Legalizing Marijuana

[primera man]

Heres my 2 cents worth.....

I have to sit on the fence on this one...i'm neither for or against it.

I have never touched the stuff and never will.....i get silly enough on beer !!!

As long as they try and inforce it the same as drink driving....maybe OK.
In my view they are just as bad behind a wheel then a drunk.

What i am against is the people who try and push it on to others who dont want it.
Does it lead on to harder drugs ??

My work is going though a stage where they are trying to bring in drug testing....its a very touche subject.

How will night clubs/pubs get on....will they have to make seperate areas ???

[Jay!]

Originally posted by primera man
As long as they try and inforce it the same as drink driving....maybe OK.
In my view they are just as bad behind a wheel then a drunk.

I forgot to make this point. Driving high = driving drunk. There should be better laws for that anyway.

[primera man]

No one should drink and drive.....fullstop.

[Jay!]

Originally posted by primera man
No one should drink and drive.....fullstop.

I think that may even deserve its own thread, primera man!

[gang$tarr]

Originally posted by primera man
Heres my 2 cents worth.....

I have to sit on the fence on this one...i'm neither for or against it.

I have never touched the stuff and never will.....i get silly enough on beer !!!

As long as they try and inforce it the same as drink driving....maybe OK.
In my view they are just as bad behind a wheel then a drunk.

What i am against is the people who try and push it on to others who dont want it.
Does it lead on to harder drugs ??

My work is going though a stage where they are trying to bring in drug testing....its a very touche subject.

How will night clubs/pubs get on....will they have to make seperate areas ???

If you don't mind, i'll just answer all this stuff....

beer and alcohol is alot worse for you than marijuana, alcohol kills (i forget the exact number) but ALOTTA brain cells, while marijuana doesn't. Smoking marijuana doesn't make you agressive like on alcohol, it is like a downer, you just wanna sit and be mellow.... just relax, not start fights or anything......

Driving after smoking marijuana isn't nearly as dangerous as driving drunk, have you ever read a story in the paper about an accident cause by a blazed driver? I haven't.... this is because after smoking marijuana you are more aware of what is going on around you and you kinda like examine every situation and everything that could happen if you did whatever..... while driving drunk is freakin crazy, it's probably one of the dumbest things you could ever do because it slows your reaction times, etc. etc. you know what happens
but i still agree their should be laws against it because you aren't normal, so it's not the same as driving "sober"

I've never seen anybody push it on anybody else, people that smoke marijuana are usually really calm, nice and likeable people... they'll ask you if you want some to be polite, and if you say no thanks, they don't care, cause there's more for them and to a weed smoker it's all good, whatever decision you make, if you like what you're doin, it's all good.

It doesn't lead onto harder drugs..... but it is usually the first substance people use, before they get into real drugs (i don't really consider marijuana a drug). I don't really know that much about this though because all the people i know that have smoked marijuana have never done anything else, because they're scared of getting addicted to a bad drug, or the damages that the drug could cause to their body. A messed up kid is a messed up kid.... saying that marijuana lead to harder drugs is like saying that every person that drinks alcohol is going to be an alcoholic... which is completely untrue, if people have bad self control they can make bad choices.... if any of my friends ever did anything more than cigs/drink/marijuana, then i would never ever talk to them again... i think people that do other drugs are fucked up and they need help

about the night clubs/pubs, so far i've heard that the law is going to be that it's illegal to smoke it in a public place, so people are going to be smoking it at home, not like in the netherlands where people smoke it freely in smoke/coffeeshops

The main reason i think marijuana is okay because it's pure.... it's so simple, God put it on this earth, and we take it straight from the earth and use it....... unlike "real" drugs that a processed and un-natural (not to mention for fucked up people IMO)

wow that was long, but i like stating my opinion on every subject.... this isn't to change your opinions, i just want to let you guys know what my stand on the subjects you're talkin about is

