Okay this my opinion, alcohol is legal because they can accurately measure the alcohol content in your blood/breath. THC stays in your system for about a month maybe more maybe less depends on the person. We all know driving under the influence either drunk or high can lead to an accident. Say a cop pulls you over for speeding you just left a party and you had a few drinks well the cop can measure how much alcohol is in your breath with a breathalyzer test, if they can measure it that means they can set a legal limit. But say you smoked a joint a week ago, the cop pulls you over for the same thing. If he smells weed he might test you and all they know is that you were high in a time frame of about a month that means that they have to arrest you for a DUI even though you smoked a J a week ago. Pissing in a cup, taking blood, and other methods they cannot accurately test you so set a legal limit. We need to invent a device that is like a breathalyzer test but for pot, it might make it that much closer to legalize sweet Mary Jane. Hope you understand what I am trying to say if there is already such a device please tell me.
Sorry man, but that doesn't seem like it. First off, when weed was made illegal, drunk driving wasn't illegal yet(at least with the information I could find, sorry if this was inaccurate.) Also, I have a feeling that the government and authorities aren't too concerned about rightful conviction when it comes to enforcing laws. Oh well if they screw over one guy, right? They get the money. That's how I feel the authorities view the situation. At this point, I think we all need to stop wondering about why it is illegal and worrying about why it should be legal. It's already illegal, figuring out the reasons for it being illegal isn't going to change that.
I see what you are getting at and yes, if there was a reliable way to see if people were unfit to drive because of marijuana intoxication, it would help us get over one more of the hurdles toward legalization.
[quote name='"xdog"'] I see what you are getting at and yes, if there was a reliable way to see if people were unfit to drive because of marijuana intoxication, it would help us get over one more of the hurdles toward legalization.[/quote] I couldn't have said it better myself
I agree that having this technology would definitely help push us in the right direction for legalizing. I also get where you are going with the piss-tests not being accurate. I think that we need to show first how we can show the benefits of what cannabis can do for our society before we worry about things like laws that would be enforced if cannabis were to be make legal. Think about this in an authority figures eyes. You are presented with some information about a new piece of technology that shows if Cannabis has been in your system. You read a letter about how this great piece of technology can help you crack-down on all of the drivers that are driving high, and getting into accidents, running lights, and generally causing issues. You'll be able to catch them now though! Well, by doing this, you have shown that there is a possibility that if cannabis is legalized there would be enough problems caused by it, that you would have to enforce the use of a completely new piece of technology to prove that cannabis was in your system. Instead, how about we look at ways to provide the authorities with facts showing that show the positivity on cannabis, rather than ways to deal with the negative side of legalizing cannabis? Hell, I'm pretty sure that I've seen Granny post a few links about how driving high isn't that likely to cause you to get in a crash or something. I bet she could give you a lot of information on that! I'm not trying to go against what you're saying, I like your thinking, but we need to look at every angle and every possibility!
In my opinion its the government and Medical companies, for as long as most people can remember weed has been illegal and the government has been telling us time after time that marijuana does this and marijuana does that all of wich are not good for the human body. BUT....in the last 20 or 30 year more people have been doing study's and tests on the pro's and con's of pot. And mostly good thing have come up, But now this looks bad on the government because all along they have been telling us that its is far worse than alchohol or cigarets, people start wondering if the government was wrong about this all along what about the rest of are country. There fore someone in the government is gunna have to man up and admit they where wrong. Also its partialy the medical companies, they relize that marijuana is a legitamate medicine but its a plant and the law states that plants can not be patented for industrial profit, there fore the medical companies see marijuana as useless just because they cant make money. the medical companies make millions of dollars on drugs that may or may not cure people, if there was ever a drug that could cure or relive the symptoms of all sort of diffrent conditons/ or ailments, the medical companies would lose a good chunk of their profit. These are the main reasons that i think marijuana is illegal, i also think that there are tons of reasons marijuana is illegal valid or not. like Mistaken Shadow said marijuana is illegal there is nothing we can really do to change that we just have to make the best outa what we got. so thats my peice, peace world
marijuana was criminalized in 1937 by the US congress, till then it was a comanally used medication, It was criminalized for the same reason opium was, racism, opium to try to get the Chinese to leave or stop coming, marijuana for black and Hispanic fear reasons. Your reason isnt a reason it was criminalized since blood tests were not used back then for alchohol or otherwise, It is however a good reason to not legalize it which im sure will be used at some point.
I think it's illegal because right now most politicians don't find anything that they can personally gain from legalizing it - and that's in the best case. On the other side you have a bunch of powerful people who profit from it being illegal. DEA, prison contractors/wards, drug czars, pharmas, etc, their big paycheck relies a lot on cannabis staying illegal. They don't want to lose their jobs and they make sure that the decision makers see how not only will they gain nothing (by brainwashing the general population so that legalizing equals fewer voters and in some cases becoming a political pariah) but that they might also be rewarded for keeping it illegal (lobbyists, bribes, connections, whatever).
Hemp, there is clearly something going on in the political system that is keeping even hemp illegal. It is all business as usually, people with money get what they want.
[quote name='"Furou"']I think it's illegal because right now most politicians don't find anything that they can personally gain from legalizing it - and that's in the best case. On the other side you have a bunch of powerful people who profit from it being illegal. DEA, prison contractors/wards, drug czars, pharmas, etc, their big paycheck relies a lot on cannabis staying illegal. They don't want to lose their jobs and they make sure that the decision makers see how not only will they gain nothing (by brainwashing the general population so that legalizing equals fewer voters and in some cases becoming a political pariah) but that they might also be rewarded for keeping it illegal (lobbyists, bribes, connections, whatever).[/quote] No I know why it is illegal I'm saying why it is not legal in modern times, and another reason is because of the status quo it has been illegal for so long the government just doesn't care they are just to lazy to change anything as for everybody else you have opened my eyes a little wider and let me add something why are all the stoner support Ron Paul? He never said he would try to make it legal he just thinks it shouldn't be illegal if he gets elected (don't get me wrong I like his political views but (I prefer Newt) he wont get elected) he wouldn't change anything he just thinks it shouldn't be. I know I'm being repetitive it's to prove a point.
They are lobbied by several different industries to keep it illegal. It would be good for government as an organization to finally end prohibition of cannabis. It however would NOT be good for the wallets of the individuals who make up the government. The pharmaceutical industry is the largest lobby in the entire country. They are also the industry that stands to lose the most if cannabis is finally legalized. That's the real reason it remains illegal. It has nothing to do with driving accidents or anything like that. It's just about the greed of individual policy makers.
It expands far beyond pharmacies. Oil companies and lumber companies would be heavily impacted, not to mention others.
Yes, there are many industries that would take a pretty large hit were cannabis legalized. However I was merely stating that the Pharmaceutical company pays more money to the individuals in the government than any other industry does.
They have road-side saliva tests? at least they do in Australia which works pretty much the same as a Breathalyzer for alcohol. It's the same road side drug test that they use for mdma (and maybe other substances)