11 Responses

1. Marijuana should be legalized by now. If the alcohol prohibition was ended when will the weed prohibition end. It was made illegal due to racist ignorant white politicians in a segregated time period. Marijuana is “devils lettuce” in Spanish. Law makers made it illegal because they said it was the reason Hispanics raped white women. Which is an ignorant and completely racist statement. Now its just been put off legalization for pharmaceutical company’s profits. I hate this money driven world we live in and I hope we can use this natural source of relaxation recreationally.

2. Please see Oregon legalizes pot and nobody blinks on Page 2A of Monday, October 12, 2015 issue of USA TODAY http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/10/11/voices-ore-legalizes-pot-and-nobody-cares/73646658/

   It’s no coincidence that the first three states to legalize recreational marijuana use started by legalizing medical marijuana. Over the years, marijuana advocates have made no secret of their “camel’s nose” approach: By cracking the door to medical use and demonstrating that adults can use marijuana safely, pro-legalization groups laid the groundwork for looser laws. Those looser laws haven’t changed life or culture much in Colorado and Washington and are unlikely to do so in Oregon. Are there fears about potential upticks in youth use? Absolutely. Are there concerns some people have ingested too much and needed to be hospitalized? Sure. But there has been no apocalypse. By and large, life in Colorado is pretty much the same as it was prelegalized pot.

3. If it is legal to own something so deadly as a gun, why can`t it be legal for someone to enjoy sitting back with some pot. Isn`t that what freedom is all about. I would rather know my drunken neighbor crazy Eddie,is loading up his pot pipe as opposed to his AK15.

4. Seriously, why don’t we finally take advantage of this opportunity by legalizing and help our states providing them/us the revenue badly needed in order to eliminate our deficit and balance a budget. Let’s start by fixing and improving our transportation infrastructure (Creating jobs) among a list of many other needs of this state and others. Is it only apparent to me that we as a society are living by the rules and lies that were established back in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
   OK let’s look at it from what it is and will be if we keep opposing the legalization and control of marijuana in our states. The current dealers will continue business as usual, we will continue to waste lawful resources on nonsense that’s needed elsewhere while ruining the lives of good people along the way. Fact: “Many citizens will continue to obtain and smoke marijuana regardless of the wrongful laws in place.” During all this waste, some of those opposing legalization in key positions will go home close their doors and smoke marijuana in secret.
   Bottom line here “Let’s use the intelligence God gave us, come out of the closets helping ourselves medically & recreationally giving the majority of our citizens what they need/want!” At least those willing to support and admit it aloud!
   Here’s another thought, what happened to “By The People For The People!” Who the hell is in charge of this Great Nation? Please vote for better leaders, leaders that truly care and are willing to support the people of this nation not out for their own political gains and careers. Leaders if your reading this please grow a set and make a positive difference in this Nation or do something else for a living.

5. I have no problem with medical use of pot if it’s prescribed by a doctor for specific ailments and the patient’s health is monitored, like with any other drug.

   I have no problem with decriminalizing possession of small amounts (a few joints) for personal use, and having no more than a small fine ($10/joint) or something like open-container rule for alcohol if joint is lit. Anyone arrested/convicted/jailed for small possession should be released. This would save a lot of money for not only the courts/taxpayers, but save kids from getting jail or a record and their lives ruined.

   Possession of large quantities with intent to sell still should make you a drug dealer, and subject to standard penalties.

   I think these steps should be implemented before considering full legalization and selling pot like alcohol or like in Colorado. The argument of “selling pot will bring in a lot of revenue” is insufficient for the state to replace drug dealers and selling pot themselves under essentially the same justification.

   Observer #2-

   Two points:
   1) After Colorado “won” on the argument about how great legalization of pot was, they worked to defeat similar measures in neighboring states. Because, the “principle” took a back seat when they wanted to cut out competition and have a monopoly

   2) While I agree that the state store system provides an existing framework and infrastructure, this is going to create the problem of more people mixing pot and alcohol. Mixing alcohol and drugs is a bad and putting them both in the same store is asking for trouble.
   The argument that pot is better than alcohol contains the false assumption that people will substitute pot for alcohol, rather than add it to alcohol, for the worst of both worlds.

6. And it should NOT be sold in state stores, just like alcohol shouldn’t be.

7. Prohibition was the greatest policy failure in US history. John Q. Taxpayer does not get his money’s worth out of locking people up for nonviolent, victimless crimes like recreational marijuana. If not full legalization, decriminalization should happen immediately.

8. Observer #2: You make a good argument for keeping the State Stores. Just diversify their product lines. Adds to revenue stream and could permit other tax cuts.

   Now try to sell that to the GOP. Won’t happen, unless you agree to destroy the union at State Stores. GOP is more interested in imposing their rightwing “values” on everybody else than in governing the Commonwealth responsibly.

9. I just read that marijuana tax revenue in Colorado now exceeds taxes collected from alcohol. “Freedom Fighter’s” stats above are compelling. And, “Observer” makes a very good point about PA’s need for alternate sources of revenue and that a safe, secure, state store system is already in place to distribute marijuana. Time to legalize!

10. It’s gonna happen eventually – you dinosaurs are dying off fast.

    Here’s another, very timely reason: Colorado made so much in tex revenue off MJ sales that they had to stop collecting the tax for a while. In Oregon, where it just began last month, tax receipts are running at triple the rate that was expected. Let’s see, which local state could use a new, reliable, and large stream of tax revenue? Maybe one that doesn’t have a budget? Maybe one that already has a government-controlled retail distribution system in place (state stores)? Nah, couldn’t be Pennsylvania, we’re too dumb for anything that sensible.

11. Cannabis is not harmless, but by comparison to alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical drugs, serial killers which cause the death of over 650,000 Americans every year, it is way less dangerous.

    All the data needed to make an informed decision on cannabis legalization can be found at the CDC web site. Nothing complicated or hard to understand.

    Figures directly from the CDC dot gov web site on numbers of deaths per year in the USA.

    * Prescription Drugs: 237,485 + 5000 traffic fatalities
    * Tobacco: 390,323
    * Alcohol: 88,013 + 16,000 traffic fatalities
    * Cocaine: 4,906
    * Heroin: 3,365
    * Aspirin: 466
    * Acetaminophen (Tylenol): 179
    * Marijuana: 0, none, not a single fatal overdose in all medical history and almost no traffic problems.

    So, which is safer????

    Legalize it, regulate it, TAX it!