The Legalization of Cannabis

Codeine

New member
http://canadaonline.about.com/cs/marijuana...jreformbill.htm

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/318/alaska.shtml

Here are two countries (Alaska being the only state in the U.S close to legalization of Cannabis at this time) at the brink of legalizing Cananbis. There is in fact a shop in Vancouver, B.C where you can purcahse cannabis, bubblehash, and budder. The latter being more potent forms containing much higher levels of THC than regular cannabis. I don't even think Canada will get Alaska's level of freedom anytime soon, which is infuriating.

Why are they even illegal in the first place? It sickens me to read things like "The Canadian government hopes to send the message that marijuana is harmful and illegal" - well, yes, it is illegal, but harmful? Marijuana is MORE safe than legal drugs we already have (alcohol and cigarettes). Much more safe. The level of tar i cannabis buds is 33% lower than in what you would find in cigarettes, and besides, 90% of cancer patients get it from the radioactivity of cigarettes, not the tar amount. Alcohol impairs liver function, and destroys brain cells. And how is pot harmful again?

What are your opinions on the legalization of this wonderful drug? Or drugs in general? I personally think all drugs should be legalized; whatever a person wants to submit to themselves is their choice.
 

Zach

New member
Pointing out the wrongs of other drugs to justify another drug is not a real arguement.
 

Lefteris_D

Administrator
Staff member
Originally posted by Neco@Sep 3 2004, 01:48 PM
Pointing out the wrongs of other drugs to justify another drug is not a real arguement.
Which drug causes more damage and which less is irrelevant. The fact that they do cause damage and people are still stupid enough to use them is a good reason to ban them.
 

TGS

New member
As opposed to alcohol and cigarettes which cause no damage at all right? In Holland it's legal and I occasionally smoke a joint or two and I feel perfectly fine.
 

ScotchGuy

Board Addict
How deadly is the substance abuse epidemic? Here are some interesting statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse regarding the death rate attributable to various drugs in an average year.

Tobacco kills about 390,000. LEGAL

Alcohol kills about 80,000. LEGAL

Second hand smoke kills about 50,000.

Cocaine kills about 2,200. ILLEGAL

Heroin kills about 2,000. ILLEGAL

Aspirin kills about 2,000. LEGAL

Marijuana kills 0. ILLEGAL

There has never been a recorded death due to marijuana at any time in U.S. history. It is nearly impossible to die from marijuana consumption, THC is a very safe chemical, it's much safer and less addictive than nicotine or alcohol, so why is it illegal?

At present it is estimated that marijuana's LD-50 is around 1:20,000 or 1:40,000. In layman terms this means that in order to induce death a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times as much marijuana as is contained in one marijuana cigarette. NIDA-supplied marijuana cigarettes weigh approximately .9 grams. A smoker would theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about fifteen minutes to induce a lethal response.

Also:

CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA was the NUMBER ONE annually renewable natural resource for 80 percent of all paper, fiber, textiles and fuel, from 6,000 years ago until about 125 years ago. Furthermore, it was used for 5 to 50 percent of the food, light, land and soil reclamation, and even 20 percent or more of all medicine. Everyone, from the educated to the uneducated, the farmer to the townsperson, the doctors and the scientists used CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA products and depended on them.75 to 90 percent of all paper used from at least 100 AD to 1883 was made of CANNABIS/HEMP. Books, (including Bibles), money and newspapers all over the world have been mainly printed on CANNABIS/HEMP for as long as these things have existed in human history.

One hundred and 25 years ago, 70 to 90 percent of all rope, twine, cordage, ship sails, canvas, fiber, cloth, etc., was made out of CANNABIS/HEMP fiber! It was replaced by DuPont's newly discovered petrochemical fiber (nylon) beginning in 1937. By comparison, CANNABIS/HEMP is 4 times softer than cotton, 4 times warmer, 4 times more water absorbent, has 3 times the strength of cotton, is many times more durable, is flame retardant, and doesn't use pesticides. Fifty percent of all pesticides are used on cotton, yet cotton uses only 1 percent of the farmland in the U.S! CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA is the most health giving plant on Earth and it doesn't require pesticides or herbicides! It is the healthiest plant for human consumption, and for the Earth itself.

Anyway, prohibition makes no sense, the US should have realized this after the prohibition of alcohol, the outlawing of alcohol created an organized crime syndicate of national proportions and, overnight, made criminals of hundreds of thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens.

Smoking marijuana is a victimless crime if I ever saw one. We should allow people to do whatever they want to themselves, the law should come into play when they harm someone else.

