Pot should be nationally legaized (with one caveat)

if you have no issue with is being applied to alcohol first, anything can be abuse, getting to much sun can be bad for you.... should we outlaw beaches?

alcohol is much worse for you then Marijuana

people drown all the time, should we ban swimming pools too? how about football?

adults should be able to choose for themselves...

 

we need more research before outlawing it...... cause there is no reason to outlaw it

you started out saying you wanted the states to decide, why do you not support ending federal laws against it then?

treat it like Alcohol, problem solved

 

I always get the impression some people watched this and believe it is an accurate depiction of what happens when someone smokes Pot:



Weird how the OP did not include other products. Like alcohol, cigarettes hamburgers, guns, and cars. All can result in health problems, injuries and death. All by themselves do more harm to people than pot. Well except hamburgers unless your diet is just that and similar.

I known pot smokers and drinkers. I certainly think pot is the lesser of the two evils. Much rather hangout with someone than someone who is drunk. I do not smoke it myself.

I would also suggest looking at place like Colorado where all these horrible things were predicted. People would be killing each other, auto accidents would increase, crime would increase, babies would kill their mothers, cows would marry dogs, productivity would drop and other predictions of horrible things turning Colorado into a cesspool.

 

Pot isn't dangerous unless abused. Like alcohol, prescription drugs, etc. It is like saying if you overeat, get fat and get health issues the food companies are responsible.

 

The only havoc and misery is created by the police arresting someone for possession of a herb.

 

Have you ever been around a drunk?

 

I used to sell an atypical antipsychotic, and have had this precise conversation with many different psychiatrists. Every one of the at least 40 or 50 psychiatrists to whom I asked this question shockingly had essentially the exact same answer. Additionally, I lived for one year in college with a friend of mine's little brother whom became schizophrenic, so I do have some firsthand experience as well.

Alcohol and marijuana do not cause someone to be schizophrenic or bi polar with psychotic features, but they can help to trigger an episode for people with those conditions. Very few people want to acknowledge that they or their loved one have something organically wrong and they instead always look for something else to blame. Take a schizophrenic person for example. It lies within a person and typically is going to have its first appearance somewhere between the ages of 18-24. Their first episode will usually be accompanied with some type of trigger. These triggers can be an argument, problems with friends or family, problems at work or school, drugs or alcohol, and/or poor sleep.

In my friends brothers case, his first episode was while on acid. A lot of people like to blame acid for his schizophrenia, but it in no way was the cause. His mother had schizophrenia, and his brother eventually came down with it as well. He was living in a college town after he recovered from his first episode, and he often partook of drinking or drugs, and at those times he would always get a bit on the crazy side. None of this indicates that marijuana causes someone to be schizophrenic. It indicates that marijuana( among several other things) can trigger a psychotic episode for someone predisposed to a disorder that features psychosis. It does not mean that if they avoid all triggers they will never have psychosis. This is very similar to someone with severe clinical depression. If you were to ask them why they are depressed, they will always point to some reason or another. They may say losing a relationship, or work trouble etc, but the reality is that they are going to handle very poorly the inevitable downs that occur in everyone's life. So while they will almost always blame some event or another, the reality is it is due to organically suffering from severe clinical depression.

A very high percentage of people with severe mental disorders turn to drugs or alcohol in an attempt to self medicate. This creates an easy scapegoat to blame for their illness, rather than accepting the fact that they have an organic mental illness that is likely going to plague them their entire life. While it is true that these people are probably best served by avoiding drugs and alcohol, it is not correct to blame their underlying illness on drugs and alcohol.

Marijuana or alcohol don't cause mental illness. They can exacerbate/trigger psychosis in someone with a severe mental illness. That distinction is enormous. There isn't a need to create a "safer" strain of marijuana. There is a need to keep people with organic mental illness away from any and all intoxicants.

 

Me and my high school buddy used to go smoke with a dude in our hood that was schizophrenic. He used it as medicine to help him cope with the crazy thoughts.

 

Well when you said you were not fine with legalization, what did you mean?

 

So. Provide a warning label. Why don't you think adults can make their own decisions? How about, it's none of their business! Easy peasy.

You are singling out pot and ignoring dozens of other potentially dangerous products where adults make their own choices.

You can't hold growers and sellers liable for information they don't have. Right there your suggestion fails on a legal basis. It would never stand up in court.

 

People that smoke pot should be required to buy a 10 million dollar ins policy in case they kill someone while driving impaired.

 

Do you have the same belief in regards to alcohol?

If so, then at least you are intellectually consistent. If not, please explain your reasoning as to why you are delineating between the two in regards to auto insurance.

 

do you want the same requirement for people who consume alcohol?

 

Wait, so you want to give people the full freedom to take the substance but want to make them insure themselves?

