Forums → WEPR → [necro] Legalization of Marijuana
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I know that there is a topic about legalizing drugs, but I wanted to talk about Marijuana specifically.
Marijuana was banned in 1937 in the US and is now said to be a gate-way to more dangerous illegal drugs. However in this current state of economy I think we'd be better off with the legalization of marijuana. First, it would provide jobs for people. Second, more tax money to the government. Third, it would decrease sale to minors.
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Ok, just as long as no one older 18 gets it we will be safe.
Kids get a hold of cigarettes, alcohol, and cocaine. Seriously.
[quote]Kasic, you know better than that.Moreover, teachers already have a lot of stoned kids on their hands.[/quote]
Ah, but word play is so much fun German. I know it wouldn't just be a buffet of drugs,(Lol) it would have restrictions and requirements. I just wanted to provoke some arguments on how people would not abuse it.
Well heres the thing... Now for some reason everyone gets caught up in the fact that if marijuana became legal EVERYONE would do it... Which is just a simple metaphor for the fact that they themselves have nothing restricting them from smoking it, and in the end they will end up becoming a person who smokes weed. Which is basically true, because otherwise they would not care at all, cuz its not affecting there life, just the lives of others... (or are people just that arogant these days that they need to control the lives of everyone?)
K so this is basically what im trying to get at. Say that it was legal to kill and torture a pet. (yea i know it sounds wrong, but its a point im trying to make.) Would everyone do it? I guarantee not. The people that would start would be people trying to not abuse there animal for ages.... Anyways, would this further into r.ape being legal? Or killing another human being being legal? Or even mass-genocides being legal? I guarantee not...
So pertend that this animal abuse was marijuana... If it becomes legal would Everyone start doing it? No... If it became legal, everyone would just know who was doing it before... Yea sure there will be a cpl ppl who are like lets do this shizzz, but they probably will only do it every now and then.... Just like the animal abuse... Will this cause Crack and coke to be legal in the future? haha nope...
Already marijuana is a borderland kinda drug. It doesn't do anything but make u happy, so really it does screw up ur life... Your not altered at all.
In fact the same hormones excreted in ur brain when u smoke marijuana is the same when u are sleep deprived. Its called a sleep deprivation high, and its about half as strong as an actual High (with a cpl various differences).. But even then getting baked is something that should be legal... Its not a big thing, and it for sures wont kill you, no matter how much you smoke. (You have to smoke twice as much as your body weight in 30 minutes, as it takes 30 minutes to excrete the toxins from your body... and in order to OD on this drug u need twice as much as your body weight)...
Not to mention its healthier then smoking.. So wat im thinking is f'ck cigs, get a pinner.. =)
Already marijuana is a borderland kinda drug. It doesn't do anything but make u happy, so really it does screw up ur life... Your not altered at all.
false.
explained on last page(s) but summarized a bit last page.
If a person decides to get drunk, they have every right to be drunk as long as they aren't risking people's lives or hurting anyone. If someone is at home drunk, and they aren't beating on their wife or kids, who's to say that they should get in big trouble for being drunk?
The same goes for marijuana. Who cares?
* They might get hooked to marijuana.
- Marijuana is hardly chemically addictive. Most people who smoke it could live comfortably without it. Those who can't live without marijuana most likely have other more serious problems.
* Marijuana makes people stupid.
- No, it doesn't.
* Marijuana causes short term memory loss.
- This is true but greatly misunderstood. People who experience short term memory loss due to marijuana experience the memory loss only while they are high. Alcohol causes short term memory loss and nobody seems to bring that up very often. Just like marijuana, alcohol only causes short term memory loss while one is intoxicated. After intoxication, they do not become more forgetful.
* Marijuana is a sin.
- In America, there is freedom of religion. Sin is no excuse.
* Marijuana causes violence.
- Marijuana does not make people more violent, unlike alcohol (which can make people more violent). Can someone get into a fight while high? Sure, but that doesn't mean the marijuana made them angry.
If you don't want people smoking marijuana at home, where they will most likely cause no harm to their families, then why don't you talk to them? It's YOUR responsibility, not the governments. It's the family's responsibility, or their friend's responsibility, to make sure someone doesn't smoke. But the government isn't our baby sitter. It's time we meddle in our children's and friend's lives rather than asking the government to do it just because you think meddling is wrong and that it's not your responsibility (which is ironic). Maybe some people are OK with marijuana, if you think they are wrong but you don't know them, then stop caring. It is none of your business, and it should most definitely be none of the government's business.
I am not encouraging people to smoke marijuana. If you don't want to smoke, power to you.
Marijuana makes people stupid.
