Legal Marijuana in CO and WA on Jan 1

[Jackburton]

Someone enlighten me as to why getting high is worth going through all this trouble, possibly losing your job?

 

[Dracula]

I have a better one. Preload manager told a 20+ year seniority Art. 22.3 employee he had to have a fitness for duty evaluation to include a drug test. Pissed hot and was terminated. Months later he accidentally overdosed.

Nice uplifting story.

 

[rod]

Other than a bunch of people who for the most part already do it --I doubt the world will end because they can now do it legally. As soon as other states see the income generated for the state through taxes and licenses (just a license to sell it is $5,000) I would expect more will join. I won't get into the "gateway drug/evils of marijuana" argument but I will say making it legal and controlling it like alcohol would sure throw a monkey wrench into the drug gangs and cartels who distribute it now.

 

[Dracula]

Other than a bunch of people who for the most part already do it --I doubt the world will end because they can now do it legally. As soon as other states see the income generated for the state through taxes and licenses (just a license to sell it is $5,000) I would expect more will join. I won't get into the "gateway drug/evils of marijuana" argument but I will say making it legal and controlling it like alcohol would sure throw a monkey wrench into the drug gangs and cartels who distribute it now.

Shut up man. Keep talking common sense like that and the Just Say No crowd will come get you.

A couple of ugly, but true facts: the people who continually push to keep drugs illegal have a vested financial interest to do so. And the drug war has been a complete and utter failure. Wasted lives, wasted money. The DEA is this country's version of a civilian military.

 

[Returntosender]

On a side note. If Marijuana becomes legal in all states? They're might be money to be made.
What happened last week with Medbox Inc. A company that makes medical-marijuana dispensing machines, which went on a fantastic voyage after it caught a mention in a MarketWatch story on how investors might participate in the expanding legalized pot trade.
Shares surged from about $4 to $215 last week — giving the company a market capitalization of more than $2.25 billion
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/marijuana-dispenser-a-classic-penny-stock-story-2012-11-21

 

[Bagels]

If you feel the war on drugs was a failure than you need to do some research. Drug usage among teens and young adults has plummeted in this country since the 1980s. OTOH over indulgance in alcohol has been a growing concern. If marijuana is legalized nationally, I'm certain the same would be true although the consequences will likely not be as bad.

 

[dqs95124]

The jury is out to some degree
Marijuana may change the way the brain works, and what capacity for memorization and other things. It's definitely not good for the average person
IMO marijuana is not a "gateway drug", no more than alcohol or cigarettes. myth
And "medical weed" is , IMO, no farce. It certainly has medical value and with time, more value will be uncovered. As studies and new approaches in the scientific community continue.
Also, of course hemp is very valuable and durable for many uses

Overall, marijuana should be legal if alcohol and tobacco are legal. The effects (long-term) are nowhere near as dangerous as the other big two "legal" drugs. I don't personally care, but don't chastise others for using it.

 

[dqs95124]

The most dangerous is prescription drugs. I dropped my air w/ 5 other Dr about a yr ago. Asked if any had ibuprofen. Got a lot of drugs that I know idea what they were called out. That's the gateway drug. Not the other stuff

 

[DriveInDriveOut]

If you feel the war on drugs was a failure than you need to do some research. Drug usage among teens and young adults has plummeted in this country since the 1980s. OTOH over indulgance in alcohol has been a growing concern. If marijuana is legalized nationally, I'm certain the same would be true although the consequences will likely not be as bad.

I guess it depends on what you think "failure" means. Half of our prison population are there for drug crimes(highest incarceration rate on earth). I'd call that a failure.

It's great that drug usage among teens has dropped, but regulating, not prohibiting cannabis could drop that rate even further. I could get weed a lot easier when I was in high school than I could alcohol.

 

[Returntosender]

The most dangerous is prescription drugs. I dropped my air w/ 5 other Dr about a yr ago. Asked if any had ibuprofen. Got a lot of drugs that I know idea what they were called out. That's the gateway drug. Not the other stuff

Don't know what you saying. But I'll take guess. If you're saying Marijuana is gateway drug. I don't agree, That's like saying Budlight is the gateway, to Malt Liquor.

 

[Returntosender]

I guess it depends on what you think "failure" means. Half of our prison population are there for drug crimes(highest incarceration rate on earth). I'd call that a failure.

