marijuana: Decriminalization/legalization

where to start...

marijuana, is the most used illegal drug in the united states.
marijuana, is the largest cash crop in the united states.

over 80 million people in the U.S. have smoked marijuana. thats almost 1/3!
and every, every single person who has done it, is still alive.
is the history of marijuana, not ONE person has died from it.
an estimate shows that you would have to smoke 100 pounds of marijuana every minute for 15 minutes for it to be lethal. thats 1500 pounds of marijuana in 15 minutes!! of course, that is in no way humanly possible, consuming anything that weighs 1500 pounds in 15 minutes would be lethal.

schools, schools are exaggerating all the effects of marijuana. i have been told in school that after taking one hit with a joint will get you addicted.
um...that is a little bit of a lie. unlike cigarretes, there is no chemical in marijuana like nicotine that will get you addicted. you may have a feeling of "wow, that was nice, i want to do that again" sort of thing, but those kind of "addictions" are VERY easy to get over. i have been told in school that marijuana can ruin your mental and physical system.
mentally, not so much, they did a study on older people, around 70-80 years old, from jamaica and greece and so forth. people who on a daily basis would smoke pot, usually around 2-5 joints a day. and they had no mental issues, nothing wrong with their brain, nothing.
physically, like smoking anything, it will have an affect on your lungs, however there are other ways of consuming marijuana. i have a friend, and hes been smoking weed everyday since he was in 7th grade, hes in 9th grade now, and he is possibly the fastest kid in his school. odd.

Plus, a HUGE controversey in marijuana, medical use.
of course, hundreds of studies have shown it does have a medical use, but ignorant people and the government deny it. because right now it is a schedule 1. drug (correct me if i am wrong, i think it might be classified in its own class because of its uniqueness). A schedule 1 drug is a drug that has no medical use and is dangerous. however, cocaine is a schedule 2. drug, whereas doctors can prescribe it. that happens rarely though.
here are some examples in what marijuana helps with in a medical sense.
1. For cancer and Aids patients, marijuana can be served as a theraputic drug, while undergoing chemotherapy, or just the disease of aids, somebody can go through clinical depression, weight loss, nausea. marijuana can lessen these.
2. A synthetic extract of cannabis has been shown to relieve symptoms of anorexia in elderly Alzheimer's patients.
3. Medical marijuana has also been used in other countries as a analgesia, as pain relief. can be used for headache, dysentery, menstrual cramps, and depression. which you would think well, we already have medicine for that. 11,000 people die from prescription drugs like tylenol every year.
4. My mom, she has M.S. when you have M.S. you have things called muscle spasms, if you have a more severe tpye of M.S. these muscle spasms can often cause severe pain. as i said before, Marijuana can reduce these pains.
there are way way way more to list. but you get the idea.

Prison sentences.
The Prison system is FUCKED up due to the extremely harsh laws of marijuana, and the rising rate of users. our prisons are being filled up with first time users, or for simple possesion. almost 800,000 people are in jail for marijuana, about 90 percent of them are serving for possesion.
it is more likely for somebody who was convited of murder to get out of a life sentence than somebody who is convited of growing marijuana, or even possessing. for example, Larry JAckson, a small time crook with a lengthy record of non-violent offenses was arrested at a friends apartment. On the Floor near Jacksons right foot a police officer noticed a small amount of marijuana-0.16 of a gram (like like 1/3 of what you would need for ONE joint). Jackson was charged with Felony Possesion, convited, and givin a LIFE sentence. Cases like these dont often happen. But cases where somebody is possessing 3 grams to an ounce of marijuana and getting 10 years without parole and a large fine, is VERY common.

i am positive i have left out a lot.
feel free to add.
but more importantly.
discuss.

 

I don't see any proof of your claims, 80 million people smoked pot? LOL!

Actually mate, over two million people have died from Pot, don't know were your getting your facts from

http://www.briancbennett.com/charts/death/cannabis-yr.htm


And 800,000 people in prison for pot? Not even close

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/prisons.htm

Good Fight

 

I would like to dispute this. How does marijuana kill somebody? Does it count as a death if they were killed in a car accident while high? What if they fall, and break their neck while high? Such numbers may seem impressive at first, but they can be easily misrepresented.

 

Yeah, because when they do statitics for deaths that have to do with drinking they include a lot... I think all the numbers are off a little bit though.

 

lol dude.
you kinda read the proof wrong.
it said 2 million people DIED that year.
it said zero people died from cannabis.
lol, get your head right.
80 million people have EXPERIMENTED with marijuana.
remember the 50s 60s and 70s?

oh and yes.
nobody has ever DIRECTLY died from marijuana.
about... 279 people have died as marijuana being thought contributed to the death.
which almost nothing.
think of all the drugs that ARE legal and people have died from.

 

As I said before, where are you getting the 80 million from? You have no proof, or reliable source telling you this? And you forgot to comment on my prison statement. Am I lieing on that one too?

