I'm a firm believer that too much of anything (except moderation) is bad for you.  But, I understand what you're saying.

I so love talking about this topic. But, due to the nature of this forum, it may be a TOS violation so I'll stay reserved here due to so many variables and just say this....

One of the things I most miss in my life (besides my mom and those that I've lost) is smoking weed. I've not written a good song since. LMAO! That said, I don't miss the eating binges, I don't miss being paranoid, I don't miss the slight memory loss I experienced etc etc.

I'd absolutely hate to have an entire country of legal stoners behind the wheels of cars, in the work-place, dealing with them on the phone and just dealing with people with glassy eyes and dopey conversation delivery in general. No offense to those of you who are into this...just sharing my experience. Some DO handle it well.

Even those who like to consider themselves "under control with it"...reaction time is proven to be way off from when you're straight as well as other things. Though this would be good for making money for the country and may stop some issues, it brings on other issues that I sincerely feel we should never be faced with.

As much as I used to love it and even miss it to this day, if I had to vote on it, I'd vote no for legalizing it. And this is coming from a dude that smoked for a long time, smoked himself straight, smoked enough to burp smoke and give an entire room a contact high as well as someone that misses the taste so bad, I can't be around anyone smoking it in fear I'd want a hit.

As for polls...8 out of 10 times, I believe they are marketing ploys or ways of intimdating the public that people pay for. From presidential polls to everything else, none of them matter to me. No one has ever called me and asked my opinion and if they did, I wouldn't give it to them anyway. The only polls that matter are the ones we go to when we have to vote on something for REAL. :)

-Danny

Do you ever wonder, how and why those times happened and then closed. Generations of people were left digging for that combination of society and chemistry.

NORML says that 59% are in favor of legalization, I know I am.
http://blog.norml.org/2012/10/24/59-of-all-americans-want-marijuana-to-be-legalized/
I am well past the "party" years but I would love to be able to use it to help with pain relief.... and I am REALLY offended that anyone would presume to tell me that as a human being, a resident of this planet, that I cannot grow and/or use any plant that grows here. To me, that is an inherent right... and that goes for the "other" plants too. They just do not have the moral authority to tell people what they can and cannot use from all the things that grow here. I can see restrictions of animals or plants that are endangered, but in that case growing or raising more should always be considerd to be a good thing.
I am on the side of freedom.... and while I am at it, why can I brew my own beer, make my own wine, but not distill my own whiskey? Well, the truth be known... I can. They sell a distiller for "other purposes" at the local "make your own beer and wine store". The guy told me straight up, on FB, that it can easily be converted to a small batch pot still. I am thinking abut getting one... I am sick and tired of over reaching government and you only live once... and it is funny that youshould post this. I finally, this afternoon, said to myself... what the heck, and wrote a letter to my congressman explaining my situation and asking him to take another honest look at the legalization of MJ. I am sure it will go nowhere, but I am going to start giving to NORML and doing what I can. I am sick of having to use new meds with a list of possible side effects as long as my arm.. and getting half arse results. It is simply offensive to me.

Do you know why marijuana was made illegal?? It was because DuPont came up with the synthetic fibers, nylon, rayon, etc and they mounted a campaign to portray MJ as the "Assassin of Youth" as a horrible drug. Their true purpose was to limit or completely eliminate competition from hemp. They did the exact same thing with freon when their patent ran out. Freon would have become REALLY cheap and would have had enormous benefit in 3rd world countries, not to mention cheaper A/C here.. BUT... DuPont began to push a "hole in the ozone layer" story and once again it's purpose was not about warming or ecology but was to eliminate freon so they could sell their new refridgerant with no competition from generic freon. These things really infuriate me... and then there is the ethanol in gasoline thing. You get worse gas mileage, the price of corn goes up for everyone because we are putting it in our gas tanks instead of our mouths and the people who suffer most are the poorest people in the world... and it is ALL for one purpose... to get the votes of the farmers in the midwest.It is EVIL... all of it is completely EVIL... I guess this is the last thing you would expect to hear from a conservative, but I do have strong libertarian leanings.
 
As I have gotten older I can see why young people are so idealistic and why older people are so cynical. I am sorry, it just boils over now and again.

Maybe I need a haircut...

J

Well Im all for it on the Medical Side.  

The problem I see with this is the ones pushing to get it that really have no medical issue to get a card authorized.

From what I hear from my close friends in their 50s-60s, there is no way they can even sleep without it.  Being federal I cannot take it for my bone and skin problems and the way my friends beg me to push to get it-I wish I could just try it to see the benefits for me would be like.  The good side for me would be a major reduction in RX meds that are destroying my liver.  Now for the problem of loosing all feeling below the belt line, there isnt no help there  I just go down like a sack of taters LMAO
But eliminating pain and being able to actually get some sleep would be awesome.

So for the medical side, the job it would create, the revenues it would generate for our communities, etc... I say "YES"   But control it  

My grass needs cutting...I put in some sod while my wife was away as a surprise...but then my mower had to be fixed...the throttle cable sheared off at the control box...and now it's raining again...dern... my poor ol neighbors!

It's all gotten too dangerous to mess with for me. The warring drug mobs, the DEA, what a mess of conflicts.

It's a ball politicians love to keep in play.
 
Possession and personal use should be decriminalized for that reason alone.

Honestly, i dont think it has anything to do with great government conspiracies and thinys like that.

The reality is, and this is true of booze too ... most people cant handle it. I cant. I love it, but i just cant do it on a regular basis the same way i can have a drink. 

i cant/wont do it at all any more. And i can honestly say, the people ive known who do it on a regular basis and yell they want it legalized, are just self medicating to dull some other thing going on inside.

yes, there are alwayw exceptions to that, but the overwhelming majority of people i know that do it have deeper issues.

I grew up in a household in which hashish was liberally smoked by both parents and all of their friends. In turn, I became part of a social circle in which everyone smoked it, and all of their parents too. In short, it was a world in which we didn't really know anyone who didn't smoke it. I think when you're in that kind of environment (and a lot of people are), it's hard to imagine that so many people could be against it, or that so many people have never actually tried it. But I guess those people exist in droves. 

The funny thing is, now, as me and my friends reach the age of 40, almost everyone has stopped smoking it or cut down dramatically. My dad sometimes has a smoke on special occasions. If I'm at a New Year's party and someone passes me a joint, what the heck. I don't really drink either but you have to let your hair down occasionally. I think what happened is that when we were younger and with fewer responsibilities, we thought it was some kind of wonder drug without any negative consequence whatsoever, just a big bag of positive. Then as we got older we started to see the ways in which a daily habit can hold you back in so many ways. In my case I realized that it made me lazy, disorganized and overemotional. It also began to effect my lungs in a bad way, so I cut it out 10 years ago and have never regretted it. 

BUT...even though we have mostly put the weed to one side, I still don't know anyone who doesn't support the legalization of it. However I think it's romanticized too much. It's not a wonder drug and it won't cure everything. Tommy Chong has cancer and he thinks he's going to beat it by smoking more weed. Good luck to the guy