Is it wrong to buy and sell weed?

Avoid the nonsense…grow it yourself (assuming it is legal where you are)...wtf

yes. Anytime you traffic in an illegal substance, you are breaking the law. A friend of mine sold a pound of weed to an undercover cop and got 14 years, first offense. Served seven and was released for good behavior. He is now a felon, and this limits his job opportunities, he can’t own a firearm, and he can’t vote. Losing your rights for a pointless behavior seems pretty damn dumb to me.

Break the law, go to jail. It’s really pretty fucking simple.

@evalyns – let’s be clear that I don’t necessarily equate illegal with unethical. I also understand the implications of breaking the law, but the fact that an action carries severe penalties doesn’t necessarily make it wrong.

Also, your friend sold a pound of weed? Even for a dealer, that’s a hell of a lot.

I would say that if your supply is linked to dangerous drug cartels, gang violence and/or exploitation, then yes, from a moral standpoint, I would consider the purchase to be unethical.

I know where my stuff is coming from though, and my purchases are quite ethical.

Legally, yea. You can get in a whole lot of trouble for buying and even more trouble for selling. If you’re near a school, the offense is a much bigger deal.

Ethically, that depends on who you’re selling to. If you want to help your friends have a good time, I say there’s nothing wrong with that. If you’re selling to people you don’t know, it’s a toss up. When you’re selling to anyone under 18, I feel that’s flat-out wrong. If they can’t even legally buy porn, you shouldn’t be putting drugs in their possession.

@petethepothead – It’s my understanding (correct me if I’m wrong) that eventually, almost all American-bought weed eventually works its way back to Mexican and South American cartels.

Are your weights and measures accurate? Is your price too low aor too high? Can you depend on your supplier? Do you have arrangements made for your security and your customers? Do your customers understand your security arrangements and follow them? Is your location on another’s property? Do the people there know what you are doing? Are minors under your responsibility? It depends.

According to the law in most areas, yes it is wrong and they will put you in jail for a long time because of it. Regardless of what people think about the ethics of weed in general, being in jail is definitely wrong.

I’d like to say one more time that I am not, repeat not talking about the illegality of its purchase. I’m asking about its ethicality. There is a very important difference.

Legality issues aside, I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, yes it is morally wrong to put money into the hands of serious criminals. On the other hand, we buy things every day that contribute to some nefarious activity or another. Pollution, sweatshops, corporate espionage, etc. I think I’m going to have to go with the weed being the more evil purchase, though. Just because it goes to violent people.

Is it inherently unethical? Debatable.
Where I live we allow for medicinal usage. I think that’s awesome and ethical on a humanitarian level.
I think that the plant should be allowed to be used for textile purposes. I think that’s environmentally ethical.

I think that Mexican drug cartels that set up shop in unincorporated areas of the US and then shoot anyone who stumbles on to their patch of weed is highly unethical.

@Hobbes You’ll have to pardon me if I decide to think outside of your box.

I have no ethical issues with it. In fact if it were legal, it would be grown in the US and through legitimate means (IE not by south american drug lords… see the end of prohibition for an example of this).

So ethically, no I have no problem.

BUT, legally, it’s VERY dangerous/stupid to be selling it. (Buying too, but less so).

@Hobbes
Yes

@The_Compassionate_Heretic – Sorry, I came off as ruder than I meant to. I was annoyed because you seemed to be saying that the very fact that it is illegal in the US makes it unethical, which I disagree with and which wasn’t answering the question. But I see what you mean now and take your point.

@Hobbes There’s no accurate numbers on where most weed comes from… But I think you’d be surprised to see how much of it is actually grown in the US as opposed to violent drug dealers/cartels.

One thing you have to realize, is that if weed were legalized the cartels would instantly go out of business. It would immediately be grown all acrossed the US by legitimate citizens. This is the same thing that happened with alcohol and prohibition. It was made in Mexico, Canada, in hiding by the Mafia families, who brutally killed anyone that got in their way or threatened their business. But when prohibition ended, the mobs influence dropped like a rock (not entirely gone, but NOWHERE near the influence they had during prohibition).

Mmm. Well, that’s another reason to legalize, isn’t it? It’s hard to know where you’re getting your weed when you’re a low-down link in an ever shifting and largely anonymous network.