And nice double post *cough*

 

i got the 80 million part from various books. "reefer madness" which btw, is written by the same person that wrote fast food nation, eric schlosser.
and a different book called "legalizing marijuana" it was point counterpoint.
prison part also from reefer madness, i double checked its actually 724,000.
god your gonna make me look in the back of the book and look for the resources...
btw. reefer madness is by far the most popular book about marijuana, well...actually only 1/3 of it is about marijuana. XD
alright ill quote from the back of the book.
"Some 342,000 people were arrested for marijuana in 1992, the year before Clinton took office, 734,498 (an all time record) were arrested in 2000, the last year of his presidency. See 'FBI Uniform Crime Reprts,' 1993,2001. Far more people were arrestetd...During the Clinton presidency: some 4,909,438 people were arrested for marijuana."
that was the whole quote.
so there ya go. got it from the FBI crime reports.
i suggest you read the book, very interesting.
and i like how you left out in the last post how you were completely wrong about your statistic reading on marijuana deaths.

and i dont know why it doesnt seem to hit people in the face on how tobacco and alchohol are legal, and those are way way way way more dangerous than a plant! (marijuana)
thing is with cigerrates, they have thousands of chemicals in them, alchohol same. not nearly as many, alchohol intoxicates you and ruins your body anyways. Marijuana is a plant, no added chemicals that get you addicted coming back for more.
oh i think i know why tobacco and alcohol are legal, maybe its because the tobacco companies and so on pay the governments millions and millions of dollars a year. oh yeah thats right.

 

Lool, don't look in the back of books, just show a link
Arrested doesn't mean that they will be jailed.

And your right, that link was wrong(About the deaths). How about this one?
http://alcoholism.about.com/b/a/039646.htm

I never said (I think) that alchohol or tobacco are better then smoking pot.

That is true, but I found this quote and think it's interesting.
Q: How can there be marijuana addicts if marijuana is not addicting?
A: "We who are marijuana addicts know the answer to this question. Marijuana controls our lives! We lose interest in all else; our dreams go up in smoke. Ours is a progressive illness often leading us to addictions to other drugs, including alcohol. Our lives, our thinking, and our desires center around marijuana---scoring it, dealing it, and finding ways to stay high" (Life With Hope, p. xi).


Here's another general article of why Marijuana shouldn't be legal..


What are the Effects of Marijuana Use?
Marijuana's effects begin immediately after the drug enters the brain and last from 1 to 3 hours. If marijuana is consumed in food or drink, the short-term effects begin more slowly, usually in 1/2 to 1 hour, and last longer, for as long as 4 hours. Smoking marijuana deposits several times more THC into the blood than does eating or drinking the drug.

Within a few minutes after inhaling marijuana smoke, an individual's heart begins beating more rapidly, the bronchial passages relax and become enlarged, and blood vessels in the eyes expand, making the eyes look red. The heart rate, normally 70 to 80 beats per minute, may increase by 20 to 50 beats per minute or, in some cases, even double. This effect can be greater if other drugs are taken with marijuana.

As THC enters the brain, it causes a user to feel euphoric - or "high" - by acting in the brain's reward system, areas of the brain that respond to stimuli such as food and drink as well as most drugs of abuse. THC activates the reward system in the same way that nearly all drugs of abuse do, by stimulating brain cells to release the chemical dopamine.

A marijuana user may experience pleasant sensations, colors and sounds may seem more intense, and time appears to pass very slowly. The user's mouth feels dry, and he or she may suddenly become very hungry and thirsty. His or her hands may tremble and grow cold. The euphoria passes after awhile, and then the user may feel sleepy or depressed. Occasionally, marijuana use produces anxiety, fear, distrust, or panic.

Marijuana use impairs a person's ability to form memories, recall events (see Marijuana, Memory, and the Hippocampus), and shift attention from one thing to another. THC also disrupts coordination and balance by binding to receptors in the cerebellum and basal ganglia, parts of the brain that regulate balance, posture, coordination of movement, and reaction time. Through its effects on the brain and body, marijuana intoxication can cause accidents. Studies show that approximately 6 to 11 percent of fatal accident victims test positive for THC. In many of these cases, alcohol is detected as well.

Marijuana use has been shown to increase users' difficulty in trying to quit smoking tobacco. This was recently reported in a study comparing smoking cessation in adults who smoked both marijuana and tobacco with those who smoked only tobacco. The relationship between marijuana use and continued smoking was particularly strong in those who smoked marijuana daily at the time of the initial interview, 13 years prior to the followup interview.

Even infrequent marijuana use can cause burning and stinging of the mouth and throat, often accompanied by a heavy cough. Someone who smokes marijuana regularly may have many of the same respiratory problems that tobacco smokers do, such as daily cough and phlegm production, more frequent acute chest illnesses, a heightened risk of lung infections, and a greater tendency toward obstructed airways.

Cancer of the respiratory tract and lungs may also be promoted by marijuana smoke. A study comparing 173 cancer patients and 176 healthy individuals produced strong evidence that smoking marijuana increases the likelihood of developing cancer of the head or neck, and that the more marijuana smoked, the greater the increase. A statistical analysis of the data suggested that marijuana smoking doubled or tripled the risk of these cancers.

