Should cannabis be legal

[spindrift]

Someone behind the wheel of a car under the influence of cannabis could cause other people harm.

 

You misunderstand, drug driving is illegal and will remain so.

 

Legalisation will mean fewer people using cannabis.

 

The principle is, if I grow a plant and smoke it, what harm am I doing to others?

[Chris_Sleeps]

Someone behind the wheel of a car under the influence of cannabis could cause other people harm.

I'm not trying a third time.

[Magilla]

Someone behind the wheel of a car under the influence of cannabis could cause other people harm.

 

I would imagine they could, but then how is this any different to alcohol?

 

People drunk behind the wheel of a car could also cause others harm, yet alcohol is legal.

 

If someone really wants to drive drugged up, they can and will already.

 

Legalising wouldn't and isn't meant to effect them, it's about decriminalising the millions that use it responsibly and who don't use it while driving.

 

Driving under the influence would still be a criminal offence, just like it is now, whether the drug be alcohol, weed or something else.

[Hots on]

Imagine if alcohol had always been illegal, and still was, and this thread was called: Should alcohol be legal? and the likes of spindrift were making out that making alcohol legal would lead to a decrease in its use.

[Chris_Sleeps]

Imagine if alcohol had always been illegal, and still was, and this thread was called: Should alcohol be legal? and the likes of spindrift were making out that making alcohol legal would lead to a decrease in its use.

Then we'd have to imagine the amount of alcohol being drunk under the imaginery history that we've imagined.

 

What is your point?

 

I'll tell you mine. Prohibition failed.

[spindrift]

Imagine if alcohol had always been illegal, and still was, and this thread was called: Should alcohol be legal? and the likes of spindrift were making out that making alcohol legal would lead to a decrease in its use.

 

No, I would not.

 

Why not discuss the thread title rather than trying, and failing, TO GUESS what I would argue in entirely different debates?

[Magilla]

Imagine if alcohol had always been illegal, and still was, and this thread was called: Should alcohol be legal? and the likes of spindrift were making out that making alcohol legal would lead to a decrease in its use.

 

Where drugs have been decriminalised that is what tends to happen.

 

Your point?

[Hots on]

Then we'd have to imagine the amount of alcohol being drunk under the imaginery history that we've imagined.

 

What is your point?

 

I'll tell you mine. Prohibition failed.

 

Thanks to the widespread, perfectly legal availability of relatively cheap alcohol we have a binge drinking culture in this country that is on a far greater scale now than if we still had prohibition.

 

Whenever anything is liberalised it gets out of hand amongst the general populace, like gambling and the adult entertainment industry for instance.

[splodgeyAl]

You claim a regular cannabis smoker having little bit of weed can actually improve his/her driving ability; isn't that the age old mantra of drink drivers?

 

And, unborn babies wont get addicted to heroin if heroin was legal, you say?

 

You could read this: http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CEsQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.erowid.org%2Fplants%2Fcannabis%2Fcannabis_driving6.pdf&rct=j&q=driving%20under%20influence%20of%20cannabis&ei=jyU3Tf7zJJKGhQe08vjvAg&usg=AFQjCNEQjn_dH3JkiFAEuwXraKN3iaCP4w&sig2=Lw3jDYa9a6lcYPWky4R2ow&cad=rja

 

Which concludes:

Overall, it is possible to conclude that cannabis has a

measurable effect on psycho-motor performance,

particularly tracking ability. Its effect on higher cognitive

functions, for example divided attention tasks associated

with driving, appear not to be as critical. Drivers under the

influence of cannabis seem to compensate to some extent

for the impairment, that they recognise, by reducing the

difficulty of the driving task; e.g. by driving more slowly.

In terms of road safety, it cannot be concluded that

driving under the influence is not a hazard, as the effects

on various aspects of driver performance are

unpredictable. In comparison with alcohol however, the

severe effects of alcohol on the higher cognitive processes

of driving are likely to make this more of a hazard,

particularly at higher blood alcohol levels.

 

If you want to find more, I'm sure google works in your browser as well as it does in mine

[spindrift]

Thanks to the widespread, perfectly legal availability of relatively cheap alcohol we have a binge drinking culture in this country that is on a far greater scale now than if we still had prohibition.

 

Whenever anything is liberalised it gets out of hand amongst the general populace, like gambling and the adult entertainment industry for instance.

 

You are comparing pornography to smoking a plant?

 

Do you disagree that relaxed drug laws lead to decreased usage?

 

What's your evidence?