Joelcool7 said:
Man oh man I love how people try to justify Marijuanna.
Now don't get me wrong I think if Alchohol is legal then Marijuanna should be as well, since alchohol is far more dangerous. However the Canadian Government did research and found that Marijuanna does indeed damage the brain. You can try to refute the study all you want but having known pot smokers for years I see a massive decline in intelligence.
Link to study? Because these two disagree:
http://americanlivewire.com/marijuana-has-no-effect-on-brain/
"In the before-and-after brain scans, the study shows how, even with heavy usage, marijuana has no effect on brain tissue as there was no reduction in white matter brain tissue health."
http://blog.norml.org/2009/07/28/marijuana%E2%80%99s-impact-on-brain-function-%E2%80%9Cminimal%E2%80%9D-new-study-says/
"Investigators concluded, “Minimal evidence of major effects of cannabis on brain structure has been reported,” noting that marijuana users and controls perform similarly on cognitive tasks."
The only potential negative mental effect is a slightly increased risk in developing schizophrenia if you smoke heavily for years, starting from a young age... http://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/does-marijuana-cause-schizophrenia/
"Nevertheless, the evidence seems to be there, and it is quite frightening to look it over. The initial study was an elegant analysis of Swedish military recruits in 1987.
The increased risk was on the order of 4.5 times for those using by age 15, but down to 1.6 times for those using by age 18. The increased risk was decreasing rapidly. Let’s extrapolate to ages 16 and 17: Age 15: 4.5 X. Age 16: 3.7 X Age 17: 2.65 X. Age 18: 1.6 X. At that rate, all increased risk would have evaporated for users who wait until they are age 19 until they start using.
Since the Swedish study, the evidence has piled up. Still, despite the scary and numbing evidence, there is not yet any evidence that cannabis causes schizophrenia de novo. Instead, it appears to be interacting with some already existing risk factor.
This page is a good repository for the numbing evidence on this score.
However, that site has some serious problems.
They are finding increased risk of schizophrenia from everything from “being too introverted and being alone too much”, emigrating to a new country – up to 4X increased risk, having an unpleasant and unstable home life as a child, experience – social adversity – four or more episodes of “abuse” increased risk by 2.7X, living in a city (3X increased risk), especially an inner city (as opposed to the country), or being vulnerable to depression or anxiety."
So basically don't do it excessively (daily or near-daily use over years is how that's usually defined) when you're younger and it's fine. It's actually possibly beneficial to your brain in numerous ways according to the article and its links.
And there are still study's that find no link at all... http://www.democraticunderground.com/117036
You can proclaim your personal experiences all you want, just like I could say I know plenty of people who do weed on a regular basis and it doesn't hinder them (quite the opposite in some situations), but it doesn't change the facts. And please, don't mix users with abusers, of anything.
As for Gateway drug, you can't refute that either. Even if it was perfectly legal it would still lead people to try other drugs. I know two people personally who started smoking weed and moved onto Cigerettes (Another thing I think should not be legal). I also know someone who moved onto Meth , Ex etc...etc... Now sure the drug dealer may have sold them on meth, but what about the cigerettes? No dealer tried to get them smoking cigerettes, but they thought if Marijuanna was okay maybe smoking other things was okay too. That's not how it works. Some people mix weed with tabacco in joints, so eventually they can get hooked on the tabacco. Obviously, this is easily avoidable. As for your meth buddy, as you said, the dealer could be selling other drugs as well (this scenario wouldn't exist if weed was legal), but also if you're a person using illegal drugs, it's more likely you're going to be around others using illegal drugs... it has nothing to do with the substance itself whatsoever.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/05/study-the-gateway-drug-is-alcohol-not-marijuana/
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/05/study-the-gateway-drug-is-alcohol-not-marijuana/
Good, summarising article: http://healthland.time.com/2010/10/29/marijuna-as-a-gateway-drug-the-myth-that-will-not-die/
As for the driving factor. I drove a couple times with a friend who was high. Its true he thought he was driving better. But he was paranoid as heck. He'd stop early when he thought the light was going to change. He always hesitated to change lanes and was constantly looking back and around. Then a cop drove by and he started freaking out. Driving with him was just as scary as the time I was dumb enough to take a ride from a drunk guy. Marijuanna impares your judgement, it makes many paranoid. Paranoia can lead to accidents and other things, I've seen planty of police chases on TV where the drivers were high and even though they only ran a stop sign or were speeding they decided to run.
I agree you shouldn't drive while high.
Now I agree yet again that alchohol is worse, but just because something bad for you is legal doesn't mean it all should be. You mention caffiene, to overdose on caffiene you would need to drink like 15-cans in one sitting (Adults) now how many cans do you think the average person drinks? Can you even drink that many cans fast enough to over dose?
Now you could argue Salvia is another gateway drug but is legal. Well in Canada for example that is no longer the case.
I can honestly say I have never tried an illegal drug or controlled substance.
Maybe you should try some... even if you don't feel comfortable about doing it just for fun, they can be an educational experience. Cannabis is great for self-reflection and understanding complex concepts, and I've heard amazing things about mushshrooms.
I also stopped drinking alchohol over a year ago. I think Alchohol should be illegal alongside marijuanna. They tried that in the 30s... saying it worked terribly would be a gross under-statement... the current war on drugs is similarly terrible and useless. However you are correct their is alot of money to be made in legalizing alchohol, but should we be legalizing everything just for money.
The reason alchohol became legal again was because the majority of american's were drinking it, the reason cigerettes are legal is because everyone got hooked on them and too many people were smokers before the Governments knew what they were doing. The reason pot will become legal is because a healthy minority of the population wants it so.
We live in democracies and in democracies the population makes the laws. But just because something makes you feel good, kills pain or gives you a high does not mean it should be legal. Also doesn't mean it should be illegal. What is your point? Also the majority of voters still do not want pot legal. If so many wanted it legal then their would be more protests, larger protests and more voters would vote in elections for people that want pot legal.
I wouldn't be so sure... http://prospect.org/article/majority-americans-now-support-marijuana-legalization
Obviously polls aren't completely accurate, but it paints a picture, that picture being that by the decade more and more people are supporting legalisation.
Just look at the Marijuanna party here in Canada, or the NDP who also want pot legal. Now look at their votes? Do they have many supporters? Not enough to even make second place in an election. Infact the Marijuanna Party has to my knowledge never even one a single seat locally, provincially or nationally.
The American people don't want pot legal, the government doesn't want pot legal. A few hippies and hill billies should not be allowed to run the country. Eventually I'm sure it will become legal much like alchohol did, but it just goes to show you how our society doesn't give a crap anymore. The minorities don't care what their addiction or usage of alchohol, marijuanna or cigerettes do to the people around them. They don't care about the inflated health bills the people they kill drunk driving the families they tear apart.
All this minority cares about is their own feelings, it makes me feel good there for I should do it. That's BS. A massive chunk of the argument for legalisation is to get the thousands (or millions globally) of people out of prison, who went there for the victimless crime of smoking weed, or doing some other drug. And even if it was 100% selfish, so what? Criminalisation has been an utter failure, and why shouldn't people be able to smoke a practically harmless substance if they want to? Legalisation and regulation or decriminalisation works a million times better than illegalisation... just look at Holland or Portugal.
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