Cannibus legalized in Alaska, Was., and Oregon

[AT-Man]

That must be it. She even took only one or two puffs. Whatever the case, I have no reason to believe she would be lying.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Wingnut

A rare, literal, case of Reefer Madness. I'll be damned.

The only "Reefer Madness" I've ever seen was someone coming down with an overwhelming craving for a sack of BK Chicken Whoppers.

....and now I went and f*cked everything up for all of us in this thread. WHY DID THEY STOP MAKING CHICKEN WHOPPERS?! Reading between the lines of the comments, I feel pretty certain more than half the people in here are wondering the same thing I am and wanting to kill whoever made the call to kill off the Chicken Whopper.

"It's always 4:20 somewhere", is the gist of what I'm tiptoeing around.

Originally Posted by AT-Man

That must be it. She even took only one or two puffs. Whatever the case, I have no reason to believe she would be lying.

Two puffs won't even make most people cough, she was definitely hamming it up for attention. That's barely enough to make the average housecat walk in a crooked circle before tumbling sideways and taking a brief nap.

[Netkeeper]

Originally Posted by AT-Man

It was surprising and she hadn't drunk alcohol prior that. But so far I've witnessed it happen once, even though it didn't take long and she was taken home soon after. Heard her saying later that she experienced some kind of existential crisis and thought she was in Hell and would only hear my and one another guy's voices for all eternity.

Sounds like my first experience with shrooms.

[Leo656]

You kids and your drugs. That sh*t scares me.

[tmntpower1988]

[turtlefanforever]

this is a nice conversation. I like this. People being civil and reasonable. Wish it'd happen around here more often.

[blindturtle02]

Ah jeez, I got the munchies just reading this thread, and I've never even been stoned. That bit about reefer madness cracked me up. I tend to find things funny enough as it is, so I'd probably be laughing for hours if I ever got stoned. Not happening, even though my brother does think it'd be funny as hell to watch. I'd let some other blind person do it and observe them. Huh, I wonder what would happen if they tried their hand at art, music, or poetry while stoned and if they were already proficient at the last two? Genuinely curious. Would anyone see the beauty in it after coming down? lol Well, worked for the Beatles with I Am The Walrus and Strawberry Fields.

Funny you should mention this stuff becoming legal, TFF. Now I got that one autotune the news segment by Shmoyoho stuck in my head. "A dark dark best day I ever had!"

[Leo656]

I don't know how I'd be able to say for certain.. but...

I kind of think maybe sometimes people in pop culture and the media exaggerate weed's effects a little bit, or more. No idea how I'd know for sure... but I've heard... that it's not quite like the movies make it seem.

Actually, no, wait, I do know people like that. Huh. I'unno. I'unno how it works then.

[Peanut]

Cannabis was invented by Frito-Lay (a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo) in the 60's to enhance sales of their delicious* Doritos® brand Tortilla Chips.

Pot smokers everywhere are falling into this trap and lining the pockets of the snack business fat cats. You thought Big Tobacco played hard ball? Look into the money the Snack Lobby is schilling out to keep this gateway1 drug on the streets and now they're writing enough checks to legalize (!) it! When will these sheeple wake up and realize they're just a cog in the machine that is the snack food industry!?

*Authors emphasis
1 Smoking my lead to multiple "gateway" snack habits. These include, but are not limited to - Popping and not stopping. Doing the Dew. Thinking outside the bun and/or heading for the border. Not eating just one. Lovin' It. Having it Your Way.

[Refractive Reflections]

The extent and effort certain portions of the population are going to legalize marijuana use (outside of any medicinal use) is disappointing, just imagine if that same energy was actually used in making social or economic improvements. Oh well... I guess for some, it's more important to get high than improve standards of living.

It's ironic that society has demonized tobacco, but is now welcoming marijuana use. ...Are we just trading one drug for another? It's a little scary as to the societal effects in terms of mental health considering there's an uncertain connection (if there's a correlation versus cause-and-effect) between marijuana use and brain changes and symptoms resembling schizophrenia.

[BubblyShell22]

My fear is that legalizing marijuana for recreational use may lead to legalizing other drugs such as heroin and cocaine. That's not something I want to see at all.

[turtlefanforever]

Originally Posted by Refractive Reflections

The extent and effort certain portions of the population are going to legalize marijuana use (outside of any medicinal use) is disappointing, just imagine if that same energy was actually used in making social or economic improvements. Oh well... I guess for some, it's more important to get high than improve standards of living.

