Should weed be legal?

Plugged In

The W.I.T are staging a debate whether weed should be legal in Ireland, what are your thoughts?

Legalise Cannabis Ireland v W.I.T Law Society
Wednesday 12th of November
7:30 The Gallery W.I.T (Cork Road Campus)

“This house believes that Cannabis should be made legal in this state”

W.I.T and www.pluggedin.ie are proud to present a debate which so many Irish citizens have strong opinions on. This night will see two teams of three debating the various arguments. The debate will be judged by a panel of three people consisting of High Court Judge, Tom Teeghan; Ex-Minister for Finance, Alan Dukes and also a legal representative from Waterford.

For years this debate has been burning on a world wide scale, between members from every corner of society. During this time, governments in countries such as The Netherlands, Canada, The U.K. and Belgium have taken steps toward a more liberalised view of cannabis by either totally decriminalising possession of the drug, or declassifying it’s possession to a minor crime. On the other end of the scale, the U.S has declared an all out war on drugs, introducing harsher laws and stiffer sentencing for those involved.

The arguments both for and against the legalisation are numerous and compelling. On one side you will hear arguments informing you that marijuana is a “gateway” drug, use of which will ultimately lead to stronger substance abuse. The pro weed lobbyists, on the other hand, will argue for the economic benefits to our country in these trying times, such as taxation and regulation. Legalisation opponents will tell you that long term subjection to marijuana use will lead to many health problems including dependency and mental illness, while marijuana supporters will urge you consider the medical advantages this plant can bring to relieve the suffering of chronic illnesses such as cancer.

Those who wish to keep this plant illegal want to deter the public from embracing marijuana in the same fashion our country has embraced the alcohol culture, stressing that our NHS and Gardai will face extraordinary expenses to repair the costs of legalisation on our society. However, those on the other side will strive to inform you of the importance of the most versatile plant on earth, hemp, and its many economic and social benefits.

This debate aims to educate the public on both sides of the argument and we hope the public will leave with an educated opinion based on both facts, not government scare mongering, from pro-weed lobbyists and the cold harsh truths from legalisation opponents, rather than the wishful thinking of pot smokers.

Prof.Badass

*sigh* :rolleyes: here we go again.

If weed is made legal, then other safer drugs such as MDMA and GHB should be made legal also.

add a "make all drugs legal" option.

oztots

I like my drugs Tax Free thanking you kindly.

Prof.Badass

oztots wrote: »

I like my drugs Tax Free thanking you kindly.

you do realise the illegal drug trade involves huge markups, right?

legal weed would be cheaper (unless the tax is really really high, in which case everyone will go back to illegal weed).

How many more "should drugs be legal" threads is AH going to get? Damn Hippies. Use the search function.

ScumLord

Who's arguing for? I hope it's not half arsed affair and they've done their homework. Would like to go down to see it.

oztots

vinylmesh wrote: »

you do realise the illegal drug trade involves huge markups, right?

legal, taxed weed would be cheaper.

And what do ciggarettes have? A subsidy? And its cheap enough if you know where it grows.

And alcohol is a joke. Give me a fivers worth of sugar and i can make you go blind drunk, not blind. maybe 3 liters worth of decent quality for a fiver.

Prof.Badass

Deleted User wrote: »

How many more "should drugs be legal" threads is AH going to get? Damn Hippies. Use the search function.

This is obviously just a blatant advertisement for the debate/ groups running it.

Yes, you could make your own weed cheaper, but dealers/smugglers impose a huge markup because of the high risk involved.

It would still be cheaper than from a dealer. The profits made off drugs are unreal.

ScumLord

vinylmesh wrote: »

This is obviously just a blatant advertisement for the debate/ groups running it.

Yes, you could make your own weed cheaper, but dealers/smugglers impose a huge markup because of the high risk involved.

It would still be cheaper than from a dealer. The profits made off drugs are unreal.

Weed isn't really a big money drug. Someone along the line is making a fortune but it's not as valuable as the likes of coke or yolks. Coke gets cut down by everyone that lays hands on it double or trebling their money. Yolks are bought in their hundreds for around €1 each and sold on for a fiver. With weed your lucky to make a fiver off it at times.

Plugged In

ScumLord wrote: »

Who's arguing for? I hope it's not half arsed affair and they've done their homework. Would like to go down to see it.

Don't worry we have an excellent team and this is a very serious debate. We have invited RTE and other national media and also TD's. We see this as a bid to educate the public on the facts of weed. Each member of the team has been preparing for this debate for the last 3 months and an awful lot of research has been done. I hope people can make it down and support this motion.

Quazzie

Mmmkay Drugs Are Bad. And If You Do Drugs You're Bad. 'Cause Drugs Are Bad .

Frisbee

*crawls bleary eyed out of bed*

Is it that time of the month already?

seanybiker

Plugged In wrote: »

d an awful lot of research has been done.

In all fairness, tis not hard to research. Big bag of weed and a few skins and away ay go

ScumLord

Quazzie2002 wrote: »

Mmmkay Drugs Are Badass. And If You Do Drugs You're Badass. 'Cause Drugs Are Badass .

Fixed that for you.

Da Bounca

vinylmesh wrote: »

If weed is made legal, then other safer drugs such as MDMA and GHB should be made legal also.

Is that a joke? They are lethal brain melting drugs.



There is a reason the cannabis topic comes up so much in debate.

dsmythy

Lock threads that talk about this subject and direct the starters to others. It's just the same arguments for the next 5-10 pages and then people start insulting each other.

Quazzie

Da Bounca wrote: »

There is a reason the cannabis topic comes up so much in debate.

Is the reason so dope heads can justify taken illegal narcotics?

