Shadow-off
10-05-2008, 08:49 PM
Marijuana and the Law
The ethical value of laws established to prevent individuals from smoking and growing marijuana are unbalanced.
When looking at why laws are developed and adopted, we must first consider the reason behind all laws in modern society. What are laws and what is a law designed to do.
Any law is established for the purpose of attempting to adopt publically a requirement set by a government judicial body that prevents and individual or individuals from doing something and to enforce its validity with judicial punishment if an individual or individuals violate an established and adopted law. That is what laws do. Now why? What is the reason for any law being established and adopted in modern society?
The answer is quite simple. Laws are simply designed to protect and prevent loss and injury to persons, or property. A law is designed to prevent people from being injured. Some examples of situations laws are established to protect:
A contractor takes money from its customer in order to provide a service and deliver a finished product. If this is not done or delayed fraud has been committed. Fraud laws prevent injury by preventing loss.
A man enters a bank with a gun and takes money from the bank. He has threatened people and taken something that does not belong to him. This is criminal law designed to protect the interest of the owner of something and potential physical injury.
Cigarettes and Alcohol. In the United States an individual cannot buy cigarettes or alcohol until he or she is 21 years old. Cigarettes are habit-forming and have been associated with birth defects, cancer, heart attack and stroke. Alcohol is a poisonous substance and drug that influences the brain to the point that logical thought process and control of balance and motor function are severely altered.
It is against the law to drive or operate machinery while under the influence of alcohol. In addition, alcohol is physically addictive and causes delirium trems DT’s, and cirrhosis of the liver in long-term heavy drinkers. It also causes more deaths and than any other substance consumed in the United States. Laws are designed to protect individuals mainly from injuring others through use of alcohol.
What do marijuana laws protect people against? Yes it can cause injury for those who overindulge, operate machinery, or operate a vehicle just as alcohol does. Yet alcohol is legal for purchase, consumption and manufacture.
Will marijuana kill? No there is no known evidence medically that has indicated marijuana is physically addictive, or physiologically damaging than cigarettes are. People do not consume marijuana in the amounts that cigarettes are consumed. Marijuana has also been accepted by the FDA and the medical community as being of some value to some illnesses.
So why is Marijuana illegal? What injury is it causing society that laws exist to prevent its use? So why is there a law against it costing billions of dollars in eradication and arrest expense? The annual number of arrests climbed from 340,000 in 1992, to almost 700,000 in 2002.
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4516
How many people in the world smoke marijuana ? Estimates are that 60-75 percent of the people worldwide smoke marijuana. Its more the newer generation than the older ones, but most people who lived as a teen through the 70s or 80s most likely still smoke pot.
:painkiller::JC_cookies:
The ethical value of laws established to prevent individuals from smoking and growing marijuana are unbalanced.
When looking at why laws are developed and adopted, we must first consider the reason behind all laws in modern society. What are laws and what is a law designed to do.
Any law is established for the purpose of attempting to adopt publically a requirement set by a government judicial body that prevents and individual or individuals from doing something and to enforce its validity with judicial punishment if an individual or individuals violate an established and adopted law. That is what laws do. Now why? What is the reason for any law being established and adopted in modern society?
The answer is quite simple. Laws are simply designed to protect and prevent loss and injury to persons, or property. A law is designed to prevent people from being injured. Some examples of situations laws are established to protect:
A contractor takes money from its customer in order to provide a service and deliver a finished product. If this is not done or delayed fraud has been committed. Fraud laws prevent injury by preventing loss.
A man enters a bank with a gun and takes money from the bank. He has threatened people and taken something that does not belong to him. This is criminal law designed to protect the interest of the owner of something and potential physical injury.
Cigarettes and Alcohol. In the United States an individual cannot buy cigarettes or alcohol until he or she is 21 years old. Cigarettes are habit-forming and have been associated with birth defects, cancer, heart attack and stroke. Alcohol is a poisonous substance and drug that influences the brain to the point that logical thought process and control of balance and motor function are severely altered.
It is against the law to drive or operate machinery while under the influence of alcohol. In addition, alcohol is physically addictive and causes delirium trems DT’s, and cirrhosis of the liver in long-term heavy drinkers. It also causes more deaths and than any other substance consumed in the United States. Laws are designed to protect individuals mainly from injuring others through use of alcohol.
What do marijuana laws protect people against? Yes it can cause injury for those who overindulge, operate machinery, or operate a vehicle just as alcohol does. Yet alcohol is legal for purchase, consumption and manufacture.
Will marijuana kill? No there is no known evidence medically that has indicated marijuana is physically addictive, or physiologically damaging than cigarettes are. People do not consume marijuana in the amounts that cigarettes are consumed. Marijuana has also been accepted by the FDA and the medical community as being of some value to some illnesses.
So why is Marijuana illegal? What injury is it causing society that laws exist to prevent its use? So why is there a law against it costing billions of dollars in eradication and arrest expense? The annual number of arrests climbed from 340,000 in 1992, to almost 700,000 in 2002.
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4516
How many people in the world smoke marijuana ? Estimates are that 60-75 percent of the people worldwide smoke marijuana. Its more the newer generation than the older ones, but most people who lived as a teen through the 70s or 80s most likely still smoke pot.
:painkiller::JC_cookies: