Marijuana laws

Allen St. Pierre, the director of NORML (www.norml.org), recently had a debate with Asa Hutchinson, former DEA administrator on Proposition 19, to legalize marijuana in California.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/295913-1

It's in the last 45 minutes or so of the video, so it's pretty long. So, I'll put it shortly:

NORML: Seriously, it makes sense to legalize it. We'll waste much less money on enforcing laws, make a shit ton of money on taxing it, make it harder for minors to get it, stop arresting those who simply consume it (at least for the state/municipal police), etc.

Hutchinson: YEAH, BUT USE WILL GO UP. FEAR.

Seriously, like 90% of his answers were that use would go up.

EDIT: I'd like to add that a good point was made against it about how the Netherlands are now starting to reconsider their legalization of marijuana. I'd like to hear from Tim on that one, though. There was another point made against it that I thought was pretty good, but I'm pretty tipsy, so I don't really remember.

The reconsidering has to do with drugs tourism. A lot of people from Belgium and Germany come here just for the drugs, act all "oh, look at me, I'm high! Weeeeeee" and cause a lot of problems with fights and stuff. Actually, in some southern cities coffeeshops (where you can buy and use it legally) have already been banned. But that's just like that one South Park episode with those homeless people. They just move the problem.

Also, we're about to get a new (right wing) government. That may have something to do with it.

Yeah, I'd thought that the main problem was to do with tourism. Do a lot of locals there smoke it? As compared to the 1/3 of Canadians who smoke it regularly?

Our numbers are waaaaaaay lower than that. Only one in six Dutch people have ever used cannabis. I don't know about the people who use it regularly, but it has to be lower than that.

holy shit, 1/3, never thought it was that high... (lol high)

Who's getting in to fights when high? I have enough trouble making it to the fridge never mind sparkin someone out.

raptorsaurus wrote:

holy shit, 1/3, never thought it was that high... (lol high)

I'd heard that somewhere, but according to this, I'm wrong. Only 1/3 have tried it, but that was like six years ago, and I'm sure that's gone up, since.

Gone up xD

<3 Oh Canada! <3

Ross wrote:

Who's getting in to fights when high? I have enough trouble making it to the fridge never mind sparkin someone out.

I was reading about the positions of Canadian politicians on legalizing weed.. This one person (Liberal, no less) claimed that since it caused psychotic states, it shouldn't be legalized.

Who the hell still believes that!?!?

Ross wrote:

Gone up xD

<3 Oh Canada! <3

Haha, yes, we are an ever-increasingly stoned bunch, us.

Fail.

Still, 46 percent. Thats so close.
Its gonna happen eventually.

Yeah, and I wasn't too hopeful for it, despite polls showing that a majority supported the measure. (That said, others showed otherwise, but the majority at least showed more people supported than opposed.)

StoolPigeon wrote:

Fail.

I think you mean 'Win.' dear sir...

'The 46+ percent (some 3.4 million Californians) voting ‘yes’ on Prop. 19 marks the greatest percentage of citizen support ever recorded on a statewide marijuana legalization effort.'