Let's all roll with Mary Jane
Issue date: 3/25/09 Section: Opinion
As college students, many of us partake or know someone who partakes in smoking marijuana. Once a week in the WC, we publish "OPS Beat," which usually has listing upon listing of entries dealing with students being arrested or getting in trouble for possession of the drug. Let's face it, our economy can use a hit, so to speak. What better way to do that than to legalize but regulate marijuana?
Similar to alcohol regulation, legalizing marijuana would have to come with some rules in order to discourage irresponsible behavior, such as driving under the influence or having paraphernalia in your vehicle amongst other things.
Eradicating the stigma attached to marijuana usage will help on so many different levels. For one, the term "pothead" seems to have a more negative connotation than the term "drunk," and perhaps it has to take regulation of the drug to put it on the same level as alcohol. If this is done, legally purchasing marijuana has the potential to boost our downtrodden economy.
The question that needs to be raised is why there is absolutely no stigma attached to alcohol or consuming it on a day-to-day basis, but when it comes to the same heavy usage of marijuana, people are appalled. Have we forgotten that alcohol is indeed a drug?
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about 13,470 people died from alcohol impaired driving crashes in 2006. People have the option of drinking not to get drunk but choose to get completely annihilated every night by kicking back hard liquor and shot after shot. This, however, is seen as okay in our society. Even our driving while under the influence laws are a joke, because people, especially students it seems, don't care one way or the other about getting behind the wheel while intoxicated.
On the other hand, according to a Responsible Drinking 2008 Survey, 94 percent of people indicated that they drink responsibly and in moderation. Although this seems skeptical, this high percentage could just as well go for those who smoke marijuana responsibly and in moderation.
The argument that people are just going to run amuck with the legalization of this drug is over-the-top speculation, as is the theory that those who didn't use it before legalization would become heavy experimenters. In times like these, we can surely give this idea a try.
Similar to alcohol regulation, legalizing marijuana would have to come with some rules in order to discourage irresponsible behavior, such as driving under the influence or having paraphernalia in your vehicle amongst other things.
Eradicating the stigma attached to marijuana usage will help on so many different levels. For one, the term "pothead" seems to have a more negative connotation than the term "drunk," and perhaps it has to take regulation of the drug to put it on the same level as alcohol. If this is done, legally purchasing marijuana has the potential to boost our downtrodden economy.
The question that needs to be raised is why there is absolutely no stigma attached to alcohol or consuming it on a day-to-day basis, but when it comes to the same heavy usage of marijuana, people are appalled. Have we forgotten that alcohol is indeed a drug?
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about 13,470 people died from alcohol impaired driving crashes in 2006. People have the option of drinking not to get drunk but choose to get completely annihilated every night by kicking back hard liquor and shot after shot. This, however, is seen as okay in our society. Even our driving while under the influence laws are a joke, because people, especially students it seems, don't care one way or the other about getting behind the wheel while intoxicated.
On the other hand, according to a Responsible Drinking 2008 Survey, 94 percent of people indicated that they drink responsibly and in moderation. Although this seems skeptical, this high percentage could just as well go for those who smoke marijuana responsibly and in moderation.
The argument that people are just going to run amuck with the legalization of this drug is over-the-top speculation, as is the theory that those who didn't use it before legalization would become heavy experimenters. In times like these, we can surely give this idea a try.
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 10
Proud Pothead
posted 3/25/09 @ 11:02 AM CST
13,000 + Alcohol driving only deaths
0 Marijuana deaths
Former Leatherneck
posted 3/25/09 @ 11:43 AM CST
Please tell my two dead friends that marijuana doesn't have any deaths. Read some actual studies not just done by Legalization Propoganda pamphlets.
Marijuana does kill and I have seen it first hand and it is sad that people throw their lives away for this stuff. (Continued…)
Tell Your Chldren
posted 3/25/09 @ 12:55 PM CST
What is it about marijuana that scares some people so much? Once you try it, you find out quickly that there's not that much to it. It's not anywhere near heroin but the govt ranks it there. (Continued…)
Believer
posted 3/25/09 @ 4:10 PM CST
Nicely put "Tell Your Chldren", I quite drinking and smoke occasionally now. My grades went up, I don't black out, I get along better with everyone especially family and I'm a lot more relaxed and open to new and different people. (Continued…)
SOMEONE WHO KNOWS
posted 3/25/09 @ 8:03 PM CST
I THINK IT IS SO MUCH BS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEVER USED IT TO SUPPOSEDLY KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT IT! I'VE BEEN SMOKING FOR 20 YEARS AND I WORKOUT REGULAR HAD 2 JOBS SINCE I WAS 20 AND AND BEEN AT THE JOB I'M AT FOR 8 AND A HALF YEARS! BUT I KNOW ONLY THE IRRESPONSIBLE NEEDLE JUNKY CRACKHEAD ARMED ROBBING CITIZENS OF AMERICA SMOKE POT! GOD DAMN IT I LOVE MY FAMILY, MY FRIENDS, MY COUNTRY, AND MY BOWL OR TWO AFTER WORK! I THINK IF WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO SMOKE CIGGARETTES, DRINK ALCOHOL, AND EAT GREASY ASS FAST FOOD, WHO THE HELL IS ANYBODY TO TELL ME I CAN'T SMOKE MY WEED! IF IT'S GOING IN MY BODY IT'S MY CHOICE! NOT TO MENTION IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED WE'RE IN DIRE NEEDS OF MONEY IN THIS COUNTRY! SO DON'T LEGALIZE IT AND WE'LL JUST GIVE OUR MONEY TO THE CRIMINALS INSTEAD OF PUTTING THAT MONEY INTO OUR ECONOMY WE'LL JUST KEEP GIVING TO THE MEXICANS! THEY LOVE AMERICAN MONEY ANYWAYS! NOT TO MENTION THAT OUR POLICE WOULD HAVE MORE TIME, MONEY, AND EFFORT TO PUT TOWARDS REAL CRIME AND REAL CRIM
WineskinintheSmoke
posted 3/26/09 @ 4:29 PM CST
How does marijuana kill? I'm willing to bet a lot of money that there was a drug interaction, or that perhaps, in some way, marijuana has been implicated as a contributing factor to a death. (Continued…)
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