have you ever used marijuana? / do you think it should be legal?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     No/yes. I don't see any good reason marijuana should be illegal.

[exopolitician]

Yes/Yes.

[King]

Yes/Yes

I believe legalization with preventive taxation for narcotics (1,000,000% sales tax on heroin!) would be a far superior anti-drug system than attempts to ban everything.  It sounds a little nanny statist, but being able to track the sales of these products and who uses them would be much more worthwhile.

[NDN]

My one qualm with legalizing marijuana is that it really does seem to make people more lazy and prone to stupidity. I really don't want a nation of potheads. On the other hand a lot of the people who regularly get 'blazed' act pretty stupid to begin with.

[Reluctant Republican]

No/Yes.

I was around people using it once. That’s not using it, of course, but the buzz at least really relaxes you, got me loose.  I was laughing like a hyena and “man” was every other word out of my mouth. That was a great evening. That said, I heard it makes a lot of people’s paranoia worse, so I’m somewhat reluctant to experiment with it in case I go totally over the edge. But I of course favor legalizing it, along with most other drugs.

[J. J.]

Nope, I've never used the stuff. Don't want to, either.

But I think it should be legal. It's ridiculous the amount of police resources that are drained in the pursuit of making pot difficult to get. There are lots of genuinely sick bastards out there who deserve to rot in prison, but they're still free cause the police are busy chasing some guy with a joint. Not only that, arresting people for marijuana possession overcrowds our prisons. So the genuinely sick bastards who are already in prison get early parole in order to make room for the new detainees. The now-free sick bastards are free to offend again, and ruin honest peoples' lives.

Not to mention, the biggest reason I think it should be legal is for medical purposes. Someone who is writhing in pain, isn't it cruel to deny him something that will alleviate his condition?

Also, aren't morphine and codeine opiates? Why are they legal but marijuana is a federal offense?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Never tried it either.

[Person Man]

Yes, today / Yes.

I haven't since I visited my stoner brother's house before school.

[The Mikado]

No/leave it up to the states. 

Of course, "Leave it up to the states," is my default answer when asked about issues I don't care about.

[NDN]

No/leave it up to the states. 

Of course, "Leave it up to the states," is my default answer when asked about issues I don't care about.

Of course in practice that's how it would be. But really, the federal government's overall 'War on Drugs' is a pretty obvious failure. It amazes me that so many voters on both sides of the aisle still fall for it. Then again most wars on abstract concepts tend to not go so well.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

No/No

Last thing I want is people being able to do it all the time and act like idiots. Then they'll give and endanger people. I agree that decriminalizing it in small amounts is alright, but not making it as accessible as tobacco.

[NDN]

Yeah, but they already do that. At pretty reasonable prices too, believe me I've seen how easy it is for people to get that crap. At least we'd be able to tax and regulate some of it in addition to freeing up prison space.

[riceowl]

no. sure.

[Jake]

Yeah/Yeah

[Keystone Phil]

No/No

[Sbane]

But I think it should be legal. It's ridiculous the amount of police resources that are drained in the pursuit of making pot difficult to get. There are lots of genuinely sick bastards out there who deserve to rot in prison, but they're still free cause the police are busy chasing some guy with a joint. Not only that, arresting people for marijuana possession overcrowds our prisons. So the genuinely sick bastards who are already in prison get early parole in order to make room for the new detainees. The now-free sick bastards are free to offend again, and ruin honest peoples' lives.

Not to mention, the biggest reason I think it should be legal is for medical purposes. Someone who is writhing in pain, isn't it cruel to deny him something that will alleviate his condition?

Also, aren't morphine and codeine opiates? Why are they legal but marijuana is a federal offense?

^^^

I have tried it and prefer it over alcohol.

[tik 🪀✨]

Yes/Yes

Pot is mostly harmless, but that's besides the point. A person's body is to be sacrosanct to the state. While it's easy to say that the state has an incentive to promote wellness and standards for health, someone's body is their most intimate personal property and is under their own authority. The ONLY contention I see in this issue, and ones like it, is at what point is a person's body to be considered under their own authority. That is to say, when are they no longer juveniles and are of sound mind to make their own judgments?

I personally do not smoke pot anymore as I eventually developed a beyond poor relationship with its effects and the people I love most told me they didn't like how I acted while using it. I still have plenty of friends who indulge on occasion, but that's their own choice and I completely respect it.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

No/Yes

[minionofmidas]

That said, I heard it makes a lot of people’s paranoia worse, so I’m somewhat reluctant to experiment with it in case I go totally over the edge.

Ah, cue.

Basically everybody actually working in the field says loads of heavy schizophreniacs self-medicate with marijuana, which does them good in the short run (but not the long run. They disagree on whether a strong marijuana habit actually makes things worse in the long run, or whether it just ceases to work at some point), and led to the misconception, based on the large numbers of schizophreniacs with marijuana habits that doctors encountered from the 70s on, that the drug might be causing the madness.

[phk]

No/Yes.

I personally do not approve of using Marijuana at all, except for medical reasons. In fact I have a pretty visceral hatred towards it. I can not emphasize how much I despise stoner culture, or the smell, or almost everything else associated with it. It's a generally very low class thing to do, period.

However, the reality is that most arguments against marijuana apply equally (if not more so) to tobacco and alcohol. Given that plus all the money, prison space, etc. spent on this as opposed to other more pressing crimes it seems pretty obvious that it's not worth it. Not to mention everything I've read indicates that marijuana use is far more common now than prior to the ban.

This

[AndrewTX]

Yes/No.

 Shouldn't be legal, except for medical purposes.

[Reaganfan]

NO/NO

I hate illegal drugs and believe in harsh penalties for those who use them

[Torie]

Yes/No. Just because you think the weed should be illegal, does not mean favoring the penalty being jail for its use.

[Sbane]

Yes/No. Just because you think the weed should be illegal, does not mean favoring the penalty being jail for its use.

The only problem with it is that you aren't taking the criminal element out of it, unless you decriminalize selling it as well. This drug war is probably the best thing that's ever happened for the criminals in society.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I have used it.  And I do think it should probably be legal.

Though I do have concerns about long-term, heavy use of marijuana.  I know a couple people who smoke extensively, and their brains are pretty much fried whether they're high or not—it's kinda hard to tell the difference anymore.

Plus, the crippling paranoia can be a bitch.

[© tweed]

for the yes/no people: what punishment do you think should be levied on you by the state?