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David Hubbard
Abbotsford
Canada

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What changes do you think will result from the legalisation of Marijuana.

Cash strapped governments are looking at a new revenue stream; taxation on the legal sale of Marijuana. Washington and Colorado have lead the way. More are sure to follow. How do you think this will affect society?

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Scott Armstrong 50+
- 0
Mar 11 2013: Legalisation of marijuana is the only sensible way to "deal" with the use of this plant (excuse the pun).

All of the "negative effects" of marijuana use that are inevitably raised by the knee-jerk element in society are best dealt with through the legalisation of it.

I don't believe that the legal status of a drug deters or encourages that many people.
Kate Kielceski
- 0
Mar 11 2013: I believe that legalizing marijuana would have a number of fairly beneficial upsides and also a few drawbacks worth considering as well. I think the legalization would stimulate the economy to some extent. The government could tax it and make money of off people who will continue to smoke whether it is legal or not. Also, costs for punishing people charged with possession will be eliminated. Despite this, one cannot overlook the health problems this could create. Also, people high on marijuana could cause more public disturbances and car accidents. It is difficult to predict the outcome, but I believe overall it would be more beneficial than harmful. I believe marijuana would come to be treated the same way as alcohol. Some people would abuse it, but for many people, it wouldn't be a problem.
edulover learner 10+
- +2
Mar 10 2013: It means people have very good education to pay attention to their health,to know well what is good and what is bad not only in the defintions but also in real life doing.We don't have to build legislation to limite it anymore
- David Hubbard
  - 0
  Mar 10 2013: I suspect that the legislation is there for fear of the bad.
ZX Style 20+
- 0
Mar 10 2013: No i meant gang criminality will reduce after legalisation. That is a good thing, a positive point about legalization.
You say 80% of the drugs users are not addicted? Where did you get this info?
You made this assumption as well, and this assumption fits your agenda doesn't it?

In my teens i was offered some drugs by friends and i tried it.
The experience was okay, but it does not fullfill any purpose to use this on a regularly basis.

And when i take all things overall in account and i think about when i will have kids someday.
You only need one who thinks it's though to try it and become addicted, i'd rather protect them from becoming an addict. Even if this chance is very small.
- Daryl Roche
  - 0
  Mar 11 2013: Protect your children by providing them with real information about those things you believe they need be protected from….ultimately they will have to decide for themselves what risks are worth taking and how best to deal with the consequences….
  - ZX Style 20+
    
    0
    Mar 11 2013: Well every kid gets educated about drugs. In primary and secondary school.
    And my case this education has only encouraged the curiosity for drugs.
    I believe everybody who uses drugs nowadays knows the risks and dangers.
    So education is not the answer either!
Obey No1kinobe 50+
- +1
Mar 9 2013: More tax income.
Less tax going out for jailing pot smokers.
The criminals will find something else to sell.
Maybe a some more people will try it.
Maybe some more people will smoke a bit more.
Maybe a few more stoned drivers.
Maybe a few more people get addicted or a strong habit, neurological damage etc
More people losing their motivation and eating pizza.
I'm not sure why it is treated so differently to alcohol.
Family guy suggested it was about outlawing hemp as a competitor material.
It's not particularly hard to get today.
Personally I don't like it much but no issue with others.
george lockwood 30+
- +1
Mar 9 2013: The illegal drug business is destroying some of our neighboring countries. Just because I am not in favor of its use without medical reasons, doesn't mean that I really care. Why provide a market niche for criminals if we are not serious about stopping the business?
Pabitra Mukhopadhyay 30+
- +1
Mar 9 2013: It depends of the maturity of the society and the Government. Healthwise, Marijuana is better compared to tobacco and alcohol and it has both good and bad effects. If it's health effets are made widely know to everybody and if Government can control profit oriented hypes that market economy indulges in for sale of any product, it is after all an adult choice.
Politically, for US Governments, legalization can save huge loss of revenue, law and order situations involving drug lords and a 'childlike' declaration of war against drug that has cost the country a lot for decades and achieved practically nothing. Marijuana is still among the top three drugs Americans use.
- David Hubbard
  - +1
  Mar 10 2013: The biggest promoter of Marijuana was Uncle Sam, himself. Everybody wanted to try the "devil weed"
Mena Sun
- +1
Mar 9 2013: I have seen people who smoke marijuana and still manage to do well in multiple facets of their life.

