<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>acomjean</author><text>Legalize it,&lt;p&gt;But there are some real issues to be worked out, as someone who had a friend sent to hospital after being hit by a stoned driver who blew through a stop sign.  Whats the legal limit?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure how easy it is to detect if someone is &amp;quot;under the influence&amp;quot; as the drug is detectable for weeks in the blood (in this case the join was  in the car).</text></item><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>lostcolony</author><text>We already have this situation with prescription drugs. I agree it should be worked out, but failure to do so is not in itself a problem; same with prescription drugs, while there&amp;#x27;s a lot of ambiguity around when a person is under the influence, as it were, it just makes it so arrests have to be for actual occurrences. Reckless driving, or an accident caused by it. As you mention yourself, the driver ran a stop sign; all the marijuana does is add an additional offense, it&amp;#x27;s not like the driver walks scot free because the system is unable to respond to his drug usage.</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>acomjean</author><text>Legalize it,&lt;p&gt;But there are some real issues to be worked out, as someone who had a friend sent to hospital after being hit by a stoned driver who blew through a stop sign.  Whats the legal limit?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure how easy it is to detect if someone is &amp;quot;under the influence&amp;quot; as the drug is detectable for weeks in the blood (in this case the join was  in the car).</text></item><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>djur</author><text>Legal limits for alcohol are pretty arbitrary. Someone who&amp;#x27;s driving way over the limit isn&amp;#x27;t going to get caught unless they&amp;#x27;re driving dangerously anyway.</text></comment>