I'm going to get high, high, high - Will your generation change the laws?

[OAS]

I am curious about the future possibility of you young ones changing the world we live in. Seeing as many of you support drug use in one form or another, do you think your generation will change the laws legalizing or softening the punishments for drug use?

My generation was labeled the “dope smoking hippies” and my parents and grandparents generation were convinced that we would be legalizing drugs and the whole country would be “going to pot”. Well that didn’t happen and my generation did just the opposite and toughened many laws pertaining to drug use.

So do you think you’re 4/20 generation will change the laws? If you feel it is ok to use drugs, shouldn’t it be legal? How will the laws get changed? Or do you fear you’re generation will mature to the same point that mine did and determine drugs aren’t ok and will they step up the war on drugs?

For the record, even though I bust on you from time to time, I do believe that if you want to use drugs, more power to you, it’s your choice. I do think the whole drug scene is bad news. Even if you are just sitting at home getting high, minding your own business, somebody, somewhere, somehow paid a dear price in getting your product into your hands. I know, I sound just like the current anti-drug commercials.

[Danked]

No hippie shot a little black girl to get me my weed. I'm pretty sure of it.

[Jack]

I think the laws were targeted more at to the buying and selling of the substance not the use of the substance itself. The Laws about use are just a biproduct of the government realizing that they cannot control/tax the buying/selling of drugs. If they cannot control it, then they make a law against it.

Personally, while I do not do drugs myself, never have, probably never will, I believe it should be left up to the consumer as to whether or not they want to pollute their lungs or kill thier brain cells. From most reports, Tobacco Cigarettes are worse for you than Marijuana Cigarretes.

[Sloatsburgh]

Well, thanks to you fucking hippies and your vietnam protest, my morning started off fucking great with an anti war drawing drawn all over a gray construction wall opposite where the trade towers. The legacy of your generation is not anything concerning drug use, it's the mentality that to protest war, ANY WAR, is a beautiful and loving thing. I wish I would have saw this gawker/NYU student in the act. I want to beat the shit out of anyone scribing anything on the wall.

My generation is going to put restrictions on rock videos and games.

[GonzoStyle]

My generation was labeled the “dope smoking hippies”

Wasn't hooch illegal in your generation?

I personally have never done drugs, I don't really care if drugs are legalized. I think though certain things should be legalized and taxed. I think weed should be legalized as well as prostitution. These are vices that I view as not being as bad as others. People want sex it is a basic human want and desire, people will do it no matter what. I think if it was organized we could bring down the spread of STD's and the goverment could tax it. Lowering taxes, giving communities more financial stability, etc, etc.

I find weed basically as harmless as a cigarette or most OTC medicines. Same thing, legalize and tax it, it would reduce crime, it would give more sources of income for people, as well as be a reason to lower taxes and improve our communities.

[OAS]

The legacy of your generation is not anything concerning drug use, it's the mentality that to protest war, ANY WAR, is a beautiful and loving thing.

I missed that training class. I think I was busy fighting a war that day. :crackhead:

[Spitfire]

No, the laws won't change. Politicians are hypocrites. People vote for it in states, but then the federal government comes in and takes it all away. So much for states rights and the votes of people. If I was publicizing a "legalize it" campaign, I'd try to get people (normal people, successful people, celebrities, etc.) to come out and admit they smoke pot. That can go a long way to gathering acceptance in the mainstream. Furthermore, they'll never legalize it because then they would have to legalize the growing of hemp.

somebody, somewhere, somehow paid a dear price in getting your product into your hands.

You do watch too many anti-drug ads. Most of the weed we get here in NY/Phil/NJ area is either homegrown or comes from legal fields in Canada.

OK, Sloats, I guess we shouldn't protest anything, let the government do as it pleases without questioning by the people...who cares, it's only free speech anyway.

[GonzoStyle]

My opinion is this, every generation changes laws and ways of viewing things that may have seemed unthinkable by the previous generation. Just look back on the early parts of the last century.

Look at movies, books, TV, Radio, our daily life, etc etc.

Ignoring the issue never helps, that has been tried many times before with no success. Hoover thought the best way to rid america of organized crime was to deny its existence, good work. Reagan refused to acknowlege the AIDS virus in the early parts of his administration, thanks that worked out well. Prohibition was also a wonderful idea that gave birth to the mob as we know it today.

To call marijuana a "gateway" drug is moronic. If someone was gonna do hard drugs like coke, crack, heroin, etc etc, then they woulda done it on their own accord. That is just taking one issue and blaming it on something, instead of someone, namely the person. Alleviating blame is just how humans are, it's always music never the fact someone is just plain crazy. It's a movie, never the fact someone is just fuckin stupid. It's drugs and never the fact someone doesn't possess common sense. If some Asshole goes out and does something stupid he woulda done it without the influence of a song or movie or a joint.

Granted yes harder drugs, can influence violence in a person but no one is saying legalize crack or heroin.

Legalize prostitution and drugs, the world will be a happier place. I have yet to meet a pothead, who strictly smoked pot, that was not one of the nicest people I knew of.

[GonzoStyle]

Another thing, I dunno if this has any relevance but it is something that has been irking me.

This whole, "if you buy drugs you support terrorism" campaign.

