The Great Marijuana Debate: Heads vs. Feds

event_name The Great Marijuana Debate: Heads vs. Feds (co-sponsored by CAB)
time 07:00 PM
event_date 03-20-2006
location UCF Student Union
event_brief Support Kristopher Krane, Director of SSDP, as he debates marijuana legalization!
event_detail Come watch the Executive Director of of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, Kristopher Krane, debate the legalization of marijuana against one of the top federal prohibition officials!

NORML@ucf (http://normlucf.com/)

I guess I don't get the point of marijuana legalization. In my opinion it won't bring anything beneficial, and it might as well just stay illegal. If we start legalizing marijuana, we're just making it more palatable to legalize more drugs later, which would give us more problems than we already have.

I mean, look at what happened to Amsterdam when they legalized drugs.

Amsterdam didnt legalize all drugs and most certainly not high quantity drugs. So they have pot and hash cafe's, is that really a problem ? The focus should be on the drugs that cause deaths and addiction to a level that it starts being a disease. For someone to be in prison, wasting tax payers money for having a bag of pot is really quite crazy. When is the last time you saw someone holding up a corner store for their pot addiction, it just doesnt happen. They may steal the food out of your frig but that is about it. Alcohol addiction is violent in many cases and it is legal, taxed and makes a nice little tax bundle lining state's pockets. There is a difference.
I met the police chief of Amsterdam back in 1981. Their focus is on the big drug dealers, they dont care to arrest the small time addicts or dealers. They dont deal with them at all. If you look at the crime rates per capita vs the U.S. there is a big difference, they believe in treatment not prison in Amsterdam. They are way past the U.S. and Canada in their ways of thinking. They even have health plans for prostitutes there in order to stop the spread of disease. Amsterdam is actually a good example of why it does work.

Some good points witchlin, I wish weed was the only drug out there, the world would be a much better place to live in! :)

I might also add, sorry to go on about this, but if you had a relative with terminally ill cancer and they were suffering greatly would you rather they were semi conscience on morphine or happy on pot ? Medicinal pot is helping many terminally ill patients around the world enjoy their last days on earth.
I personally dont smoke pot but I dont see any point in involving it in the equation of the 'drug problem'. The real problem has nothing to do with pot so we need to separate that, stop arresting people for it and get on the to real task at hand and that is the drugs that are destroying families, neighbourhoods and loved ones and find a solution to that. Finding cures for addiction, finding treatments for the harder drug addictions. The legalization of pot will just make solving the real problem easier.

Although I don't personally smoke it, you are so right that its medical uses and benefits are definitely a big plus!!!! I agree totally with what you are saying here. Hey it sounds like Amsterdam has it turned in the right direction!

I dont smoke it either though I have a disease that is listed for getting on the medicinal pot list in Canada. I have considered it but I dont because I have a teenage son with lots of friends and I just dont want him having it in his home.
I heard on the TV today that Queen Victoria of Britian (Victorian times) smoked pot to relieve menstral cramps. She was prescribed that by her doctor. It wasnt illegal then and many doctors prescribed it for relieving pain with out nasty side effects.

The answer is we have to start electing more dopers to Congress. We are never going to get legalization as long as all we put in office are people who don't use drugs.

You put an addict in Congress and I guarantee you he will be voting to legalize the shit.

The answer is we have to start electing more dopers to Congress. We are never going to get legalization as long as all we put in office are people who don't use drugs.

You put an addict in Congress and I guarantee you he will be voting to legalize the shit.

If the US were to legalize Pot, there will be and drastic drop in our economy. It's all a plan to keep America rich and powerful.

