A good article on what happens when you let criminals control the soft drug market -- murders for no reason. If weed was legal, you can bet that nobody would be killing each other over territory; it would just be yet another thing you could buy at Starbucks or the corner convenience store.
"A good article on what happens when you let criminals control the soft drug market -- murders for no reason. If weed was legal, you can bet that nobody would be killing each other over territory; it would just be yet another thing you could buy at Starbucks or the corner convenience store."
If weed was legalized, the dealers would just move onto something heavier, like cocaine. Not only that, but the weed you get from the government would have to be regulated and it wouldn't be the same as the stuff you get on the streets, which would still result in dealers selling it illegally.
When you can't get it at starbucks (which probably won't happen unless they get a license) or as easily as you want it, will you still buy from a dealer down the street?
The problem I see is that many of the pro-marijuana users are just like the pro-piracy people. They won't stop until they get exactly what they want, which is just unrealistic.
When music piracy first came to the masses in '99 (I know it was around well before this), the main argument was that music was too expensive and the artists were getting screwed. Now that you can get music for 99 cents and the artist can sell it without a recording contract, piracy is worse than ever and there are a whole new set of excuses.
This is why I believe that the illegal sale of pot will never stop unless it's completely unregulated, which will never happen.
We also don't have any really good long-term studies regarding pot. Cigarettes cause cancer. Do we really want to legalize another substance that does the same thing or worse?
You also seem to shift the blame of the violence on the government. So, it's the government's fault that kids decided to sell pot illegally, make shit-tons of money, and attempt to get another dealer killed (and get killed in the process). They could have somehow magically prevented the situation by legalizing pot.
It's this kind of thinking that has blamed the cigarette companies for killing people when in reality, we all have free will. If you start smoking tomorrow, it's your own fault if you get cancer, not the company that sold it to you.
>Not only that, but the weed you get from the government would have to be regulated and it wouldn't be the same as the stuff you get on the streets, which would still result in dealers selling it illegally.
If this were true, wouldn't you also expect to see more alcohol dealers on the streets?
>Do we really want to legalize another substance that does the same thing or worse?
By this argument, we should just make everything that causes harm illegal. Hammers, knives, cars, etc kill people, should we make them illegal? What about prescription drugs? What about alcohol? Alcohol is an infinitely more dangerous substance than marijuana.
> Now that you can get music for 99 cents and the artist can sell it without a recording contract, piracy is worse than ever and there are a whole new set of excuses.
Have you ever talked to an artist about what their percentage take on an online sale is verses a CD sale? (Hint: it's less) Have you ever investigated how hard it is to get listed on Amazon or in iTunes unless you are on a major or minor label (RIAA-member or not)? Don't think that these issues are 'magically' resolved just because one can now buy music for a reasonable price in an ala carte manner.
You've presented the 'main argument' as having two distinct issues: 1) music was too expensive and 2) the artists are getting screwed. Music is now more reasonably priced (though they still haven't offered anything at lossless quality other than a few gimmicky promotional sales), but the artists are still getting screwed. The issue of artists getting screwed will probably not resolve itself until the major record labels are out of business (or their operations are seriously scaled back). There needs to be more competition between labels for artists, and artists need to be more aware of the predatory practices that the major labels use in recruiting.
If weed was legalized, the dealers would just move onto something heavier, like cocaine. Not only that, but the weed you get from the government would have to be regulated and it wouldn't be the same as the stuff you get on the streets, which would still result in dealers selling it illegally.
If weed was legalized, dealers would be shit out of lock for product to sell. They would not be able to compete with industrial corporations pumping out perfectly rolled marijuana cigarettes (joints), scaled operations, marketing/brand trust, and distribution. This wipes out tax dollars wasted on weed enforcement from police on the ground to clogs in the justice system, and in fact raises tax revenue for states (see California). If dealers decide to switch to serving harder drugs, they would only saturate existing cocaine/meth/heroin markets. Thats a big IF, because those drug productions are not as simple as growing plants and are significantly harder to enter at a big scale.
We also don't have any really good long-term studies regarding pot. Cigarettes cause cancer. Do we really want to legalize another substance that does the same thing or worse?
We have thousands of years of marijuana usage in humans. We have studies, just uneducated people.
Marijuana fights lung cancer:
"The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.ht...
Marijuana fights brain cancer:
"THC, causes brain cancer cells to undergo a process called autophagy. Autophagy is the breakdown of a cell that occurs when the cell essentially self-digests.
The team discovered that cannabinoids such as THC had anticancer effects in mice with human brain cancer cells and people with brain tumors. When mice with the human brain cancer cells received the THC, the tumor growth shrank."
http://www.webmd.com/cancer/brain-cancer/news/20090401/marij...
Marijuana fights breast cancer:
"A compound found in cannabis may stop breast cancer from spreading throughout the body, according to a new study by scientists at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute. The researchers are hopeful that the compound called CBD, which is found in cannabis sativa, could be a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312132,00.html
You also seem to shift the blame of the violence on the government. So, it's the government's fault that kids decided to sell pot illegally, make shit-tons of money, and attempt to get another dealer killed (and get killed in the process). They could have somehow magically prevented the situation by legalizing pot.
An economics 101 class would do wonders for anyone and everyone. When something is illegal to have, there is a risk of being caught. When theres a risk of being caught, you need incentive to put your ass on the line. When the incentives are big money and fast money, people start getting crazy. Gangs and organized crime get involved, and shit goes down. Why aren't gangs killing each other over tobacco and alcohol dealing?
> Why aren't gangs killing each other over tobacco and alcohol dealing?
[sarcasm] Because tobacco and alcohol are gifts directly from God, but pot gets shipped into the country on the express train from Hell packaged by none other than the Devil himself. Anyone that even looks at a joint is touched by the hand of the Devil and must be purged. [/sarcasm]
It never fails to amaze me how people seem to deny/forget that alcohol and tobacco/nicotine are drugs too. They just happen to be drugs that were sanctioned by the government as 'legal' instead of 'illegal.' Marijuana was added to the list of drugs in the 1920's (IIRC). Do you really think that there was much scientific though/research put behind that? Hardly. [Note: It was made illegal by an act of Congress so I'm sure you can search the archives for the minutes of the session] It was 100% a political decision, the same as the 'child porn' witch-hunts that we have today (where we are charging sex-ting teens as child pornographers). And because it's illegal it makes it even harder for researchers to actually do research on marijuana since they have to jump through all sorts of red tape just to make it legal for them to have it.
