Discussion on: Marijuana

[MSX]

First off, please keep this mature and on-topic!

Anyways...

What's you guy's opinions on marijuana, its legality, and should it be legal? I know Alaska recently voted on legalization of it.

I think it should be legal. It has mostly the same effects of alcohol, but instead of liver damage, it's lung damage. Alcohol makes some people violent, whereas marijuana...well...I guess you could say it 'mellows' you out. It makes serious and normal things and casual jokes...funny. It does have a few side effects: cotton mouth (a dry mouth), [with some people] "munchies" - getting hungry, weird feelings (things are slow), and a few more things. But I'd rather be smoking marijuana than drinking alcohol. Also, of course, if it were legalized, the same basic laws would deal with it as alcohol (no driving, ect.)

Now for the big question...have you tried it? Any brave souls out there?

Nate

 

[jroy]

My philosophy is: If doing something will only hurt your self then it should be legal.

Examples of this are driving without wearing a seatbelt, drinking before your legal, smoking before your legal, etc.

 

[roxihost.com]

My philosophy is what's good is not always right and what's right is not always good.

 

[Qwert]

I completly agree with Jroy. However if your really high, just like if your really drunk and your driving then.... I think that there should be laws limiting what you can do while your high though, just so that you don't hurt anyone else.

I wonder if drug dealers want it to be legal. They wouldn't get arrested for growing/selling it, but think about what would happen to the price. It would become really really really cheep, unless of'couse they do what they would most likly do if it becomes legalized and tax it really highly.

 

[roxihost.com]

I completly agree with Jroy. However if your really high, just like if your really drunk and your driving then.... I think that there should be laws limiting what you can do while your high though, just so that you don't hurt anyone else.

I wonder if drug dealers want it to be legal. They wouldn't get arrested for growing/selling it, but think about what would happen to the price. It would become really really really cheep, unless of'couse they do what they would most likly do if it becomes legalized and tax it really highly.

Well if it's legal there will be lots more problems because then you will have big time drug dealers, drug wars, and more crime over drugs sort of like east NY in the early 90s.

 

[MSX]

Well if it's legal there will be lots more problems because then you will have big time drug dealers, drug wars, and more crime over drugs sort of like east NY in the early 90s.

Well that's not really true, because if it was to become legal, I'm sure the government would grow, sell, and tax it. So then you could probably buy pre-rolled joints in boxes like cigarettes in speciality stores, mostly eliminating drug dealers. Well, not eliminate them, but they would then probably just sell it in the public at like tables, instead of doing it in secret places where they have a higher chance of commiting a crime/stick-up and getting away with it.

I dunno, there would most likely be side-effects to legalization though...that's why people go to Amsterdam :hehe:.

 

[roxihost.com]

Well that's not really true, because if it was to become legal, I'm sure the government would grow, sell, and tax it. So then you could probably buy pre-rolled joints in boxes like cigarettes in speciality stores, mostly eliminating drug dealers. Well, not eliminate them, but they would then probably just sell it in the public at like tables, instead of doing it in secret places where they have a higher chance of commiting a crime/stick-up and getting away with it.

I dunno, there would most likely be side-effects to legalization though...that's why people go to Amsterdam :hehe:.

Well legalizing Marijuana has the pros and cons of it being avaliable for public use so I guess that we are both correct on the negative as well as positive effects that it will have for society.

I wonder what Bill O reilly would say about leagalizing marijuana....

 

[Dwayne]

i cant really have a say on it since i never tried it.. i have drank and smoked cigerrettes and cigars before.. and also chewed before..

 

[Sabre]

I completly agree with Jroy. However if your really high, just like if your really drunk and your driving then.... I think that there should be laws limiting what you can do while your high though, just so that you don't hurt anyone else.

I wonder if drug dealers want it to be legal. They wouldn't get arrested for growing/selling it, but think about what would happen to the price. It would become really really really cheep, unless of'couse they do what they would most likly do if it becomes legalized and tax it really highly.

i agree totally with Qwert and jroy :tu:

 

[Mark]

My philosophy is: If doing something will only hurt your self then it should be legal.

Examples of this are driving without wearing a seatbelt, drinking before your legal, smoking before your legal, etc.

You're Old Enough to pick up a Gun and fight ..... in this Country

You're Old Enough to Vote for your rights ..... in this Country

Sorry you're NOT Old enough to Make Informed Decisions about you're Well Being .... in this Country ~ :p

 

[Jammer]

$200 for concert tickets
$100 for a bag of pot
$20 for a case of beer
passing out and missing the concert.....priceless

 

[Mr. Websites]

$200 for concert tickets
$100 for a bag of pot
$20 for a case of beer
passing out and missing the concert.....priceless

It's actually $10 for a dime (roughly 0.8 grams).

