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Discussion of legal, medical and cultural issues surrounding cannabis (reference library and advocacy resources available) 

Tags: cannabis, marijuana, weed, sativa, indica 

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For or against Drugs?
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  My mommy said drugs are bad.
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Educated Jackass

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 11:39 pm



First, About me. I do not smoke, and Will never Smoke.Period.
. Now, I am, as I am sure you have already figured out,
A white Christian Male.
Now, I am probably Against most things This Guild is for.
But hey, Who can Live without some Friendly opposition?
I am Pro Support our troops, Republican, and other things
similar of the Sort.

Now, to my humble Fact Page, written and edited by Me.


1. LEARN SOME BACKGROUND ON THE DAMNED ISSUE
Marijuana, or Cannabis sativa, containin's upwards of four hundred chemicals. The psychoactive agent, THC, or, for you chemistry savants, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is much more abundant in the female buds. THC is what makes you laugh uncontrollably at the lamest possible thing when you're stoned.--From Psychology book--


In colonial America, "hemp" was a major agricultural crop; both Washington and Jefferson raised it. Hemp was valuable because you could use its fibers for rope and canvas and its seeds for soap, lamp oil and birdseed. Preoccupied with finding practical uses for weed, people from temperate climates did not realize the great fun you could have simply by smoking it. Folk weren't so benighted in hot regions like India and North Africa. Here the plant fairly oozes with sticky resin, and is fit to be boiled for tea, ingested, and . . . you guessed it . . . smoked. Here also, perhaps under the psychoactive influence of the drug, they started giving it really cool names like dagga, ganja, bhang and hashish, from which we get the word "assassin."And as Such, you have Just Learned Something.

Along with absinthe, hashish was de riguer for French artists and writers in the late 19th century. At the same time, physicians, who had been recommending tinctures of marijuana for pain relief, began switching to synthetic drugs marketed by a burgeoning pharmaceuticals industry. As the drug became associated with marginal groups - Mexican laborers, blacks, jazz musicians, prostitutes - many states started passing laws against it. In the 1930s, the Bureau of Narcotics (now the Drug Enforcement Agency) got interested in pot. This was the era of "reefer madness," when the government tried to convince the public that marijuana made you crazy, horny and violent, or some unwholesome combination of the three. Pot finally went underground with the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937, only to emerge thirty years later as the drug of choice of socially-aware, middle-class college students.

In the 1970s, larger segments of society were toking up. A number of states, among them California, recognized this and decriminalized possession of small amounts. However, the relaxation of America's marijuana laws was only temporary: Reagan's ascendancy to the top job in 1980 heralded a national shift to the right, and legislators responded with acts carrying harsher and harsher penalties for drug offenses. Under President Clinton, the "war on drugs" has continued to receive massive federal funding.

Americans are funny about marijuana: present them with a pile of facts showing that the enforcement effort is wasteful and ineffective and you'll be greeted with an angry glare that could melt the sun. Simply put, a majority of Americans find marijuana morally offensive, although, if the studies are right, a third of them had to try it a few times before they could be sure.

Furthermore, most Americans, except maybe some in Idaho, aren't warm to the libertarian point of view, which goes something like this: "Where does the government get off telling me what I can and can't do with my own body? Humans have always used drugs, natural or otherwise, and it is paternalistic to tell us which ones are okay to use and which ones are not." A more nuanced offshoot of this school of thought suggests that the ultimate answer is to allow people to grow their own and use it themselves or give it away, but not to sell it.

Intelligent people can still disagree as to the health risks of chronic marijuana use. Pro-marijuana folk blame the government for this, saying the government only gives lip service to the need for further study of pot, as it will not freely release it to scientists to study.


