What are your opinions on Colorado and its legal marijuana? positives / negatives ?

My opinion is it is WAAAY too early to say anything one way or the other I think it is going to take years to determine the actual pros and cons of this experiment. While there is a lot of promise for this to swell tax coffer not only with taxes but possible savings on drug enforcement there is also a good chance:

1) Colorado law now allows adult 21 or older to grow up to 6 plants for personal use if enough people decide to illegally sell their personal pot it will undercut the tax base and force the state to step up $$$enforcement$$$.

2) If use in "minors" (anyone under 21) skyrockets this will also create a need for increased $$$enforcement$$$. The fact young adults can legally grow pot could be VERY problematic for the State if these same young adults decide to illegally sell to their under aged brothers, sisters and friends things could go south pretty quick. There is going to be a huge demand from the minor population and if "legal" pot is illegally filling it the Feds might decide the party is over.

3) There are TONS of medical marijuana dispensaries that are going out of business because they can't use bankruptcy protection to reorganize. This is because bankruptcy is only handled in Federal court were pot is still very illegal. It is also next to impossible to get bank loans for an illegal operation (under federal law) they won't lend under those conditions this limits people to personal loans that ruin them, not the business if things go south. If the industry is to survive at the state level they will need to organize and open their own banks and find a way to extend some sort of bankruptcy protection to their members.

http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2012/06/13/judge-p...

http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2012/05/04/debtor-...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2012/07/13...

http://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/top-emergi...

4) Another issue with financing is EVERY source is investigated so as to exclude criminal elements getting involved in the industry. This means people can't get money from people with criminal records AND it means people with criminal backgrounds are excluded from EVERY aspect of the legal industry so once again this creates a subculture that will be looking to undercut the tax base, deal to minors and increase enforcement cost.

5) Lots of people try to compare pot to alcohol when it comes to misuse in minors BUT there is a huge difference and the difference is most people don't see alcohol as a drug but most adults consider marijuana a drug and a good portion see it as an illegal drug they REALLY don't want their kid doing.

I wish Colorado well. In Montana the people voted in a medical marijuana law. There were pot shops every where. It made lots of jobs. It allowed those under age to get marijuana. The legislature changed the laws. The Feds raided growers.

We need marijuana regulated and sold to adults. Taxes must be paid. It must be grown domestically by legal, regulated growers. It can not continue to be sold in schools by criminals and provided by cartels south of the border.

Sounds good to me. Colorado is going to get hundreds of millions in tax money. Once the rest of the states and the feds see this, marijuana will be legal everywhere.

Which sucks since it will raise the prices and weed isn't even criminalized in my state anyway.

@mark h I know a guy who threw his life away because he worked out too much, got obsessed, lost his job, dumped his wife and lives alone, but has a great job.

Should we outlaw working out now?

One of my best friends in high school, who was very bright when we were younger, threw his future and everntually his life away on marijuana.

I watched a very bright young man get stupider and lazier over our high school career.

He passed away a number of years ago due to drug overdose.

And the way I know this is wrong is I never met one person who looked at my friend and said something like, "good for him that he is doing so many drugs, he knows what he likes and he is not hurting anyone."

It was always the opposite which is that they would examine his drug use and expressed concern for his health and safety.

As far as I am concerned there are no positives to advocating or contributing to the distribution of such harmful substances.

I do know some, who really think that we need reliable ways of weeding out parts of the population that they do not consider "valuable" and that this kind of "liberty" is just the way to do it, but I have far too much compassion to think this way.

Your mileage may vary, but I want to give people better chances to be successful than this tactic does.

Hope that helps.

it really needs to happen nationwide, i commend colorado for being the guinea pigs for important social change.

mark h- there is no effective lethal dosage for marijuana. makes it awfully hard to overdose on.

also:

"I do not some, (sic) who really think that we need reliable ways of weeding out parts of the population that they do not consider "valuable" and that this kind of "liberty" is just the way to do it, but I have far too much compassion to think this way. "

exactly how marijuana is being used right now, selectively enforced to send poor people to prison. meanwhile, our last 3 presidents with their rich families smoked pot and did just fine.

Personally, I believe that marijuana should not be smoked, but I also don't believe that our government should decide that for everyone.

Location of legalization is irrelevant. I think the world will follow in the foot steps of prohibition.

...Or at least I pray ta god!

The feds need to de-criminalize it. By downgrading it from narcotic. When bush was in office he just had them raided.

Don't care.