Weed is weed man, any "freakout" is just a panic attack, got a friend Hamid who is an ER doctor and said he gets one every now and then and everyone in the hospital gets a good laugh.

If you cannot sue Jim Beam for my hangover, then screw this plan

 

You are the blind one, and apparently willingly so.

 

"Safer Strains"? WTF are you talking about?

Potency? --- THC content?

You can't die from too much THC intake. Unlike alcohol.

You might do something stupid, & die, or kill someone, but I'm pretty sure "Sober" instances of these 2 options far outweigh those of the impaired.

 

I think that people who think like you are what is wrong with the world.

I've been cultivating, growing my own, marihuana, on and off, for at least 40 years. Your kind used to tell us that consuming marihuana made people less intelligent. Yet I'm willing to bet that those who have made such claims never earned straight A's in high school and college like I did. I might also add that at 58 I am in considerably better health and shape than the vast majority of people my age.

The claim of causing psychosis, it being a very dangerous drug, and creating havoc and misery are little more than arguments of people who are entirely ignorant of the effects of marihuana.

Marihuana' effect is a subtle one. In fact many people claim that it doesn't have any effect on them.

What kinds of victim injuries are we talking about? Laughing at the silly people like you who spread misinformation about marihuana?

 

I think they think all people who smoke pot sit in the dark and have shitty jobs or no job at all.

Growing up I lived across the street from a lawyer and architect. They were my best friends parents and they grew weed on their roof. Both were successful, volunteered in the community, gave to charity and besides the pot thing I did not think they did anything more serious than speeding or parking illegally.

While living in Hawaii I knew two rather successful small business owners that smoked it.

I see it not much different than alcohol. I have run across people that abuse alcohol and run across people who have abuse pot. I have run across people who part take of either that go to work, pay taxes and just live their lives fine. A lot more in the last group I mentioned.

 

So why isn't my wife needing to sign a waiver for other drugs? What makes the difference that you need a waiver for medicinal marajuana, but not other drugs prescriptions?

 

I think people should mind their own business. If you don't like pot, then don't use it.

I also don't think pot ruins people's lives, but people ruin their own lives. A piece of **** is going to be a piece of ****, whether they're using pot or not. So you've known a piece of **** that also happens to smoke pot? I've known very productive people that smoke pot. I've known pieces of **** that don't smoke pot. Add it up and we have no proof that pot ruins lives.

 

My crowd is mostly college educated. It is rather common for us to gather, at diner parties, or some outside adventure, where marihuana is seen as an enhancement.

There was some movie where they were saying things like, "You ever go to the movies?" "Ever go to the movies on weed?". Expanding experiences. There used to me this magazine called Omni, which was kind of a science magazine that always had a science-fiction/fantasy story. Every issue also had an interview with a top scientist. There was one, and I don't remember who it was, who had been one of the ones who had discovered receptors in brain cells. He said that he had been working on the problem day and night for months. Some friends of his convinced him he needed a day off, and in doing so offered to get him high on the magic herb. In his cannabus induced euphoria he suddenly saw his work from a different vantage point which eventually led to his discoveries.

There is this demonstration I like to do. I have some rather sensitive scales. I'll sit a bong on the scale. As a person lights the bowl and begins drawing on it, the bong gains weight. I got the idea after reading a paper on decarboxylation, which is the chemical process that releases THC. Apparently while burning, marihuana gains mass from oxygen and other atmospheric substances. The gain disappears once all the material is burnt.

Unknown to the author of the OP, there has been some rather extensive scientific research on marihuana and its effects.



I've known several people who have ruined their lives with alcohol or meth, but never with just pot. Marihuana is the only mind, or should I say mood altering, substance that I consume. It is legal where I live.

 

They day they legalized, or should I say the day the people of Oregon voted to legalize weed, it was like Marijuana Freedom Day.

Recently the state legislature passed laws designed to protect Oregonians from the federal government?

 

I am an honorably discharged (6 years) veteran of OIF II, infantry sergeant. I spent 7 years working for a major satellite provider as a technician and I worked 2 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a technician. I am currently in my 3rd year of an environmental science degree.

Do I sound like a bad person?

 

Let's apply this same logic for anyone on any kind of perscription medication with driving warnings.

 

Please don't think I'm calling you a liar when say that I don't really believe your take. Its just I don't know the full story behind the instances you speak of, and they don't really mesh with my own experiences. With that said, I am at least sympathetic. I have mentioned that I have seen it cause difficulties for people and their mental state, and despite knowing many people who swore up and down that the "drove safer when stoned", I know that is utter bullcrap.

I'm certain that decriminalization of marijuana would come with licensing and regulation of growers. I don't have a problem with that as long as there is an allowance for people to grow and amount for personal use.