How many people have to die before America legalizes drugs?

An acceptable risk in the name of personal liberties. Furthermore, it is far easier to gauge the dangers of such substances when they are legal - hence why I hold any studies regarding illegal substances as only limited in scope.

 

you are correct, zollen!

Please check tihs out.

 

So we should legalize something and then study the result because we aren't sure.... doesn't sound right...

 

Blah blah blah, all (*)(*)(*)(*) we've heard before. However, it fails to mention that the rare instances of death happen to result from people with preexisting conditions like heart arrythmia that use cannabis.

Please tell me how cannabis is any worse than alcohol or nicotine. Or heck, even prescription medication.

 

Well we have have different views mate - I hold that something has to be demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt to be socially harmful before it can be prohibited.

 

IT'S NOT!

Plus, it does no effect to people not smoking injecteing or somehow inhaling the drug! why should it be banned?

 

Like considered innocent until proven gulity?

 

Why was it banned? It competes with tobacco and cotton.

Why does it remain banned? Moral hysterics.

 

None of those suggest death by overdose, and aspirin is much more dangerous to children. You just don't care.

Nobody is suggesting it for youth.

Nobody is suggesting it is "good for you".

McDonalds isn't "good for you". Viagra isn't "good for you".

 

Pretty much. The American and indeed Western system of law operates under the assumption that the average person is a reasonable entity - despite the verity of it.

 

Should the nation be a guinea pig?

 

But oh hot (*)(*)(*)(*) does it make for a good time. And no, I don't have ED

 

my last trip to Amsterdam, I have changed my mind about marijuana. It is all about the dose. For years, I was unable to get "high" from smoking so I thought THC was a joke and a placebo. After shoveling down a few "space cakes", I finally experienced the effect of THC. I was incapacitated with hallucinations for hours. I could barely tie my shoe let alone drive or work. THC is real and not a "queer" drug as I previously thought. I'm not sure that legalization is a good thing anymore.

 

*sigh* What have I said about anecdotal evidence.

 

don't know and don't care. THC is for real, man. "Cheech"

 

Then you aren't doing it right.

Precisely the point. Even if it isn't "good for you", that is not a requirement for the pursuit of happiness.

I want people not to misunderstand me, at this stage of my life, weed is not a priority of mine. I haven't fooled with it for a long time, because what I have is not worth losing for the illegal acts involved in having it. Were it legalized tomorrow, it is highly unlikely that I would entertain it. I do not have a motivation to want weed legalized. I find it unAmerican that it is illegal. Especially given Anslinger's rhetoric to GET the prohibition passed. Especially the competition which funded the campaign. It is a miraculous plant on many levels, oils not being the least. Every inch of this plant can help the economy. There is NO justification for its outlaw, save moralist hysteria.

 

Cocaine is a stimulant. It can be obtained by prescription. So can many other stimulants. Want methamphetines? You probably would give them to your children if a doctor told you to. You might even take them as an adult. It's just packaged as Ritalin.

No it doesn't. And, anyway, define "highly-addictive." There's nothing sinful about being an addict. Addiction is simply the behavior of seeking that to which one is addicted. A heroin addict can live just fine with the addiction so long as the drug is cheap and easily available, as it would be in a free market. It doesn't make sense to criminalize vice, nor sense to put people cages for illnesses. Except to those who like to see people suffer for offenses to their own moral sensibilities.

It's partly race and partly protection of pharmaceutical companies from cheap, easily available drugs for those who prefer to self-medicate rather than medicate only with permission of a government licensed agent.

One need only look at the incarceration rates of minorities, particularly blacks, to see that this is very much a race issue. Opium was prohibited largely to ensnare chinese immigrants. Marijuana prohibited as a drug primarily used by latinos.

 

amsterdam isn't really regulated, they could lace marijuana with anything to cause incapacity and hallucinations

in the movie hostel they were doing some really crazy things up there

 

"amsterdam isn't really regulated, they could lace marijuana with anything to cause incapacity and hallucinations

in the movie hostel they were doing some really crazy things up there" Liberalminority

I think Hostel was in the Czech Republic or Slovakia, but point taken. I swore the experience was identical to LSD usage in my teens, however, the hotel clerk insisted that I should not go to the ER and that it would pass. He was correct. It was quite wild. Perhaps I was slipped a "Micky". It was New Year's Eve.

 

That's defintely part of the reason.

The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed because the head of the (unconstitutional) Bureau of Narcotics, as well as some white Congressmen decided that marijuana is what made "Mexicans crazy". They didn't want white people to become crazy like the "degenerate races". Two experts testified before Congress. The first "expert" was Dr. James Munch, who claimed to inject the "active ingredient" in 300 dogs, and two died (this would have been impossible because THC had not been synthesized in a lab yet). The second expert was representative of the American Medical Association, Dr. William Woodward, testified before Congress, saying that there was no evidence that marijuana is a dangerous drug. Guess which expert Congress told to go home?

It had nothing to do with real science or medicine, just blind racism and propaganda. This is how government operates - science does not matter to uneducated people. They will always find an "expert" or "experts" to testify with junk science so they can enact freedom-grabbing policies. Public schools will not teach you this history when discussing the "dangers" (you might start acting like a MEXICAN or BLACK person) of marijuana. That set the stage for many murderers being able to use the insanity defense in court. They smoked marijuana, turned insane, and killed somebody.

