I've done a fair bit of research about cannabis and it seems to me that there is little progress being made from these online debates about it. Many debaters (including myself) inadvertently allow personal feelings to influence them, entrenching themselves in their beliefs. The same points and counters are made again and again and offer little new insight.
Anyway, my thoughts about marijuana: it has both costs and benefits that vary for everyone. It's impossible to say which is greater for a particular individual without comprehensive knowledge of the drug and the individual. Although this perspective is somewhat chaotic, that no informed conclusions can be made about weed without more extensive research into humans, the link is probably more complex than the average person might perceive, so false conclusions resembling plausible truths are often made.
Weed's illegal status leads to a black market with ugly consequences. The black market for weed is directly related to a lack of solid data about the effects of weed and about the market for weed. The lack of a "legitimate" market for weed and the stigma associated with weed's illegal status reduce the amount of interest in academic research about weed.
All this sucks because it leads to a dearth of readily available, solid information for people to consider when they want to learn about weed. It's really hard for someone to make an informed decision about weed without investing a really large amount of resources into researching the subject. Plus, weed as an illegal substance and the black market generated by its illegal status lead to weed being sold at lower quality and higher prices than if it were legal. Moreover, illegality and the black market lead to a lot of other shit that burdens society (e.g. crime, law enforcement cost, etc.).
Anyway, my thoughts about marijuana: it has both costs and benefits that vary for everyone. It's impossible to say which is greater for a particular individual without comprehensive knowledge of the drug and the individual. Although this perspective is somewhat chaotic, that no informed conclusions can be made about weed without more extensive research into humans, the link is probably more complex than the average person might perceive, so false conclusions resembling plausible truths are often made.
Weed's illegal status leads to a black market with ugly consequences. The black market for weed is directly related to a lack of solid data about the effects of weed and about the market for weed. The lack of a "legitimate" market for weed and the stigma associated with weed's illegal status reduce the amount of interest in academic research about weed.
All this sucks because it leads to a dearth of readily available, solid information for people to consider when they want to learn about weed. It's really hard for someone to make an informed decision about weed without investing a really large amount of resources into researching the subject. Plus, weed as an illegal substance and the black market generated by its illegal status lead to weed being sold at lower quality and higher prices than if it were legal. Moreover, illegality and the black market lead to a lot of other shit that burdens society (e.g. crime, law enforcement cost, etc.).