In summation only a complete twat would think that cannabis should remain outlawed. There are simply too many reasons why marijuana should be completely legal.
 

onewecallgod

New member
Originally posted by ScotchGuy@Sep 3 2004, 05:07 PM
Tobacco kills about 390,000. LEGAL

Alcohol kills about 80,000. LEGAL

Second hand smoke kills about 50,000.

Cocaine kills about 2,200. ILLEGAL

Heroin kills about 2,000. ILLEGAL

Aspirin kills about 2,000. LEGAL

Marijuana kills 0. ILLEGAL
im sure coke and heroin would kill more if it was more easily available.
 

El Fugitivo

New member
They would certainly cause more deaths, but they would just as certainly have a lower rate of death among users. Legalization doesn't just make it okay to do a drug without going to jail, it makes it okay to do a drug without worrying about the quality and immediate danger to your health that that drug might cause. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather drink a commercial product like Southern Comfort than some hillbilly's moonshine, with god-knows-what put in it.

You might say, yeah, well, people who do a drug even though they know it could kill them, and then complain when it kills them (obviously I'm talking about drugtakers as a collective here) because it's spiked with bleach or pcp are dumbasses. But the fact is that most people are going to get introduced to street drugs relatively safely, maybe from a trusted friend, and their addiction to said drugs will lead them to the point where they're willing to risk their life every day trying to get high on some junk they got off a street corner. It is not fair to blame them for actions they do while under the influence of that drug (and when you are addicted to something, you are always under it's influence, even when it's not in your system) even if they knew that the consequences could be terrible when they were first offered it. 'Common sense' politics be damned.
 

Zach

New member

Marijuana kills 0. ILLEGAL

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moking marijuana is a victimless crime if I ever saw one. We should allow people to do whatever they want to themselves, the law should come into play when they harm someone else.

Irresponsible and for all anyone knows, false.

High drivers are just as dangerous as drunk drivers.

Last time I checked, drunk drivers killed.
 

El Fugitivo

New member
The point was that marijuana doesn't directly cause death. No fatal illnesses are caused by the inhalation or ingestion of marijuana. Saying that marijuana kills because it inhibits people's judgements is like saying higher education kills or absent-mindedness kills. People commit suicide all the time because of pressures from work, school, or the social lives, and someone could just zone out while driving (I've done it a number of times) and smash into another car or a pedestrian.
 

ScotchGuy

Board Addict
WHAT?

Who said that people smoke and drive around? That's not what this is about. I'm certain that if marijuana was legalized that it would still be illegal to drive under the influence of it.

Smoking marijuana in and of itself is victimless, killing someone while driving under the influence of anything is not. Just because you smoke does not mean you drive...
 

Zach

New member
I've been in plenty of vehicles where everyone was smoking, it happens more than you think.

Sure, they legalize it, then we'll have the same people bitching because people eat and talk on cellphones and smoke cigarettes when they drive, and that they should be allowed to smoke weed and drive.

You'll have high people walking down the streets, out in public, being stupid, causing accident after accident.

This will happen. It doesn't happen with alcohol on a -wide- scale because alcohol has been an industry for decades, and we were brought up that there is a proper place and time to drink, and that you shouldn't operate vehicles.

In this day and age of whiney liberal "I wanna do this and I wanna do it now, the constitution says blah bla blah" type people, once you make it legal, they will start on something else like driving, or being fired for showing up to work high, or some other BS reason.

If people want to sit in their basement and get high after a stressful day, and not come out of their house for the next 5 - 10 hours, thats their business.

I don't want to deal with the idiots who don't care, however. The ones who will just walk down the street with a joint in their hand cause they think they look cool now. Or the ones who will start robbing 7-11 to get their high cause they are so burned out on their legal drug, they can't even keep a steady job to afford it.
 

ScotchGuy

Board Addict
The thing is, it will be legal and cheap, I doubt they'd need to rob a place, especially for a drug which is only psychologically addictive.

I've never heard of a crime epidemic because of people not getting their cigarettes, it's because they're easy to obtain and cheap. This would be the same case with marijuana, except that marijuana is less addictive, so I don't think we'd need to worry about that.
 

Zach

New member
You get a different high from cigarettes than you do from weed however, and a different addiction. A psychological addiction is just as serious as any other addiction.

Weed has a more disreable high, which means you increase the desire for it over other highs.

FOr instance. I have 500mg pills of hydrocodone/apap sitting here on my desk. I take them for strong pain like after dental work, and currently am experimenting with them to help try and diagnose some possible disorders that are effecting my sleep.

