The medical evidence in support is very overwhelming, and Hemp is one of the most sustainable crops grown throughout history.

The government could earn billions in taxes, shut down a black market, regulate quality, we can make everything from textiles to paper to carbon fibre out of hemp.

"In 1916, USDA Bulletin No. 404, reported that one acre of cannabis hemp, in annual rotation over a 20-year period, would produce as much pulp for paper as 4.1 acres of trees being cut down over the same 20-year period. This process would use only 1/4 to 1/7 as much polluting sulfur-based acid chemicals to break down the glue-like lignin that binds the fibers of the pulp, or even none at all using soda ash. The problem of dioxin contamination of rivers is avoided in the hemp paper making process, which does not need to use chlorine bleach (as the wood pulp paper making process requires) but instead safely substitutes hydrogen peroxide in the bleaching process. ... If the new (1916) hemp pulp paper process were legal today, it would soon replace about 70% of all wood pulp paper, including computer printout paper, corrugated boxes and paper bags."

From http://www.jackherer.com/

$100,000 Challenge to Prove Us Wrong!

If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as trees for paper and construction, were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the Greenhouse Effect and stop deforestation;

then there is only one known annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world's paper and textiles; meet all of the world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time...

and that substance is the same one that has done it before . . CANNABIS HEMP!

It should be legalized. We need to strive for a rational legal code. In relation to tobacco and alcohol, two of the legal drugs, cannabis is hands down the least harmful. It does not have the physically addictive properties of either alcohol or tobacco, cannabis users can stop anytime with withdrawal symptoms on par with or less than that of caffeine withdrawal. More than that, tens of thousands of people die every year from lung cancer and alcohol related accidents and illnesses. If your an alcoholic you can die if you just stop drinking. No one to my knowledge has ever been killed from smoking or quiting cannabis. In addition, cannabis has not been shown to have the carcinogenic effects that tobacco has. Cannabis has even been shown to promote new brain cell development, and its users report wide ranging benefits. The Netherlands model shows that soft drugs can be legalized and it actually improves the society. We need to end the propaganda and misinformation campaign, bring more reason and fairness to our legal code, and legalize cannabis.

As the dutch example shows, legalizing marijuana doesn't come with any significant negative effects to society. Instead, the government has an additional source of income from taxes and saves significant amounts of money that is currently being spent on arresting, prosecution and locking up non violent marijuana users.

Face it, the real reason pot is illegal is so 1) cops have increased ability to harass minorities and lower class people, and 2) profits from alcohol and pharmacy are artifically protected. These reasons do not justify the loss of freedom of millions of Americans.

1 out of 3 Americans have tried marijuana (and that's just those who will admit it.) Should we really imprison a third of the country?

i actually wrote a persuasive essay on this not too long ago for my English class and i got a perfect score on it so i thought I'd share it with you all.

The Decision is Ours

Marijuana is a THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) containing plant which is illegal and discriminated against in all but a handful of countries. A number of the common effects of this plant include a euphoric feeling, stress reduction, deep thinking, pain relief, increased appetite, and a few negative effects such as lightheadedness or confusion. It has been argued for years whether the cannabis plant is a drug or simply a natural herb like any other with stronger side effects, many people considering both herb and drug to be the most logical answer. The earliest it is recorded to be utilized, orally and smoked, is 2700 B.C. in China and India, having been outlawed in the United States in the early 1900’s. Uses such as religious purposes, medicines, and relaxation; should marijuana be legalized? My belief is that there would be no harm in this change of law, and the economy would prosper from it.

The First Amendment stated in the United States Constitution Bill of Rights reads:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Religious peoples, for example Rastafaris, Shintos, Hinus, Buddhists, Sufis, Zoroastrians, Bantus, and many other sects, have traditions that require ganja as a part of their lifestyles and sacred ceremonies. All of these customs had been established long before the banning of the plant. So when prohibiting marijuana is that not taking away their first amendment right of freedom to exercise their religion?