Well maybe it does. See, your wanting to legalize it in the home but not in public? Your like half legal, half illegal. That's so complicated, how are there laws gonna do all that? You didn't think about that? Maybe you got marijuana on the brain cause that's the first thing you should of thought about. If your wanting to legalize one illegal drug in the home on the basis of privacy, then you need to legalize all illegal drug use in the home. That won't happen so your position is STUPID. The only thing is this, marijuana needs to be like totally legal or totally legal or you won't ever get a law passed, ever.
But if you decide that marijuana should be totally legalized than your just DREAMING. Legalization of marijuana is a political liability to any party if they make it legal. Then the other party will show all the problems it causes, and people will support them instead, making it even more illegal, and no one will ever go back to making it legal again. So no party is STUPID enough to support legalization of marijuana. It just won't ever happen, so WAKE UP and lock this thread, otherwise your just using it for this reason:
to encourage people to smoke marijuana
Well maybe it does. See, your wanting to legalize it in the home but not in public? Your like half legal, half illegal. That's so complicated, how are there laws gonna do all that?
Where I live, it's illegal to smoke a cigarette inside any public buildings and you must be at least 15 feet away from any doors of those public buildings if you want to smoke. If a cop spots somebody smoking marijuana in public, he tells them to put it out or he can arrest the guy. It would work exactly like the no smoking law they just passed except it would have to be smoked on your own property.
Marijuana does NOT impair learning unless you are trying to learn while high. That's a fact. Most people cut out the "unless you are trying to learn while high" part.
There is no evidence what-so-ever that points to marijuana causing violence or any negative long term effects.
Anti-Marijuana WebPage
Here are a few scare tactics and double talks that they use.
Joints and blunts may be laced with other substances, including crack cocaine and the potent hallucinogen phencyclidine (PCP), substantially altering effects of the drug.
Yes, that is wrong. People shouldn't mix marijuana with other drugs, but that isn't grounds to keep marijuana illegal. People mix drugs with alcohol all the time. Shouldn't alcohol be made illegal? This scare tactic is used to make you unconsciously think that most marijuana smokers also use other hard drugs such as cocaine. Most marijuana users don't use hard drugs such as cocaine!
Smoking, however, is not the sole route of administration. Marijuana can be brewed into tea or mixed in baked products (cookies or brownies).
This is another scare tactic. By explaining how it can be brewed into brownies and other foods, they make marijuana look like a bigger problem then what it is (because it isn't).
Eating and drinking food with marijuana brewed into it is actually healthier for you than smoking it because you don't breath in smoke. Smoke is bad, even if it's from a candle.
Effects of smoking are generally felt within a few minutes and peak in 10 to 30 minutes. They include dry mouth and throat, increased heart rate, impaired coordination and balance, delayed reaction time, and diminished short-term memory.
So does alcohol, which is legal!
Moderate doses tend to induce a sense of well-being and a dreamy state of relaxation that encourages fantasies, renders some users highly suggestible, and distorts perception (making it dangerous to operate machinery, drive a car or boat, or ride a bicycle). Stronger doses prompt more intense and often disturbing reactions including paranoia and hallucinations.
This is all temporary. Paranoia isn't good, but it's not really bad either. Hallucinations rarely ever happen. AND OMG STATE OF RELAXATION THAT ENCOURAGES FANTASIES?! Highly suggestible, you got me there. Of course, highly is a huge stretch. This isn't reason enough to keep it illegal.
Most of marijuanaâs short-term effects wear off within two or three hours. The drug itself, however, tends to linger on. THC is a fat-soluble substance and will accumulate in fatty tissues in the liver, lungs, testes, and other organs. Two days after smoking marijuana, one-quarter of the THC content may still be retained. It will show up in urine tests three days after use, and traces may be picked up by sensitive blood tests two to four weeks later.
Most of marijuana's effects ARE short term effects. Sure, it might linger in the body, but who cares? With marijuana legal, it wouldn't be a problem.
Marijuana use reduces learning ability.
I can't really argue this one. However, marijuana tests tend to be highly biased. This article mentioned 2 studies, many more studies have disproved this theory.
Chronic marijuana smokers are prey to chest colds, bronchitis, emphysema, and bronchial asthma. Persistent use will damage lungs and airways and raise the risk of cancer. There is just as much exposure to cancer-causing chemicals from smoking one marijuana joint as smoking five tobacco cigarettes. And there is evidence that marijuana may limit the ability of the immune system to fight infection and disease.
That's funny, because nobody has yet proven the link between cancer and marijuana. Marijuana smoke is as bad for you as any kind of smoke, so the problems with marijuana smoke is from smoking in general. Vapors and marijuana foods don't cause lung problems, bronchitis, emphasyma, and asthma! ZING!
