Legal Marijuana

[tonywalt]

I have seached and not found a thread on legal Marijuana.

What is everyone's view on the use of it if it were legal in the Area where you resided. Is it something that improves your ability to write, relax, relieve stress?

Would it be incorporated in your weekly or even daily(say the evening) routine?

I know a friend who uses it too relax some evenings. This friend finds it helps on single task projects at home, writing, music, a movie, chatting with a friend. Does anyone else else have a similiar friend?

[Darcy88]

I can't smoke that stuff anymore because it gives me bad anxiety. Three-quarters of the people I know smoke it at least somewhat regularly, and a lot of people here grow it.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I hate it! I hate the smell of it, it reeks. It should be banned for this reason alone let alone its links with paranoia.

There's so much of this stuff around council estates that I thought it was legal in these areas anyway!

I haven't got a problem with people who use it, as people do what they like, but just don't go smoking it within 10 miles of me please.

[Darcy88]

I hate it! I hate the smell of it, it reeks. It should be banned for this reason alone let alone its links with paranoia.

They indeed have proven that marijuana can induce psychosis in persons genetically susceptible to certain mental illnesses, something the pro-legalize crowd (in which I include myself) never mentions.

And the smell is awful. I have to deal with it everywhere - on the bus, in the streets, at parties.

[JuniperWoolf]

In Canada, it's "decriminalized," which is the most evasive legal term you'll ever encounter. The legality has been "under dispute" for I'm thinking about ten years now, the whole issue seems to be in a perpetual state of grey. If you're found holding something like five grams or less then you're good, a cop can't take it away from you. The majority of Canadians think that marijuana should be legal (and a lot of them are under the impression that it already is), we have almost no disciplinary action for the posession of marijuana yet attempts to pass bills making it technically legal always fail. It's so pointless, if the government made it legal then they could control the quality (otherwise the consumer can't guarantee what's in it) and they could tax it.

Anyway, I like it. The people who smoke instead of drink or who smoke while drinking are way less of a hassle to deal with, they have a much lower tendancy towards violence. Also, personally it slows me down. I like that, it makes boring things seem more interesting which is very useful to me right now, as I have to deal with many boring things. I don't really like the smell, but it doesn't make me nauseous like cigarette smoke does.

[tonywalt]

Yes, it's odd how it can make you intensely interested in certain things, could be a film or a book or drawing or a conversation. It really enhances the senses, certainly taste and feeling, and taste, mmmm, so many yummy things that one can eat. My friend tries to not pig out though.

It is strictly enforced in Cayman, as it is very conservative and religious here.

[Alexander III]

Meh, it doesn't need to be lagalized, just decriminalized. Getting weed is very easy, most people at universities smoke it. I prefer it to alchohol, it is safe unlike alchohol. With weed I feel like a child, alchohol makes me feel like an adult -

Neely, besides the smell, which for me is a lot like roast chicken, may I ask what your problem with the drug is? Also have you ever tried it, as most people who rail against it have never tried it. Also yes it may induce paranoia, but then again comapred tto the majority of pharmacutic drugs for various conditions it is far healthier for the body - it makes one happy, sleepy, hungry. Happy sleepy hungry, I hardly see a problem there.

[Darcy88]

That alcohol is legal and marijuana illegal in many countries is a greatly absurd hypocrisy. I heard that the war on weed in America began when the cotton industry lobbied to get hemp, a superior fibre, banned. People who smoke joints like they're heavy cigarette smokers are often lazy and stupid, but it doesn't shut down your liver or cause irreperable harm to the brain as does severe alcoholism.

[Lokasenna]

I have a cousin, a great childhood playmate of mine, who now resides permanently in a psychiatric institution. She suffers from severe paranoid schizophrenia, and is a danger to herself and those around her.

As has been pointed out, there is an element of genetic predisposition to it - and it is certainly true to say that mental illness is rather prevalent in that half of my family, and her mother is a confirmed sociopath. But it is also true that she never exibited any mental problems until she went to university, and it is there that she began to heavily abuse marijuana.

It has destroyed her life, and robbed us of a family member.

There are very few issues I'm burningly passionate about, but drugs are one of them. I cannot abide cannabis, and anyone who uses it in my presence will be remonstrated with.

As for the argument that it is hypocritical that alcohol is legal, but cannabis is not: it is very hard to ban something which has been legal for centuries, and become a part of the culture. Cannabis is still illegal (barely), and should be kept so - because once it becomes accepted, it can never realistically be re-censured.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Neely, besides the smell, which for me is a lot like roast chicken, may I ask what your problem with the drug is? Also have you ever tried it, as most people who rail against it have never tried it. Also yes it may induce paranoia, but then again comapred tto the majority of pharmacutic drugs for various conditions it is far healthier for the body - it makes one happy, sleepy, hungry. Happy sleepy hungry, I hardly see a problem there.

