the dreaded marijuana thread
 

legalize or de-criminalize?

no flamin' please,but all are welcome to express their take on it.

i say de-crim.just so you don't end up in the slammer for a damn doobie.

pay a fine......send the pot head on his way.

Ok, I don't smoke it, never have, But my sister did it allot growing up. so I do have comments on it.

Legal for medical causes...YES

Legal for public use............NO

The threaded marijuana dread? Huh... Oh yeah dude... Decriminalize is right on man.

Seriously though. Blue laws suck. Vancouver does it right!

despite the fact that i smoke it occasioanlly, i'd say leave the laws as it is, and not decriminalize it. i just dont see why it should be.

I knew that someone would have to bring this back.

Give it the same kind of regulations as tobacco and alcohol

I agree.

However, being a pothead should still be illegal (I forget who said that originally).

Make it illiagal to sell it, unless you're the goverment, then legalise it, but with crazy penalaties for mis-use (driving under influence, if you commit the crime while high, more jail time, ect.) One step closer to communism, and good-bye to most pot-related crime. No-one's gonna buy illeagal pot if they can get it leagaly. Also, good-bye to nat'l debt.

sorry dude.had to do it.i wanna hear what everyones take is.:D

I think it should be legalized, but regulated.

Interesting side-note. In my speech class in college I was part of a debate and my partner and I took the "Don't legalize" side. The "winner" of the debate was determined by a class vote.

Needless to say, my group lost. :)

I think at the least it should be moved off the schedule I controlled drug list.. along with X...

but I think it needs to be decriminalized for personal/medical use.. our governemt spends way to much money every year fighting weed usage when they cant even fucking stop coke/crack and heroin... and the meth problem in this country is increasing dramatically every year...

Not to mention it's no more dangerous or addictive than alchol..

Decriminalise and sell in licensed shops with heavy taxation.
Possesion of small amounts should be legal, <1oz.

Agree with Genka about the penalties for DUI.

Too bad it destroys so much of one's mind and our social fabric.

Might as well regulate it heavily, tax it and penalize unregulated use.

I used to do it, but I gave up because it was fucking me up. I know of people who carried on, because they could handle it. I think that's a good argument in favour of informed choice.

I say partially legalize it , but keep it independent. If you fully legalise it, all the big corporations will start producing it by slave labour and make it more harmful by filling it with hormones and shit. Make it legal to grow and possess, but not to sell, keeping the dealers small and leaving more prison space for rapists, murderers and racist LA cops.

people wpuld still buy illegally simply because the govt will tax the bejesus out of it if they were to legalize it. I say it should be legalized though simply because everytime I spark a J or smoke a bowl I shouldn't have to worry about the damn po-po rolling up on me and taking my ass to jail. Pot is fun and it doesn't really hurt anyone so I don't see what the big goddamn deal about it is. But that is just the opinion of a pothead.

As a person who has only done it twice in his entire life, I say decriminalize. Its totally unfair to lock someone up just for having one or two joints on them.

Re: the dreaded marijuana thread
 

I see two problems with that, <b>Flyman</b>:

1. Just by the way you said it - <i>send the pot head on his way</i>, you're acknowledging that you don't see a problem with people smoking pot. In that case, why not just make it legal?

2. By assigning a "Get out of jail by paying a fine" option, you're polarizing the legal effect of getting caught between the haves and have-nots of society. In other words, just send the poor kids to jail - but if Mommy and Daddy can pay the fine, the kid can walk.

this will go for all of america if it is legalized:
"Them damned smoked themselves ratarded!"
i doubt we have enough self control, seeing all of the teenages who are already abusing it now......

i say, keep it illegal

legalize it, and all other recreational drugs.

put all those damn dealers outta buisness and let us get high in peace.

X and weed are like the best drugs out, noone causes any trouble when they on these.

when was the last time u got beaten up by a pot/pill head?

only drunk idiots do crap like that.

A popular opinion seems to be (not from this board, just from discussions I've had in person with friends) that if we legalize, all of America will turn into potheads, the economy will tumble because people are showing up high and giggling their way through the day.

We could have said the same thing about alcohol during prohibition. That if we re-legalized it, America would go to hell. People would show up to work drunk all the time, American society would drown itself in booze. This didn't happen, and I doubt it would with marijuana.

