Legalize pot? Sure......why NOT!?

bikezappa

Follow the money trail people.

Pot is illegal because it's the only way to make money with it.

It grows everywhere and would be free if it was legal.

bruss

the thing is, you are already living in a society where people smoke it.. Even in the "bible belt" you can go in any direction and score a sack.. Its not going away.

unc2701

Funny how people are against government regulation are suddenly for it when the right topic comes up.

Oh and I come from Winston-Salem, NC. Home of big tobacco (anyone see Thank You for Smoking?) . Guess what NC's #1 cash crop is?

Weed.

Pauly

Hey at least the remember how to orgainze. What stoner have you heard not eating ceral

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tenCVCa8Y1w

Pauly

nooshinjohn

The fact is, no one in the entire history of man kind has ever died from smoking pot, nor has there ever been a scientifically accepted study that has shown any negative side effects of smoking pot. You don't have to agree with, or believe that, as I know a lot of you won't.

This statement is completely false and just total BS!!!! I lost a friend to a snowmobiling accident when I was in high school. A"buddy" dared him to tak his sled out onto a frozen lake that turned out to be not so frozen. In my town they used to put an old car on the lake and then have a raffle of sorts, guessing when the car would fall through the ice and into the water. The car was already gone when he was dared by these guys to cross the lake and he did it anyway! Why you may ask? He just smoked his FIRST doob and part of a second....:mad:

zombie boy 2000

You wouldn't happen to be from Lakeside, Wisconsin, would ya?

Sami

comfortablycurt wrote: »

Half of the prescriptions that people get are pretty similar in nature to both coke and heroin.

Heroin certainly but can you give some examples of coke-like RX drugs? I don't think cocaine hydrochloride is commonly prescribed.

Knucklehead

you know what......smoke up...it dosent matter to me, i will stay clean and sober for the rest of my life so that i can help my children make the right decisions in life. fact is, its illegal and you will got to jail for having possesion of it AND it will end up costing you a whole lot more in the end than what you paid for the garbage. If your lucky you might not ruin another persons life with bad decisions by altering your state of mind.

BlueFox

nooshinjohn wrote: »

The car was already gone when he was dared by these guys to cross the lake and he did it anyway! Why you may ask? He just smoked his FIRST doob and part of a second....:mad:

This nonsense reminds me of an old Saturday Night Live skit where a couple is relaxing after work by smoking some weed. At this point, the undercover cops break into their apartment, and during the ensuing mayhem, the guy gets thrown out the window. The skit ends with the cops writing it up as "another drug related death."

CaligulaPolk

LOL at this article... i'd damn put any wild cats in bong to calm them!!

better than gas or leave them outside in cold.

WilliamM2

nooshinjohn wrote: »

This statement is completely false and just total BS!!!! I lost a friend to a snowmobiling accident when I was in high school. A"buddy" dared him to tak his sled out onto a frozen lake that turned out to be not so frozen. In my town they used to put an old car on the lake and then have a raffle of sorts, guessing when the car would fall through the ice and into the water. The car was already gone when he was dared by these guys to cross the lake and he did it anyway! Why you may ask? He just smoked his FIRST doob and part of a second....:mad:

I've never heard of a pot related snowmobile death around here, although there have been hundreds over the years due to alcohol. I'm sure if operating the snomobile intoxicated were illegal, it wouldn't happen anymore...oh wait, it is already illegal.

ND13

It's been so demonized, that most have no clue what they're talking about.

It's a gateway drug due to having to go to the blackmarket to acquire it.

Propaganda at it best/worst.

The government will not allow it to be legalized...it'll cost too many people their government jobs and politician's kickbacks from alcohol, textile, tobacco, big oil and pharmaceutical company lobbyist.

It should be a local and state decision, not federal.

From an ex-smoker.

I'm out!!!

Got it in before thread lock.

Face

Yes, it should be made legal and readily available so we can double drug related deaths.

Barefoot

When I think of Toxicology, I think of Polk Audio.

WilliamM2

Face wrote: »

Yes, it should be made legal and readily available so we can double drug related deaths.

It's already readily available. I doubt much would change at all, a few less people in jail I suppose.

BlueFox

Barefoot wrote: »

When I think of Toxicology, I think of Polk Audio.

One aspect of the pot debate that has always seemed incongruous to me is many people feel pot use results in lazy behavior, and this is a bad thing. For example, sitting around for hours, accomplishing little or nothing, while spending large amounts of money to do nothing is not a good thing. Yet, this is the exact description of listening to music. For some reason, wasting hours, and spending fortunes, on music is socially acceptable, but getting high is not.