2. HEAR SOME ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF LEGALIZING POT
Now, especially for those humming "legalize it, don't criticize it" while reading this, here are the key arguments in favor of legalizing marijuana:

"Compared with cigarettes and alcohol, the health risks and societal costs associated with even chronic marijuana use are mild. Yet we don't ban those items, while we deny marijuana to seriously ill people who could get a lot of relief from it. This is misguided and cruel. "

The Argument: Ever wake up feeling really hung over from a night of smoking out? Thought not. Throw in some heavy drinking, though, and you'll awake feeling like death itself (in fact, alcohol poisoning is a real risk). No one overdoses on marijuana because it has a negligible therapeutic ratio; that is, you don't have to use much to get the desired effect. Why then is one drug available from corner stores and allowed to be promoted at bowling tournaments, whereas the other you have to get from a pimply guy with a mullet you knew vaguely in high school, who hands you something dodgy-looking in a sandwich baggie? Quit the hypocrisy and make these intoxicants equally available.

Anyone familiar with pot knows about the "munchies." So, too, do people weak from AIDS and anorexia that use marijuana to put on needed weight. Cancer patients smoke pot to dispel the nausea they get from chemotherapy, and doctors recommend it for epilepsy, arthritis, migraines and glaucoma. Synthetic forms of THC such as Marinol are ineffective substitutes because they often put patients to sleep before they start to eat, which is the whole point. And administering a proper dosage is even easier: once they've smoked enough to have an appetite, or once their pain subsides, they put down the joint. The federal government should follow the lead of voters in Arizona and California and at least allow the medical use of marijuana.

The Response: We can address the availability of cigarettes and alcohol elsewhere; but surely, adding marijuana to the list of harmful substances that are legal isn't the answer.

Synthetic alternatives are available for patients with these conditions. For patients who are wasting away, we have steroids to stimulate muscle growth; megace, too, has been shown to help patients put on weight. Marinol comes in pill form so patients needn't inhale a carcinogen to make them hungry. A study by The National Institutes of Health concluded that smoking marijuana isn't more effective than regular therapies. It is wrong for doctors to have patients figure out for themselves what the correct dosage should be, especially with a drug as impure as marijuana.

"Prohibition of marijuana doesn't work. It has only spawned an enormous black market, eroded our civil rights and corrupted our justice system."

The Argument: When corn sells for a few dollars a bushel and pot goes for $70,000 a bushel, guess which one cash-strapped midwestern farmers are going to grow? Add to this the fact that you don't exactly need a green thumb to grow basic varieties of marijuana, and the choice gets even easier. Ironically, we've returned to the image of the colonial hemp farmer, though the center of the production is now also the center of the nation: Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky. Marijuana has replaced corn as America's top cash crop, and is really tough to detect tucked away in fields of corn. A legal regime that turns ordinary farmers into the worst class of offenders (growers) has something deeply wrong with it.

The war on drugs will only be won if we're willing to turn our country into a police state, and that is what these draconian laws are doing for us. Owing to a quirk in the law, someone's property can be forfeited even though he's been found innocent in a drug offense. Stiffer sentencing has meant jails overcrowded with drug offenders, forcing the early release of violent criminals - inclluding murderers - to make room for guys who've been handed mandatory life terms without the possibility of parole for their "third strike." America is now the world's greatest jailor nation, with a prison population consisting overwhelmingly of drug offenders. On average, we sentence nonviolent drug offenders to five times more jail time than those convicted of manslaughter. Judges, disgusted with these injustices, are quitting the bench. When the severity of punishment is way out of proportion with the offense, the system is corrupt.

Americans - four million regularly - use marijuana more frequently than they do all other illegal drugs combined. They are no more criminals than people who like to have a drink to relax after work.

The Response: All the drug offenders in jail shows we're doing our job properly. The stiff penalties deter would-be growers, users and traffickers. Financial advantage has never worked as a criminal defense before, and farmers who knowingly break the nation's laws are as culpable as anyone else who does so. The shift of marijuana production to the Midwest proves that our efforts against pot entering this country from Mexico worked, so now we should concentrate our resources on the heartland and reap further successes.



3. HEAR SOME ARGUMENTS AGAINST LEGALIZING POT

"The government has an obligation to protect public health."

The Argument: Drug use causes serious problems in society: accidents, lost productivity on the job, and wrecked families. Legalizing marijuana will make things worse.

Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning it has no known medical uses and possession of any amount is illegal. That puts it in the same category as heroin, whereas cocaine and PCP are Schedule II drugs and may be prescribed by physicians. Smoking a joint is four times more carcinogenic than smoking a cigarette, it remains in the body for weeks at a time, and it is psychologically addicting. The marijuana available today is much more potent than the stuff hippies smoked in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Response: Of course the government classifies pot as a Schedule I, it has long waged a battle against it. Any list that considers pot worse than PCP needs revision. People do not chain smoke pot the way they smoke cigarettes. Once they've gotten high, they usually stop, so ultimately they inhale much less smoke than cigarette smokers. Among heroin, cocaine, nicotine, and caffeine, marijuana is by far the least addictive.


Following decriminalization of pot in California in the 1970s, use rose five percent. A moderate rise in use is a small price to pay to regain normalcy in the application of our drug laws.

"The 'Gateway' Thesis: Pot smokers are much more likely than non-users to graduate to harder drugs like cocaine and heroin."

The Argument: Nearly all heroin users were initially marijuana smokers. In 1988, a National Institute on Drug Abuse survey found that marijuana smokers are thirty times more likely to use cocaine than those who've never smoked it. Other research confirms a strong correlation between marijuana use and use of cocaine, heroin and the hallucinogens.

The Response: No one has proved a causal link between the two. You could also establish a correlation between espresso and a higher incidence of heroin use, but no one would say espresso leads inexorably to heroin addiction.

In any case, it should be expected that more people who smoke pot move to harder drugs than those who've never smoked it, for they have already proven themselves curious enough about drugs to try pot. However, in Jamaica, where per capita use is pretty high, no progression has been shown.

Heroin addicts are a breed apart from the millions of midnight tokers, and their overall consumption rate pales in comparison.



--Pros and Cons of the "Big Weed"--Cahrles G morris/Albert A.Miasto,2006.---

Taking a section from this book, and crunching them together and cutting out some parts, I have given pro's and cons, as well as background information,to legalizing Pot. As such, I suggest you all read this article before posting.

Parts in purple I added, I have Edited Almost the Whole Thing.
Only the basic information was Taken from the Book.

-------------------White Christian Male---------------
PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 12:21 am


I voted my 'mommy says drugs are bad'...but here I am anyway.

Mr. Chainsaw, I saw your post over in ED, and my response has not changed...absolutely brilliant.

However, I think that it is more important to take the money being made from marijuana sales out of the hands of the criminals than it is to protect the health of adults who make their own choices.

I think the government is 'nanny' lawing us to death as it is. You are right, the only way to win the war on drugs would be to enforce a military state...a prospect I am not comfortable with. The only alternative I see is to legalize marijuana. This would cut the black market immensely, and farmers might actually make some money the legal way...not to mention the collective sigh of relief that the millions of pot smokers would give out. I believe it is the intelligent way to slove the war on drugs, before it turns into an actual war between the citizens of this country and it's troops.

-SpringHeel Jakk-

7,950 Points
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Educated Jackass

PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 12:39 am


I thought that way once. Then it hit me. If we Legalize it, put taxes on it,
and such, what do you think will happen? Due to tax the same amount of
Herb will cost you up to Ten dollars more than on the street.Now, for heavy duty smokers, this is not good.In fact, The Street Vending industry will Sky
rocket, every one grasping for cheaper solutions. If this happens,
growing at home and dealing on the street would become punishable by far worse means than they are today. And, if it is Legal, the Cigar Company's will most Likely bypass even oil dealers in profit. When this happens, and all of the USA economy revolves around drugs, Military action will be taken anyway,
to ensure these laws. Growing pot would become A life sentence.
What Many people do not realize is how much power a company like that would have over...well, everything. As such, and supposing all of the above was true, it would be more chaos, and might even lead to Bloodshed.
Great, Right? Legalizing it Might not me an Option.

