Do you believe that the only reason why the government wont let marijuana be legal is because they cannot tax the product? if not.. please state a reason why you think the government wont legalize pot?

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• are you sure? http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_died_this_year_from_smoking_marijuana

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  by sam sorce on July 6th, 2009

• Just to get this out of the way, I disown the "Pot smokers aren't likely to vote" remark of this 2007 answer. I don't know where I got that other than by stereotype.
   
  The link you provided is a brief, poorly-written response that hasn't data to support one man's bogus claim, the claim being not that cannabis use alone is deadly, but that it plays a "significant" role in accidents and suicides. This is weak. From my observations, any time cannabis is "shown" to cause significant harm because of suicides/accidents/overdoses, there are always other drugs involved, most especially alcohol; and when cancer/heart disease is the issue, tobacco is always involved. Here's another link touting the doctor's claims from The Telegraph article. Read the comments, they're interesting: http://alcoholism.about.com/b/2003/11/02/marijuana-causes-many-deaths-reported-as-accidents.htm

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  by Aristocles on July 7th, 2009

•  
  I also visited the Coroner's Society's web site but it has no information on it whatsoever about anything other than itself.
   
  Google "marijuana deaths" then "alcohol deaths" then "tobacco deaths." Compare and contrast.

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  by Aristocles on July 7th, 2009

• holy crud what's with all that space between my comment and the source?

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  by sam sorce on July 8th, 2009

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• PS I KNOW some pot head is going to downrate me, but , please, use the remaining brain cells you have to see the logic and truth in what I have said.

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  by singwell-is off researching a lot on February 25th, 2007

• haha, so anyone who downrates you is a pothead, huh? Nice tactic. But to more important matters, do you have evidence for your claims? Because I have some evidence to the contrary:
  http://tinyurl.com/ywp3sf
  http://tinyurl.com/mba9o If you don't want it legal, then that's all fine and dandy. But by stating your reasons why, you have opened the debate. For the record, I believe that smoking pot is harmful, but not even remotely close to as harmful as everyone thinks. I would pose a non-scientific hypothesis that eating a Whopper a week is worse than smoking a joint a day.

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  by Aristocles on February 25th, 2007

• Actually, the "growing body of scientific evidence" is finding that marijuana is NOT as harmful as it was once made out to be. In fact, a new study says that marijuana may actually have anti-cancerous properties when taken in the right amounts (read: <a href="http://www.thccafe.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-2154.html and http://www.annieappleseedproject.org/medmar.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.thccafe.com...</a> )
  For some comprehensive summaries (with links and references) of studies regarding the health risks of marijuana read: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_issues_and_the_effects_of_cannabis" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org...</a>

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  by Anonymous on March 3rd, 2007

• over and out.

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  by singwell-is off researching a lot on March 3rd, 2007

• Can't stand the heat? Turn tail and flee the kitchen, eh?

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  by Anonymous on March 3rd, 2007

• whatever. over and out.

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  by singwell-is off researching a lot on March 4th, 2007

• You know, rainasky, I am completely open to the idea of someone coming along and proving that marijuana is harmful and worth all of the hubbub. But every time a study is conducted, as you said, pot's effects are found to be surprisingly negligible. We both know that smoking pot is nothing like exercising or eating broccoli. But it shouldn't be looked at like drinking a twelve-pack of beer or snorting a line. Your thoughts?

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  by Aristocles on March 4th, 2007

• I think that we should be allowed to choose for ourselves what we put into our bodies. If the government is going to regulate whether or not we can slowly poison ourselves then shouldn't they at least be consistent? I mean, there are all kinds of things we're exposed to on a daily basis that have been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be detrimental to our health and make pot look about as dangerous as this balanced breakfast, and yet these other things are perfectly legal but people are GOING TO JAIL for smoking a little pot!

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  by Anonymous on March 4th, 2007

• Actually, refined sugar is more harmful to more people's health than tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana.
  More people's lives are shortened by being overweight, obesity, and diabetes, than any other cause including cancer.
  Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in children is increasing every year because of consuming too much sugar and not getting enough exercise.

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  by Heather108 on February 16th, 2012

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• huh? how come no one told me what the status quo was?

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  by sam sorce on July 6th, 2009

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• Something that can be produced as easily as marijuana can't effectively taxed.

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  by RFlagg on February 25th, 2007

• Alcohol and tobacco can and is easily produced and it is taxed to the limit.
  I am in the process of making my own wine now -----Think about it.

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  by Think-About-It on February 25th, 2007

• A "Tax Stamp" system wouldn't work very well.
  Thousands of people get away with possession of marijuana now with it being illegal, so you couls naturally assume that thousands would get away with it still if it were tax regulated.
  That would make the marijuana tax system inefficient and virtually useless.

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  by RFlagg on February 25th, 2007

• True, taxing it might be feasible, if properly executed.
  Now adressing the other point in your answer.
  I must respectfully disagree, I don't believe for a second that people in the government think marijuana is "Detrimental to consumer's health", I believe that they think it's detrimental to the healthcare system.
  Marijuan has been shown to have some credible uses for self-medication, and if people started using self-medication like that, it would be an utter disaster for the national healthcare industry.

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  by RFlagg on February 25th, 2007

• Oh, I didn't notice the name next to the answer, sorry.
  But if you believe that the government doesn't care about the healthcare system, then you've got a little learning to do.
  I would reccomend that you read some of the works of Thomas Szasz.

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  by RFlagg on February 25th, 2007

• There was a marijuana tax stamp system in place years ago, before it was illegal to possess marijuana. It didn't work because individual states were criminalizing the sale, growth, and possession of marijuana before there were in federal laws in place. This meant that anyone applying for a tax stamp was essentially self-incriminating (you had to have the pot before you could get the stamp, but the pot was illegal WITHOUT the stamp). Sometime in the 1970's the supreme court of the US repealed the marijuana tax act as unconstitutional, and the Controlled Substances Act was passed which included a FEDERAL law against the growth, sale, or possession of marijuana.

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  by Anonymous on March 3rd, 2007

• Additionally, it's ridiculous to say that the government won't legalize pot because they think there are health risks involved. What about alcohol? what about tobacco? Both of those things are legal and we all KNOW they will kill you.

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  by Anonymous on June 8th, 2007

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• wow. Please consider using punctuation and paragraphs. That answer was impossible to read.

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  by Anonymous on June 8th, 2007

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