It's ironic that society has demonized tobacco, but is now welcoming marijuana use. ...Are we just trading one drug for another? It's a little scary as to the societal effects in terms of mental health considering there's an uncertain connection (if there's a correlation versus cause-and-effect) between marijuana use and brain changes and symptoms resembling schizophrenia.

with all due respect that's a very silly thing to say. Legalizing Marijuana will also open up the hemp market. 1 acre of Hemp yields as much paper as 4 acres of trees. (you know, the things we need to give us oxygen to LIVE) there's a lot of uses to it. I understand if you're a sheltered person and just listen to what people say on tv and uneducated folk, but if you actually look up all the good it does you'd have a very differen't outlook. What benefits does tabaccoo have? I'll tell ya, none! Marijuana? it relaxes folk, hemp is a very useful and cheaper product for a wide array of items. it helps people eat. Helps anxiety, ect. There is no irony. The only thing ironic is saying it's as bad as other drugs and then actually comparing the death rate. 0 to uhhh..how many? millions? oh yeah it's just as bad.. ignorance. But again no offense.

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

My fear is that legalizing marijuana for recreational use may lead to legalizing other drugs such as heroin and cocaine. That's not something I want to see at all.

that wouldn't happen. There's no benefit to those drugs.

[tmntpower1988]

Originally Posted by turtlefanforever

with all due respect that's a very silly thing to say. Legalizing Marijuana will also open up the hemp market. 1 acre of Hemp yields as much paper as 4 acres of trees. (you know, the things we need to give us oxygen to LIVE) there's a lot of uses to it. I understand if you're a sheltered person and just listen to what people say on tv and uneducated folk, but if you actually look up all the good it does you'd have a very differen't outlook. What benefits does tabaccoo have? I'll tell ya, none! Marijuana? it relaxes folk, hemp is a very useful and cheaper product for a wide array of items. it helps people eat. Helps anxiety, ect. There is no irony. The only thing ironic is saying it's as bad as other drugs and then actually comparing the death rate. 0 to uhhh..how many? millions? oh yeah it's just as bad.. ignorance. But again no offense.



that wouldn't happen. There's no benefit to those drugs.

Society is full of hypocrites. Alcohol causes more deaths than illegal drugs but yet getting drunk all the time is socially acceptable and if you take drugs you're labelled as a scumbag. When I used to take ecstasy pills people said that I was a scumbag for taking them (even my own mother called me it). I wasn't doing anybody any harm.

[Refractive Reflections]

Originally Posted by turtlefanforever

with all due respect that's a very silly thing to say. Legalizing Marijuana will also open up the hemp market. 1 acre of Hemp yields as much paper as 4 acres of trees. (you know, the things we need to give us oxygen to LIVE)

C'mon... like agrarian hemp is going to make a massive improvement to the oxygen levels in our world? So much for the rainforests (like the Amazon) and the unimaginable amounts of phytoplankton then.

Originally Posted by turtlefanforever

there's a lot of uses to it. I understand if you're a sheltered person and just listen to what people say on tv and uneducated folk, but if you actually look up all the good it does you'd have a very differen't outlook. What benefits does tabaccoo have? I'll tell ya, none! Marijuana? it relaxes folk, hemp is a very useful and cheaper product for a wide array of items. it helps people eat. Helps anxiety, ect. There is no irony. The only thing ironic is saying it's as bad as other drugs and then actually comparing the death rate. 0 to uhhh..how many? millions? oh yeah it's just as bad.. ignorance. But again no offense.

Oh really? How would you explain these articles about the hazy, uncertain connection between marijuana use and schizophrenic-like brain changes:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/270262.php
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...zophrenia.html
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscent...or-memory.html
http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/t...s-201103071676
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/schi...psychosis-link
...Are those people from Northwestern University and Harvard just that "uneducated" then? If one wants to take that unnecessary cognition and psychological risk for a self-gratifying high, go right ahead, eventually if someone's just that determined for that particular high, they'll reach it.

Originally Posted by turtlefanforever

What benefits does tabaccoo have? I'll tell ya, none!

Here's a silver lining, as thin as it is: http://www.livescience.com/15115-5-h...g-disease.html


If people want to take tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy, shrooms, cocaine, or whatever psychoactive substance and whatever amounts, fine. That's their life, their business, and their outcomes to deal and live with. What I'm emphasizing here is that with all the political redtape associated with pursuing in legalizing marijuana (pursing the hundreds of thousands of signatures needed to get it on the ballot, the demonstrations, conferring with politicians, etc.), just imagine if this same fervency was used to improve medical care in the United States...? Or improve social programs? Rather than the pursuit of legalizing a health-questionable form of self-gratification. ...But like I said, I guess for some individuals, I guess getting high is more important than improving the standard of living considering the extent of political work necessary to make such a change.


