If Marijuana was legal would you smoke it

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by molson

I'm just saying that not everyone is going to want to buy their weed from RJ Reynolds. Some, SOME, SOME, SOME, SOME will still buy locally, outside the sphere of federal regulations and taxes.

Certainly nobody's going to argue that point. Which begs the question, why were you?

[molson]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Certainly nobody's going to argue that point. Which begs the question, why were you?

I never did. Everyone's jumping over me when I suggest that anyone might have the slightest reason to buy or sell illegally. If you recall, I was in favor of legalizing. I just pointed out a couple of the concerns, and people freak out on me.

Litterally, if you look back in this thread, all I did was answer the question, posed twice, why anyone would every buy illegally again. And the responses to that were more about why everyone, or the majority of people would stay legal.

[thesloppy]

For the record, the discussion (in this and the other thread) had already tended toward whether there would be any substantial financial benefit to legalization, because of the already existing underground network (which I think is ludicrous). If your contention was merely that there is an underground network, and some people will continue to use it (which I think is completely logical), you should've separated yourself from that first, very similar, and already ongoing argument....I certainly didn't (and my apologies for riling you up).

[Arles]

My concern is 100% on use in by ages 15 to 21. If a process for legalization could occur and still keep teen pot use in the 20% range, I would be 100% for it. I'm thinking there is probably a way to do that but the odds that we are careful enough during the process to get to that point seem very slim.

Once someone is an adult, I think they should be able to smoke pot if they choose and that's why I am so conflicted on this. It's like my "parent side" and "libertarian" side are at complete odds. Maybe we can legalize medical marijuana, begin setting up the legal channels for production and that will allow us to really take a bite out of the black market once it eventually does become legal.

In the end, as with many things involving kids, I guess good parenting is the only way to deal with this issue. I just still get a little worried when I see that 20% of teens use pot and 50% drink booze. I think it's inevitable that once pot is legal, that number is going to get a lot closer to the alcohol one and I don't think that's going to help us out as a society. But, I think it's more a question of "when" than "if" with this issue.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Arles

My concern is 100% on use in by ages 15 to 21. If a process for legalization could occur and still keep teen pot use in the 20% range, I would be 100% for it. I'm thinking there is probably a way to do that but the odds that we are careful enough during the process to get to that point seem very slim.

Once someone is an adult, I think they should be able to smoke pot if they choose and that's why I am so conflicted on this. It's like my "parent side" and "libertarian" side are at complete odds. Maybe we can legalize medical marijuana, begin setting up the legal channels for production and that will allow us to really take a bite out of the black market once it eventually does become legal.

In the end, as with many things involving kids, I guess good parenting is the only way to deal with this issue. I just still get a little worried when I see that 20% of teens use pot and 50% drink booze. I think it's inevitable that once pot is legal, that number is going to get a lot closer to the alcohol one and I don't think that's going to help us out as a society. But, I think it's more a question of "when" than "if" with this issue.

This is a valid concern and there's really not much to go on other than what we think may happen and using the few places that have legalized marijuana as an example.

FWIW, the Netherlands handles Marijuana similar to how we handle alcohol here and their use among high school aged kids is estimated to be around 9%.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Atocep

This is a valid concern and there's really not much to go on other than what we think may happen and using the few places that have legalized marijuana as an example.

FWIW, the Netherlands handles Marijuana similar to how we handle alcohol here and their use among high school aged kids is estimated to be around 9%.

I would be interested in before/after data for countries that legalize marijuana after it had illegal for 50+ years, if something like that was out there.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Arles

In the end, as with many things involving kids, I guess good parenting is the only way to deal with this issue. I just still get a little worried when I see that 20% of teens use pot and 50% drink booze. I think it's inevitable that once pot is legal, that number is going to get a lot closer to the alcohol one and I don't think that's going to help us out as a society. But, I think it's more a question of "when" than "if" with this issue.