When you first pop one of these you are seriously off to lala land. Then it becomes two. Sometimes two work, and sometimes even 3 don't do much.. Its easy to see how someone gets addicted. These pills will knock you out, or give you a dizzy happy feeling that you will never want to leave; its sometimes hard to look at the bottle and say NO. I have met people who talk the same way about weed, people who say it takes twice as much weed to get them high as it used to, etc.

Various levels of addiction are there, no matter what drugs you are using. And going to extreme lengths to get what you want is a well documented flaw thruought human history.
I know when I smoked weed it seriously impaired my motor skills, and made me want to sleep a lot. I didn't like it because in particular I felt weak and powerless and not under my own control. Others might embrace that same feeling as their own high.

All it takes is one strong desire, and a ready supply, waiting to be taken; by any means necesarry.
 
J

Jet Set Willy

Guest
There are a lot of "Don't Drug Drive" posters around here, because of people causing accidents whilst high. My friend's car was smashed in by a drug driver only last night. So yes, it is an issue.

The whole argument is fucking stupid. People need to give and take a little more. There isn't a right side to this debate, just accept what you're forced into. You won't change it. Give up.
 
J

Jet Set Willy

Guest
Here is what I believe to be a good opinion on the matter:

"The latest stats on marijuana research

There aren't any!

But here's why: The FDA keeps approving research projects left and right, and Uncle Sam keeps telling the Universities and scientists they can't do the research (because it means allowing some people to smoke pot for science!).

However, I did dig up some stats on where the current research has and hasn't gotten, so at least you can tell people who spout pseudo-science at you to shut the fuck up.

There's been no official research on the effects of marijuana on arthritis, tendonitis, depression, and a lot of other stuff. Unofficially, quite a lot of people claim that it fixes or helps all these things, and just the same number claim that it causes them. But there is chemical evidence that cannabinoids may contain anti-inflammatories (explaining why it helps arthritis, etc.], and may help to ease the symptoms of depression, though nobody claims to know why.

A study was recently completed which tested the addictive properties and withdrawal symptoms of marijuana--of COURSE Uncle Sam would allow THAT--and the results are downright funny.
Only heavy, long-term smokers were reported to have physical withdrawal. Mind you, to qualify as a long-term heavy smoker, you had to a) have smoked an average of a doobie a day for at least five years, and B) have smoked more than 5,000 times. (5,000 times is once a day for thirteen years.) Of course, the headlines of the project screamed "MARIJUANA IS ADDICTIVE!", and then the text below went on to explain, "Well, the symptoms were mild and only lasted 28 days...". As I said, it was funny. But their punchline, which I should at least give lip service to, was that after smoking like a fiend most of your life, you will experience moderate to mild withdrawal, and the symptoms come from the same part of your brain that handles withdrawal from heroin and crack...and chocolate and The X-Files, for that matter.

Oh, and I actually read several--meaning MORE THAN ONE--websites claiming that pot caused undue aggression in its users. Don't worry, none of the legitimate sites said that, but STILL."
 

Zach

New member
Actually I knew a guy in HS who said he could fight like hell when he was smoked up.
He said he just didn't feel a thing when people would hit him, so he'd be in a fight and just keep swinging and swinging until he beat the shit out of the other guy.

He was a cool guy tho, lost touch with him, and then I moved out of state. Oh well.
 

hitmonlee

New member
i think that if people are allowed to decide whether they want to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes, people should also be allowed to decide whether they want to smoke pot.
 

Badger

New member
I don't smoke cannibas, and I am quite anti-drugs, but I don't have any real problem with cannibas. As long as people on it don't speak to me I am quite happy, as there is somthing about stoned people that just do my head in when they talk. I would happily see it legalised

In Scotland just now there is a real problem with Ecstacy and Cocaine, infact one of my boyhood friends died just the other week from taking E, and I know very few people that have never tried it.

Heroin is also starting to become a major problem. Before it was mainly just concentrated in the cities, but now its creeping into the small towns at an alarming rate. Just about everywhere you go has a "bigger than you would think" junkie population, and it makes me sad seeing people I used to know ending up on smack. I read somewhere that the region that I stay in has an estimated 15,000 herion addicts, compared with 3,000 10 years ago. Which is very concerning given only about 300,000 people live around here. Fucking 1 in 20 are a junkie.
 

Motoko

New member
:( i fucking hate people who show off about taking canabis or people asking me why i don't do it?
 
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