Will California legalize marijuana?

[Hawkeye]

wfz said:

The Ghost of RubangB said:

wfz said:
Well I've seen studies and research that have linked marijuana causing schizophrenia in people, mainly those who already have a biological disposition.

I don't know if legalizing marijuana will make more people smoke it, but I hope not. Schizophrenia is one of the worst things that can happen to someone. Almost twice as many Americans have Schizophrenia than Aids/HIV. For every Schizophrenic person, there are even more who share the biological disposition but never developed schizophrenia (like the family members). Marijuana would very much liken the chance that those individuals would develop Schizophrenia, and that is absolutely horrible in my mind. That is a LOT of people at risk for developing Schizophrenia, and that's a very serious condition to develop.

Who knows if marijuana has connections to anything else. That's not a risk I think I'd like to take. Even if it doesn't have any other relations, helping to cause Schizophrenia is horrible enough. Should something like that be legalized?

When a drug is legal, it's easier to find reliable information on it.  When drugs are illegal, the truth gets drowned out by "zomg it's the devil-weed" lies and "zomg it should be legal it can save the universe" lies.

People will have to know if their family has a history of schizophrenia, and realize that even if their family doesn't, there is a very small chance that trying a drug will be bad for them.  I think that all that information should be readily available, but that in the end, the choice to try it or not should be theirs alone and the government shouldn't stop them.  Telling people not to do drugs should be the job of friends and family, not the job of the government and paid for by nationwide taxes.

 

Rubang I always appreciate your posts, even if we are on the opposite end of an argument.

In your first paragraph, are you saying it's hard to come by the truth because extremists on both sides like to blow up the truth to put the other side down? I can agree with that, but there are definitely still reliable sources of information, even if they are alongside countless others that aren't reliable. It can be hard to find out what is and what isn't.

Schizophrenia is much more common than people realize. Part of the ignorance stems from Schizophrenia never really being focused on by our media.

While I agree that people should make their own choices in life, that doesn't mean that they are perfectly informed of the entire situation. If people want to smoke marijuana, fine, but they should really study and know everything that it can cause. Another big thing to consider is relationships with your family members, and how they might react to it.

There's a whole parallel topic about Scizophrenia that I'm a bit frustrated about. The masses really don't know anything about it, and it's totally misunderstood. Twice as many people will have Schizophrenia than Aids/HIV in America. In high school you'll get a bunch of speakers and even a health class that goes over all the STI's and Aids, but nothing is ever said of Scizophrenia. I could go on and on about this topic, but since it's a bit off topic I'm going to stop. The whole thing just really frustrates me though, partly because my sister has Schizophrenia and I've seen a lot of what Schizophrenia does and how it affects everyone's relationships and messes up lives.

 

(just grinded through a bunch of edits to clear my mistakes and whatnot) For some reason I have a way easier reading through my post after I actually post it. I'm amazed at how many mistakes I miss before making my post. :P

Does Schizophrenia affect about 0.5% of the population or something like that? Iv'e read a little about it but don't know tons.

I'm pretty sure it develops between 15-28 years old or something like that in people. Do you happen to know the warning signs? Mental illness runs in my family so it could be useful for myself or other people in my family if I notice something wrong with them.