Quote Originally Posted by MIDNIGHTspecial
well put. I understand fully what you're saying, and yes, I'm willing to grant that neither side is perfect. My problem is the restricting and constricting control that they want to have over everybody, which wouldn't be a problem if they stepped off their moral high horse and realized that what people do in their own homes is their business, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody.
The problem is not necessarily the law itself or congress telling us what to do... fact of the matter is that as long as Marijuana maintains the negative stigma that has been looming above it for nearly the last century then it is possible that even if you smoke it in your own home that you could be hurting somebody. Not on a physical level but perhaps a child on a mental or emotional level. When everyone makes fun of pot heads or thinks that people who smoke pot are lazy and stupid then it stands to reason that if a kid comes home to that then it could be uncomfortable with the child.

This is where good parenting should come in and teach the kid that there is nothing wrong with marijuana; but when everyone is in your face telling you it's bad then it's hard to believe otherwise even if your parents tell you it's not.

The real problem here is with Marijuana activism. We are not out in the public enough, our voices are not heard enough, we do not physically go out and battle legislation ourselves.

Until we can show people that marijuana users are not the stereo types that you would have them believe; I think we will have difficulty getting anything approved. Regardless of what type of congress we have.

We need to show them marijuana users are responsible. How many pro-marijuana rallies has anyone been to?

How many pro-marijuana rallies has anyone been to that did not involve breaking the law by smoking pot on the premises or listening to a bunch of rock bands but rather listen to a real advocate for marijuana give a speech outlining all the negative things (including impact to local economy (not talking about drug sales... talking about tax use and time lost on the job for being incarcerated, albeit indirectly).

To be fair, when I hear most marijuana users try to explain why it should be legal I just shake my head because it's so drowned full of bias it's disgusting. It's no wonder various people don't take us seriously; many people who argue it don't try to present it from a neutral point of view.

Until we can eliminate the stereotype/stigma we have then there will always be reason to believe that you may be harming someone else by smoking pot.

And until we can learn to present our arguments from a neutral point of view I doubt the government will take us seriously from a total decriminalization standpoint.