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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!iddic!tekgds!charliep
From: charliep@tekgds.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: multiple choice question
Message-ID: <1287@tekgds.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Aug-83 01:13:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekgds.1287
Posted: Wed Aug 31 01:13:46 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Aug-83 06:13:29 EDT
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 63

I'd also like to see marijuana legalized.  One day in the future
this country's attitude about legislating (some people's) morality
will hopefully be impossible for anyone to understand.  But for now,
maybe you can help me understand by selecting YOUR reason(s) from
those given below (after all, don't the majority of you approve
of the legal status of marijuana?  It IS illegal, and this IS a
democracy, you know...)
        1.  So lawyers can make money.
        2.  So criminals can make money.
        3.  Because it makes you feel good (or at least different).
        4.  Because communists smoke it.
        5.  Because it leads to heroin and sex.
        6.  Because it doesn't come from a vending machine.
        7.  Because it is green but not plastic.
        8.  Because police officers need some easy targets to prey on.
        9.  Because the smoke contains carcinogens.
        10. Because there are a lot of cowardly legislators who don't want
            to be known for having approved the use of drugs.
        11. Because it causes one to reject social values.
        12. Because it lengthens one's reaction time to the jokes
            on prime-time sitcoms.
        13. Because it causes one to be apathetic.
        14. Because illegal pot has more seeds, and the clothing
            manufacturers need to make more sales.
        15. Because it's more fun when it's illegal.
        16. Because there are a lot of uptight, self-righteous windbags
            in this country who have no idea of the real effects of its use.
        17. Because it provides an easy entry to crime school for teenagers.
        18. Because it is addictive.
        19. Because it makes people kill, rape, and sing off key.
        20. Because that's just the way it is.

In my opinion, drug laws are an insult to our constitution, our basic
human rights, and the intelligence of our political leaders and
elected officials.  Maybe if drug users were not forced into
slums and jails they would be able to contribute more to society.
It is quite likely that the largest proportion of big-city crime would
disappear overnight.  If there IS a drug problem, it is that some people
don't have anything better to do with their lives!  But why treat the
symptom instead of the problem?

Moreover, if you or I want to obliviate ourselves with whatever means,
we should not be legally restrained from doing so.  Any big change
to the legal status quo would have an unbalancing effect for years, but
before too long most people would get smart and only do the drugs that
were good for them.  As usual, education is an infinitely better answer
than proscription.  If the TRUTH about the harmful effects of drugs were
WELL KNOWN, reasonable people (practically by definition!) would avoid those
harmful effects.  As for the good effects of drugs, why are we legally
prevented from enjoying them?

LEGALIZE DRUGS!

BTW, I used to smoke a helluva lot.  I'm too busy these days, but that
     doesn't mean I would not like to do it every once in a while...

Charles Perkins

PS.   I'd also like mention that unless you have personal experience,
      everything you know about drugs is WRONG, to borrow a phrase from
      Firesign Theater.
PPS.  Anyone in Oregon who cares, can support the biannual drive to get
      marijuana legalized here.  Sigh...