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marijuana is not the problem people are...I can support that statement.
My concern is overuse. If the user cannot live a normal life, then it's a problem (ie losing jobs, violent, etc.)
To the prior poster, I've known the people referenced in my post all their lives. There were no prior issues.
Correct. I'm very pro cannabis, used correctly it can enhance one's life, physical and mental health. But I have become concerned that too many people are using it recklessly, especially when some new strains or forms are so potent.
I suspect many homeless people or people who can't stick with jobs are using it without restraint. 40 years ago we couldn't imagine anyone becoming homeless or unemployable from weed alone but that's not true anymore (though most might also be using other substances).
It needs to be managed and I'd like to see public service announcements (or something) teaching young people how to use it. Users should get regular aerobic exercise, they shouldn't often wake-n-bake or smoke all day. Those are just 2 ideas to start.
Course, I've always thought society also fails to teach young people how to use alcohol properly.
Legalizing marijuana is a terrible idea. Nothing good will come because of it.
"Medical marijuana" has about as much credibility as "medicinal brandy".
Legalizing marijuana is a terrible idea. Nothing good will come because of it.
"Medical marijuana" has about as much credibility as "medicinal brandy".
I mean I'm not entirely, personally, sure that you are wrong when we examine just the effects of cannabis use on people, specifically. But if you only look at that angle, the "drugs are bad mkay" angle, of this...you blow right past a lot of HUGE problems caused by prohibition.
For me it is not a question of whether marijuana is good or bad.
It's a question of what I expect of the government and what I believe should be left to personal choice as a matter of freedom and liberty, at least in America. I don't believe that we need a "nanny state" (if you will) to impose penalties of fines and imprisonment on people who use drugs, even if I don't necessarily think that using drugs is a great idea. I feel the same way about alcohol. I don't drink it, but I don't want the government to put YOU in jail for choosing to do so. Only if you put other people in peril (like drunk driving) then you should face consequences for that.
Not every thing that is legal, should be something that everyone does. Not every poor life choice, needs a law to punish people for doing it. Especially when the 13th Amendment is written the way it is, and the politics of census districts and so on are structured as they are with regard to imprisoned populations. And the sheer destruction of lives when someone does time for a minor drug possession charge. It only compounds the harm. And then there's all the justification used for asset forfeiture which is nothing but theft by the state.
And I have always read that there could be tremendous benefits to cultivation of industrial hemp at scale, but laws against the cannabis plant have held us back from that.
And then there's that incidental violence associated with the drug dealing world even though the users may not be the violent ones. Or violence perpetrated on the users if they are vulnerable.
A quote regarding one of the studies indicates, "continued cannabis use is associated with a 7-fold greater odds for subsequent commission of violent crimes."
From my perspective chronic drug abuse and antisocial traits become inseparable. Some traits more subtle than others, ranging all the way from low level child neglect to theft and murder.
Not all users and not all the time. It's just that the risk becomes greater.
And then there's that incidental violence associated with the drug dealing world even though the users may not be the violent ones. Or violence perpetrated on the users if they are vulnerable.
A quote regarding one of the studies indicates, "continued cannabis use is associated with a 7-fold greater odds for subsequent commission of violent crimes."
From my perspective chronic drug abuse and antisocial traits become inseparable. Some traits more subtle than others, ranging all the way from low level child neglect to theft and murder.
Not all users and not all the time. It's just that the risk becomes greater.
I can actually buy that. I mean, I know, we all have these stereotypes of the zoned out peace loving hippies and all...but one of the more common things I found in regular users of cannabis (including myself, in hindsight, when I was doing it) is a lack of concern about consequences.
It's an "I don't give a...damn..." attitude. When we disregard the results and consequences of our behaviors, we lose a lot of inhibition and impulse control. We are more willing to just do whatever we feel like doing in the moment. For someone who may also be developing frustration due to other problems in various areas of life (that are possibly correlated, or just co-morbid with the MJ usage) or someone who is developing more paranoia and suspicious thinking... This could logically bring them to lash out physically at others.
One person I know struggled with suicidal ideation, in a way because it was comforting. The idea of having to work at solving any of his problems was overwhelming and he could put off taking any action towards fixing his life (like, going in to work or following up on important things he was supposed to do) if he instead thought that none of that mattered if he just ended his life at some point in the near future.
He was a heavy cannabis user. And I do think that the effects of the drug contributed to this mindset. But the problems you don't solve are always waiting for you, and the people in his life were always trying to tell him what he needed to do to solve them, which only made him angry and to feel like everyone was against him and no one understood how he felt.
He is, as of now, a few days into an effort to go sober for the first time in years. And he's getting a lot of things done and feeling a lot better about himself every day, even though he's had some anxiety spikes here and there, which are a common withdrawal symptom. My observation is that there is a withdrawal period that usually lasts a week or two, with increased irritability and anxiety.
Legalizing marijuana is a terrible idea. Nothing good will come because of it.
"Medical marijuana" has about as much credibility as "medicinal brandy".
A healthy human body makes cannabinoids; anandamide (AEA) & 2-arachidonoylglyerol (2-AG). The body also has endocannabinoid receptor cells; CB1 receptors (in the central nervous system, helps with pain) & CB2 receptors (peripheral nervous system, especially immune cells). The Endocannabinoid system is vital for our health. If something goes wrong with the ECS (usually due to autoimmune or atypical immune response), or if a person develops an endocannabinoid deficiency, cannabis is indeed a very valid treatment for pain, autoimmune symptoms & neuroimmune disorders.
