What was that famous movie name….“reefer madness”? … that was a funny one!
There are a couple contentions which I disagree with, that Marijuana does not cause car accidents and that it is not a gateway drug.
Q: Does marijuana lead to the use of other drugs?
A: It could. Long-term studies of high school students and their patterns of drug use show that very few young people use other illegal drugs without first trying marijuana. For example, the risk of using cocaine is 104 times greater for those who have tried marijuana than for those who have never tried it.(7) Using marijuana puts children and teens in contact with people who are users and sellers of other drugs. So there is more of a risk that a marijuana user will be exposed to and urged to try more drugs.To better determine this risk, scientists are examining the possibility that long-term marijuana use may create changes in the brain that make a person more at risk of becoming addicted to other drugs, such as alcohol or cocaine. While not all young people who use marijuana go on to use other drugs, further research is needed to predict who will be at greatest risk.
Q: How does marijuana affect driving?
A: Marijuana has serious harmful effects on the skills required to drive safely: alertness, the ability to concentrate, coordination, and the ability to react quickly. These effects can last up to 24 hours after smoking marijuana. Marijuana use can make it difficult to judge distances and react to signals and sounds on the road.Marijuana may play a role in car accidents. In one study conducted in Memphis, TN, researchers found that, of 150 reckless drivers who were tested for drugs at the arrest scene, 33 percent tested positive for marijuana, and 12 percent tested positive for both marijuana and cocaine.(1) Data have also shown that while smoking marijuana, people show the same lack of coordination on standard “drunk driver” tests as do people who have had too much to drink.(8)
There are a couple contentions which I disagree with, that Marijuana does not cause car accidents and that it is not a gateway drug.
Q: Does marijuana lead to the use of other drugs?
A: It could. Long-term studies of high school students and their patterns of drug use show that very few young people use other illegal drugs without first trying marijuana. For example, the risk of using cocaine is 104 times greater for those who have tried marijuana than for those who have never tried it.(7) Using marijuana puts children and teens in contact with people who are users and sellers of other drugs. So there is more of a risk that a marijuana user will be exposed to and urged to try more drugs.To better determine this risk, scientists are examining the possibility that long-term marijuana use may create changes in the brain that make a person more at risk of becoming addicted to other drugs, such as alcohol or cocaine. While not all young people who use marijuana go on to use other drugs, further research is needed to predict who will be at greatest risk.
Q: How does marijuana affect driving?
A: Marijuana has serious harmful effects on the skills required to drive safely: alertness, the ability to concentrate, coordination, and the ability to react quickly. These effects can last up to 24 hours after smoking marijuana. Marijuana use can make it difficult to judge distances and react to signals and sounds on the road.Marijuana may play a role in car accidents. In one study conducted in Memphis, TN, researchers found that, of 150 reckless drivers who were tested for drugs at the arrest scene, 33 percent tested positive for marijuana, and 12 percent tested positive for both marijuana and cocaine.(1) Data have also shown that while smoking marijuana, people show the same lack of coordination on standard “drunk driver” tests as do people who have had too much to drink.(8)
-National Drug Institute
Kind of doubled posted there :roll:
Good post YB, I completely agree with you.
with respect to YB’s posts, they still do not say that Marijuana is anything that needs to be criminalized, or requires the resources currently aimed at it. Many legal drugs produce similar effects to those listed, and “psychological addiction” is not nearly as bad/powerful as physiological addiction (nor a reason to make it illegal). WRT driving - slap the same penalties for driving under the influence as with alcohol. As for the anxiety etc. has anyone gone for a job interview, or had nasty exams, called up a woman he’s just recently met, etc.? As far as the “gate-way” hypothesis goes, the fact is that controlled use of marijuana would go a long way to prevent the gateway phenonmenon you mentioned - esp if it was sold by a pharmacy/other controlled facility. Finally wrt cancer - people in general do not smoke marijuana to the same extent as “the cancer stick”. If mari-jane was legalized/controlled, there would be filters thrown on those pretty quickly.
Again - not that i’m a closet pot-head - i never touch the stuff. Just looking at the situation realistically.
Fine, legalize marijauna for those people who are in dire pain. Give doctors the discretionary ability to prescribe it. But what good does it serve in legalizing that crap for the entire country?
We all know drugs are bad, that isn’t the issue. With this logic, I can go ahead and ban alcohol. Legalization is the issue at hand. Should we waste billions of dollars each year financing a drug war that we cannot win?
Yes we should. I pay thousands of dollars in taxes for a public school education that I don’t use. I pay thousands of dollars for welfare that I don’t mooch off of. I have absolutely no problem paying even more money to save some lives from drug usage…and niether do the majority of American people.
Besides sitting on extremely high moral ground, why would you care about some complete stranger who decides to do drugs.
Smoking pot is no worse than alcohol or cigarettes, probably less so than the latter.
I’m not sure about other"hard" drugs as I don’t know enough about them.
I’m not junkhead. :wink:
I don’t feel like being killed by a pothead in a car-accident. Or being shot by someone who is strung-out on crack. A stranger doing drugs can affect me directly…
izcoder - by your logic, we should ban alcohol. Or parkinson’s drugs, etc.
The fact is, as far as the health of the nation goes, pot seems to be far less problematic than nicotine (evil weed!). I would far rather see cigarette use legislated more strongly than pot use.
Also alcohol is a much MUCH greater social problem than pot. Maybe not in moderation (where it might be healthy - unless you are an alcoholic), but overall it destroys people’s lives.
I agree with Ghoul. Pot is NOT cocaine, or heroin. Pot users are not “criminals” - aside from “breaking” a stupid law. Put the laws, cops and jails we have to better use - fighting real crime.