Now, Pretend Everything goes good, it is Legal, Everyone Is Happy.
How long until Pot will become a national Trade Industry?
It will become worth as much In price as oil, surpassing it by a long shot.
Due to this, there may even be wars over it.

Imagine this-All the pot is taken from a country, there Factory now under
USA control. Are they going to be happy? Would you be Happy?
This would lead to rebellion, and such to war and death.

The only Plausible solution I can think of is to create a pill of sorts, or even gum, that induces the same Chemical Reaction in the Brain as pot.
As such, there would be no struggle over it, And all health
Issues would be void, and Thus it could be Legalized,
no Fraud, No harm.

One more thing. What if they trick us? They could legalize it, sell it, and they would have you on record. Every pot smoker in the country, on Record. Cancel the Law, make some Arrests, and the *problem*
Would be solved. Country Like ours has done things Like this in the past.
Then Jails would be full, and eventually, this would lead to rebellion,
and so on to Bloodshed.

Germany, for example, told people to check there guns in for
free ammunition. And, as such, within a week later, every person on the list was hunted down and killed. Very Few saw it coming, and even Fewer Escaped.

Just Food for thought.


-------------------The Sexy Chainsaw God--------------
PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 1:04 am


You have a point, if not several.

I doubt that the price would rise so exponetially, however. Or that the economy would change so rapidly. Beer is legal, heavily advertised, and heavily used, and yet the USA is not run by the beer corporations. I doubt that maijuana use would ever skyrocket to surpass beer use. Cigar corporations ruling the world? Come on, even the oil companies are having a hard time with that, and they practically monopolize the world's power supplies.

As far as a gum or pill that replicates cannabis' high? I'm all for it. IF they can prove to me that using it is as safe and relatively harmless as smoking a bowl. Remeber saccharin? Back in the '70s and '80s it was hailed as the answer to america's obesity problem...then they found out it caused cancer in lab rats.

I'm also going to disagree with the whole trojan horse trick. If it is legal, and they sell it, and then they change the law, those who bought it would be protected by the grandfather clause...unless they are really trying to bring down a civil war. And if things have progressed to that point, then we're pretty well screwed anyway, and legal pot will be the least of our concerns.

Won't matter much to me. If I see America going down that path, I'll find another country to live in. Like Great Britain, which already decriminalized their pot.

-SpringHeel Jakk-

7,950 Points
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  • Hygienic 200
  • Risky Lifestyle 100

Educated Jackass

PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:26 am


But you see, Herb would be owned by the tobacco company.
You see, the beer company owns beer.
Now the Tobacco company would own Cigars, Weed, and Chew.
Three of the four major things taken in America.
What does that mean? Soon, they would buy out the beer company.
It would not take long with the profits they would be making, and
would be a wise business choice, no matter how you look at it.


My point being it would turn out like when We were being Taxed for Tea.

Every path Leads to Rebellion.


Not to start a new argument, smoking a bowl has risks, if you want me to elaborate Ask. It is off topic, however.

Making a gum that just released the chemical?
That would take out all the cancer causing(or so they say)
chemicals, as well as the tar problem for lungs.
It would just be safer.

And civil war will happen within the Next twenty years.

Why?

Because a president will pass a law someone does not agree too.
That state May declare to be removed from the Union,
and will be. Others will follow.

I may be too paranoid, But I have been right in the past.

---------------The Sexy Chainsaw God=======
PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 6:25 pm


I'd truly hate to see a civil war, but I agree that we are getting too divided as a nation over the most simple of laws. I've been seein one coming myself for a while.

And this may be off topic, but I kinda thought that this would be more of a community effort here...why are we the only ones having this conversation?

