http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSH6ofHbeUw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J10w3FuCwfQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1CvW38cHA

Bill Hicks <3

I hope he goes into the psychological dangers of pot. He'll tell us all about a family member/friend/ex roommate who was a complete psycho who happened to smoke dope. It should be embarassing and pointless, but hopefully humorous as they'd have to be pretty [effing] insane to make anyone cry.

I don't need to be saved from myself. No one has the right to regulate my sleep, activity, food, sex, learning, or anything else because excess could be harmful. I'm not making any claims that marijuana saves kittens or that I'd approve of the mother of my children smoking it during pregnancy, but I can be honest about the fact that adults enjoying it responsibly aren't hurting anyone. And no one has provided any cause for taking away their freedom to do so. It's their lives. Let them live them. Everyone has their own to worry about.

I request that one point in particular to be proved:

> Pot is bad [...] it is a gateway drug, it is a detriment to society. <

The unbiased results of an independant study will do.

Now I have posted my personal side, now let me post my proffessional side.

I used to transport drug addicts, mentally ill persons, and 'angry children' for a living to programs to make them better.

This gives me additional experience beyond any and all of you in this topic.

I have met people who were only addicted to pot, had a serious addiction to it.

You see the chemicals in pot are so many, so diversified, and our reactions to it differ.

Some people may indeed never suffer addiction, side effects, or otherwise with pot.

The majority however do not enjoy this situation. This is especially true with tolerance build up of course.

Now as a professional I have transported people who tried to commit suicide because their issues with pot, as a professional I have talked to these persons when in waiting conditions to keep them more or less stable for the moment. (Waiting conditions can be such as inside an ER of one hospital ALL doctors and nurses were attending the attempted saving of the life of an 8 year child. A greatly depressing thing to watch the chief doctor in there throw his arms up and ask 'If anyone has any ideas please say so' and a pause, then time of death announced. Try keeping someone with bandages around their wrists from getting emotional over it as well.)

I have heard stories in excess. Yes more often it's Heroin, Crack, Meth, and even Alcohol... but pot has it's place there to.

Now take me for instance, I have an allergy to a true medicine, one which has saved countless lives. I am a minority with my allergy. Penicillin is a cure all for most, but not me. Pot is an addict all for most, but not some.

This drug does have effects, and yes I have seen those people who have no obvious effects or problems. It's a statistical fact I would see some. However most have true issues.

This is not a problem with my family, or my friends, or my region. This is a true issue.

We have banned meth for instance, and most here who support pot would agree to ban meth. Some stupid people would however insist it is an individual right.

Your rights end where my rights start. This is what I am saying to you Libertarians.

When the majority of those doing a drug will end up because of the drug interfering with my rights, it goes beyond a personal right, it goes to become a personal wrong to use those drugs. The end result will be interfering with others rights, therefore it is not, and should never be, allowed. 

PCP is outlawed for a reason, yet there are those who use it. Cops meeting one of those guys have to be very cautious and go in large numbers. PCP makes you feel, and act like a super strong human. It's a nonstop adrenalin rush in effect, and those people can, and do, by hand kill others without even considering what they were doing.

I am not Mao of Communist China, I do not espouse killing all drug addicts (100 million dead due to Mao btw), nor do I think that drugs should just be outlawed period with no regards.

I understand there is some properties of pot which might be medically useful. I also know those damned drug pharmaceutical companies wont touch it cause it's a herb and they cannot patent it (Therefore profiting from it). I support a legit not-for-profit to do research, but I do not espouse legalization.

Getting high and losing for a while some of your cognitive capabilities should already sound uncool to those who post here intelligently, but then sometimes those who think they are smart really are not. Include in this category 99% of teenagers.

Most have "true issues"? What is the source of this statistic among the tens of millions who smoke/have smoked dope?

>>When the majority of those doing a drug will end up because of the drug interfering with my rights, it goes beyond a personal right, it goes to become a personal wrong to use those drugs. The end result will be interfering with others rights, therefore it is not, and should never be, allowed.  <<

You failed to tell me how my friends and I smoking a little while we catch up a few times a year infringe upon your rights. The fact is, 99.9%+ of people who smoke pot don't bother anyone. Ever. You're pretending that because unhealthy/stupid people do unhealthy/stupid things when high on pot, just as they do while sober, that pot is to blame and clearly it must be banned from 100% of people because <.01% do stupid shit while high.

The end result of people smoking dope is NOT interfering with your rights. YOU are interfering with their rights to make whatever you can up to infringe upon their rights.

Flint, you are aware that people are addicted to alcohol and nicotine as well, right? What evidence do you have that most people who smoke marijuana instantly get addicted. You are not giving the majority of the population enough credit to be intelligent and not smoke a drug in excess. And even if they want to smoke it in excess, who are we to tell them not to? We have a large amount of obese people who eat sugar, grease, cheese all day long and they are aloud to do it. The fact of the matter is, everyone has something unhealthy that they do which is a pleasure for them. SURE we may have more addicts but think of how it will instantly become unavailable to teenagers. When the demand for illegal marijuana drops, the illegal marijuana supplier will leave. If the government can get a handle on this drug then I see only positive results for our rights and our overall well-being

They haven't done so well restraining themselves so far.

Your argument is that you need someone to take care of you.

"Rooster supported my arg, lol"

No, I am arguing that we are all grownups and that we don't need a nanny state to take care of us. YOU are arguing for a nanny state because you feel that you cannot handle drugs responsibly.

>>If you wouldn't extend your argument to heroine and cocaine then you must be in agreement that a line must be drawn somewhere where one tihng should be allowed and another shouldn't. In that case, you must justify why you tihnk cannabis should be on the "good" side<<

Justify it? Substances like that kill people. They're horribly addictive and do serious damage to the body. Justify why cannabis ISN'T harmful and addictive like they are? Well, it's not.

>>  My argument that alcohol and tobacco are so ingrained in society that they would be too difficult to ban does not extend to cannabis because cannabis use is a fraction of alcohol and tobacco use.<<

Yes, a small fraction of tens of millions. The number who's tried it being even higher.

>>And, as I pointed out in that post, there have been moves in the past few years to make it harder to smoke tobacco probably with a view to an outright ban within the next 30 years as society is weened off it. With that been the case, why would making a comparison with tobacco help the argument that cannabis should be made legal?<<

The mere fact that there are pansy adults looking for government to regulate their lives is evidence that they are right when they seek to do so? That's a brilliant argument.

>>As for the claim that other people smoking cannabis has no effect on me. Ignoring any other effects such as passive smoking of it it absolutely stinks something disgusting.<<

Yeah I bet you have awful problems with second hand pot smoke. People just lighting up in public in confined spaces all the time. It's so hard to avoid inhaling someone else's pot smoke in public. I can't get people to stop blowing it in my face.