Cracked: 5 Pro-Marijuana Arguments That Aren't Helping

[GhostofSparta]

5 Pro-Marijuana Arguments That Aren't Helping

I have a lot of friends and family who smoke pot, and the majority of them are pretty vocal about wanting it legalized. Let me make perfectly clear right off the bat that I'm not coming at this as an "anti-pot" guy because I personally don't give a **** if they legalize it, and it doesn't bother me that people smoke. I've done my share of illegal substances.

But goddamn are pot advocates some of the most annoying ****ing people on the planet. I'm not talking about the average Joe who just wishes it were legal. Hell, those people are inching into the majority and comprise a significant portion of our own audience. I'm talking about the people who push it so hard that they're just short of going door to door, like Mormons. And they get so aggressive and misguided in their arguments that I'm pretty sure that they are their own worst enemy at this point.

Getty

I take this guy totally, 100% seriously.

I'm at the stage where I cringe every time I hear...

#5. Taxing it Will Save the Economy!

This one seems to be the dominant argument ever since the economy went to ****. "Legalize it and tax it! With all the money we'll save from enforcement and all the tax money we'll take in, it'll balance the budget!" And no, I'm not exaggerating the claims -- here's one of the more articulate articles that literally says marijuana would "save the economy."

...

Read more: 5 Pro-Marijuana Arguments That Aren't Helping | Cracked.com http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-pro-marijuana-arguments-that-arent-helping/#ixzz1RZhtdAOc

Because marijuana comes up in about 1 out of every 3 threads, I think this article plenty of links for future reference. Also, I know this could be a fun thread so why not?

[thebluefood]

This is gonna get ugly, isn't it?

[GhostofSparta]

This is gonna get ugly, isn't it?

:fingersx:

[Special K]

I hear these arguments every ****ing day from my husband when he asks me about work and I tell him how many shady-ass marijuana dispensaries and warehouses I got sent to and how much I'm sick of this ****.

This article is pretty hilarious and contains many of the counter arguments I always bring up. The FDA can't even comprehensively cover legal tobacco products and all these new legal designer drugs popping up in your local 7-Eleven. Legalization is going to be a complete cluster**** to deal with. This whole "it'll make things easier" argument is bullcrap.

[thebluefood]

I'm an advocate of pot legalization just on principal. If people want to kill themselves with coke or pot or booze or heroin, that's their business, not mine and certainly not the government. A lot of pro-pot folks are pretty annoying, though.

[s0crates]

I read this on Cracked.com yesterday. You do hear these arguments a lot, and some of them are pretty silly.

Here is a better argument for legalization: The criminalization of marijuana is a lot like the prohibition of alcohol, which history tells us was a law that did not work.

I know this is from a comedy site, but I would like to see an honest cost-benefit analysis of marijuana prohibition, not a bunch of easily refuted arguments (you know, straw-men).

EDIT: Speaking of cost-benefit analysis, look at what this DA said.

[Springfield]

#5. Taxing it Will Save the Economy!

It won't save the economy... no way no how. I agree. It will certainly ease many areas and create more jobs requiring more taxes. A magic bullet? No. Will it help? Yes.

#4. We Need it for Cancer Patients! And to Make Paper!

Nope, we sure don't. We have oxycontin and other LEGAL drugs for that. That said... if I found out that I had some sort of terminal cancer, I would be toking every hour of every day and not giving a **** what the law says.

#3. It's Good for You!

Of course it isn't. Neither is eating McDonalds every day and living a sedentary lifestyle. Not being good for you isn't a reason to make any substance illegal.

This statement rang true with me:

It's being found more and more that modern pot can actually cause panic attacks

The above is the exact reason why I quit smoking weed. I had panic attacks and not the kind where you think the cops are coming. I had the type of panic attacks where I thought I would die of a heard attack... note the following.

Right after smoking, the average heart rate increases between 20% to 100%, and that effect can last up to three hours -- your risk of heart attack shoots up fivefold within the first hour of using.

All that said; After smoking every day for over five years I quit cold turkey, had no negative side effects, have not had any sort of relapse.

#2. Alcohol and Tobacco are Worse, and They're Legal!

Yep. As a user of all three at points in my life, I can agree with this statement. I have said before and still maintain to this day that if I ever become a bona fide alcoholic... I will turn to weed as my vice.

#1. It's not Addictive!

No... it's not. Don't be a dummy.

