I've heard, the polls have been pretty tight so it's anybody's guess. It'll be a close-call for sure, though.
hahaha, same here. Would love to lose those ten bucks to a good cause.
I hope It doesn't pass; I believe it will only lead to more problems. I think smoking it is fine no harm there. honestly though the harm lies in excess that Americans cannot differentiate from too much to not enough (ex. obesity epidemic). Diving into politics this bill isn't about getting the "man" off your back if about money and only money. sure we have economy in the dumps, but why do we keep opening another can of worms here? all we seem to do is rush everything then making matters even worse.
Yeeeeah, but anything in excess is a bad thing. You can even die if you drink too much water! From what I've heard, nobody has died from smoking too much but you can definitely get alcohol poisoning. I still thinking the only issue would be marijuana-related accidents, but if we can manage to teach people to be smart and safe about their decisions, what more can we do? It's better to go out there and teach than to turn a blind-eye and pretend it's not happening. Let's face it, people are smoking regardless. It's like teaching abstinence to a bunch of hormonal teenagers and expect nothing to go wrong.
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