@Hobbes Weed is one that can often be tracked back pretty easily to the source. I don’t personally do weed, but I have friends who do…. and their “growers” tend to be other college guys who just grow it in their basement.

I mean obviously you can’t always (or even often) be very positive in the source…. but for the most part the cartels wouldn’t really bother with shipping pot from central america to say… New england….. to sell enough to make it worth your cost, you would have to ship enough that you would be at a big risk…. why waste your time on that when you could just as easily send cocaine or heroin, and make a MUCH bigger profit?

@The_Compassionate_Heretic If anybody wanted those arias wouldn’t they have claimed them first.

As for the selling of weed itself being immoral, admittedly I’m looking at the indirect effects of it. If I saw my best friend selling a pound of week out of his garage I would think it to be highly unethical because he has a family and if he went to jail for distribution charges, his wife and child would be without a father for a long time and I would be without a best friend for a long time.

Ah. Well that’s certainly a different story – putting yourself in jeopardy of incarceration when you have dependents and other ways of making money is definitely irresponsible and unethical.

Really though, I suppose my question is: if I buy, do I have a bit of the blood of those killed by Mexican drug gangs on my hands?

The crime associated with pot is because it is illegal. Coke people get violent. Heroin people get disparate. Other drugs cause you to have problems controlling your temper.
Pot makes you hungry, warm and fuzzy, extra friendly and drive very slow.
We had better watch out for those dangerous pot heads.

@Hobbes
Really though, my question is: if I buy, do I have a bit of the blood of those killed by Mexican drug gangs on my hands?
Essentially yes. Eliminate demand and there is no strugggle by cartels to dominate an industry, because there would be no industry.

@SeventhSense True, but legalize a largely harmless industry, and eliminate the nefarious parties that are supplying it.

@Hobbes It depends on the source of the weed. If you buy from the street, you never know exactly where your money is going.

If someone decides to buy for their own recreational purposes and the source is some hippie living off the grid, not hurting anyone and growing in their own trailer or unincorporated lands, I don’t see a moral problem with it so long as the user is responsible and doesn’t do anything dumb like drive while being all loaded.

Sometimes weed growers are a more nefarious sort, using the proceeds to arm violent gang members or to fund other more insidious drug operations like producing heroin or meth.

In California, many growers grow directly for the medicinal clubs and they get paid well in many cases. They also have to jump through a lot of legal hoops to be able to do so. They also pay taxes on this revenue. However the feds can come in and arrest them at any time since federal authority trumps state authority. Considering how these people are growing for people with cancer, AIDS, and a host of other debilitating ailments, that’s the part I find unethical and truly offensive.

Luckily with the Obama administration, arresting the legal medicinal growers and distributors is not so high a priority as it was with the Bush years.

I’m starting to digress… going back to the idea of ethics, I think if someone wants to buy weed, it behooves society if the buyer knows the source of the product so they are not inadvertently funding unethical activities. This actually applies to all consumer purchases in a way. We don’t want to perpetuate child slave labor in China for sneakers or slave labor in Africa for diamonds.

Anything that is illegal is wrong. If you disagree with the law, use the proper avenue to change it.

Well, @Hobbes, because of its illegality, dealing in marijuana is mostly unethical. I think it is a foolish law, akin to the one that forbids prostitution, because unenforceable. All of us remember prohibition: I think it was your historian, Frederick Lewis Allen, Only yesterday, who made the remark that every crook from Liverpool to Hong Kong made tracks for the East Coast the day the amendment came into effect. The New World has not recovered yet. So much for civics, ethics, all in the name of good governance.

But however much we dislike a law, scoff-laws are essentially asocial, and can be dangerous for other people. Like it or not, the dealer is involved with persons who will commit any crime to secure their share of the market.

Well… Every person who buy or sell drugs in United States is actually giving power to the Mafias in Latin America. When some body buy something in $50 that in Guatemala cost $5 is giving power to the mafia. This people have enough money thanks to the profits to buy anyone. The corruption is destroying Latin America, and people try to escape, they wants opportunities, they want to live in a place where you don´t have to fear your own police.
Immigration, people from south and central america is have been robber and violated crossing Mexico. They go to United States looking of the american dream, because this countries are shit thanks the mafia and the corruption. I don see drugs like something bad or good, the traffic is the problem.
When a teen ager buy weed or cocaine they don´t understand that every single act has repercussion in another country. I knew people from Europe and United States that they came to “taste” the excellent quality of the drugs that we have and then they complain for the prices in their first world countries. YES YES YES. that´s my answer…
Well… sorry for my bad English.

