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Fearjoburg

Should Cannabis be legalized?

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This will help explain quite a bit about potheads.



That article wasn't really about "potheads" in general; it was about the dangers of smoking pot from an early age. I believe marijuana should be legalized, but I don't believe it should be legal to sell or even give it to minors. Most recreational drugs (including alcohol) are more damaging to a developing brain.

And I certainly won't argue that marijuana is a harmless drug, but I think adults should be able to weigh the risks/benefits for themselves.

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the way its goin over here in oz it'l soon be an offence to drink piss, smoke ciggies and eat maccas.....i kid you not.

:S


Good all those are fucking disgusting anyways
You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
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Well it would make sense wouldn't it? After all isn't that what the USA always does when it loses a war, declare victory and withdraw. Why should the war on drugs be any different. :P

Seriously though, Cannabis Sativa (Hemp) should be legalised as there are massive commercial uses for it, plastics, oil, clothing, 'concrete'. The reason it was suppressed by law had everything to do with the cotton industry in the USA and bugger all to do with smoking dope. I've fields of cannabis behind my house in the UK and hope to see much more as there used to be 30% of our agriculture set aside for hemp growth. Should high THC Cannabis be legalised? I don't think so but if it is it should not be sold to people under 25 for the reasons given earlier in this thread.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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All drugs should be legalized, regulated and of course taxed. People will use it anyway, whether it's legal or not, and criminalizing means mainly that we as a society pay money to artificially drive up the price so criminals make more money.



Its interesting that Dutch coffee shops can now only sell it to residents of the NL.
When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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All drugs should be legalized, regulated and of course taxed. People will use it anyway, whether it's legal or not, and criminalizing means mainly that we as a society pay money to artificially drive up the price so criminals make more money.



Its interesting that Dutch coffee shops can now only sell it to residents of the NL.



Last I heard it was really being fought by Amsterdam.

I understand the driving force behind that law is the trouble in the small towns near the borders.

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In Washington State, my home state, there is a medical marijuana law in place, although it is more highly regulated than say, in California, where you can get the prescription online for $200. They say you can get it by complaining of writer's block. B|



Lot cheaper than $200 in California. Walk along Venice Beach and there are dozen plus shops ready to give you script. Many more ads in the weekly free entertainment newspapers. I understand insomnia is a popular choice.

It's really a joke calling it medical marijuana - the state's been operating in a quasi legalized status for several years now.


What's confusing is, California has their marijuana laws yet they are in violation of Federal laws.


Chuck

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The U.S. incarceration rate in 1980 was 220 for every 100,000 people, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Today, with more than 2 million people incarcerated, the rate has climbed to 743 per 100,000 people. Reason magazine's Veronique de Rugy points out nonviolent drug offenders account for "roughly one-fourth of all inmates in the United States, up from less than 10 percent in 1980."

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A healthy individual like you will be costing money whilst sitting on his porch, yelling at kids to get the hell off the lawn, than the average smoker, who usually drops dead after a very cheap 20 seconds of massive heart failure, 7 years earlier.



No way. Smokers are way more expensive. Yes, they live a bit shorter lives on average, but their expenses, on average, are much higher. Most people would probably be surprised at where the real expense of smoking is - it's in the chronic illnesses like emphysema (sp?) - not the cancer. I believe the cancer bullet strikes 1 in 9 smokers; whereas all smokers suffer from a host of other illnesses, usually for years before they die.
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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]Also keep in mind that drug use usually shortens one's life, and that druggies might be cheaper in the end. A healthy individual like you will be costing money whilst sitting on his porch, yelling at kids to get the hell off the lawn, than the average smoker, who usually drops dead after a very cheap 20 seconds of massive heart failure, 7 years earlier.



Factually incorrect, Coronary disease is only one element of smoking related diseases. The chances of being fine and then arresting with no prior health issues are not that likely. Peripheral vascular disease due to smoking leads to chronic vascular complications including intermittent claudication, CVAs, TIAs, Emphysema to name but a few. The health and cost implications to a socialised medical system are huge.
When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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There's this also:

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The British Lung Foundation, which produced the report, said there was “an alarming disconnect” between public perception of the drug as safe, and “the serious, even fatal impact it can have”.
...
The charity reviewed existing scientific evidence on the health impacts of smoking cannabis, and reported there was strong evidence it contributed to diseases including lung cancer, tuberculosis and acute bronchitis.



Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection

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Dame Helena Shovelton, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said: “Young people in particular are smoking cannabis unaware that, for instance, each cannabis cigarette they smoke increases their chances of developing lung cancer by as much as an entire packet of 20 tobacco cigarettes.”



Try not to base things on the opinion of a (biased) charity that continues to perpetuate lies such as one cannabis cigarette is the equivalent of twenty tobacco cigarettes in any way ... :S

PS: Smoking is only one of the ways an individual can use cannabis.
"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

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I don't care to pay an inefficient government agency to regulate something you can grow in your yard or make in your basement. I don't care to tell anyone how to care for their body so long as they do it in a way that is not likely to harm another.

HOWEVER...if I have to pay for your health care, I get to say what you can eat / drink, how often and how you exercise, how much sleep you get, how you have sex...and anything else that effects how much I have to pay for your health care. You can't give up the responsibility and keep the authority over your body.



I disagree with you.

I've paid my way my entire life and would appreciate it if I mind my business and you mind yours..

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Its interesting that Dutch coffee shops can now only sell it to residents of the NL.



That would be interesting if it were true. But the rumour you heard had a semblance of truth in it, yes.



Well then enlighten us old boy?
When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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I personally feel one thing holding back the legalization of pot is the ability to test to see if an individual is currently under the influence, like with alcohol. When a test like this becomes available to be used for instance to determine if someone is driving under the influence, i believe the people trying to get it legalized will have more weight.
Jack of all trades.
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Well then enlighten us old boy?



This article is more or less accurate.

http://www.iamexpat.nl/read-and-discuss/expat-page/articles/dazed-and-confused-the-growing-pains-of-the-netherlands-new-wietpas-policy

It's not to restrict sale to the Dutch only, because identifying yourself with a passport or driver's licence to confirm your nationality would be sufficient to reach that goal. It's a badly disguised attempt to snuff out the coffee shops without a explicitly banning them. I don't use weed myself, but if I were using it, like most people who use it, I wouldn't want to be a registered user. The effects of this BS are predictable. In the southern provinces of NL, where these rules are already in effect, coffee shops go bankrupt, street dealer take over 95% of the trade and crime is on the rise.

Btw. I don't see what the nonsensical drug policies of the Netherlands have to do with my personal opinion about legalization.

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Another one who wants to live in a world full of Zombies individuals who believe the propaganda. Then we can go bankrupt taking care of the morons politicians, police, etc... when they blow out their heart arteries take away our Constitutional rights.


"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

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You might want to do some reading up on what happened in China when Opium was legal. Only a self absorbed idiot would want to live in that kind of society.



Opium has been legal for most of the history of China, it never stopped China from becoming one of the greatest and long-lived civilizations of the world. And the topic on hand is not the dangerous drug opium, it's cannabis. I live in a society where cannabis is (still) de facto legal, and we're doing fine the last time I checked.

What people don't realize is that criminalizing drugs is a policy that's only gained popularity during the last couple of centuries or so. An AFAICS criminalizing drugs won't affect actual drug use. In case of Cannabis the joke is on you guys btw. Over all Americans are much more likely to use Cannabis than Dutchies, despite the draconian punishments which are used to enforce the ban on Cannabis

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