Should Marijuana Be Legalized

[trinitrotoluene85]

Personally? I say legalize it and since it's for consumption it should be regulated and taxed like alcohol and tobacco... Having said that I don't like the way alcohol and tobacco are taxed, but IMO marijuana would/should probably fall in that category (as opposed to food). We're wasting a lot of time and money on a drug war that we'll never win. Legalize it, and tax it. I'd be curious to see if it would help with budget problems. I don't know if it would or not.

 

[M67]

For me it's not about what you want to put in your body, but the concern that I have about a backwoods chemist that wants to mix highly explosive chemicals right next door to me. Growing plants is one thing, playing with fire is another.

I try to keep my body as healthy as possible, goof food, work out, run, plenty of sleep, etc. but it's a personal choice what does into their body, for me it's trying to keep healthy as long as I can because both my parents' sides of the family have a FUBAR health track record.

I also agree about the chemist comment as well. A plant is a plant, it groes. Meth houses can, and do, blow up causing injury to the people who are unfortunate enough to live around them (although it is amusing to whatch a meth house go up in flames). Kind of ironic that meth comes up, considering I changed my avatar about a half hour before this thread got started.

 

[tv1217]

Well, the first one...

 

[Kutnupe14]

How by posting a picture of OUR President?

Or the one of Mr. Olympia...I mean the Terminator......or wait was it the Governator....

Oh, you must be referring to the picture of a 16 time Olympic Medalist.

Yep. All of them smoked pot and became deadbeats.

No, they are accomplished but, theyre not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

 

[Hoosier8]

I am on the legalize it only bandwagon right now. I don't care for it but it is the only natural plant that is illegal and that just seems weird since it grows wild in many parts of the country.

 

[Kutnupe14]

Personally? I say legalize it and since it's for consumption it should be regulated and taxed like alcohol and tobacco... Having said that I don't like the way alcohol and tobacco are taxed, but IMO marijuana would/should probably fall in that category (as opposed to food). We're wasting a lot of time and money on a drug war that we'll never win. Legalize it, and tax it. I'd be curious to see if it would help with budget problems. I don't know if it would or not.

Alcohol and Tobacco are both regulated for potency. Marijuana has increased in potency expontionally over the years. Does one expect the ATF or FDA (both pure FAIL as agencies) to not do the same with legalized marijuana? If that does happen, we're back at square one with the more potent, more sought after strains of the plant being illegal.

 

[semperfi211]

Wow like I think mary jane should be legal. I smoke weed and..... oh wow I like forgot what i was gonna say. I will get back if I remember dudes.

 

[rjstew317]

Alcohol and Tobacco are both regulated for potency. Marijuana has increased in potency expontionally over the years. Does one expect the ATF or FDA (both pure FAIL as agencies) to not do the same with legalized marijuana? If that does happen, we're back at square one with the more potent, more sought after strains of the plant being illegal.

but what are the negative affects of a more potent marijuana? does the pot today kill you if smoke too much? no. will it make you go blind? no. will it send you into liver failure? no.

 

[MinuteMan47]

No, they are accomplished but, theyre not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

Sharp enough.

My point, it debunks the theories that say EVERYONE will be lazy, living off the government, moving on to harder drugs, blah, blah, blah.

Do I need to find sharper knives? I'm positive I can.

 

[rjstew317]

what makes this plant different then any other plant that you could grow? a set of rules made up by somebody that didn't want to loose their job at the end of prohibition perhaps. it just seems silly to me.

 

[Kutnupe14]

but what are the negative affects of a more potent marijuana? does the pot today kill you if smoke too much? no. will it make you go blind? no. will it send you into liver failure? no.

So you're saying it lacks harmful effects?

 

[M67]

So you're saying it lacks harmful effects?

It doesn't give you cancer, it doesn't eat any organs, and you don't shoot it up so it won't eat your veins.

But, may cause dizziness, lightheadedness, and impaired motor skills - as the warning labels on medications would say

 

[IndyMedic]

I didn't read the whole thread so this may have already been said, but just because pot is legalized doesn't mean everybody is going to start showing up at work high. Work places would still drug test and pot would still be against there policy. Alcohol is legal but I still can't show up to work with traces of alcohol in my system and get away with it.

There are always going to be burn outs that are a drain on society and break the rules but for the most part I don't think much would change. Except the government would have something else to regulate.

 

[rjstew317]

I've known police officers, lawyers, scientists, and every other walk of life that have, or do still smoke marijuana. the notion that only lazy, or criminally inclined people smoke it is false. i could see how an LEO would think that, because that's the element that you see everyday. my bet would be that if you took the legality of weed out of the situation, those same people would still be engaged in some sort of criminal activity.

