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Treat driving while high the same way we treat drinking and driving. A motor skills test would have to be developed to test for impairment. I would like to see the same tests administered to people suspected of driving while on prescription drugs. Do you realize how many people on our roadways are driving high as a kite on the pain meds prescribed or bought illegally?
Employers should still have the right to not hire users of marijuana and in safety related occupations it would be wise to deny employment to users.
Marijuana IS a gateway drug due to the fact it is illegal. Purchasing marijuana requires individuals to interact with criminal drug dealers that introduce more dangerous drugs to clients. If marijuana were legal buyers would purchase through retail outlets that have no incentive or means to offer cocaine, meth or heroin to customers. Legal marijuana would close the "gateway" to harder drugs. The sale to minors would be controlled more so than it is now if kids had to show ID in order to purchase rather than buy off the local drug pusher.
Legal marijuana would help reduce Mexico's crime problems and enhance our countries ability to focus on the smuggling of narcotics.
Legal marijuana would reduce government costs. We could slash the DEA in half, local police departments could be reduced, the costs of operating national guard helicopters hunting pot fields alone would same millions. Prison populations would be reduced by at least a third. Our legal system would no longer have to bear the burden of prosecution.
The number one reason marijuna should be legal is freedom. Does government have the power to control what you do in the privacy of your own home if no harm is done to others? Can government tell you what is acceptable to ingest? If I grow three of four marijuana plants, smoke it in the evenings to relax after a hard day of work is it governments business? Should I be thrown in jail for it? Should my property be confiscated because I do not ingest the officially sanctioned drug (alcohol)?
It's all about controlling people and the profitability of the illegal drug trade. Who benefits from keeping marijuana illegal?
1) Drug cartels.
2) Illegal drug dealers.
3) Local police departments through confiscation of property. Police unions that see the war on drugs as job security.
4) The DEA. Marijuana keeps over half of the DEA's 11,000 employees working and half the yearly "budget" of 11,600,000,000.00 or 5,800,000,000.00 dollars. The DEA does not want to give up the budget they have and the agents who pay their bills chasing marijuana do not want to lose their inflated salaries and cushy pension plans.
5) Private prison companies. Pot legal = decrease in revenues.Quote from linked article " Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest for-profit prison companies, revealed in a regulatory filing that continuing the drug war is part in parcel to their business strategy. Prison companies have spent millions bankrolling pro-drug war politicians and have used secretive front groups, like the American Legislative Exchange Council, to pass harsh sentencing requirements for drug crimes." unquote - See more at: The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal | Republic Report
6) Beer and liquor manufacturers. Fewer people will abuse alcohol if there were an alternative.
7) Pharmaceutical Corporations. They do not like competition from natural medications.
There are many studies that do show Marijuana's harmful effects.
Maybe 10 years down the road, after everything is legalized and more and more problems continue to arise.. you'll remember my username and remember that you were in fact wrong.
This 'harmless' is just another thing people are going to poison themselves with. Just wait til you have the people suing the Marijuana companies lol.
Here's a doctor/researcher talking about the harms of marijuana.
What is the evidence that marijuana smoking, habitual marijuana smoking can lead to lung cancer? With respect to the development of lung cancer, we found no evidence of any increase risk of lung cancer occurrence, in association with marijuana smoking alone.
So that contrasts with no risk, no increased risk, if anything a slightly reduced risk for smokers of marijuana THC actually has a anti-tumor effect. These are studies that were done both experimental animals and in cell culture systems and for different kinds of cancer. For lung cancer, breast cancer, thyroid cancer, prostate cancer gliomas which is brain cancer. That the development and growth of the tumor is suppressed by THC and the metastases are also suppressed.
