<story><title>The New York Times Calls for Marijuana Legalization</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/high-time-marijuana-legalization.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>k-mcgrady</author><text>I sincerely believe the only people who are against legalisation of marijuana are those who don&amp;#x27;t understand it&amp;#x27;s effects on a person and those who are easily susceptible to propaganda and fail to do their own research on the subject. I can&amp;#x27;t think of even one legitimate reason for it&amp;#x27;s prohibition. If you argue for prohibition based on health consequences or risk to society you should also be arguing for prohibition of alcohol and it has been proven beyond doubt that alcohol prohibition was a really bad idea.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fred_durst</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ll bring up a point here only because I feel like the HN crowd is on the younger side. Its not until your late 20&amp;#x27;s and really 30&amp;#x27;s that you start to find out about and see people you&amp;#x27;ve known in the past that were intelligent, productive people who&amp;#x27;s lives have been completely destroyed due to their drug addictions. And yes, I&amp;#x27;ve certainly had friends who are 40+ and barely hold down a job and live off friends and family because they were&amp;#x2F;are addicted to marijuana. It definitely happens, don&amp;#x27;t kid yourself.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know if the correct solution is to criminalize it, but please keep in mind that drugs change who you are. That is truly the unique thing about them compared to other addictions. And again, if you think heavy marijuana use doesn&amp;#x27;t change a person, you don&amp;#x27;t know any heavy marijuana users.&lt;p&gt;For example, banning alcohol and marijuana probably isn&amp;#x27;t going to work, but selling bottles of cheap vodka at the grocery store 24&amp;#x2F;7 is setting up a lot of people who are trying to get clean to fail.</text></comment>
<story><title>The New York Times Calls for Marijuana Legalization</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/high-time-marijuana-legalization.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>k-mcgrady</author><text>I sincerely believe the only people who are against legalisation of marijuana are those who don&amp;#x27;t understand it&amp;#x27;s effects on a person and those who are easily susceptible to propaganda and fail to do their own research on the subject. I can&amp;#x27;t think of even one legitimate reason for it&amp;#x27;s prohibition. If you argue for prohibition based on health consequences or risk to society you should also be arguing for prohibition of alcohol and it has been proven beyond doubt that alcohol prohibition was a really bad idea.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jiggy2011</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve heard anti legalisation advocates suggest that prohibition of alcohol would indeed be a positive thing and were alcohol a new drug then it should be criminalised. However prohibition attempts (of alcohol) are doomed to fail because of how much drinking is entwined with our culture. For example pubs or bars being focal points of the community, wine being a common meal accompaniment etc. Marijuana doesn&amp;#x27;t have the same culture built around it , except for a minority of stoners.</text></comment>