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Yes or No: Legalize Marijuana?


Sideways

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I don't personally like marijuana, but I do think it should be legalized.

I do not, however, support legalizing all drugs. Stuff that puts people so out of it that they can become incredibly violent with zero control of themselves (IE PCP and Crystal Meth) have no business being legally available due to the threat of harm posed to others.

I do question smoked cannabis' medical uses beyond pain management, though. While studies have shown benefits of THC, the concentrations of it are almost always higher than one one get from smoking it. In other words, THC may be pharmacologically useful, but smoking pot won't cure your ailments. In fact, smoking anything is hard on the lungs.

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I do not, however, support legalizing all drugs. Stuff that puts people so out of it that they can become incredibly violent with zero control of themselves (IE PCP and Crystal Meth) have no business being legally available due to the threat of harm posed to others.

I do question smoked cannabis' medical uses beyond pain management, though. While studies have shown benefits of THC, the concentrations of it are almost always higher than one one get from smoking it. In other words, THC may be pharmacologically useful, but smoking pot won't cure your ailments. In fact, smoking anything is hard on the lungs.

I agree. I'm with marijuana legalization on the fact that it doesn't hit that hard in the body as other legal ones. l think the worst thing that happens is that you're inhaling smoke from burning plant matter (which isn't as bad as commercial tobacco, some say). Ohter drugs have no good impact or their bad impact isn't insignificant enough to be deemed safe, so that's pretty illegal IMO.

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It'll be interesting to see the fight come to the Supreme Court as I think this is just the tip of the iceberg.

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It'll be interesting to see the fight come to the Supreme Court as I think this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Why? Any case brought against the DOJ would likely fail in SCOTUS because of the supremacy clause of the Article VI in the Constitution:

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

In plain English, this means when state and federal laws contradict, the federal law wins. So, while a state may legalize marijuana, if the federal government does not, any federal charges brought cannot be dismissed under the state law. It is unlikely any attorney would even make such an argument, and I highly doubt this would even begin to climb the appeal ladder if it was made.

The supreme court cannot just make stuff up out of thin air. It has to find a legal justification for its opinions. Admittedly throughout history there have been cases where the legal justification has been really flimsy, but in this instance the law is pretty clear.

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What I've been hearing is that the states in question will be seeking dispensation to allow their ratifications of state law regarding legalization to trump federal law. While I doubt Supreme Court would be very happy about it, it is becoming increasingly clear that MJ-prohibition is unsuccessful and that dispensation may, in this case, be given.

The flip-side of this is that if states can receive exemptions from the sovereignty of federal law over state law in this case, it could set a worrying precedent where states could receive the same in less sensible situations. So yeah. Strap yourselves in!

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State law used to trump federal, prior to the civil war. Point in fact, the civil war is what largely defined federal law as the supreme law of the united States.

The Supreme Court can always find the illegal status of pot as being unconstitutional; they don't make stuff up, but they do interpret the law, as even law isn't entirely black and white, and things change over time.

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  • 1 month later...

Why and why not...I'm torn.

On one hand, it would destroy the street value.

On the other hand...no...NO THERE IS NNOOO OOOTHERRR HAAAANDD!!!!!

 

*smokes*

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