Students who smoke marijuana get lower grades and are less likely to graduate from high school, compared with their nonsmoking peers. In one study, researchers compared marijuana smoking and nonsmoking 12th-graders' scores on standardized tests of verbal and mathematical skills. Although all of the students had scored equally well in 4th grade, the smokers' scores were significantly lower in 12th grade than the nonsmokers' scores were.

Workers who smoke marijuana are more likely than their co-workers to have problems on the job. Several studies have associated workers' marijuana smoking with increased absences, tardiness, accidents, workers' compensation claims, and job turnover. A study among municipal workers found that employees who smoked marijuana on or off the job reported more "withdrawal behaviors" - such as leaving work without permission, daydreaming, spending work time on personal matters, and shirking tasks - that adversely affect productivity and morale.

Depression, anxiety, and personality disturbances are all associated with marijuana use. Research clearly demonstrates that marijuana use has the potential to cause problems in daily life or make a person's existing problems worse. Because marijuana compromises the ability to learn and remember information, the more a person uses marijuana the more he or she is likely to fall behind in accumulating intellectual, job, or social skills. Moreover, research has shown that marijuana's adverse impact on memory and learning can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off.

Is Marijuana Use Addictive?
Long-term marijuana use can lead to addiction for some people; that is, they use the drug compulsively even though it often interferes with family, school, work, and recreational activities. According to the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, an estimated 5.6 million Americans age 12 or older reported problems with illicit drug use in the past year. Of these, 3.6 million met diagnostic criteria for dependence on an illicit drug. More than 2 million met diagnostic criteria for dependence on marijuana/hashish. In 1999, more than 220,000 people entering drug abuse treatment programs reported that marijuana was their primary drug of abuse.

Along with craving, withdrawal symptoms can make it hard for long-term marijuana smokers to stop using the drug. People trying to quit report irritability, difficulty sleeping, and anxiety. They also display increased aggression on psychological tests, peaking approximately 1 week after they last used the drug.

 

I'm pro decriminalization.
I did a report on this last year for school and found out a bunch of things I didn't know.
That fact that noone has died from marijuana can be argued, but an overdose from marijuana is impossible. People have died while high and doing stupid things, but after all those are just stupid people. Tests have been run, you can pass out from smoking too much and having too much THC in your system at a time, but no possible death from overdose.

Ganja is just a recreational drug. Its a mood altering substance just the same as tobacco and alchohol. There are differences in things each of these will effect, such as tobacco wont get you high, but you can get addicted to it, unlike marijuana which has no addictive properties whatsoever. alchohol can bring out mood fits, emotional breakdowns and anger bursts, along with the drunk you feel, impaired vision and whatnot. But it will never be legalized for recreational use because the government wont be able to control/tax it. Its a natural herb that grows in the ground. Its like illegalizing roses, because anyone can grow them and its impossible to tax all rose plants.

Truthfully, marijuana is the only 'drug' that is all natural. You can literally just grow, pick and smoke.
Alchohol has to be fermantated from plants and fruits, which is a partly chemical prosess.
tobacco has to be dried but isn't messed with much.

the way I see it, its natural, its definatly not unethical & its medicinal.
but it wont ever be legal...

 

I did a report about this at school as well.

Marijuana is only considered dangerous by the goverment because its considered a gateway drug, it opens marijuana users to the entire black market as well as the people involved, if weed was legalized it'd be taken off our streets and the regulation would stop children from getting ahold of it like cigarettes and alchohol. It wouldn't completely stop children from getting it but it'd drop the odds significantly.

 

i hope they make it llegal...you don't get addicted or anything, ive been with some people who do stupid shit but its all in good fun. We dont wake up and say, i need fucking pot now. I dont understand why its illegal...maybe becuase no huge corperation has invested in it?

 

80milion my ass.... not even 1/3 of people smoke cigaretts..

 

I don't believe some of your facts...

You say marijuana itself is not addicting. However when you are buying marijuana you are kept at bay by who you buy from. Anyone can add a variety of things to it, many toxic chemicals etc. When you smoke a joint from a friend, you don't know what they put in it. If they have it laced with crack, you're going to be spending many years of your life battling your addiction with crack.

So why is it even worth it?

 

It takes more than one joint laced with crack to get you addicted to crack..

Unless you're willpower is so weak that it takes a little fingerpinch, in which case you need to be in the hospital, because your probably addicted to many other things.

Marijuana itself is not addictive, yet caffine, tobbaco, and alcohol are, and all three of those are legal?

 

So you want to tell me, that the tons of stories of people who get a laced joint, hit a crack rock in and then spend the following years of their lives in rehab are all exaggerated. And all of those people are simply weak?

Also, addiction is something you can hardly control, so I don't understand how you are making these statements.

Your statement with the caffeine and tobacco is like saying hunting animals isn't illegal, so why can't we kill people....there are limits to everything.