[420 Girl]

COLUMBIA, MO (KBIA) - Mizzou's Residence Hall Association sponsored the forum, the second of a series of debates on issues they feel affect college students the most. A wide variety of questions were addressed, ranging from the medical benefits of cannabis to how it should be sold to the public if it were to be legalized. Scott Lauher of MU's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, says he hopes the legalization of the drug would lead to regulation of what is now an occasionally dangerous commodity, as well as new revenues for the government.

"We are one of the only organizations in the country that wants to be taxed, so there would be definitely be taxes and instead of spending taxpayer money to enforce these useless and only harmful drug laws, we could save that money and then make more on top of it."

Arguing against this viewpoint was Ed Moses, a drug-abuse educator who had previously spent years as a police officer investigating drug cases. He cited several cases in which criminals had been regular marijuana smokers before committing heinous crimes as his major opposition to the drug, as well as his belief that if marijuana would be legally sold, it would eventually have youth-friendly marketing like for alcohol and tobacco.

"You know, Spuds McKenzie wasn't for adults. 'Whazzup!?' wasn't for adults. It was for kids. They know how to market to young, underage, and they'll do the same with pot."

Attendee Zachery Berghoffer says he does not smoke marijuana himself, but he is interested in the subject after seeing several of his friends get in trouble for doing so.

"I think the con, against marijuana, had a lot of informative facts, but at the same time personally I don't see how marijuana is any worse than alcohol in sense of long-term effects."


http://www.420magazine.com/forums/in...marijuana.html