-SpringHeel Jakk-

7,950 Points
  • Tycoon 200
  • Hygienic 200
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chibi-faolan

Vice Captain

Modern Antiquarian

PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:48 pm


Ephram TRR
I'd truly hate to see a civil war, but I agree that we are getting too divided as a nation over the most simple of laws. I've been seein one coming myself for a while.

And this may be off topic, but I kinda thought that this would be more of a community effort here...why are we the only ones having this conversation?

Because faolan-chan has been interviewing like crazy so as to procure an income and hasn't been online and recruiting. o_O;

We haven't gone through and cleaned out the non-posting members yet, either, so it does look like the guild is bigger than it functionally is. So... I mean, y'know... tell your friends. :3

As for a civil war, there's a quote from The Hunt For Red October that I really like -- "A little revolution, now and again, is a healthy thing."
PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:57 pm


A civil war may do us some good. Or may become the greater Evil.
There is no way to Judge, as it would be war. War is Random.


--------The Sexy Chainsaw God-------

Educated Jackass


-SpringHeel Jakk-

7,950 Points
  • Tycoon 200
  • Hygienic 200
  • Risky Lifestyle 100
PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 6:49 pm


Hang on guys... I'll be back to the debate a little later...

Life has interfered with my Gaia time, Should be straightened out in a day or two.
PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 11:40 am


Ephram TRR
Hang on guys... I'll be back to the debate a little later...

Life has interfered with my Gaia time, Should be straightened out in a day or two.

It happens... even to Californians. ninja


faolan

Captain

O.G. Gaian


Kureyan

PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 3:43 pm


Man this is a Huge debate. I like your set of information. There is more to it then what you have posted but I would have to say what I've blogged back in may:

" When you talk about drugs, you know, today, we're focusing on the drug of the day—whatever it is, heroin or methedrine—but in fact, over the past thousand years it's been drugs that have built the empires that created Western civilization. Sugar, tobacco, alcohol, opium, tea, chocolate, these are the drugs that shaped civilization.

Coffee, another big one. And of course we don't think of these as drugs. We call them foods or whatever we call them, because "A drug is a bad thing, a food is a good thing." But eventually people are going to wise up to this racket. And they need to because we need to educate our children about this complex area of human behavior. There are dangerous drugs. There are drugs that, if used carefully, can be a tremendous enhancement of life. But you have to know what you're doing. It's not something you just blunder into. And all generalizations will have exceptions.

Are these drugs made illegal because of some kind of process involving scientific, medical, and government hearings; that it was to protect the citizens from what was determined to be a dangerous drug? No its because of racism that drugs like cannabis or even cocaine are illegal in the first place. Now that these things are illegal we are paying millions to stop the millions of people who use them everyday. This will not stop.

Netherlands, you know. Legal prostitution, lowest AIDS rate in Europe. Legal heroin, lowest heroin addiction rate in Europe. No prison building going on. Young people are using cannabis. They are not using hard drugs. The connection between the soft and hard drugs seems to have been broken by legalization.

So what is the solution? Its knowledge, and to not lie about the truth. Also the legalization of it all again."


I wasn't always for herb. My whole family smokes it, and growing up and knowing the public opinion of it made me think bad about it without actually looking into it myself. Then there was a moment in my life where I was being lied to by everyone, whether it was out of kindness or not. So instead of just accepting what people told me I looked into everything I knew (took a long time believe me). After doing a lot of research on Cannabis I came to the conclusion that something that used to be called "God's Gift" was turned illegal for stupid political reasons.

It's been illegal for almost 100 years now, but has been known and used for thousands of years. Its not something that has slowed or was stopping our progression.