Now if you are getting high, and listening to music, then you are maximizing your return on both time and money, while enjoying the music by exploring all the hidden nuances not available to the untrained mind.

Knucklehead

bluefox wrote: »

one aspect of the pot debate that has always seemed incongruous to me is many people feel pot use results in lazy behavior, and this is a bad thing. For example, sitting around for hours, accomplishing little or nothing, while spending large amounts of money to do nothing is not a good thing. Yet, this is the exact description of listening to music. For some reason, wasting hours, and spending fortunes, on music is socially acceptable, but getting high is not.

Now if you are getting high, and listening to music, then you are maximizing your return on both time and money, while enjoying the music by exploring all the hidden nuances not available to the untrained mind.

sigh! Im done!

comfortablycurt

nooshinjohn wrote: »

This statement is completely false and just total BS!!!! I lost a friend to a snowmobiling accident when I was in high school. A"buddy" dared him to tak his sled out onto a frozen lake that turned out to be not so frozen. In my town they used to put an old car on the lake and then have a raffle of sorts, guessing when the car would fall through the ice and into the water. The car was already gone when he was dared by these guys to cross the lake and he did it anyway! Why you may ask? He just smoked his FIRST doob and part of a second....:mad:

I'm sorry to hear that man, but it sounds like your friend was a bit lack in the common sense department. Pot doesn't alter your sense of reality anywhere near that much. That's a pretty stupid situation to have even been put in in the first place, and can't really be related to pot. Sounds like his buddies were razzing him on, and trying to look like the bigger man, he did something he probably shouldn't have done.

Again, I'm sorry about your friend, and I'm not trying to offend you or anything here.

WilliamM2 wrote: »

I've never heard of a pot related snowmobile death around here, although there have been hundreds over the years due to alcohol. I'm sure if operating the snomobile intoxicated were illegal, it wouldn't happen anymore...oh wait, it is already illegal.

Exactly, how is pot any worse than alcohol in those regards? So make it legal, and treat it as alcohol. If people are caught driving while stoned, give them a DUI, just as if they're caught driving while drunk. People are still going to drive while high, just as people still drive while drunk now. I can tell you one thing though, driving when you're REALLY high is millions of times safer than driving when you're really drunk.

Face wrote: »

Yes, it should be made legal and readily available so we can double drug related deaths.

Again...where are these pot related deaths you speak of? I've yet to hear of a single case EVER where someone has died from smoking pot.

Pot is already very readily available. I remember when I was younger, pot was the easiest thing to find. We'd all be trying to find someone to buy us some booze, and we couldn't. We could call up about 10 different people though and go get some bud. There is no lack of pot anywhere in this country

BlueFox wrote: »

One aspect of the pot debate that has always seemed incongruous to me is many people feel pot use results in lazy behavior, and this is a bad thing. For example, sitting around for hours, accomplishing little or nothing, while spending large amounts of money to do nothing is not a good thing. Yet, this is the exact description of listening to music. For some reason, wasting hours, and spending fortunes, on music is socially acceptable, but getting high is not.

Now if you are getting high, and listening to music, then you are maximizing your return on both time and money, while enjoying the music by exploring all the hidden nuances not available to the untrained mind.

Exactly! I am by no means a lazy pothead, and the lazy pot head stereotype is really pretty ridiculous. The majority of the pot heads I know are anything but lazy. Perhaps they are while they're stoned, but that only lasts a few hours. Also, music is SOOO much better when you're stoned. It's the cheapest upgrade to your system that you can do...lol...I notice all sorts of little nuances when I'm high, that I never notice when I'm not high. I feel a lot more immersed in the music in general too.

As someone else said earlier...If you don't think drugs have done some good things for this world, go home and take all your albums, all your tapes, and all your CD's, and BURN EM. Because you know all those musicians who made all that music that has changed your life and made it so much better over all these years? Yeah...REEEEEEEAAAAALLLLYYYY high on drugs. Coming from a forum full of people that appreciate music so much, I'd think more people would understand that.

Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, The Doors...These are just a few examples of bands that never would have written some of the music that they did, if it weren't for drugs. Drugs inspired some of the greatest musical and creative works of all time. Stephen King, who is widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of modern time, smokes pot, and has been known to do many other drugs. LSD was one of his sources of inspiration for a lot of his works, including the very very well written Dark Tower series. It's widely known that Edgar Allen Poe was a heroin addict, which is where a lot of his inspiration came from. Once again, take away the drugs, and some of Poe's most famous works, that continue to inspire people to this day, may never have been.

CaligulaPolk

Marijuana is good for TAXES!!!! America will be rich with american pot heads

rayslifecycle

SKsolutions wrote: »

Freedom to smoke is less regulation, and less interference with a persons liberty
. . . which sounds good to me -and I don't smoke. anymore. than I have to.