The law was ruled unconstitutional as a violation of the Fifth Amendment in 1969 when Dr. Timothy Leary was on trial for posession. The federal government enacted the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 to replace it. Thus began the War on Drugs, and the American taxpayer has been on hook for over $40 billion since.

The recent Harvard study which showed that marijuana smoking cuts the risk of getting lung cancer in half is just one example of the many medical uses of marijuana that are continually ignored by our government. As I said before, science does not matter to primitive undereducated people who continue to elect the same politicians that support this waste. The racist policy is still in effect today. Taxpayers lose and Collectivism wins, again.

It remains banned because there are way too many people in high places that would never, ever want to see marijuana legalized. This includes mostly government officials, central bankers, the pharmaceutical industry, and drug lords. That's why it hasn't happened yet. There is way too much lobbying power to keep the War on Drugs going - there's too much money involved (directly or indirectly). There is no lobby to end the War on Drugs. But really, in the end, all it takes is one act of Congress and the President. They are the direct representatives of the people. We get the government we deserve.

 

That's defintely part of the reason.

The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed because the head of the (unconstitutional) Bureau of Narcotics, as well as some white Congressmen decided that marijuana is what made "Mexicans crazy". They didn't want white people to become crazy like the "degenerate races". Two experts testified before Congress. The first "expert" was Dr. James Munch, who claimed to inject the "active ingredient" in 300 dogs, and two died (this would have been impossible because THC had not been synthesized in a lab yet). The second expert was representative of the American Medical Association, Dr. William Woodward, testified before Congress, saying that there was no evidence that marijuana is a dangerous drug. Guess which expert Congress told to go home?

It had nothing to do with real science or medicine, just blind racism and propaganda. This is how government operates - science does not matter to uneducated people. They will always find an "expert" or "experts" to testify with junk science so they can enact freedom-grabbing policies. Public schools will not teach you this history when discussing the "dangers" (you might start acting like a MEXICAN or BLACK person) of marijuana. That set the stage for many murderers being able to use the insanity defense in court. They smoked marijuana, turned insane, and killed somebody.

The law was ruled unconstitutional as a violation of the Fifth Amendment in 1969 when Dr. Timothy Leary was on trial for posession. The federal government enacted the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 to replace it. Thus began the War on Drugs, and the American taxpayer has been on hook for over $40 billion since.

The recent Harvard study which showed that marijuana smoking cuts the risk of getting lung cancer in half is just one example of the many medical uses of marijuana that are continually ignored by our government. As I said before, science does not matter to primitive undereducated people who continue to elect the same politicians that support this waste. The racist policy is still in effect today. Taxpayers lose and Collectivism wins, again.

It remains banned because there are way too many people in high places that would never, ever want to see marijuana legalized. This includes mostly government officials, central bankers, the pharmaceutical industry, and drug lords. That's why it hasn't happened yet. There is way too much lobbying power to keep the War on Drugs going - there's too much money involved (directly or indirectly). There is no lobby to end the War on Drugs. But really, in the end, all it takes is one act of Congress and the President. They are the direct representatives of the people. We get the government we deserve.

 

I have imbibed most every modern iteration of the substance, here and abroad. What you are describing smacks of a micky, especially given your prior suggestion of tolerance.

There are no long term effects from a single invocation. Let adults make up their minds if they want to consume it, like any other legal substance.

 

That problem would be solved by the free market. If drugs were legal, people wouldn't buy them from underground and illicit sources.

 

It's just Doctors & Big Pharma fearing any competition & law enforcement fearing loss of jobs/funding that keeps something like cannabis illegal when most know something about it's safety & it's 126 medical uses. Cannabis oil was in pharmacies until 1937, when cancer was rare. Now we have a cancer epidemic & a ban on the best cure. 30% of Americans die from cancer. I'd guess that would also apply to law enforcement. I heard of a couple that died at 37 & 40 from skin cancer.

Heard of a couple cops sons that had depression. One tried suicide by cocaine overdose. Another nearly died after using a mail-order drug instead of marijuana which would have been years in prison, but no risk of fatality. For many, cannabis is the best for treating depression. Despite all those anti-depressant pills, 31,000 Americans a year kill themselves. I like to ask those who say they are totally against MJ Do you think smoking marijuana is worse than committing suicide?

The phony war on some drugs is responsible for most of our nearly 20,000 homicides a year. It is also responsible for most robberies, thefts, assaults & more. Because of cannabis being illegal & tobacco (kills 400,000+) & alcohol & pills being legal, each killing 100,000+ Americans annually, those who need something to feel better will probably choose the more harmful substances. If half of those dead from pills, tobacco, &/or alcohol had used cannabis instead, that would be over 300,000 lives saved each year, just in US. Maybe 100+ million worldwide since 1970 could be said to have died from the war on the safer drugs. If you're in USA & want end of this nonsense, vote Gary Johnson for President. Thanks!

 

When eating it, the delayed effect makes it harder to titrate the dose to exactly the amount needed. A main reason for smoking it or vaporizing it, the dose can be precise. Also, some are getting raw plants & juicing it. Cannabis oil can cure cancer. It was in pharmacies until 1937, when cancer was rare. Now we have cancer epidemic & the anti-dote is prohibited.

I might be against legalization *if* it had an extreme permanent effect. Obviously, those who know how it affects them would be aware of how much to have, & when to have it. While some who are heavy users for years seem to function on it OK, for many it's use might need to be limited to free time.