Reasons NOT to legalise cannabis

[pipeman]

OK we have the reasons to legalise cannabis thread. Which I hope people will continue to add to.

 

Now what reasons are there NOT to legalise cannabis?

 

This is mainly from the point of view of the straight community, to prepare us for any arguments we may encounter, but there may even be some reasons that stoners don't want cannabis legalised either.

[Pure]

I feel the peopel that legalisation will hurt the most are the comercial growers and drug dealers , not the general public the demand would plumet and so woudl the price they sell their ounces for , I mean can you see somone considering spending 250 -350 on an oz when they can grow it for less than 10 dollars

 

There are definate issues with some peoples mental health on cannabis , wether we like to admit it or not it's not for everyone , people that already are mentally ill that go onto cannabis can make themselfs allot worse , however this could quite easly be controlled by making people apply for licences to grow and smoke, doing it this way woudl elliminate many of those cases .

 

In the end I don't think it would have a very large impact on the non smokign public, and the people who would be left thinking WTF would be the drug dealers that the police spend millions of OUR tax dollars to try and catch everyyear

[pipeman]

I feel the peopel that legalisation will hurt the most are the comercial growers and drug dealers , not the general public the demand would plumet and so woudl the price they sell their ounces for , I mean can you see somone considering spending 250 -350 on an oz when they can grow it for less than 10 dollars

 

Thats true. Fortunately no one is too concerned about the fortunes of commercial growers except themselves, and they are in the minority. Stoners and straights would both welcome the end of the black market obviously. Its an important point to note, but at the end of the day its an issue that won't be brought up by straights arguing against legalisation.

 

One thing we should keep in the back of our minds is the possibility that commercial growers/dealers might try to do something to sabotage cannabis law reform if it ever seriously looks like happening.

 

There are definate issues with some peoples mental health on cannabis , wether we like to admit it or not it's not for everyone , people that already are mentally ill that go onto cannabis can make themselfs allot worse , however this could quite easly be controlled by making people apply for licences to grow and smoke, doing it this way woudl elliminate many of those cases .

 

I agree and just because something can be dangerous to a small percentage of the population is no good reason to make it illegal. I doubt the mentally ill would do too well if they downed a bottle of sherry every day either.

 

In the end I don't think it would have a very large impact on the non smokign public, and the people who would be left thinking WTF would be the drug dealers that the police spend millions of OUR tax dollars to try and catch everyyear

 

Its not necessarily about the impact it would have against the non smoking public. Most of them are not affected by stoners one way or the other, and that won't change if law reform happens. But they will still argue against it. They view drugs as evil and will fight against any softening of the laws, if not for themselves but to help the unfortunate people who are too stupid to realise that they are destroying their own lives with marijuana (in their minds). Or, the other opposition we will face is people who are smarter than that, who know the truth, but will oppose law reform for political reasons.

 

Either way, lets try to think of every argument that could be used against cannabis law reform. Whether or not its a legitimate argument doesn't matter, if it can be used against us we should have an answer ready.

[WantDaChronic]

nice idea pipeman, it'll give us stoners a chance to come up with what the government could use against us in the future and to find comebacks to their arguments before they take place

 

i think that legalizing cannabis would make other drug takers pissed at the fact they could smoke an ounce, but if they carry a few pills they could still go to prison...with that in mind, something would eventually be done to change the laws to make those drugs less illegal and over time australia might end up with laws like those in mexico where you can carry/use any drug you want, but within the weight limits. herion i believe has a 5g limit so you can imagine how messed up things could get if every junkie was allowed to roam the streets with a heap of drugs on them imo thats where the whole "gateway" theory of marijuana comes from

 

drug tourism could be another issue...while it would be good to have more visitors spending their money in our country, would you really like australia to be known as something like the love child of mexico and amsterdam in relation to the availability of drugs for tourists and locals alike? well i do, but i imagine that the straight public wouldnt want australia known as the new drug capitol of the world, especially with johnny bush howard in power

 

lower prices for the end user will mean their consumption can go up while spending the same amount....usually people would say spending less means they can spend their money on other things, but all the stoners i have known will buy extra pot if they have the extra cash just say if the price went down to $10 for a 1/4oz instead of the upto $120 i know some people have paid, i can assure you the current mj smokers overall consumption levels would increase significantly because its been the price of pot that has held their consumption levels back....i know if a 1/4oz was only $10, i would be smoking myself retarded everyday and wouldnt consider my pot smoking an issue as it would be so cheap

 

well thats all i can think of atm, time for some bong hits

[Budman2012]

STRAIGHT PERSON : All stoners do, is sit in front of the TV with the munchies and stuff their faces and giggle histericaly at nothing in particular (hehe - In best Beavis impersonation)

STONER : No , not all of them.

STRAIGHT PERSON : Yeah well what do You contribute to society huh?

STONER : Fck Off , Im goin home to watch tele and eat chips.

 

Bye.