 

[Kutnupe14]

It doesn't give you cancer, it doesn't eat any organs, and you don't shoot it up so it won't eat your veins.

But, may cause dizziness and lightheadedness

Im going to assume that anything you burn and inhale is detrimental to your health. Marijuana just isnt typically consumed like tobacco (scale-wise).

 

[The Bubba Effect]

Alcohol and Tobacco are both regulated for potency. Marijuana has increased in potency expontionally over the years. Does one expect the ATF or FDA (both pure FAIL as agencies) to not do the same with legalized marijuana? If that does happen, we're back at square one with the more potent, more sought after strains of the plant being illegal.

I expect the ATF and FDA to go broke when we quit funding them (coinciding with my repeal of handout/robbery programs).

I figure a person can gain reasonable assurance of quality, potency, and ingredients by seeking information from third party private rating entities. Even if the third party rating agency blows it on potency, its not like the user would be in any danger of overdose or poisoning.

Plus, I'm getting pretty sick of hearing this crap about how "today's dope isn't like your grand daddy's dope". Unless I'm mighty mistaken, you never got high with my grandpa, so who are you to talk down about his herbal remedies?

 

[rjstew317]

So you're saying it lacks harmful effects?

show me proof that it does, is what i'm saying

 

[rjstew317]

Im going to assume that anything you burn and inhale is detrimental to your health. Marijuana just isnt typically consumed like tobacco (scale-wise).

nor does it have a multitude of chemical preservatives added to it. it's 100% natural, as in "put here by ***"

 

[NYFelon]

Source: Wiki. Original source works cited at bottom of post.

There has never been a documented human fatality from overdosing on tetrahydrocannabinol or cannabis in its natural form.[18] However, the THC pill Marinol was cited by the FDA as being responsible for 4 of the 11,687 deaths from 17 different FDA approved drugs between January 1, 1997 to June 30, 2005.[19] Information about THC's toxicity is derived from animal studies. The toxicity depends on the route of administration and the laboratory animal. Absorption is limited by serum lipids, which can become saturated with THC, mitigating toxicity.[20] According to the Merck Index, 12th edition, THC has an LD50 (dose killing half of the research subjects) value of 1270 mg/kg (male rats) and 730 mg/kg (female rats) administered orally dissolved in sesame oil.[21] The LD50 value for rats by inhalation of THC is 42 mg/kg of body weight.[21] One estimate of THC's LD50 for humans indicates that about 1,500 pounds (680 kg) of cannabis would have to be smoked within 14 minutes.[22] This estimate is supported by studies which indicate that the effective dose of THC is at least 1000 times lower than the estimated lethal dose (a "therapeutic ratio" of 1000:1). This is much higher than alcohol (therapeutic ratio 10:1), cocaine (15:1), or heroin (6:1)

Apparently, a person would need to smoke 3/4 of a ton of pot in under 15 minutes to receive a lethal dose of THC. Now, since that's actually impossible, the person that tried it would actually die of asphyxiation before they "overdosed" on the drug.



^ Walker JM, Huang SM (August 2002). "Cannabinoid analgesia". Pharmacol. Ther. 95 (2): 127–35. doi:10.1016/S0163-7258(02)00252-8. PMID 12182960. "...to date, there are no deaths known to have resulted from overdose of cannabis. (p. 128)".
^ "Deaths from Marijuana v. 17 FDA-Approved Drugs" (PDF). 2005-06-30. Retrieved 2011-02-03.
^ a b c d e f g h i "Erowid Cannabis Vault : THC Material Safety Data Sheet". Erowid.org. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
^ a b c d e Erowid. "Cannabis Chemistry". Retrieved 2006-03-20.
^ Annas GJ (August 1997). "Reefer madness--the federal response to California's medical-marijuana law". N. Engl. J. Med. 337 (6): 435–9. doi:10.1056/NEJM199708073370621. PMID 9241134.

 

[M67]

Im going to assume that anything you burn and inhale is detrimental to your health. Marijuana just isnt typically consumed like tobacco (scale-wise).

All the studies I've seen, it doesn't hurt your lungs. But, maybe WAY in the future, yeah, there could be some damage.

But it's like too much salt in your diet for years, or the BPA in canned food, or the lead we touch when we handle ammo, or.....

Living is detrimental to your health, everything has a negative effect eventually.


On a side note, I'm drinking water from a Nalgene bottle with BPA in it, and have been for years, and probably will continue doing so.