You know what a big fuck you to whomever came up with that. To guilt people by using a tragedy like 9/11 to further your fuckin bullshit crusade, this "War against drugs". When you helped and supported known drug kingpins, while busting a bunch of kids with nickel bags in hallways.

To use peoples emotions against them like that is such fuckin bullshit. You can be supporting terrorism by buying gas at your local ammoco, or by buying a soda at your local te-amo or bodega. Yet there is no campaign against buying premium gas or M&M's.

If you wanna look at people who support terrorism, take a look at the family who had a ton of business ventures with the Bin Laden family. Look no further than at the Bush family, they probably supported terrorism more than someone who bought a joint.

[Danked]

What worries me about my generation is that we're so oblivious to what goes on in the world. If we had to deal with something like Vietnam today, too many of us wouldn't care one way or the other about what was going on over there. We wouldn't be protesting out in the streets nor would we be itching to go and fight. We're mostly apathetic because we've been conditioned to have a short attention span regarding world and national affairs. All these images and news stories have been fed to us all of lives through a small filter hardly seem real. When the twin towers were attacked, did people move on because we're a strong nation or did they shrug it off because life goes on? I don't really know, but it scares me that it might be the latter.

[LyricalGomez]

I say legally drugs and tax the Hell out of em

Same with prostitution

Neither of them are going to go away, face facts people will use drugs no matter what you say, people will get prostitutes if they want them, so why not legalize it and at least make some money off of it.

[Spitfire]

I couldn't agree more GS. Look for example on how our lovely leaders supported Iraq in the 80's during their war with Iran (who were then the bad guys) and now their out to get them. Cheney's company Halliburton gave Hussein billions of dollars for oil.

And I'm really fucking confused now about the terrorist/drug dealing thing now: so I'm not supporting terrorism anymore?

MILITARY EASING ITS WAR ON DRUGS
By Paul Richter, LA Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- Citing the need to redirect resources to the war on terrorism, the Pentagon has quietly decided to scale back its effort to combat international drug trafficking, a central element of the national "war on drugs" for 14 years.

Officials are still weighing how exactly to pare the $1-billion-a-year program, but they want to reduce deployment of special operations troops on counter-narcotics missions and cut back the military's training of anti-drug police and soldiers in the U.S. and abroad. And they want to use intelligence-gathering equipment now devoted to counter-drug work for counter-terrorism as well.

I think we've become apathetic because we feel so helpless.

[OAS]

You raise an interesting question about America's resolve after 9/11 danked. I also wonder the same thing. My thread about who will fight your war was asked in part from some of those same feelings. This attitude that we have a professional all volunteer army is not a healthy one. It only works during times of peace.

Vietnam was a war that needed to be protested. Americans needed the government to hear their voice. It was a war that we should have never gotten into. Once in it, because we never committed ourselves to win it, we needed to protest it to end it.

[GonzoStyle]

it all goes back to the fact, we deal with violence on such a regular basis, nothing really shocks us anymore. I blame it partly on the fact, life is too easy today. Not life itself, but the fact that everything is at our fingertips. Appliances like the electric can opener really piss me off, when did people get so lazy they couldn't turn a knob to open a can?

We have so much that we act like we have nothing. It's like going into a big chain store like say best buy, you have so many fuckin things to choose from. You have hundreds of different kinds of TV's, you get so overwhelemed that you can't choose and just leave. As opposed to a simple mom and pop store than carries 5 different TV's, it's all basic and you come in get it and leave.

We have it so much easier, everything we could ever want we have. That it has made us feel we are just owed everything. It is also in the end peoples fault. People say, well I wasn't taught that so why should I care. People need to go out and do things for themselves, and not just whatever the norm is, seek out more of life than what is simply put at your feet. People don't wanna do that, cause it may require actually putting forth some effort.

People it seems refuse to educate themselves and common sense has just gone right out the window. Many people got over 9/11 quickly cause for one we are so not surprised by shit anymore cause of the levels of violence we see on a daily basis. People don't give a fuck anymore unless they are directly affected. As well as people live their lives like goldfish in intervals of seconds and forget too quickly and it makes me fuckin sick.

[GonzoStyle]

Vietnam was a war that needed to be protested. Americans needed the government to hear their voice.

I could get into the hypocrasy of what was vietnam but that is for another day.

But that was not so long ago and look how much we as a society have changed. Where are our great leaders? Where are our Dr. Kings? Cause people want to be fuckin oblivious to everything that is not directly affective to their own little fuckin space. They wanna act like everything is hunky dory and that the world is a wonderful place. Ignore it and it will go away or just don't even care. No one cares anymore, all people do is talk. People are gullible and will believe whatever is served up to them by some Asshole on TV who wears a suit and splurts out fancy words. People in general never hold true to their own opinions and will change their views at the drop of a dime. Cause society today as a whole is stupid, very stupid. STandards are lowered on a daily basis to work around stupid people, life is being dumbed down and we are going along for the ride.

I'm being a hypocrite to, cause what am I doing about it? Nothing, but it's a war we are losing cause stupidity is running rampant and it is very contagious. Stupidity and ignorance is our bubonic plauge and it will eventually tear apart this land of ours.