Should cannabis be legalised?

Cannabis consumption is skyrocketing in Europe- what about getting high once in a while? And why not ban alcohol while you're at it?
link: Cocaine Spain

Hi Vané! I am a former alcoholic and stopped alcohol when i was at the 3th degree( thad meens when you start seing mouses on the ceiling) and have acoustic
halucinations!
I changed my bad habit's with the use of cannabis without any other help (medical and or psychological).
Since 20 years now i feel great and think sinceraly thad the canabis 'trhill' is less harmfull then alcool because non affecting behavioural changes and desinhibition as strong as with alcohol you never lose control and therefore i think it is a more "Pacific" way of conviviality!
love and peace artcore!

http://videoalbertus.monsite.orange.fr/index.jhtml

allright a new discussion. interesting to know how people think about the use of recreational drugs. cause what ever you do these are drugs, the cigarettes should be classified as drugs to. but there are a lot of BIG INTERESTS. i have really no objection against kannabis but, please correct me (cause i never used any) it leads at the end ot heavier drugs. i met some guys who where former adicts and they told me that they started this way. unfortunatelly these guys fell back to their adiction. so kannabis, yes, but away from the schools and any place that kids are around, they get so easily drawn to test anything. the sad thing is that an adicted person is not realy able to work, so he has to sell drugs to others in order to cover his consuming habbits. so where he goes.... to young people outside the schools......!!!

The cannabis should be authorized for persons who pass a psychological exam and every retailers (coffee shops, tobacco shops etc.) should indicate the psychological risks and addictions of cannabis : as the cigarettes packs which indicate that smoking is bad for your health.

I would be all for legalising cannabis. For one thing this would mean that the weed smoker would always know what's in the bag he bought and won't have to unwittingly smoke acetone, methadone or any other crap the dealer put in there to make the bag heavier.
The second thing I think is that if cannabis were legal there would be less chance of people moving from it to harder drugs. Why? Well, because I think it is easier to break the law once you have done something illegal once. Furthermore those who smoke weed illegally usually know a dealer or two who might convince them that the harder stuff is worth trying.
I do agree that it has to be a controlled substance just like cigarettes with warning labels like myasz said. Not sure about the psychological exams though... I mean do you need to be examined when buying vodka or beer? After all, don't serious alcoholics tend to be much more dangerous than potheads?

this is getting better. you have some points of view that it might never crossed my mind. as meskanu says. ok under these conditions it could be more in a matter of sence controllbar. ie such as all dutch people are not smoking cannabis in their coffeeshops i have many friends so they confirmed that there is a number but not everyone and of course a lot of crazy tourists that they want to test it or to .....

Ban it, keep it banned, and ban any mrketing that makes it look cool. And ban all other drugs while your at it.
Lay off the tobacco. Get priorities straight.

What are these prioties i have to get straight then? are they your prioties and beliefs that you are imposing on me?
I notice here you do not mention alcohol. I wonder why that is. Do you happen to participate in drinking yourself but see smoking as the problem?
This comment of your is inchoate and I wonder why you actually bothered to spend the 20 seconds or so that it must have taken you to add this comment. Why bother in the first place if you cannot be bothered at all.
I have recently seen my step - mother die a death tht still haunts me from alcohol. I have seen it control my step - father's life and thus impact on those around him. Cannabis never did this to anyone around me. Sure it can cause some problems but not even on a scale of the misery of what alcohol can and has caused. Try banning that. I think you will find the corporations will not let the goverment do so.
As for banning something or leglising something. One drives it underground and the other into the hands of corporations. One and the same in my eyes when it comes down to it at the end of the day.
Let us take another substance for exaomple. Heroin. I know of people who have overdosed and others who have their lives torn apart in the process. But the funny thing is heroin was not the cause of their problems. I know of successful, professional people. Those you may class as responsible and look up to.
They use and have used heroin for many many years and it has no detrimental effect on their lives in any way. Heroin does not destroy the body. The differences in these two types of cases is the ability to fund this addiction. The persons circumstances. My point here is not to discuss the ins and outs of various substances and the right and wrongs but in what people are seeing as the problem.
Many of the problems we face lie deeper than many are willing to admit or even to acknowledge.
The problems lie not with the substance but with the society. We are too fragmented too global. The village is too big. We are manipulted and abused by corporations and people sitting round tables. Too much goes to too few. Look beyond and see the cause of the effect.
I live as much as possible outside society. I do not need these laws. My extended family has it's own unspoken laws and people look after each other. They do not generalise. We educate and share the negative and positive aspects of doing certain things. They are there for one another. In looking after what is around you, you change the world. not by trying to change the world itself.
So what is the answer. Well it is not imposing one set of rules and opinions on everyone. That would be too easy. In my experience the shortest and easiest route is often the one that fails in a most spectacular way.