Legality of cannabis

nitsuj

1.) what's being "quantified"?
2.) if it's THC in the blood, good luck, & that's a solution purely from a legal perspective. And is resolved via zero tolerance. All should agree with that, a "little" high & driving is not more due diligence than "really" high.

3.) In my opinion the issue lies in (sub?)culture, voting power & politicking.

Some Slacker

If I knew this, I would solve the problem myself, and I know there probably was some investigation into this with no results. The best we can do nowadays is tell you have smoked in the last 30 days (give or take a week) and a probable amount of usage, weather it be casual, habitual, or abusive... To me, that just isn't good enough to make pot legal, 'cause like those 'fun' commercials show, I don't want my surgeon or my kids bus driver high while working, but they should be able to have some when not on duty, as the effects wear off after a few hours (give or take an hour or two).

Can't measure that.
And yet a little drunk is considered ok.. While drinking is way Way WAY more debilitating than pot can ever be.

Because of the stigma of using hard drugs like marijuana a politician is committing career suicide if they back it (mostly).


I do really believe that pot got a bad rap right from the start, and too many believe the worst.

TylerH

http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/misc...g/dot78_1g.htm
How about we rely on scientific research instead of baseless opinion/conjecture to decide what others should and shouldn't agree with.

Evo

Oh yeah, because smoking pot has no effects.

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs...opstories.html

TylerH

Can you show me what I said that even implies that? You can't, because my quote only speaks of the impairment *in terms of road tracking*.

I said nothing about the effects on memory or whatever it was that caused that person to leave their baby on the roof of their car nor did I say anything that implied no such effects existed.

In case it wasn't obvious by the fact that I quoted him, I was responding only to nitsuj's proposition that a zero tolerance policy is something that everyone should agree with.

Evo

I think marijuana should be legalized with the same restrictions as alcohol.

But we can't pretend that abusers don't get f'd up on it.

ThomasT

I agree, and there are laws against driving (operating machinery, etc.) while under the influence of marijuana (just as with alcolhol and other behavior altering drugs). I think that a person should be allowed to grow and consume marijuana for personal use in the same way that a person is allowed to make a few gallons of beer at home for personal use.

Personally, I don't smoke marijuana (but do like its aroma), though I know people my age who do, and though it's quite easy to get with virtually no risk -- but it's current classification and the laws against possession and use make no sense, imo.

The war on drugs has, imo, turned out to be a colossal mess, leading to lots of unnecessary corruption and violent crime.

Imo, we should put the marijuana cartels out of business by legalizing pot.

For a little history on, imo, one of the influential precursors to the current attitudes of a certain significant portion of the US populace see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger

nitsuj

How about...screw the scientific research, which merely ATTEMPTS to quantify an effect. It can't be done.

When getting behind the wheel of a 2,000kg machine on public roads, zero tolerance is best. All else is guess work.

I never rarely drink. I could go all day with no food, pop some blood thinner, pop a shot of vodka and have a "buzz" that despite level of impairment, is an impairment.

If I crash and kill, who's to know if my thin blood & alcohol had an influence in the cause. Certainly not historical scientific research.

It's your duty to be in tip top shape when getting behind the wheel.

Sorry if it was the terminology "all should agree" that's upsetting you, how presumptuous of me to think everyone would agree with their civic duty before getting behind the wheel.

btbam91

I'm personally against it. But if it ever is legalized, I'd want it to be taxed like hell and the money be put to good use.

ghost_r32

If there's one thing I've learnt in my life, its one of my mottos "Weed Ruins Friendships"
Its a social life killer and ruins ambitions. Sure some people may argue that their life is "improved" or "not affected adversely" by it. But maybe you're one in a million. So many around me are into it and I hate it so much. I could go on and on but to cut a long story short I've lost a couple of best mates to it and my brother skips school because he's smoking it. He's got such a bright future but he's throwing it down the drain. I hate the BS videos I see about how great it is, its benefits and all that. Its just brainwashing the younger generation.

nitsuj

I'm not so sure about your moto, the weed is pretty innocent there.

