Originally Posted by
Frisco_AZMI
I have two perspectives. As a police officer, I always believed that pot should have been made legal. Why? Because I have dealt with more bad decisions (violent and otherwise) that came out of a liquor bottle than ever came out of a bong. If a guy is sitting home doing bong hits, and he has a game console, a Big Gulp, and a bag of Doritos...he's not leaving the house to be a problem for anyone. If he does happen to leave, then he's on his skateboard or BMX bike (at 35 years old) to go get more Doritos. Second, I never went to a DV call that started with "The wife and I were getting high and decided to kill one another". Sell it, tax it like alcohol, and remove the impetus for the violence that goes along with higher level distribution and trafficking.
As a father, I wouldn't want my kids messing with it. Both my sons are officers now, and they were never users. My daughter is 13, and she is a Girl Scout, and total straight laced kid. Thank God. Playing the averages, one of my kids should have been a complete ********...I got lucky.
My wife, who is an MD, is a supporter of medical marijuana use...especially for cancer patients. The patients with cancer she has dealt with who smoke, or use edibles, have a better appetite and are able to eat while on chemo, and their level of physical pain is often attenuated to a great degree.
What I specifically DON'T believe is that recreational use should in any way abrogate your Second Amendment rights. Why? Refer back to more dumb decisions coming from a liquor bottle. I have dealt with more alcohol related violence in my career than I care to try to remember. Billy Bob gets drunk, gets a case of the ass, and the stupidity begins then it's off to the races. Why some people advocate that it be legal to carry a gun into a bar while consuming alcohol is beyond me. At the same time, carrying a gun while high is also beyond me....but, given the two, I'd rather deal with a smoker than a drinker any day. It's easy to use the Jedi mind trick on a smoker.
BUT...of course....the feds have their own ideas about state's rights. And yet...I think it's funny how so many people scream about how the feds should, in essence, trample state's rights as it applies to forcing one state to honor another state's CCW/CPL, yet want the state's to stay hands off on weed legalization, or other issues where federal authority contradicts a state's laws. (Yes, I am a total supporter of national reciprocity, just think it's funny how so many folks want it both ways).