Marijuans

I am from a very pro-MJ community so I have no problem with it. I think it is safer than tobacco and alcohol most definitely.

 

I know plenty of stoners and it isn't a big deal, but I know plenty of alcoholics too and see it destroy lives. I would rather people use weed as an escape than alcohol.
Legalize it

 

Both extremes of this argument have always sounded ignorant to me.

Should it be legalized? Yes, only because alcohol is legal and it seems hypocritical. Both are dangerous. However, there should be an age restriction and its use should be HEAVILY regulated. The fact is that driving buzzed is still dangerous and hinders focus and threatens the user's life and others around them.

Is smoking marijuana worse than smoking cigarettes? It's just as bad. The fact is, you're inhaling something that is burning. No matter what it is, your body isn't going to like that. It's the ADDITIVES inside of cigarettes that are addictive and carcinogenic. Smoking marijuana would have the same health effects as pure tobacco, as both are natural herbs. Tobacco in the form of cigarettes kills you slowly, but it doesn't immediately affect your behavior or performance.

The only reason I'm hesitant on siding with the legalization of marijuana because I wouldn't trust the general population with a sharp stick.

& while there is no proof that marijuana is physically addictive, I have seen the effects of being psychologically addicted to it. Friends and immediate family slacking in school or at work, putting on weight, and having mood swings.

 

Couldn't care less either way. It just smells absolutely terrible, so as long as people don't smoke it around me its whatever.

 

There should have been an "Other" option..... I have a very "I dont care" motto to it. Personally, I not want to be in a relationship with anyone who does......anything really, but as far as regulations go, I dont see the point in fighting it.

What I cannot stand is the people who act like just because it is not as unhealthy as cigarettes or other drugs, than it must have been sent from the heavens. Inhaling virtually anything into our bodies, other than pure air, is not natural. Our lungs were created based on the assumption that we would be breathing oxygen, so intake of other elements are not optimal. Studies have not shown that Marijuana is connected to cancer, but they have shown that the average strength in the lungs of the smokers is lower than the average strength of non-smokers. Though its not anything drastic or life changing, or all that serious in general.

The point is, I really dont care what people do. I know people that do drink, smoke, whatever, and I dont judge. But just be mature enough to take responsiblity for your actions. Running around trying to convince people that "its completely healthy" is ridiculous. We do unhealthy things all the time. I didnt need to just eat those cookies, but they were amazing. But now I'm not going to try and justify myself, but telling people its just like eating apples. :/

 

OMG - exactly what I was thinking. I know some people who take medicines like advil all the time and I'm like WHY!? So your head hurts a little - it doesnt mean that you need to take medicine to alleviate it. It will go away on its own.

Personally, I feel like anyone can live such amazing lives without drugs and their effects. I respect my body enough to not throw strenuous materials at it so my liver and kidney can work themselves to death. If you respect your body, it will give back. Just my position. If someone feels they need the stuff to live - by all means, its your body, you do what you need to - just keep it away from me. I just wish I can show everyone who doesnt really need it for medical stuff that they don't need it to feel good. However, I don't judge people if they do use it. I don't know their life as well as they do.

 

I smoked an absurd amount of pot in high school. All day, every day for about 2 years, I enjoyed it more than anything. It was partially for medical reasons (it was the only thing that could help my stomach, something my doctors had been failing to do for 14 years), and partially just because it felt so incredible. Then all of a sudden, I didn't enjoy it anymore, so I stopped and haven't looked back. It's been about 3 years since then, and I haven't missed it once. But that's my own personal experience.

Many of my friends still enjoy smoking weed on a regular basis, and I have seen it greatly enrich many of their lives. I've never seen it be a 'gateway drug'. If people are going to do drugs, they are going to do drugs, end of story. I've never seen anybody overdose, have a bad trip, get addicted, get sick, get violent, get into a car accident, etc. from smoking weed. I can not say the same for other drugs/alcohol.

In general, I think that people should thoroughly research anything they're going to be putting into their bodies, especially drugs (including medications). But as long as a person is well informed and safe, I don't see the issue with allowing them to make their own choices.

 

I couldn't agree more.

As far as the poll, I didn't vote. I'm kind of on the fence with that subject.

When I was working at my first job I was introduced to my first drug dealer. Having been homeschooled during high school, I had never been around people like him before. I am really into studying people, trying to find out what makes them tick if you will, so I found him fascinating. Sometimes he'd come in stoned out of his mind, and we'd have the greatest and most in-depth philosophical conversations I've ever had in my life. Other nights he'd be strung out to the point of lethargy, leaving me to pick up his workload. And sometimes he wouldn't even come in at all, probably off chasing his next fix. He offered me some marijuana on several occasions. It never interested me. As time progressed he offered me other things too, which was definitely a learning experience.

I think if it were to be legalized it would be slightly (though not much) more controllable. And it could be taxed, which may help the country overall. But frankly, I feel my opinion on the subject doesn't matter, as I wouldn't partake in it whether it was legal or not.

 

The thing is...

1. Marijuana is not physically addictive. From what I remember, the "things" something has to have to be addictive aren't present in marijuana. Sorry, I don't know the technical word. And even if it were, tobacco, alcohol, sugar, caffeine and various other things are addictive. They aren't banned.

