Drug Legalization; your view?

[Shyster]

Why would someone need drugs that strong in the first place?

There are people who are, for example, dying of nasty forms of cancer who experience tremendous amounts of pain. And just like one can develop a tolerance to alcohol, it’s possible to develop a tolerance to even powerful painkillers like oxycodone. Doctors have been afraid to prescribe some of these patients the large quantities of painkillers they need because the DEA has become so (over)zealous in its recent efforts to fight prescription-drug abuse. See http://reason.com/archives/2004/08/01/dr-feelscared" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and http://reason.com/archives/2006/06/02/t ... uel-enough" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[shmenguin]

Why would someone need drugs that strong in the first place?

Oxy provides me very little pain relief. I suppose is rather take one of these than multiple oxy's, if needed.

Do you mind if I ask what your condition is? I know Oxy is some strong stuff (half my high school was snorting them :pop: ).

No condition. There have just been instances where I've used it (like after oral surgery) and it didn't have much affect on the pain. Didn't really make me loopy either. Just made my stomach queazy.

[yubb]

If it were sold in a competitive market, it could be taxed to **** and people would THANK the government for doing it...

My biggest problem with legalizing marijuana is how quick people are to opt for a tax, let alone an unreasonably high tax. I don't know why people are so eager to trade money for a freedom they should've already had in the first place.

Yes, legalize marijuana. No, don't tax it. We shouldn't need to ingratiate ourselves to politicians by opting in for a new tax.

[newarenanow]

I say tax the **** out of it.

[PensFanInDC]

If it were sold in a competitive market, it could be taxed to **** and people would THANK the government for doing it...

My biggest problem with legalizing marijuana is how quick people are to opt for a tax, let alone an unreasonably high tax. I don't know why people are so eager to trade money for a freedom they should've already had in the first place.

Yes, legalize marijuana. No, don't tax it. We shouldn't need to ingratiate ourselves to politicians by opting in for a new tax.

I appreciate the feeling behind this post but the tax revenue generated by legalizing pot is a big reason I am for it. We live in a world where tax dollars pay for a lot of services and if we can generate more revenue and spend less tax dollars solely by legalizing pot then I say do it.

I'm also not in the "pot is good for everyone" camp. Some friends of ours have a daughter that is anorexic. She's 20 (as of today) and her parents didn't know she was smoking pot. She would sometimes end up in a coma and the doctors attributed it to her eating disorder. Well, she went into in patient treatment 3 days ago and after monitoring and blood tests they found out she is hypoglycemic. When she eats her blood pressure drops and her brain tells her body that she needs insulin (even though it doesn't) and sometimes this causes her to become unconscious. She was smoking pot to battle the anorexia (stupid in and of itself for many reasons) and the munchies would cause her to eat lots of food. Pot is bad for her...

[Chefpatrick871]

Not to be a giant Richard, but unless you are A, a doctor or B know exactly what type of pot she actually smoked the term "pot is bad for her" is ignorant. Clearly the type she smoked was wrong for her. As for her going to pot to help the eating disorder being stupid, I have no response. There are no medications specifically for anorexia, the best they can do is potentially mislabel it as anxiety or depression and start her down the lovely road that is "Let's figure out which medication works by having you try it and tell me how you feel"

[PensFanInDC]

Not to be a giant Richard, but unless you are A, a doctor or B know exactly what type of pot she actually smoked the term "pot is bad for her" is ignorant. Clearly the type she smoked was wrong for her. As for her going to pot to help the eating disorder being stupid, I have no response.

Considering she is a 20 something rebel I am assuming it's your basic street level kind bud (if she has any taste what so ever). Yeah, she might have a connection that can get something better, but knowing her I am assuming not.

Pot is bad for her. Pot makes her ravenously hungry which causes her to eat LARGE meals which causes her body to do terrible things. Anything that makes her really hungry would be bad for her.

As for pot being a remedy for anorexia, since it's a mental disease and not physical I don't see how pot could help unless she smoked it every time she wanted to eat. That does nothing to help cure the disease but only helps with the symptoms. It's a band aid. For a disease that can be treated and cured I don't think treating the symptoms with pot is a good call. The exception being cancer where cannabis helps to counter the side effects of the treatment.

Come on bro. I'm all for total legalization, but one cannot say that pot is "good for everyone" or "can't have ill effects"

[PensFanInDC]

And you're not a giant richard....just a big one

[Chefpatrick871]

And you're not a giant richard....just a big one :wink:

Awwww ily. :)

[Juice]

:bongrip:

[Chefpatrick871]

:bongrip:

Switched to a bowl brah.

[viva la ben]

I not sure who is advocating that pot is good for everyone. Anytime anybody tries to self medicate with anything is usually a bad idea.

