On Wednesday, May 4, 2005, at 08:35 AM, Jason Samuels wrote:
Jason Samuels responds:
First off those layers of responsibility are already well defined in the
ways we handle other legal drugs. And regulating marijuana would take away a
whole host of police responsibilities now inherent with prohibition's
enforcement.
Second, arguing that legal marijuana would pose additional health issues to
the system ignores the fact that it's already widely used. So those costs
are already here, and arguably they are less mitigated than they would be in
a legal market. The prime examples of this are numerous non-smokable methods
of ingesting the drug which could be encouraged under a regulated market. As
for whether legalizing marijuana would lead to greater use, we could argue
ad infinitum about this point, but the Dutch experience would suggest that
it would not in the long term.
It is curious to me that my comments are taken as opposition to legalizing marijuana use. I've said nowhere that this is my position. I have tried to add observations, opinion, and comment on the pros and cons. I've not taken a position.
The polarities are evident in today's Strib piece on marijuana use research.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5383913.html
Please continue discussing, but try to avoid putting me in a category for convenience. The topic is much more complex than that.
Best wishes,
Laura
Laura Waterman Wittstock Minneapolis, MN 612-387-4915 www.laurawatermanwittstock.com http://laurawatermanwittstock.blogspot.com/
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