well once the polise offisers through u in jail 4 abussing a ilegal substence well see whos laufhing....
anybody who still thinks pot is more harmful than any legal substance available should be committed. There are cough syrups and anti-nausia pills that are more dangerous than weed - not to mention alcohol or cigarettes - and don't get me started on the prescription medications which some are known to be stronger, more physically harmful and more addictive than heroin. The question isn't why hasn't it been legalized - it's who's profiting from it being illegal (and no it isn't just the dealers). It doesn't makes sense where the amount of money spent on the "war on drugs" is going unless you start to question the legitimacy of this "war" and the players behind it.
Yeah, except it's legal for medicinal purposes here in Michigan, so that's not going to happen. Good post. Thankfully more and more people are opening their eyes to these truths as time goes on.
Yeah, the people waging the war on drugs want to keep their money coming in, but I think stubbornness and stupidity keep the war going as much as anything else. That and appearances. Seems like whether they succeed or fail isn't nearly as important as them looking like they're actually trying to do something. I think we can pretty much all agree that alcohol prohibition was a disaster. Somehow they still came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to try the same tactic again. And when that totally failed, they decide to keep trying it... year after year after year. They are persistent at least.
Go on pubmed or google scholar using search terms adverse effects and marijuana and you will come up with lots of articles showing problems with marijuana. From a public health perspective it's a no brainer to not recommend legalization. Way to many issues associated with it. Could be in the next 3-5 years there is better data, but right now the best proponents can say is, it might not be harmful in some ways, but there is a lot of evidence of cardiovascular problems, mental health issues, respiratory problems, etc. Most marijuana also produces known carcinogens when smoked. May not be high levels, but where carcinogens are concerned, there is NO level that is safe, only low levels that the risk is small.
Sorry, that's ridiculous. Alcohol and Cigarettes are more physically harmful and addictive yet still legal and taxed. So at this point it is either make both those things illegal in the same way pot is - or legalize pot. There is nothing that proves alcohol and cigarettes are safer to use than marijuana and plenty of evidence (anecdotal and scientific) showing that they are indeed worse.
Sorry, that's ridiculous. For better or worse, they are already legal. Just as many dangerous drugs (aspirin and Tylenol) are non prescription. The answer is not to legalize another maybe-not-so-dangerous-as-alcohol-or-cigarettes. And, if you would do some research as I suggested, you would not be so flippant that marijuana is not as dangerous as alcohol or cigarettes. Those are common sayings, but where's your data? Lit searches are full of data showing marijuana to be harmful.
I've read through the data - and did the searches you suggested. But I am still just as "flippant" - I believe that the cost of keeping marijuana and other drugs illegal is far greater than if they were legalized. First off you could tax them and build a new industry (job creation for the win). Second - it would put a serious dent in the crime associated to it (and no I am not talking about the crime of doing drugs, or even selling them). Not to mention the money that is being wasted (used by people in power as a personal slush fund) on the "war on drugs" could be put to something useful like getting the country out of debt. The reason alcohol was made legal was because prohibition skyrocketed the crime rate - the same thing has happened with all illegal drugs. Most stuff we do harms us - whether it is eating fast food, smoking cigarettes or weed, drinking, or even over-excersizing, etc. To sit here and trust that "they" know what is best for everybody based on studies that may or may not have been funded by a biased party would be innocent and ignorant.
So then we are talking apples and oranges. I oppose it for public health reasons. Your reasons are economic. And your conspiracy theories about doctored studies are specious. These are studies from all over the world. So your "they" are researchers, doctors, hospitals, psychologists, etc from many countries. "they" are not advocating a position, they are reporting their findings. Unfortunately, many findings point toward harm. Although, I said earlier that evidence may be found indicating that the dangers are not so bad. But moving forward on unfounded evidence is ludicrous. It is one thing for an individual to wish to try an experimental treatment, it is quite another thing to unleash an experimental treatment to the public. The decision to legalize or not will ultimately be political, IMO. Not that political will is always correct. I just think that many people will have adverse effects, and that is consistent with good scientific, evidenced based studies.
So we all know that alcohol and cigarettes have many adverse health effects, but yet they're legal.....which is fine because adults should have the freedom to choose what they want to do with their bodies.... But on top of that, the intoxicating effects of alcohol are much, MUCH stronger than weed. That's a fact. Anyone who says otherwise just doesn't know what they're talking about. With alcohol, the more you drink, the drunker you get and if you drink a lot at once you can potentially lose control, throw up, pass out, or even kill yourself from alcohol poisoning. With weed, you can only get so high. Whether you smoke 1 joint or 10 joints or even more, you aren't going to keep getting higher and no one has ever been reported to overdose on weed because it just doesn't happen. Plus, weed doesn't affect your motor skills like alcohol does. You aren't going to be stumbling around or getting all tipsy like drunks do. Contrary to ignorant opinion, weed does not blur your vision or any of that stuff. Bottom line is alcohol is way more intoxicating and dangerous. There's really no comparison. It's pretty hypocritical that weed should remain illegal, yet we can drink all the alcohol we want. It's retarded, actually. Eating at McDonalds is worse for your health, no doubt about that, but yet it's legal. There are a ton of things in life that may be potentially harmful if you use them on a regular basis, but that doesn't mean they should be illegal, otherwise we would have to start banning all sorts of things, including fast food, high fructose corn syrup, etc.