[Juice]

:bongrip:

Switched to a bowl brah.

lol nice

[shafnutz05]

Pot = Meh
Pot culture = Horribly annoying

[columbia]

Pot = Meh
Pot culture = Horribly annoying

The craft beer elitists are coming on strong, however.

[shafnutz05]

Pot = Meh
Pot culture = Horribly annoying

The craft beer elitists are coming on strong, however.

[viva la ben]

I have a few friends who are disturbingly into Dogfish Head. Hanging around the brewery like they are a MC club.

[yubb]

I appreciate the feeling behind this post but the tax revenue generated by legalizing pot is a big reason I am for it. We live in a world where tax dollars pay for a lot of services and if we can generate more revenue and spend less tax dollars solely by legalizing pot then I say do it.

We will never generate more revenue and spend less tax dollars. Revenue is tax dollars. Politicians only know how to spend. Spend, spend, spend. They spend money to get re-elected. Some give money away to us lowly serfs, others give it to their corporate buddies, others yet give to both.

We live in a world where people get re-elected by providing services. You can't provide services without some capital. The government gets the capital by taxing us. Instead of providing more services and taking more money to fund it, they should be providing less services and letting us keep our own money.

I'm all about a consumption tax, so I'm not totally against taxing marijuana sales. It makes me insane with anger, however, to see how easily people submit to a tax.

The same goes for how quickly people submit to a new regulation. When United Airlines or whoever said they were going to allow cell phone calls, the US lost their crap and petitioned the governement for a change. Why? Why let them handle it? If it's really that awful to fly on a plane where people can make cell phone calls, fly on a plane where they don't allow it. Just because United was going to do it doesn't mean everyone would.

[PensFanInDC]

I appreciate the feeling behind this post but the tax revenue generated by legalizing pot is a big reason I am for it. We live in a world where tax dollars pay for a lot of services and if we can generate more revenue and spend less tax dollars solely by legalizing pot then I say do it.

We will never generate more revenue and spend less tax dollars. Revenue is tax dollars. Politicians only know how to spend. Spend, spend, spend. They spend money to get re-elected. Some give money away to us lowly serfs, others give it to their corporate buddies, others yet give to both.

We live in a world where people get re-elected by providing services. You can't provide services without some capital. The government gets the capital by taxing us. Instead of providing more services and taking more money to fund it, they should be providing less services and letting us keep our own money.

I'm all about a consumption tax, so I'm not totally against taxing marijuana sales. It makes me insane with anger, however, to see how easily people submit to a tax.

The same goes for how quickly people submit to a new regulation. When United Airlines or whoever said they were going to allow cell phone calls, the US lost their crap and petitioned the governement for a change. Why? Why let them handle it? If it's really that awful to fly on a plane where people can make cell phone calls, fly on a plane where they don't allow it. Just because United was going to do it doesn't mean everyone would.

....wut?

So not spending money on fighting marijuana crimes and gaining money from the sale of it will not increase tax revenue?

[Factorial]

....wut?

So not spending money on fighting marijuana crimes and gaining money from the sale of it will not increase tax revenue?

Libertarian blindness to the realities of our world.

[Shyster]

I do not believe yubb is disputing the "generate more revenue" part of that pfidc said. I believe he is disputing the "spend less tax dollars" part, and I agree on that point. Government generally spends all the money it gets, and then some. Remember that politicians promised that legalization of casino gambling would result in tax reductions? Well, we legalized it. We even added table games to the slots. And did our taxes ever go down? My income and property taxes are right where they've always been.

[Geezer]

I do not believe yubb is disputing the "generate more revenue" part of that pfidc said. I believe he is disputing the "spend less tax dollars" part, and I agree on that point. Government generally spends all the money it gets, and then some. Remember that politicians promised that legalization of casino gambling would result in tax reductions? Well, we legalized it. We even added table games to the slots. And did our taxes ever go down? My income and property taxes are right where they've always been.

The lies that Pa. politicians made about the Pa lottery money during its start in the early 70's would put them in good standing with the current regime of pathological liars. Heck when Miltie Shapp started the Pa. state income tax there was going to be enough money that the commonwealth citizenry would be rolling in riches for a century.

[Crankshaft]

http://www.nature.com/news/drop-in-iq-l ... se-1.11278" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Grunthy]

....wut?

So not spending money on fighting marijuana crimes and gaining money from the sale of it will not increase tax revenue?

Libertarian blindness to the realities of our world.

Apparently you didn't read what yubb actually said. You just wanted to resort to attacking someone of opposite political views as usual.

[shafnutz05]

It's hard to dispute what yubb is saying, and this is also why I think the tax revenue argument is bunk. When the government increase revenue, they will spend most or all of that increased revenue. Period. We don't have a fiscally responsible government.

Little or none of that weed money is going to go to paying the nationaldebt, balancing the budget, etc. This isn't libertarian blindness, it's empirical data. And this is also why I cringe when people are so rushed to "tax the hell out of it". For what purpose?