Arnold says, "Time for a talk about marijuana"

Thanks, asha. It sounds like you have a good pragmatic grasp of the issues. It may be reasonable to acknowledge that Governor S (the Arnold) may be standing for the right and the advancement of the work of righteousness in taking this position.

It also occurs to me perhaps this thread is not very reassuring to our traditional loved ones that we are above reproach in our indivituative or universalizing faith. Moderators, feel free to delete if asha doesn’t mind. Sometimes I don’t know what gets into me. Have I no sense of the place?

As a member of the Church, I oppose legalization of marijuana for anything other than as a prescription medicine.

As a citizen who wants consistency of regulation, I don’t want marijuana to be illegal and alcohol to be legal.

I’m totally at peace taking two different stances and don’t feel hypocritical in the slightest about it.

I’m with asha and hawkgrrrl except I’m would be even more liberal about it. The culture surrounding illegal drugs is very dangerous, and threatens the people involved in the culture, as well as innocent bystanders. I say not only do we make it legal, but we stick our pharmaceutical companies on it, develop “safer” drugs (not the hard ones) with dosage amounts, clean ingredients etc. and then tax the heck out of it. Furthermore, our prison problems would be dramatically reduced (at least in CA), and we would save a ton of money in that regard. The benefits of legalizing marijuana far outweigh the demonstrable negative consequences.

I am very opposed (if you couldn’t already tell) to passing any legislation that dictates what people can and can’t do unless there is very strong evidence that it directly impacts other innocent bystanders (like it directly hurts other people, etc.). I am opposed to making legislation based on moral grounds like pornography, homosexuality, drugs, alcohol, smoking, etc. If someone can show that those directly have a negative effect on someone other than the consumer then we ought to consider legislation.

Part of this stems from my opinion of the government’s role in our life. I’m waxing a bit political here but in my opinion our gov’t needs to butt out of our lives, and by extension the lives of people I don’t necessarily agree with (who choose to engage in pornography, adultery, drugs, alcohol, and other social ills at their own expense).

“I teach the people correct principles and let them govern themselves” is one of the most brilliant statements ever coined, and one for which I greatly respect Joseph Smith. Too bad we don’t follow it more in gov’t and even in the church.

However, I must say, that I am adamant against drunk driving and anything else that puts innocent bystanders in harms way. I just don’t think the answer is legislation.

Fwiw, I’d much rather decriminalize use than send troops into foreign countries to wage war over it.

I think all drugs should be de-criminalized. Locking people in prison for self-medicating not only destroys their life (makes it so much worse), but also denies them access to the correct help they need. The “War on Drugs” makes the illegal drug industry super-profitable, which makes huge incentives for people to be in that business. Marijuana is a weed that grows anywhere and everywhere in the US (and probably Europe too, I don’t know). The DEA spends millions of dollars a year just trying to control “ditch weed” that spontaneously sprouts up all over the place. How much money would you need if you wanted to buy a bag of dried dandelions from your neighbor? LOL. That’s how you kill drug trafficing permanently as a violent, high-profit business .

I smoked pot a few times as a teenager. I also did LSD a couple times in those days of my youth. In my opinion, LSD is a dangerous drug. It essentially makes you temporarily schizophrenic/psychotic. I just can’t see anyone taking that on a regular basis and not being dangerous to people around them.

Pot though? I personally see it as less harmful than alcohol in almost all regards. I think the reason for it being illegal are purely political, and it has no basis in medical reasoning (alcohol=ok, marijuana=bad?).

I have no desire to smoke pot. I have a general view that it is all a form of medication. Couldn’t we change something else about ourself or our life? Probably that would be better.

(This could give some of you some insight into the baggage I carry that makes me really fear bringing up kids outside the church).

Well, there is no guarantee raising kids in the church will keep them from the stuff. I was born and raised in the church and did all of those things. We used to ditch seminary to get high.

Yep, it doesn’t instill a lot of faith in our children when the most harmful drugs like alcohol are legal, and marijuana is not.

How are we supposed to get them to respect the rest of our laws when they see such hypocracy?

I don’t want my kids/grandchildren using any drugs but if I had to make a choice between the two, I’d choose marijuana for them any day.

That’s hard to type.

My opinion only…

Mileage may vary.