I completely agree with everything you've just said. I think the ability to grow on your own would be a positive for some, but there is alot of hard work that goes into doing it right.

Well, that's the grower's responsibility. With half a brain and a fraction of the cost of buying, a casual user can grow the best product in the world and should be allowed to for personal use.

Also, I should amend my previous statement and say that my non-smoker opinion is that possessing and growing reasonable quantities should be completely decriminalized everywhere (i.e not even just be misdemeanor crimes, which they are now in most places). This would make potheads happy, right?

What needs to stop is the violent criminal element of pot production and distribution as well as the unfair criminalization of casual use.

Engine for president! Engine 2012. Expect at least one write-in vote for 'Engine' this year.

I would like for anyone who is anti-marijuana to give me one logical reason why alcohol should be legal when marijuana is illegal.

Many reports state that about 73% of felonies are alcohol-related.

Alcohol 0 - 1 Cannabis.

Maybe because alcohol is legal & freely available.

Marijuana is illegal and freely available. Most of the crime associated with it occurs because of its illegal status.

I enjoy drinking a lot but I have to admit I find it far more hazardous, personally speaking. But then again I don't really enjoy getting intoxicated with depesssents anymore since I discovered getting high.

Out of all intoxicants, Alcohol is the most likely to get its users in the hospital. Marijuana is #2. And whereas Alcohol has a long and storied use in American culture, Marijuana has been favored by elements of the "counter-culture" - that is, degenerates & the anti-social. Consequently, I favor increasing the penalties associated with its use as it's a useful method of keeping these undesirables off the street.

I don't even smoke anymore but I'd be an idiot if I said that marijuana is a more dangerous drug than alcohol. The effects that alcohol has on people has nothing to do with it's legal status. As Conan said, marijuana is freely available and millions smoke it, so why aren't there as many problems with it as there are with alcohol? Because marijuana doesn't effect people in negative ways like alcohol does. That's a fact.

About 3 million violent crimes occur each year in which victims perceive the offender to have been drinking at the time of the offense.

Two-thirds of victims who suffered violence by an intimate (a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend) reported that alcohol had been a factor.

Among spouse victims, 3 out of 4 incidents were reported to have involved an offender who had been drinking.

A Harvard School of Public Heath study found that 72 percent of college rapes occurred when the female was too intoxicated by alcohol to resist/consent.

“Cannabis differs from alcohol … in one major respect. It does not seem to increase risk-taking behavior. This means that cannabis rarely contributes to violence either to others or to oneself, whereas alcohol use is a major factor in deliberate self-harm, domestic accidents and violence.” Source: British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs


:stupid:

:laughing:

Nothing personal but if you think marijuana is a worse drug than alcohol, you're an idiot.

What I want to know is, what kind of stoned mess would go to the hospital for being high. Psch, rookie stoners.

I doubt there's a legit statistic out there that puts Marijuana second behind alcohol in drug-use-related hospitalizations.

This question... I mean, everyone subconsciouly knows the answer to it really, the answer is yes. But getting people to admit that they know legalizing this plant would be beneficial is another matter altogether. I mean Jesus, Hemp itself is so ****ing beneficial to mankind if you want to look at it from a humanist point of view, it can be used as a construction material, for paper ( preventing massive amounts of deforestation ), rope, clothes. Hey...Call me a hippie, but jesus christ. I hope I live to see the day when it is legalized, if not for my sake, for my kids or my kid's kids. If people got drunk less, and got high more ( even without tobacco ) the world would be a better place.

I know, it's harmless.

Where does tobacco come on that list?

They go to the hospital because of injuries sustained while intoxicated.

Seriously?

I apologize. I'm not calling you an idiot but it's just preposterous to think that marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol. I know from my own experience that alcohol provokes much worse behavior than marijuana does.

Having seen people hospitalised in psych wards I can't agree with it's harmless status. I know not everyone will be susceptible but in those that are it can be incredibly harmful.


I don't think anyone can argue with the ****ty behaviour that results from excessive alcohol consumption. Mind you if you really want to test the peacefulness of a pot-head try getting between them and their stash.

Yeah I completely agree with this.

That must be a relatively rare case.

Well it's only natural to get angry when someone tries to take something of yours. I also know many pot-heads that are more than happy to share their stash and smoke generously with others.

I'm curious, have you ever used it yourself?

He has to say yes, otherwise his opinions on the subject will be completely discredited.

Not as rare as you'd think. I had two friends hospitalised. They were both subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia but who knows what role marijuana had in the emergence of their symptoms. I know that whenever they give in to temptation and start smoking again they will very quickly relapse into a psychotic state.

Ah, well that's it right there. Psychoactive substances tend to encourage people pre-disposed to conditions like schizophrenia to show symptoms. Drugs aren't for everybody.

i'm one of those where weed brought out my secret schizophrenia

^ Shrooms did that for me.

I know weed can do that. But alcohol can also bring out peoples inner raging lunatic, and I think that's a little more common.

any kind of smoke drives my sinuses crazy and I get massive nosebleeds that being said I really do think its fine and should be legalized. I believe it by next generation it probably will be in the US

Wow, it's nice to see someone acknowledge that there are potentially very real and harmful side effects to pot smoking. It's like the myth that it is harmless is being religiously perpetuated by every user out there.

