Marijuana (9 Viewers)

[PayOrPlay]

Wow, 85% for "legalize and tax", and that's in the morning before most of the potheads have even gotten out of bed!

I've long thought that criminalization is pointless and counterproductive. We don't need to be sending anyone else to jail for marijuana. I do wonder if legalization and regulation will ultimately produce a climate for pot smokers that is actually less tolerant of pot culture than what we have now in the more pot-friendly states.

 

[p0pe]

It should be available for medical treatment. Other than that, no.

I freely admit my extreme bias against drugs, having a sibling who was extremely messed up on them for many years. He started with 'harmless' doobies, which lured him into harder and harder stuff. It's a dead-end game. Be smart and just stay away.

How did he obtain the harder drugs? From some of the same dealers that sold him weed I'd bet. Marijuana would be much less of a gateway drug if we took it away from drug dealers. It would split the markets... marijuana would be in a legal market separate from the harder drugs.

 

[antipop]

It should be available for medical treatment. Other than that, no.

I freely admit my extreme bias against drugs, having a sibling who was extremely messed up on them for many years. He started with 'harmless' doobies, which lured him into harder and harder stuff. It's a dead-end game. Be smart and just stay away.

alcohol

 

[Zack Lee]

I freely admit my extreme bias against drugs, having a sibling who was extremely messed up on them for many years. He started with 'harmless' doobies, which lured him into harder and harder stuff. It's a dead-end game. Be smart and just stay away.

I understand how you feel; it is tough seeing a loved one wreck their lives. But the gateway drug argument is and always has been hokie and the studies that back it flawed. The studies show that people who use drugs started with pot and it led them further but the truth is that people that use drugs have a propensity to want to try anything and everything. Pot just happens to be the first thing they come across (or third if you include alcohol and cigarettes.)

 

[geauxboy]

Voted to legalize in this poll and via successful ballot measure last year.

Recreational usage should be legal and taxed and medical should be legal and untaxed. It should be legal to grow a small amount for personal recreational usage and a larger amount for personal or cooperative medical. Hemp should be completely legal with little regulation.

Washington has covered all those bases but personal recreational growing and that should eventually be added if the feds leave us alone.

I thought hemp was already legal???????????? Commercially/Industrially, not personally.

 

[tenordas]

I understand how you feel; it is tough seeing a loved one wreck their lives. But the gateway drug argument is and always has been hokie and the studies that back it flawed. The studies show that people who use drugs started with pot and it led them further but the truth is that people that use drugs have a propensity to want to try anything and everything. Pot just happens to be the first thing they come across (or third if you include alcohol and cigarettes.)

Studies be damned. I'm talking about reality, not some ******** study. People can talk down the "gateway drug" argument all they want, they are only blowing smoke. I watched it happen. Drugs kill people and ruin lives. ALL drugs, legal or not. Keep them away from me and my family.

alcohol

As someone who had a serious struggle with alcoholism as a teenager, I can tell you I'm no friend to the alcohol industry, either. However, certain types of alcohol in small amounts are actually beneficial to one's health. That can't be said about marijuana. Unless they are being used to treat a specific illness, all drugs only screw with the body (and most screw up the body in other ways while they are helping the illness). That's why my vote is yes, but for medical purposes only. That is my vote for any drug. I don't really even trust most of the medical community concerning drugs; I certainly don't think the general person on the street has any business screwing around with them.

And if I personally can avoid having to take any of them for anything, I'll continue to be a happy man. I see too many people become addicted for life to medications through what's been prescibed to them, much less illegal junkies. The body becomes dependant on that crap.

Forgive me that I get a little heated on this topic, but it decidedly strikes a nerve.

 

[p0pe]

I thought hemp was already legal???????????? Commercially/Industrially, not personally.

Hemp is not legal in most if not all states still. Colorado, Kentucky, and a few other states have started the discussion to legalize it as well however.

 

[brianw37]

I voted legal and taxed. I believe this wont be an issue in the next 10-15 years as it will be legal or at least decriminalized in most if not all US states.

 

[Zack Lee]

Studies be damned. I'm talking about reality, not some ******** study. People can talk down the "gateway drug" argument all they want, they are only blowing smoke. I watched it happen. Drugs kill people and ruin lives. ALL drugs, legal or not. Keep them away from me and my family.

