ClumsyMonkey.net

Is marijuana really that bad? This is a timeless discussion, and I truely did not feel like searching for an old thread.

Legalizing marjuana. Just marijuana; not pertaining anything regarding any other drugs. Do you feel that legalization would be a bad thing? Could it be beneficial?

Inquring minds want to know....

Well, I've done a bit of research into this. Marijuana is really illegal in Canada by accident (it was ammended into the narcotics law after the first draft had been passed, and was not discussed in legislature) - and right now laws are being re-examined. The senate committee regarding legalizing pot suggested that it should be made legal - but that report has been largely ignored. (In the States I believe marijuana paranoia was fed by William Randolf Hurst's journalism - he hated hemp because it was cheaper to produce than his pulp paper, and since he owned not only paper mills, but newspapers, it was easy for him to provoke outrage over this drug, and eliminate the competition at the same time). However, for the most part, possession is not being prosecuted due to a case a few years ago where the judge said if the possession laws were not revised within a year, they would no longer stand. As it is now, pot is illegal, but it is almost impossible to prosecute for possession (I forget how much weed you need for it to be a dealing charge rather than possession - also, if you have scales, you're busted). It's in a strange position in Canadian law right now.

Why not legalize? If legalized, gang-related pot activity would disappear, pot could be taxed, and people would know what they're buying (instead of kids being sold assorted plant bits being told it's weed). I still think people who light up and drive should be prosecuted for impaired driving - but pot itself should be allowed. As an intoxicant, I think it's less dangerous than alcohol, and lung damage shouldn't be an issue when cigarettes are sold legally.

I'm not a smoker - I've never touched the stuff - but I'm all for it being legalized.

Your post sounds like a carbon copy of how I feel.

I don't use, but I will admit without guilt that my parents have used for as long as I've known. Seriously, I can recall being a pre-teen and beginning to recognize that my parents were smoking marijuana.

I'll have to do some research, but I had found quite a bit of information showing just how unleathal marijuana really is.

How many people die per minute, per day, and per year from drinking? Take that and put it up against marijuana usage.

I know...I know.....long term effects, Neil, smoking kills you in the end.

Yeah....well.....so does life.

it'd be nice if it were legal
pot laced with coke = not fun
but really, i haven't heard anything bad coming from smoking pot...alcohol's a lot worse. i don't know much about it...but um...yeah. people are gonna smoke it no matter what. legalization, however, would make things better and safer, i think

Cigarrettes are just as 'effin lethal as smoking weed; yet, that's fully legal at age 18 in the states.

I just don't fully understand. Hell, marijuana is showing strong signs of being beneficial. Even "webMD" and the Mayo Clinic are showing that marijuana usage, for the right people, can be beneficial.

Where is the benefit in drinking beer? None.

half jill wrote:it'd be nice if it were legal
pot laced with coke = not fun

I hope Dommie isn't speaking from experience!!!!

I can find you 50 different articles. 25 will say there is no harm in smoking pot, 25 will say there is. I rest on the side of its bad more so for the reason that deliberatley inhaling smoke of any form is stupid because it kills yoru lungs. Please don't go down the polution road, we all know it exists, but smoking of any form simply puts more in your system.

If I walk outside, and suck on a tailpipe.....statistically, I'll kill myself much faster than smoking weed.

As a steadfast pothead since I was.. 14 years old.. I do not think Marijuana is as bad as some would have us believe.

DEFINITELY, It can take over your life, make you listless, etc, but only if you allow it to do so.

I'm 19 now, still smoke atleast three times a week, I graduated Valedictorian in Highschool and i'm starting my Poli Sci degree in the fall.

Poor choices make Marijuana ruin lives, not the drug itself.

-- And also, as a sortof.. connasseur of the herb, if kids are stupid enough to buy it laced with shit, or buy some sort of herb that looks like it, they shouldn't be smoking it , believe me, you can tell.

Isn't weed 100 times more carcinogenic that tobacco?
Or is that just something people say to scare you out of using it?

i think these days i prefer heroin.
mmm.

I drink anit-freeze.

i hear that stuff puts hair on your chest

COMING BACK WITH A VENGANCE!

Seriously I miss y’all.

Now to get back to the old debate here.

As many of you are well aware I despise drugs of all kinds including many prescription drugs that while they cure one ailment, cause damage to another part of the body resulting you to take more meds. Coupled with their addictive nature, it’s no wonder that pharmaceutical companies are so profitable and constantly seek to run this government through their lobbyists.