Marijuana is still an intoxicant, and would be treated as such. If you showed up to work high, you're fired. Simple as that. Just because it's legalized, doesn't mean bosses will just ignore it and everyone will turn into potheads.

I think marijuana should be legalized, the same way tobacco is. The only problem is that the government can't really make money on taxes with it, because it is so easy to grow. The stuff literally grows like weeds. The government would have to make growing it without a license illegal, in order to make taxing it profitable.

"Experts" say it's a gateway drug, but if we get rid of the dealers that removes most of the problem. If it becomes too expensive, the dealers will still sell their stuff cheaper and the problem will not go away.

Marijuana is a complex issue, but I don't see why it should not be legalized in the same vein as tobacco and alcohol.

Let me tell ya something about "x". One of my best friends died on that shit, because some effin shadey piece of shit rave kid cut his shit with heroin...I don't condone the use of it and will never do it. So you can't really say that it doesn't cause any trouble.

As far as weed goes, decriminalize it and mind your own business, simple as that.

legalized but regulated

Hmm, like those fully legal substances tobacco and ethanol? You need to prove that it "destroys so much of one's mind" and also do well for social fabric. Bummer not everything can be peachy keen, but it doesn't justify prohibition, if anyone's thinking that.

How does this justify prohibition? You're afraid that if it is legalized, pot-use will grow out of control? Drug abuse will always be around with recreational drugs, but last I checked, it was easier for a teen to get a bag of weed than a packet of cigarettes. I don't doubt an inititial increase in the numbers of marijuana-use reports, but I think it would likely be amongst adults and would have an overall positive effect on society. I think marijuana should have minimum age restrictions, perhaps around 16. I think 16 would be the most effective at reducing underaged pot smoking. I do think we should do _something_ to present obstacles to underaged drug use, but straight out illegalizing substances will have the opposite effect, I think.

All right, I'm only aware of one pill on ecstasydata that recently tested positive for heroin and a lethal heroin dose would be much more than what is likely to be found in a pill. Your friend probably died because of other reasons, but MDMA has been extremely safe in therapeutic settings with professional supervision.

I say it should be legal. The basis for the prohibition of marijuana is racist and the substance itself is incredibly safe and less addictive than tobacco and ethanol.

-zzzzzz

OK I don't want to start any shit with anyone, but here is the deal...The kid ate 3 pills from the same dude....he never did heroin in his lifetime...when the autopsy results came back...there was traces of heroin in his system. He wasn't drinking on it or doing any other kind of drugs. The mix of the two...ecstasy and heroin...killed him. What I'm trying to say is, you've got to be a scientist to know whats inside that shit, or have access to one of those test kits.

Hell, sounds like a good way to kickstart the economy at this point. Regulated like alcohol, though.

Too bad not many people send in pills for analysis. The Ecstasy market is really fucked up.

I'm not really going to get much further into the Ecstasy thing (unless someone wants to start up a thread about that), as it would be hijacking the thread, but assuming the kid did die from heroin, it still doesn't justify why MDMA is "bad".

Even the test kits won't tell you everything. :(

Weed is just a plant, never in history has killed anyone, nor made anyone go insane and start shooting up post offices. Herion, X, Coke, barbituaties, LSD, Shrooms, none of those should be legal, I think they should legalize weed, tax the hell out of it (even with taxes it still wouldn't touch street prices $350-400 an oz is kicking my ass and my wallet) and get out country out of debt. Less people in jail, less stress on the legal system, and profits would be astronomical.
Let the Weed Be Free.
LE

Here in Belgium we have a law that says you can smoke it, provided you are over 18, and don't smoke in public or around any minors. You're allowed to carry 5 grams on you, but you're not allowed to sell it.

We'll probably move on to the Dutch system in a while - where it can be sold and bought legally in certain designated "coffee shops". Which is fine by me, I wouldn't want it being sold everywhere and to everyone.

Sorry about your friend, yet another victim of the war on drugs. If it was legal you wouldn't have shit like this happening.

Back to weed. I'm in favor of de-criminalizing or full legalizing. Making criminals out of pot users is over the top. I have no problem giving out fines for possesion, but locking someone away won't solve anything.
I don't think legalizing will happen in my life, but it will be de-crim soon in Canada, and that is all I care about:D

Now I know I should of read all posts to make sure my comment isnt already said, but I feel very strongly towards the idea of legalizing marijuana. This indeed is a hard statement to back-up as are most drugs to back up. But I do indeed smoke so my opinion is extreemly biased.

