Quote:
Originally posted by Animal:
Lacing marijuana has been a tactic and still is to entice the user into a harder drug. Granted, it's not common practice but it does happen. [/QB]
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I can only speak from personal experience here, but I smoked marijuana heavily for about eight years, as have most of my friends. In all of that time I never bought any that was laced, nor did anyone I know. Actually, the very few times I ever saw it laced, it was done on purpose by the smoker to make it stronger (and I've seen more people lace cigarettes than marijuana, by the way).
Heroin dealers are still going to exist whether you legalize marijuana or not, but it doesn't follow that all of the old marijuana dealers would start selling heroin. Life in prison is a pretty major deterrent. Small time dealers can't make a viable living off only selling marijuana anyway, so either they're already selling stronger drugs or more likely they have legitimate jobs as well. In regards to the big time dealers, the govt. has been fighting for decades to put them out of business; as I see it legalization is the only way to win a winless war.
The gateway drug theory has no scientific evidence to back it up. Obviously, most hardcore drug users smoke marijuana, but the vast majority of marijuana users do not do hardcore drugs (according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 14 million Americans smoke marijuana at least once a month, as opposed to only 404 THOUSAND who use heroin). If you really think about it, calling marijuana a gateway drug is really a very sly way to justify outlawing marijuana without actually having to prove that the drug itself is dangerous.
I could write for pages on this subject, but all of the info is out there. I was flipping through the channels and happened to actually see that show you are talking about, Animal. It was Montel, and it was without a doubt the best daytime talk show I've ever seen. The "experts" from the anti-drug agencies came off like complete a-holes ("Well we're nearing a major breakthrough [pause] in about 15 more years..."), while the real doctors were obviously pretty pissed that they weren't able to prescribe it yet. I'm glad that you were won over-- one more for the good guys. Obviously, I'm for absolute legalization despite the fact that I don't smoke it anymore, but at the very least the fed govt needs to stop infringing on state laws and allow those that need it to have it.