Smoke dope?

[IFman]

 There's construction at my house right now and all of the workers smoke. :(  I don't play outside before 5 PM anymore. And when I do, I'm always stepping on cigerete butts.

[Juby (Tercios)]

After thinking of becoming all parentally admin-ish and closing this poll, I decided to make statement.

It is said that marijuana does not lead to heavier drugs.  Untrue! The crowd of people that will be using pot will also be using other stuff and eventually most pot uses try other stuff. Also when a person becomes more resistant to the drug, they must use much more or other stuff to get the same ?high.? I have first hand detoxicated heroin (and other drugs) addicts. It is not pretty!

I know people that have been smoking it for 30 years. Most were in to other stuff but have cut back just to pot.  They are all lazy losers. Sure you can point out movie stars that use it and are rich, but those are the few. Most never exceed in life.

The drug makes people not care about the simple troubles of life.  Sure that is a great way to hide from reality as does excessive drinking. But most users never stop using so they never have to face life. After all, hiding from it only makes things get worse.  Never facing life?s problems makes people not care about their friends or family and have little desire to succeed in life because they would rather hide from it.


Wolf Bite

?Wisdom is what we have learned from our own experiences and those experiences of others that listen closely to?

not entirely true, a study in Vancouver found that marijuana is essentially as harmful as alcohol, they came to the conclusion that marijauna is less damaging to your brain then alcohol(alcohol kills brain sells, Marijuana affects an equal number of sells but causes dormancy so recovery from being "high" as compared to being "drunk" is more healthy for your brain in the long run) but is more dangerous to your lungs then alcohol is to your liver.  The research into Marijuana as a "gateway" drug has yeilded some interesting results too.  Using the assumption that alcohol and marijuana are equally harmful but one is legal and one is not, they came to the conclusion that by placing the legal barrier to push the division between the small step between alcohol and marijuana made it ineffectual.  By placing the barrier between a large step such as banning both alcohol and marijuana or by legalizing marijuana and focus on the deadly drugs (also, marijuana that hasn't been contaimenated with or "laced" is almost impossible to overdose on, you are far more likely to die of alcohol poisoning then marijuana overdose (the estimate was over a kilogram of marijuana in a day could lead to overdose theoretically)) such as LSD, Extasy and Crack would be the most effective methods because it would be compounding the mental barrier of breaking the law with the gravity of using hard drugs.  Where as now it's easier to step from marijuana to harder drugs because the legal barrier has been surpassed. So illegal marijuana is definatly a gateway drug but only because of it's being illegal.  Mental dependancy to THC (the compound that causes being "high) is equivelent to Alcohol and it has been found that alcohol is more addictive because alcohol when consumed is essentially watered down poison (alcohol is similary to substances such like arsenic) and will where down and numb your bloodstream and the restructuring of your bloodstream following it's ravages gives a true physical feeling to alcohol withdrawl on top of the mental addiction.  People develope resistance to both alcohol and THC so both could be seen as a gateway drug by taht appoach.  Finally, many people come from backgrounds and families that are genetically predispositioned to be suceptable to alcohol abuse, marijuana is a viable alternative to the people that wish to abstain from alcohol because of their genetic predisposition but want the same "enjoyment" of alcohol.

My stance is that either Alcohol should be banned as it is a terrible drug, or Marijuana should be legalized to give everyone equal rights and safety in these indulgences.

This quote I'm showing is simply to be the devils advocate, I will not say whether I am for it or against it but it does raise an interesting and humour moral point:

"I feel sorry who people who've never been addicted to anything. Imagine wanting something so bad you'd kill for it... and then getting it again and again over and over."

- Bill Mahr

[wolf bite]

 Juby, I agree in some ways alcohol is worse then marijuana. As being hit by a truck is worse then being hit by a car.  But that does not make it right.  

Agreed there are many people addicted to alcohol, but the majority of alcohol users rarely drink more then sociably. So only a small percentage of alcohol users are addicted to the drug. On the other hand, most marijuana users use it at least every 2 days, if not every day a few times per day.  Only the most sincere alcoholics wake up to a drink. But most marijuana users do. Plus the effects of marijuana are longer lasting in the body.

Therefore, most marijuana users never come ?down.?  Having a large percentage of the population in a dazed reality is far worse than some people that over drink at night. Most hard-core drug users don?t even drink unless they can?t ?score? some drugs.

Further, since marijuana users never get sober, their tolerance increases and are more likely to move on to other drugs.

There are plenty of surveys and studies done by the pro marijuana lobbyists that fail to point out the downfalls of their studies.  But they are not likely to sway my years of awareness and observation.


Wolf Bite

[Juby (Tercios)]

 Well first off I would just like to remind people that I would not be all that adversaly bothered by overall prohibition but consider allowing alcohol and not marijuana is a mistake for the said reason.
I would argue to Wolf's point that those who over use marijuana are probably equivelent to those who abuse alcohol, many, many people get drunk after work (well in Canada, also marijuana use is much more prevelent here).  I agree with his analogy of a Truck and a car but I think his view of marijuana users is not accurate, certianly in every indulgence their is excessive use but I deny that the problems for marijuana are any worse then those of alcohol.  Very few people, even in Canada :D , use marijuana in the morning, certainly some do but the exact same problem exist amoung alcoholics.  Also, many young people drinking illegally at a social event could get offered some of the very dangerous drugs and unfortunatly will use them, the use of harder drugs is not necessarily linked to marijuana, and refer to my earlier post, the legal barrier could be responisble for their being any connection more so then alcohol.

edit: Remember, I am argueing against the hypocrisy of the ban on marijuana compared to alcohol, however both alcohol and marijuana are drugs and unhealthy to use.