[olds88]

the only time i smoked i got motion sicknes and puked out the window of my buddys ride man did that suck i can honestly say i havent touched the suff agiain .... but if u want to get stoned more power to u as long it is in a safe manner

btw my buddy wasnt high while driving

[Jay!]

http://www.drdrew.com/Topics/article.asp?id=907

Some highlights:

While marijuana does not have the immediate, dramatic effects on health that deter many people from trying drugs such as crack and heroin, it does have insidious, long-lasting effects on the brain that can dramatically alter quality of life for regular users. Marijuana use is associated with dozens of health risks, including not only all of the diseases caused by cigarette smoking but also psychological conditions specific to marijuana users.

Short-term effects include:

• increased heartbeat and pulse rate
• bloodshot eyes
• dry mouth and throat
• panic attacks
• impaired learning, memory, judgment and complex motor skills
• difficulty speaking, listening, thinking, retaining knowledge and problem solving
• loss of sense of speed and time
• altered heart rate (increased by about 40 beats per minute)
• anxiety
• paranoia

Long-term effects include:

• psychological dependence
• increased levels of truancy, delinquency, fighting, arrests and health problems
• bronchitis
• sexual dysfunction, lowered sperm production, inhibited ovulation
• emphysema
• asthma
• heart attack
• cancer

My opinion is still the same. I'm okay with legalization. But don't try and say it's harmless.

[gang$tarr]

i never said it's harmless... i just said that alcohol and tobacco is A LOT worse

[gang$tarr]

all that stuff is obvious

for the short term effects everybody knows that your eyes get red, your heart beat CAN easily be increased (that's why they warn old people about smoking it because it can over work the heart and there have been 4 cases of heart attack from this, but all with people over the age of 50 with previous heart problems) and there haven't been any deaths related to marijuana ever.. and anywhere, because you can't overdose on marijuana... somewhere it said you'd have to smoke approx. 10 pounds worth in an hour... which is impossible, and even if you tried you'd pass out from all the heavy breathing before you'd even come close.. you get dry mouth when you're smokin it a.k.a. pasties where you don't have alotta spit.... panic attacks, paranoia and anxiety never happen, this mainly happens your first few times smokin it when you're all worried you're going to get caught.... that never happens more than a couple times your first couple times smokin it (unless you're a natural, hehe)

now on to the long term effects:
the psychological dependence just means you'd want to smoke it again... it isn't very addictive, tobacco is as addictive as cocaine! and on a scale of 1-10, tobacco is a 10 and marijuana is a 1 on level of addiction... increased levels of fighting? sorry but that's just bullshit, you're sources must be old because most of this research has been proven wrong within the past couple months... the lowered sperm count is known fact, i aint worried about that becuase they said that you'd have to smoke it like a couple times a day to get it really bad within 20 years of smoking. I used to think that the only problem with it was that you can get lung cancer and stuff because you are SMOKING so it's obvious.... but the amount you smoke is far less than cigarettes, smoking the amount of 1 cigarette more than once a week is considered alot of weed smoking... and that's less than like a pack of cigarettes every couple months... now add in all the chemicals and tar cigarettes have that marijuana doesn't have (because it's all natural, straight from the ground) now you see why there is a VERY small chance of you developing any of these problems.... since people that smoke cigarettes develop these problems after smoking a pack a day for like 30-40 years (numbers vary but i'd say that's the average) do you know how many cigarettes that is? that's approx. 9000 cigaretes a year for 30 to 40 years, so 30-40 times 9000.... that's a hell of alot considering a heavy marijuana smoker probably smokes about 200 cigarette size joints a year.... while most people i know only smoke about 40 a year, and that's for the people that smoke it alot (of my friends)

[gang$tarr]

I'm not trying to change your opinions, I'm just trying to inform you..... because alot of the research done even just 2 years ago is mostly bullshit and propaganda..... i'm going to try and find some recent articles straight from the government, if it didn't have any postives than the government wouldn't have already legalized it for medical purposes.

these are all quotes, i didn't say this stuff:

Fact #1 "In 1995, based on thirty years of scientific research, editors of the British journal Lancet (the British equivalent of New England Journal of Medicine) concluded that "the smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health."

