[Stratford, Ct. Resident]

Originally Posted by JViello

With all due respect to the others, they don't understand or have never lived with the culture you and I grew up with.

They have never seen the "gateway" effect it has on many people who come from our background. (At least not at the levels we have)

Don't you think the "gateway effect" is more of an issue of peer-pressure within the "hood", rather than an issue of climbing the ladder of addiction? IDK, i had my experiences with it as a teen, and it didn't lead to addiction or abuse. However, my usage of Alcohol as a teen was what i'd consider to be borderline abusive. Another perfectly legal product that i developed an addiction to as a teen is Cigarette Tobacco. I have to disagree with you on this Jay, i think the culture within the hood is what ultimately drives people to do bad things, not pot itself. JMO.

[JViello]

Originally Posted by Stratford, Ct. Resident

Don't you think the "gateway effect" is more of an issue of peer-pressure within the "hood", rather than an issue of climbing the ladder of addiction? IDK, i had my experiences with it as a teen, and it didn't lead to addiction or abuse. However, my usage of Alcohol as a teen was what i'd consider to be borderline abusive. Another perfectly legal product that i developed an addiction to as a teen is Cigarette Tobacco. I have to disagree with you on this Jay, i think the culture within the hood is what ultimately drives people to do bad things, not pot itself. JMO.

I'm going to sound like a broken record.

Let say you are right (Same with you Kid), and BTW I do agree that alcohol is bad. Should we just make another bad and addictive substance "okay" in the name of tax revenue?

That's what's going on. I don't support legalizing another addictive substance. Why should we?

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by JViello

I'm going to sound like a broken record.

Let say you are right (Same with you Kid), and BTW I do agree that alcohol is bad. Should we just make another bad and addictive substance "okay" in the name of tax revenue?

That's what's going on. I don't support legalizing another addictive substance. Why should we?

JV - what are the addictive ingredients in MJ? Again, you should probably take a drug studies course. MJ is not physically addictive.

[JViello]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

JV - what are the addictive ingredients in MJ? Again, you should probably take a drug studies course. MJ is not physically addictive.

Yes it is. I've been through more drug education then I care to talk about and I don't care what twisted course you took that indoctrinated you to think that pot is good, but it's not.

You are confusing a mental addiction with a physical addiction. Cocaine is not physically addicting, but herion is. BOTH are addicting and destroy lives.

You never learned about the difference in your "drug study course?" Hmmm.

Why are you so bent on putting a dangerous substance legally out there. I don't get it. Are you a pot smoker?

Let me guess, your against obesity because it will cost you more in health benefit costs but you're for pot legalization?

Edit:

Here do some reading yourself:

Fact & Fiction : Marijuana is NOT Harmless

Research has now established that marijuana is addictive. Each year, more teens enter treatment with a primary diagnosis of marijuana dependence than for all other illicit drugs combined. Over sixty percent of teens admitted to drug treatment cite marijuana as their primary substance of abuse.

http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/...acts/myth2.pdf

It*was*once*believed*that*marijuana*was*not*addict ive; many*people still*believe*this*to*be*the*case. But*recent*research*shows*that*use*of the*drug*can*indeed*lead*to*dependence. Some*heavy*users*of marijuana*develop*withdrawal*symptoms*when*they*ha ve*not*used*the drug*for*a*period*of*time.

[Stratford, Ct. Resident]

Originally Posted by JViello

Why are you so bent on putting a dangerous substance legally out there. I don't get it.

I know this ? was meant for kid, but my .02 on it, is that pot has been around for ages and it's not going away. Drug war my a**! Regulate it and tax it. Another benefit of regulation would be that there wouldn't be a concern with regard to tainted supply, which does occur with "underground" illegal products.

[JViello]

Originally Posted by Stratford, Ct. Resident

I know this ? was meant for kid, but my .02 on it, is that pot has been around for ages and it's not going away.

So has arsenic, should we tax it and tell people to ingest it?

What these advocates fail to mention is the truth about what the drug actually does to a person, such as damaging the lungs, nerves and brain. There are over 400 chemicals found in marijuana smoke and 60 of them have been proven to cause cancer. Marijuana contains the neurotoxin THC, which is a poison that affects the brain and nerves. When someone smokes pot, two things happen two them: 1) There is an almost immediate burn-up of vitamins and minerals in the body. 2) The nerves in the body go numb. These two things happen every time someone takes the drug and it causes that person's health to steadily decrease. A person's tolerance to the drug also builds and eventually the person has to smoke pot almost continuously just to feel somewhat normal because they have caused so much damage to themselves.
Marijuana's negative effects also last well beyond the initial use. THC is lypophilic, meaning the chemical is fat-bonding and gets stored inside a person's body for weeks, months and even years after use ceases.

http://www.methamphetamineaddiction.com/PressReleasePages/medicalmarijuanaargumentmissingfacts.html (broken link)

[andthentherewere3]

Originally Posted by JViello

Why are you so bent on putting a dangerous substance legally out there. I don't get it. Are you a pot smoker?