It's great that drug usage among teens has dropped, but regulating, not prohibiting cannabis could drop that rate even further. I could get weed a lot easier when I was in high school than I could alcohol.

 

[PT Car Washer]

Interesting debate, but we were talking about drugs in the work place. Do you really want a stoned package car driver or feeder driver? Even a sorter coming to work high? Or preloader? Yea, I know. How could you tell the difference?

 

[UPSGUY72]

Just because it's legal doesn't mean there aren't a lot of rule.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/28/us/10-things-colorado-recreational-marijuana/

 

[brown_trousers]

Interesting debate, but we were talking about drugs in the work place. Do you really want a stoned package car driver or feeder driver? Even a sorter coming to work high? Or preloader? Yea, I know. How could you tell the difference?

Actually... the debate was not about drugs in the workplace, but drugs on your own time at home. Everyone here already agrees that drugs have no place in the workplace, but do they have a place outside work? In the confines of your own home?

 

[Dracula]

If you feel the war on drugs was a failure than you need to do some research. Drug usage among teens and young adults has plummeted in this country since the 1980s. OTOH over indulgance in alcohol has been a growing concern. If marijuana is legalized nationally, I'm certain the same would be true although the consequences will likely not be as bad.

Uh, it's been a colossal failure. Not sure were you're cherry picking your "research", but your accuracy makes it sound like you are a user.

Here's one disputing every nutty idea you're talking about, from the libertarian Cato group:

http://www.cato.org/blog/familiar-p...nal-drug-war?gclid=CMHc76zB3bsCFew7MgoddTEAoQ

Conservatively, $350 billion a year? And that's just the money side of it.

Here's another study, by the Canadian government, that, again, shows how wrong you are. Opiate use up 35%, cocaine use up 27%, and pot use up 9% between 1998 and 2008. Up, not down, sir. Does that sound like a success story to you?

Supply is up, potency is up, and price is down. Does that sound like a success story to you?

Since the drug war started 40 years ago, we have spent $121 billion to arrest more than 37 million non-violent drug offenders, roughly 10 million of those for marijuana. We've spent $450 billion to lock those people up in federal prisons. Last year, half of all federal prisoners are there for drug offenses. Does that sound like a success story to you?

When we have a prohibition against drugs, the countries that produce those drugs suffer tremendously. According to the BBC, since 2006, over 60,000 Mexicans have been killed. Imagine if that were in this country. We would have NSA snoop boxes in every house. And 70% of guns recovered from Mexican crime scenes come from the US. In Columbia, over the years, it has been worse. Does this sound like a success story?

It is obvious that you felt that Prohibition was a success. Why else would you believe it is still a good idea?

 

[UnconTROLLed]

If you feel the war on drugs was a failure than you need to do some research. Drug usage among teens and young adults has plummeted in this country since the 1980s. OTOH over indulgance in alcohol has been a growing concern. If marijuana is legalized nationally, I'm certain the same would be true although the consequences will likely not be as bad.

Were you stoned writing this? LOL

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China's extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)

And most obvious evidence, a timeline of incarceration rates. Here's how your "War on Drugs" has worked out, in combination with the above. The incarceration rate appears to have increased five-fold in twenty-five years.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...arceration_timeline-clean-fixed-timescale.svg

 

[gingerkat]

The most dangerous is prescription drugs. I dropped my air w/ 5 other Dr about a yr ago. Asked if any had ibuprofen. Got a lot of drugs that I know idea what they were called out. That's the gateway drug. Not the other stuff

Are you saying that Ibuprofen is a gateway drug or something else specific?

 

[oldngray]

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...e-smoking-marijuana-legally.aspx#.UsReEeIuefs

From a federal standpoint, however, all of these activities are still illegal, as cannabis remains a Schedule 1 drug (meaning that it has "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse").

 

[Catatonic]

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...e-smoking-marijuana-legally.aspx#.UsReEeIuefs

From a federal standpoint, however, all of these activities are still illegal, as cannabis remains a Schedule 1 drug (meaning that it has "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse").

Thanks, another reason to have no respect or use for the US National government.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Are you saying that Ibuprofen is a gateway drug or something else specific?

He asked for Ibuprofen and was offered all sorts of prescription strength alternatives.