 

[RJ]

If people do it in the privacy of their own homes not in public or behind the wheel, I'm ok with it.

 

[Dwayne]

It's actually $10 for a dime (roughly 0.8 grams).

i think he said "bag" not a twomp

 

[Redleg]

It has mostly the same effects of alcohol, but instead of liver damage, it's lung damage.

I'm afraid that it doesn't have the same effects as alcohol...

When your drunk or high it may be the same, but cannabis, marijuana etc. stays in your system and slows down your senses much longer than alcohol.
(much longer than you notice yourself as well)

If you were really drunk one night, you'll probably stay away from your car the next day anyway because your not feeling ok.
But if you were "high" instead the same night you (most probably) would feel ok, and take the car for a drive the next day.....

An interesting study on this subject was actually done on pilots(!) a few years ago.
They tested them in a flightsim, with and without marijuana.

When they hadn't tried anything they landed with the front wheel on average within a few inches of the centre line of the runway.
After smoking marijuana they landed on average over 30-40 foot away from the centre line (outside the runway!)
24 hours after they'd smoked they still landed on average 10-15 feet away from the line.....

It can take days before your senses are back to normal again, and long term (medium-heavy) use of marijuana can actually be traced in your body for years....

It is also very hard for the traffic police to verify if you've smoked or not without taking a blood sample...

I have several courses and experience on this subject through my work, so I know that this is true...

"as long as they only hurt themselves, then it's ok" is unfortunately not true when it comes to substances like that...
Many others (innocent) will get hurt/injured/killed if it's legalized....

Winners do not use drugs!

 

[johnny6]

Yeah... I stopped smoking pot 3 years ago. As far as the legalization goes... well, I have to say that Redleg made some good points... Pot's not harmless and it's sort of a delusion/wishful thinking to say it is. On the other hand, alcohol's not harmless either, and costs a lot more per capita (i.e. medical costs, lost wages/productivity, etc etc) then pot does. Which is not to say I don't love my beer. If pot was legalized... I think more problems would come from it then people think.... there would still be a black market... I don't see any problems being solved by legalizing pot.

That said, I think that states that are requiring minimum jail sentences for people caught with pot are absolutely ridiculous..... there are victimless crimes (carrying pot) and there are crimes with victims. It seems to me that money and police manpower should be spent on stopping crimes that have victims. That's what's really important.

Pot aside, legalizing other drugs - coke, heroin, acid, etc... would be retarded. I don't think we'll ever have to worry about that - I hope not.

 

[matrics]

Well, aside from the damage to your lungs, I don't think marijuana has any other negative effects... it's not even addictive. And you can avoid damaging your lungs if you eat it... you'd just have to eat more, since the permeability of the stomach is lower than that of the lungs.

BTW, any dutch people around here?

 

[Prosperous]

BTW, any dutch people around here?

Yes. Me, for example. Why?

 

[matrics]

:p in your sig it says .us, but anhway, I thought someone living in a country where *IT* is legal might shed some more light into this. From what I can see, your country didn't fall apart as a consequence.

 

[rabid_nerd]

Well that's not really true, because if it was to become legal, I'm sure the government would grow, sell, and tax it. So then you could probably buy pre-rolled joints in boxes like cigarettes in speciality stores, mostly eliminating drug dealers. Well, not eliminate them, but they would then probably just sell it in the public at like tables, instead of doing it in secret places where they have a higher chance of commiting a crime/stick-up and getting away with it.

I dunno, there would most likely be side-effects to legalization though...that's why people go to Amsterdam :hehe:.

Well legalizing Marijuana has the pros and cons of it being avaliable for public use so I guess that we are both correct on the negative as well as positive effects that it will have for society.

I wonder what Bill O reilly would say about leagalizing marijuana....

I would agree that legalizing and taxing it would A) remove some dealers and B) legitimize maijuana...

Bill O Reiliy would just say "SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

It has mostly the same effects of alcohol, but instead of liver damage, it's lung damage.

I'm afraid that it doesn't have the same effects as alcohol...

When your drunk or high it may be the same, but cannabis, marijuana etc. stays in your system and slows down your senses much longer than alcohol.
(much longer than you notice yourself as well)

If you were really drunk one night, you'll probably stay away from your car the next day anyway because your not feeling ok.
But if you were "high" instead the same night you (most probably) would feel ok, and take the car for a drive the next day.....