1: I've found that smoking helps me relax most nights (I have a chronic anxiety etc etc, not gunna get into it). And sleeping is a big issue for me.

a: Without weed It takes normally 3-4 hours of lying down until I finally clear my brain of questions that are keeping me up.
b: With weed it SEEMS (seems being a key word because i'm not completely certain), that I do indeed sleep faster.

2: Weed slows down your time frame. Now this can lead to good AND bad things.

a: Being able to get the most out of your day.
b: Short attention span.

3: Weed disorients you. This can lead to switching projects to be done fast without finishing, or having a fun time because you really worry about nothing. This is one of the main reasons why it is illegal, because it changes the way your interpret things, which when driving could completely screw your perception.

4: Dry mouth. Don't see how much this could affect every day life. Maybe you drink a bit more, maybe this is the cure to not having enough vitamens (that is only if you keep orange juice and other juices in your house, forcing you to only drink good stuff.)

5: Munchies. Again as above this could also be to your benefit only if you keep healthy food in your house, noone has ever actually tried this, might be worth a try though =).


I could think of more, but again I'm not looking at it the way an anti-marijuana person would, so again these statements are from what my brain is telling me to say, and in no way are any of these 100% true.

-Gotenks

After these things have been said, we'll need to help those folks who were destroyed by this supposedly harmless drug.
There is more damage to self and society than anyone who defends its use is able to imagine.

I smoke pot on a regular basis. I also hold down a job, and have a normal social life. It hasn't lead me to harder drugs, wreck My car or get 14 year olds pregnant..Like the commercials recently point out.

Alcohol is much harder to give up cold turkey, it does cause more accidents, deaths and social misbehavior. Im not saying legalize it. I just think the TV world should stop flinging mud.

People dont die from over dosing on weed, they die from jackasses cutting it with harder drugs. Ive never smoked a joint and thought I could fly.

No one is saying it's harmless. And also, this STILL does not justify marijuana prohibition.

Yeah, well, you've yet to prove anything.

Yeah, definitely, considering the possible seizures or possible death.

There are risks with marijuana use, minimal as they may be, but they do not justify legalization.

dont para-quote me :(

Im not saying legalize it. I just think the TV world should stop flinging mud.

was my point

I wasn't responding to that.

marijuana is no more dangerous/harmful than a pencil. you can use a pencil to stab someone in the neck just as easily as smoking pot and getting into a car accident. if someone's life is fucked up because of pot then it is their own damn fault

butthead
I've said my piece on this subject.
I wish you the best.

I'm definitely with ART on this one...
Anything that distorts your senses can potentially be hazardous. Just because alcohol and cigarettes are legal does not justify the legalization of marijuana.

People seem to think that if marijuana was legal, then everyone would be happy, the pot would be cheaper, and there would be less of a problem with it than there is now. I don't think that would be the case. If it was legal, then I suspect more people would try it. It might be cheaper, but that again would lead more people to smoke it. I've had to work with some people who were stoned in class, and it isn't fun. I don't see how any good can come of legalizing marijuana, except maybe making it safer for those using it. Not worth it in my opinion.

decriminalize it. if you don't want to smoke it, and hate it, that's fine. then don't smoke it. but some people out there do use it responsibly, and the punishment right now is way to severe.

I say smoke it if you got it.By the time the government get's there hands on it,they'll fuck things up so bad we'll all wish they didn't do anything(de-crim that is).Nothing will change.

making pot legal is not the way to go.

if it is de-criminalized though,then all i'm saying is for those of "us" that enjoy a joint,we can have a hoot or two without going to jail.

we can grow our own "personel" pot and take the selling off the streets in that manner.

couple plants in the back forty,no harm to anyone and you don't have to go to joe maggott on the street corner.

de-criminalize

You bet it does. If marijuana is a schedule one substance, alcohol and cigarettes must be too. According to the Controlled Substances Act, a schedule one substance is something that has high abuse potential, has no medicinal value, and has a lack of safety under medical supervision.

And finally, I've yet to see anything in this thread that justifies anything but full on legalization.