2. It's not a gateway drug any more than sugar or caffeine is... People aren't going to move on to harder drugs unless they already planned it, and I've seen it happen when the marijuana was laced with other drugs by the dealers.

Also, guys, just because you don't see the need for something doesn't mean there isn't a need. I saw Advil mentioned, and as someone with Fibromyalgia and chronic pain, what might seem like a little headache to you might be a raging migraine for others. And marijuana is definitely good for helping pain with some people... especially if one is allergic to standard pain meds. :/

Legalizing it would rip money out of the hands of drug cartels, which would lessen drug wars. If taxed, it would create a huge boost to the economy. Also, back when marijuana was legal (at some point in history, details escape me) in the USA... heroin use went down. When it got made illegal, heroin use went up. It got made legal again, and guess what? Yep, heroin use went down. If I'm remembering the history correctly, anyhow.

Prohibition has never worked. Ever.

Legalize it.

 

I think media and education deface marijuana ALOT, heck if you'd asked me, tobacco is MUCH more harmful than marijuana x100

and marijuana has actual health benefits and maybe more, a friend told me that she had found an article about a man who had found an old way of using marijuana to cure cancer and had always gotten the findings rejected because he believed the government was hiding something.

another theory was taxes, its harder to tax it if you can easily grow it and smoke in privacy.

 

Pot is awesome. To me its just another little pleasure in life, like ice cream and fine dining. I think eventually it will be fully legalized. Its not dangerous. A lot people smoke it every once in awhile, its not like its some taboo thing.

I do believe you can be too high to drive and I don't like the fact that many smokers believe that their driving ability is not impaired, but lots of things are allowed that can impair driving, and usually to a much greater extent (such as texting, talking on the phone, and drinking). Those things are illegal to do in your car but its not illegal to possess them, I am fine with arresting people who drive high.

In my opinion they should make smoking cigs illegal instead, don't know why those fucking things became more popular than marijuana (one kills millions, the other doesn't even have statistics relating to deaths).

 

Never smoked it myself actively, but I have been in the legal "coffee shops" here in the Netherlands and two coffees later and I'm spinning round the ceiling on passive smoke!

I think the effects of alcohol far outweigh those of most recreational drugs.

 

And now I provide the dissenting opinion, because my parents were conservative like that-
Look, the fact is that it's a drug. Alcohol being legal does not automatically mean everything less dangerous than it should be legal too. Personally, I don't believe it's a gateway drug in ALL cases, but one of my friends (a 15 year old, mind you) recently progressed from marijuana to oxycontin to crack (I'm being completely serious) in a few months, and while that may have something more to do with his intelligence (and lack thereof), it still is a very real effect of marijuana.

In all honesty, it's really not that bad physically, but mentally legalizing it's just not worth the risk. One of my favorite quotes is from South Park concerning the subject-
"The truth is, marijuana probably isn't going to make you kill people. It most likely isn't going to fund terrorists, but pot makes you feel fine with being bored, and it's when you're bored that you should be learning a new skill or some new science or being creative. If you smoke pot you may grow up to find out that you're not good at anything."

 

i dont do drugs, but most people i know smoke weed and its fine.

overall its fine. its just when people tell me theyre high or w/e and have been doing xxx amount and its good then they expect me to congratulate them or something. no. stop bragging.

there are also many who do it but dont brag, i like those people better

 

Interesting comment, Chip.

I agree about the motivation and focus issues, but they exist with alcohol abuse too. Access to alcohol is relatively easy, even for under-age people, and therefore I think its effects are more pervasive. Neither is "good", but good is a relative term. So many accidents and so much violence is caused by excessive drinking and yet it seems to be just accepted as a cultural norm - probably because of the tax revenue it generates! I don't drink OR use drugs other than prescribed meds.

I have experience of prisons. My son was a heroin addict and spent 5 periods of time in prison for crimes related to supporting his addiction.

Through his experience in three different prisons in the UK, I can say that the prison authorities (or at least the guards) turned a blind-eye to cannabis use. If the in-mates were mellow, they were happy. Most of it was smuggled in wrapped in cling-wrap and swapped from the ass-cheeks of a visitor to the ass cheeks of the in-mate. The checks were perfunctory and everyone knew what was going on.

So yes, people at the top DO have a vested interest in keeping the masses opiated.

 

I accept all of your arguments in favour of alternatives - education etc.

I still wonder, though, whether banning something actually works. That was tried with Prohibition in the US and it was a dismal failure with the involvement of the mobs, it became big business.

In the Netherlands cannabis is tolerated. You're not supposed to smoke it in public, but you can go to café (coffee shop here MEANS cannabis café) and buy it for home use and to smoke there.

I've lived here 9 years, worked in Amsterdam for 5 of those years and I can honestly say I have never seen people wandering around stoned. Of course there MUST be a few - we see them on TV occasionally and they nearly all look like hippies from the 60s despite the fact they're close to their 70s in age. I know that SOME of the kids I work with experiment, but there isn't the culture that you might associate with it, not is there a binge-drinking culture - the Dutch think that is typically British.

Do you think that the fact that something is illegal makes it more attractive? I'm not challenging, I'm just curious about your perspective as someone from "the other side".