People have "addictive personalities". You have a higher risk of being addicted to video games or gambling than you do of being addicted to marijuana. Someone who becomes addicted to mary jane will become addicted to twiddling his thumbs if he does it enough.

[fullnelson9999]

Best song ever.

OurGZr5EGLY

[dreamshatterer]

Cocaine is a hel.....oops, wrong thread.

[zoony]

I hear these arguments every ****ing day from my husband when he asks me about work and I tell him how many shady-ass marijuana dispensaries and warehouses I got sent to and how much I'm sick of this ****.

This article is pretty hilarious and contains many of the counter arguments I always bring up. The FDA can't even comprehensively cover legal tobacco products and all these new legal designer drugs popping up in your local 7-Eleven. Legalization is going to be a complete cluster**** to deal with. This whole "it'll make things easier" argument is bullcrap.

I love the newsreel footage of those places that are used as a backdrop by TV news networks whenever they're discussing the issue.

Of course it's essentially a medicine dispensary, so you'd expect to see sick people. Nope. It's 30 year old men with Phish T-shirts. Sick my ass.

---------- Post added July-9th-2011 at 10:29 AM ----------

I'm an advocate of pot legalization just on principal. If people want to kill themselves with coke or pot or booze or heroin, that's their business, not mine and certainly not the government. A lot of pro-pot folks are pretty annoying, though.

great, we'll send you the medical bills.

[Springfield]

I wonder why ACW is conveniently absent from this thread.

[Prosperity]

the best "Argument" for marijuana legalization is for upstanding citizens that use marijuana to not do in such privacy and isolation, so that society at large knows exactly who it is trying to repress

people want to smoke/eat/drink pot because it's a way to socialize and relax without leading to a hangover or loss of motor skills

there are side benefits as well, and on balance legalization of marijuana is a no-brainer, it's only a matter of timing and logistics

---------- Post added July-9th-2011 at 05:15 PM ----------

I love the newsreel footage of those places that are used as a backdrop by TV news networks whenever they're discussing the issue.

Of course it's essentially a medicine dispensary, so you'd expect to see sick people. Nope. It's 30 year old men with Phish T-shirts. Sick my ass.

I don't disagree with your conclusion (that they're not sick and dying)

but who do you see going to a wallgreens or any other pharmacy? What do sick people even look like? It's not like pharmacies are teeming with lepers or people about to drop dead from plague. When I go to Wallgreens I see middle aged people and old people of every variety

[Going Commando]

Most of the arguments laid out in this article are pretty superficial/addressing straw men. That's to be expected from a website like that.

What's the good reason for making marijuana illegal?

[Special K]

I love the newsreel footage of those places that are used as a backdrop by TV news networks whenever they're discussing the issue.

Of course it's essentially a medicine dispensary, so you'd expect to see sick people. Nope. It's 30 year old men with Phish T-shirts. Sick my ass.

---------- Post added July-9th-2011 at 10:29 AM ----------

great, we'll send you the medical bills.

Seriously, it's ridiculous. I probably get 5-10 inspection assignment a week for these marijuana dispensaries and their warehouses. The whole "medical" excuse is such a sham. Most of the time I walk in and everyone inside and hanging out outside the shops and warehouses are high as hell. It's so bad, I told the state I refuse to take my minors to these places for undercover buys, it's absolutely absurd.

[DarrellsMyHero28]

Seriously, it's ridiculous. I probably get 5-10 inspection assignment a week for these marijuana dispensaries and their warehouses. The whole "medical" excuse is such a sham. Most of the time I walk in and everyone inside and hanging out outside the shops and warehouses are high as hell. It's so bad, I told the state I refuse to take my minors to these places for undercover buys, it's absolutely absurd.

Its sad to hear that. I fully support marijuana legalization but your points are completely valid. Dealing with a country-wide legalization of medical marijuana would be a cluster-**** of epic proportions for the FDA.

[Prosperity]

Its sad to hear that. I fully support marijuana legalization but your points are completely valid. Dealing with a country-wide legalization of medical marijuana would be a cluster-**** of epic proportions for the FDA.

Why? ABC stores aren't a cluster**** for VA

and yes medical marijuana is just disguise for legalizing marijuana. Nothing wrong with that. The politicians get plausible deniability and the country fixes a few more problems.

[Springfield]

What's the good reason for making marijuana illegal?