Prof.Badass

Da Bounca wrote: »

Is that a joke? They are lethal brain melting drugs.



There is a reason the cannabis topic comes up so much in debate.

There's no reason to suggest cannabis is safer than these drugs.

sorry to every one who's seen me post this before, but you should check this out.

http://www.beckleyfoundation.org/img/scale_of_harm.jpg

This group of scientists (including government advisers on drugs in the uk) spent months (possibly years) researching the various dangers of drugs and that's what they came up with.

In fact the BBC showed a documentary based on this research about a year back entitled; "Is alcohol worse than ecstasy?".

You can watch it in bits on you-tube if you want (or you could read the original paper online (i think you'd need to subscribe or something).

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=alcohol+worse+than+ecstasy&search_type=&aq=f

The simple fact is a lot of lies have been spread in the media about some drugs, especially MDMA.

ScumLord

dsmythy wrote: »

Lock threads that talk about this subject and direct the starters to others. It's just the same arguments for the next 5-10 pages and then people start insulting each other.

This is completely different, it's about a public debate.

ScumLord

vinylmesh wrote: »

This group of scientists (including government advisers on drugs in the uk) spent months (possibly years) researching the various dangers of drugs and that's what they came up with.

I don't know how yolks can be seen as so safe. Unless it's just our ones are muck but they make a **** of of you.

Da Bounca

Quazzie2002 wrote: »

Is the reason so dope heads can justify taken illegal narcotics?

What?

Make some sense please.

Where are the coke heads asking for their substance to be legalised?

I heard on the radio that 50% of deaths last year had alcohol related statistics. What does that tell you?
I'm neither for or against the legalisation of the substance, I'm just saying that it has been painted with a bad brush because of bandwagoning and not formally deciding as a nation what should be done about it.

Prof.Badass

ScumLord wrote: »

I don't know how yolks can be seen as so safe. Unless it's just our ones are muck but they make a **** of of you.

First of all, there's a huge difference between MDMA and random pills.

second of all MDMA does not cause any social harm (violence ect)

third of all MDMA is not majorly addicitive.

mountainyman

If MDMA were legal you'd buy it in weak pills that put you in good hukour without getting mad out of it.

Getting mad out of it is dangerous taking e is not

Turd Ferguson

If they legalised it, the tax would be just silly. It would be way more expensive than if it stayed illegal.
Although if they did legalise it then the tourism industry would sky rocket.
I'm sure gay marrige and women priests will be legal here before weed though.

ScumLord

vinylmesh wrote: »

First of all, there's a huge difference between MDMA and random pills.

second of all MDMA does not cause any social harm (violence ect)

third of all MDMA is not majorly addicitive.

1st. Your right but just because your being told it's mdma doesn't mean it's pure, it's actually easier to mix down MDMA than it is to mix down pills.
2nd. Wouldn't completely agree atall, I've seen people turn violent on yolks and get them selfs into trouble even on MD.

I'm for legalization but there are dangers.

MagicMarker

''Drugs are bad mmmkay?''

''Not all drugs are bad if used in moderation''

''Yeah well my friend smoked weed and within a week he was addicted to crack''

''Your friend is an idiot''

''No he's not you are''

''We should ban alcohol''

''LOL''

''What's so funny''

''You're funny, you're a funny guy!!''

''*insert various comparisons of various legal and illegal drugs*''

''You're talking shoite, don't be talking shoite!!''

''enough of this shít, you're all a bunch of wasters who've never heard of a search function, you're all banned''

''thread closed''

/thread

Mena

I'd say no, should not be legal. People are fcuking stupid and need to be protected from themselves.

Davidius

I can imagine if weed was legal.

Make the population even lazier and a lot more boring AMIRITE!? :pac:

Yes we'd get a lot more tourists but all of those tourists would be a bunch of stoners. Eventually we'd fall victim to a drug economy.

Everybody would be doing drugs. Everybody would become even lazier. All of our stuff will be broken because instead of fixing things people woll be smoking weed. We won't even get new **** anymore! No hovering cars! We'd be stuck in 2008 for ages!

Then the rest of the world will fall victim to the hippies. Everywhere will be legalising drugs in hopes of stimulating their economies. As such we'll lose all our tourists. Seeing as we won't really be doing anything else, we'll be poor too. Then we'll all die from hunger because we're all too damn lazy to get food and would rather roll a joint!

DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Davidius wrote: »

I can imagine if weed was legal.

Make the population even lazier and a lot more boring AMIRITE!? :pac:

Yes we'd get a lot more tourists but all of those tourists would be a bunch of stoners. Eventually we'd fall victim to a drug economy.

Everybody would be doing drugs. Everybody would become even lazier. All of our stuff will be broken because instead of fixing things people woll be smoking weed. We won't even get new **** anymore! No hovering cars! We'd be stuck in 2008 for ages!

Then the rest of the world will fall victim to the hippies. Everywhere will be legalising drugs in hopes of stimulating their economies. As such we'll lose all our tourists. Seeing as we won't really be doing anything else, we'll be poor too. Then we'll all die from hunger because we're all too damn lazy to get food and would rather roll a joint!

DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!

The dutch manage it very well. Very very few would ever use, and I think they see that the benefit to the economy in terms of tourism more than outweighs any downside.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Of course it should. Tobacco is legal and it's a drug. So is alcohol. So is caffiene and so on, so none of this drugs-are-bad damn-hippies malarkay.

Damn conservatives.

Mena

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

Of course it should. Tobacco is illegal and it's a drug. So is alcohol. So is caffiene and so on, so none of this drugs-are-bad damn-hippies malarkay.

Damn conservatives.

Quoted before you can fix the mistake :pac:

Yeah, I'm that bored.