Medicinal Marijuana

[The Infallible]

What are your thoughts? Should it be banned, permitted, legalized all together?

Please, please. please don't post the equivalent of "Me wants to get baked off my ass!!!!!!!111111111" because frankly we (and by we I mean I) don't care.

[Robot Jesus]

Legalizing marijuana and legalizing prostitution are almost the same. Good ideas that will save untold suffering but will not come to pass for a great many years because our society would rather sweep it under that carpet that minimize harm.

If it where to become legal I would be afraid of the tobacco companies taking over and perverting the plant.

Genetically-modified pot, now with caffiene! I can completely see Monsanto patenting that, and then suing anyone who saved a bud for their own private op. Monsanto is kind of lawsuit happy (they're the ones suing Iraqi farmers who save seeds to use the next year, instead of purchasing new ones from Monsanto, as the EULA of the original seeds decreed.)

In Canada, it's not legal, but here in BC, it's pretty much accepted. Hell, on Salt Spring, the cops smoke dope, as well as being the home of "BC Hydro Ultraviolet", the #2 or 3 bud in the world. (My friends smoke pot, I prefer to watch them.)

I think it should be decriminalized, for a start. Legalization is a different step, but decriminalization is important.

[DFA]

I say legalize it and tax it like we do with cigarettes and alchohol. I treat it like I do alchohol, if you want to waste your life with it go ahead and do it just natural selection in action.

[Hatake Kakashi]

"Greg, Greg, Greg... we can't legalize marijuana. Cause if we legalize marijuana.... people will smoke it." -Greg Proops

As far as "medical" marijuana goes, there are already products in test markets. Tetrahydracannabinol-9 capsules and such. The way the pharmaceutical field seems to be approaching it is the "let's swallow it instead of smoke it" method, which works for them ultimately. One of the things that is hardest to justify slapping a pharmacy label on is something people will smoke, while medicines in capsule form have a much wider acceptance. At least in America. So with the marijuana itself, with the exceptions in the most liberal states that possess the kind of wealth to drag it out in court battles (which still isn't likely to happen), in it's normal, smoke-able form, it's not likely to be legalized for even medicinal purposes. More than likely, to prevent "abuse" (yeah right), they'll be processing the plant and the chemical compounds associated with it to give their patients the "Matrix" choice.

Would you like to take the red pill, or the blue pill?

Now on the subject of casual use, really, police and government in the states is fighting a losing battle. Marijuana use is so widespread that it will be literally impossible to crack all of it back down. Currently, the U.S. government is merely using MJ for an extra income, so to speak. Most legislators know that while a good amount of Americans light up in the privacy of their own homes, they're not ready at this time to toss their votes to the lawmakers who will go out on a limb and make themselves unpopular with the moral majority factions by making it legal. Said moral majority factions are not ready to accept that marijuana could be much less harmful than they believe, and as long as they're alive.. and voting... the ones able to create the laws will not dare cross the line that's been drawn. So in the meantime, pot stays illegal and the government keeps a few jobs open for those who will help the government exploit the populace's habits via use of heavy fines and sentences.

Do I believe casual use should be decriminalized or perhaps even legalized? Economically, I would have to say yes. While I avoid using it for sake of my chosen field (Pharmacy), I can see how the american government could benefit from the legalization and distribution of said products on an open market, as cigarettes are sold currently. I will make no arguments for or against the health factors and risks of each, but if people are wanting to do something, they're going to do it, come hell or high water. This is why minors still, despite the laws, end up with massive quantities of alcohol and tobacco products, and why adults still, despite the dangers of getting caught using/possessing/dealing, risk it to take a puff or three on their prized bongs. So rather than using up valuable tax dollars fighting a drug that pales in comparison, statistically, to the dangers of Methamphetamines, Cocaine, Crank, PCP, LSD, or MDMA (Ecstacy), or even the humble Alcohol, they should actively market it to the Adult populace and let them take their risks. By doing so, they obtain control of a product that is GUARANTEED to sell, which they can produce cheaply, tax heavily, and STILL be able to drive the black market trade out of business where that particular product is concerned with lower prices. And with the amount of people who DO smoke it (and thus would be paying taxes to do so), combined with the re-diversion of tax dollars to combating more hazardous public/social nuisances, that one step could set funds in motion to make changes in our economy and social settings that would improve domestic issues for Americans on the whole.

I'll just be in the non-smoking sections.

[bard master]

youve got a good point there. Here in england, drugs are as big a problem as anything. The town i live in (Brighton) Has the worst drug problem in england (It is also the gay capital of europe, but im not relating the 2).