Just to clarify, pot wouldn't be made entirely legal, the state would just "decriminalize" those with small quantities of it:

A bill now under review by the legislature's Judiciary Committee would create some peace of mind for many of Carusello's customers, and add Connecticut to a growing list of states that have decriminalized the possession of small quantities of marijuana, turning a misdemeanor offense that can bring up to a year in prison into an infraction similar to a speeding ticket.

[Stratford, Ct. Resident]

Originally Posted by JViello

So has arsenic, should tax it and tell people to ingest it?

[goldenband]

The reason the alcohol vs. marijuana question comes up so often is that by every reasonable yardstick, the effects of alcohol on people, communities, public health, and public safety are worse. Yet no one seems to be making efforts to restore Prohibition: why is that?

I think the reason is largely cultural, and has nothing to do with science. We see alcohol as an all-American drug, something to be enjoyed with friends at a football game, or that goes nicely with dinner. Marijuana, by contrast, is something that "those people" do. Nowadays a lot of people associate pot with hippies and slackers, but once upon a time, "those people" were largely blacks (or so it was believed), and so a lot of the anti-pot sentiment developed around antipathy towards black people and black culture.

For the record, I have limited firsthand experience with pot (tried it, several times, and it did absolutely nothing for me), as well as a huge number of friends and family members who have used it anywhere from occasionally to every day. I'll admit that in many cases, I dislike the drug and what it does to people -- not so much that it makes them "unmotivated" or is a "gateway drug" (which is no more true of pot than of alcohol, at best), but because it makes them self-centered and uninteresting. But again, the personality effects of alcohol are much, much worse.

But having said that, I applaud this decision for multiple reasons. The most obvious one is that it saves money and time, but I actually think that it'll help to make law enforcement in CT's toughest areas a bit easier in other ways, because it reduces a big component of the adversarial relationship between cops and citizens. Where I grew up, practically everyone was smoking or had smoked pot -- and this wasn't the ghetto, this was rural New England! A big part of a police officer's job is knowing when to let certain things slide in the service of the greater good, and this formalizes one aspect of that.

So I question the motives of some opponents of decriminalization, because I think their stance has as much to do with who smokes pot -- or who they think smokes pot -- as the drug's actual effects. Now, if someone's working to reinstate Prohibition, then I may respectfully disagree with them, but at least they're being consistent. But everything in my experience says that if you want to make something illegal because it's damaging to people and society, alcohol should come first in that agenda, and marijuana only much later.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by JViello

Yes it is. I've been through more drug education then I care to talk about and I don't care what twisted course you took that indoctrinated you to think that pot is good, but it's not.

You are confusing a mental addiction with a physical addiction. Cocaine is not physically addicting, but herion is. BOTH are addicting and destroy lives.

You never learned about the difference in your "drug study course?" Hmmm.

Why are you so bent on putting a dangerous substance legally out there. I don't get it. Are you a pot smoker?

Let me guess, your against obesity because it will cost you more in health benefit costs but you're for pot legalization?

Edit:

Here do some reading yourself:

Fact & Fiction : Marijuana is NOT Harmless



http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/...acts/myth2.pdf

First of all, accusing me of being a pot smoker is again showing how desperate you are at getting your point across. We get your point. Your views are far too right wing and religious to think objectively here, IMO. You're letting your emotions at the forefront of the issue, rather than thinking in a rational sense. When a loved one has cancer and is consistently vomiting, and can't eat, then you might see the issue differently. Same with AIDS patients. Man you like to claim such experience when I think you have very little. You talk a big game.

Don't tell me what I'm confusing. We're talking physical addiction here, JV. Not mental, which, like I said, consists of addictions to everything, not just MJ (you conveniently skipped my post which said that a page or two back). If you're going to compare MJ to cocaine, heroin and the sort, don't twist it by saying "oh but it has a mental addiction." Give me a freakin' break. I have a degree in Criminology and a minor in adult psychology - your comments make you just another statistic for professors to discuss in class.

Who said anything about obesity? Lets not put words in people's mouths, buddy, to attempt to make your voice "heard".

And asking me why I'm so bent on putting it out there? I'm not. IT'S ALREADY THERE!