Poll: Legalize cannabis Yay or Nay

[hazabaza1]

Nay.
As soon as my brother started taking it he dropped out of school, and starting stealing from me and my family to be able to get more. Plus, most people I see who use it are absolute cunts.
Called me biased, misinformed, idiot, whatever, I've seen what it can do, and legalizing it would just increase the amount of this happening.

 

[Jonluw]

Nay, for one reason: Legalizing Cannabis while we are working our asses off to lower the tobacco and alcohol consumption is very hypocritical.

 

[Shpongled]

It's no worse than Alcohol or tobacco, so why not? It would almost certainly put the dealers out of business. Also, in one of my classes last year my teacher (who was very much for the legalization of all drugs) asked a girl if she would still take cannabis if it was legal and guess what... She said "No".

Alcohol is attributed to something around 500,000 injuries and fatalities a year. Tobacco is responsible for none (when excluding cancer). The estimates for marijuana range from 5,000 to 1.5 million. Both figures I've heard from "Reliable sources". Which is to be believed? You can't really believe either because there is inaccurate recordings of marijuana related fatalities. This is because of various circumstances mostly revolving around how cases get reported.

And alcohol, when taken in small quantities, can actually extend the life of the drinker.

Marijuana has no such benefits and in fact, what with 400+ toxic chemicals and all, is arguably worse.

I'm afraid medical practitioners disagree. Marijuana has many applications in medicine, reduces nausea, stimulates hunger, helps treat glaucoma, aids reducing pain. These are inarguable facts, not opinion.

# ^ Aggarwal SK, Carter GT, Sullivan MD, ZumBrunnen C, Morrill R, Mayer JD (2009). "Medicinal use of cannabis in the United States: historical perspectives, current trends, and future directions". J Opioid Manag 5 (3): 153?68. PMID 19662925. https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BzcItO1YbTHCZDBkZTA2NmItYmI1NS00ZjRkLTgxZDktYjFlYzY4YzJkMTk2&hl=en&pli=1. Lay summary ? SF Weekly (15 September 2009).
# ^ "Microsoft Word - Abstractbook.doc" (PDF). http://www.cannabis-med.org/meeting/Cologne2009/reader.pdf. Retrieved 2009-11-14.
# ^ Benson, John; Joy, Janet E.; Watson, Stanley J., ed (1999). Marijuana and medicine: assessing the science base. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-309-07155-0.
# ^ a b "Workshop on the Medical Utility of Marijuana". National Institutes of Health. February 1997. http://www.nih.gov/news/medmarijuana/MedicalMarijuana.htm. Retrieved 26 April 2009.

On top of that, the LD50 is well beyond consumable amounts. If you tried to smoke yourself to death, you'd fall asleep long before you'd die. Marijuana fatalities are a myth.

There are also no causal links between chronic marijuana use and lung or throat cancer. Chronic marijuana users show little to no signs of airway restriction in the lungs.

-Snip-
Never met a dealer in my life who would sell weed on credit. It doesn't happen. Weed is far too common for a dealer to risk losing his money that way. Any weed buyer in debt to one dealer would just find another. Heroin dealers sell on credit because they know that the buyer will be back for more, and will do anything possible to prevent withdrawal, including theft. Far more likely that anyone stealing for drugs is stealing for a drug he can't do without, ie crack/heroin. Those drugs induce withdrawal symptons, debilitating withdrawal symptons, exhaustion like you wouldn't believe. Getting off (prescribed) diazepam was on of the most awful experiencse of my life, i would have resorted to theft to pay to get rid of that.

On the other hand, i've never had a problem taking tolerance breaks from weed.

Wheres your evidence for anything that you're saying? How on earth do you know that your futurama box set was stolen in order to pay for weed?

If you want to meet them, come to where I live. It is all very nice saying they will just go to another if they get in debt, but when the dealer knows where the people live, and it is a small area so the few dealers know each other, the others are unlikely to sell on credit if one says that the buyer isn't going to pay. If the buyer refuses to pay, things go "missing". Permanently.
And I know it was stolen for fueling a cannabis habit becasue the person who stole it was also caught stealing other things for the same reason a number of other times.
And I know that person rather well, seeing as he lived in the same house as me >.>
Soon after, I had my door reversed so the hinges are on the inside, and a lock installed. Nothing has gone missing since.
Well, the person responsible was kicked out, but it doesn't hurt to be careful.

Sounds more like this person is a douche. Saw the chance for a quick buck by stealing from you, and decided to use the money for grass. As opposed to being driven to theft by the desire for more grass.

 

[ShaqLevick]

-Snip-
People enjoy eating cake too. But they don't go steal shit to buy cake. The addictiveness is completely psychological and even debatable. Video games or movies are about as addicting as pot. The reason some people get addicted is because they have an obsessive streak. Pot has been demonized in societies for more than what it is. Pot isn't going to make you go steal crap or any other nonsense. Your morals might. If someone steals stuff to get pot, they probably steal stuff anyways.