Prohibition Statistics

• Prison Population (BBC 2006)

-United States: 2,193,798 (overall population 313,900,000)

-China: 1,548,498 (overall population 1,344,130,000)

-Russia: 874,161

-Brazil: 371,482

• Alcohol Prohibition (MSNBC)

A) Arrests for drunkenness and disorderly conduct up 41%

B) Homicides, Assaults, and batteries up 13%

C) Number of Federal convicts up 561%

D) Federal Prison Population up 366%

E) Total spending on penal institutions up 1,000%

Host "We have the same exact kind of enormous jumps in incarceration, crime, and prison expenditure under this current pot prohibition."

• Each year the United States spends 350 billion dollars on the war on drugs.

• On any given day in the United States 1 in 9 African American males between the ages of 20 and 34 is incarcerated.

• Mexico declares war on drug cartels in December of 2006 (BBC)

A) 2006: 270 drug related deaths

B) 2009: 16,337 drug related deaths

• Judge Jim Gray (Reason TV)

- Stated In 1990 we were only half as successful in prosecuting homicides as we were in 1980 due to the Reagan administration ratcheting up the drug war. This due to prosecutorial resources being devoted to drug related "offenses".

- In Holland marijuana use is legal for everyone 16 and older. Coffee shops include marijuana. The minister of health recently held a press conference in which he stated that marijuana use within his country was half that of the United States both for adults and teenagers. He claimed that they had succeeded in making pot "boring".

• Drug offenders in prisons and jails have increased 1,100% since 1980. Nearly 6 in 10 persons in prison for a drug offense have no history of violence or high-level drug selling activity (November Coalition)

• According to the UN, drug prohibition has seen increases in the use of opiates, cocaine and marijuana to the effect of

-Opiates 34%

-Cocaine 27%

-Marijuana 8.5% (Worldwide presumably. CNN)

• According to DEA: (Google Tech Talks)

- 4 million drug users in 1965 (2% of overall population)

-112 million drug users in 2003 (46% of overall population)

• Wholesale cocaine costs 60% less / Heroin costs 70% less (Google Tech Talks)

• Heroin overdose rate: (Google Tech Talks)

- 1979 = 28 deaths per 100,000 users

- 2003 = 141 deaths per 100,000 users

• Approximately $30,000 per year per inmate

• 39 Million drug arrests under drug prohibition

• 1914 = 1.3% addicted to drugs/ 2002 = 1.3% addicted to drugs (Google Tech Talks)

• % of crimes resolved by arrest or other means (Google tech talks)

- 1965: Murders 91%

- 2006: Murders 60.7%, Forcible rape 40.9%, Robbery 25.2%, Aggravated Assault 54.0%, Burglary 12.6%, Larceny-theft 17.4%, Motor vehicle theft 12.6%

• Decriminalized Drugs

1. Netherlands 1976

2. Portugal 2001

3. Mexico 2009

4. Argentina 2009

• Marijuana use by tenth graders in Netherlands: 28% / Marijuana use by tenth graders in the United States 41% (Google Tech Talks)

• Marijuana use: U.S. lifetime prevalence = 37% / Netherlands = 17% (Google Tech Talks)

• Heroin Use: U.S. lifetime prevalence = 1.4% / Netherlands = 0.4% (Google Tech Talks)

• After decriminalization, Portugal drug use by ages 13-15 decreased by 25%/ 16-19 decreased by 22%

- Heroin overdose deaths decreased by 52%

- HIV infections reported by drug users decreased by 71% (Google Tech Talks)

• Netherlands homicide rate per 100,00 population: 1.5/ U.S. homicide rate per 100,00 population 5.6 (Google Tech Talks)

• United States imprisons more of its' own population than any country in the history of the world. (TV Show "QI")

Cited video titles are listed as follows:

1. End the Failed War on Drugs -- Cenk on MSNBC

2. Did You Know -- War on Drugs Edition

3. Portugal Legalizes Drugs. Crime Usage Falls.

4. Mexico's War on Drugs: War on Drugs Edition

5. United States of Prison

6. CNN: Time to End the War on Drugs?

7. Drug War Failure in Mexico

8. What Happened When Portugal Decriminalized Drugs?

9. The War on Drugs has Failed

10. Stephen Fry on American Prison Facts

11. Jim Gray on The Six Groups Who Benefit From Drug Prohibition

BBC Prison Statistics: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prison...

Drug Prohibition Statistic Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL970FD94A01...

"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law for nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase in crime in this country is closely connected with this."

-Albert Einstein

"Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very [most basic] principles upon which our government was founded."

- Abraham Lincoln

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQit8wnYpiU (All videos combined into one)