Cannabis

First paragraph: So, if your saying you would legalise it but ban it from public places, I don't know if I would go so far as to ban it from public places, but I would not take up arms against you so too speak. But may I say a point on the smoking in public places. Firstly, it depends how far you go. Not being able to smoke outside almost anywhere is a bit too far for me. Parks, the street and walking paths in my opinion should be smokeable. I understand your point about second hand Highs and the smell of smoke. Second hand highs however are not a realistic concept, I don't want to be too blunt but they simply don't happen. Not unless you stay in a sealed of room and sat with someone who was smoking heavily for at least 20 minuets, and i would imagine it would be unnoticeable. We probably get higher of car fumes and the alcohol in some chocolates than we would of second hand smoke, it is simply not real. You say you don't like the smell of smoke, well I get that but let's be honest, we don't live in a perfect world. I get offended every time I see an advert, a boy band, a modern pop video, a story about how some of our goods are obtained. I get annoyed when the phone rings when I'm relaxing or when I'm forced to watch loads of adverts before a video. Life, in a society of 60million (talking about UK here) is going to get a bit cramped and conflict will occur. You may have to put up with smelling smoke now and again when outside your own home and in the public places, but cannabis smokers have to put up with being put in jail, have their jobs taken of them, having to creep away and hide outside in the cold, feeling like a bum, just to smoke their ganja. One must weigh up the costs and pro's. Is it more justified to ruin people's lives because they chose weed as their drug of choice, or more justified to allow a practice that will result in some people, from time to time, being able to smell smoke? Also, one is forced to smoke cannabis in their home if it is banned from all public places, this causes second hand smoke for family members and children and so should not be brought in. Outside, the smoke dissipates and is to sparse to cause any significant or noticeable effects. I know what you mean about children seeing people hitting a bong in a public place, maybe only joints should be allowed in public places. But either way, you cannot wish to shelter your children forever and there is much worse that can happen to them. Also, the T.V is littered with with alcohol adds that actually tell people that to be cool, attractive, successful and happy, they should drink. I know we are mutually wholeheartedly against this, and we are also are in agreement that we don't want children exposed to drugs. But I would argue that it is okay to let people smoke a joint in a park or on the street, as not letting them seems too authoritarian and controlling to me. Given that, in a town, a person might have to walk 4miles to get to a non-public place that is nearly always just private farmland or a main road with no side-walk. Their only other alternative maybe to smoke it indoors (though practically all rented places are smoke-free now) and he may have children in there anyways. Who, as a result of being indoors, will get worse second hand smoke than people outdoors! So you see the dilemma would face people who smoked something that was banned in public places? This, too me, is far worse than smelling smoke. Apart from all that however, the government has no right in a free society to punish people for smoking cannabis. It is not a matter of 'occasional smelling of smoke by others' or 'their own good' or whether its bad for health or not, it is a matter of rights and freedom. I am not against the banning of certain things for our own good, though I do question it sometimes, such as the banning of heroine. But only in the most extreme circumstances. I am almost tired of going through the findings that show cannabis to be less addictive than caffeine, less physically harmful (by a long way) than caffeine, not at all a causer of psychosis and all in all a drug that typically makes one hungry, happy and sleepy. Like any substance, continuous use for many years can have an effect but so can any substance abuse (food). Govern't should focus on the factors that lead people to abuse drugs Last paragraph: Im afraid I must disagree with this argument. As an 8 year smoker of cannabis, and that means 8 years of moving in these circles, I can say with certainty that cannabis is not laced with 'other drugs'. Why would somebody put a valuable substance onto an already valuable substance that would not increase the cost? Cocaine is cocaine, and when people buy it, they know what they want and they get it. When somebody is selling both cannabis and cocaine they sell them separately, mixing most certainly never happens. (It may happen with white powder drugs or drugs in a pill form, and cannabis may be 'sprayed' with glass to make it look more quality. But this kind of thing (wrong, but very rare on cannabis anyway) is done with many products legally in the capitalist market. Cannabis is not laced with other drugs but the gateway drug theory doesn't regard this as the cause anyway. It believes that, like you said, that it 'leads on the harder drugs' and 'when you move up the hallucinogens you move up to real drugs'. This brings me on to my next paragraph. I don't know what evidence there is to support this idea, I think it is just a theory made by the government or other institution, who's members probably have never moved in these circles and never 'lived it' so to speak, that being the life of a smoker. The argument is so weak (don't take this personally, it is an argument that has been used many times before) that I don't fully know how to approach dismantling it. But here we go: supposing that evidence showed that people who take cannabis are more likely to do harder drugs in their life. This does not mean cannabis led to the harder drugs, it merely shows that the kind of people who take harder drugs are more likely to have smoke cannabis. There are also reasons why those people who smoke weed may do other illegal drugs. This is because they are illegal, and this fact promotes harder drug use in two ways: 1, access. If your the kind of person who knows drug dealers, you will have more access to these drugs. 2, Because cannabis is illegal, it tends to be the lower-classes that use it. These people are much more likely to be in a culture of drug use, unhealthiness and criminality. Because of their typical characteristics these people are drawn to use cannabis, possibly because they disregard the law more than the typical middle-class person, and the law is what stops most people from using it. However, this distorts the figures and gives the impression that cannabis use leads to harder drugs, depression and other negative qualities typically associated with 'lower-class' people. Also, when somebody smokes cannabis he/she wonders: 'if they have lied to me about this-what else are they lying about!?'. And they would not be foolish to think such things, ecstasy and LSD for example are much less harmful and dangerous than alcohol, and its not at all crazy to want to experience that conscious level at least once in your life. I guarantee that most of the good music we have been blessed with would not have been had those individuals not used drugs, at least it would not have been the same. The founder of apple smoked weed his whole life and still smokes a joint a day (don't know how true that is). Sorry I when of topic then, maybe that was a little inappropriate lol, right, back to serious debate. Immersing yourself in a sub culture of drug taking and law breaking is the reason people get onto harder drugs. Cannabis is NOT a gateway drug. NO WAY, much evidence supports this if you look at the more recent articles, not that there was any evidence to prove otherwise in the first place!