Also I don't think we should become a policed country. You have something that no one should take away, and thats called free will. Free to do, think, and say what ever you feel like doing. America; land of the free. Lets not forget why this country was started in the first place.
PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 6:07 pm


The Sexy Chainsaw God
If we Legalize it, put taxes on it,
and such, what do you think will happen? Due to tax the same amount of
Herb will cost you up to Ten dollars more than on the street.Now, for heavy duty smokers, this is not good.In fact, The Street Vending industry will Sky
rocket, every one grasping for cheaper solutions. If this happens,
growing at home and dealing on the street would become punishable by far worse means than they are today. And, if it is Legal, the Cigar Company's will most Likely bypass even oil dealers in profit. When this happens, and all of the USA economy revolves around drugs, Military action will be taken anyway,
to ensure these laws. Growing pot would become A life sentence.
What Many people do not realize is how much power a company like that would have over...well, everything. As such, and supposing all of the above was true, it would be more chaos, and might even lead to Bloodshed.
Great, Right? Legalizing it Might not me an Option.
There shouldn't be a tax on this in the first place. If legal again people would plant cannabis in their yards and gardens. It would spread across America growing wild like it used to. All would be good.

The Sexy Chainsaw God
Now, Pretend Everything goes good, it is Legal, Everyone Is Happy.
How long until Pot will become a national Trade Industry?
It will become worth as much In price as oil, surpassing it by a long shot.
Due to this, there may even be wars over it.
If legal again the plant will once again grow wild, no one would fight over it, no war.

The Sexy Chainsaw God
The only Plausible solution I can think of is to create a pill of sorts, or even gum, that induces the same Chemical Reaction in the Brain as pot.
As such, there would be no struggle over it, And all health
Issues would be void, and Thus it could be Legalized,
no Fraud, No harm.
They do have it in pill form, its called Marinol; synthetic THC which is Schedule III.

The Sexy Chainsaw God
Making a gum that just released the chemical?
That would take out all the cancer causing(or so they say)
chemicals, as well as the tar problem for lungs.
It would just be safer.
Smoking Cannabis does not cause cancer. Studies Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection.

Kureyan


Kureyan

PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 6:25 pm


I heard that there are over 400 chemicals in marijuana...

True, but so what? There are also over 400 chemicals in many foods, (including coffee, which contains over 800 chemicals and many rat carcinogens) and we don't see police arresting people in McDonald's, or giving Driving while Eating citations. Only THC is very psycho-active; a few other chemicals also have very small degrees of psycho-activity. People who use marijuana do not get sick
more, or die earlier, or lose their jobs (except to drug tests), or have mutant kids... so what's your point?

The fact that there are over 60 unique chemicals in cannabis, called `cannabinoids,' is something that
scientists find very interesting. Many of these cannabinoids may have valuable effects as medicine. For example, `cannabinol' is a cannabinoid which can help people with insomnia. Doctors think that this chemical is why most patients prefer to use marijuana rather than pure Delta-9-THC pills (called dronabinol) -- the cannabinol takes the edge off being `high' and calms the nerves. Another cannabinoid, `cannabidiolic acid', is a very effective anti-biotic, like pennicillin. Many of these
chemicals can be extracted from marijuana without any fancy laboratory equipment.
PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 6:39 pm


The Sexy Chainsaw God
Drug use causes serious problems in society: accidents, lost productivity on the job, and wrecked families. Legalizing marijuana will make things worse.

Not if you are a responsible adult, it doesn't. Ask the U.S. Army. They did a study and showed no effect. If this were true, why would many Eastern cultures, and Jamaicans, use marijuana to help them work harder?

The Sexy Chainsaw God
The marijuana available today is much more potent than the stuff hippies smoked in the 1960s and 1970s.
GOOD! Actually, this is not true, but if it were, it would mean that marijuana is safer to smoke today than it was in the Sixties. (More potent cannabis means less smoking means less lung damage.) People who use this statistic just plain do not know what they are talking about. Sometimes they will even claim that marijuana is now twenty to thirty times stronger, which is physically impossible because it would have to be *over* 100% Delta-9-THC. The truth is, marijuana has not really changed potency all that much, if at all, in the last several hundred years. Growing potent cannabis is an ancient art
which has not improved in centuries, despite all our modern technology. Before marijuana was even made illegal, drug stores sold tinctures of cannabis which were over 40% THC.