Anti-depressants . ? . whole different story.

comfortablycurt wrote: »

Wow...if this guy was stuffing a cat in a bong, he has problems that are completely unrelated to pot.

I'm all for legalization though. The concept of pot being illegal is pretty morally bankrupt if you ask me, especially when you look at the fact that cigarettes and booze are legal.

Take my example here...

Say you have two houses right next to each other. One house is full of people that are drinking alcohol, the other house full of people smoking pot.

The house full of drunk people...People are falling down wasted, stuff is getting knocked down and broken, people are driving home completely **** **** wasted as hell, people are puking all over the place, women are being taken advantage of, two guys are getting into a fight over the rights to take advantage of said drunk woman. This fight leads to a big fist fight. The cops get called, and the drunk guy tries to attack the cop. Not a very pretty sight eh?

Now we move next door, to the house where everyone is smoking pot. Everyone is sitting around, listening to music, having intelligent conversations about the world, maybe playing some video games. No body is arguing, everyone is very respectful of one another, no women are being raped. The only argument in the whole house all night long is over the last damn twinkie in the cupboard. The people that were arguing over said twinkie end up sharing it in the end. These people are definitely the definition of "criminal" aren't they?

Everyone here who still has the propaganda from the 40's and 50's ingrained in their head, read a book called "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" by Jack Herer. It's a very enlightening book.;)

You wanna fix our economy? Legalize pot. Problem solved. Everyone may flame me now.

Rock On - SKsolutions and Comfortablycurt - nice to see some people who do their own research rather then feed into the propaganda

hearingimpared

comfortablycurt wrote: »

Pot doesn't alter your sense of reality anywhere near that much.

Curt that may be one of the dumbest things you've ever said. It completely alters your sense of reality.

comfortablycurt wrote: »

I can tell you one thing though, driving when you're REALLY high is millions of times safer than driving when you're really drunk.

Oh yeah and this goes for the quote above. When I was 17 I crashed a car into a tree while stoned because I forgot I was driving the car. Thank the Lord I didn't harm, maime or kill anyone.

comfortablycurt wrote: »

Also, music is SOOO much better when you're stoned.

That is complete BS! I get so much more sober satifaction loosing myself in music than I ever did stoned. Plus I remember what I hear.

I can tell you this, in my pot smoking days I dropped more pot ashes on my jeans than you have smoked pot. Not to mention that it was a gateway drug as was booze for me. Thank God I stopped.

Some of this stuff is rediculous.

Jstas

clarknova_666 wrote: »

Rock On - SKsolutions and Comfortablycurt - nice to see some people who do their own research rather then feed into the propaganda

You consider that "research"? Really?

curt's little parable there is quite idealistic and biased.


Ask anybody who has had the opportunity to work in the emergency medical profession as an EMT, medic, ER nurse, ER doc and even a coroner about how people behave on drugs of any kind or alcohol and what the results usually end up being.

I promise you the words "intelligent conversations about the world", "No body is arguing", "everyone is very respectful of one another" and "no women are being raped" would not come up or even be thought of.

Go ahead and rationalize it all anyone wants. All that has been posted in this thread as proof of any statement has been a reference to a title of a book that some dude wrote based on his OPINION. There have been studies done on pot. How do you think we know so much about it? There have been tests on health issues caused by smoking and "amazingly" they are very similar to cigarette smoking. There have even been studies done on mental and physical impairment while high on pot and other drugs with direct comparisons to alcohol for reference.

And I'm not talking about fluff pieces put out by places like U.S. NEWS, CNN, ScienceBlog or any other mainstream media outlet. I'm talking about actual scientific papers detailing studies with descriptions of the process behind the study with the hypothesis looking to be explored by the study along with the implementation report and the results.

In fact, go here: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=studies+on+marijuana&hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&oi=scholart

There is a whole pile of studies done by many people for many reasons. You want to do research, start reading there.

And here is a bunch of stuff about marijuana, abuse of marijuana and effects on the human body.

http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html

It's bibliographed and footnoted so you can look up where they got their information. I promise you that the supposedly reputable internet news outlets are not included as source material.

hearingimpared

Jstas wrote: »

You consider that "research"? Really?

curt's little parable there is quite idealistic and biased.


Ask anybody who has had the opportunity to work in the emergency medical profession as an EMT, medic, ER nurse, ER doc and even a coroner about how people behave on drugs of any kind or alcohol and what the results usually end up being.

I promise you the words "intelligent conversations about the world", "No body is arguing", "everyone is very respectful of one another" and "no women are being raped" would not come up or even be thought of.