Driving is hazardous. Walking around on the stress presents risks too.

-zzzzzz

Why not?

Listen, just because your sister or someone you know was a dumbass pothead doesn't mean the rest of us should suffer. I smoke regularly and I have a 3.83 gpa, I get along wonderfully with my family, I'm happy, and alcohol got me into more trouble than smoking weed ever has.

decrim no doubt

um first off im kinda breaking a rule. i'm not reading the other posts and will likely not read any further, BUT i wanted to throw my opinion in.

I have seen people do terribly stupid shit. i had a friend who's 8balled weekend after weekend, i know people who use to do valiums like candy, i myself had a life destroying addiction with a pain killer. almost all of america is addicted to mcdonalds or Really Bad Shit and they drink coffee by the barrel fulls

so..... marijuana, compared to all of the above if used by a water bong is HARMLESS.

i don't do pot.. i don't do anything but occasional booze. it's just not me. a personal decision. BUT i believe people SHOULD use pot more... it would possibly reduce use of other, much more lethal drugs.

if i had a child who said 'pick my poison, dad. obesity, alcoholism, freebasing, heroine, speed, or pot' i would probably BUY their pot and thank Jesus they arn't doing something rediculously harmful.

pot is a-okay. you don't smoke and drive but that's common sense... something the us lost years ago.

legalize it. quit puting harmless people in jail cuz they wanna relax. go for the ceos who assbang their employees and the baby murders!

(whoa)

I kind of go both ways on this. I don't know if we need another drug or substance to impair judgement and make driving worse. Inhibitions get lowered and ambivalence increases and these may not be the best things.

That said, I think it sucks for someone to get busted for a small amount of pot. If we make it legal, the govt can tax it. Of course, it would probably be more consistent quality too.

I think I vote for decriminalize.

oh yeah. remember . every single person is different. we all have vices andd we all deal differently. some people can occasionally snort coke and you'd never know. some people can down one beer and be s t u p i d. so do _not_ stereotype, people. that's just lame.

Quote: "You bet it does. If marijuana is a schedule one substance, alcohol and cigarettes must be too. According to the Controlled Substances Act, a schedule one substance is something that has high abuse potential, has no medicinal value, and has a lack of safety under medical supervision. "

Then by your own logic, lets make alcohol and cigarettes illegal too. Most people here seem to agree that they're more dangerous anyway.

Quote: "Anything that distorts your senses can potentially be hazardous.

Driving is hazardous. Walking around on the stress presents risks too"

This I wasn't clear enough about, and I think you misinterpreted. I know there are other things out there that are more dangerous. I'm probably more likely to get hurt or killed rock climbing or kayaking, too. I was just disagreeing with those who said that marijuana "never hurt anyone".

legalise it, then commercialise it.

No, by the CSA, marijuana wouldn't be placed in schedule one.

I like the pot sometimes, but I think.....................

Leave it the way it is. The government will just tax the hell outta it and find other ways to make it bad.

well.... cuz i grow my own.

no need for the dirtbag on the street.

if it's legal then i could go to jail for growin' my own.

i just wanna be able to smoke one without the risk of doing time.

de-criminalize

Doesn't smoking do the same things as alcohol? Makes you dilirious? Makes bad choices? Why have one and not the other? I have smoked pot....but pot can make other effects to different people. ..like alcohol. Unlike the normal high you hear...I got paranoyed. I f*cking freaked. I really though I was going to die that night. But, I think there is no reason to not let people do what they want. I do agree that is would be controled in some way...but hey? Why not?

agreed.

Dude, Where's My Car?

Keep that garbage criminalized.

I say decriminalize

There is no reason a pot head should spend a lifetime in prision for smokeing dope!
Here in Michigan anything over 650gms. is a manditory life sentance, about a pound and a half?
And yes,!??! if you're growing the cops weigh the soil!!!!!!!!!!!
Murder 7 years
Rape 3 years
molestation 6 months to 5 years
One pot plant ....LIFE
Somethings wrong here

I don't want to see it leagleized
because big buisness will run it like tobacco or alcohol

Here we go.

I'm very opposed to "victimless crimes". Decrim at a minimum.

Most people who have strong views on the decriminalisation of cannabis are (unsurprisingly enough) those people who actually smoke the stuff regularly.

