Apr 7th 2010, 18:23:32
I think about it this way
you have the morons who KNOW that drinking to much will do horrible things to them and they still do it
then you have the intelligent people who just do social drinking, drink a few over the course of the night or day and know how much to drink
The same will be with pot. It it is legalized, you will probably get people who have been wanting to try it going to try it, but the increase, in my opinion, will be minimal. Why? Many teens do it because it is a fad, they get a thrill off doing it because IT IS illegal. They want to rebell. They won't feel the urge to do it if the rebellion isn't there.
Just like Alcohol, many teens drink because it is illegal FOR them to drink. I would love to hear Europeans response to their teenagers drinking as I believe that after teenagers have been allowed to drink, they limit their moderation and learn to control themseves.
Everyone learns that pot is so horrible. I have yet to see anywhere on the news where it is anywhere close to beer or cigs in its destructive power. Pot doesn't make you go out on a bing and murder, rob, or do some other horrible crime
In the end through, if it ever DOES get legalized, it will be for people 18 years and older which could make teens want to try it, but even if this is the case, you won't get jails filled up with people with a little bit of pot in their car, saving millions of dollars in tax money both from housing these people and paying for public defense lawyers. and if my above statement is true, you just may lose those potental people gatewaying to another harder drug thus filling up our prisions with hard core drug offenders. In the end, it could not just be the tax money states are getting but the savings in taxes and possibly lives. But this is all speculation