That's because we are inhaling small amounts of nicotine and because it is indirect. That's why people aren't getting addicted. People don't receive enough nicotine each moment for the chemical to cause a sensation and most people don't know that they are inhaling it in the first place.

The main active chemical in marijuana is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). The membranes of certain nerve cells in the brain contain protein receptors that bind to THC. Once securely in place, THC kicks off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the high that users experience when they smoke marijuana.

As I said, since it is indirect. There isn't alot of amounts of THC inhaled. However, if drugs became legal. More and more people would start smoking it. More drug dealers would arise and sell more drugs without going to jail. Soon enough, the chemical build up would be enough to cause people to feel its affects INDIRECTLY because of those high amounts of chemicals in the air. THC cause people to be high, with no sense of judgement or direction, that would eventually lead to many deaths.

Read this http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/marijuana.html for the side effects and statistics.

Even medicine has its side-effects, but people know the risks before using it and its their decision. If it doesn't affect other peoples' lives, then so be it. But even medicine can be abused.

drug dealers? what drug dealer sells LEGAL drugs?
i think there would be less dealers. you don't see tobacco dealers, do you?

edit//

i don't know here you live, but in america, the air is already messed up as it is.

Yeah exactly.

That's because THEY MAKE COMPANIES that ISSUE more DRUGS. First, they are drug dealers. Then, when they make enough cash, they would start forming companies that sell marijuana. That's why you dont see tobacco dealers, because they can't distribute enough tobacco as the COMPANIES. Thus, more people would get marijuanna because since its legal like tobacco and alchohol, more people can get their hands on it.



Yes, I do live in America. However, I rather breath air that is full of toxic wastes than air that is full of toxic wastes and THC, nicotine, and other chemicals added to that.

First, a government site isn't reliable when the government is the agency in question of wrongdoing. Second, even if marijuana was so bad for you, enforcing laws against use is infinitely worse. Under civil asset forfeiture, your neighbor can anonymously report you -- and the police can take all your property without a trial. You do not even have the right to a lawyer since technically your property is the thing under arrest. Never mind that the use of forfeiture was a main reason that we overthrew the British. A city or township can enact public ordinances that FINE people for smoking marijuana IN PUBLIC (many cities have similar ordinances against smoking) -- but the choice to do it in the privacy of your own home is yours and yours alone.

But do you realize how much it would boost the economy? Besides, as I said before, it'd be your decision to smoke or not. I mean, dealers aren't going to force you to do drugs. It wouldn't affect you.

kathleen is right.
or maybe the groverment can put TAXES on it. you know how much the grovenment loves taxes.

and if you wondering about what good can pot do (really interesting read), http://www.doitnow.org/pages/124.html




(and don't give that 'not everything on the internet is true!' ****.)

Yes, but if you smoke it. The chemicals get air borne, so basically for those who don't want to inhale it, inhale it anyways.



Medicine gets abused even aspirin. Too much of anything can do more harm than good. Hey if they ever make marijuanna in pills, fine by me, they can use it to their heart's content. However, right now marijuanna is smoked, therefore the chemicals get in the air and into the lungs of others.



Why would they fine you if it was legal? Wouldn't you use it in public more often if it was legalized?

Because people like you would complain because of their lungs.

Yes. Therefore it should be illegal. If it was legal, I don't get why the individuals who use marijuanna would be obligated to pay the fine. Only if it was illegal, then it would make sense.

I think there should be laws against the use of tobacco and even more laws for alchohol. Not alot of people are enforcing that a person shouldn't drive when they are intoxicated with alchohol, it should be regurlarly enforced. Tobacco should be deemed illegal.

All that only happens if you smoke IN PUBLIC. In private -- that is, on your own property -- you should be allowed to smoke whatever you want. If someone breathes the smoke, that's because they chose to come to your property.



No. When somethings is illegal, it means you can't use it. Ever. And if you do, they can put you in jail. However, a township can enact a public air ordinance to prohibits smoking in public. As opposed to a penal law (which has the power to regulate what people do in their own homes and put them in jail), an ordinance doesn't govern people -- it governs land.

When a city passes a law making it so that you can be fined for smoking marijuana in public, it's like if a restaurant makes a rule that you can't smoke in the restaurant -- it's not making something illegal, it's just restricting what you can use on someone else's property (the city or restaurant).



The last time we deemed alcohol illegal, over 10 thousand Americans died every year because of it, while entire cities were head basically at gunpoint by corrupt crime bosses. The same thing is happening (albeit on a smaller scale) with the War on Drugs -- drug lords essentailly own poor inner-city areas, something that didn't happen before drugs were illegal. The same thing would happen with tobacc.

Penal law is designed to punish crime -- i.e. when you actively and intentionally hurt someone else. It's not designed for drugs. After all -- in common notions of justice, the punishment fits the crime (You commit murder, you are murdered, you rob, you pay back your victim). How would you have punishment fit the crime of doing drugs? You do drugs, you force others to do drugs?

A city should have the right to make people pay a fine for using marijuana IN PUBLIC -- but it is their own right to use it in private. By making a drug illegal, you are interferring with people's civil right to their own body, and their property right to do what they want ON THEIR OWN PROPERTY.