Marijuana as Medicine
Although U.S. law classifies marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance (which means it has no acceptable medical use), a number of patients claim that smoking pot has helped them deal with pain or relieved the symptoms of glaucoma, the loss of appetite that accompanies AIDS, or nausea caused by cancer chemotherapy. There is, however, no solid evidence that smoking marijuana creates any greater benefits than approved medications (including oral THC) now used to treat these patients, relieve their suffering, or mitigate the side effects of their treatment. Anecdotal assertions of beneficial effects have yet to be confirmed by controlled scientific research.
Actually, marijuana has been proven to have true medical purpose, but because it's illegal, research to further its purposes have been crippled. Everything else is fairly true. However, marijuana shouldn't be penalized for any of this. It's just proof that medical marijuana wouldn't add anything to the medical world. Oh wait, marijuana would be cheaper.
Marijuana Dangers
Impaired perception - Not nearly as impaired as alcohol. Anybody driving while high can get a ticket. If someone goes to work high, he can get fired if the boss chooses to do so.
Diminished short-term memory - Only while you are high. Same exact thing as alcohol.
Loss of concentration and coordination - Only while high, same as alcohol but to a far less extent.
Impaired judgement - It happens, one for the anti-weedies.
Increased risk of accidents - Well, yeah? You shouldn't drive or work while high. Other accidents don't happen all that much. If they do, they do. If we hurt ourselves smoking a little, WHO CARES!? These accidents are VERY RARELY lethal in ANY WAY.
Loss of motivation - People who lose motivation tend to smoke marijuana. This is an untrue stereotype. Oh, maybe while you are high, then you might not have as much motivation. Who cares? You can get drunk and drunks lose motivation as well.
Diminished inhibitions
Increased heart rate People with heart problems shouldn't smoke marijuana. It's not rare for any drug (medicines included) to increase heart rate.
Anxiety, panic attacks, and paranoia - Very uncommon.
Hallucinations - VERY FUCKING uncommon
Damage to the respiratory, reproductive, and immune systems
Increased risk of cancer - Not if you eat it, no, maybe, and maybe.
Psychological dependency - Very rare.
I'm not encouraging people to smoke marijuana. You don't have to smoke marijuana to support it!
You don't have to smoke marijuana to support it, nor should you smoke marijuana to support it.
the legalization of alcohol does not justify weed. the reason the prohibition amendment failed was because far too many were accustomed to alcohol.
&how would you know if an effect was common or not?
psych txtbook says
-marijuana's temporary pleasures come at a long-term cost:
* Pot smoke is far harder on your lungs than cigarette smoke (Wu & others, 1988).
* Brain cell loss accelerates with large doses (Landfield & others, 1988).
* Memory is still impaired long after marijuana's effect has worn off (Pope & Yurgelun-Todd, 1996; Smith, 1995).
* Marijuana seems to suppress the immune system, making it harder for your body to fight off disease and infection (Childers & Breivogel, 1998).
* Pot smoke is far harder on your lungs than cigarette smoke (Wu & others, 1988).
High school books and grade school books are written to be "school appropriate." I'll play along though.
Marijuana has no filters. If properly grown and turned into a behind the counter product, any toxins could be cut down a lot. Smoke is smoke, it's never going to be good for your lungs. People are thrown into prison due to stupid marijuana laws. Butt rape is worse than asthma. Nobody should be imprisoned for having bad lungs. Nobody should be subject to butt rape for smoking marijuana.
Therefor marijuana should be decriminalized.
You lose braincells all the time. Eating food and running also make you lose braincells. In fact, braincell lost should stop being used as an argument because EVERYTHING makes you lose brain cells.
Ok, you lose braincells. Too bad many pot smokers are boarder lined geniuses. Marijuana does not make people stupid, stupid people tend to smoke marijuana. Smart people who smoke marijuana don't stand out and therefore most people would never guess a smart person like your college professor smokes weed! Everything makes you lose braincells. Running increases the loss rate of brain cells.
Memory is still impaired long after marijuana's effect has worn off (Pope & Yurgelun-Todd, 1996; Smith, 1995).
That's a straight up lie. I can't even begin to tell you how wrong that is. It's NOT true. Even the crappy source I linked explained that marijuana short term effects often last a few hours at most! This includes short term memory loss. Nothing is a bigger fabrication than the whole "marijuana makes you dumb," notion. If you aren't high, you're memory isn't impaired unless it was before you got high.
And I guess marijuana can weaken your immune system if you smoke it enough... eating a lot of food can make you fat. If you smoke marijuana occasionally, your immune system will be perfectly fine.