Before its ban, marijuana was a major active ingredient in 40-50 percent of medicines. Nowadays it could be used to replace at least 10-20 percent of medicines. Marijuana has hundreds of proven uses from treating nausea, pain, multiple sclerosis (MS), glaucoma, and asthma to stress reduction and cancer therapy. If you have glaucoma, the third leading cause of blindness brought about by increased pressure in the eyeball, this herbs effects reduce pressure in the eyeballs and though other medications can be used for treatment they tend to lose efficiency over time. With MS the normal functioning of the nerves in the brain and spinal cord are disrupted, harsh debilitating attacks that come and go along with many uncomfortable symptoms that lead to eventual disability occur, the use of cannabis in this situation treats a number of the symptoms as well as delays the progression of the disease.

In the United States alone every 15 minutes someone is killed in an alcohol related accident, this is approximately 50 percent of all deadly car collisions. Just about half of industrial deaths and injuries can be linked to alcohol consumption. Along with those statistics four in ten criminals and three in four of domestic violence offenders have reported to have alcohol as the reason for their violent behavior. On an annual basis in the US alcohol kills about 80,000 people, as for marijuana - there has never been a recorded death due to marijuana, you are more likely to die from an overdose of asprin. In fact, as far as we know it is impossible to overdose on marijuana and contrary to the common belief it does not influence violence or crimes. Even all of the illegal drugs put together are responsible for a small percentage of deaths compared to tobacco, is it really fair that these more harmful and fatal substances are legal but marijuana is not?

During the rise of the Rastafaris in Jamaica a man named Leonard Howell owned a large amount of land he called Pinnacle. Pinnacle was designed as a place for Leonard and hundreds of his Ras Tafari followers to live separated from the accusing eyes of the public who viewed them as criminals and thought their ideologies to be absurd, most of his followers had been poor peasants but this all changed with the growth of their ganja plantation. They had grown and sold so much marijuana that they built shops and were able to care for themselves with plenty of extra money, the rest of the valley eventually depending on them for necessities such as food and the herb. In California marijuana is already the largest cash crop and the UN has estimated that 2.5 percent of the world’s population smokes cannabis, with cannabis legal and the government regulating it like every other product of America our economy would thrive.

To put it simply, the United States does not outlaw “junk” food and vending machines simply because it is bad for you, although they may be unhealthy it is the individuals choice on whether they want to consume them or not. It is the same with marijuana, though there are few minor health risks, it is the individuals’ responsibility to look at the pros and cons and make the decision they want. Should marijuana be legalized? My answer is yes, whether for religious uses, medical reasons, just recreational purposes, or merely because the government should not have the right to dictate the lives of their citizens if it is not harming society, the legalization of marijuana would produce no destruction to our social order and the economy would expand.

There are other reasons I think marijuana should be legalized, these are just the main ones. Hope you all enjoyed it =)

Marijuana should be legalized BECAUSE it is dangerous.

If 'dangerous' is the over-all term for anything that might shunt one from his formal, initial, eligible state of his body. An imaginary state of fully-functioning, flawless, ideal body. Structured by psychology, biology, culture and all kinds of institutions, to distinguish sanity from lunacy, health from illness, intelligence from ignorance. Though these are not the bad guys, of course, it's just that marijuana does change you, it does change your body, the way you think, thus the dangerous mark is understandable.

The 'high' effect is an abnormal state that will never fit it with the standards. in fact, it changes people so much they often consider upper spiritual intervention and skip their way to the bible, only to find (or intentionally reinterpret) juicy quotes of Jesus puffing away - THESE are the bad guys. These people underestimate the abyss between themselves and the machine that produced the metaphors they use to explain their experience.

The data field of it's effects is radically shaped by the method of learning it, thus a non-user and a do-user are both biased, the argument between the two always hides the law underneath it, which separates them even more. The point is that some day the do-user won't have the need of such self-deceit, just like most of us manage to live without defying the meaning of life.

Stigma dissolving is not necessary, maybe not even possible, the stigma is not a merit of either side of the coin, it is the coin itself, the need to justify and 'OK' stamping one's inevitable position on either side demands the improvisation of rational evidence of truth.

Once a full legalization is executed, there might be a radical separation and a birth-approval for new culture, new moral, new rationalism that neutralizes the holiness around such a nihilistic notion of 'reasonable behavior', new thought, new language, new engagement with whatever is or is not considered reality. While the non-user will embrace the whole coin to morph it into a monopoly of the whole opinion spectrum within the data field of marijuana study, and will create yet another standard, unifying abstainers as much as absence of activity can be conceivable as a common denominator.

