If marijuana is legal, what should be the minimum age for smoking it?

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Discuss.

[TDAS04]

18 for recreational use, no minimum age if needed for medical purposes.

[Lief 🗽]

I don't know enough about the science of marijuana use and adolescent brain development to give an informed answer to this question.

[ElectionsGuy]

18 for recreational use, no minimum age if needed for medical purposes.

[Flake]

18 for recreational use, no minimum age if needed for medical purposes.

[angus]

I don't know enough about the science of marijuana use and adolescent brain development to give an informed answer to this question.

Neither did Jean Piaget, but that didn't stop him from becoming famous and providing a great deal of misinformation to a generation of psychologists.

[Person Man]

Probably the same as the drinking age because it's so similar to drinking in terms of driving. I tried smoking and driving before. It was scary. I'm lucky nothing bad happened. 21. That being said, I'm for don't ask don't tell for over 17. That is, if you are at home and over 17, the police shouldn't be able to arrest or serve you for MIP and not your parents either.

[Icehand Gino]

18 for recreational use, no minimum age if needed for medical purposes.

[SWE]

18 for recreational use, no minimum age if needed for medical purposes.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It should be the same as whatever the drinking age is, and I believe the drinking age should be 18.

[morgieb]

It should be the same as whatever the drinking age is, and I believe the drinking age should be 18.

[LeBron]

6 people believe kids under 13 deserve to smoke marijuana? Sickening.

Marijuana, bar none, should remain illegal for people of all ages. I'm beginning to move to the right on criminalization despite Ohio's decriminalization of it. I feel we're softening too much on enforcement of the federal law even despite SCOTUS already upholding it as the supreme law. Letting dealers get off even easier will allow for continued high rates of distribution of and usage of marijuana with smaller prison sentences and enforcement that would only increase the popularity and sale of marijuana. Plus, little punishment will make teens think it's okay to smoke marijuana and that they can easily get away with it without consequences and will only hurt their health, memory, grades, social life, and well-being by resorting to purchasing other dangerous drugs that they think are also legal. I oppose legalizing medical marijuana for any age to because there are better prescription substitutes to decrease pain and some will just try to get around it and fake an illness to try to get it prescribed to them by their doctor. Not to mention it could still be risky for letting an ill person take marijuana when he/she could just end up abusing it and then there's also the sub sequential "lobbying" problem with medical marijuana.

And a small reminder, for those who say I don't care about "the poor, minorities etc," I know people: neighbors and friends, who smoke marijuana and I don't rat them out to the cops or on-campus security and administrators because for one, I'm generally a nice guy IRL and I would probably become the campus outcast if I did rat on them, but also because I think they can fight their addictions with support before having to resort to alerting authorities. It's not a sin to care about people and helping them out as much as possible.

[RedSLC]

Marijuana, bar none, should remain illegal for people of all ages. I'm beginning to move to the right on criminalization despite Ohio's decriminalization of it. I feel we're softening too much on enforcement of the federal law even despite SCOTUS already upholding it as the supreme law. Letting dealers get off even easier will allow for continued high rates of distribution of and usage of marijuana with smaller prison sentences and enforcement that would only increase the popularity and sale of marijuana. Plus, little punishment will make teens think it's okay to smoke marijuana and that they can easily get away with it without consequences and will only hurt their health, memory, grades, social life, and well-being by resorting to purchasing other dangerous drugs that they think are also legal.

Throwing kids in jail for using marijuana and giving them criminal records that can follow them for the rest of their lives, give them the mindset of a criminal, and make it harder to find meaningful employment has done far more damage to young people's lives than marijuana itself ever has.

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1. Many substitutes, but many more dangerous. For example, one of my friends has been prescribed codeine (an opiod) to treat back pain, and while it is effective, it can also have unpleasant side effects if dependence is developed. Marijuana, with no chance of overdose, and lower dependence liability, would be a much better alternative.

2. Just have doctors verify any illnesses. Not to mention this wouldn't even be an issue if marijuana was fully legal.

3. Marijauna =/= vicodin

4. What "lobbying" problem?

[RedSLC]

Oh, and as for my own stance, no age limit for consumption, 16 for purchase.

[Franzl]

Equal to the minimum to purchase beer/wine, so 16 here.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I don't know enough about the science of marijuana use and adolescent brain development to give an informed answer to this question.

Neither did Jean Piaget, but that didn't stop him from becoming famous and providing a great deal of misinformation to a generation of psychologists.

What did Piaget have to say about marijuana?

[Ebowed]

18 for purchase.  I don't think it would be a good idea to criminalise youths for consumption.

[TNF]

16

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

I'll say 18, if only because there are scientifically-proven effects that marijuana has on adolescent minds (albeit less so than alcohol and certainly less so than "hard" drugs). No minimum age if needed medicinally.

[Supersonic]

Preferably illegal, but if it did happen, 21.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

18

[free my dawg]

Not to mention it could still be risky for letting an ill person take marijuana when he/she could just end up abusing it and then there's also the sub sequential "lobbying" problem with medical marijuana.

Yeah, this isn't going to happen. The police lobby killed home growth in my state. Hassan used to support a bill with a  home growth provision as a state senator, but the anti-drug lobby persuaded her to drop a weaker home growth provision last year.

Trust me, there is no such thing as a powerful drug lobby, as long as you have the anti-drug brigade bribing our officials.

[angus]

What did Piaget have to say about marijuana?

Well, for starters he felt like the frontal lobe was pretty much developed by the age of 12.  Nowadays 25 is the more commonly cited age for full development.  

Nowadays there are many studies you can read about the effect of marijuana and alcohol on developing brains.  Piaget didn't have that luxury.  

I actually voted for 18 as well, but it's pretty arbitrary.  Whether most kids at that age are really ready to vote, drive, drink booze, smoke pot, or make war is something I'm not sure about, but it seems to be ingrained in our society that this is the age of consent so that's what I chose in this poll.  Same as I selected in the drinking age poll last December.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

4. What "lobbying" problem?

I'm guessing he's referring to the fact that if medical marijuana is legally sold then there's now a bunch of legal marijuana dealers who can set up lobbying for further decriminalization the same way all business groups have lobbies now.

The fact that the medical marijuana groups actually opposed full legalization in every state that's voted on it so far has obviously not been taken into account.

[angus]

The fact that the medical marijuana groups actually opposed full legalization in every state that's voted on it so far has obviously not been taken into account.

It has been taken into account plenty by journalists.  In fact, a number of stories have been written about the fact that the marijuana growers associations in California are some of the biggest opponents of legalization.  I can remember such stories appearing for at least four years (and my memory is pretty bad, with all the weed that I smoked as a high school student, so they have probably been around much longer.)