I have never smoked it, and never will, but at the same time, I strongly believe it should be decriminalised. People should be allowed do what they want, as long as they're not hurting others.

They should be allowed to make up their own mind on whether or not they want to smoke that stuff, and with that they must accept to take the risks that come with it...i.e. no suing a big multinational hash producer years from now, because you're brain has shrivelled up due to twelve years of non stop smoking their product.

To me, the effects of alcohol abuse are far worse than that of cannabis. I mean how often do you hear of stoners walking the streets, picking fights with random people? How many often do people end up in the emergency room of a hospital due to a dope fuelled stabbing? To me, alcohol is a much bigger problem, yet it is perfectly legal.

I believe that cannabis should be legalised, but strictly controlled.

-C.S. Flim

Is this the only reason you're for prohibition?

ok... i didnt read this whole thread... i admit... i hope someone has already said this... KEEP it iLLEGAL

all my friends smoke it... my best one is like "hardcore super skunk northern lights shit, grow your own in the bush and water it every friggin day blah balhasd ghasdlkgj i dunno... get rid of it..

anyone ever think that i would destroy your mind?

Decriminalize and regulate.

In Canada itis more or less decriminalized. Often they don't even make you pay a fine.

oh yeah... someone talked about x?... oh my.. you should meet my ex... went from one pill every now and then to 6 every bloody weekend... i dunno... it just really ticks me off... how could something be that good? she absoloutely knows its bad for her and that its fucking her life up but she cant get off the shit... i wanna try but i dont.. cos she is now fucked.. any way... pot is the same but isnt... i think all the people that want to legalise it are just addicted to it...... i could argue either way for an hour but in the end i rekon it should be illegal

it's as easy as that.

Anyone ever think that alcohol would do that and more? Nope, obviously not enough to justify prohibition.

I lived in Belgium, where it has just been decriminalized. We smoked all the time, and still went to work and took care of our business. In the evenings we hung out and smoked, had lots of interesting conversations. One good thing was no hangovers. And nobody every did or wanted to do anything illegal.

Ask me, you decriminalize pot, and nothing much would change to the social fabric. Sure, tax it, and regulate it; but the people who do not want to smoke, wont. The people who do will. And there are consequences, but just like alcohol and cigarettes, people will have to weigh the consequences themselves.

I do not think that the govt should try to over regulate things. Pot was legal in the US until the 60's a nd 70's. Jefferson and Washington had hemp farms. The dollar bill is made of hemp.
Now all of a sudden, after centuries of use, we need to be saved from ourselves. Right.

At least the tax money could go to education, something that would benefit us all.

=) Brought to you by a very stoned me.

I agree with whoever that said that it should be regulated like alcohol. Call me ignorant, but I don't see a significant difference between the two. Both fuck you up. However, I have never been either drunk or high. At least if it's legal, our jails wouldnt be as overcrowded and there would be less drug-related conflicts on the streets.

I've been avoiding this, but I just had to come and get a good laugh. I know a ton of people who smoke a shitload of weed. They are all lazy potheads who don't pay their bills, can't hold a job, and don't take care of their families. Then bitch that life sucks. They're too dumb to realize the reason life sucks is because they've made dumb choices and are completely wasting their lives. I guess that's OK though, huh? Are their some people who can regulate their intake? I'm sure their is. But, what happens when these adults who can control it have kids? Their kids will find out that they are smoking weed. Kids are not dumb. They'll see mom and dad doing the shit and start themselves. I guess it's OK to have a 13 year smoking weed too, huh? Weed smoking will most likely turn into usage of other harder drugs. How the fuck are some weed smoking parents gonna tell their kids not to smoke. If they don't care that their kids are fucking themselves up at a young age then their kids should be taken away from them.

wtf genka? exactly what "pot-related crime" are you refering to?
and as far as the nat'l debt going away due to taxation of marijuana - HA! that's really funny dude. our government has no clue how to stick to a budget or save money. our debt'll never go away, because so much tax money gets wasted and none of the people in charge give a shit.