I used to live within 35 miles of the Mexican border, and the violence in the region has grown increasingly dangerous. It pains me to see my hometown region burn in violence from rival drug gangs. If you would like, you can also look up gruesome videos on youtube.com showing executions in ways that make Saddam Hussein look like a humanitarian. One in particular has a wire around an individual’s neck, twisted continuously until it completely severs the individuals’ head. Valentin Elizalde, nicknamed ‘El Gallo de Oro’ or ‘the golden rooster’, was a musician who glorified the drug trade in ‘narco-corridos’ or drug ballads. He was killed by a rival drug gang as well, and his autopsy can also be found on youtube.com. This kind of violence and lifestyle is being glorified by men like Elizalde, and these narco-corridos. With the large amounts of money coming and going into South Texas, it is no wonder that many people try and enter this trade as a way out of poverty that is rampant in my native South Texas.

Add to this the plight of native farmers in Mexico that are forced either off their lands they’ve had for years or made to grow pot on their land and see little to no profit from the sales. This same method has jumped over into the US, targeting American farmers and ranchers. Even more troubling is the corruption that breeds from the drug trade, where police and political officers are in the pockets of the drug cartels.

This is the plague that has infested the Southwest, and this is because the United States is the most doped up country in the world, so it is no wonder that Mexico is the largest producer of pot in the world. At what point do we look at ourselves and evaluate our actions and see what we do to the rest of the world? We’re exploiting the Middle East, and each of you are well aware of the United States actions and condemn them as inhumane. Yet at the same time you’ve exploited neighbors south of you, the very same people who live on the same continent as you…are their lives less meaningless to you? To be humane is to be someone who cares about humanity and the loss of life, and the drug trade is killing people all over the Southwest. I understand that the majority of you live too far north to see this first hand, but I suggest that you do some research and see for yourself what the demand for pot does to others.

I’m well aware of the suggestion that if pot was legal that maybe the violence would stop, however, you have to also remember, 7 years after prohibition, people were still being arrested for bootlegging and smuggling, and the violence associated with bootlegging was also still around. When pot becomes legalized, (and I do mean when because unfortunately I do see pot being legalized in my lifetime), I promise you that government will regulate the amount, the age limit of those who can use this substance, and the potency of it as well. Kids who cannot legally purchase the government regulated drugs will turn to the illegal stuff. We have drunk drivers killing thousands every year; expect that number to double when pot becomes legal. And understand that pot will continue to flow over from Mexico, more potent, and even more violent than what we have here today.


man i miss the debates!

Dr. Hobo wrote:i hear that stuff puts hair on your chest

And in other places too.

Bandalero wrote: We have drunk drivers killing thousands every year; expect that number to double when pot becomes legal.

man i miss the debates!

Statistically, there have only been a few deaths in the past two decades that have any linkage to smoking pot. Yes, we can use Josh Hancock, however, he was drunk; that killed him. Not the weed in his system.

I don't agree with this at all, Reno. I still love ya, though.

Neil wrote:

Bandalero wrote: We have drunk drivers killing thousands every year; expect that number to double when pot becomes legal.

man i miss the debates!

Statistically, there have only been a few deaths in the past two decades that have any linkage to smoking pot. Yes, we can use Josh Hancock, however, he was drunk; that killed him. Not the weed in his system.

I don't agree with this at all, Reno. I still love ya, though.

WHAT!? the crash killed him. And he was driving impaired on both pot and alcohol. to say one killed him and not the other is bogus and you know it.

Driving drunk or high is still an altered state of mind, and both instances are not safe.

Bandalero wrote:

Neil wrote:

Bandalero wrote: We have drunk drivers killing thousands every year; expect that number to double when pot becomes legal.

man i miss the debates!

Statistically, there have only been a few deaths in the past two decades that have any linkage to smoking pot. Yes, we can use Josh Hancock, however, he was drunk; that killed him. Not the weed in his system.

I don't agree with this at all, Reno. I still love ya, though.

WHAT!? the crash killed him. And he was driving impaired on both pot and alcohol. to say one killed him and not the other is bogus and you know it.

Driving drunk or high is still an altered state of mind, and both instances are not safe.

he was also using his cellphone which just adds to the whole thing, in fact.. using a cell phone while driving is in itself a form of impairment for all intents and purposes so i'd have to say all 3 factors played a roll in his death

roll, eh.

Bandalero wrote:
WHAT!? the crash killed him. And he was driving impaired on both pot and alcohol. to say one killed him and not the other is bogus and you know it.

Driving drunk or high is still an altered state of mind, and both instances are not safe.

You find me statistics showing of vehicular related deaths caused by driving under the influence of marijuana, and not alcohol, and I'll continue this with you. You're whacked. Seriously.