Edit: By the way, there's research pointing to an association with marijuana use and anxiety problems:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/14/136

The results of the current meta-analysis suggest that anxiety is positively related to cannabis use or cannabis use disorders in cohorts, not in treatment for anxiety or cannabis use disorders, drawn from the general population of 10 countries. These associations were only small in magnitude, but were observed even after controlling for confounding factors (demographics, other substance use, and/or other psychiatric comorbidity). The prospective analysis revealed that cannabis use at baseline was positively associated with anxiety at follow-up. While the causal direction of this relationship could not be established using the available data, this result suggests that even infrequent cannabis use is associated with clinically relevant symptoms of anxiety. Therefore, an appropriate assessment of cannabis use might be necessary for an effective treatment of anxiety disorders.

Plus, a possible association with marijuana use and depression:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23795762

CONCLUSIONS: Cannabis use, and particularly heavy cannabis use, may be associated with an increased risk for developing depressive disorders. There is need for further longitudinal exploration of the association between cannabis use and developing depression, particularly taking into account cumulative exposure to cannabis and potentially significant confounding factors.

[Gunpowder]

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

My fear is that legalizing marijuana for recreational use may lead to legalizing other drugs such as heroin and cocaine. That's not something I want to see at all.

That won't happen.

[Discogod]

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

My fear is that legalizing marijuana for recreational use may lead to legalizing other drugs such as heroin and cocaine. That's not something I want to see at all.

Yes, but even if other, harder drugs are legalized, it won't neccessarily lead to an increase in use. There's several countries in Europe where hard drugs have been decriminalized and it's lead to a decrease in use - mainly because people have found it easier to get treatment when they don't also have the risk of getting arrested to think about.

Personally, I'd like to see cannabis legalized over here. I thought it was a step in the right direction when it was declassified a few years back, but the new govenment quickly reversed that decision. I'd estimate that maybe 75% of the people I know smoke, including quite a few people you wouldn't expect (when I used to deal, my customers included a magistrate, several GPs and the then-mayor), but it's never been harder to get hold of the stuff. Busting dealers & grow ops seems to be all the police are focusing on in my area, to the detriment of virtually everything else. Meanwhile, the streets are flooded with cheap coke & smack...

[Netkeeper]

Originally Posted by Refractive Reflections

The extent and effort certain portions of the population are going to legalize marijuana use (outside of any medicinal use) is disappointing, just imagine if that same energy was actually used in making social or economic improvements. Oh well... I guess for some, it's more important to get high than improve standards of living.

It's ironic that society has demonized tobacco, but is now welcoming marijuana use. ...Are we just trading one drug for another? It's a little scary as to the societal effects in terms of mental health considering there's an uncertain connection (if there's a correlation versus cause-and-effect) between marijuana use and brain changes and symptoms resembling schizophrenia.

Why don't you take your nonsense and your attitude elsewhere? You act as if people can't... gASP... SUPPORT MULTIPLE CAUSES... no that would be too much... ONLY SUPPORT WEED... NEVER SUPPORT ANYTHING ELSE.

No, we wouldn't be ****ing trading one drug for another. Tobacco is worse. There's literally no benefit to tobacco consumption over marijuana.

I'm not even going to dignify that last bit with a response because you are so painfully uneducated that, perhaps, you should actually consider Googling a few things before further "contribution" to the discussion. Or, preferably, you can just **** off the thread.

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

My fear is that legalizing marijuana for recreational use may lead to legalizing other drugs such as heroin and cocaine. That's not something I want to see at all.

You clearly know nothing about heroin and cocaine. Or weed, for that matter. Try reading up on what all three of those drugs actually do and you'll see why two of them are some of the worst things you can do to yourself and why marijuana isn't the same as alcohol like you seem to think.

Being straightedge is fine. But blurring all drugs and alcohol together then acting mightier than us for it is just going to piss people off.

[Refractive Reflections]

Originally Posted by Netkeeper

Why don't you take your nonsense and your attitude elsewhere? You act as if people can't... gASP... SUPPORT MULTIPLE CAUSES... no that would be too much... ONLY SUPPORT WEED... NEVER SUPPORT ANYTHING ELSE.