Pots not keeping us rich and powerful its the other stuff. You get a good high with a little bit of weed that last a couple hours and the other shit (meth coke whatever never tried) you get what, 5-10 min. and weed is cheaper you can grow it yourself. It was put here when the world was created....so whats the problem

I remember the first time that I suggested to one of my AIDS patients that marijuana might help with the nausea, vomiting, and anorexia he was experiencing. Never in my life would I have thought that someone as straightlaced as me would suggest that. Since that time I have suggested it to more of the chronic/terminally ill patients I have had who were at the end of what they could bear. I am now at the point of: unless you physically harm another person while you are under the influence of a drug - WHO CARES if you want to smoke, pop, shoot up or whatever?! People are harming themselves and others every day with legally prescribed drugs - just like the illegal ones. The illegal ones just make it easier for our government to make more money with less work. Does it really hurt the overall public if someone wants to sit in their house, smoke weed and eat all day? But then again, I feel like it is stupid that suicide is illegal. If you truly want to kill your ownself, you should have that right as long as you don't physicaly harm another person. It is your body.

I agree with what most of you say.. I used to be against smoking weed but I realized that when people say it "makes them stupid" that's just a crutch for them.. Like it's an excuse or something. Medical researchers have never been able to provide proof that pot makes you stupider.. It does affect your brain while you are high but it IS proven to stimulate areas of the brain concerning anxiety and depression. When you do research on it you seem to get alot of "possiblies" and "this isn't medically proven" and things like that when it comes to the health risks. But there are definitely health benefits. The reasons for pot being illegal just don't add up to me. There's something odd about that.. Especially if legal drugs like aspirin kill 500 people in the U.S. every year and alchohol is responsible for over 90,000 people each year in the U.S. alone.. Yeah it is worth questioning In my book..

I. . . .I heard on the TV today that Queen Victoria of Britian (Victorian times) smoked pot to relieve menstral cramps. She was prescribed that by her doctor. It wasnt illegal then and many doctors prescribed it for relieving pain with out nasty side effects.

Sure do wish that was the case today! :hee:I could sure use that for how bad mine get.

Give me a mellow dope head any day over a violent, depressing drunk..........

The government wont legal weed cuz you cant tax it. It can be sold by anyone anywhere and there's nothing they can do about it or it would have already been affective. Not many people go to jail over a lil bit of weed because its harmless. No one EVER has died from weed so it's not dangerous and like someone else said, "You dont hold up a liquor store for it".

My belief is and has remained strong for 35 years, LEGALIZE! Prison population would decrease at least 75 percent. Drug wars would cease to exist. Dealers would be out of work so the fear many people hold of drug dealers' "enticing children" into the world of addiction could be put to rest.Yes, you are still going to have addicts, that has always been but that war must be fought from the inside . The law enforcement center would be free to focus on "violent offenders". The prison could concentrate on "rehabilitation" .
Look at all the uses for Marijuana: medical, hemp rope, clothing, oils, food. It would be a much needed boost to the farming community. Manufacturing would increase, the transportation depts. would be happy. The whole economy would benefit.

No one has ever committed a crime because of being under the influence of Pot. Those people who do go out and screw up and say," I had been smoking a little pot before" are grasping at an excuse for what they did. People just do not become violent because of Marijuana. Again, there is an estimated of over 400 thousand alcohol related deaths a year and I have no idea what the percentage of crimes committed by someone who had been drinking, yet it is legal to drink.

Lilith, I agree with you but to be implemented on more of a decriminalization approach would be more realistic. Also, users would have to keep it in their privacy of their own homes (not whipping out joints on the street or in bars or anything like that). Arn't you feeding the addiction with legalization, some may ask? Yeah, to an extent, depends on who's answering the question. Tell ya what, I'd rather :hee: than drink and smoke cigs.

yea! i agree-- just legalize it!

Lilith, I agree with you but to be implemented on more of a decriminalization approach would be more realistic. Also, users would have to keep it in their privacy of their own homes (not whipping out joints on the street or in bars or anything like that). Arn't you feeding the addiction with legalization, some may ask? Yeah, to an extent, depends on who's answering the question. Tell ya what, I'd rather :hee: than drink and smoke cigs.


YEAH! i hope you dont change your ticker again!

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!:D :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: