Marijuana is NOT a harmless substance

[RockyBalboa]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

The reason we have drug dealers and gang members selling drugs is because we have criminilized drug use. If drugs are legalized, they will be sold by pharmaceutical companies. Do you think the Crips are going to be able to compete with Merck and Phizer?

Your point of view is viciously scary and naive.

With that point of view there is clearly no point in even having a debate with you about this topic.

What a life motto to have, throw everything to the wind and say screw it.

Please tell me you have a far wider view of life than this.

[Detroitdad]

Originally Posted by RockyBalboa

Your point of view is viciously scary.

You find drug companies scarier than gangs? Me too.

[RC Vikings]

I had a roommate at the Y who was an AP on his mission, taught at the MTC when he got home and was the EQ president in his ward. Near the end of his BYU stay he started smoking pot. This guy had a lot going for him but when I went back to see him a year later after he started smoking he was a different guy. All he cared about was getting high. Many years later he is selling cars and still getting high. He still is a good friend but It was sad to see someone with so much talent waste it.

Pot is harmful.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

The reason we have drug dealers and gang members selling drugs is because we have criminilized drug use. If drugs are legalized, they will be sold by pharmaceutical companies. Do you think the Crips are going to be able to compete with Merck and Phizer?

This argument is a red herring.

There will always be criminal elements looking for high return, and whatever is illegal, will become the business of criminal elements. Criminal elements will turn to that because its financial returns are high.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by Archaea

This argument is a red herring.

There will always be criminal elements looking for high return, and whatever is illegal, will become the business of criminal elements. Criminal elements will turn to that because its financial returns are high.

Sometimes also true for things that are legal. Look at cigarette smuggling. It's all about the benjamins.

[non sequitur]

Originally Posted by RockyBalboa

Your point of view is viciously scary and naive.

With that point of view there is clearly no point in even having a debate with you about this topic.

What a life motto to have, throw everything to the wind and say screw it.

Please tell me you have a far wider view of life than this.

Are you in favor of going back to prohibition? Should we criminalize alcohol and tobacco? Maybe we should criminalize coffee, tea, and Diet Pepsi while we're at it. And you still haven't addressed the core issue -- whether people should have the freedom to engage in activities that are self-destructive.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

Are you in favor of going back to prohibition? Should we criminalize alcohol and tobacco? Maybe we should criminalize coffee, tea, and Diet Pepsi while we're at it. And you still haven't addressed the core issue -- whether people should have the freedom to engage in activities that are self-destructive.

That question cannot be asked in a vacuum. I can't answer it, because we don't live in a vacuum.

If the actions of persons injesting harmful substances had NO impact on the community, then I could answer affirmatively. However, it does have an impact upon employers, family, friends and our health care system. Because we don't make pot smokers pay for the differential in health care costs attributable to their behavior, I can't favor decriminalizing it.

[non sequitur]

Originally Posted by RC Vikings

I had a roommate at the Y who was an AP on his mission, taught at the MTC when he got home and was the EQ president in his ward. Near the end of his BYU stay he started smoking pot. This guy had a lot going for him but when I went back to see him a year later after he started smoking he was a different guy. All he cared about was getting high. Many years later he is selling cars and still getting high. He still is a good friend but It was sad to see someone with so much talent waste it.

Pot is harmful.

I have a friend who married an evil bitch, and his life has been a living hell ever since. Maybe we should outlaw marriage, or better yet create an agency whose job it is to certify that couples are compatible before they get married.

People make bad decisions all the time and they live with the consequences of those bad decisions. Would you really endorse a system where people are not free to make bad decisions?

[RockyBalboa]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

Are you in favor of going back to prohibition? Should we criminalize alcohol and tobacco? Maybe we should criminalize coffee, tea, and Diet Pepsi while we're at it. And you still haven't addressed the core issue -- whether people should have the freedom to engage in activities that are self-destructive.

People ALREADY have that freedom. Just because they have that freedom to personally choose doesn't mean they should be given carte blanche to do whatever in terms of actual laws of the land.

So let's just get rid of any laws supposedly standing in their way. Of course which the liberal leaning will say that's exactly why it's silly for their to be a law in the first place.

It is THAT kind of thinking that is destructive and worrisome and leads to further downward spirals. How a person can consciously argue against this is mind boggling.

[RockyBalboa]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

I have a friend who married an evil bitch, and his life has been a living hell ever since. Maybe we should outlaw marriage, or better yet create an agency whose job it is to certify that couples are compatible before they get married.

People make bad decisions all the time and they live with the consequences of those bad decisions. Would you really endorse a system where people are not free to make bad decisions?

People already have that freedom and see what's happening to them....how one cannot advocate penalties for this kind of irrational behavior that destroys OTHER peoples lives, business, communities, parrish's, families is incomprehensible.

Honestly,,,it is a line and form of thinking of one which I'm grateful not to understand because they're fewer things more irrational than that line of thinking.