An interesting study on this subject was actually done on pilots(!) a few years ago.
They tested them in a flightsim, with and without marijuana.

When they hadn't tried anything they landed with the front wheel on average within a few inches of the centre line of the runway.
After smoking marijuana they landed on average over 30-40 foot away from the centre line (outside the runway!)
24 hours after they'd smoked they still landed on average 10-15 feet away from the line.....

It can take days before your senses are back to normal again, and long term (medium-heavy) use of marijuana can actually be traced in your body for years....

It is also very hard for the traffic police to verify if you've smoked or not without taking a blood sample...

I have several courses and experience on this subject through my work, so I know that this is true...

"as long as they only hurt themselves, then it's ok" is unfortunately not true when it comes to substances like that...
Many others (innocent) will get hurt/injured/killed if it's legalized....

Winners do not use drugs!

Thank you RedLeg - Like so many other issues, abortion, gay marriage, welfare reform, tax reform, smoking, etc., you always get 100% or 0%.

Your post helps with real data.

I would agree that if delitarious effects are more permanent than alcohol, it should be illegal.

If the temporary effects are longer, then those timespans should be well documented towards a guideline for law, not an excuse to outlaw altogether.

Now that we know drinking even 0.08% BAL is unaccaptable on the road, we've tightened DUI laws.

With your data, no pilot should test positive for marijuana. Given that pilots fly frequently to countries with looser laws than ours, whether it's illegal in our country or not is irrelevant, we need to ensure we still develop the ability for DWI checkpoints, so to speak, that CAN detect trace amounts of marijuana.

If it means creating a detection device that can detect it in blood through the skin or some other sci-fi non-intrusive process that could be performed as readily as a breathalizer, then I believe you can find common ground.

Also, what about medicinal use?

I am by no means an advocate for legalization. I strongly support keeping marijuana illegal, however only because the extended delitarious effects on the body and lack of ability to cope with those who abuse it.

We can't cope with those who abuse alcohol anyways. We just elect them to Congress.

 

[Prosperous]

:p in your sig it says .us, but anhway, I thought someone living in a country where *IT* is legal might shed some more light into this. From what I can see, your country didn't fall apart as a consequence.

Yeah, I am Dutch but I live/work in the US, married to my wonderful American wife.

Dunno how legal 'soft drugs' are in Holland, actually; I never fancied them. BTW, Holland seems to be falling apart more and more... Maybe it is because of 'soft drugs' then?

 

[Qwert]

Well I know that pot's legal in .NL

 

[Ber|Art]

I agree totally with the topic starter, in the Netherlands its legal for alot of years now, in 1991 I was walking between my own Marijuna plants in my own garden and then in october we had the harvest parties with a lot of people, that was fun :D together with Neil Young, the Doors, Lou Reed, the Velvet Underground e.o. we smoked a lot of our own grown plants. I even had a monthly magazine (http://www.highlife.nl/) about Marijuana :D Nowadays it is more busy in the coffeshops then it is in the supermarket. In the Netherlands the goverment also provides medical Marijuana to patiënts with aids, cancer, backpains etc. so it is also a legal medicine

I think that legalising was a good thing, there is no dealing on the streets anymore (at least not in Marijuana the coffeshops are legal and being checked on regular basis, if they have stuff that dont belong there they will be closed at ones, if they have more than allowed they will be closed at ones, so those shops are running fine and making big bugs! The people who use it are indead not agressive anymore and harmless, they use to drink alcohol (they still do) but together with a good joint you will be a soft holligan so even on the biggest hardroch concerts with Type O Negative, Tool, etc, there are no problems, no fighting everybody is relaxed.

The only problem we have are the people from Belgium, Germany, France, Italië who are comming to our coffeshops to buy a lot and take it back, this is illegal but the bordercontrols are gone sins the EU so nobody is checking (well almost). The best would be as the EU legalise it in all EU countries, but I do not think this will happen.

I think it is very strange that Alcohol (witch is a HarDrug IMO) is legal and Marijuana (witch is a SoftDrug IMO) in not?

 

[Terry]

Also, what about medicinal use?.

Montana voted for the use of medicial MJ last month. It suprised me that it passed. But, I see it this way; if I had to use THC for medicinal purposes would I rather smoke it or take a pill. The answer is to just take a pill. However, can I afford the pill? Would I want to shell out my hard earned $$$ to the drug companies, or just grow it myself and take my chances with the smoke hazzard.

HINT: I grow my own vegetables.