Anybody got a stance on legalization of pot?

[blithe spirit]

It's a ballot initiative this year in FL...for medical purposes.
I've been reading articles about the Colorado and Washington efforts and how it's working so far.
I know our FL Attorney General says even though the states legalize it it's still illegal because of the laws at the national level...and those who want to peddle it are no better than a common drug pusher on the street. This woman pisses me off so much...
I downloaded several petitions to get it on the ballot and have gotten four pages signed by voters just right around here which is a pretty conservative area. So my stance is it's time to get over the reefer madness movie and all the propaganda over the years.
I know there are legitimate medical reasons for folks to use it...nobody has ever died from a overdose...unlike all the other drugs big pharma has contocted for us...certainly safer than alcohol and all the other illegal substances for those have that desire to go that route to death.
What's your take on it? Think folks where you live might support it?

[Snagg]

I don't even get high, and I'm in favor of legalization - If only for the huge financial results; No more pissing away billions in tax dollars on a losing battle against an in-demand commodity - Prohibition NEVER works, it just makes the wrong people rich.

As for the ethics of the gov't regulating a mind or mood-altering substance...The simple truth is that some people are just going to over-do EVERYTHING, and it doesn't matter if it's pot, booze, No-Doz, "Charles In Charge" re-runs or chocolate chip cookies - and I sure don't see anybody demanding that the Big Bad Government step in and criminalize any of those...

I'm not saying that everything should be legalized - There is NO "good side" to, say, heroin - But something as basically harmless as pot, which was criminalized mainly because that infamous scumbag William Randolph Hearst was covering his million-dollar investments in wood-pulp timber against a new, cheaper form of newsprint derived from hemp - I just don't see any sensible reason to keep it illegal.

In fact, I think that the hullabaloo over pot legalization has been a handy distraction from a debate over something that SHOULD be restricted and closely controlled: Campaign Finance. Unaccountable, untraceable millions and millions of dollars...Now THERE's a dangerous drug.

[T2Friends]

I couldn't agree more.

[dwalt]

Well it is legal here and we have pot shops on almost every corner it seems.  Right now they are only for "medical" sales but I think in July it will be sold to anyone. Where I work you better not touch it.   Automatic suspension the first time, termination if it happens again.

If I wasn't working I'd try it for the back pain I have.

[blithe spirit]

"‎Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye can see." ― Thomas Jefferson

[frenchy]

duhhh .. what was the question ...  

[dwalt]

Anyone got cheetos???

[blithe spirit]

and yeah...and grape koolaid to wash them down.

[Snagg]

I know dozens of people who get high. Not one purse snatcher or mugger or convenience store robber in the bunch. 99.9% working folk, several 30-year plus careerists and a few who worked long enough and hard enough at respectable jobs to retire with a decent pension and medical benefits package.

A few are worthless freeloading bums, but I'm pretty sure that they'd be worthless freeloading bums whether they were stoned or not. I've known them when they were stone cold sober and they weren't worth a shit then, either. And those are the ones who were kicked off of welfare and other safety-net services years ago - They get by one way or another, but not one of 'em has the gumption or motivation to risk something as potentially damaging as a robbery or a purse snatching.

As you said - They're too nice and mellow to stick a gun in somebody's face or knock a little old lady to the ground for her purse. You're thinking of users of heavy-duty narcotics and drunks.

[Snagg]

...Do you mean, "how do UNemployed people get 'the pot' ?"

I'm not certain on this, but I'm pretty sure that legal, medically-prescribed pot shows up differently in drug tests than common street-grade crap - Which will mean that folks who are using it on a doctor's recommendation may not be fired, like a recreational user would. Let alone the fact that they would be able to produce the necessary medical paperwork that would also exonerate them.

[blithe spirit]

I saw on the news this morning that over a million signatures have been turned in so it will be on the ballot in FL.

[dwalt]

No, I work HR  (imagine that) and if you are drug tested and test positive you get suspended the first time, canned if it happens again.  It is legal here and we have already busted one person.

[crestofwaves]

If it's legal, people shouldn't be drug tested for it.  Like alcohol, if they show up to work high or drunk, I can absolutely see canning them, but if they drink or smoke pot on their own time, how is it the company's business?