You guys know that I don’t like to get too political on this blog, whichever one I’m writing for now. Oh, it’s my own. Awesome then. You guys don’t come here for my opinion on politics, and I don’t go to other finance blogs for their opinions of politics either. I am so sick of hearing about how awesome Ron Paul is. Seriously, the dude looks like a troll. He lives under a bridge. You’re living in a fantasy world if you think anybody is going to vote for that dude. Look at him. Nobody is going to vote for a man that ugly. Why do you think Hilary Clinton couldn’t get past the primaries?
Wait. Okay Nelson, just breathe. Don’t get too excited about this.
Anyway, I want to touch on an issue today that’s been eating at me since I caught a couple episodes of Drugs Inc. over on the National Geographic channel. And the more I think about it, the more it makes sense, at least in my head.
We should legalize marijuana.
How do I feel about pot? Quite frankly, I’ve never smoked the stuff, and don’t ever foresee any desire to do so. I think that anybody who uses drugs should really rethink that decision, unless it helps to relieve chronic pain. They’re called intoxicants for a reason – it stems from the root word toxic. Anybody who uses drugs (or alcohol for that matter) as a method to forget about their problems is nothing but a moron. You don’t forget, you only avoid. And avoiding problems only serves to compound them.
However, I do post all my scheduled posts at 4:20am, mostly because the fact there’s a time associated with smoking weed amuses the hell out of me. What happens if potheads are working at 4:20?!?!?!?!? Wait, don’t answer that. I don’t care to know.
However, I’m fighting a losing battle. In my very limited experience with marijuana, I am definitely in the minority when it comes to passing up a toke. I’ve witnessed all sorts of people who I’d never expect take a puff on a joint, usually after they’ve been drinking. All sorts of people regularly smoke pot, most of which also manage to hold jobs and be contributing members of society.
Unfortunately for most pro-pot advocates, they shoot themselves in the foot with many of their arguments for legalization. A popular one is that pot is less dangerous than alcohol – an argument that’s just plain stupid. First off, that’s like saying being shoved into a clean puddle is better than being shoved in a dirty one. You’re still wet, no matter what. And secondly, arguing that weed is less dangerous than alcohol is a pretty poor argument that’s it’s harmless.
Alcohol is directly responsible for traffic fatalities, domestic violence, all sorts of relationships breaking up, and the turning of many nice young women into promiscuous sluts, among all sorts of other bad things. I know more than one young woman who became pregnant because of a drunken hookup gone wrong. So to argue that pot is less dangerous than alcohol is pretty stupid. But, what can you expect from somebody who cares mostly about getting high?
Last time I checked, you could go into a store and buy alcohol and smokes (well, separate stores, at least in most of Canada) two things that anyone with a brain would argue are bad for you. Governments are addicted to the sin taxes generated from the sale of these vices. Until we pass a fat tax, finding a way to legalize and tax the sale of marijuana could generate billions of dollars in revenue, and take at least some of that money away from organized crime. It can take a illegal business at legitimize it, creating some jobs in the process.
In Canada and more famously California, pot is already legal for medical purposes. And I guarantee you people are gaming the system so they can smoke their precious pot without fear of reprimand. With unnecessarily tough marijuana laws filling our prisons, legalizing pot can allow us to reallocate police resources that would be better used elsewhere – like catching the guys who do hard drugs. Or pulling over guys who have a burnt out headlight. You know, the real bad-asses.
People often cite a reason against legalizing wacky tabaccy is the so-called “cool” factor. Smoking weed is presented as a ticket into the cool club, at least by youth centered pop culture. But if it’ll do anything, legalizing weed will make it comparatively less cool. One of the reason kids smoke weed is because every puff is rebelling against adults. Their parents don’t want them to smoke weed, so that’s exactly that they’re going to do. If you legalize it, some of that rebellion automatically goes away.
If you’re the kind of person who enjoys partaking in smoking a little weed, chances are I’m not going to want to hang out with you. But that shouldn’t make you a criminal. Let’s just legalize it already. It’s really not that bad. But still, don’t offer me any. Or talk to me while you’re high. Hell, just stay away from me in general.
I’m pretty sure the stoners are smoking at 4:20pm, not 4:20am. At 4:20am, they’re most likely sleeping or stealing frozen burritos from 7-11.
Ooooh! You just took all the jarbled thoughts I had about pot and put them in this post. If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s potheads/people who are high being around me. I never know what to say or how to react. It’s even worse if I know the person beforehand — seeing their personality change is disturbing and a total turn-off for me wanting to be associated with that person.
I think it should be legalized only because controlling it is a lost cause.
I was watching some drug war thing on TV about the drug war at the US/Mexico border. It was funny, really. There seems to be a lack of understanding for even the most basic economic realities.
If you decrease the supply of marijuana that travels over the border, and supply stays constant, then prices rise. Rising prices (and thickening dealer margins) only give further incentive for new people to bring drugs across the border. Thus, endless cycle. Every time smuggled drugs are confiscated, prices rise to a proportional degree (assuming marijuana demand is relatively inelastic, which I think it probably is.) Hard drugs have an even more inelastic demand curve due to addiction.
Frankly, I’m of the mind that we should legalize everything from the hardest drugs to the “softest.” Most of the negative externalities stemming from drugs – theft, violence, and criminal elements – result primarily from the fact these drugs are illegal. If drugs were legal, no one would need to steal to pay for them – drug prices are only high because of the limited supply and risk in selling them. (Corn is $7 a bushel, and the most expensive marijuana is like…what, $4-600 an ounce?) Likewise, there’s no reason to believe the drugs inherently produce violence between suppliers. If this were true, we should expect a violent Target-Walmart turf war to begin any time now.