'Users' will consider the activity as we all consider sugar, it just won't be considered at all.

I still have yet to see a medical report declaring a man dead from an overdose of THC. Provide a link showing me that marijuana specifically killed a man and I'll leave quietly.

I mean, its not like its one of the ones that can kill you, any related deaths are from judgment impairment and thats no worse than alchohol.

Yes. Prohibition doesn't work. The most effective way to make something irresistible is to forbid it.

People have the right to do what they want in America, so long as they don't harm others. Furthermore, if they want to do that, there is punishment enough.

Victimless crime. Marijuana has negative effects like any drug, but causal use is practically harmless. It's a matter of personal liberty.

of course marijuana shoule be legalized. come on, reality check here. more people are gettin in trouble for using, so why not make it legal. we all gonna use it anyway

Marijuana being illegal is part of the reason why people do it. It is a stupid reason, but a reason nonetheless. Legalizing marijuana, could potentially lower the number of users. The thrill of the chance of being caught gives them a high that's intensified by the drug. It outta just be legalized, and the government can tax the hell out of it like with cigarettes. It's your choice if you're going to do it or not.

It shouldnt have been outlawed in the first place. Its not the goverments job to tell me what natural and organic items I can put in my body.

Prohibition has been unsuccessful many times in history, just look at what happened during alcohol prohibition. It causes crime to go up because of the fact that it is illegal. The black market profits go way up because you can't legally obtain it, which causes violent crime to increase because of the existence of the black market. Prohibiting drugs also makes it "forbidden fruit" and taboo, which is a big reason a high number of teenagers and young adults use drugs.

Doing drugs is a victimless crime and it should be a person's choice what they put in their own body, not the government's choice.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh come on guys then the government could make millions of dollars n it...

And people who need it for medicinal purposes could actually feel better...

Don't you see the irony of it all???

Pot is not a gateway drug.

Sharon

~The Baby Boomer Queen~

babyboomeradvisorclub.com

i believe marijuana should be legalised becuase then people can make there mistakes and realise why it was not legalised in the first place. making it i have two sides for this. should be legalised for people who just need to relax

"The only problems I've ever had with drugs are from the people who try to keep me from using them" -Dr. Thompson

I personally perform a job everyday that requires my full attention at all times for other's safety, and statistics show that my job is twice as life threatening as a police officer's. And somehow every day I'm able to do this without incident. Imagine that.

yes, for one simple reason.

free country. if people wanna fuck up their lives with drugs, let them. hell, maybe they won't die or lose their job. the point is, not our fuckin' business on how someone decides to take the edge off.

making drugs an illegal business just gets more people killed anyway. imagine what would happen to the drug lords if corporations took over the drug market.

basically: "got a problem? fix it with capitalism"

Are people still responding to this?

I'm definitely for the legalization of marijuana, but there's something people need to realize.

Just like with Tobacco, when Cannabis is legalized and FDA regulated, I can promise you the commercialized Marijuana product will be just as laden with polutants, chemicals and pure garbage as cigarettes are. It will become more expensive because there will be a tax on it, just as there is with tobacco and alcohol. It will become another government controlled commodity.

That's why it's not legal.

People die from drinking home made alcohol/moonshine. That has to be regulated, period. Tobacco isn't addictive and isn't as satisfying or nerve calming without all the additives, hence it's alteration from natural form.

Marijuana is grown in backyards all over the world and needs no alteration from government entities for it to be popular or effective. There's no logical way for the United States government to intervene, control and PROFIT (key words here) from the potential Marijuana industry.

yes because native Americans used it as a medicine in the days.

Amsterdam you can smoke pot there why not Australia?

When it comes to my point of view on the legalization of Marijuana I believe that there is no reason what so ever for it to remain illegal.

I'm not going to go into detail explaining what many have already said, about the medical uses, stress relief, etc, but when it comes to the profit that could be made this way, an enormous amount of opportunities open up.

First thing that comes to mind with the legal sale of Marijuana is tax. Why have a tax other then sales tax? Hell, why not? Are you not willing to pay that extra amount to be able to legally smoke? Is that extra tax not worth being able to sit in clear view and toke it up without worrying about going to jail if you're caught? Of course it is!

