On cigarettes, I'd support making them illegal in public and restricted, to, say, your house or designated bars. If you want to smoke, fine, it's your body, but don't inflict carcinogenic toxins on the people around you.

There are also studies that find there is a link with schizophrenia, and others that find marijuana increases depression rather than helping with it, if we're going to look at both sides of the fence here.

Nicotine is naturally found in cigarettes in small dosages, but cig companies add more nicotine to make the drugs addictive, much more, and because it's naturally found in cigarettes it's fine. It's like adding Vitamin D to milk, because vitamin D is found naturally in milk, you can add all the Vitamin D you like to the milk in processing.

Native cigarettes (unprocessed) are significantly less addictive then regular cigarettes, and much less addictive then alcohol, and marijuanna.

agree on that. sure, weed isnt harmful at all if you smoke it every other day or on weekends but if you smoke all day everyday, like i used to than it can really mess with your mental and emotional state. obviously these effects aint permanent and is just a sign telling you to stop smoking bud for a while. if theres any regular weed smokers out there, take like a month break every now and then.

I agree, made legal excstacy would be cleaner and better for consumers, and I think it's still used for prescriptions for people with severe anxiety. What stops this from happening are the premise laws are based on, morals. If we legalized exsctacy we're saying it's okay to take those pills. It might be safe for ocassional use, but most won't use it for ocassional use.

So instead of saying it's okay, the idea is to band and eliminate this substance completly. In Reality that doesn't happen, but it does deter many, and damages those who take the risks more.

Okay, for Speeding, lets say you desgnate an HOV lane for those who are capable of going 200km/h, so you don't affect others. While some people are capable to control themselves, most are not.

It's kind of ironic how Alcholol is so dangerous, but it's "safer" then weed, despite being abusing alcohol and drinking and driving. At least highs leave your system relatively fast compared to alcohol. It's amaing how much people can misconceptualize drugs.

I don't know too much about Exstacy, but I'm pretty against all sythetic pills. I don't even take tylonol when I have a headache. I know natural isn't better, but stuff like weed and alcohol have been in cultures for thousands of years, and the long term effects are known. They aren't better, but I prefer to leave the number of chamicals entering me at a minimum. I can't really avoid alcohol, but I really wish weed were legal instead.

Better research and education would definatly help. Kids should know about the adverse affects of various drugs. I really don't know the effects outside of weed and alcohol, but I do know Opium based drugs are extremely addictive, and don't even give you a good high.

I book marked that article, I'll read it later, but I recall Marijuanna became illegal because paper companies feared that hemp could be used as a cheaper source of paper, so they made rumors about people getting high on hemp, lol.

I'm not ignoring them. I actually brought up a study earlier in the thread that did link the two (you can dig for it), but it only effected those who've smoked heavily (daily) since early teenage years until their 20s, and even then the results were inconclusive. My point here is that there are studies that refute it, and only one study I can find that shows any link whatsoever. 

The MJ and depression thing is kind of hard to figure out. No study says MJ causes depression, they say there's a higher proportion of MJ smokers diagnosed with depression than nonsmokers (important distinction there), so what's likely actually happened is people have other factors in their life making them depressed, making them more likely to do weed or do a lot more weed. 

The studies finding no connection aren't any more conclusive, I was merely bringing up the other side of the debate. Truth is we don't know for sure.

One of the common effects of marijuana is a loss of motivation, and motivation is one of the best cures for depression. I agree that for many people marijuana use would be a symptom rather than a cause of depression, but for others marijuana could just as likely have been an aggravating or even an instigating factor.

No, they are more conclusive. One found the "prevalence of schizophrenia and psychoses to be either stable or declining.", and the only study that I could find that links the two wasn't sure if it were interacting with some other existing risk factor or directly doing anything. The age range and amount of use at which it said increased the risk for schizo is pretty easy to avoid and rare. "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." And just think legalisation would make it harder for the younger people supposedly in danger to get weed in the first place.

Loss of motivation really depends on the strain. Some strains make you lazy and "couch-locked", others make you full of ideas and creative. So if you were to take medical marijuana for depression you'd be recommended to take the latter.

There is a difference between proper drug usage and drug abuse. Some forms of drugs, like heroin, crack, and meth, are easy to be abused - and this can lead to large health issues and a detriment to the livelihood of one and society. Although this is a very poor argument for banning them from a society which regularly and openly abuses the drinking of cola and alcohol, the eating of hamburgers, sausages, pastries, and the smoking of cigarettes. All of these things are generally far more damaging to health and society than smoking a doobie every now and then.

I´ve had sex on weed and fell asleep , too much alcohol gives you a dizzy Boner.

Yeah, I am not sure why so many people seem to think weed is bad for sex. Obviously people who have never smoked weed and had sex =P