Support For Marijuana Legalization Is Growing

According to this new Zogby poll support for marijuana legalization is growing. In fact support was quite overwhelming especially considering all of the false anti-marijuana nonsense that people have been force fed over the years (most of what you’ve seen in government sponsored “just say no” ads is nothing but lies and distortions.)

52% of those polled supported marijuana legalization while only 37% were opposed to the idea.

Perhaps Americans are finally ready for “land of the free” to be something more than just a meaningless slogan? And yes, that’s exactly what it is: Until people are allowed to do what they want (when they are not harming anyone else) on their own property this country is not truly free.

As long as people who have never done anything to hurt anyone are spending time in prison with murderers and rapists this country’s “justice system” is nothing but a farce that cannot be truly respected by any thinking individual.

In other good news for proponents of personal freedom: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says it’s time to talk about legalizing pot.

Are you listening President Obama? Do you really want to go down in history as a transformative President? Do your part to bring personal freedom to Americans.

If you support marijuana legalization contact the White House to let them know about it. Even more importantly: Contact your local congressman and your Senators. Contact your local state representatives.

Learn the logical arguments in favor of legalization (and there are many) and share them with your friends and family. Sadly not enough people are moved by the argument for personal freedom (people only seem to start caring about freedom when it’s something that they enjoy that is being made illegal.)

So instead you may want to talk about the fact that billions of dollars are wasted in the “War on Drugs” every year. Bring up the fact legalization has not lead to increased drug use in anywhere it’s been tried (see Portugal.) Bring up the fact that drug use is higher in the United States than in most other countries in spite of much tougher anti drug laws here than in other countries. Bring up the point that police officers would be freed to catch real criminals and prevent real crime if they were not wasting their time and resources on drug enforcement. Bring up the point that by making drugs illegal crime is actually created (just like alcohol prohibition created crime in the 1920s.)

Oh yes, and bring up alcohol prohibition of the 1920s. That correlation should open people’s eyes. Yes your beloved alcohol was once illegal America. For all of the same reasons that marijuana is illegal now. It was wrong then and it’s wrong today.

In all actuality you can make a far better argument for alcohol being illegal than you can for marijuana since alcohol leads to far more fatalities and health problems than have ever been reasonably associated with marijuana use. Drunk people get in fights. Drunk people beat their wives. Drunk people get in cars and kill people. Alcoholism can cause great damage to the body.

On the other hand: Marijuana smokers make great music. Hell, most of the people involved with anything creative in America have at least smoked marijuana on occasion I would be willing to bet. What negative is associated with marijuana? Laziness? Really? First of all that stereotype is crap. And secondly, even if was true: That is not even close to a good rationale for something to be made illegal.

Think about it: “Marijuana makes people lazy.” vs. “CIGARETTES KILL HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS EVERY YEAR.”

It’s completely irrational to think that cigarettes and alcohol should be legal while simultaneously believing marijuana should not. Either you are for full on prohibition of all drugs (in which case you need to find a nice fascist country to live in) or you believe people have the right to do what they want with their own lives when they are hurting absolutely no one.

And certainly you can’t make the “for the good of the public health” argument against marijuana without running into some serious logical road blocks. In fact it makes more sense to make fatty foods illegal than it does to for marijuana to be illegal. After all fatty foods lead to obesity which is a huge public health problem in this country. Hundreds of thousands die and billions of dollars are spent on the health problems associated with obesity every year.

Does anyone want to make donuts and ice cream illegal? No. I certainly don’t. But I think it’s hard to argue against what appears to be an obvious fact that fatty foods are far worse for the nation’s public health than marijuana is. I think the argument that it would be far worse for someone’s health to eat a box of ice cream every day than to smoke a joint every evening is hard to argue against. Yet eating a box of ice cream every night is totally legal.

So what is the argument against marijuana legalization? That old “gateway drug” nonsense? You can make that same argument against alcohol and cigarettes. It’s nonsense. There’s no facts to back it up. A majority of marijuana smokers never move on to more dangerous drugs like meth or heroin. And also very important: Many easily stop smoking marijuana altogether after awhile because of course marijuana (unlike cigarettes & alcohol) is not physically addictive.

There is not a single decent logical argument against marijuana legalization. The only reason anyone is against it is because they simply have not really thought about it.