[wolf bite]

 Thanks, I liked the truck / car analogy too.

Here is another one about whether marijuana should be made legal:

If your problem is abuse of handguns and taking the handguns away is not an option, do you hand out machine guns?


Wolf Bite

[Devari]

 But...

Why can't we make alcohol illegal? It is a bigger health risk than many diseases.

And, I'm afraid the anology isn't really right. Pot isn't much more harmful than alcohol...

It's more like as if you were handing out more handguns.

[Juby (Tercios)]

 That analogy is too harsh, at this point we just fundementally disagree, I would say that with having Smith and Wessun 45's available why not let colt 45 pistol's(basically the same gun) on the market for more variety where as you think piston-machine gun ( Ithought marijuana was the Car and Alcohol was the truck?).
edit: sorry, me and devari posted at the same time, didn't mean to sound repetitive.

[Peace Alliance]

 I think pot is a gateway dug more because the user stops getting as much of a high from it... and wants to get higher.

Also, a lot of people do weed simply because it IS against the law. And if you brake the law, you've gotta be cool right? Legalising it might mean that if they wanna be cool and break the law, they've gotta go straight to harder drugs... you never know.

Oh, and if it were legalised, it would still be illegal for kids. same as cigaretts and booze. So the kids would still have that effect of passing over the legal barrier. <- really good point.

[Juby (Tercios)]

 ummmm, I'm 19, so yeah.  And I have never met a person, as much as teachers claim this, that smoked marijuana for the "thrill" of breaking the law, it's really only for two reasons, curiousity or peer pressure.  Kids aren't dumb, they often feel that they should be able to do what adults do which explains alcohol and cigarettes, and then like i said, marijuana is just a short hop from alcohol, whereas harder narcotics are a distant jump.  Kids understand the difference between what is illegal and what is illegal to them.  The overall legality of drinking alcohol as a minor is different from a banned substance.  And so the concept that putting the real laws to widen a little hop to a skip rather than widen a distant jump to desperate dive.  And people develope immunity to alcohol just as much as they do marijuana and they want to get drunker....

[caedo caelestis]

if you're caught with marajuana period you're toast..  neah.

Not quite.

[sh0e]

Not quite.

you are so right. lmao

[Juby (Tercios)]

 don't the states have those crazy rockafeller laws?  I know it's not bad at all in Canada but the USA is whole other issue.

[windhound]

 *shrugs*
it all depends..  if the coast gaurd busts you for running mass amounts of the stuff that could probubly get you jail time..  I'm no expert, and I've really no expirience in that..  nor do I want expirience  :P

also, if you're hit by a rig at a fairly high speed you might have a higher chance of survival, as if you lay down you might beable to fit under some rigs  :lol:  wheras if you get hit by my car (1990 Caddie) at a fairly high speed you'd be squished, flattened, broken and smoked without a bit of damage to the car..  some idiot hit me from behind at a stop light and it did more damage to his car (and neck) than mine..  not even a scratch..  *pats tank*

again, it all depends on circumstances..

[IFman]

 People try to do it because they're presured to or they're curious (as Juby said). But they continue because of the adictives. I've heard of many people who do it but hate it. They do it because it "makes" them. That is why it's so hard to quit and whymost people do it. Note: I've been saying most Very few people (though commonly enough, do it because they like it.

There were 6 kids at my school caught smoking marajuana last semester. Never do something illegal in science class Out of those 6, 5 did it because it was addictive, and 1 did it for the thrill and because she liked it. I knew she smoked, I knew it

Oftenly, kids start because they're arrond alcohalics and drugees at a young age, so they think it's ok

[caedo caelestis]

*shrugs*
it all depends..  if the coast gaurd busts you for running mass amounts of the stuff that could probubly get you jail time..  I'm no expert, and I've really no expirience in that..  nor do I want expirience  :P

also, if you're hit by a rig at a fairly high speed you might have a higher chance of survival, as if you lay down you might beable to fit under some rigs  :lol:  wheras if you get hit by my car (1990 Caddie) at a fairly high speed you'd be squished, flattened, broken and smoked without a bit of damage to the car..  some idiot hit me from behind at a stop light and it did more damage to his car (and neck) than mine..  not even a scratch..  *pats tank*

again, it all depends on circumstances..

Everything depends on quantity. If your busted with 1 gram of canibus, chances are they'll let you go (less paperwork). If your busted with say 15-30 grams, depending on how you try to plead it, traffiking or possesion, you'll get hardly anything. I've even see people let go for possesion of 20 grams and scales. When you join up into the big leagues and throw anything over the magical "20 pounds", you fit into the nice crowd of distribution. Distribution and Importing Illegal Substances will give you a good 10 years i'd imagine, but can't be sure, since I don't know anyone ever caught for it. Just what some of the old lads tell me.

Again everything is related to circumstances such as, First offence, criminal records, probation, young offender etc etc.

That's all for Canada though. I have seen stuff about the RCMP luring people to the states though, but thats something for another time.