My hippie parents used to do it. I grew up refusing to do it because smoking grosses me out. They stopped doing it too. I feel really sorry for the old hippies who get busted for growing it. It seems so harmless. People always say that if it was legal, drug dealers with guns would not be able to make any money, so yeah, I guess they should legalize it and fire works too. In Il we're not supposed to have fire crackers. So, on the fourth of July, you never see anybody light off any firecrackers, but you hear them all around and a cloud of smoke covers our town. But nobody admits a thing. I think that's exactly what the law on gonja is like. But, then what gets legalized next? Would people drive stoned? Don't they anyway? How could the police tell? Do they have a breathalyzer for that? Would there have to be new driving laws? Would the Doritos company be able to keep up with the demand? It's a debate that drives me crazy and also doesn't concern me because I don't do it. But I also don't want to run out of Doritos! Maybe if they all promised to eat Twinkies instead.

Steingard, look at my age before you look at my reply post.

I grew up in Northern England....never encountered any drugs at all.

The first time I encountered weed, I was in my late 50's and was rather honoured to be offered it by the younger members of the party!!

But, it has affected my son....not the actual drug, but the morons who supply it. Over the last ten years...three or four young men (boys) have committed suicide because of 'drugs debt'...feeling so scared.

If they supplied Cannabis at a the Chemists, (drug store) these tragedies would not have happened.

I have actually, stood up in our Parish Church and said this, which is why I don't go there any more. It was worth it!!!

The Cannabis, Marajuanna is not the problem...it is the low-lives who supply it...and terrify our kids...whist we parents look away and pretend it isn't happening....I am sorry..I feel very strongly about this issue......

I, and my lovely son, came through it OK....but there were those who did not!!! It makes me angry. And I thank you for raising this subject!!

I would never chew you out over anything you said on this subject because i don't specifically have an opinion one way or the other. I wish they would stop aggressively busting people on it and just try to avert tragedies instead. I also wish they would just let hippies grow their own. That would solve a lot of problems right there. Those kids who killed themselves would just be able to grow their own instead. I'm in the USA so we have really gung ho anti drug laws on one side and really gung ho dealers supplied by South America on the other side. The anti drug laws make it profitable for the dealers. If it was legal they'd only get what fruit and veg growers get and they would have no use for guns.

Way back in the 80's when I owned two businesses, I advocated for the legalization of recreational drugs and decided I would buy scads of them and give them freely to my competitors.

Dear Shaun,

Did you think that getting them hooked would make them useless, or what? What business were you in anyway? Are we talking Boogie Nights here?

Did you think that getting them hooked would make them useless, or what?

Maybe not useless, but mostly worried about where the next bag of Doritos is coming from.

Most of the habitual pot smokers I've known in my life lack motivation and just want life to be easy. But, that may be no worse than people who use alcohol every day.

I haven't heard a word about this discussion in days and now two emails. I think that since Christianity and moral issues no longer get the republicans enough votes, they should switch to legalizing it as their new campaign cry. Or the Democrats could take it up. Then all kinds of liberals would vote for them. By then, same sex marriage will be legal all over the country. Then liberals get everything they want. Mwuh ha ha ha ha. While people are freaking out over that, we slip in all kinds of laws that benefit Atheists. Just like Republicans attack people's sex lives and then steal our money while we're fighting for the right to decide our own sex lives.

I hereby declare smoking marijuana to be legal in the BookTalk.org chat room.

One thing about legalizing marijuana is that hemp would then be a legal product in the U.S. I don't know much about this, but they say hemp's usefulness as a fiber

Even though I am Canadian I don't really know what the laws are here regarding marijuana because I am not interested in it (smoked it in my teenage years which was enough). It is not 'legal' here, but it is allowed under some circumstances, such as medicinal use. I do know of someone who has a medicinal license and is able to grow his own for his own use. He is not allowed to transport it, only use it at home.