I'll just put in my two cents. I think it's ridiculous that people go to gaol for taking any kind of drug, often simply because they have an addiction. However, I do think that we shouldn't just go "LEGALISE!" without thinking first, just off the top of my head, there are two big things to consider (and I emphasise, I thought of these while reading this thread):
- In the case of decrimilisation I think that everybody shoud look at South Australia. South Australia decrimilinalised marajuana (I forget when), but they weren't overly tactful. The idea was that if you are smoking marajuana in public, you get a fine. Sounds fair right? You can pretty much smoke in your home whenever, like someone mentioned a controlled environment, and doing it elsewhere would be like riding a bike without your helmet. One big thing that they forgot, people who smoke pot forget. Many people didn't pay their fines, and there were more court cases, and more people going to gaol than before. Not the expected outcome huh?
- In the case of legalisation, we all know that they will be taxed, it's needed, who wouldn't do that? Now, I must mention one other very interesting fact, tobacco smuggling is a huge problem, at least in Autralia. They import the tobacco from overseas and sell it for cheaper, and many people, understandably, can't tell the difference. It's also important to mention that sometimes they'll put some extra chemicals in it to make it more addictive. Now, that will most likely happen with marajuana (if we're not careful), as people in crime like having money (I think it's a fair generalisation), and I should mention that the current illegal marajuana, does, yet again, often have extra stuff in it to make it more addictive, which will be an attraction of the illegal stuff (as it will essentially be "better").
Again I emphasise, I don't think it can stay how it is now, but I think things should be done carefully.
- In the case of decrimilisation I think that everybody shoud look at South Australia. South Australia decrimilinalised marajuana (I forget when), but they weren't overly tactful. The idea was that if you are smoking marajuana in public, you get a fine. Sounds fair right? You can pretty much smoke in your home whenever, like someone mentioned a controlled environment, and doing it elsewhere would be like riding a bike without your helmet. One big thing that they forgot, people who smoke pot forget. Many people didn't pay their fines, and there were more court cases, and more people going to gaol than before. Not the expected outcome huh?
- In the case of legalisation, we all know that they will be taxed, it's needed, who wouldn't do that? Now, I must mention one other very interesting fact, tobacco smuggling is a huge problem, at least in Autralia. They import the tobacco from overseas and sell it for cheaper, and many people, understandably, can't tell the difference. It's also important to mention that sometimes they'll put some extra chemicals in it to make it more addictive. Now, that will most likely happen with marajuana (if we're not careful), as people in crime like having money (I think it's a fair generalisation), and I should mention that the current illegal marajuana, does, yet again, often have extra stuff in it to make it more addictive, which will be an attraction of the illegal stuff (as it will essentially be "better").
Again I emphasise, I don't think it can stay how it is now, but I think things should be done carefully.
That's what we got in the land of Oz :). Works pretty well, we have it with sex education to. The idea is to give us the proper information, we're not stupid. My father (a barrister who does a lot of drug stuff), also told me some more details, quite a few years ago. Nothing can scare you off drugs like E and Ice than knowing what they actually do (E gives you a high by destroying parts of your brain... I like my brain).