And that should be the first question anybody ask about making anything illegal. The burden is on the state proving that something should be illegal. Everything should be legal until otherwise decided by a government body. Hell, MDMA was legal for years before kids started abusing it.

So why was marijuana made illegal in the first place? It caused insanity, other social sicknesses and was primarily used by brown people. The first two truths have been proven wrong and the third is not a valid reason to make something illegal. So we have this drug that is illegal for completely unjust reasons.

YOU PEOPLE who think that marijuana should be ILLEGAL need to prove WHY IT SHOULD BE. Marijuana legalization/decriminalization supporters should not need to prove why marijuana should be legal. The law was created on unjust terms, unless you anti-marijuana folks really think it makes people crazy and you hate brown people.

[Hubbs]

The law was created on unjust terms, unless you anti-marijuana folks really think it makes people crazy and you hate brown people.

Oh good, I was hoping someone would bring accusations of racism into the thread.

[AsburySkinsFan]

Most of the arguments laid out in this article are pretty superficial/addressing straw men. That's to be expected from a website like that.

What's the good reason for making marijuana illegal?

So in the future when those same exact arguments are used in threads on this very site (as they all have been at one point or another) I will fully expect you to say condemn those arguments as comedy.

We don't have to have a good argument for making pot illegal...it already is...it's up to you to argue why it should be legal.

[Prosperity]

We don't have to have a good argument for making pot illegal...it already is...it's up to you to argue why it should be legal.

well golly gee mister, I think you done did convinced everybody that pot should stay illegal

glad I came to this thread! what a breakthrough in rhetoric! phew.

[Springfield]

Oh good, I was hoping someone would bring accusations of racism into the thread.

I'm not suggesting that people who don't support legalization are racist. I am suggesting that the outlaw of marijuana was based partially on racial terms.

As Asbury just pointed out above, most people who think marijuana should be illegal use the "it's illegal currently, so therefore it should be illegal" argument. I, for one, do not like the government thinking for me.

Asbury is wrong though, it's not on the legalization movement to prove why pot should be legalized. It's on the government to prove why it should be illegal in the first place. Unless you don't care for that whole "land of the free" and "innocent until proven guilty" mumbo jumbo.

[ACW]

I wonder why ACW is conveniently absent from this thread.

Computer ****ed up, have 2 use wiimote

---------- Post added July-9th-2011 at 08:25 PM ----------

:high5: on the 1st paragraph of 17. also google marijuana illegal

[Hubbs]

I'm not suggesting that people who don't support legalization are racist. I am suggesting that the outlaw of marijuana was based partially on racial terms.

As Asbury just pointed out above, most people who think marijuana should be illegal use the "it's illegal currently, so therefore it should be illegal" argument. I, for one, do not like the government thinking for me.

Asbury is wrong though, it's not on the legalization movement to prove why pot should be legalized. It's on the government to prove why it should be illegal in the first place. Unless you don't care for that whole "land of the free" and "innocent until proven guilty" mumbo jumbo.

Completely agree with you on that one, and I know that marijuana prohibition was enacted in part because of hysteria about it being a drug that black people (and Mexicans, actually) used. Just thought the wording of that part I quoted was, uh... a little aggressive.

[Special K]

YOU PEOPLE who think that marijuana should be ILLEGAL need to prove WHY IT SHOULD BE. Marijuana legalization/decriminalization supporters should not need to prove why marijuana should be legal. The law was created on unjust terms, unless you anti-marijuana folks really think it makes people crazy and you hate brown people.

Is this for real?

[thebluefood]

great, we'll send you the medical bills.

There's a little thing I like to call "personal responsibility." I'm sure all of us here are familiar with it

Furthermore, this is the one thing I don't understand about the whole "anti-narcotics" crowd. You're telling me it's okay to destroy your liver with booze or your lungs with cigarettes...but you can get stoned and kill a few brain cells with pot or mess up your central nervous system with LSD.

The fact of the matter is this: people are going to get high whether you, or the government, like it or not. You can have all the laws you want, you can have all the cops you want, it won't make a bit of difference. People WILL find a way to get high. People have been getting high since the dawn of time. I don't condone it and I don't partake in it. Hell, I don't drink anything stronger than a milkshake; but why must we keep our heads in the sand over this issue.

Do these drugs cause problem? Of course. All vice does to some degree. One of the reasons why I don't drink is because alcoholism runs in my family. Does that mean we're going to stop people from doing it? Well, need I remind you of the rousing success the 18th Amendment was?