Face Off: Should Marijuana be Legalized? No

By Michael McLaurine senior from Louisville, Ky.

Published: Thursday, September 18, 2008

Updated: Tuesday, February 3, 2009

We have all heard the arguments: God made marijuana, man made alcohol - who are you going to trust? Who has ever heard of anyone overdosing on marijuana? It doesn't have any adverse affects on society.

I would argue that these statements are sheer ignorance, in its purest form. Overall the legalization of marijuana (for public use) is something that should not be entertained. Marijuana is a drug. It is a substance that alters the inhibitions of an individual on a level different than alcohol.

With these statements, the next thoughts logically would be alcohol has a much worse affect on individuals than marijuana does, and there are more deaths caused by drinking and driving than there are from toking and driving. I would not be inclined to disagree.

However, the adverse affects on the overall general public are going to be the same if not worse.

So the question remains: why is marijuana bad for society, outside of medicinal use? For medicinal use marijuana has been proven to be an affective tool. For cancer patients and glaucoma patients, it has stimulating effects on the body. But, just like another substance, there are proper and improper uses for said items.

Marijuana is a hallucinogen, whereas alcohol just inhibits an individual from acting coherently. Marijuana has the same affect, but at times you will see things that are not present (i.e. the definition of a hallucinogen).

Also, as the saying goes, marijuana is the gateway drug. With marijuana being the gateway drug, it has the potential to have a downward spiral affect on humanity. If this drug were legalized, how much longer will it be before people begin to say we should legalize ecstasy, opium or even cocaine? If we look at the logical progression, that would send out society into mass hysteria.

This logic is definitely fallible and ostentatious pontification at best; but so would any argument for the legalization of marijuana. Somewhere along the line of our history, law makers made the decision that marijuana was a substance that needed to be illegal, and that its effects would have an adverse effect on society.

Overall people are going to do what they want, legal or not.

Whether they make the decision to drink, smoke or get high, it is a personal choice and there is no amount of evidence that could convince someone otherwise without a personal experience.

Whichever side you stand on with this issue, I would implore you to do your research before making any predisposed judgments, about whether you would like to have marijuana legalized or not.

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Tired of the same lame bs

Wed Jul 22 2009 13:03

"Somewhere along the line of our history, law makers made the decision that marijuana was a substance that needed to be illegal" -- Ever taken the time to look at that point in history? Lawmakers "decided" and feared that marijuana would make minorities, primarily African Americans and Hispanics, behave in improper ways, many of which would not be tasteful to repeat in this forum. Indeed, the "mass hysteria" of which you speak is what led to the prohibition of marijuana in the first place. The prohibition of marijuana is one of the last remaining vestiges of Jim Crow, if you don't believe that just take a look at that time in "our history".

Gateway, shmateway, one of the things you ought to be learning in college is there is a difference between correlation and causation. If you were not so deluded by government propaganda you would see that any correlation between hard drug users and marijuana can be made with alcohol or tobacco. There is no logical progression to legalizing "ecstasy, opium or even cocaine", because unlike those drugs, YOU CAN'T OVERDOSE ON MARIJUANA. Get that? You CAN drink enough alcohol to kill yourself, but YOU CAN'T SMOKE SO MUCH POT THAT YOU OD!!!!!

Stop the insanity. Legalize it. Tax it. Card the buyers.

A POT HEAD!

Tue Jul 21 2009 12:19

you don't stay awake on for days smoking weed like you would doing cocaine or X. yes it does contain a small form of a hallucinogen but you don't see freakin clowns pop out of the wall or anything. you can have a hallucation and not be on anything.

Here read: A hallucination, in the broadest sense, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid, substantial, and located in external objective space. The latter definition distinguishes hallucinations from the related phenomena of dreaming, which does not involve wakefulness; illusion, which involves distorted or misinterpreted real perception; imagery, which does not mimic real perception and is under voluntary control; and pseudohallucination, which does not mimic real perception, but is not under voluntary control.[1] Hallucinations also differ from "delusional perceptions", in which a correctly sensed and interpreted genuine perception is given some additional (and typically bizarre) significance.

Hallucinations can occur in any sensory modality — visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, proprioceptive, equilibrioceptive, nociceptive, and thermoceptive.

A mild form of hallucination is known as a disturbance, and can occur in any of the senses above. These may be things like seeing movement in peripheral vision, or hearing faint noises and voices.

Hypnagogic hallucinations and hypnopompic hallucinations are considered normal phenomena. Hypnagogic hallucinations can occur as one is falling asleep and hypnopompic hallucinations occur when one is waking up.

Hallucinations can also be associated with drug or alcohol use (particularly deliriants), sleep deprivation, psychosis, neurological disorders, and delirium tremens.

gfunk

Tue Apr 14 2009 21:55

its not whats in the drug, it is the infulence of people and the black market around you what makes you do other drugs

Mike

Thu Mar 19 2009 20:16

I strongly disagree that maraijuna is a gateway drug. I belive that the only reason pot is labled a gateway drug is because people are forced to buy it form a drug dealer. Drug dealers are not alway good people and will sometime try to push harder drugs to make a better profit, but if we were to elimenate the dealer, out Culture could come to see maraijuna as a social tool like many american already do

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