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Fully Half of Americans Have Tried Marijuana

news.gallup.com Fully Half of Americans Have Tried Marijuana

Half of Americans (50%) say they have tried marijuana at some time, a new high point for this behavior that has been inching up over the past quarter century.

Fully Half of Americans Have Tried Marijuana

Story Highlights

  • 50% of U.S. adults say they have experimented with marijuana
  • About one in six Americans (17%) are current users
  • Three in four Americans are concerned about effects on young/teen users
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  • If you want to go down that road, then every classification is arbitrary as there is no definition of drugs sent down from the heavens. In any case this is just sophistry, call it what you want, it is irrelevant. The point still stands, it is a heavily mind altering substance that has no benefits when used recreationally (this is the point of the word recreational), and as such must be banned.

    • The point still stands, it is a heavily mind altering substance that has no benefits when used recreationally (this is the point of the word recreational), and as such must be banned.

      What? How does that point stand? That logic is heavily mastubatory at best. Most recreational activities have "no benefits" beyond the recreation itself. Banning them isn't the answer.

      Banning a common activity is itself harmful. The decrease on organized crime in states that have legalized should be proof enough that the ban just doesn't fit our society.

      • Most recreational activies are productive and serve a purpose other than mindless pleasure, be it reading, exercising, creative projects or other such activites. Recreational drug use serves no such purpose and only exists to numb one's mind from the outside world, and likely their troubles, this fact just is covered by pretty words about "relaxation" and such.

        Banning a substance (with strategic eye of course, for example a total immediate ban on alcohol would cause more problems than it would solve, a incremental ban is better in this case) that complements this behaviour also discourages this behaviour, as no-one who isn't addicted to the substance will take the risk of procuring it illegally. And the ones who are addicted obviously require medical care.

        The decrease of organised crime in drug trade is no argument, one could argue that murder should be legal since the amount of convicted murderers goes down if it is legalised. Not to mention how the ban on certain drugs in America isn't designed to lower the usage of drugs to begin with, rather simply profit off it in various ways.

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