I believe the most common problem for people who have smoked is anxiety, but as you mention, there are other possibilities. I know there was a recently a documentary on the telly about the link between cannabis and schizophrenia, but I did not watch it. Possibly I'll have to see if I can dig that up again. Many other studies have shown cannabis to be a schizophrenia risk factor (example), but it's like users don't want to acknowledge their existence.

I don't really believe in the "alcohol is okay so why shouldn't cannabis be?" argument because I figure you should look at the effect cannabis legalization has on society and try and decide based on that, regardless of whether or not we like alcohol. If alcohol is bad, should that justify the legalization of another bad? What kind of thinking is that?

Still, people love to justify legalization of alcohol by comparing it to cannabis. It's true, alcohol causes a lot of ****, but at least its effects are more predictable. The thing about cannabis is you don't necessarily know before smoking if it's gonna make you sick or not.

Regardless, if it's better for american society to legalize, I'd be behind that. Perhaps it is. From here, seeing how it's been tackled so far in the US seems to be the most ridiculous part of it. Locking smokers up with hard boiled criminals so that they can have a much worse impact on society once they come out sounds like the stupidest thing you could do. The american idea of prison as a place of punishment is really old and really doesn't do the nation any good. In my opinion, someone who has done jail time should be changed into a better citizen when he comes out, not a worse one. In the long run that's cheaper on society than having prisons bursting at the seams with repeat offenders.

edit :

Of course, if it does become legal, they should put "may trigger anxiety or schizophrenia" on the packets, just like cigs have the lung cancer warning. ;)

If people have the right to drink alcohol then we should also have the right to smoke weed. I understand the, "why should we legalize another harmful substance?" point of view. But, **** that. If marijuana is illegal then alcohol should be as well. If we really want to better society, keeping marijuana illegal isn't the way to do it. If we really want to better society then we would add alcohol to that list of illegal substances. Especially when you consider alcohol is much more harmful than marijuana. The reasons for the legal statuses of marijuana and alcohol clearly have nothing to do with peoples rights or the harm the substances can cause.

So the effect legalization has on society is not really important. It's about principle? If you legalize one bad thing, you have to allow another just because? I'm glad I don't live in a nation ruled by you, blastingas.

In my opinion, consequences and not principles are always the important thing. You want the best long-term consequences. If that's legalization, go for it - if not, then don't.

I didn't say that. It doesn't even have to be legalized, decriminalized is just fine. My point is if you want to smoke some weed, you should have every right to do so and shouldn't be considered a criminal. Until your weed smoking causes harm to anyone else, then it shouldn't be a problem at all.

Anyway, when your country is in as much debt as America, it doesn't make much sense to continue spending over 40 billion dollars a year on the war on pot. It's such a waste of taxpayers money. Keeping it illegal is hurting America a lot more than it's helping. It's not really helping anything.

it won't necessarily "create" schizophrenia if the person smoking weed isn't already predisposed to be schizophrenic

i think it just accelerates the symptoms

i've read somewhere that if your brain isn't already going to be schizophrenic in the future, or that you're mentally stable, weed is not going to "create" schizophrenia

i mean, i was pretty weird even before i started smoking it

I think you mean to say alcohol ABUSE is more harmful than marijuana.

i don't think alcohol is ever harmful if you can control your drinking

it's widely known that it helps blood circulation and lessens heart disease in moderation

but as they say - beware of drunken revelry

In my opinion anxiety plays a huge role in exacerbating schizophrenia.

I meant its harmless whilst smoking it, you're not very likely to get up out of that really comfortable couch and go do something crazy.

I think you're assuming all smokers don't know the effects of cannabis use, I very well know it can lead to schitzophrenia and other mental illnesses. It all depends on the person as I've stated before. My brothers been smoking for over 12 years and is fine, yet I have a friend who smoked it for 3 and his head is scrambled egg and he turns into a phycho with a drink in him. All depends on the person. He obviously stopped smoking because he was a paranoid wreck.

Sharing the love with my weed is geniunely one of my favourite things to do when I've got it. What's the point in smoking it all to yourself when you could share the love and get the best laughs? I hate getting stoned when I'm alone, so much so I don't do it.

Vodka drives me crazy. Like super crazy. Still drink it though :laughing: just not very often.


As a weed smoker I would obviously be pleased if it was legalized, but if it isn't I honestly don't give a ****. I'll just keep on going about my ways.

As for 'getting between a smoker and their stash' that's utter bull****. I haven't bought any in almost a week and I'm fine, I'm also usually an everyday smoker, I don't sleep til a few hours later but that's to be expected. I lost an 1/8th to the police and I was a bit gutted as I'd only bought it that night, but I just sucked it up smoked my last joint and went home.

Vodka is the easiest thing for me to pass out on after consuming large quantities of it.

Yeah, the stuff is absolute devil juice, but I haven't found anything else I like the taste of enough as to drink it all night.

Haha, Devil Juice.

Shouldn't it be "alcohol ABUSE is more harmful than marijuana ABUSE" then?

I have a hard time believing using marijuana casually is safer than using alcohol casually so no not really.