Sure it does. Breaking the law is simply a system of risk and reward/punishment. There is little to no risk involved in smoking pot and the penalties for doing so are minor. Marijuana laws, as they currently exist for people in terms of personal use, are more like suggestions than anything else. It's fairly comparable to me not 'recognizing' the law that says I can't double park when I'm running in to drop something off. I recognize that the law exists, I don't really care, and I would break it with impunity. So, in the philosophical sense, I don't recognize that it has any authority over me.

I don't smoke pot, myself, but the decision not to has absolutely nothing to do with the law's impotent effort to stop me.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

That's a fair point. Marijuana distorts spatial and time perception, and certainly doesn't make someone better at doing anything. The argument that it makes drivers safer is interesting, but this would likely be due to the paranoia and putzing of stoned drivers as opposed to any actual enhancements of ability to drive the car.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Does not matter what the judge thinks, read up on jury nullification.

Same advice to you, read up on jury nullification. Also the precedent has already been set, take a marijuana possession charge all the way to court instead of pleading guilty and raise a religious use defense and chances are your case will be dropped before you even see the inside of a courtroom.

1: Legalizing marijuana and allowing it to be sold in gas stations and liquor stores (pretty much anywhere other such fine products are sold) would cut down almost entirely on the blackmarket/gang/cartel/drug dealer aspect of pot (which is what is the actual crime). If i can legally buy my 20 sack at the Stop and Rob why am i gonna drag my pasty white ass down to the ghetto at midnight to go pick up some weed? Exactly, I won't.
This will make it harder for young kids to get ahold of weed, since it has been similarly difficult to pick up booze since its been regulated. For example, I'm 19 and i can't pick up a 6 pack of beer without about an hours worth of cajoling and schedule fitting. I however can score coke, pot, acid, etc.. almost on demand were the mood to strike me.
Were one to legalize pot, it follows logically that like alcohol, after being regulated, it would be much harder for someone to get ahold of.

2: Pot has been shown not to lead to cancer, or really harm you in much of anyway other than the inhaltion of smoke (mild bronchitis that goes away if you let your lungs heal). Unlike already legal substances (alcohol:cirrhosis, death, aggression, delusions, physical addiction (only other drug that does this is heroin/morphine/opiates) , tobacco:cancer, death, emphasyma, 2nd and 3rd hand smoke, more addictive than crack cocaine(nicotine is the most addictive substance known to man)), it won't kill you, or make you aggressive or delusional. (New Study: Marijuana Does Not Cause Psychosis, Lung Damage, or Skin Cancer | Stop the Drug War (DRCNet))
The TRUTH: I smoked pot and nobody died.

3: Pot has been clinically shown to reduce nausea and increase appetite in chemotherapy patients, as well as provide a general sense of well being. It works, and it works very well.

4: What right does the government have to make weed illegal if they couldn't make alcohol (a substance that physically addicts you, can easily kill you, and can impair you enough after a single dose to slow your reactions enough to kill someone if you are driving) illegal? Weed is almost innocuous, alcohol can and will kill you. The government has no right to tell me what i can and cannot put into my body, i'm a grown ass man i don't need a babysitter etc.

5: Contrary to popular belief (and i just had to research all this shit for a mandatory drug class i'm taking) pot does not cause irrepairable memory and brain damage. In fact with a cannabanoid derivitive thats about 200% stronger than THC (the active ingriedent in pot) theyve actually stimulated the growth of neurons in the brain. NEW NEURONS. (Heavy Marijuana Use Doesn't Damage Brain)


Theres a good start. I await your rebuttal

except swimming and snowboarding.

edit: and art, and music, and eating, and sex.

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"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." --Thomas Paine

If I recall correctly, the man responsible was also snacking, basically screwing around, not paying attention, i.e., all the things engineers on trains shouldn't be do.

And in 15 years and 100 fatalities you've seen 2 that weren't drug/alcohol related? That pretty much sums up the utter uselessness of prohibition.

I've spent a lot of time around stoners in my life. There's no question that they think it makes them better at doing things, but it just makes the things that they're doing worse entertain them more (except eating - I'll give you that one )

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

it is a scientific fact that if you smoke enough weed you are guaranteed to win at least one gold medal in either of the first two events i mentioned.

oh and it definitely makes you better at sex. that's a fact, jack.

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"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." --Thomas Paine

lol... I'll withhold my opinion on which drugs improve sexual performance and which don't.

But, the swimming? Probably. Well, provided you offer up some lame 'apology' to please your publicist afterward.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Oh, I beg to differ.

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"You know you were way too high when you wake up next to a handwritten list of all the things you would do for a Klondike bar." - Unknown

"What happens if a big asteroid hits Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad." - Dave Barry

So you think that legalizing mj will by cause and effect end traffic fatalities? It's my perception based on experience that it won't. People will always find a way to kill themselves {and others} whether pot is legal or not. As far as the train wreck, I can't prove that being high was the cause of the crash, and neither can you prove that it wasn't. It certainly was a contributing factor.

Nah - she just tells you that to make you feel better. She prefers it with me when I'm sober. Honest. I've got the videos to prove it.

Just playin - but seriously - if you have proof for this claim, I'd like to see it.

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In case you were wondering, yes, there really ARE more idiots these days....technology has made natural selection obsolete.

Silence is golden...Duct tape is silver.

Well that is the problem drug tests, test for metabolites, not impairment. So if they fail a drug test that means they used within a few hours to a few days prior to the accident. We need to have a more pragmatic approach and use blood tests with a per se limit on THC based on the scientific evidence. Or even cheaper and more certain, eye tracking impairment testing.

I have heard evidence for both, as an aphrodisiac in some people and impotence in others. I have never had a problem with it.

No, of course not. Why would you think I hold that position?Which then leads to the question, why is it's legal status even brought up at all in issues like traffic accidents (or any kind of accident)?So might have been too tight underwear, or the fight with his wife he'd might have had w/his wife before his shift, etc....