So this clearly shows that marijuana poses no increased risk of cancers, and actually has an anti-cancer component found within the plant's THC structure.
as far as driving while high, here's some studies summaries:
“In conclusion, marijuana impairs driving behavior. However, this impairment is mitigated in that subjects under marijuana treatment appear to perceive that they are indeed impaired. Where they can compensate, they do, for example by not overtaking, by slowing down and by focusing their attention when they know a response will be required. … Effects on driving behavior are present up to an hour after smoking but do not continue for extended periods.
With respect to comparisons between alcohol and marijuana effects, these substances tend to differ in their effects. In contrast to the compensatory behavior exhibited by subjects under marijuana treatment, subjects who have received alcohol tend to drive in a more risky manner. Both substances impair performance; however, the more cautious behavior of subjects who have received marijuana decreases the impact of the drug on performance, whereas the opposite holds true for alcohol.”
REFERENCE: A. Smiley. 1999. Marijuana: On-Road and Driving-Simulator Studies. In: H. Kalant et al. (Eds) The Health Effects of Cannabis. Toronto: Center for Addiction and Mental Health. Pp. 173-191.
“Intoxication with cannabis leads to a slight impairment of psychomotor … function. … [However,] the impairment in driving skills does not appear to be severe, even immediately after taking cannabis, when subjects are tested in a driving simulator. This may be because people intoxicated by cannabis appear to compensate for their impairment by taking fewer risks and driving more slowly, whereas alcohol tends to encourage people to take great risks and drive more aggressively.”
REFERENCE: UK House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology. 1998. Ninth Report. London: United Kingdom. Chapter 4: Section 4.7.
“At the present time, the evidence to suggest an involvement of cannabis in road crashes is scientifically unproven.
To date ..., seven studies using culpability analysis have been reported, involving a total of 7,934 drivers. Alcohol was detected as the only drug in 1,785 drivers, and together with cannabis in 390 drivers. Cannabis was detected in 684 drivers, and in 294 of these it was the only drug detected.
... The results to date of crash culpability studies have failed to demonstrate that drivers with cannabinoids in the blood are significantly more likely than drug-free drivers to be culpable in road crashes. … [In] cases in which THC was the only drug present were analyzed, the culpability ratio was found to be not significantly different from the no-drug group.”
REFERENCE: G. Chesher and M. Longo. 2002. Cannabis and alcohol in motor vehicle accidents. In: F. Grotenhermen and E. Russo (Eds.) Cannabis and Cannabinoids: Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutic Potential. New York: Haworth Press. Pp. 313-323.
“Cannabis leads to a more cautious style of driving, [but] it has a negative impact on decision time and trajectory. [However,] this in itself does not mean that drivers under the influence of cannabis represent a traffic safety risk. … Cannabis alone, particularly in low doses, has little effect on the skills involved in automobile driving.”
REFERENCE: Canadian Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs. 2002. Cannabis: Summary Report: Our Position for a Canadian Public Policy. Ottawa. Chapter 8: Driving Under the Influence of Cannabis.
I don't know where you sourced that from, but it's incorrect.
Yes, Big Tobacco does spray insidious chemical concoctions on the product after they receive it from the farm. However, the farmers themselves do not adulterate the product in any manner.
To get back to the OP's topic: I'm basically indifferent on the subject of legalizing 420. But, i do find it somewhat ironic that people fail to understand that "all smoking is bad". Or at least that's what they've been telling us nasty cigarette smokers...........
Yes, all smoking is bad. That is why a lot of people do not use the smoking method to ingest their cannabis. Is cannabis more dangerous than a cigarette if it is eaten? What about vaporized? You see, the product itself is safer than tobacco, even if smoking it is still bad.
Your claim that pot smoke is worse on the body because they do not use a filter is just darn silly. You are going to stand their with a stright face and tell me that smoking one joint is worse than smoking one cigarette? Cigarettes are one of the leading killers in the country, people die in mass every year from smoking cigarettes... yet there is NO evidence EVER recorded of somebody dying from smoking cannabis. If they were just equally dangerous, you would have people dying from joints, period. So don't you think people would have to die from it at least once before you can claim that it is more dangerous?