That being said, I have also seen individuals who smoke marijuana and completely lose control of their lives. They aren't able to hold down jobs, acquire criminal records, get introduced to other drugs, etc. Some may argue that this is due to the nature of the individual, and not the actual drug. While this may be partially true, I definitely think that the current availability of marijuana is what makes this sort of deterioration possible.

If we take the current availability of marijuana in areas where it is illegal and amp it up by legalizing it, I can only imagine that the number of individuals suffering from the negative effects of marijuana will increase. For every person that can maintain a decent life while smoking marijuana, there will be a handful of people who cannot. And it is because of these people that will suffer from the bad aspects of marijuana, that I think it is the government's responsibility to try and minimize these negative effects as much as possible - by keeping marijuana illegal. But then we have to ask...does this reasoning apply to alcohol or cigarettes? Why would or why wouldn't it?

As far as the economic aspect of this ordeal - governments have found ways to revive the economy without legalizing drugs. There must be another productive way to balance budgets and repay debts besides legalizing & taxing marijuana.
ZX Style 20+
- +1
Mar 9 2013: I live in Holland, where soft-drugs are not legalized but are tolerated (which is different).
Also growing up to five marijuana plants in your backyard is tolerated by authorities.

From my experience i can say that this tolerating or legalization does make it more legitimate for kids to experiment with all kind of soft drugs. Because hey, it's legal and we are young so nobody can't tell us sh*t.
It's easy to see that some kids experimenting with drugs become addicted. These are the same kids who under normal conditions did not dare to try drugs.

On the other hand, legalization or tolerating soft-drugs, does lead to less sideways criminality, like gang assassinations andsoforts.

But nowadays i see a worse development.
Since the last ten years both parents have to work to earn a living.
Their kids are more free in their actions, and parents cannot supervise their kids so much anymore.

As a result i see more Cannabis and marijuana addiction among teens in my community.
While a few years before parents would not allow this addicting behavior.

I think you have to ask yourself before legalizing, are you allowing your own kids to become addicts.
Because that's what it's all about. Somebody is gonna consume the drugs, would you like it that your kids would be the ones?
Zdenek Smith 100+
- 0
Host Associate

Mar 8 2013: I hope and think that this can be a positive development. If the government can regulate Marijuana to ensure that it is relatively safe and not accessible to minors then perhaps we can lower crime rate and income of local and international gangs?

My only concern is whether some individuals will switch to hard drugs afterwards which is the real problem for society.
- David Hubbard
  - +1
  Mar 8 2013: Like marijuana, the real societal problems stem from black market control of these substances. When legitimate manufacturers fill the market demand, all drug use will cease to be a crime and abuse can be adressed as a health care problem, which it is.
- Fritzie Reisner 100+
  - 0
  Host
  
  Mar 9 2013: I think the idea that there is a tendency to move from marijuana to more serious drugs has been discredited, though I am not sufficiently acquainted with this area to provide a citation.
  - Zdenek Smith 100+
    
    0
    Host Associate
    
    Mar 9 2013: It would be interesting to see some serious scientific studies.
    
    What if kids will not be able to distinguish between soft and hard drugs and get hooked on cocaine etc? I think it will be important for the government to ensure kids are adequately protected. Also general public will need to be educated.
    
    ZX Style has an interesting post in this thread...
ted khalid
- +1
Mar 8 2013: Spread of drug addiction in society.

This will lead to the loss of community
- Daryl Roche
  - 0
  Mar 8 2013: Nowhere that has already decriminalized or legalized this substance has that happened. Hanging on to the willful misrepresentation of facts about this and most other drugs will only serve to make them more dangerous.
  - ZX Style 20+
    
    0
    Mar 9 2013: You might be right, that there is no difference in addiction in countries with or without legalization.
    (allthough i sincerely doubt that, looking at the teens from nowadays in my homecountry the Netherlands)
    
    But nevertheless the government give a very bad example by saying:
    He it's okay if you are a drug addict, as long as we earn tax money on you.
    
    The next thing might be the legalization of hard drugs, because why not earning money from the crackheads.
    