Anything can be abused. If marijuana is legalized, people can be educated on reasons why it might not be safe to smoke marijuana without all the lies and health classes can teach their students that smoking marijuana is worse than vaporizing it or that it's best to only smoke once a week to once every two weeks IF you decide to smoke.
If people can't be responsible, let the police handle them; let their mothers, brothers, and sisters handle them. But don't let the government step in. Because you might as well install cameras in every room of your house if you honestly want the government to baby sit everyone.
If a friend of mine got high and did something stupid and died, that's when I would stop supporting marijuana... actually I wouldn't because my friend was either unfortunate or stupid. Shit happens, you can't make everyone suffer for the small minuscule percent that messes up.
Noname just wrecked this thread lol. The only reason it's not legal is because big tobacco hasn't found a way to tax it yet.
its not affecting their life, just the lives of others
If it's affecting others it's affecting you. If your brother decides to start smoking pot, it might be a problem for you.
**** happens, you can't make everyone suffer for the small minuscule percent that messes up.
People do that all the time. What about the warning on stoves that says "Warning: Hot"? The people who put a cat in their microwave and sue the company and win. Anyway, 'suffer'? Bad word choice No Name.
The facts are:
Marijuana is so closely intertwined with lies from both anti and pro marijuana groups that you can't really know for sure what the effects are. Even if you do use it, you wouldn't notice the longterm effects. And because it's illegal, no reliable groups can really test it. For everyone saying "As long as you don't smoke it there are no bad effects." there's another saying "It results irreparable damage to the body, especially the lungs and brain."
Even if there are studies that claim one thing or another, there's another that claims the exact opposite.
the reason the prohibition amendment failed was because far too many were accustomed to alcohol.
Don't try to simplify the fall of Prohibition into one sentence. FDR revoked Prohibition because:
1.) Removing the Prohibition amendments from the Constitution would bring about the end of the extensive and intricate black market that had arisen in place of legitimate alcohol sales, and bring organized crime down to a minimum.
2.) Morale. The amendments were removed during wartime in order to give the American people to keep distracted; drunk people, or, people with access to alcohol, tend to be happy people.
3.) Alcohol can be taxed, and thus create new revenue for the state to take in. (Also helpful during war time)
The collapse of the black market can be applied to marijuana, or any other illegal substance. Marijuana isn't a gateway drug because it pushes you for a bigger high; it's a gateway drug because it gives drug dealers a huge pool to access from and to push new substances on.
If marijuana were to be legalized, the United States would save over 4 billion dollars annually from tracking, busting, trying, and imprisoning offenders of current marijuana laws. In addition to this, since the dealers would be forced into competition with other, new, legitimate sources, and also denying the dealer a chance to push harder drugs onto their clients.
false.
explained on last page(s) but summarized a bit last page.
buddy smoke pot and u'll understand. Right now thats a hypocritical statement. I dont care if it was explained last page.. The explaination was bull f'n sh't... I used to smoke marijuana, and it was for an extensive amount of time. It doesn't do anything you said it does, nor do anything your so called sources say. Instead of me making another extrememly long topic discussing how all your sources and theories are wrong (like what noname did.. Btw nice post, i thought it cleared alot up, and its all true so good on yea!).. Heres the thing.. German your coming in here, not even having smoked a pinner before, describe what you THINK marijuana is like. Your thinking all this stuff about it, and therefore you have many false interpretations and theories about it. Me and Noname came in here KNOWING what its about, having smoked it before, understanding what it actually does. So based on that it should be enough for you to realize your incredibally wrong... You say all the stuff i said is lies? Is false? And that you explained it on the last page??? Well your explaination is a false statement on marijuana, extrememly biased to the point of a direct lie to the publics face...
Not to mention Marijuana is way more healthier than any cigarette out there because it has no toxins whatsoeva in there. Its just the plant itself, and the crystals THC that it excretes (which btw is the stuff that gets you high)....
Anyways the point im trying to get across is all sources on the internet can be biased. All marijuana sources are gonna be extremely biased to one side or the other (smoking it is good, smoking it is bad).. And the government and police sites are the worse. They tell you lies about it all, and because they are high authority they know that over half the population who are completely straight edge will believe it and tell everyone about it... Its the way it goes..
should create a group to find out effects as unbiased as possible. like group A smoked weed 3 days ago and group B didn't ever. then bring in random psychologists and have them test each group.
right now it's like arguing religions.
@zoot my point was your 1) . if you legalize something and then realize 'this is extremely bad!' it will be too late to re-illegalize.
Thread is locked!