No, we wouldn't be ****ing trading one drug for another. Tobacco is worse. There's literally no benefit to tobacco consumption over marijuana.

Wow... that reaction said it all right there. Thank you for your entertaining response.

Again with the time spent legalizing it, why not spend that same time doing something even more beneficial? I mean with all the resources, time, and energy spent on that, why not?

Originally Posted by Netkeeper

I'm not even going to dignify that last bit with a response because you are so painfully uneducated that, perhaps, you should actually consider Googling a few things before further "contribution" to the discussion. Or, preferably, you can just **** off the thread.

I'm sorry, but I'll take the words of scientists and scholarly research journals concerning the possible harmful effects of marijuana rather than the lay public who want to constantly tout "marijuana does nothing harmful" who have no actual scientific background in the matter.

[BubblyShell22]

Originally Posted by Netkeeper

You clearly know nothing about heroin and cocaine. Or weed, for that matter. Try reading up on what all three of those drugs actually do and you'll see why two of them are some of the worst things you can do to yourself and why marijuana isn't the same as alcohol like you seem to think.

Being straightedge is fine. But blurring all drugs and alcohol together then acting mightier than us for it is just going to piss people off.

I'm not acting mightier than anybody. I've watched Cops so I know what those drugs can do and how they benefit nobody. Marijuana is fine for medical use, but making it legal for recreational use is just stupid as it benefits nobody in the long run. I agree with RR that our country can do better than that as we have bigger problems facing us than whether to legalize weed for recreational use just so people can sit on their a**ses and get stoned for their own enjoyment. If you want to get stoned, go for it, but you'll probably lose a lot of brain cells in the process just like with alcohol.

[Leo656]

I've been on several sides of the issue in a lifetime. Basically...

- Weed itself probably isn't helping anybody as much as they claim it can, but it can't hurt anybody, either. I mean, it's probably not "harmless", but neither is tap water or grocery-store vegetables, so pick your poison.

- The effects of people being "stoned" on weed are ridiculously exaggerated. It's not as if people who smoke it are "sitting around fried all day", a lot of them are actually at work or elsewhere, functioning normally. It's not an incapacitating narcotic. A person can actually feel a greater "effect" from OTC caffeine pills or energy drinks. to a much greater negative degree, than they might from smoking pot. I wouldn't recommend anyone perform surgery under the influence of it necessarily, but half the people on this very forum are on some sort of (necessary) doctor-prescribed pharmaceutical that is potentially having way more of a negative effect on your mood, your brain and your liver than smoking pot would, so some people may want to open their minds a little bit on this one. I used to be a hard-liner, too, and I disdain drugs in general, but on the whole, weed is like, barely anything. If someone has a glass of champagne on New Year's Eve, they're literally more "messed up" already than someone who smoked a joint. We don't yell at those cats, right?

Granted, there are some folks who do nothing but sit around and make the snack chip people rich, but one day they're gonna work for Cartoon Network and bring us more terrific shows like Aqua Teen, so let's give 'em some slack.

- The legalization issue makes me wary just because of how insincere it is. I mean, yeah, people are touting the supposed health benefits, but let's just say it plain: people just wanna smoke it, and this is their way of making it so they can, and they get to pretend it's for a cause rather than self-interest. I mean, most girls I know smoke it and universally swear it helps with some of their "issues" every few weeks, and the migraines, and things like that. So I can see the upside, but the "wink-wink" way people are touting its "benefits" like it's a health food is a little annoying, and I think it pushes people's buttons in a negative way, because I don't think they're fooling anyone. The push for legalization is less about "compassion for people in pain", and entirely, "Get off my back already, maaaaaan," and I can see why some people are opposed to that. I'm not at all against it being legal, provided actual narcotics remain an entirely separate issue, but not on the insubstantial medical/health-related grounds. Just because the prohibition against it is more trouble than it's worth at this point and if alcohol remains legal - and it should - then marijuana, which is far more benign, should be legal as well.

As to whether or not the energy and effort could be better spent elsewhere, like on curing diseases rather than legalizing pot? Well, yeah, absolutely, but those kinds of Big Problems require more effort and sacrifice than anyone wants to ever give. I've said before, we could solve the homeless problem in America inside a couple years, just get rid of all the golf courses and build low-income housing. Things seem so easy when you look at the Big Picture, but the reality is that those kinds of things aren't what society likes to put its work towards. Should they? Yeah, absolutely, but you have to pick your battles sometimes.