how is alcohol legal but marijuana not?

[A Drunk Damsel]

Evil Asparagus

Booty Tickle

Because you don't know where your pot came from and how the person grew it, the dog could have peed on the plant multiple times, it could also be laced with a more serious drug.

Yes, but if the government legalized, regulated, and taxed marijuana this wouldn't be a problem. Obviously there could still be some people still doing shady business practices with it, but then it would be illegal. People wouldn't buy from those people anyways. It doesn't make sense to go to a dealer when you could just buy it from the store.

maybe your dealer is cheaper and has a stronger dosage than what you can get from the store.

[Disconsented]

Why should it be legalized?

[Evil Asparagus]

Booty Tickle

Evil Asparagus

Booty Tickle

Because you don't know where your pot came from and how the person grew it, the dog could have peed on the plant multiple times, it could also be laced with a more serious drug.

Yes, but if the government legalized, regulated, and taxed marijuana this wouldn't be a problem. Obviously there could still be some people still doing shady business practices with it, but then it would be illegal. People wouldn't buy from those people anyways. It doesn't make sense to go to a dealer when you could just buy it from the store.

maybe your dealer is cheaper and has a stronger dosage than what you can get from the store.

Yes, but that's your own risk. It would also still be illegal. Most people won't go the illegal route if you can get it legitimately.

As far as prices go, you can only go so low until the cost to make marijuana and the actual profit you're making from it become a huge factor. If the stores offer a decent price, why would you go to a dealer? And if the dealer is making less money illegally than he could with a legitimate business, why would he go the illegal route?

[Evil Asparagus]

Disconsented

Why should it be legalized?

Because it costs the government buttloads of money to keep it illegal.

Think of all the time cops are paid to find and bust these people. Think of all the money we pay to keep these people in jail just because they're smoking joints.

And it would also be a blow to people in Mexico trying to make money by illegally bringing that stuff to the U.S.

If we're not going to all out legalize marijuana we should at least decriminalize it.

[Stale Humor]

Well, it ain't exactly cost-effective to the dealer to lace the weed with stronger stuff. Go to a dealer you know isn't shady, though. ._.'

[washu_2004]

Alcohol has a tradition of social use that stretches back further than recorded history in almost every culture. That is why.

Marijuana was restricted to the middle east and India until relatively recently.

[washu_2004]

Chief Chicken Choker II

Well, it ain't exactly cost-effective to the dealer to lace the weed with stronger stuff. Go to a dealer you know isn't shady, though. ._.'

Still weed has been known to be laced with everything from LSD to dog manure.

[FlySammyJ]

Booty Tickle

Evil Asparagus

Booty Tickle

Because you don't know where your pot came from and how the person grew it, the dog could have peed on the plant multiple times, it could also be laced with a more serious drug.

Yes, but if the government legalized, regulated, and taxed marijuana this wouldn't be a problem. Obviously there could still be some people still doing shady business practices with it, but then it would be illegal. People wouldn't buy from those people anyways. It doesn't make sense to go to a dealer when you could just buy it from the store.

maybe your dealer is cheaper and has a stronger dosage than what you can get from the store.

I know a moonshiner who will sell me White Lightning (super strong clear whiskey) for less than anything I could get at the store. I still reserve my patronage for Maker's Mark and Kraken.

To the OP's point, I agree that the Tobacco and Alcohol lobbies spent a lot of money to help criminalize cannabis in the US, but so did the Timber lobby. Hemp paper is faster to grow and much more resource-efficient than paper from trees.

[Aporeia]

Black people. Trufact, the first drug laws were targeted at black people. Before, many people involved in physical labor, particularly black people, were offered drugs like cocaine by their employers to increase worker efficiency. Marijuana was more for recreation, so it was attacked first. Then coke.

As for why it's still illegal, people are ignorant and love to cling to their archaic concepts, despite what should be common sense. I'm sure there's also lots of major opposition based on the hemp industry, although I'm curious as to why these lobbyists wouldn't support it so they could get their grubby hands in that industry as well.

[2pound]

Sorry, I only take triple X moonshine; anything less and its taste of piss mixed with mercury make me vomit. Weed is a passive drug; I'm an aggressive guy. We ain't compatible. This is why alcohol is legal and good ol' Mary Jane ain't not.

