Should Cannabis be legalized?

[Fearjoburg 0]

An interesting article was posted on the interwebs

http://truththeory.com/2012/08/26/why-cannabis-is-still-illegal/

Apart from medicinal uses there is also beneficial "by products" that can be used in construction, biofuels and the like.

It would be interesting to see dz.commers opinion on this.

[Marinus 0]

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.

[chooc 0]

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.

theres no way anyones legalising pot.....lol.

seems everyones gettin on this full on health kick thing.....faarks me why.
all of a sudden ya must live foreva....or some shit.

movies,video games,dirtbikes and now this :)

[Zep 0]

I voted yes but I have a very closed point of view.
I think all recreational drugs should be legal but none should be covered
by insurance or social security.
You take any drug not prescribed by a legal practitioner
deal with it or die.
Commit an offense whilst under the influence of non prescribed
drugs (including alcohol) minimum sentence 10yrs for adults
5 yrs for minors.

Oh, and the sooner we make tobacco a banned substance the better.

PS, I'm an ex smoker

Gone fishing

[davjohns 1]

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 know it just wouldnt be right to kill all the stupid people that we meet..

But do you think it would be appropriate to just remove all of the warning labels and let nature take its course.

[airdvr 197]

How could you possibly want to legalize people eating other people?

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[davjohns 1]

Tastes like chicken, of course.

I know it just wouldnt be right to kill all the stupid people that we meet..

But do you think it would be appropriate to just remove all of the warning labels and let nature take its course.

[winsor 185]

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Tastes like chicken, of course.

More like pork - "Long Pig."

[SkydiveJonathan 0]

It should be as legal as alcohol is.

[masterrig 1]

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It should be as legal as alcohol is.

With fines and penalties for being under the influence while driving or in the commission of a crime or harming someone else. Tax the shit out of it like cigarettes or alchohol. Home grow or large operation would be by permit and controlled by the government just like any farming or distilling operation.


Chuck

[airdvr 197]

Agreed. All we've done is fill our prisons with stoners. I'd like the opportunity to legally fire up a fatty and relax. Imagine the tax revenues.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[Marinus 0]

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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 basically agree, but it's very hard (and expensive) to get a good system to regulate that. It would be easier to tax the hell out of drugs, and use the money (which is essentially free money) to cover any medical costs.

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.

[livendive 8]

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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.

This.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[masterblaster72 0]

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All we've done is fill our prisons with stoners.

Which is why the private prison industry has a substantial lobby in DC against the legalization of cannabis. Ka-ching.

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.

[davjohns 1]

I would need some outside cites for this. My experience as a defense attorey is that it is pretty hard to get into prison for non-violent crime. I can't imagine there are lots of people in prison over personal use of pot or event cultivating / dealing.

I know it just wouldnt be right to kill all the stupid people that we meet..

But do you think it would be appropriate to just remove all of the warning labels and let nature take its course.

[masterblaster72 0]

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I would need some outside cites for this. My experience as a defense attorey is that it is pretty hard to get into prison for non-violent crime. I can't imagine there are lots of people in prison over personal use of pot or event cultivating / dealing.

Crap, I just typed up a longer response but lost it when safari unexpectedly quit.. These two links should give you an idea regarding lobbying and harshness of nonviolent drug penalties.

http://reason.com/archives/2012/04/22/4-industries-getting-rich-off-the-drug-w

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope/interviews/schlosser.html

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.

[kelpdiver 2]

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I would need some outside cites for this. My experience as a defense attorey is that it is pretty hard to get into prison for non-violent crime. I can't imagine there are lots of people in prison over personal use of pot or event cultivating / dealing.

drug dealers (anyone with volume over X) are defined as violent criminals, no? And you can always just charge them with felony tax evasion since they can't legally declare this income.

[Shotgun 1]

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How could you possibly want to legalize people eating other people?

Apparently, it's legal in Japan:

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This chef's got balls.

Mao Sugiyama, a self-described "asexual" from Tokyo, cooked up, seasoned and served his own genitalia to five diners at a swanky banquet in Japan last month, Calorie Lab reported.

In most cases, "asexual" is a word used to describe a person who is non-sexual. Sugiyama, however, embraces it as a way to show that he does not affiliate with either gender.

Sugiyama sparked a firestorm of interest on April 8 with one tweet:

"[Please retweet] I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen …Will prepare and cook as the buyer requests, at his chosen location."

Just days after Sugiyama's 22nd birthday, the artist underwent elective genital-removal surgery, divvied up the severed penis shaft, testicles, and scrotal skin between five people, and garnished it with button mushrooms and Italian parsley.

On April 13, five of six diners who signed up for the $250-a-plate feast, sat down to dinner. The sixth person was a no-show.

The next day, an organizer posted a blog -- subsequently deleted -- containing pictures of the event. Images showed dozens of people who attended the event just to catch a glimpse of the rare treat.

