Marijuana

[Wesley]

I don't smoke it, eat the brownies, drink the bong water, any of that. I have friends that do, and they are not the irresponsible dregs of society that you are led to think. Here is a very nice article by former President Jimmy Carter. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/opinion/17carter.html He is a smart fellow. If he ran for President again, I would vote for him.

Anyway, what do you think? Abuse of any substance should still be considered illegal in certain situations, but possession of small amounts would carry only a warning or minor citation. I am okay with this. Treat pot like anything else... you can't drink on the job, so you can't smoke up on the job. No drinking and driving, no smoking and driving.

Let the debate commence!

[Clovvach]

Well let's look at these facts. Alcohol is more dangerous than Marijuana, but it's legal to drink, just as long as you are doing it responsibly. So wouldn't it make since to make it legal to smoke responsibly? I'm OK with the legalization of marijuana. Plus weather or not it's illegal isn't stopping the people who do it already, so yah.

[Wesley]

You need to qualify those "Facts." Safer how? I am not disagreeing with you, just pointing out that in a debate you need facts to go with your facts, not just opinion and supposition.

Here is an example: Studies have shown that alcohol slows reaction time to all types of external stimuli. This is the reason for the laws against drinking and driving. Marijuana has been shown to increase ocular fixation, or staring at one object. This could also prevent the safe use of a motor vehicle. In this scenario, driving while under the influence of either alcohol or marijuana should be equally illegal.

[chex]

Anyway, what do you think? Abuse of any substance should still be considered illegal in certain situations, but possession of small amounts would carry only a warning or minor citation. I am okay with this. Treat pot like anything else... you can't drink on the job, so you can't smoke up on the job. No drinking and driving, no smoking and driving.

Yep.

That was my argument when Mr. chex and I were debating this a while back. He said that it wouldn't work because of drug testing, and that the tests only show if you have drugs in your system or not, as opposed to what the specific drug is. Now, I haven't read much on drug testing, but I'm fairly certain the test itself doesn't know which substances are legal and which aren't, and since I haven't herd of people getting fired for nicotine or caffeine usage, or for having legal medications, (prescription or over-the-counter) I'm willing to bet that Mr. chex was full of shazam!, and making things up, since he has nothing to fall back on in that debate other than "I hate druggies."

Marijuana also has medicinal properties. I HAVE heard of an employee being fired for using medicinal marijuana (with a prescription) even though he wasn't stoned at work.

[Wesley]

i feel that the current laws are unfairly and unnecessarily harsh with regards to casual drug usage. I say make the stuff legal, or at least slightly more legal than it is now, but still allow businesses to do drug tests at work. If I can't flip burgers while drunk, then I should not be allowed to flip burgers while stoned.

[chex]

Exactly. I hate the argument that people would be coming into work stoned, so it shouldn't be legalized.

And hey, if it's legalized, it can be controlled more easily, so you aren't getting it laced with something else.

[LaLou]

A few years back, actually quite a few, (20) I worked in a medical lab. And they did have tests to specify which drugs were in a persons system. So mr. Chex is wrong on that one.