The Sexy Chainsaw God
"The 'Gateway' Thesis: Pot smokers are much more likely than non-users to graduate to harder drugs like cocaine and heroin."

The Argument: Nearly all heroin users were initially marijuana smokers. In 1988, a National Institute on Drug Abuse survey found that marijuana smokers are thirty times more likely to use cocaine than those who've never smoked it. Other research confirms a strong correlation between marijuana use and use of cocaine, heroin and the hallucinogens.

The Response: No one has proved a causal link between the two. You could also establish a correlation between espresso and a higher incidence of heroin use, but no one would say espresso leads inexorably to heroin addiction.

In any case, it should be expected that more people who smoke pot move to harder drugs than those who've never smoked it, for they have already proven themselves curious enough about drugs to try pot. However, in Jamaica, where per capita use is pretty high, no progression has been shown.

Heroin addicts are a breed apart from the millions of midnight tokers, and their overall consumption rate pales in comparison.
This is totally untrue. In fact, researchers are looking into using marijuana to help crack addicts to quit. There are 40 million people in this country (U.S.) who have smoked marijuana for a period of their lives -- why aren't there tens of millions of heroin users, then? In Amsterdam, both marijuana use and heroin use went *down* after marijuana was decriminalized -- even though there was a short rise in cannabis use right after decriminalization. Unlike addictive drugs, marijuana causes almost no tolerance. Some people even report a reverse tolerance. That is, the longer they have used the less marijuana they need to get `high.' So users of marijuana do not usually get bored and `look for something more powerful'. If anything, marijuana keeps people from doing harder drugs.

The idea that using marijuana will lead you to use heroin or speed is called the `gateway theory' or the `stepping stone hypothesis.' It has been a favorite trick of the anti-drug propaganda artists, because it casts marijuana as something insidious with hidden dangers and pitfalls. There have never been any real statistics to back this idea up, but somehow it was the single biggest thing which the newspapers yelled about during Reefer Madness II. (Perhaps this was because the CIA was looking for someone to blame for the increase in heroin use after Viet Nam.)

The gateway theory of drug use is no longer generally accepted by the medical community. Prohibitionists used to point at numbers which showed that a large percentage of the hard drug users `started with marijuana.' They had it backwards -- many hard drug users also use marijuana. There
are two reasons for this. One is that marijuana can be used to `take the edge off' the effects of some hard drugs. The other is a recently discovered fact of adolescent psychology -- there is a personality type which uses drugs, basically because drugs are exciting and dangerous, a thrill.

On sociological grounds, another sort of gateway theory has been argued which claims that marijuana is the source of the drug subculture and leads to other drugs through that culture. By the same token this is untrue -- marijuana does not create the drug subculture, the drug subculture uses marijuana. There are many marijuana users who are not a part of the subculture.

This brings up another example of how marijuana legalization could actually reduce the use of illicit drugs. Even though there is no magical `stepping stone' effect, people who choose to buy marijuana often buy from dealers who deal in many different illegal drugs. This means that they have access to illegal drugs, and might decide to try them out. In this case it is the laws which lead to hard drug use. If
marijuana were legal, the drug markets would be separated, and less people would start using the illegal drugs. Maybe this is why emergency room admissions for hard drugs have gone down in the states that decriminalized marijuana during the 70's

(all info taken from http://www.cannabis.com/faqs/cannabis_frequently_asked_questions_1994/cannabis_truths_myths_facts_3.html)

Kureyan


Educated Jackass

PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 10:25 pm


Good addition of information.

As for the legal argument-

They would not let you grow it. They want to make money,
and will keep growing it illegal. Not only does it make what is in it questionable, you do not know other factors.

I cannot see them legalizing growing it, just selling it.


as for marijuana not causing cancer----

True. It is the smoking it part that does, however.


As for the info, get one more site, please, as that is a pro-smoking site, and is Bias. I am not doubting it, I would just like one more source.
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