Realistically, we could add the Cigarette tax from each state onto a package of Joints. 4 average rolled joints at $10 + tax. Sure, you're getting slightly less than a dime's worth, but again, that extra amount is more than worth it.

If marijuana was to be considered for legalization, and lets say they were to use Texas as the Beta-State, a package of 4 joints would cost $11.41 after tax. Lets say Joe goes through the average dime in about 2 days. That's 178 dime bags in a year. As of now that would cost him $1780, and it would cost $2030.98 if it was legalized and taxed. That is $250.98 more than he would normally pay for a slightly less amount of weed. About .1 gram per package to be exact, on average.

That is $250.98 in profit to the government, in 1 year, from 1 man. That means slightly under 4000 people (3985) would allow the government to make a profit of one million dollars.

Did I mention that is in addition to the money saved yearly on arrest and court costs? Imagine this... 6458 (adjusted for the California cigarette tax) people in California smoke marijuana once it has become legalized. That's $1 million in profit, in addition to saving the $100 million that it is estimated to spend yearly on arrest and court costs. I'm failing to see the problem with this idea.

On a large scale, I think I read somewhere about 10% of the American population admitted to smoking marijuana. The last estimated count was about 303.8 million people in the US, so 30.38 million have admitted to regular use. The average tax on cigarettes around the US is about $.53 per pack, at even just 1 dime per week, equals to an average profit of $837.27 million dollars annually.

This estimate does not include the millions of Americans who did not admit to their regular use, nor to the hundreds of millions that would be saved on arrest and court costs.

In addition, think of all the new job openings of adding several large scale marijuana plantations. Hundreds of job possibilities open up, allowing the percentage of jobless adults to decrease. Hell, make a few new college courses about Marijuana History, Growing Marijuana, the Cultivation of Marijuana. Easily opening up new job opportunities for people to strive for. Sure, it's not the perfect job, but if you can convince people to go to school for it, and make a college degree required to work on the plantation, I bet it would convince hundreds of students to return to school with their career choice in mind.

All of these are just estimates and I have no way of knowing any exacts. But as my estimates are reasonable, and pretty close to being exact with the information I've researched, even if it didn't provide an adequate source to replace paper products, or medical uses, or any of the other dozen + things that marijuana is useful for, the profit in taxes and the annual savings in court costs and the job opportunities more than justify the legalization of marijuana.

yes - the demonization of weed needs to stop. i know conservatives really aren't ready for it - they'd rather have society as a bunch of alcoholics...

Does anybody know how much the American economy would grow if Marijuana was legalized? Listen, it's not the government's problem if people are irresponsible and mess up their lives with Marijuana, right? The government would make an enormous amount of many off of all the Marijuana sales, and we would be on our way back up, and I sincerely hope that President Obama decides to legalize it once he takes care of the war. (By the way, I still can't get over the fact that I can call him President Obama now. Yes!)

The Legalization of marijuana would lower are crime rates in the United States of America by at least 15 to 20%. A lot of the US citizens have either used, grew, or sold Marijuana and have gotten caught by the police if we legalized Marijuana we could put restrictions on the use growth and sells of marijuana so that he people who sell grow and use it can sell grow and use it just under certain restrictions.

OMG, when I created this debate I didn't know how many pot heads were out there.

But only in Tijuana. Just in case it isn't a good idea. That way I can just go across the border, have some fun and go home. Mexico can suffer any negative effects due to the legalization of marijuana.

I'm not that concerned with Marijuana. I'd never use it, and I don't let my boyfriend either. I think it is a cop-out and a rather stupid thing to get into.

I don't mind it being legalized, though I'd rather it not. I'd even go so far as to say alcohol shouldn't be legal either.

I don't, however, like the way these things are prosecuted. I'd rather see users treated like those in need of medical and psychological attention. There shouldn't be anything on their permanent records, they shouldn't go to jail or prison, and they shouldn't be stigmatized.

Users should be sent through rehabilitative structures and helped to find better ways to spend their time and money. Educating themselves, expanding their minds, getting good jobs, having fun in more productive ways. Users should be helped towards a better, happier life without the need for mind altering chemicals.