I have never bought, sold or consumed weed. But my idea of right and wrong has nothing to do with legality. And yes, I think it sucks that there are things you can buy (weed is but one of them) which by the time it gets to the consumer, some people along the distribution line might get hurt, or hurt others with the money they make. But the problem as I see it is that weed is not nearly as harmful as many drugs which are legal, and regardless of how harmful it may or may not be, I believe people should be able to harm themselves all they want, but they shouldn’t be able to harm others. And frankly, the MAIN reason weed is illegal in the first place is because hemp threatened the paper industry, and they couldn’t have that now, could they?

Let me put it to you this way…I buy CDs. Sometimes those CDs cost me say $15. The artists who basically created the music I want to hear however get a buck. The record company has however lent the artists money to get their album created, and then they fail to market the finished product properly. So these people who created this great music end up actually going into debt to a record company by creating art which they reap huge profits on. That seems criminal to me, that seems like it’s bringing harm to the people who should reap the rewards, and rewarding the shitbags.

Or, look at meat. I like to eat meat. But much of the meat sold in this country is “processed” in factories where the owners hire illegal immigrants, pay them far too little for the dangerous work they are doing, do not train them properly, and often subject them to great bodily harm. Worst case scenario is the worker is crippled or killed and neither they nor their family can exactly do anything about it being they are in the country illegally. Best case scenario, they employ these people to do backbreaking labor for a decade until their bodies are so worn out, they can’t work anymore, than they are left with nothing for their years of loyalty.

Or go to Wal-Mart (or really any large retailer…Wal Mart is just the worst offender). Among the things they’ve done 1) strong armed retailers into reducing their prices below their comfort level so they have to reduce costs however possible…such as laying off workers who rely on their paychecks or outsourcing their entire production to foreign countries where people are paid slave wages, 2) forcing workers to work unpaid overtime, to the point where at times they have been locked into stores overnight, 3) changing full time status to a number of weekly hours that none of their employees are ever allowed to reach and 4) paying the workers wages, which combined with their lack of benfits, cause a huge number of their employees to actually be forced into accepting welfare benefits, etc.

Bottom line, depending on what you buy, where you shop, etc., you are probably fucking someone else in the world in some way. Unless you grow everything you need yourself, you can’t single out any one thing you buy and use as being “wrong” because of the production and distribution might lead to greater human suffering. And you shouldn’t let anyone else tell you what you can and cant’ do with YOUR body.

So, HELL no, it’s not wrong. And again, I say that as someone who has zero interest in ever even trying it.

@YARNLADY I know that is your stance from some earlier threads, but I’m curious… do you think since sodomy is still illegal in several states that consenting adults in their own homes should not practice it?

The only thing wrong is that it is illegal.

I am a strong advocate of changing the laws through the proper channels. I am not against buying and selling weed, and I am not against the act of love called “sodomy”. What I want to see is people to use the proper channels to change the law.

I am in favor of legalizing drugs, and (I hate to call it this)sodomy. I do not want it to come to revolution, because there are legal ways to accomplish the desired result.

@dalepetrie – The problem with that argument is that the fact that buying at Wal-Mart, eating slaughterhouse-produced meat, or buying clothing produced in sweatshops is unethical doesn’t mean that buying weed produced by drug cartels is any less unethical. I make an attempt to not buy sweatshop-produced clothes, to eat organic, free-range meat or to not eat meat at al, and to not shop at Wal-Mart. By participating in the system you condone it in a small way, and I don’t think you can just dismiss it by saying that with most purchases “you are probably fucking someone else in the world in some way”.

@YARNLADY – The problem I had with your argument (I can’t speak for augustlan, though I imagine the objection is similar) was that you seemed to be applying a moral judgement on illegal acts, implying that the very fact that they are illegal makes them wrong. To me, all illegality means is: if you do x, and are caught, y will happen. Usually, this is because society at large believes x to be wrong, but that doesn’t mean it is.

I do not advocate doing anything that is illegal, even if the law is wrong. I always choose to change the law, rather than commit the illegal act.