I understand how you think you saw it but I'm betting if your sibling is honest as I am being honest having walked that same road, they would have walked that road even if they had never heard of pot.

There is no doubting the other drugs are bad and I won't try to convince you weed is good, I'm just saying that the link between them is or is almost non-existent. I hope they already have or will get it straightened out for the sake of your family.

 

[brianw37]

Wow, 85% for "legalize and tax", and that's in the morning before most of the potheads have even gotten out of bed!

I've long thought that criminalization is pointless and counterproductive. We don't need to be sending anyone else to jail for marijuana. I do wonder if legalization and regulation will ultimately produce a climate for pot smokers that is actually less tolerant of pot culture than what we have now in the more pot-friendly states.

Lol the cat woke me up from a dream, inside a dream, inside a dream.

 

[SWJJ]

I would be curious of the % that think it should stay illegal, what % of them dont believe in evolution.

 

[Saint77]

It's helped me cope with PTSD. I'm a lot more relaxed and a lot less angry than I was 5 years ago. I used to take different drugs like Xanax and stuff, but they made me feel like ****.

My wife was prescribed Trazadone for her PTSD. I opted to pass on any drugs. The thought of not being alert and functional 24/7 was not something I was comfortable with. I did try to get her to consider lighting up, my brother always has some, but shes so straight laced, she wouldn't go for it.

I understand how you feel; it is tough seeing a loved one wreck their lives. But the gateway drug argument is and always has been hokie and the studies that back it flawed. The studies show that people who use drugs started with pot and it led them further but the truth is that people that use drugs have a propensity to want to try anything and everything. Pot just happens to be the first thing they come across (or third if you include alcohol and cigarettes.)

Personal experinece on my part, but the idea of a "gateway drug" term when I heard it in the early 80s was that the drug itself does not lead you down that road. the idea that you can do things like dealing, experimenting, etc because dope was so cheap and abundant, that it can be done with anything else, like coke, heroin, "lude powder, acid, etc. Often, where you found cheap and abundant weed, you found other stuff. all part of the drug "culture"

Though, smartly I never tried anything other then Acid, I watched enough idiots destroy ther own and other lives with that other crap.

This combined with a given persons propensity to try anything, no tin spite of, is where done and alcohol both have their badsides.

I am for lessening laws and penalties, but not for full legalization.

 

[zeetes]

I would be curious of the % that think it should stay illegal, what % of them dont believe in evolution.

we should all smoke a bowl to find out.

 

[superchuck500]

It should be available for medical treatment. Other than that, no.

I freely admit my extreme bias against drugs, having a sibling who was extremely messed up on them for many years. He started with 'harmless' doobies, which lured him into harder and harder stuff. It's a dead-end game. Be smart and just stay away.

The doobie didn't lure him into anything.

People get further and further into dependency issues because they're medicating something in their lives. These needs are powerful and most humans have them at some point in their lives - self-medicating is an unhealthy but common way of dealing with them. Therapy, religion or other forms of self-exploration are probably much better choices but the road to dependency through self-medication starts subtly and ends up badly, usually.

But it isn't the weed that starts people down this road. Plenty of well-adjusted, self-content people smoke weed and don't end up with dependency or other issues related to harder drugs. And perhaps even more importantly, alcohol dependency is a very common and very destructive form of self-medication and it's entirely legal.

The original gateway drug is spinning around until you fall down giggling uncontrollably. Kids do this at an early age because it feels good - humans naturally like to get ****** up. When you get older, these forms of feeling good can serve as an escape from your problems and the more intense those problems are or the less self-control the person has, the more dangerous this activity can be when it becomes medication. And that's at the root of addiction and the destruction of lives that comes with it.

Weed doesn't cause people to be compelled to self-medicate their problems.

(And I don't mean to be flip - I hope your brother is doing better now, it's always so difficult for the person and the families involved in addiction. I'm just addressing this issue).

 

[Devildog]

My wife was prescribed Trazadone for her PTSD. I opted to pass on any drugs. The thought of not being alert and functional 24/7 was not something I was comfortable with. I did try to get her to consider lighting up, my brother always has some, but shes so straight laced, she wouldn't go for it.

That's the other drug I couldn't think of because it was 2005 when I was prescribed Trazadone. That made me feel like a freaking lethargic slug.