I don't doubt that teen use of marijuana would go up if it were legalized. But I suspect that teen intoxication is closer to a zero sum game than you are implying - I'd bet that if marijuana were legalized, teen use of it would increase but teen use of alcohol would decrease. I don't know that it would be a perfect correlation - perhaps overall teen intoxication would increase - but I have little doubt that some teens that drink would switch to smoking out if it were legal.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by molson

I don't know where the "good" weed is - Mexico was a bad example.

I'm just saying that not everyone is going to want to buy their weed from RJ Reynolds. Some, SOME, SOME, SOME, SOME will still buy locally, outside the sphere of federal regulations and taxes. At least for a while.

I don't see why the locally grown, high quality marijuana would be outside the influence of federal regulations and taxes. There will most certainly be heavy penalties for the unlicensed cultivation. There would still be local growers growing high quality pot within the framework of regulations.

To me the biggest factor in favor of this theory as that growing marijuana legally and out in the open will increase supply to the point that it won't be worth it to avoid the regulations and taxes (ie: legal stuff will flood unlicensed stuff out). Being able to cultivate in an orderly fashion much like we grow other crops will increase yields exponentially, whether you are growing commercial weed for a large corporation or growing some high quality stuff for the local coffee shop.

I also doubt that potency will be regulated. Properly grown marijuana for human consumption doesn't necessarily vary all that much in THC content. There is some variability in strains, no doubt, but I think what you all are thinking of is low potency pot laced with seeds. That's simply the result of poor cultivation techniques. Differences in potency of higher end pot are overblown. I do know some simple techniques to extract some VERY VERY potent stuff from already good stuff (keef collection). Otherwise most of the differences in strains are largely taste.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by lungs

I also doubt that potency will be regulated. Properly grown marijuana for human consumption doesn't necessarily vary all that much in THC content. There is some variability in strains, no doubt, but I think what you all are thinking of is low potency pot laced with seeds. That's simply the result of poor cultivation techniques. Differences in potency of higher end pot are overblown. I do know some simple techniques to extract some VERY VERY potent stuff from already good stuff (keef collection). Otherwise most of the differences in strains are largely taste.

Not to mention the fact that there is already the example of alcohol. While regulations vary from state to state and municipality to municipality, you can buy alcohol in forms ranging from dilute (Busch Lite) to very potent (Bacardi 150). Where you can buy them varies, but you can buy them. In a few locations you can even buy pure alcohol (Everclear).

Places that dispense alcohol for consumption on site (i.e. bars, taverns, restaurants) are obligated to show some common sense in dispensation, i.e. don't serve those that are obviously quite drunk.

Why wouldn't whatever variation there is in the potency of marijuana be similar?

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

For the record, the discussion (in this and the other thread) had already tended toward whether there would be any substantial financial benefit to legalization, because of the already existing underground network (which I think is ludicrous). If your contention was merely that there is an underground network, and some people will continue to use it (which I think is completely logical), you should've separated yourself from that first, very similar, and already ongoing argument....I certainly didn't (and my apologies for riling you up).

The underlined was stated in the following context:

ORIGINAL RESPONSE to my point about police using it as an excuse to put gang members in jail.

Using it as a reason to put "real assholes" in prison when many, many more are put in jail strictly because of it doesn't make it ok.

MY RESPONSE to this

That wasn't my contention...it was a statement supporting my contention that there is no substantial financial benefit for the government to legalize it.

Maybe I should have used the word "law enforcement" instead of government...but "substantial financial benefit" was in the context of putting people in prison for pot...to which I stated many pot arrests are likely the "easiest" thing to snare a known gang member or other troublesome criminals with.

[Bad-example]

Would you smoke Pot if it was legalized?

Definitely not.

I would brew it into a tea. Also, look for my new show, Cooking with Mary Jane, coming to cable at some point.

[path12]

Originally Posted by Cringer

2. Not if Jimmy is in California where the medical stuff is said to be pretty damn good, and I would assume the same across the nation if legalized. (If you can assume, so can I).

Just anecdotally, the person I get my marijuana from gets it directly from someone with a license to grow medically in California. It is indeed pretty high quality.