The most annoying thing about drugs is how adamant people are about promoting them as the amazing cure-all for everything. The best of which is the argument that somehow taxes from the regulated sale of drugs would fix the US deficit. You’d have to be high to screw up your addition and subtraction so terribly.
Drugs are a cure for very little. But making drugs illegal does little to solve the problem. There’s two options, in my view – kill people for drug use, or make drugs legal. I’m sure most people would object to the idea that you can kill someone for the choices they make about their own body. The only option remaining then is to legalize drugs in their entirety.
I think weed is no different than cigarettes and we allow those. They are both bad for your health and if you want to smoke them you will find a way regardless of what anyone says or whatever rules are in place. It is a lost cause like JT said.
I’ll actually argue that weed IS significantly less dangerous than alcohol. The related health effects associated with weed are way less severe than the effects of pot and alcohol. And the inebriation effects of smoking it are similar to drinking alcohol, if not less so. Beyond that, I’ve never heard of anyone getting really high, and then going home to punch a girlfriend or kid, when such a thing is not uncommon with alcohol. I’m not necessarily arguing for or against the use of any of these substances, but just that it doesn’t make much sense to me that weed is treated differently from alcohol and cigarettes.
A few other reasons that it should be legalized, that you didn’t touch on:
- The consumption of pot would become much safer, if legalized, because the manufacturers and the government could regulate and control what went in it.
- It would go a long way to making sure younger kids don’t smoke it (throughout my entire teenage years it was easier to get pot and alcohol than it was cigarettes)
- It would eliminate the safety concern for those who are buying it, and get rid of any possibility of some young kid buying pot from a sketchy guy at 3 a.m.
- If it’s legal, the government would have more reason to promote anti- or safe-smoking campaigns. (For instance, I know a few people who think nothing of getting high and driving. SO not cool. But I feel like most don’t realize this is similar to drinking and driving.)
Just some food for thought.
And for the record, I’ve never smoked a day in my life, though I think nothing ill of those who do smoke weed occasionally. Like I said, I consider it no different from cigarettes and alcohol.
MJNA for the win! (stock picking competition run by Nelson – MJNA is my ace in the hole)
I can’t say I agree with the entire post this time Nelson. I know folks who smoke some weed and they’re nothing like the bumbling, obnoxious idiots they can be while drinking. Yes, the mind is altered when doin’ the green – but no where near the same as those who drink their faces off.I agree with a lot of JTs and Melissa’s comments ++ our government could tax the crap out of the product – much like booze and tobacco. Good way to reduce the deficit and work toward reducing national debt. We accept so much tax in Canada (blindly) this is a great revenue stream. I’ve seen the prices for booze and smokes in the US and we pay, easily, 30% more for the same pack or bottle across the border. Miss T brings up a good point about health risk issues. However, if the weed was produced w/o chemical additives (likely? I’m not sure) like cigs have, a lot of the poisons in smokes wouldn’t be applicable to the wacky smokes. Yes, there is tar and damage that can occur to the throat and lungs – but if the product is just the weed, not the arsenic and cyanide we hear are in cigs – it can’t be in the same league for health issues IMO.I do find it interesting the other commentators haven’t smoked pot and that folks who might have not responded … out of fear, perhaps? This internet thingy seems to be forever. Feel free to email me if you care about my history at all.
Lastly, B&E are dead right. The stoner is out cold @ 4:20am. They won’t be reading your articles at that time Nelson. Get to know a stoner, you’ll learn
Great article – enough for me to almost create a full post just responding to the other comments!
OK – the editing of that comment is meant to have a lot of paragraph breaks. Please break it up, and delete this
Cheers
So to argue that pot is less dangerous than alcohol is pretty stupid.
No, it’s a perfectly reasonable argument in that alcohol, as dangerous as it is, nevertheless represents a baseline of harrmfulness at or below which society has determined that the substance should be legal to use. For all its danger, alcohol is legal. It’s legal to produce and consume. Therefore it’s imminently reasonable that anything less dangerous than alcohol should be legal, as well. The argument points out an inconsistency in the beliefs of those who oppose legalization of marijuana but do not oppose the legal sale and consumption of alcohol.
[...] Financial Uproar gives his political opinion in the post `Can We Just Legalize It Already” This is an ongoing discussion that seems to come up everywhere we turn. It is also a topic that everyone has an opinion on regardless of whether you are pro or con legalization. Read his post to find out on which side of the fence Financial Uproar stands. [...]
I’ve been very vocal about this topic. Personally, pot is not my thing. However, I strongly believe they should legalize it! CBC DocZone did a great show about this and I am always telling people to watch it. Not sure if you can watch it outside of Canada but the link is: http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/Doc_Zone/2009-10/1457670628/ID=1444401938 I do not understand why we are paying to enforce the laws against marijuana when we could be taxing the crap out of it! I think legalizing it would be a huge hit to organized crime and make it more difficult for kids to get. They say it’s a gateway drug but I think it’s only that because currently people are forced to go to drug dealers to get it. If people could get it from a government run store they wouldn’t be exposed to other drugs so their chances of moving on to other drugs are slim. Etc. etc. etc. So much to say about this…