    It's not okay for a government to promote the use of drugs by legalizing it.
    - Daryl Roche
      
      0
      
      Mar 9 2013: You have just made the very same assumption and assertion used by the government that any use of an illicit substance is considered, as well as reported as, abuse…..and you have characterized it as addiction. My point is that most, at least 80% or more of the people who use drugs are NOT addicted or otherwise detrimentally affected by their use and yet are characterized as addicts or abusers, often jailed at an enormous expense to the rest of us and basically thrown away. Furthermore I see in your main contribution to this conversation you indicated that "less sideways criminality" like gang assassinations should also be expected if prohibition is lifted. Seriously? Your language wreaks of an agenda based on ideology on the side of prohibition, is based on ignorance and is a position we know is false and unsubstantiated. And I see you've played the "parent, children" card…. how typical. This mentality is best characterized by the expenditure of 100s of billions of dollars in a " war on drugs" resulting in little to no positive effect. It's high time, pun intended, to look carefully and respectfully at this situation and reform accordingly.
  - ZX Style 20+
    
    0
    Mar 10 2013: And we have a saying in our language.
    Prevention is better then curing.
    - Daryl Roche
      
      0
      
      Mar 10 2013: Then would not education be better at prevention than deceit?
Lawren Jones 10+
- +1
Mar 8 2013: What will happen is that RJ Reynolds and Phillip Morris will mass produce marijuana cigarettes at prices the local dealer can't touch, putting to local guy out of business. Then those that want them will buy their marijuana cigarettes down the block at the 7-11.
- David Hubbard
  - 0
  Mar 8 2013: Probably so, although I expect they will be administered like alcohol, with kids left out.
- Zdenek Smith 100+
  - +1
  Host Associate
  
  Mar 8 2013: Isn't it a good idea to put local/national gangs and dealers out of business?
Fritzie Reisner 100+
- 0
Host

Mar 8 2013: There may be different effects immediately than after the novelty has worn off.

Yesterday as I walked up from the school bus I passed a high school boy smoking marijuana on the way to school at 7:30AM, which might have an effect on his school performance in first period.

But what is impossible to know is whether prior to legalization of marijuana, he would have finished it at home rather than in public.

There may be no effect on the extent of use but only on location.
- David Hubbard
  - 0
  Mar 8 2013: Do you think that there will be miore people using it when it is no longerer a crime?
  - Fritzie Reisner 100+
    
    0
    Host
    
    Mar 8 2013: In theory one might predict that. In practice, in the sixties and seventies when marijuana was illegal, I have a feeling it was much more widely used than now. And I think in most places, even where it is illegal "on the books," it has been very low priority for law enforcement.
    - David Hubbard
      
      0
      
      Mar 8 2013: I suspect that the users from the 60's and 70's will get into it again when it's redily available
  - Fritzie Reisner 100+
    
    0
    Host
    
    Mar 8 2013: I checked on wikipedia, which summarized studies of the impact of decriminalization. There doesn't seem to be clearevidence of impact. Of people surveyed in one study as to why they do not use marijuana, only 4% included as a factor that it was illegal.
Robert Galway 30+
- 0
Mar 8 2013: Population increases in each of the states..
Krisztián Pintér 200+
- 0
TED Translator

Mar 8 2013: police will have harder time locking up young black people with no good reason
- David Hubbard
  - 0
  Mar 8 2013: Is that still happening?
  - Gail . 50+
    
    0
    Mar 9 2013: Absolutely yes - in the USA. Though marijuana use is about equal among the races, our prison population for non-violent drug-related offenses is mostly black. (Hispanics are the next highest proportion). With the privatization of prisons, these prisoners become tacit slaves of the states- with their labor being sold for profit to big corporations who also profit from. Private prisons are a mega business unto themselves. They spend millions lobbing in each state for harsher laws and sentencing laws.
    
    "The American prison and jail system is defined by an entrenched racial
    disparity in the population of incarcerated people. The national
    incarceration rate for whites is 412 per 100,000 residents, compared to 2,290
    for African Americans, and 742 for Hispanics.9 These figures mean that 2.3%
    of all African Americans are incarcerated, compared to 0.4% of whites and
    0.7% of Hispanics." (The Sentencing Project)
    
    Arrests for drugs is highest among blacks. Traffic stops are equal, but searches after a traffic stop are exceedingly high for blacks and exceeding low for whites.
    
    Most of America's prison population (60%) is for non-violent drug offenses where no guns were used.
edward long 100+
- 0
Mar 8 2013: I anticipate diminished energy levels and increased snack food sales. Also, probably, some effort on the part of the long- established suppliers to protect their very lucrative income base.
- David Hubbard
  - 0
  Mar 8 2013: The black market will surely take a hit.

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