Most people would think that if marujana was legalised, everyone would take it all the time, and stop doing what they would be doing. Thats not true. I saw a documentary on the hymalayas (by Micheal Palin, Most people here have seen it), and they visited a tribe that used marujana. They smoke it, but they dont do it all the time. They can only grow a certain amount a year ( because land is scarce, and they need to farm food as well) so they dont smoke heaps of it and get overdosed.

Perhaps they should put a limit on the amount your allowed to use. Since people have access to good quantities of the drug, no questions asked, at the moment, they dont have a limit.

People think drugs lead to crime, but thats only because of the price/addiction cycle. Somebody gets addicted, and the dealer will charge more and more. The addict steals to pay for his addiction, and it spirals down. If its legal, people pay a fair price that doesnt change. Addicts dont resort to crime to pay.

Ive never done any drugs further than caffiene and alchohol (both cause problems in society, but theyre not on the news), but i think marujana is overrated.

[The Infallible]

It really is funny the government propaganda that surrounds Marijuana. It is far, far less dangerous then damn near all of the legal drugs, Alcohol, Cigarettes, Dartura, Dextromethorphan Hbr, 5-MeO AMT, Mushrooms, Morning Glory Seeds. While I realize that a few of the legal psychoactives would be extrordinarily hard to ban (the cough supressant Dextromethorphan Hbr and Amenita mushrooms immediately come to mind) that does not change the fact that there is more effort to demonize Marijuana than to warn about the dangers of recreational Dartura (or any of the drugs I've mentioned) use. You see it on TV all the time, the add with the teenage girl and the pregnancy test and the voiceover "They're going to be the youngest grandparents on the block" that implies that if you smoke pot you will either get pregnant or get someone else pregnant, while it is true that it makes you lose inhibitions, alcohol does the same damn thing to a greater extent. Also, unlike caffeine, alcohol, and 'shrooms, it has a medical use. It is used to treat glaucoma and is used to ease cancer patients pain.

The really horrible thing about this whole mess is that if you get caught smoking pot you cant get financial assistance for college (at least in Rhode Island, not sure about tha anywhere else). If you murder someone, if you rape someone, if you blow up an oil rig, you can get financial help for college (after you get out of prison), but if you light up a reefer you can't. I don't smoke pot, but I do know people who do, really friggin smart people who I dont want to see put in prison.

Why the hell is getting high a crime in the "land of the free?" Seems to me like legislation against psychoactives is a bit hypocritical. I propose that all drugs be legal, every last one of them. Someone wants to kil themselves on heroin go right ahead but don't expect the government to pay for your wellfare. I believe that as long as no one depends on you for living then go right ahead and do drugs.

The Infallible for president: The Stoner's Candidate

[Illuminatus]

The Drug War is the biggest waste of time and money that the US Government has ever invested in. It needs to cut it's losses, tax drugs like everything else, let all those minor drug offenders out of prison, and focus it's efforts on important things.

[DarthZeth]

Is it any surprise that Drug prohibition isn't working?

ok, so that’s a bit off topic.

yes, I support medical marijuana, just like I support medical heroine and its synthetic derivatives (Morphine, Codeine, Oxycodone, etc)

[Hatake Kakashi]

Legalizing all drugs goes a bit far in my mind. I haven't seen or heard of many cases of marijuana endangering the general public, but people on various psychoactives, depressants, antidepressants, and the like (PCP, Heroin, Crack and the like, for examples) do pose a threat. Inhibitions are lost, as well as much of what could be considered "common sense" in people who are loaded up on this stuff. People gain feelings of invincibility, paranoia, rage, insecurity.. the list goes on and on. The results of these in some individuals can be harmless... they'll just curl up in a fetal position in the corner and cry. Hey... whatever you think gives you a good time. But in others, the results can be destructive... rapes, robberies, murders... if you had children, would you let them outside where someone who may have been loading up on some angel dust storms out of their house, pissed at their wife, and there's your little girl out on your lawn in easy reach.... the thought makes me want to vomit.

Now I'm not saying that some of the legal alternatives are much better. Alcohol is known for it's varied and unpredictable effects on the human populace. Cigarette smoke is attributed to several illnesses, many of them terminal. No system dealing with regulation of any substance which alters human chemistry, perception, or mood will ever be perfect. And with "medical" marijuana, I've seen little evidence of actual "treatment" of an illness... the only benefit I HAVE seen is that it tends to be rather effective at easing pain and stress... which I will admit does wonders for patients. One would think a theme exists in this case: "Tetrahydracannabinol-9... the new Acetylsalicylic acid."

For those of you who are more familiar with base english: "Pot... the new aspirin."