Go ahead and rationalize it all anyone wants. All that has been posted in this thread as proof of any statement has been a reference to a title of a book that some dude wrote based on his OPINION. There have been studies done on pot. How do you think we know so much about it? There have been tests on health issues caused by smoking and "amazingly" they are very similar to cigarette smoking. There have even been studies done on mental and physical impairment while high on pot and other drugs with direct comparisons to alcohol for reference.

And I'm not talking about fluff pieces put out by places like U.S. NEWS, CNN, ScienceBlog or any other mainstream media outlet. I'm talking about actual scientific papers detailing studies with descriptions of the process behind the study with the hypothesis looking to be explored by the study along with the implementation report and the results.

In fact, go here: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=studies+on+marijuana&hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&oi=scholart

There is a whole pile of studies done by many people for many reasons. You want to do research, start reading there.

And here is a bunch of stuff about marijuana, abuse of marijuana and effects on the human body.

http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html

It's bibliographed and footnoted so you can look up where they got their information. I promise you that the supposedly reputable internet news outlets are not included as source material.

I love it when a good plan comes together.

Motzart

Pot being a gateway drug is total bunk.....it is if you choose it to be.
If that were the case I'd be a total junkie today!!
That's like saying Beer is a gateway to hard liquor and becoming a total alcoholic.
It's just like anything else...you can get addicted to it.
It was easier to quit smoking pot than it's been for me to quit smoking cigs.

As for Pot altering your total state of mind......
Dude when was the last time your got drunk?
How was YOUR state of mind??

I drink in a year what most of you drink in a weekend.
Gave up Pot years ago.....maybe been stoned 4-5 times in the 22yrs I've been married.
Now if I could get this damn Tabacco monkey off my back after 30yrs.....that'd be great!
After 30yrs I dunno if I could bring myself to quit.....talk about a addiction.:mad:

strider

Jstas wrote: »

You consider that "research"? Really?

curt's little parable there is quite idealistic and biased.


Ask anybody who has had the opportunity to work in the emergency medical profession as an EMT, medic, ER nurse, ER doc and even a coroner about how people behave on drugs of any kind or alcohol and what the results usually end up being.

I promise you the words "intelligent conversations about the world", "No body is arguing", "everyone is very respectful of one another" and "no women are being raped" would not come up or even be thought of.

Go ahead and rationalize it all anyone wants. All that has been posted in this thread as proof of any statement has been a reference to a title of a book that some dude wrote based on his OPINION. There have been studies done on pot. How do you think we know so much about it? There have been tests on health issues caused by smoking and "amazingly" they are very similar to cigarette smoking. There have even been studies done on mental and physical impairment while high on pot and other drugs with direct comparisons to alcohol for reference.

And I'm not talking about fluff pieces put out by places like U.S. NEWS, CNN, ScienceBlog or any other mainstream media outlet. I'm talking about actual scientific papers detailing studies with descriptions of the process behind the study with the hypothesis looking to be explored by the study along with the implementation report and the results.

In fact, go here: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=studies+on+marijuana&hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&oi=scholart

There is a whole pile of studies done by many people for many reasons. You want to do research, start reading there.

And here is a bunch of stuff about marijuana, abuse of marijuana and effects on the human body.

http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html

It's bibliographed and footnoted so you can look up where they got their information. I promise you that the supposedly reputable internet news outlets are not included as source material.

The fact that you came up with all this off the top of your head is evidence that you need to smoke a joint. And get laid; you're too uptight.

Welcome back, BTW, this is the stuff I missed.

Ben

strider

Motzart wrote: »

Pot being a gateway drug is total bunk.....it is if you choose it to be.
If that were the case I'd be a total junkie today!!
That's like saying Beer is a gateway to hard liquor and becoming a total alcoholic.
It's just like anything else...you can get addicted to it.
It was easier to quit smoking pot than it's been for me to quit smoking cigs.

I always thought the pot as a gateway drug stuff was B.S., but someone in this thread actually changed my take on it. I still don't believe that smoking herb will make you want to try other drugs physiologically, but it is an introduction to the "underground" culture where other, harder, drugs may be more readily available.

Ricardo

hearingimpared wrote: »

When I was 17 I crashed a car into a tree while stoned because I forgot I was driving the car.

Sorry Joe, but this is FUNNY AS HELL!!!!!

Ricardo

Motzart wrote: »

It was easier to quit smoking pot than it's been for me to quit smoking cigs.