Fact #2 "90% of kids who try marijuana don't go on to use other drugs, and do not continue to use marijuana. "

Fact #3 "Over 70 million people have tried marijuana. Most marijuana users never use any other illegal drug. Indeed, for the vast majority of people, marijuana is the last drug they try, not a "gateway" to other drugs. If it were a gateway drug and if it were so addictive, we would have more than 3 million heroin and cocaine addicts in the U.S. "

Fact #4 "Marijuana produces immediate, temporary changes in thoughts, perceptions, and information processing. The cognitive process most clearly affected by marijuana is short-term memory. In laboratory studies, subjects under the influence of marijuana have no trouble remembering things they learned previously. However, they display diminished capacity to learn and recall new information. This diminishment only lasts for the duration of intoxication."

Fact #5 "Every serious scholar and government commission examining the relationship between marijuana use and crime has reached the same conclusion: Marijuana does not cause crime. The vast majority of marijuana users do not commit crimes. Almost all human and animal studies show that marijuana decreases aggression."

Fact #6 "There is no compelling evidence that marijuana contributes substantially to traffic accidents and fatalities. In driving studies, marijuana produces little or no car-handling impairment - consistently less than that produced by low to moderate doses of alcohol and many legal medications." [they also said that you shouldn't drive under the influence of marijuana, just to be safe]

I got these all off the same website.... department of health

[kris]

http://www.edrugtrader.com/ better get with it then.

[primera man]

Originally posted by gang$tarr



Driving after smoking marijuana isn't nearly as dangerous as driving drunk, have you ever read a story in the paper about an accident cause by a blazed driver? I haven't.... this is because after smoking marijuana you are more aware of what is going on around you and you kinda like examine every situation and everything that could happen if you did whatever

You bring up some good points.....i cant disagree or agree with any comments you have made as i'm not really up with the play with this subject.
Most people i know mix the both which still cant be good ???

After a crash do the police test you for marijuana use ???......i have read of a few crashes lately here in NZ where the police have blamed the death on marijuana use.

You say that it makes you more aware of things around you.....or do you just think it does as your not really thinking right ???.

Is it the same as driving drunk.......how many people think they are better drivers after they have had a few ????

[gang$tarr]

no it's totally different.... i read a research thing on marijuana and driving, i don't remember the web site but they said that your reaction times after smoking marijuana are almost as fast as normal... you really are more aware of things, because you're always worried about what could happen if you did this or that, and you like analyze every situation in your head

driving after doing both has got to be the dumbest thing you could ever do, because the marijuana makes the alcohol effect higher and the alcohol makes the marijuana effect higher, and that's when you're really messed up

[dre]

Ask any cop if he would rather go into a house filled with people drinking, or a house filled with people smoking bud.
Just the fact that in the English language there is a term 'Bar-Fight' proves my point. I wonder if in Amsterdam there has ever been a 'Smoke Shop-Fight'?

I disagree though about 'being more alert' behind the wheel when on weed. Maybe the studies are true, but it's not a good idea. If legalized, I think marijuana should have similar restricitons as alcohol.. minimum age, disallow driving while intoxicated, and maybe do not allow violent felons to buy it, (although it would probably help violent people more than others).

As for the long term affects posted- those are the same long term affects as tobacco. Only difference is Republicans own the tobacco companies, thus tobacco is legal.

I once read that at the time George Washington was president of the US, farmers were required by law to devote at least 10% of their crops to hemp. Most farmers had no problem with this, as it's uses are endless.

[gang$tarr]

yeah you can do soo much with hemp, it's really a woner material... that's another reason they wanted to legalise marijuana because they wanted to use the hemp

and i agree about laws against driving while under the influence, i'm just sayin that there's alot less risk then if you're drinking