The ECS, as part of the immune system, can be damaged by atypical immune response triggers. This same process has been identified as having an etiological role in MS, Autism, Epilepsy, Alzheimer's, GBS, Fibromyalgia, Parkinson's, Schizophrenia, some types of cancer & etc, etc, etc.
My 18 yo son has severe autism with puberty onset aggression & explosive rage disorder, following a neuroimmune injury at age 2. Aggression is very common in severe teenage male autistics due to a complex interaction between the immune system, neurotransmitters & puberty androgen. My son's ECS doesn't function properly, leaving him prone to chronic pain, limbic rage seizures & neuroinflammation. His behaviors are extreme & life threatening for both of us. He cannot be treated with pharma psychotropics due to a paradoxical syndrome that causes a reversal of desired effects. Best described as resembling a homicidal rage. Even without being triggered by pharmaceuticals, he would have 1-5 "rages" a day; charging at caregivers & school staff, ripping ceilings down, plumbing out of the walls & self injuring to the point of giving himself head injuries. My life for the last 4 years has been a dumpster fire. I spent a year sleeping in a protective helmet with a faceguard, in a literal fight for my life every day (he is 6'5" & 340 lbs).
He became a legal medical patient 3 months ago & it has been a lifesaver. I haven't had to wear a helmet to bed for over a month. He's gone from 5-7 self-injurious behaviors a week to only 3 in 5 weeks. He doesn't "smoke" (he can't even swallow pills) & he doesn't get "stoned", because since his immune system isn't mediating endocannabinoids properly, the cannabinoids from the cannabis are simply replacing what he isn't making, which is reducing his chronic neuroinflammation. He takes oral oil tincture that I either buy pre-made or make myself at home with flower.
I have friends with much smaller & younger autistic kids than him, that need twice as much as he does to control their seizures.
Yes, their is a need for "medical" marijuana. It is a science based therapeutic substance that doesn't just treat the symptoms but helps treat the actual source of the symptoms, which is way more than what can be said for pharma's opiates & psychotropics.
So all of these thousands and thousands of stoners who lay around smoking medical marijuana legally all have serious medical problems that must be handled by marijuana.
And that's the reason to legalize it?....... Nah. There is no reason to remove it from prohibited substance list. Doctors prescribe dangerous substances all the time for those who need it.
Nothing good will come of legalizing pot. "Medical marijuana" does not exist.
My position on marijuana is that nobody who drinks alcohol is in any position to criticize people who smoke marijuana. If used to excess I'm sure it can cause problems, like almost any product can, legal or otherwise. Alcohol when used to excess will kill you.
Smoking anything stinks.
People who smoke marijuana reek. The smell of weed smoke carries much farther than cigarettes or vaping. It's probably about equivalent to cigar smoke. Ever been to the beach or park downwind of one of those fat fart snowflakes who puff away on cigars to show how "special" they are? Smoking MJ in public makes you the same kind of skunky jerkoff. Not to mention that all those combustion byproducts are almost certainly carcinogenic to the smoker, and annoying as hell to everyone else within 200+ feet.
Being drunk in public creates problems, but if somebody is enjoying alcohol in public upwind of me, I much prefer that to them smoking weed (or anything).
I don't know if smoking pot indoors leaves that same musty death smell that tobacco does. I can't imagine that it is much different, though. At least alcohol doesn't do that.
Edibles are fine, though. Probably not good for you, but at least you are only hurting yourself.
So all of these thousands and thousands of stoners who lay around smoking medical marijuana legally all have serious medical problems that must be handled by marijuana.
And that's the reason to legalize it?....... Nah. There is no reason to remove it from prohibited substance list. Doctors prescribe dangerous substances all the time for those who need it.
Nothing good will come of legalizing pot. "Medical marijuana" does not exist.
I still disagree with you. Just not on the grounds of arguing the worth or harm of cannabis use. More on the grounds that the present day American justice system is not, and never has been, a good solution to any problem we've ever had with drugs in this country.
I do not agree with taking a person away from their family and exploiting them for slave labor, which is what happens in most states with for profit state prisons and harsh drug sentencing, is acceptable. I don't even believe in prison for the purpose of punishment or behavioral control. I believe in prison for one thing...to take people who are dangerous to society, and put them away from society where they cannot do harm. That's it.
Had a real eye opening moment in 2016 with a ballot measure that was on Colorado's ballot that year. To end slavery in the state. I was like, "wait...what??" Yeah, if you read the text of the 13th amendment that supposedly washed our hands of that particular original sin in this country, it's got that loophole that, as I often put it, you can drive a truck through. No more enslavement...except for criminals convicted of crimes. Ahhhh... So all we've got to do, to have slavery, is make sure the people we wish to enslave are "criminals." Got it. Then of course there are the interesting implications of putting for profit prisons in rural white areas of the country and then counting the inmate population for census purposes, so that an otherwise low population district can get extra representation and funding...which doesn't benefit the inmates, who generally cannot vote.
ALL of this is tied quite directly to the "war on drugs" and I think it's safe to say that weed has been the most commonly used illegal "drug" in this country for a number of decades.
So. Do I think people should do it? No. Not really.
Do I think that people should go to jail for it? Absolutely not.
The motives for locking up drug offenders, especially over minor things like small time pot possession, is FAR greater an evil, than just letting somebody get high.
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