It’s pretty obvious which drug is more harmful to both your person and society, but I’m not calling for prohibition, just common sense. No one has ever died from overdosing on marijuana.

Have tables set up in the friggin’ mall in Fremont, CA. Know 8-10 people smoking that stuff, none of them legitimately.

RW Wacko on November 26, 2007 at 8:30 PM

No kidding? I grew up there but fled around the time “little Afghanistan” took root.

I for one support medical marijuana. The industrial uses for hemp are enormous.

Theworldisnotenough on November 26, 2007 at 8:46 PM

THe industrial uses for hemp ARE amazing, and I think that’s part of why it was outlawed in the ’30s when the big wigs had their money invested in timber, oil and cotton, all of which would be given a run for the money by hemp. BUT, the difference between pot and hemp is similar to the difference between poison oak and an oak tree. Equating the two doesn’t make sense.

Maybe Bill Hicks was right. God created pot, then created Republicans to cover up the mistake.

Does anyone have any chips?

Limerick on November 26, 2007 at 8:47 PM

Got the munchies?

For those interested, this is a fairly good source for an examination of the likely outcomes of legalization on the young. There does seem to be a correlation between legalization and an increase in the young taking up the habit, but seemingly on at certain times and in certain places.

you libertarians crack me up.
Just drop the “medical” stuff and be honest. You just want to get high without the hassle.

Tried marijuana in college. Didn’t care for it (physically), and all it did was make me a little bit tired. I wouldn’t care if I never touched the stuff again, so I have no personal stake in ending the war on drugs — except that I’d be happy for all the money and lives it would save.

I volunteered at a drug rehab program back in the 80’s. You think the WoD is expensive now. Wait to see what happens if we quit.

You’re making the mistaken assumption that illegality makes fewer people use drugs. You’d be wrong.

Pot should be legal. Not because I agree with it being used but because it’s a war we will never win and a horrible waste of resources.

We’ll never stop murders, pedophiles or speeders either. Guess we should stop the horrible waste of resources on that too.

Sorry. I volunteered at a drug rehab program back in the 80’s. You think the WoD is expensive now. Wait to see what happens if we quit.

.

Let all the people locked up because they had some pot out of prison and we’ll have more room to keep the people who are actually threats to society in prison. We may have to worry more about our pantries being raided by roving groups of hippies with the munchies but I’ll take that over getting killed.

Not a Ron Paul fan or supporter btw.

Some of you know what I mean by that.

Not me, I have no idea.

The Race Card on November 27, 2007 at 12:00 AM

I do not smoke to much

Connie on November 26, 2007 at 10:20 PM

Why would I have to spend money on Marinol when I can grow my own medicine and unlike Marinol which is usually way to harsh. if you need to smoke to control nausea to help in aiding keep medicines down? It would be counter productive, and ingesting THC is a whole different type of high far more narcotic and stronger .

In full disclosure I am waiting for it to be decriminalized so I can work as a grower for one of the big companies that will eventually get into growing this crop. People think it’s so easy to cultivate but its not as easy as most think you have the same problems you have with most crops.

How many of these people started smoking pot just because is was decriminalized for medicinal use? My guess is that they were potheads before California’s currently libertine regulation of pot dispensaries.

100% of them were potheads before decriminalization, you are correct.

I prefer Robert Mitchum’s endorsement over Ron P.’s.

“Illegal” drugs should be a medical, not a criminal matter, and controlled by the government just the way every other serious phamaceutical chemical is handled.

Otherwise you cede a massive funding instrument to criminals.

What is not controlled is de facto out of control.

Most pot-smokers smoke too much. If they have really good weed…they just smoke too much of that too.

The Race Card on November 27, 2007 at 12:00 AM

You can argue that people smoke too much MJ regardless of potency, but they ingest a lower volume of smoke from the more potent varieties compared to less potent varieties. They are simply filtering less particulate matter through their lungs. In spite of the anti-MJ propaganda, potency is a good thing.

In the end, all marijuana is the same strength because the more potent it is the less one needs to smoke to achieve the desired effect. If a person ingests too much THC they get tired and fall asleep, so there is no point in smoking too much of it. The more potent strains of MJ result in less smoke inhaled by users overall, thus it causes less damage to their lungs.

FloatingRock on November 26, 2007 at 11:43 PM

Most pot-smokers smoke too much. If they have really good weed…they just smoke too much of that too.

I read an article in Forbes once, saying that we are probably better off economically with it illegal. B/c the govt. would tax it and waste that money, whereas drug dealers do a good job investing and saving the profits.

jp on November 26, 2007 at 9:20 PM

LOL!

…the govt. would regulate and the more potent forms would likely remain illegal….thus a black market for those as well.

In the end, all marijuana is the same strength because the more potent it is the less one needs to smoke to achieve the desired effect. If a person ingests too much THC they get tired and fall asleep, so there is no point in smoking too much of it. The more potent strains of MJ result in less smoke inhaled by users overall, thus it causes less damage to their lungs.

Further, I certainly don’t like Ron Paul. Still, on this limited issue of marijuana, I agree with him. We can have a federalism about marijuana. If some states think it’s ok, then let it be ok in those states. Is it really that hard to let some people in other places disagree with you? To let them have different customs? I mean we aren’t talking female genital mutilation here.

Full disclosure – don’t use it personally, for professional reason (i.e. I like the job I have, and use is a no-no, before that I was military, and it was a bigtime no-no) – however, I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with those that wish to indulge – particularly after some of the evenings I’ve spent sitting in bars drinking my coffee or sprite, watching people get absolutely loco s**tfaced with legal intoxicants, and comparing the bozo crap they do with some of the things I’ve seen stoners do. Let’s just say, one group was a lot less, um, kinetic than the other.

I’m not saying there aren’t side effects – but, I’ve never seen or heard of someone aspirating their own puke while simply stoned (as in – no combo action), going into a coma and dying from excess THC levels, like you can from excess BAC, or think that their 5′5″ super bad ass could take out a 6′5″ completely sober bouncer.

Just sayin.

Come to think of it, it does make a lot more sense that the illegalization of pot had a lot more to do with the inability to effectively derive taxation from it (before the 1930’s, the stuff grew just about everywhere), versus the actual, unspun by puritanicals (ya know the Carrie Nations types) dangers it posed.

Easy to see the politicians reasoning – ‘hmmm, no revenue? screw it, let’s just shut up the moralizing demagogues that might incite people to vote against us…NEXT!’