and LordEden, you might want to clarify those prices you named for the non-smokers here at tfp. otherwise, you're just spreading further misinformation. you know that we pay - by far - some of the highest prices in the country, because we get some of the best weed in the country. people that don't smoke weed or don't smoke often wouldn't realize that the $50 an eighth you and i pay is exceptionaly high. keep in mind that that's around 4 times what most folks pay, if not more - we take this for granted, but a lot of people wouldn't have any way of knowing the difference

sixate, i have to disagree with your example about parents letting 13 year olds smoke weed. first of all, what parent is gonna let that happen? there's plenty of things parents do that they wouldn't let their 13 year old get away with, like smoking(cigarettes), drinking, and fucking, or, for that matter, driving a car. would you let a 13 year old look around on "off the wayside"? while i do agree with your comment"If they don't care that their kids are fucking themselves up at a young age then their kids should be taken away from them," i think that that has to do with being a shitty parent, and has nothing to do with being a pothead. however, i'm going to leave my disagreement at that; i know i can't change your mind about weed, and wouldn't try to. drugs are one of those issues - like politics, religion, and sex - that everyone has strong feelings about, and refuses to change one way or another. i just hope that you realize that there are both "good potheads" and "bad potheads", just as there are good and bad people in any group. would i myself let my (hypothetical) 13 year old smoke pot? hell no! but i'm also not gonna tell any kid that i might have that it's evil, only that they need to wait till they're older and always be responsible about it. i intend to tell my kids all about both the good AND bad sides of drugs when they're old enough to understand, and let them make their own decisions. if they want to do drugs, i can't stop them(i should know, both my parents are/were strict as hell, niether of them do drugs, not even alcohol, and my dad's a cop - and none of that ever stopped me from getting high) - but i can at least try to do the best i can to prepare them to make informed decisions. heck, if my kid was grown-up and smoking weed on his own, i'd smoke with him - but he also better damn well be able to support his own habits, pay his bills and keep things together otherwise.

as far as legalizing or decriminalizing, (surprisingly, i realize) i actually support decriminilization over legalization. i don't wanna go to prison for the rest of my life because some asshole cop got lucky enough to find a bag on me, but i also don't like the idea of the government or some big corporation growing/controlling my shit either.

I think to each his own. . . do what you want to do. Its not illegal to kill yourself, so why not?

I think it should be decriminalized atleast.

I don't mean to offend, but this is coming close to strawman. Weak, atypical hypothetical situations do not justify prohibition.

Marijuana will stunt your brain-growth and inhibit your memory according to numerous studies, if you're out for the truth, there you are. Admittedly, this may not be as harmful as tobacco or alcohol, which I believe should be illegal as well (even though they have more merit for being legal than marijuana does), but that is another topic.

The reason it should continue to be prohibited is because it is both harmful to a single individual, as well as society at large. Can't have a bunch of dumbasses running around here taking time off of work to discuss what colors are cool to their friends.

Please provide references for the former.

Marijuana is not as harmful as tobacco or alcohol.

As far as public safety, no.

Prove it.

I hope for arguments sake you have more than that up your sleeve.

I smoked a ton of it in the 80's and 90's

It hurt my learning potential got me fired from jobs,
and now I have to check that box that says

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN CONVICTED OF A FELONEY

Don't do it it's not worth it your not as smart as you think....

Yabobo

I have all sorts of things up my sleeve, thanks for taking an interest.

1) THC, the main active ingredient in marijuana, binds to and activates specific receptors, known as cannabinoid receptors. There are many of these receptors in parts of the brain that control memory, thought, concentration, time and depth perception, coordinated movement, learning and memory, higher cognitive functions such as judgment, and pleasure.

Marijuana's damage to short-term memory seems to occur because THC alters the way in which information is processed by the hippocampus, a brain area responsible for memory formation. Laboratory rats treated with THC displayed the same reduced ability to perform tasks requiring short-term memory as other rats showed after nerve cells in their hippocampus were destroyed.65 In addition, the THC-treated rats had the greatest difficulty with the tasks precisely during the time when the drug was interfering most with the normal functioning of cells in the hippocampus.

As people age, they normally lose neurons in the hippocampus, which decreases their ability to remember events. Chronic THC exposure may hasten the age-related loss of hippocampal neurons. In one series of studies, rats exposed to THC every day for 8 months (approximately 30 percent of their lifespan), when examined at 11 to 12 months of age, showed nerve cell loss equivalent to that of unexposed animals twice their age.

http://www.nida.nih.gov/ResearchRepo...arijuana3.html

Heishman SJ, et al. Comparative effects of alcoho...[PMID:9264076]

Sullivan JM Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory: Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying learning and memory impairments produced by cannabinoids.