@YARNLADY They have changed the law legally in several states and the feds have illegally stopped them. When DC had it on the ballot and everybody voted on it. They refused to count the ballots and through them in the trash.
Government employees and contractors loose too much money if it is legalized. There would be empty jails and the inmates would not be able to work for select big business at slave wages. Yes. It is real,

@Hobbes – Well, I don’t shop at Wal-Mart, but I do shop at Target, and they aren’t much better, they just have better PR via their charitable giving. Re meat, I simply can’t afford to buy certified organic, grass fed beef all the time, I really don’t KNOW the source of a lot of the fresh foods I buy, and even if I did, what about eating at a restaurant, or at someone else’s house? What about the food the public schools feed my kid? As for clothes, there are only certain clothes that work for me because I’m a bigger guy…I really don’t know the source of a lot of things…unfortunately, you have to be almost elitist these days to do everything the “right” way, and even if you try and can afford to do everything sourced locally, organic, free range, ethical, etc., there is ALWAYS going to be something that falls through the cracks. And bottom line is, hey, maybe you do it, BULLY for you then. The fact is, my answer was not for JUST YOU, it was for the masses, and bottom line is the vast majority of people wouldn’t even KNOW how to do it right. It’s a real commitment that very few people really make and stick to. I’m saying if you go to a chain store, see the word IF, I said IF, IF, IF you go to a chain store, or buy meat from any given grocery store, clothes, even if you buy them from a local retailer, it’s fucking H-A-R-D to avoid fucking someone over, UNLESS you grow EVERYTHING YOU USE by yourself…that is the ONLY way to ensure that you are not in some way indirectly bringing harm to someone . And there is NO ONE in this country who has lived his or her entire life without every once in a while purchasing or consuming SOMETHING that involved pain for someone else in the production and/or distribution….the guiltless consumable does exist, but it is NOT the norm, it is the minimal exception. So take your medal, but please, get off your high horse.

Yet another pot question…

And I would ALSO like to point out that participating in the current consumer culture is any more OR less ethical than buying pot, I EQUATED the two…I’m agreeing that the two are the same thing, and I’m not condoning the culture that allows this to go on. Rather, I am pointing out that it’s an unavoidable fact of life. Yes, if you have the knowledge, the wherewithal, the energy, the money and whatever else it takes to avoid buying anything mass produced, to avoid anything that may have been produced or distributed at someone else’s expense, you can never be perfect, it’s too ingrained in our culture, but the fact is the norm is NOT to be concerned with these things, and yes, in the ideal world we would ALL be able to take back our food supply and our clothing supply and make the norm the exception and the exception the norm, but you can’t in this culture expect the unwashed masses to be any more concerned with where their pot comes from than they are with where their food, clothing, household supplies and entertainment come from, it’s all EXACTLY the same thing. Doesn’t mean I condone it, doesn’t mean I don’t do what I can to avoid it, but I have to accept the reality, and I think you’re living in a fantasy world if you think you can demonize people for buying pot if you don’t also demonize them for everything they consume, and it’s just not feasible for many people in this country to pay a lot of attention to these things…most people have bigger fish to fry…doesn’t make it good or right, but it is what it is and I took a bit of offense at the accusation that I’m condoning this culture…I’m just trying to survive within it.

Hobbes, your premise is outlandishly assuming and not really based in any fact at all. How can you say that all marijuana is linked to crime? Where is your proof?

Here in Canada, this is certainly not the case for a lot of cannabis grown. First off, we have medical marijuana, so people can grow plants for others. A lot of grow ops are maintained by regular working Joes doing it for themselves. Sure there is probably some amount related to crime, but I don’t care one bit about that, because I actually know where my weed comes from, I know who grows it, and that’s good enough for me.

My ethics are not one bit influenced by the law of whatever government I am currently a part of. I’m a bit shocked at the number of people in this thread spouting off the same “it’s illegal so yes it’s unethical” line, but I’m not surprised one bit.

It’s so funny how people can be all uptight about this but not be uptight at the raping and other atrocities Walmart has done in the name of cheap crappy shit you don’t need. But hey, drugs are bad, right? That’s what the government tells you, how can they be wrong?

Cook it, wet it, dry the shit. Grab it, cut it, supply the flip.

