I had to love the last statement: "But when all is said and done, the principal, and most principled, argument in favor of ending marijuana prohibition is this: whether or not I or anyone else consume marijuana should be none of the government’s business-so long as I’m not behind the wheel of a car or otherwise putting others at risk. It’s time to get the government off my property and out of both my pockets and my body when it comes to marijuana."
Legalize it and see what happens to the accident ratio when all the teen drivers begin to feel that they're "straight enough" to drive.

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"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
~George Orwell

The same rules should apply driving while "high" as the same rules that apply to driving while drunk. I noticed you made no reference to the fact about teenagers driving while drunk.
Some people can handle it and some cannot. Nowhere and I mean nowhere will you find statistics showing the rate of accidents are higher among people driving while "High" as opposed to the stats of people (teenagers and adults) involved in accidents and fatalities while under the influence of alcohol. It is a proven fact that alcohol is a much more danerous drug than marijuana but alot of people tend not to look at that fact simply because alcohol is legal and marijuana is not.

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"The difference between genius and stupidity is; genius has its limits". - Albert Einstein

I don't know about you, but when I was a teenager I could make one phone call and get myself a bag of marijuana...and even have it delivered to me or given to me at school. Getting alcohol was much more difficult. I didn't know anybody with a fake ID, and didn't know anyone old enough to actually get some for me. Did I get my hands on alcohol when I was a teenager? Sure. But it was difficult. Getting pot was just a phone call away.

Clearly, keeping the drug in the hands of black market drug dealers who could care less of the age of their "customers" is not a better solution. Regulate it like alcohol. We wont stop all teenagers from driving while stoned, but it'll make it a little more difficult.

Anyone who thinks that weed is any different from cigerettes or alcohol is dellusional. If you abuse either of these drugs they will mess you up. Alcohol and tobacco ####s up more people than anything ever created on this earth and most people think that it's okay to consume these drugs because they are legal.

These two drugs are the most deadly known to man. More people die in this country from alcohol and tobacco related illness/disease than anything else. Each and everyone of us knows of a family member or friend who has died prematurly do to and directly related to their consumption of alcohol and or cigerettes i.e lung cancer,emphysema,heart disease,congestive heart failure, bad kidneys,psoriasis of the liver,pancreatic cancer and on and on.

Now even though people know what the daily consumption of these drugs leads too, they consume them anyway, why? Addiction? Stupidity? Who knows. I'm not even going to start on the pharmiceuticals that are pushed on us 24/7 by the so called legal drug companies. Any drug that is abused will hurt you, that being said, "any responsible adult should be able to smoke a little weed and not feel threatened by law enforcment in the same way that they feel its okay to go to a resturant or a bar and have a drink".
Its okay to have a drink and drive(your car) as long as you are not drunk. Its okay to smoke a little weed and drive as long as if you get stopped you are able to pass a sobriety test(walk the line,stand on one leg and touch your nose etc).

If a truckdriver goes home for the weekend and on saturday night he has drinks/smokes some bud with his wife or some buddys and jumps in his truck on sunday evening to deliver a load, it should not be illeagal. If the guy is intoxicated arrest him, if he is doing something wrong arrest him. But if his only crime is smoking a little weed on saturday night, leave him alone. This is ridiculous.

Have you ever seen someone have a nicotine fit? They get nervous, jittery, they break out in cold sweats and are generally un-pleasant to be around same as alcoholics. I've never seen this happen from someone with marijuana. If a person is going to smoke weed they are going to smoke it legal or not, big truck or car, working or at home same as people who smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol. And yes cigarettes do get people buzzed, thats what keeps them coming back.


Marijuana should be legal point blank, nuff said.

As usual, the proponents of weed refer to the worse effects of alcohol or even cigarettes to justify a lesser evil. I'll agree that weed has lesser effects, but I think the average american noninteractive, nonreading, unstudied television addict is flaccid enough without destroying more brain cells, regardless of legality or not. Trying to justify it this way is like trying to teach someone they can pick up the clean end of a turd.

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"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
~George Orwell

New DOJ Rules on Medical Marijuana Don't Apply to Truckers

New Department of Justice guidelines for federal prosecutors in states that allow the use of medical marijuana do not trump the Department of Transportation's longstanding rules on the use of the drug by safety-sensitive transportation employees, including truck drivers.

According to a recent DOT compliance notice, the agency said it would not be changing its regulated drug testing program based upon these new guidelines, and that transportation employees are still prohibited from the use of marijuana, medical or not.

Under the agency's Drug and Alcohol Testing Regulation, 49 CFR Part 40, at 40.151(e), a transportation employee must test negative for controlled substances. "It remains unacceptable for any safety‐sensitive employee subject to drug testing under the Department of Transportation's drug testing regulations to use marijuana," the rule says.


THANK GOODNESS!

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive...-column-01.asp

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,...est=latestnews

There is a test for "under the influence" It has to do with vertical and horizontal nystagmus and non-convergence. Just imagine if you were loaded right now......:biggrin_255 22:

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I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing
in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-Winston Churchill

Of course, when you're a stoney, you don't have to heed statistics. You are one.
Good article, Baack, in 217.

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"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
~George Orwell