OUInsider - Owen Field

I usually associate killings with harder drugs, but it should be legalized, save money on law enforcement and start collecting taxes.

No problem. Do studies on how weed impacts the ability to make quick motor movements, such as required to safely drive. Find out a way to test for impairment. If driving ability is legally impaired, then automatic day jail sentence and big fine for the first time. In Texas, it get real expensive to repeat DUI. Make it at least the same.

It isn't harmless. If you believe that your motor drive motions and reflexes are same or enhanced when smoking, then you have had too much. It has impacted families, marriage, and lives when people handle automobiles high. Ignoring that truth does not change that fact. What would be your words to explain to a family how harmless it is when their child was killed by someone high on that harmless drug?

Thanks CE, I am the furthest thing possible from a Stoner, although I do know that Cheech and Chong did a movie about being a Stoner.

Like others have said, treat it like alcohol, expand MADD, Mothers against Doobie Driving, Tax it Heavily, reduce the tax dollars we waste fighting a losing battle to control it. Turn it into a money maker for the government and all the good things that can come from those tax dollars. Why let the drug lords make all the money??

It took 14 years to realize that Prohibition was not going to stop drinking, sooner or later, we need to realize that the same is true for marajuana. Back to Football.

Exactly! It's a hypocritical argument to be against legalization of pot if you are a consumer of alcohol.

I don't have an opinion on smoking pot, if it was legalized. I would probably look at it as I do alcohol now. Moderation may be beneficial. There appears to be some real potential medical benefits of pot. But, it is not a subject that has interested me enough to research so that I can take a definitive stand. I did have some friends who went to Vietnam with alcohol problems and came back with pot problems. It damaged their lives and relationships equally.

I do follow the belief that you obey the laws of the land, unless they contradict scripture. I only responded, because I do rail against blanket statements about pot being harmless and would not have responded otherwise. In my volunteer work, I have seen the impact on too many lives who abused pot to buy that garbage. Alcohol is not harmless and neither is pot. I believe that as a Christian anything that I allow something to take my focus off what I believe I am called to do, then it is not being sober minded (1 Peter 1 and 5). Legality of that something is a non-issue. I also believe that Romans 14 tells me that even if it is legal, if it would cause conflict with another, then I probably won't do it. But that is me. 1) I expect others to disagree and 2) And I hesitated to respond because I don't wan't this thread to take a turn to the subject of beliefs.

The same crowd demonizing tobacco wants to legalize pot. Makes sense.

Here's my theory. And this is not trying to bring politics into it. Two things have to run their course before we see legalization, then it is inevitable: 1) The generation before the baby boomers die off. 2) Obama leaves office - It won't happen on Obama's watch because he doesn't want to have the achievement of being the the first black president AND the one who legalized it. It wouldn't matter what he is able to accomplish, the only thing he would be remembered for (by those who write the history books) is the black president that legalized weed. So, if Obama wins in November, we should expect to see four more years of headinthesand policy perpetuated by my black president theory and old farts who still believe that the movie Reefer Madness is reality behind marijuana.

Not so sure I agree that NO president would get it passed. I think a guy like Clinton could do it if he were in office right now. The grounds are much more fertile for legalization than they were 12 years ago. It's not going to be Obama, or Romney for that matter. And it goes without saying that it's not going to be a right wing conservative/tea party candidate. Not saying it's Obama's fault (that's putting words into my mouth), just saying I don't see him being the one to take it on as a major point in domestic policy for the reason stated. Much less while we are in a recession and at war in the middle east. Obama will get us out of the war in Afghanistan and the recession will subside in his second term, setting the table for legalization by the next democratic president.

Does alcohol help people be productive members of society? You're probably right, people often do drink with no intention of altering their state of mind, but it happens anyway. There is a mountain of evidence that would suggest that alcohol is THE most damaging drug known to man based on the number of deaths (and destruction of lives and families, if you want to take it that far). The National Institute of Drug Abuse reports that 80,000 people die a year from consumption of alcohol in the US. (I don't think this includes deaths caused by traffic accidents). Zero.....zero deaths are caused by consumption of marijuana (also not counting traffic accidents). So how is the comparison "laughable"?

Well let me fill you in (Being a musician, I'm around it all the time. I would say I smoke approximately twice a month and am currently on the wagon because I'm looking for work). If you are in Oklahoma, you are likely smoking dirt weed from Mexico. If you are a daily user, it would take about 4-5 hits to be sufficiently high on that stuff. Here in the Pacific NW, you only need to take one hit of your typical everyday MJ to be high for several hours. In either case, you are probably impaired enough that you shouldn't be driving. If/when I'm high, I use the mass transit, mostly because it's so easy to do in Seattle. So, to me, there's no excuse to be driving after smoking weed....period. Knowing what it is like to drive when I'm drunk versus when I'm high, I would much much much rather there be high drivers on the road than drunk drivers. Drunk drivers tend to speed, swerve and make bold maneuvers. High drivers are typically slower and much more cautious (speaking for myself and most smokers I know). The higher my speed when I'm high, the more paranoid I get, but that's just me.

Yeah I was being sarcastic on the Obama thing as its so easy to bang on him. No president has ever supported it. Both mainstream parties are against it. Clinton was against it on paper. Heck all he did was "inhale" anyway! He wasn't a pot smoker.

On the previous poster who said people don't drink alcohol to get high, that's crazy. Ever heard the term "liquid courage"? Both alc and pot are not good ideas for drivers. Pot is less agressive a drug though. There are penalites in place for driving under the influence...so there is definitely a hypocrisy to make 1 legal and the other not. Historically there are racial reasons for the difference. There are many books on that subject.