Sell crack instead.

I wouldnt say ive been smoking pot for a long time, maybe 4 years. Ive thought about selling weed when times get hard but i have never gone through with it.

Selling weed vs coke or any other drugs is harder because of the amount of weight you have to push. There’s so much physical product, obvious odor, easily identifiable.

Ethically, in my opinion the only thing you could do wrong is to sell it to young kids. I dont think weed causes mass amounts of violence nor do people who sell weed deserve such harsh sentences in prison.

“poison yourself, not the youth”

@dalepetrie Your trying to be responsible for the actions of others might be a program taught to you as being good but the people who taught you it are following a toxic, psychotic pattern of thought. Be careful. It could seriously damage your life. Grain fed meat is certainly a poorer quality meat. Vegetables are pretty much the same and it is very hard to find inorganic milk. I am still looking for some. Those darn cows keep getting in the way. Their milk must be a lot cheaper that synthetic milk is. I wonder what inorganic substances they would make it out of anyway.

I wouldn’t necessarily assume that the weed you buy is linked to Mexican drug cartels and violence, though I suppose it depends on the quality. Much of the better stuff is grown in the US or Canada, though I suppose the seeds did have to come from somewhere at one point. The drug cartels and violence are more related to harder drugs, to my knowledge.

So if your sense of ethics is based on whether you are supporting Latin American violence, then no.

However, after too many years of smoking before quitting, I can see that my life is far better without it. Had I given it up sooner, I would have been able to come to that realization more quickly and would have found other ways to enjoy my time with my friends.

So, if your sense of ethics is based on a person’s well being mentally, emotional, physically and (to me at least) spiritually then yes it is wrong and unethical.

The cycle perpetuates a system of belief that is not healthy for the people caught up in the game and ultimately not good for the end user. I’ve seen too many people ruin their lives and waste good capacity because they got involved in a game they can’t find their way out of since it is all they have known for years.

I see no ethical problems with it except that the risk is too high. As far as drug cartells are concerned they probably spend a much smaller percentage of the money on defense that the government does of your taxes. Why the hell are we supporting a proxy war in Pakistan and Mexico anyway?

I know that the Afghanistani war is to make certain that the world has it’s supplies of heroin.

Ethics? Morality? Right? Wrong?

What a bunch of bullshit.

These are all simply a bunch of imaginary concepts that you use to either make yourself feel better about the things you do or you use to make others feel bad about the things they do.

Every single aspect of American consumerism can be linked to some type of abuse or mistreatment. If anything should be illegal, it should be the use of those four words above.

We all live in a big glass house folks, we need to put the stones down.

No, it’s not wrong to buy or sell. I agree with @petethepothead I think you should try to figure out where it’s coming from. Not a lot of people do that.

@Hobbes well, I can’t define ethics for you, or what you consider morally right or wrong. My morals and ethics may be different from yours (and I am assuming they are, simply because you asked this question) so this is a judgment call you have to make on your own.

Personally, trafficking in anything illegal seems pretty stupid, simply because you are going to have to pay the piper when your illegal activities are brought to light. The judge isn’t really going to take into account that you assume that buying and selling pot is perfectly moral and ethical in your views.

If it is illegal then it is illegal. If you do not agree, do what you want.
Hey! You Gotta Fight… For Your Right… TO PAAARRTY!!! Are you willing to be accountable for your actions? Can you live with those decisions?
Medical marijuana has strong support from voters and health organizations. The federal government, however, has resisted any change to marijuana’s illegal status at the federal level. The Supreme Court ruled in 2005 in Raich v. Gonzales that the federal government can prosecute medical marijuana patients, even in states with compassionate use laws, and several medical marijuana dispensaries in California have since been subject to Drug Enforcement Administration raids.

@Blondesjon Morality is the list of rules that you have made for yourself to protect yourself and to make your life the best you can make it. Not at all bullshit. Entirely necessary if you choose life as your goal. It only goes your way if you don’t care if you live or not. Facing life that way usually ends up in a short life.

It depends. Are you a street dealer or do you just deal with close friends? Where does the marijuana come from?

