SmokeDog420
New Member
Major kudos to Raymond Wilkerson for his outstanding letter: "Is it time to legalize marijuana?" Feb. 24.
I'd like to add that last year we had more arrests for marijuana violations than for murder, rape, armed robbery and assault - combined. Almost 90 percent of the 730,000 marijuana arrests last year were for simple possession.
It seems to me that our police have better things to do than arresting people for potentially harming themselves. It seems to me that adult citizens should be free to smoke, swallow, snort or inject any substance they want as long as they are personally responsible for the consequences. It seems to me that a free country should be - a free country. Our government cannot protect adult citizens from themselves and they have no legitimate right attempting to do so. Almost all of the problems that we have with illegal drugs are because the drugs are illegal. Because drugs are illegal, they are of unknown quality, unknown purity and unknown potency. This is the cause of most of the deaths from illegal drugs.
Because drugs are illegal, they are untaxed, unregulated and controlled by criminal gangs - just like alcohol was when it was illegal. Speaking of taxes, by keeping marijuana and other recreational drugs as criminalized products, we are throwing away countless billions of dollars in potential tax revenue.
It seems to me that non-drug users would welcome the idea of taxing a product they don't use.
Pubdate: Fri, 05 Mar 2004
Source: News & Advance, The (VA)
Copyright: 2004 Media General
Contact: rwimer@newsadvance.com
Website: newsadvance.com | Breaking news, sports and classifieds for the Lynchburg, Virginia region
I'd like to add that last year we had more arrests for marijuana violations than for murder, rape, armed robbery and assault - combined. Almost 90 percent of the 730,000 marijuana arrests last year were for simple possession.
It seems to me that our police have better things to do than arresting people for potentially harming themselves. It seems to me that adult citizens should be free to smoke, swallow, snort or inject any substance they want as long as they are personally responsible for the consequences. It seems to me that a free country should be - a free country. Our government cannot protect adult citizens from themselves and they have no legitimate right attempting to do so. Almost all of the problems that we have with illegal drugs are because the drugs are illegal. Because drugs are illegal, they are of unknown quality, unknown purity and unknown potency. This is the cause of most of the deaths from illegal drugs.
Because drugs are illegal, they are untaxed, unregulated and controlled by criminal gangs - just like alcohol was when it was illegal. Speaking of taxes, by keeping marijuana and other recreational drugs as criminalized products, we are throwing away countless billions of dollars in potential tax revenue.
It seems to me that non-drug users would welcome the idea of taxing a product they don't use.
Pubdate: Fri, 05 Mar 2004
Source: News & Advance, The (VA)
Copyright: 2004 Media General
Contact: rwimer@newsadvance.com
Website: newsadvance.com | Breaking news, sports and classifieds for the Lynchburg, Virginia region