But I do hear you on the other concerns, and agree. Drugs, and in particular marijuana carry little "consequence" from abuse. So yea it's difficult to convince a pot head they are not as "successful" as they could be without abusing drugs.

thing of it is....what's the problem again?

Oh yea abuse, that's the issue. Seems a seperate issue from smoking weed. Isn't?

Ryan_m_b

How is drug abuse separate to the issue of drug use ? I'm not saying their exactly the same but as they are intimately linked it would be damaging to consider one without the other.

nitsuj

gimme a break ryan, I could abuse bananas, carrots and or oranges. I think abuse is totally separate from drugs.

Unless you meant to put words in my mouth with "drug abuse separate to the issue of drug use". That's a bit of a truism. I said abuse is separate from smoking weed. They are not mutually inclusive.

My momma told me drug abuse is never about the drugs. In what sense do you think it is?

How is it not the emotions produced, and enjoyed enough to become less ambitious towards other (more?) meaningful goals? Unreasonably focusing on getting an emotional high. The drug itself is moot.

People don't become coke heads, because they like blowing coke. The like the high. The high is an emotion, apparently a great one, earned merely by snortin' some crap up the nose.


I guess it's emotional abuse more so than drug abuse. Perhaps, legislators had the same mind set as you when drafting laws that can incriminate drug abusers.

Skydiving can result in death. It produces an emotional "high". Do you think that would be abuse of planes and parachutes?

The drug is merely the means to emotional abuse as I've described.

In this thread I've called it "cheating life".

Ryan_m_b

Firstly: calm down. Secondly with the exception of the clear physical dependency that a lot of drugs create you are partly right, people take them for enjoyment and escapism. But you can't deny that most drugs are easily and readily abused, far more so than fruit. To have a sensible and balanced discussion about drug policy you have to acknowledge that.

Some Slacker

We were talking about cannabis, not "a lot of drugs", mental dependency is all there is for pot, as in, wow, I like this, I can't wait to do this again!

Yeah, he picked a bad example... fruit?!? why not say sugared fizzy drinks? chips? bacon cheeseburgers? None of these are drugs and I'm sure they get 'abused' in record numbers at least in the US.

I just want my smokable beer! I don't care, tax it (at some shop or whatever where ya can buy it), regulate it (keep away from children, and FFS don't advertise it! I can't imagine what commercials would be like for northern lights or whatever! LOL!), find a way to find out who's high and just how high are they at THIS moment (I firmly believe that without this, this is a NO-GO, otherwise it returns to being illegal if you've smoked in the last 30ish days), and charge for the right to grow your own (some yearly fee in lieu of the tax you won't be paying (since the stuff grows like a weed) to keep up appearances that you are part of the tax system).

I really can't think of anything else at the moment, my drug addled mind isn't always my friend. Yes, drug addled... been an abuser since 1982. Not bragging, simply stating a fact. I know its abuse and I know I totally am. Doesn't change the fact that I have been gainfully employed for most of that time, unfortunately (for me) the last five years ain't been so good, but then again I haven't been abusing either, as I can't afford it.. heh. But therein lies part of the problem, I know myself well enough to know that if I can afford it, I will be right back at it, which limits the number of jobs available to me, and I'm not gonna risk getting it put into record that I'm a user (abuser, whatever), so I tend to avoid the ones that do testing. (which seems to be most nowadays, hopefully the Pres will actually follow up on his statements from last week)

Evo

You really avoid good jobs so that you can continue smoking weed?

Some Slacker

I've had good jobs, they just weren't interested in weather I smoked weed or not, but yes I am choosy about who I will work for, for example, my father was a police officer for 20 years, I would never presume to apply for such a job as I don't consider myself a hypocrite, or a bus driver (which my sister does) these are simply not open to me, as I hold myself to higher (get it? higher (insert butthead type laugh)) standard. And I don't consider it avoiding a good job, I simply consider it avoiding jail time, just because I want to smoke my beer rather than drink it.

Straight people don't know, what your about.
They put you down and shut you out.
You gave to me, a new belief.
And soon the world will love you Sweet Leaf! -Black Sabbath