After 30yrs I dunno if I could bring myself to quit.....talk about a addiction.:mad:

You have not stopped smoking because you have not really wanted to. I smoked for almost 35 years and I'm in my 18 month smoke free now. Once you take the decision, it is not really that difficult.

comfortablycurt

hearingimpared wrote: »

Curt that may be one of the dumbest things you've ever said. It completely alters your sense of reality.


Oh yeah and this goes for the quote above. When I was 17 I crashed a car into a tree while stoned because I forgot I was driving the car. Thank the Lord I didn't harm, maime or kill anyone.


That is complete BS! I get so much more sober satifaction loosing myself in music than I ever did stoned. Plus I remember what I hear.

I can tell you this, in my pot smoking days I dropped more pot ashes on my jeans than you have smoked pot. Not to mention that it was a gateway drug as was booze for me. Thank God I stopped.

Some of this stuff is rediculous.

Well, it effects everyone differently. Granted, you really shouldn't drive when you're stoned, just as you shouldn't when you're drunk. I think the majority of the people out there would agree that driving stoned is hundreds of times safer than driving drunk though. In my experience, pot doesn't come anywhere near exactly alter reality quite in the same sense that alcohol, or other drugs do. Whether or not it's safe to drive while stoned, has nothing to do with whether or not pot itself is dangerous though. People shouldn't drive while they're drunk, yet they still do. I think drunk driving causes quite a few more accidents than high driving though.

Plus, I have to completely disagree about music being better sober. I can still remember every little detail of the music if I'm high. That comes down to personal opinion though. There is no right or wrong answer there.

So why is it that alcohol is never labeled as a gateway drug? It's more of a gateway drug than pot is. When you're drunk, your decision making skills might as well be non-existant.


Jstas-The sources of those studies are debatable. The fact is, a lot of those studies were performed in methods that aren't really acceptable by the scientific community as a whole. They were also in big part funded by organizations whom benefit from hemp being illegal.




This is the most **** retarded argument you can possibly have though. I'm never going to convince any of you that I'm right, just as there is no way in hell that any of you are going to convince me that you're right. I'll be smoking pot until the day I die, as I don't feel there is anything wrong with it. The numerous people that are in their 60's, 70's and 80's that I know, are still smoking pot, and would whole heartedly agree with me.

You guys don't want to smoke pot...fine...give me one good reason that I shouldn't be able to though. It's my own choice to smoke pot. The point of it supposedly being a gateway drug is mute, supposing that I wanted to do some heroin or LSD...who are you to tell me that I cant? It's my own choice.

My choice to smoke pot has never harmed a single person...nor will it ever harm a single person.

I'm done with this thread now before it gets ridiculously out of hand.

Jstas

strider wrote: »

The fact that you came up with all this off the top of your head is evidence that you need to smoke a joint. And get laid; you're too uptight.

Welcome back, BTW, this is the stuff I missed.

Ben

Ummmmm...no.

I get laid plenty and my sex life is quite frankly nobody's business but mine. As for my opinions, when the potheads can formulate a cohesive argument that doesn't contradict itself without committing multiple fallacies and trying to change the subject to alcohol or cigarettes or whatever other half-baked analogies they want to try and foist off as "fact", then I will listen.

As far as getting stuff off the top of my head, a teensy bit of effort is all that is needed. All I did to find the info and cite some sources of proof about what I was saying was to go to http://www.google.com and type in "studies on marijuana" and hit "Go". Then, BAM! The world at my finger tips! I cannot understand how so many people can be so misinformed and just flat out wrong when the ability to find the truth is a keyboard and a computer screen away.

Get educated. Stop talking out of your hind end.



And yeah, I have picked up quite a few people who must have been OD'ing on something else because, in case you didn't know, it's impossible to OD on pot. Cause they didn't have any "magic brownies" loaded with the good stuff hanging around or anything when tthe forenssics guy was looking for clues while we removed "the body". :rolleyes:

Oh and that one dude we had to peel off the telephone pole along with his motorcycle with the joint STILL IN HIS MOUTH under his helmet must have been high on something else because there is no way he would have lost his faculties under the influence of pot. :rolleyes:

Oh and then there was the kid with the oxygen mask and chronic respiratory failure and emphysema who never touched a cigarette in his life but smoked pot like a Columbian brush fire couldn't have had those issues from pot, pot CURES that stuff, don'tcha know? :rolleyes:

Yeah, it's a big joke now but drugs are bad...mmmm'kay. Whether they are legal or not.

Bottom line, pump all the toxins in to your body you want, it's fine with me. You're helping cleanse the gene pool. But don't try to rationalize your poor behavior with cockamamy "facts" and anecdotal evidence that you heard from your friend's, brother's, buddy's, uncle's sister-in-law. Cause it just doesn't fly.