So why bother tempting even more people into stealing stuff? ¬.¬
At least cake doesn't have effects on how people behave, doesn't change how a person feels. Doesn't give them a feeling they want again and again.
Sure, legalise it for the rest of the world if you want, but by damn, move all the bad apples to where I live and firebomb it first. I don't want them loose and ruining it for everyone else.

Yes. Cake. Does!

But I say YAY, for the obvious moral reasons. However, you must consider that federal prisons are big businesses... then again hemp could be as well.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

-Snip-
Sounds more like this person is a douche. Saw the chance for a quick buck by stealing from you, and decided to use the money for grass. As opposed to being driven to theft by the desire for more grass.

Not at all. As hazabaza said:

Nay.
As soon as my brother started taking it he dropped out of school, and starting stealing from me and my family to be able to get more.

Exactly the same thing here. It wasn't so that he could get money to buy other things, and hell, he loved Futurama. Didn't stop the stealing and selling/trading in order to get his hands on more drugs/pay off his debt.
He lost his PS3 multiple times due to his debt, which our family payed off to get it back again, multiple times >.>
He didn't sell his own stuff, only the things that belonged to others >.>

 

[browncoat619]

I say YAY but, let's be honest, it'll never happen (despite the fact that it was only made illegal due to our richer forefathers having heavy investments in the timber business so made the cheaper hemp illegal).

 

[dlsevern]

I think most of the naysayers are missing the point, cannabis or hemp, can be used for so many other things than just smoking it. It would be an economic powerhouse and could significantly reduce the national debt. The cannibinoids in it can be extracted and put into pill form or other forms for medicinal use, although you get more benefit from actually smoking it. We could eliminate the use of trees for paper, even though we are supposed to be going to a paperless society, I still see tons of tree paper being used. War over oil could be dismissed because every country could grow their own bio-mass fuel in cannabis. Most people don't want to look at the big picture.

 

[Wintermoot]

yay you cant stop it might as well legalize it (in Holland they stopped trying to fight it) I would suggest selling it in pharmacy,s or in general stores (like tabaco)

 

[Flying-Emu]

If I vote "Yay," can we please start talking about someone else?

Goddamn this thread pops up every other week.

*EDIT*

6500th post = me bitching.

INDICATIVE OF ALL MY TIME HERE.

 

[JFSOCC]

I like this little site on the matter:

http://members.multimania.nl/medicalinfo/nl.html

 

[Cormyre]

Not that I partake, but yay none-the-less... plus being full open would spur the economy, from what I hear, munchies are the devil!

As for anyone talking about crime rates rising, it's not like crack, pills, etc that give you a chemical dependency, so the pain/sickness/whatever does not drive you to pull retard stuff, know plenty o' pot heads, if they can't afford it, it's simply done without.
Now, tell me a crack-head or pill popper (like hardcore of course) that you'd trust turning your back to with them in your house?

 

[loc978]

It's at right about the same point as alcohol prohibition in the 1920s. All but completely legal where I live in any case. The stuff doesn't appeal to me as a drug, but I say it needs to be legal.
Hell, a good portion of the reason it was made illegal in the first place has nothing to do with the drug anyway. Hemp products are a very viable competitor for most petroleum products, most notably plastics. You can thank DuPont for that little proliferation. Watch where the money has flowed throughout history, I find it really funny how many people are still in the dark on this.

 

[InsanityBaronOfAtrocity]

I've noticed a lot of people saying no to the proposal are those that have negative experience with marijuana or know someone that has. Well I know someone that uses it on a daily basis and is a fucking useless wreck. However I know many many more people that use it in moderation and don't let it ruin their lives. Marijuana should be legalised, there's no question there. Arresting the majority because the minority can't handle it is ridiculous. Also bear in mind the negative experiences those people have had with marijuana despite it being illeagal. Legalise and educate. There's no debate here.

 

[MCDopeCollllinz]

Legalize it if you want just find ways to regulate it in a similar fashion as alcohol.
Set limits on the amount you can imbibe in and drive a car or operate machinery.
Basically, allow people to use it so long as they aren't going anywhere soon or plan to work with hazardous materials.
(I don't want to be stuck behind someone high as a kite going 5mph on a one lane road or have a power plant go down because someone wanted to press the shiny red button.)
Know that any drug has similar but different effects on everyone so regulation is an issue.
If someone could find a reasonable, taxable, and universal regulatory system in the U.S. it would be passed faster than you could say "pewpty poopty pants-ss".
Heavy emphasis on the taxable though, as the government can be bought with income.

 

[Aerialfrogg]

Yay. I don't do it, or like it. But it isn't some terrible substance that needs to be illegal (taxes would be nice). See also: hemp > nylon.

 

[jpoon]

Absolutely yay, the bullshit demonization of this plant needs to end.

 

[Broady Brio]

I seriously do not mind. It doesn't affect me in the slightest.

 

[royohz]

It won't fix the economy,
but It WILL make people feel better =D

Oh, I suppose the over 25,000 products that can be made from hemp don't exist. All right, carry on.