Today is considered “Weed Day” by marijuana smokers because the date, 4/20, corresponds with the numbers they use to refer to the drug. The actual origins of the term “420″ are not as widely known, but you can count on thousands of college students gathering – in some cases, together, and in very public locations – to celebrate doing something that’s illegal.Poll Position: Should marijuana be legalized?
Written by Paul Dzirvinskis on September 2nd, 2007Today is considered “Weed Day” by marijuana smokers because the date, 4/20, corresponds with the numbers they use to refer to the drug. The actual origins of the term “420″ are not as widely known, but you can count on thousands of college students gathering – in some cases, together, and in very public locations – to celebrate doing something that’s illegal.
For now, anyway.
Should marijuana be legalized?
There is a growing shift in public opinion about whether marijuana should be legalized, even in the South, with as unlikely a proponent as Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson arguing that particular drug shouldn’t be treated any differently than alcohol. Gary Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico and erstwhile GOP presidential candidate now seeking the Libertarian Party’s 2012 nomination, has called for legalizing and regulating marijuana, citing the ineffectiveness and costliness of enforcing the ban.
People in favor of keeping the current law argue that marijuana can be a “gateway drug” that leads users to experiment with harder, more harmful substances. Georgia’s legislators haven’t gone as far as legalizing pot, but this year they did pass an overhaul of the state’s criminal code that calls for people in possession of small amounts of the drug to face alternatives to jail time.