[Nocturneous]

Alcohol's legal because we make it here, allowing the government to regulate it and make money from it. Marijuana is not originally native to the US in the first place which would allow for government regulation if it were. No one is getting money (except maybe your supplier and drug cartels) if you're getting your weed from an entirely different country. The government doesnt want you hooked on someone else's drugs. They want you hooked on THEIR drugs.

[washu_2004]

FlySammyJ

Booty Tickle

Evil Asparagus

Booty Tickle

Because you don't know where your pot came from and how the person grew it, the dog could have peed on the plant multiple times, it could also be laced with a more serious drug.

Yes, but if the government legalized, regulated, and taxed marijuana this wouldn't be a problem. Obviously there could still be some people still doing shady business practices with it, but then it would be illegal. People wouldn't buy from those people anyways. It doesn't make sense to go to a dealer when you could just buy it from the store.

maybe your dealer is cheaper and has a stronger dosage than what you can get from the store.

I know a moonshiner who will sell me White Lightning (super strong clear whiskey) for less than anything I could get at the store. I still reserve my patronage for Maker's Mark and Kraken.

To the OP's point, I agree that the Tobacco and Alcohol lobbies spent a lot of money to help criminalize cannabis in the US, but so did the Timber lobby. Hemp paper is faster to grow and much more resource-efficient than paper from trees.

The hemp used to make products like paper, rope and fabric is a completely different breed than marijuana. It has a comparably tiny amount of THC and a lot more fiber in it's stems and leaves.

The drug marijuana is the product of decades of selective breeding and specialized farming techniques that have vastly increased the THC content of the buds and leaves requiring significantly less to be smoked to induce the psychoactive effects the drug is known for.

Smoking industrial hemp is said to only produce a mild buzz if a large amount is smoked and it is the source of the half-truth that it is virtually impossible to OD on weed, since the psychoactive compound content is so low. The variety grown by drug cartels is a far different case with the psychoactive compound content being significantly greater making it possible for harmful side effects to occur as a result of its consumption.

[Raven Cpu]

Primarily due to the fact that marijuana causes permanent brain damage rather quickly and because a very small amount of it will get you high. Alcohol has to be abused to cause brain damage and to get someone drunk.

[Disconsented]

Evil Asparagus

Disconsented

Why should it be legalized?

Because it costs the government buttloads of money to keep it illegal.

Think of all the time cops are paid to find and bust these people. Think of all the money we pay to keep these people in jail just because they're smoking joints.

And it would also be a blow to people in Mexico trying to make money by illegally bringing that stuff to the U.S.

If we're not going to all out legalize marijuana we should at least decriminalize it.

So money essentially.

[dolly milk]

It's all about profit for the government, my dear. Whether it causes death or health problems for somebody is irrelevant. The government is full of heartless shitbags who simply do not care.

But just because alcohol or certain drugs may cause problems for one person should not matter to you. Take people who use meth or heroine for example. They are KNOWINGLY causing serious damage to their bodies and lives, and yet they still continue to do it. It is in their own self interest to harm themselves. It's their own lives, and their own bodies, so why should you care what they do with it? It shouldn't be a problem as long as it isn't harming other innocent people that didn't want anything to do with it.

With this logic, alcohol and liquor is worse than meth, cocaine and heroine. Look at how many people die due to car accidents induced by somebody who was under the influence. They weren't the ones who were drunk, but they still ended up dying for something that wasn't their fault. Some people get violent and end up beating up or killing other people when they're drunk. Not once have I ever heard of somebody doing this to another person when they were taking drugs.

Which brings me to my next point. All drugs should be legalized, regardless of how harmful they are to the person taking them. Their body, their choices. Let's use gangs, and the drug war for example. When alcohol was illegal in the United States, gang activity was fairly common. Not surprisingly, said gang activity decreased after the use of alcohol became legal again. What makes you think the same results wouldn't occur if we were to legalize drugs? When certain items are illegal, they begin getting traded under the black market, which makes said merchandise more expensive. When people become addicted to things like drugs, they are so desperate to get ahold of it, they will do whatever they can to get the money to afford it. This usually results in more robberies. Keeping drugs illegal harms other people more than it does when it is legal.