Pushers, however, are a different matter. Small-timer pusher and pushers of less dangerous drugs should go through the same services. But people selling deadly, horribly destructive drugs to people are partially responsible for their downward spiral. They should be punished, with jail time and prison time (depending on what they did and how they did it) followed by rehabilitation and job training/higher education.

Look at how absurd things get once Marijuana is legalized.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,559030,00.html

Marijuana is a drug that can lead to other drugs. Not for everyone, but it does afford everyone the opportunity to find other drugs. Legalized marijuana would continue the downfall of our society in the United States. There are many people who don't smoke pot because it is illegal. These same people would totally deplete the nations supply of potato chips and ice cream. Madness.

also with my argument for yes. but this time i say marijuana shouldnt be legalised becasuse then people will just get more and more of it because people will be abusing it

I've already argued in favor of the legalization of marijuana, but there's one thing I forgot about. I watched "Severance" the other day, it's about a group of a European sales division of Palisade Defense are on a bus to a team-building weekend at a "luxury lodge" in the Mátra Mountains of Hungary. The team-building activities don't really work out till the they realize some wacko soviet soldiers are waiting in the woods to kill them one by one, only then they manage to form some sort of a group working together, helping each other, the survival of each is dependent on the survival of the team.

I figured that it might be a bit loose, but there is something about getting into drugs that brings back something that was lost during the arms race in the name of nape security. To illustrate - A few years ago I wrote a story about an alien civilization acting as if they were about to exterminate all humans, the aliens announced it on the news so a global panic was achieved, and nothing really happened, only that a feeling of survivalism boiled up everywhere, there was a greater power threatening from above, one intention over everyone, seeing all human kind as unified, ignoring our differences and difficulties with each other.

Later they said that the whole trick was to teach humanity a lesson about individualistic racing.

Drugs are really really really reallly really really really BAD.

Although some people may say the marijuana gives you a "great time" and "picks you up off of your feet" when you are feeling glum, legalize it and we will have the same problem that we are currently having with alcohol!

Alcohol is legal in the U.S. for those who are over the age of 21, but then again, even those who are proclaimed "mature" enough to handle drinking still abuse that privilage! The same will be if we legalize marijuana! And for all those hippies who think that we should make it legal I have one thing to say to you: "GO DOWN TO MEXICO! I MEAN, MARIJUANA IS PRACTICALLY LEGAL DOWN THERE AND ITS WORKING OUT JUST FINE! ¡Aquí venimos THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!" So go FUCK yourselves hippies! I don't know about the rest of you, but I do NOT want to live in a country like Mexico! That's why I live in the USA baby!

At least not until you changed the stigma attached to it in the media.

What I find hard to believe is that this question pops up all of the time on the internet... and nothing changes...

In debates, if you say one thing in opposition to it's legalization you are immediately discriminated against and ignored for the valid points that you may have, and then the people advocating it's use have nothing more to show in their argument than what you have, but sensationalized, and even though they don't have credible evidence (ok, so one does), they call you out for not having evidence, and like children, hop around proclaiming your stupidity...

Arguing this topic online is useless, and I have always thought that. You are all like Gollum with the ring of soromon... there's no point.

BTW, if you are so right, do something about it already so that I don't have to hear about it anymore.

can i just add sumtin here?...

can you imagine your kids smoking marijane?just look how many uses it while its still illegal and what more if it will be legalized...

it maybe healthy in any other way but...everything that is taken or done 'too much' or lets just say anything that can lead to addiction or be abusive is not healthy anymore its actually could lead to death and crimes.

and marijuana or cannabis is still in the classification of prohibited drugs."A recent study by the Canadian government found cannabis contained more toxic substances than tobacco smoke",it should remain illegal.

The marijuana smokers are so indecent that they would vote everything down to below one... no matter what I say now, I can be the best argument.

Marijuana should be illegal because... care bears.

I win.

People who are already obese would get the munchies and that would make matters worse.

I don't think the legalization of marijuana would be a good idea.

Why does everyone push so hard for it, when all it does is make you high???

Talk about mindless self indulgence... I hate people who have problems dealing with the fact that they cannot always have what they want.