The extra diners were served crocodile-based dishes while Sugiyama cooked up the exclusive meal.

The story went viral in Japan. Some showed even more interest, while others complained. But Calorie Lab called Japanese authorities, who deemed the banquet legal because there is no law against cannibalism in the country.

Pictures here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/24/asexual-mao-sugiyama-cooks-serves-own-genitals_n_1543307.html

[Zep 0]

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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 agree with you.

Gone fishing

[Gravitymaster 0]

This will help explain quite a bit about potheads.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9426205/Cannabis-smoking-permanently-lowers-IQ.html


Researchers found persistent users of the drug, who started smoking it at school, had lower IQ scores as adults.


They were also significantly more likely to have attention and memory problems in later life, than their peers who abstained.


Furthermore, those who started as teenagers and used it heavily, but quit as adults, did not regain their full mental powers, found academics at King’s College London and Duke University in the US.


They looked at data from over 1,000 people from Dunedin in New Zealand, who have been followed through their lives since being born in 1972 or 1973.


Participants were asked about cannabis usage when they were 18, 21, 26, 32 and 38. Their IQ was tested at 13 and 38. In addition, each nominated a close friend or family member, who was asked about attention and memory problems.

About one in 20 admitted to starting cannabis use before the age of 18, while a further one in 10 took up the habit in the early or mid 20s.

Professor Terrie Moffitt, of KCL’s Institute of Psychiatry, who contributed to the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said “persistent users” who started as teenagers suffered a drop of eight IQ points at the age of 38, compared to when they were 13.

Persistent users meant those who used it during at least three of the ages from 18 to 38, and who said at each occasion they were smoking it on at least four days a week.

She said: “Adolescent-onset cannabis users, but not adult-onset cannabis users, showed marked IQ decline from childhood to adulthood.

“For example, individuals who started using cannabis in adolescence and used it for years thereafter showed an average eight-point IQ decline.

“Quitting or reducing cannabis use did not appear to fully restore intellectual functioning among adolescent-onset former persistent cannabis users,” she said.

Although eight points did not sound much, it was not trivial, she warned.

It meant that an average person dropped far down the intelligence rankings, so that instead of 50 per cent of the population being more intelligent than them, 71 per cent were.

“Research has shown that IQ is a strong determinant of a person’s access to a college education, their lifelong total income, their access to a good job, their performance on the job, their tendency to develop heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and even early death,” she said.

“Individuals who lose eight IQ points in their teens and 20s may be disadvantaged, relative to their same-age peers, in most of the important aspects of life and for years to come.”

The cognitive abilities of the 10 per cent of people who started in their 20s - who could loosely be classed as college smokers - also suffered while they were still smoking.

However, if they gave up at least a year before their IQ test at 38, their intelligence recovered, suggesting their brains were more resilient and bounced back.

Prof Moffitt said adolescent brains appeared "more vulnerable to damage and disruption" from cannabis than those of fully mature adults.

Reliable figures on cannabis usage among today’s British teens and twentysomethings are hard to come by.

But Prof Moffitt said there was growing concern in the US that cannabis was increasingly being seen as a safe alternative to tobacco.

“This is the first year that more secondary school students in the US are using cannabis than tobacco, according to the Monitoring the Future project at the University of Michigan,” she noted.

“Fewer now think cannabis is damaging than tobacco. But cannabis is harmful for the very young.”

[kelpdiver 2]

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This will help explain quite a bit about potheads.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9426205/Cannabis-smoking-permanently-lowers-IQ.html

"Furthermore, those who started as teenagers and used it heavily, but quit as adults, did not regain their full mental powers, found academics at King’s College London and Duke University in the US."
...
"However, if they gave up at least a year before their IQ test at 38, their intelligence recovered, suggesting their brains were more resilient and bounced back."

So was it the journalist or the researchers that were smoking pot during all of this?

[Gravitymaster 0]

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Prof Moffitt said adolescent brains appeared "more vulnerable to damage and disruption" from cannabis than those of fully mature adults.

I think it was you smoking pot while reading the article.

[kelpdiver 2]

perhaps...it did drag on.

But I'd want to see more than the contents of this article before accepting its conclusion, all the same. Data size, how the IQ testing was conducted, and the types of history that they used to conclude that the teen smokers did in fact lose some innate intelligence.

[kelpdiver 2]

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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.

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.

[Gravitymaster 0]

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perhaps...it did drag on.

But I'd want to see more than the contents of this article before accepting its conclusion, all the same. Data size, how the IQ testing was conducted, and the types of history that they used to conclude that the teen smokers did in fact lose some innate intelligence.

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”.


Almost nine in 10 people think tobacco cigarettes are more damaging to health than cannabis ones, found the BLF.


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.


It was also “strongly associated” with suppression of the immune system and heart disease, if taken for long enough.


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.”