A local ordinance that puts a fine on public drunkenness is not the same as a national law abolishing alcohol. Similarly, I have no problem with a city deciding to not allow marijuana use on city property -- public roads, parks, etc.

It all comes down to property rights -- If you don't want someone to do drugs on your property, then don't let them. But you don't have the right to tell someone what they can do on THEIR property -- which is the key difference.

Thanks for explaining that to me Comrade Red.

Anyways, I have a question in what you said.



Yet, if they smoked marijuanna whether in public or in their property, the chemicals would still be in the air. Chemicals can travel in the air around the world. Wouldn't their actions cause interferrence of other's civil rights to their bodies? Like I said, if they made marijuanna in pills, then fine, they can use it to their heart's content.

Also, I do agree with you in what will happen if we outlawed the drugs and alchohol yet informing people that it is illegal might restrain some from using them more often or ever trying it.

Even though alchohol doesn't affect others' bodies, I just a law that states a person shouldn't drive when intoxicated with alchohol.

All research and successful drug policy show
That treatment should be increased,
And law enforcement decreased,
While abolishing mandatory minimum sentences.

i think it should be legalized // hey if you wanna screw up your life, then go ahead...and plus isnt it used for medicine too?

I never tried it and I have no intentions in doing so.

of course marijuana should be illegal. it's addictive and it's a drug that effects your body physically and mentally.

Making marijuana legal will just end up legalizing cocaine, heroin, etc. All the bad stuff.

So? All the "bad stuff" was legal until the 60s, and we have a greater drug (and poverty, and crime, and human rights, etc.) problem now.

If you are against, drugs, don't use them.

Exactly. Don't use them, just like people who don't drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes/cigars.

Took the words outta my mouth.

But doesn't marijuana do brain damage whereas cigarretes don't?

do you think pot should be legal? No, all drugs should be illegalized.
if yes, what good will come out of it? Medical purposes?
do you approve people using it? Not if it's someone I care about.
have you ever tried it? No

I strongly think pot should be legal...what good will come out of it? Well, people wouldn't have to "sneak" around to do it so much more and it should be your choice to do what you want and especially..it is a plant. Most of the population has or does do(ne) marijuana. Do i approve of people using it? Yes as long as they don't abuse it. Have I ever tried it? Yes

if it were legalized true ther wud be less pressure and free up a lot of jail cells, but then it threatens other people because once its legalized, it'll be easy to access n ther be a lot of it on the streets. they wud need a whole new way to sell this drugs, because its too dangerous to jus sit ther and sell it like a normal store uno? a bunch of hardcore potheads come up tear up the dealer n steal it ya kno?

There is a lot of Alcohol and cigarettes "on the streets". How often to nicotine addicts take their shotgun, break into 7-11 and steal their cigarettes? Why is it too dangerous to sell in a store?

In the 1920s and 1930s, when we abolished alcohol, a popular substitute was Heroin -- and Heroin was sold in stores, with NO PROBLEM whatsoever -- certainly Heroin is more dangerous than weed?

heroin is more dangerous than weed. weed cant kill you short of an allergic reaction. when weed is laced with something else it becomes a different story. Pot should be legal. They should print surgeon generals warnings on the packages too.

Think how great it would be to smoke pot on your front porch without narcs raiding the place finding the bricks stacked high in the back. damn that was hard to explain.

marijuana??? iz it legal??? now thatz one DUMB @$$ ? if u ask me evn tho u dydnt ... 1, itz a drug, 2 itz a drug yea, that can kill u, 3, in-fact NE drug can kill u!! n marijuana iz one uv them.. it can get u high.. read thys short poem::

jack n jill went up the hill
to fetch sum marijuana
jack got high unzipped hiz fly
n sed "do u wunna?"
jill sed yes n dropped her dress
n then they had sum fun
but silly jill 4got the pill
9 monthz l8r they had a son!!

C? it can get u high n then make u do wacko stuff that can cauz u to 'do it' lol n then have a babii afterwardz... SO I THYNK IT IZ ILLEGAL!!! WHICH IT IZ ALREADI!!!!

Ashlyn

XANGA

We're asking if Marijuana SHOULD be legal, not whether it is.

Here's another poem for you:
Jack n Jill went up the hill
and their friend Bob used some marijuana
The DEA found out, raided Jack and Jill's house,
And said "we're going to take all your property",
Jill said no and tried to run,
but the DEA agents gunned her down,
And silly Jack thought he had rights,
so he was shot to death too.

--The sad truth is that my poem reflects real life better than yours... Enforcing laws against drugs does more harm than drugs could ever do.

You would have to smoke A LOT of marijuana for it to kill you. And I mean A LOT. Like an impossible amount. You would have to be smoking all day.

thatz tru but then agen evn if u smoke it once or twice it iz styll affectin u in sum wai...

Ashlyn

And it affects you more if you are thrown in jail for ten years than if you smoked a few joints of marijuana.

When someone hurts himself, it is unfair to punish him ... after all that will just hurt him more.

hell no legal naw legal marijuana is called an epidemic because that is what it would become

LP Warning: Smoking is healthier than Fascism.

This has been a public service announcement.