Marijuana

[feedthetree]

Should marijuana be legalized?

Your thoughts and opinions?

Is it a dangerous "drug"?

 

[Galeongirl]

Yes.

/Dutch


But seriously, it should be. That way the government can be happy to tax shit, and the entire process can be monitored so the amount of THC won't get too high(which appears to be a problem here). And it takes it away from the black market, so you can get rid of that criminal part.

It also takes it out of the 'super cool illegal zone'. Look at drinking. As a kid it's 'cool', until you get to legal age. Then it's just one of those things.

 

[digitize]

Yes, I think it should be legal. But I loathe the stuff. My experience has been colored by people whose lives it has hurt, so perhaps I'm biased. I've seen people become annoyingly disconnected from reality because of it. They stopped trying to craft enjoyable lives and sought happiness from pot instead. One of my best friends realized that this was happening to him and gave it up, but I was very worried about him for awhile. But like I said, these are just personal experiences. I think that it's dangerous for some people and not dangerous for others, though I recognize that it would probably do little good for me. I support legalizing it because it's de facto legal already in the developed world, it's probably not causing massive aggregated societal harm, and continuing the prohibition against it is probably fueling significant violence.

 

[BVS]

All things good can be bad.

Alcohol, sex, medications... Can be used or enjoyed without consequences by many, and then there are some that will have issues with them(either due to a propensity or circumstance).

I've never seen a legitimate reason for its illegality.

 

[PhilsFan]

Marijuana being illegal is borderline insanity. There are so many things that are more dangerous and legal than marijuana.

I don't smoke it. I don't like it. But that doesn't mean it should be illegal at all.

This is a really simple argument.

 

[Galeongirl]

I'm sure a lot less people are killed by marihuana than guns..

 

[trojanchick99]

I think all narcotics should be legal. So yeah, please legalize marijuana. It's much less harmful than tobacco and alcohol.

 

[PhilsFan]

I'm sure a lot less people are killed by marihuana than guns..

It's not possible to overdose on marijuana, so right off the bat the numbers are pretty low.

 

[mama cass]

i think it should be legalised, purely to get rid of the dealers and the whole criminal culture that goes with them

 

[mama cass]

re. is it a dangerous drug - hasn't it been found to be risky to teenage brains undergoing developmental neurone changes? i.e. a trigger for schizophrenia in susceptible individuals?

 

[Galeongirl]

It's not possible to overdose on marijuana, so right off the bat the numbers are pretty low.

Yeah but there are people who killed themselves in a psychosis. Which can occur by pot use, it's highly unlikely, but can occur.

And it's indeed harmful for the teenage brain. As is alcohol and smoking. So I don't see why that would be a reason to keep pot illegal and these other two drugs legal. They're all as worse as each other.

 

[BVS]

re. is it a dangerous drug - hasn't it been found to be risky to teenage brains undergoing developmental neurone changes? i.e. a trigger for schizophrenia in susceptible individuals?

Alcohol, cigarettes, and certain medicines are also dangerous to developing children.

 

[cobl04]

It's not possible to overdose on marijuana, so right off the bat the numbers are pretty low.

Greening out is a nightmare though.

Yes it should be legal.

 

[PhilsFan]

Yeah but there are people who killed themselves in a psychosis. Which can occur by pot use, it's highly unlikely, but can occur.

Which is why I didn't say no one has ever died from marijuana use, just that the numbers would be comparatively low when lined up against drugs that you can overdose on.

 

[PhilsFan]

re. is it a dangerous drug - hasn't it been found to be risky to teenage brains undergoing developmental neurone changes? i.e. a trigger for schizophrenia in susceptible individuals?

Not nearly as dangerous as has been reported for a long time. It was long believed that it killed brain cells, which is not true: the experiments they cited when reporting this information were fundamentally flawed and only demonstrated that a lack of oxygen kills brain cells.

 

[mama cass]

i mean the specific risk of triggering schizophrenia, associated with cannabis use in teens

yeah of course alcohol and smoking are dangerous, but cannabis also has risks too...

 

[mama cass]

Alcohol, cigarettes, and certain medicines are also dangerous to developing children.

state the bleedin obvious why don't you BVS?

yeah, like i said, i was talking about the specific risk of schizophrenia/psychosis actually...

 

[mama cass]

i think people should be free to grow their own if they want to - at least that way it would be pure...

because i would be worried if the corporations got the monopoly on production/distribution and started adding all their nasty toxic substances, like they do with cigarettes... (interesting book on the tobacco industry recently came out called Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition by Robert Proctor - has anyone read it??)

 

[U2DMfan]

I once smoked a blunt on a beach in the Bahamas with some strange dude about 10 minutes after we first arrived and got to the hotel. Shit was strong. I was so paranoid I went STRAIGHT back to the hotel room and went to sleep. It was like 5pm...I was fucking BAKED. Ruined my first day there. It was alcohol and cocaine from there on out. I was 20 then...good times.

