Dope: Should it be legalised.

[rev]

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous


Yes. When you roll a joint or pack a bowl, you are smoking marijuana. When you have a store-bought cigarette like a Marlboro or Parliament, you are inhaling not only Tobacco and Nicotine, but tar, arsenic, and a host of other carcinagenic, poisonous things that blacken your lungs.

Who grew the marijuana and how was it done? What chemicals were used in its production? What kind of soil was it grown in and what was in the soil?

When you smoke pot, you're smoking more than pot. Purely organic pot is nearly impossible to find, even where I live (every other store in Boulder is an organic alternative to the store next to it).

If there were government regulation and required labeling, at least you'd *know* what you were smoking. The same is a valid argument for the legalization of MDMA, which is commonly 'cut' (mixed) with cheaper, harder, and more dangerous drugs (methamphetamines are popular for this amongst MDMA producers). Not that our government has done this with cigarettes yet.

Plus, if people knew what they were smoking, maybe they'd be less likely to do so.

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by Sava
everything should be legalized...

You shouldn't be. You should be incarcerated.

[rev]

I've smoked pot daily for the past year and a half or so. To those who say it's not addictive or justify it as being only mentally addictive: you're wrong. Marijuana addiction IS real and the mental addiction is probably a lot stronger than you think it is.

It's an emotional, psychological addiction: you just get used to being stoned for at least part of the day, and that becomes the 'norm' -- if you follow a pattern every day, whether it's smoking pot or the route you drive to work or school, when you break that pattern it will feel unnatural. This addiction is also locked in by social patterns: if you smoke a lot of pot, you'll probably hang out mainly with people who also smoke a lot of pot, so if or when you want to quit, you'll still be in the same social circle with the same social pressures to smoke, whether these pressures are spoken or not.

That said, it's still no business of the government or society whether or not I smoke pot. If one wants to make his or her marijuana use a matter to the public (driving while stoned, seeking help for medical situations that result from marijuana use, etc.), the public has every right to say, "no, it was your own damn choice and we're not going to pay your medical bills" or "no, I don't want the driver next to me to be stoned", fine. Legalizing cannibus won't send a message to stoners that it's OK to drive stoned, especially if the penalties for doing so were made equal to the penalties for driving drunk, and the penalties for both increased substantially.

[Berzerker]

Rev, I smoked alot when I was young and never became addicted. I stopped many times for weeks/months at a time when I wanted without any withdrawal... I can't say that for tobacco...

[Berzerker]

if you follow a pattern every day, whether it's smoking pot or the route you drive to work or school, when you break that pattern it will feel unnatural.

So using the same route to work or school is addictive? There's a difference between "habit-forming" and addiction, and the line between the two is somewhat subjective even among people who don't have an ideological agenda. In the hands of politically motivated people the line moves in the direction that favors their position. I'd argue addiction is an over-used term to increase the nanny-state and the prohibitionists would lean toward the view that (many) habits are addictions.

Some people in this thread claim pot is addictive because of chemical changes in the brain. Huh? Damn near everything we ingest results in chemical changes in the brain. Hell, the body produces endo-morphine to suppress pain, is the human body addictive too? "Addiction" is a meaningless term, what matters is if some activity you're engaging in is more harmful than the benefits you derive, and only you can make that calculation...

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Theben
Ted, just say, "I'd hit it," and go wander off somewhere.

You're first doper!

I'm gonna take a Whopper with extra cheese and smack you upside the head!!!

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by oedo
staying away from drugs is always a good thing.
but I´m amazed how people, who never had ANY experience with THC can state any judgement about it. it´s much like a blind man talking about colours.

concerning me, I once started smoking pot and I spent a long and excessive time with pot. some years later I just ceased from one day to another. I had no problem with finishing. I felt no pain and I didn´t miss it at all.
and even more, I believe smoking pot was a good experience I wouldn´t want to miss.

not true

not even remotely true

pot smokers are often the WORST judge of the effects on their own system. users will often say how they have all the same abilities that they used to, when it's clear to those around them that they have become impaired.

compound that with denial and you have an extremly biased source

[JohnT]

pot smokers are often the WORST judge of the effects on their own system.

Sorry, but this isn't limited to pot smokers, but just to about anybody who enjoys an activity that is both fun and potentially harmful. Like drinking, or sleeping with people one barely (or doesn't) knows, or overeating, or, well, pretty much everything.

[Ted Striker]

well no sh1t Sherlock

but it's wayyy more acute with substance abuse

you know that whole, chemicals altering your brain thing that just kinda happens

call it for what it is and stop the justification

[JohnT]

Who's justifying? I'm just following a well-established tradition of stating the obvious, something done to near-perfection in the prior post.

[Ted Striker]

so

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Ted Striker


not true

not even remotely true

pot smokers are often the WORST judge of the effects on their own system. users will often say how they have all the same abilities that they used to, when it's clear to those around them that they have become impaired.

compound that with denial and you have an extremly biased source

Find another thread, square.

[Ted Striker]

find another rehab center doper

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Firelad
In Israel 50 grams of (supposedly) good quality "vegetables" (local term) costs around 200NIS which is a bit more $40US.

Terrorism be damned, I'm moving to Israel!!

Are you sure thats correct? Thats insanely cheap! But if it is, I'm converting to Judaeism TONIGHT.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
find another rehab center doper

Haha, touche.