Misner DL: Mechanism of cannabinoid effects on long-term potentiation and depression in hippocampal CA1 neurons.



2) No, the merit lies within the it serving some sort of purpose; tax money. That's actually worth something, you can't tax marijuana if people grow their own, and if you try, it will be far more complicated then the current fight against drugs.



3) See 1.



4) There you go.

I think it should be de-criminalized, but with GWB's 'war on drugs' and all that propaganda, it is quite unlikely.

This "dreaded" thread sure has spurred alot of comments.
I say leagleise it and let people be.

glad to see no flaming goin' on.

good points,bad points.....bring 'em on.

de-criminalize

Heyser, C.J.; Hampson, R.E.; and Deadwyler, S.A. Effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on delayed match to sample performance in rats: Alterations in short-term memory associated with changes in task-specific firing of hippocampal cells. Journal of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics 264(1):294-307, 1993.

Acute, reversible actions are not damage: "However, unlike the effects of hippocampal lesions or neurotoxic damage, the effects of delta-9-THC were completely reversible within 24 hr of injection." It later went on to state "...this effect could serve as the basis for the well characterized short-term memory and other cognitive deficits reported in humans after smoking marijuana," popularly known as being high.

Landfield, P.W.; Cadwallader, L.B.; and Vinsant, S. Quantitative changes in hippocampal structure following long exposure to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol: Possible mediation of glucocorticoid systems. Brain Res 443(1-2):47-62, 1988.

"However, the animals appeared to be only minimally affected behaviorally by the doses used (highest dose: 8 mg/kg) and no effects of THC were observed on several ultrastructural variables, including synaptic density." What are the implications? How is this supposed to justify prohibition?

Explain the implications of these and their findings in regards to safety and prohibition.

I would agree with the many who say to decriminalize and regulate similarly to alcohol or tobacco. As a note I do feel the alcohol age should be lower.

legalize... so I won't go to jail as I am a bud vaporizer.

Taken from drugwarfacts.org:

Taken from drugwarfacts.org:

I look forward to hearing your rebuttal.

Legalize it. Sorry but I would much rather see a rapist/murderer/true blue criminal going to jail than some poor sap because he had a few joints on him. Or please, go after the heroin & crack dealers first.

legalize it and control it! There is no reason that the government should be telling me I can't smoke pot, and there is no reason they should be fighting a losing battle with the war on it. Hell they should be growing the chronic and making more money off of me!

Whatever happens I'll still smoke it!

:D hey man, i gotta agree with you there:cool:

Absolutely. It doesn't cause any sort of adverse affects that aren't allready covered by alcohol and tobacco. I say legalize it, control it as a drug, and leave the pot heads alone as long as they stay off the road and don't endanger anyone.

Okay, I've been informed and educated on both sides of this debate and am trully impressed as to the depth of knowlege on this topic.

i say legalize, we spend all this money stopping it at the border doesn't do shit. kinda like tobacco and alcohol, just place an age limit on it. i mean tobacco kills 200,000 a year and how much does mary jane kill...ZERO!!!!!

prohibition of anything is silly and impossible

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Well, technically, suicide is a crime. Only thing is they really can't do much about it.


As for marijuana leg/decrim, i feel that you should be able to grow it, and buy it from licensed producers, much like how alcohol is sold. You must have a licence to be able to produce the product that you sell. As I'm talking about alcohol, call me extreme, but I think it should be illegalized. I heard somebody quote "I would rather step over a giggling hippie than confront a drunk with a knife." And I really think that is true. When a person is high on weed, they usually become more careful, ironically, rather than a drunk becoming more and more reckless. However, I would love to be able to find more unbias information about the long term effects of marijuana. The people that say it's comepletey harmless are usually the stoners, and the ones that say that it will adversely affect you and everybody else in your gene pool as long as your family blood remains are usually the ones with extreme anti drug ronald reagan administration thoughts. anyhow... back to the forums

butthead-

very nice, thanks for taking the time and effort - I was thinking about it but decided I was too lazy (not from smoking weed though, lol).

:)

Tax and regulate, Let the cops investigate Crime.

i completely agree