I think if your just dealing with friends and know the stuff is locally grown who the hell cares.

perhaps it is the governments ban on marijuana that is unethical, which allows the mexican cartels to come to power and exploit its people and gives the US government the right to jail thousands of marijuana users calling them “criminals” (the United States has the largest prison population by %). Also considering that the CIA has assisted groups in smuggling drugs into the united states, and profited from it, and now even though California has legalized it, the federal government persist in enforcing their own laws. I dunno, its hard to claim that your act of buying and selling marijuana is unethical considering all the other circumstances.
However, what you should consider is your own opinion about the use of it, and then if you want to be associated with what comes with the use and sale of it. And also do you want to risk your reputation, and freedom just to do so?

That is right on. Also, how the “Drug business” works. Is a paradoxical issue. On one had drug’s are bad, on the other it makes people plenty of money on both sides of the fence.
If we legalized Marijuana. The DEA would not get that “extra” bonus they get form seizures. (One example, plenty of others benefit)
When they have a bust and there is a butt load of drugs, with that there is usually plenty of cash, property, and stuff. All that money goes into their account.
Sort of like speeding tickets. We have very basic technology to prevent most of them. But, it will never happen. The revenue that is generated is much appreciated.

@ChazMaz Things are not bad or good. Those words apply to human actions. There is much risk in dealing drugs. What is bad in it is cheating, stealing killing and dragging others into your business. There are many drug dealers that do not do these things and there are others that do. There is the question as to whether it is moral to charge your customer taxes which does not enter into the discussion. I think that the state should be made to collect it’s own taxes and that it is immoral to do it for them. Still you have to.

“There are many drug dealers that do not do these things and there are others that do.”
There are many that do not? Really? Where?
I have known plenty that are “good” people. Stay away from “clients” that can cause trouble.
But when it comes to drugs that equate to money.. Go ahead, cross even the nice ones and you will get (at least) a beating you will never forget. :-)

“What is bad in it is cheating, stealing killing and dragging others into your business. ”
You are sooo right.

@walterallenhaxton What is it about “the state” that is not part of “you”? When you say “the state should be made to collect it’s own taxes” exactly what part of the state are you not part of?

@YARNLADY The state I am talking about is the Government and I do not work for it. As for it being part of me, I am a human being with all of the parts that pertain to a human being, none of which is the state.

@walterallenhaxton “I do not work for it” Wrong – you work for “the government” between four and five months out of the year (state and federal) and if you live in the US you are part of “the government” willy-nilly.

Tell them that. They never listen to me when I tell them that they are making mistakes. That goes for any government anywhere. Maybe if I kill myself I will reduce the size of government by that much.

Easy Santa.. Who will deliver the gifts?

HELL NO!!!

Make myself clear yet?
Legalize it.

@Hobbes – is it wrong to buy and sell weed? because it is illegal in many jurisdictions, it is, at the very least, immoral and unethical. But because it is its very illegality which creates the problem (drug cartels, gang violence, etc.) all the more reason to decriminalize and even legalize the use of marijuana. Good laws do not create problems: they should be the solution.

@bea2345 I have to disagree with you on one point. Illegal does not equal immoral. It used to be illegal for blacks to use the white’s water fountain… does that mean it was immoral to do so?

Good point, @augustlan – Unethical, perhaps, to buy and sell weed in a jurisdiction where it is illegal, but hardly immoral. But one does wonder if it were not better to repeal this law altogether, as it is unenforceable in any real way and manufactures disgust and disenchantment with the legal system.

@Kraken That would create a black market and a white market. White market price will be more than twice as much due to taxes. It helps but does not solve the problem. It also needs equal taxation. I don’t like any taxes but ordinary sales tax does not create black markets because it does not distort prices that much.

I believe that it is not ethical to sell it to kids under a certin age such as under 16 or 18. If they are old enough to choose their own ideals then it is ethical because you are just allowing them a freedom they should have in the first place. Personally I have a small bias because I believ pot should be legalized. More for the fact that it will get some of my idiot friends to stop selling drugs that just get them into a lot of trouble. Also, I would feel safer if the government was growing my weed more so than someone I have never met, and will probably never meet, in my life. On the other hand, buying is your right to something that is already put on the earth, why is the marjuana plant on the planet in the first place if not to be used by someone or something?

I do not want the government to have anything to do with it.

Allow it for personal consumption only and grow what you need.

Selling marijuana without a license in the US is malum prohibitum, not malum per se.