Not to be argumentative, but where's your data? I refer you to literature searches. Alcohol is indeed more intoxicating with respect to motor skills ie driving, but marijuana has other neural effects that in some people is quite incapacitating. You can't make broad sweeping statements. They aren't true. Drugs have specific effects on specific target organs. And, saying that because people engage in unhealthy lifestyles if they want is a popular position, but doesn't work well. Where does it stop - no speed limits? Ignore traffic laws? Ok to burgle, rape, murder? Or is it only Ok to abuse yourself? So, we should ignore anorexics, bulimics, drug dependence, obesity? There are reasonable arguments (mostly economic) to legalizing marijuana, but you can't argue it from a health perspective unless you are just appealing to people's emotions like your McDonalds example. At most, some studies show there appears to be no effect, but most show adverse effects. And, go to the same, or any other medical database and try and find data on beneficial effects of marijuana - there isn't much.
Quite a bit of good data here (from reputable scientific sources) about how much more dangerous and harmful alcohol is: www.saferchoice.org/content/view/24/53/ I can provide more if you want.... I'm not saying everything should be legal. I'm just saying that it's retarded that weed is illegal while alcohol is perfectly legal. It makes zero sense. BTW, I'm a paraplegic (from a spinal cord injury), and it truly does help with my symptoms, so I've experienced the medical benefits first hand.
I won't argue that alcohol can be dangerous. Lots and lots and lots of data on that. But, you can't compare safety of alcohol to safety of marijuana. Their safety profiles are different. They each need to be looked at on their own merits. Medical marijuana is a whole other argument, and also has it's pros and cons. And while I personally am happy for you that it helps, one can't make public policy on anecdotes. Everyone knows someone that had a good or bad effect with particular medications, drugs, foods, etc. We make public policy based on population experiences, not on the individual experience. Are there problems with that? Sure - vaccines cause some issues (NOT autism), but there are some very significant side effects that can happen - but public policy was made to protect the vast majority of people that benefit, that we would vaccinate, with the realization a small number would be harmed. There is no perfect policy, there s too much human variation. So, I tend to believe with health issues, moving slowly, and getting as much data as possible is better - and if public policy is made based on data, then people can argue the merits of the data, and come to their best decision - just like the health decisions you have to make. There generally are not right or wrong decisions, mostly it's risk vs benefit, and what fits best with a particular persons need - but, that is not a good prescription for public health. One has to look at what's best for the population, not the individual. And, once policies are made, they are difficult to withdraw. Ok, so I am voicing an unpopular position - not surprising on a game board. And, while I personally have seen much more harm than good from marijuana, if the ongoing studies show that it is a relatively safe substance, than so be it. I think the decisions should be made with good data, and not emotions. And definitely not with anecdotal data - everyone's got their stories, and those are just that - stories. And your source unfortunately is devoted to making marijuana sound ok. Quoting studies that support your view is not scientific, it's cheating. You need to search the whole of literature - PubMed - it has over 20 million citations, and will give you articles - not an argument. Your source is not objective, it's biased, and therefore unreliable. The articles it uses - fine, but one is a story in the Washington Post - sorry, they don't do research as far as I know. Anyways - I probably won't convince anyone, and I'm not really trying to, but I think people should use reputable sources to get their data from before taking positions that affect hundreds of millions of people.
If you think marijuana is anywhere close to as harmful as alcohol, I assume you're just talking about the individuals using the drugs. I'm skeptical of that, but I haven't read the studies that you have. Maybe you could give some statistics on the numbers of deaths by marijuana vs. alcohol each year? Anyway, how about harm to families and society? Drunk people get violent and reckless. They drive drunk, they start fights, they beat wives and children. And pot smokers? They giggle, they get hungry, they take a nap.
Pluto, even though they are very different, alcohol and marijuana can be compared because they are both drugs. Yes, there are some harmful side effects from weed (to the airways, for instance....it is smoke, after all....however, more and more people are turning to vaporizers or THC oils, so that takes away all the harmful effects of smoking), but it's pretty obvious that a LOT more harm comes from alcohol than weed. It's a fact. There's no getting around that, and that's why it's quite hypocritical to treat weed like it's somehow worse than alcohol and to send people to jail just for smoking a joint.....meanwhile people are free to get hammered all they want. Like I said, it just doesn't make sense, and it just shows how backwards our line of thinking can be, even with all of our modern science and technology.
Is death your endpoint for dangerous? Hmmm... Using that argument, most of the medications that are used throughout the world are not dangerous, because not many people die from them. The Institute of Medicine estimated about 100,000 people die each year from medication error - but there are hundreds of millions prescriptions written each year - safe???Compared to heart disease of around 500,000 there are only 50,000 motor vehicle accidents, and only 30-50,000 deaths from influenza so I guess they are not dangerous. And hey, only about 10-12 people die every year from rabies, so I guess it's not dangerous either. And drug dependence causes plenty of harm to families. Most alcoholics don't destroy their families by hitting - they destroy them from making the drug more important than the family. The same thing happens with marijuana. Some marijuana info from government statistics. And, before you say it's not true - this is derived from survey information from the users themselves. http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html Btw - NIH is National Institute of Health - they don't have a political axe to grind.
I would also refer you to the same link on just some basic statistics. Alcohol has major problems - no doubt - I find it fascinating so much public awareness is spent on say - breast cancer - women have a lifetime risk of about 1 in 8 so it's significant - but 10 % of the whole country has alcohol problems and where are the campaigns? Where are the ribbons, where's the media? I agree that alcohol has problems, but saying they are both drugs - ok which is worse - aspirin or Tylenol? Sort of depends on what you mean by worse - aspirin causes bleeding issues - Tylenol can cause liver and kidney problems - which is worse? Which is better? Aspirin saves lives due to it's anti clotting properties, Tylenol relieves fever (without causing Reyes syndrome - related to aspirin), and is a relatively safe pain reliever for the elderly. They both are good and bad. Alcohol has good properties and bad, so does marijuana - you are making value judgements on what you consider to be worse that may not be shared by others. That is why I say you can't compare them.
