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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (774245)	3/11/2014 3:23:15 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1580140

>> I see the arguments made in support of "safe, responsible cannibis" usage. I don't make that argument and I don't think it is necessary; the world does not need another intoxicant. But it is a question of weighing the damage of the illegal status against the damage of legalizing, and Ten, that is simply no contest at all. I don't believe that getting high is a helpful activity any more than you do. But I do acknowledge the terribly harmful effects of criminalization. This is not to say smoking pot is helpful in any way, but in relative terms, it is harmless. And in fact, most of the problems with marijuana stem from its criminalization. Can it be used excessively to the detriment of the user? Yes, but more people have died from drinking too much water than from smoking too much pot. Can it make you stupid? At least for the moment, indisputably. Does it do long-term damage? Not in moderation, but like any substance (including sugary drinks) if you over-do it you can cause long-term problems. Do you support the banning of large sugary drinks? I don't. You are in denial about the extent of the damage caused by criminalization. Either you haven't taken time to inform yourself about it or you flatly refuse to acknowledge the truth. But it is not a free society that puts someone in prison for life for possession of marijuana, period. It is not a free society that encourages violation of our basic freedoms to track down marijuana plants, or bursts into someone's private residence and shoots them dead in search of a marijuana "criminal". We have seen our basic protections under the Bill of Rights eroded by court after court. We have seen real substance abuse increase as a result of criminalization. We have seen entire law enforcement departments corrupted by the unaccountable slush funds produced by it. Honestly, I'm not sure how blind you have to be to miss it. We are wasting 100 Billion or more a year on this bogus effort and it is time to stop. We are committing teenagers to lives of crime because of it. And you should commit yourself to watching a few episodes of The First 48, where you seen kids killing one another specifically because marijuana is legal, almost on a weekly basis. You're just not trying, Ten.