And I don’t like a drop out from public schools to shoot and then rob me.
I find it amusing how many people are easy to disprove of drugs when they have tried it themselves…
FYI Moses…I haven’t tried drugs, nor do I intend to.
Cystic Crypt, you’re missing my point! I’ll be the first to agree that alcohol is AS BAD as drugs (how many times as that been said in this thread? :wink: ) I fail to see what LEGALIZING MARIJAUNA WILL DO TO HELP THAT! Actually, pot smokers are criminals, whether you agree with the law or not. And as for putting law enforcement to better use, fighting so called “real crime”…they’re attacking the crime at it’s source.
First, the reason that Marijuana does not cause as many social problems as alchohol is that not as much of it is used as alchohol. If Marijuana is legalized (without a prescription), then it will be cheaper and easier to get, thus more people will use more of it. And before it is said, people use weed because it gives them a high, not because it is illegal.
Crackdown on the inflow and send addicts to treatment programs, not jail. Since 9/11 we have accidentally been catching a lot more weed at the border. What would happen if we really tried?
First, the reason that Marijuana does not cause as many social problems as alchohol is that not as much of it is used as alchohol. If Marijuana is legalized (without a prescription), then it will be cheaper and easier to get, thus more people will use more of it. And before it is said, people use weed because it gives them a high, not because it is illegal.
Marijuana is worst than alochol. It’s almost impossible to OD on marijuana. I don’t see the problem with more people using marijuana moderately -it’s a good way to unwind.
Crackdown on the inflow and send addicts to treatment programs, not jail. Since 9/11 we have accidentally been catching a lot more weed at the border. What would happen if we really tried?
We already spent billions of dollars fighting the influx drugs, I see this as tax payer’s money going to waste.
smokers are criminals, whether you agree with the law or not. And as for putting law enforcement to better use, fighting so called “real crime”…they’re attacking the crime at it’s source.
Legalization is the primary source of temptation to involve otherwise law abiding citizens into illegal activity. (This seems to flow partly from a conviction on their part that they are not doing anything wrong and that the government has been irrational and dictatorial) Marijuana can be grown cheaply and sold for more than the price of pure gold. U.S. production has soared some 400% in 20 years, making it one of the leading cash crops in many states. Illegal marijuana is more available to most teens than legal alcohol. Under current conditions, I say that about 50% of our young adults are criminals, eroding the criminal justice system and respect for the law.
FYI Moses…I haven’t tried drugs, nor do I intend to.
Though I can’t say the same about many others… cough Bill Clinton cough
FYI Moses…I haven’t tried drugs, nor do I intend to.
Cystic Crypt, you’re missing my point! I’ll be the first to agree that alcohol is AS BAD as drugs (how many times as that been said in this thread? :wink: ) I fail to see what LEGALIZING MARIJAUNA WILL DO TO HELP THAT! Actually, pot smokers are criminals, whether you agree with the law or not. And as for putting law enforcement to better use, fighting so called “real crime”…they’re attacking the crime at it’s source.
When you use the term “criminals”, they are so because they are breaking the law. The fact is, unlike with B&E’s, murder, unethical (and even immoral), violent, etc. activities, marijuana use does not confer the same “evildoer” status on someone. Aside from second-hand marijuana smoke, and selling pot to kids/selling bad pot - marijuana use is a victimless crime that serves as a recreation. If someone is smoking pot and becomes violent on it etc. then fine - arrest them and charge them with being an idiot. Possession and use should net no more than a fine, and i think we could eventually work our way into legislated sales of marijuana with few societal consequences (maybe more “fat” people . . . ).
As for attacking crime at its source, with legislated (read: controlled) marijuana sales, you’ve just killed the traffiking industry - something we have no control over now. Also marijuana isn’t the kind of drug that people go into withdrawl over when they quit - it’'s not as bad as nicotine. My alcohol example was simply that it’s absurd to criminalize an act based on what consequences might happen.
“i’m eating fast food that could up my cholesterol causing me to stroke out while driving and kill some children - we should ban fast food”.
absurd.
Don’t forget car crashes, terrorist funding, increased use among peers, and damage to fetus while pregnant…marijauna use is not quite the “victimless” crime you so gallanty portray.
ITs true, Marijuana funds civil wars, causes car crashes, and gives you lung cancer/ephezema faster than cigarettes. NOt to mention behavior and memory disorders. Are you ever around users? They can’t remember anything!
Controlling drugs prostitution is more feasible than Communism, yet you pretend it is the other way around.
Don’t forget car crashes, terrorist funding, increased use among peers, and damage to fetus while pregnant…marijauna use is not quite the “victimless” crime you so gallanty portray.
car crashes - caused by angry, sleepy, drunk, diabetic people, as well as people on a number of legal perscription drugs, epileptics, old people, stupid, lazy, egotistical people blah blah blah
terrorist funding - obtained through charities, bakesales, real estate, people working jobs in N-America and sending the money home, opium, cocaine, kidnappings, bankrobbings, money laundering via almost every “legitimate business” under the sun
increased use amoung peers - video games, violent movies, tv, alcohol, but at the same time, give some peers credit for “not being into it”. Marijuana does not cause people to use it - there are many reasons that drive people to use it, not all bad - the bad ones need to be dealt with on a societal level tho’.
Damage to fetus - alcohol, many legitimate drugs - otc’s and prescription, being in a car with an idiot, being with a mother who does not take folic acid/control her diabetes/hypertension etc.
Sorry - i hardly think that marijuana is responsible for these things. Irresponsible people are responsible for these. If they didn’t have marijuana they would f**k up their lives in worse way, you can be certain of that.