 

p.s. (Sorry bout that)

[WantDaChronic]

i love getting in fights like that with straight people, 9/10 i win and the other 1/10 is them walking off because they dont want to admit drugs are not as bad as they have been brought up to believe

 

seriously though, when they ask what does a stoner do for the community, just ask what they have done for the community because 99% of the time that straight person works a 9-5 job and doesnt do shit for the community at all sure they carry on about how their tax dollars are going to a worth while cause, but then you can just remind them their tax dollars have funded illegal wars and as such they are partly responsible to for death and destruction world wide

 

everything a straight person throws at a stoner and can thrown right back in their faces, but then again the same applies going the other way so you just need to have more ideas in your head before you get in an argument

[Budman2012]

Exactly.

Although I dont get into arguments , Even I want to. That post was a Hypothetical (of sorts).

STRAIGHT PERSON : They cant Legalize cannibis , because It's Illegal!

 

Is all.FkthPgz.o.k.Bye.

 

p.s. Decriminalise. .

[Guest niall]

More people will smoke cannabis.

 

While this may be true, it may even be preferable to them using alcohol, you have to wonder exactly how much use will increase? If it increases just 1 person, well then this argument is technically true and there's no moral high ground to be won by arguing until we're blue in the face. The best thing we can do is sit back and laugh at these pedantic, condescending idiots and let them keep making a fool of themselves.

 

However, most studies have shown that there is no correlation between use and penalty, between the popularity of cannabis and the laws affecting its use and possession. Absolutely none.

 

BUT

 

it's fairly intuitive to expect that there will be a short-term influx of new users, perhaps even old users rekindling a temporary flame from their younger days, but in the end there will be virtually no measurable increase in use across the population. Perhaps the most we could say is a temporary elevation, and "the wrong message" could be reinforced, and then we'll degrade ourselves indulging in every subsequent distraction that they feed the media until everyone's forgotten what on earth they were talking about, and we've gotten angry and frustrated and lost public support by getting (rightfully) pissed off at their cheap, hysterical tactics.

 

BUT

 

Will harm increase?

 

Pretty much every study ever conducted on cannabis has concluded that there's no measurable harm involved in anything but chronic abuse. In fact they've shown that it has many potential health benefits - anti-cancer, neural protective, regulatory, anti-emetic, anti-oxidant, anti-cellular death, amongst many other intriguing and medically important attributes.

 

So, even if a few more people use cannabis, hell even if say another 1% of the population started using cannabis regularly, will there be any increase in actual, measurable harm to society or to the users?

 

This is the real issue. It's not about the numbers, despite what (the otherwise righteous) anti-tobacco and the anti-alcohol and the anti-cannabis crusaders may have you think. It's about harm.

 

Will society be worse off with legalised cannabis? Well that's a different question. BUT LOOK OVER HERE, LOOK AT THE BUNNY, MORE PEOPLE WILL USE CANNABIS INCREASING MENTAL ILLNESS AND OUR HEALTH SYSTEM WON'T COPE AND THINK OF THE CHILDREN AND WE'RE SENDING THE WRONG MESSAGE AND THIS IS A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN AND <INSERT POLITICAL PARTY> IS SOFT ON DRUGS AND VOTE FOR ME I AM STANDING IN THE NEXT ELECTION AND OOOH LOOK AT THE BUNNY, SHINY THING, SHINY THING...

 

Queue next segment, and we're clear.

Edited June 26, 2006 by niall

[mull]

 

Right now its illegal and it's all risk yep. Some of that is kind of fun and challenging, the rest needless anxiety.

 

Hmm.. Have concerns about some of the points Niall raised in regard to government control and regulation of cannabis as a possible legal industry.

Like Frazzle did in comparing tobacco. I think we are legally allowed to grow tobacco, as long as you aren't in the possession of any shredded dry leaf (chop chop). This incurs an excise.

But there is a motivation for the tobacco companies to protect 'their' plant, and that is profit.

 

In order for them to do the same thing with cannabis, there would have to be a profit. So if it was made legal for government distribution, they would make it similar to tobacco. We wouldn't be able to shred or process our own homegrown without paying excise. This would have to be high enough to discourage today's personal growers from growing, and turn them toward a cannabis consumer market. With profits going to a tax paying Cannabis corporation.

Best way to do that would be to keep it illegal to grow for personal use! Even tigher regulation..

 

Admittedly there would be possibly better safety and health standards. The final consumer product would be checked and hopefully what you pay for.

Most growers I know got into it because they couldn't afford to buy it. Sure the price will go down... but not down as low as homegrown. And to have some fella from the Cannabis Checker Squad, checking bud quality before they slap you with an excise to smoke it would be absolutely absurd!

But how else do you think they will 'motivate' us to give profits to the Cannabis Companies, rather than keep things how they are now?

 

When you walk right around this issue and have a good look, things aren't too bad how they are !

 

If you just grow your own and bother no one, seems you might have a lot to lose with legalization.

[pipeman]

Its an important argument mullaway I agree. But its also important to keep in mind this is a reason that stoners don't want legalisation, rather than straights.

 

The transofrmation will be gradual, as most who grow their own now probably will not stop even if its legalised. But over time if you can buy a pack of joints from the corner store obviously less and less people will get into growing.

 

In terms of regulation under legalisation it may not be any better for the personal grower after legalisation, but I don't think it would be any worse than it is now, and at least some of the social stigma attached to it and offenses for posession and use etc will be largely done away with.

 

and you're right mullaway things aren't too bad right now. its pretty easy to stay under the radar for the most part.