Never was much of a pot smoker, although I had my moments from age 18-22.
But I'd bet I haven't had a cumulative joint since then (in the last 15 years) and nothing at all in the last 6-7 years. Shit just puts me to sleep.

Treat it like alcohol.

 

[BVS]

state the bleedin obvious why don't you BVS?

yeah, like i said, i was talking about the specific risk of schizophrenia/psychosis actually...

Ok, thanks for the clarification, but I still think that reasoning isn't exactly justifiable in calling it a "dangerous drug". It's dangerous for some, but then again so are peanuts. I hope that makes sense, I'm not trying to play semantics or be snarky.

 

[mama cass]

Ok, thanks for the clarification, but I still think that reasoning isn't exactly justifiable in calling it a "dangerous drug". It's dangerous for some, but then again so are peanuts. I hope that makes sense, I'm not trying to play semantics or be snarky.

sure, no problem!

it's a tricky one, because there does appear to be a link, but it clearly doesn't affect everyone in the same way, only those who are susceptible - but how do we know who's susceptible anyway? it would probably be impossible or at least very difficult to identify individuals potentially at risk...

i know two people, in their forties now, who developed psychotic illness with extreme permanent paranoia coinciding with heavy cannabis use in their teens... it is hard to know whether they would have ended up in such a bad way without the cannabis or not, maybe there were underlying health issues already... but the symptoms were triggered by cannabis use... i guess the problem is we don't know who's susceptible until it's too late...

(i also know plenty of other folk who've smoked/drunk/eaten cannabis with no obvious ill-effects! )

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Marijuana being illegal is borderline insanity. There are so many things that are more dangerous and legal than marijuana.

I don't smoke it. I don't like it. But that doesn't mean it should be illegal at all.

This is a really simple argument.

These are my thoughts, pretty much.

I do think some people get annoyingly obsessive about it, but that's their issue to deal with, not mine, so...

 

[MrPryck2U]

If they make pot legal, I've got a scary feeling the tobacco companies will add chemicals to it and make it worse. It's good to see pot become decriminalized though. If you get busted with an eighth, you won't go to jail for ten years. NY had their foolish Rockefeller laws on the books for years and all that did was max out the jails.

 

[Galeongirl]

If the tobacco companies add stuff, I reckon the black market will flourish again, because nobody is going to buy their shit.

Sure Pot has some nasty side effects on SOME people, but should it really be outlawed because of that? Some people reach psychosis with alcohol, and that's a small percentage too.

Man, this thread is making me want to roll one.. shame mum's on winter break.

 

[PhilsFan]

If they make pot legal, I've got a scary feeling the tobacco companies will add chemicals to it and make it worse.

Why? With such a prevalent black market, they're going to have to maintain quality in order to compete in the marketplace. Adding chemicals that worsen the product won't accomplish that. It's bad business.

 

[MrPryck2U]

Why? With such a prevalent black market, they're going to have to maintain quality in order to compete in the marketplace. Adding chemicals that worsen the product won't accomplish that. It's bad business.

That is a factor, but it might be easier for folks to buy a pack of joints at the the local convienence store or gas station than to get it from Tommy the pot dude. It's not like the tobacco companies exemplify integrity. They're already selling a product that will kill you.

 

[corianderstem]

Well, here in Washington, my understanding is that I won't be able to run down to the Qwik-E-Mart to buy a pack of Js - I have to go to the government-run facility to buy it.

Maybe this is naive, but I don't think the tobacco industry is going to be able to get their grubby giant mitts over it ... at least not at first, anyway.

We just voted out the government liquor stores ... guess we'll be reopening them for our pot! Ha.

 

[trojanchick99]

In California, you go to a medical marijuana shop and have all sorts of options. They even sell edibles.

 

[BVS]

I'm not an expert on marijuana, I was a dabbler for years and then hit a stretch of time where no matter the circumstances it made me paranoid, so I don't dabble anymore. The last time I touched the stuff was Superbowl 2005, I took ONE tiny puff at kick off and it had me pacing a balcony for the rest of the game, I literally missed the whole game and finally was able to join the party after the game was over. I knew the last several times weren't pleasurable for me so I consciously inhale one VERY small hit and it still had me paranoid, so I said no more.

So by no means am I an expert on pot, what is the "shelf-life"? I mean the reasons tobacco companies add chemicals is twofold, increase shelf life and make it addictive. I think adding anything to prolong shelf life would actually work against them in the market. And I don't believe adding anything to make it addictive would even be allowed this day and age.

 

[Liesje]

Marijuana being illegal and birth control pills being rx only....two things that make no sense to me.