You are going to stand their with a stright face and tell me that smoking one joint is worse than smoking one cigarette? Cigarettes are one of the leading killers in the country, people die in mass every year from smoking cigarettes.
How many ounces of tobacco does an average smoker use each week? How many ounces of cannabis does the average pot smoker use each week?
How many ounces of tobacco does an average smoker use each week? How many ounces of cannabis does the average pot smoker use each week?
Those numbers would be useless in this conversation, people who smoke less cigarettes than average die from it, people who smoke WAY more cannabis than average do not die from it. I absolutely guarantee you that there are plenty of people who smoke more cannabis than the "average" amount of tobacco a cig smoker uses... and they don't die from it.
Again, you are arguing that a product that has not EVER killed anyone, regardless of how much they smoked is more dangerous than a leading killer in the United States. Smoking a pack of joints a day will NOT kill you, even if it is a prolonged habit, but smoking the same amount of cigarettes WILL kill you. (If you do not think there are people who smoke more than 20 joints a day, you are kidding yourself.)
Again, I am not saying that inhaling smoke from burnt plant material is "safe", but Cannabis is way less dangerous than tobacco, at least in the popular cigarette form. (Cannabis is never sprayed with preservatives or things like arsenic, but tobacco commonly is in this country.) If we were talking raw tobacco, this would be slightly different... but still people have died from raw tobacco, never from raw cannabis.
How many ounces of tobacco does an average smoker use each week? How many ounces of cannabis does the average pot smoker use each week?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xander_Crews
Those numbers would be useless in this conversation, people who smoke less cigarettes than average die from it, people who smoke WAY more cannabis than average do not die from it. I absolutely guarantee you that there are plenty of people who smoke more cannabis than the "average" amount of tobacco a cig smoker uses... and they don't die from it.
Again, you are arguing that a product that has not EVER killed anyone, regardless of how much they smoked is more dangerous than a leading killer in the United States. Smoking a pack of joints a day will NOT kill you, even if it is a prolonged habit, but smoking the same amount of cigarettes WILL kill you. (If you do not think there are people who smoke more than 20 joints a day, you are kidding yourself.)
Again, I am not saying that inhaling smoke from burnt plant material is "safe", but Cannabis is way less dangerous than tobacco, at least in the popular cigarette form. (Cannabis is never sprayed with preservatives or things like arsenic, but tobacco commonly is in this country.) If we were talking raw tobacco, this would be slightly different... but still people have died from raw tobacco, never from raw cannabis.
That's nice.
Now please answer my question:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stratford, Ct. Resident
How many ounces of tobacco does an average smoker use each week? How many ounces of cannabis does the average pot smoker use each week?
With the recent legalization of recreational marijuana use in Colorado, it seems that some states, 21 total to date, have some form of legal use of medical marijuana, bringing in just on the first day of sales, a whopping $1 Million.
Marijuana use to be legal prior to the 1930's, with the U.S. government even promoting its benefits of not only textiles and other commerce items, but for medical conditions as well.
As I've read and seen in videos, there are some proven effects for people who may need medicinal marijuana, which has shown to treat pain, seizures, lung conditions, asthma, tourettes, autism and cancer.
Many have argued that legalizing marijuana is a safe way for consenting adults to use it for recreational use, and that those with chronic health conditions who seek its medicinal properties to use it may help alleviate their medical conditions.
Of course no sane person would condone its use for children, unless for a specific medical condition that it treats, but I'm curious of who thinks medical marijuana should be made legal throughout the U.S., having the government tax and regulate it just like they do tobacco and alcohol?
I cannot answer your poll because you did not give the option to choose: It should be for each state to decide. The federal government has no business telling every state that it has to be illegal. It is up to the voters of each state to make that determination.
Just as I don't believe the fed gov should be telling all states that it should be illegal, I also don't believe that the fed gov should be telling all states that it should be legal. Let the states do their job for once without big gov nanny telling us all what to do.
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