🚀 go-pugleaf

"Evil Homer" <imnot@home.com> wrote in news:1039825542.863001@news:

> Without getting into a big "Pot is bad" war, may I ask you WHY you
> want Marijuana decriminalized? My understanding is that it will STILL
> be illegal to own, carry, grow, sell, etc, just that it won't be a
> criminal offence. Marijuana for medicinal purposes is not illegal or a
> criminal offence to own. I do not see what the decriminalization will
> do anything? NOTHING will change, except for the fact that it will not
> be a criminal offence. 

I think that "nothing will change" is an overstatement.  If nothing else, 
the cost to society (i.e. my taxes) will drop due to reduced police and 
prison load.  Also, if the street cost of pot is reduced dramatically, then 
any organized crime involving pot will disappear (no money to be made).

> In my opinion, this will increase the amount of marijuana on the
> streets, as people will no longer be fearing a criminal record, but a
> simple charge, not any worse than a speeding ticket?

The U.S. "war on drugs" is rather exemplary here.  They have extreme 
penalties for possesion, and the pot use hasn't dropped a bit.  So, if 
increasing penalties doesn't reduce drug use, why do you believe that 
reducing penalties will increase drug use?

For that matter, complete legalization (in the Netherlands) hasn't 
increased their usage at all.  Other countries have had similar results:
    	http://www.mpp.org/adolescents.html

Another example from history is prohibition.  Making alchohol illegal 
actually increased its usage:
    	http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-157.html

It appears that decriminilization of pot has almost completely beneficial 
effects.  Let's try something that appears to be truly effective 
(legalization), not what we believe *should* work.