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Oregon ended marijuana prohibition at midnight Wednesday, joining Colorado, Washington state, Alaska and the District of Columbia in legalizing recreational use of the drug.
The new law means Oregon likely will reap benefits that appear to have followed legalization elsewhere: Reduced crime, from a legal industry supplanting a black market; higher tax revenue, once weed is legal to sell; and police forces and courts unburdened by droves of misdemeanor pot offenders.
Oregon voters in November approved Measure 91 with 56 percent of the vote. As of now, adults 21 and older can legally possess up to eight ounces of marijuana inside their home and up to one ounce outside. Adults can grow up to four plants per household, out of public view.
Sign of the times.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Thursday July 02 2015, @08:01PM
There's a problem with this idea: we already have legal alcohol, and people who are heavy drinkers likewise have permanent body damage: liver problems, obesity ("beer belly"), physical aging (they tend to look older), etc. I imagine it affects their minds too. Same too with cigarettes; I seriously doubt 1000 heavy cigarette smokers at the age of 50 will perform as well as 1000 50yo non-smokers.
Any recreational drug used heavily in the long term is going to have detrimental effects on your body and mind. So why single out marijuana? If you're going to keep alcohol, which seems to be worse in most ways, legal, then you need to do the same for pot. If you're going to ban pot because it's bad for you, then you need to do the same with alcohol, regardless of how much crime and violence this causes (since, after all, banning pot has done the exact same thing).