it seems rather foolish to attempt to rebut such a load of drivel, but i have a bit of extra time this morning and i'm just high enough to waste that time in such an intellectual exercise.
Quote Originally Posted by Galaxy
Marijuana is a gateway drug, leads to delinquency and would become a great problem for young people, those who oppose its legalization maintain.
i just love the gateway argument. its false logic lies in the fact that any action may be seen to lead to any other action. cars lead to accidents, guns lead to shootings, mother's milk leads to heroin, life leads to death. if we consider only the worst possible outcomes to all our choices, we will find ourselves unable to rise from our beds each morning for fear of sparking some genocidal rampage by our least little action.

how foolish it is to believe that we can protect ourselves from error by refusing to act at all or, even worse, by limiting the freedom to act with a series of nonsensical regulations. our children realize this as well or even better than their parents. childhood is filled with those moments of stretching the boundaries and drug use is no exception. laws do not inhibit experimentation, they merely provide another boundary to test. delinquency needs no excuse, its roots lie in the apathy of parents and the incompetence of a failing educational system.

In California, where marijuana is legal for medical purposes in some cities, crime rates are still worrisome.

â??There is an increased aggressiveness among criminals,â? Oâ??Connor said. â??They rob these stores for the product. Or, they rob people for the legal drug profits. Criminals will just wait for pot to become legal, and theyâ??ll just continue to rob.â?
the real point is that "they'll just continue to rob", that's just what some people do. thefts aren't committed because of their illegality, but for the profit. the huge profitability of dealing in illegal commodities makes them a prime target for theft. the argument makes no more sense than banning the sale of electronics or jewelry because they too are so often stolen.

Life on roadways would suffer, too. Law enforcement at all levels fight daily the problem of drivers who abuse alcohol. Drivers who abuse marijuana would worsen the problem.
heaven forbid that we should handicap law enforcement by actually asking them to do their job.

â??Nicotine doesnâ??t impair judgment like marijuana does,â? Tyler said. â??Itâ??s a concern for young people. Personally speaking, not speaking as a district attorney, I side toward it being illegal. I believe it poses a health risk and poses the greatest risk to young people.â?
nicotine may not impair judgment, but it does kill. as a life-long smoker, i can honestly say that i would rather my son smoked weed than cigarettes. i would rather he lived a long life with occasional bouts of euphoria than died at an early age, gasping for breath and coughing up what remained of his lungs.

â??The issue that concerns me most,â? Ure said, â??is whatâ??s next? If society legalizes this particular drug, then what drug is next and where do we stop.â?
where do we stop, indeed? should we actually ask that our citizens choose their paths for themselves or are we all just children to be controlled by an ever more intrusive government? the ethical development of a society might best be determined by the number of regulations needed to keep it from self-destructing and it seems we are increasingly underdeveloped. each year we see more and more laws needed to keep the population under control. our moral growth is stunted by this increasing dependence on government for guidance. why not just hand over our lives to the police state and embrace the totalitarian bureaucracy as necessary for our survival?