No, the smell is plenty enough to put me off alone - which to me doesn't smell remotely like roast chicken by the way! I do know somebody who smoked it heavily and for him it took a long time to get his life back together, he's even still not right because of it. It is not due to this that I am against it or even the smell solely, I also don't like the surrounding image that is attached to this drug - I dislike the whole package.

I even smell this when I am walking to work sometimes. I just can't believe it. Do people get up in the morning and feel the need to smoke drugs? It's just not in any way civilized.

[Darcy88]

I have a cousin, a great childhood playmate of mine, who now resides permanently in a psychiatric institution. She suffers from severe paranoid schizophrenia, and is a danger to herself and those around her.

As has been pointed out, there is an element of genetic predisposition to it - and it is certainly true to say that mental illness is rather prevalent in that half of my family, and her mother is a confirmed sociopath. But it is also true that she never exibited any mental problems until she went to university, and it is there that she began to heavily abuse marijuana.

It has destroyed her life, and robbed us of a family member.

There are very few issues I'm burningly passionate about, but drugs are one of them. I cannot abide cannabis, and anyone who uses it in my presence will be remonstrated with.

As for the argument that it is hypocritical that alcohol is legal, but cannabis is not: it is very hard to ban something which has been legal for centuries, and become a part of the culture. Cannabis is still illegal (barely), and should be kept so - because once it becomes accepted, it can never realistically be re-censured.

I'm sorry to hear about your cousin and its quite sad the doctors have found no means to treat her symptoms. I also have a family member who fell ill with that particular illness after a period of heavy marijuana use. He's recovered remarkably but remains nowhere near the same. A lot of people don't know about this potential side-effect.

[JuniperWoolf]

Marijuana use has been correlated to schizophrenia, but it's also safe to say that alchohol has been correlated to drunk driving accidents (and the correlation is exponentially higher). I personally have had one close family member and twelve friends die, and one friend severely brain damaged, in drunk driving incidents on the icy roads, yet I understand the irrationality of making a law to prohibit people from drinking. You can't just tell people how to treat their own bodies, not only do I find the very idea quite immoral but doing so will only force people to break the law (and if they're forced to do so, they will no longer respect the law and may take the consideration of breaking other laws with less weight) Also, obvioulsy, it will take money away from legitimate suppliers and put it in the hands of shady folks who are willing to profit through criminal activity.

And then there's the conventional social hypocrisy - the diseases associated with alchohol are more numerous and often more lethal than those associated with alchohol (of course, you can get a lethal disease from marijuana - lung cancer comes to mind). And yet, how many people here drink? How openly is drinking discussed by people of every nationality (and not just by we Canadians and Dutch people), how often do the gentlemen around here talk about various forms of alchohol? We have entire threads dedicated to the stuff. No one bats an eye, they are not thought to have a cold-hearted disregard for human life by drinking or supporting the legality of alchohol, which seems to be the impression I get from the anti-legalization people on American tv. I argue that "marijuana is detrimental to human health" is not a sufficient argument for lobbying that smoking it be considered a criminal act.

Cannabis is still illegal (barely), and should be kept so - because once it becomes accepted, it can never realistically be re-censured.

It cannot realistically be censored now, it is not. I used to think that since Canada was one of the only countries in the world in which smoking weed isn't a criminal act, that we were among the only people to do so. I was obviously very wrong, and if I didn't know that for a certainty before now, then this thread would be proof.

[OrphanPip]

I'm for legalization of course, but I don't smoke it. I can count the number of drinks I have in a year on one hand anyway, meh. It's all the same to me.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

See, I don't really get Lok's comment, because how many lives has alcohol destroyed? How many lives has cigarettes taken away? Hell, over-eating had crippled many a person. Plus, in many cultures, marijauna is just as a part of history as alcohol, so I'm not sure how that argument is supposed to work.

Frankly, I have a problem when someone uses a personal anecdote to lambast others for something that really isn't anyone else's business. It's like that person who'll complain when someone tells a joke, "My cousin's gay, so don't go there," or some such BS. Seriously, just shut the **** up. Once, in an episode of South Park, they had a character called "Gross Skin-disease Guy," and you know what I did? Laughed, because I'm adult enough to accept that my personal experience doens't dictate how others should act or think.

As far as I'm concerned, if alcohol and cigarettes are legal, so should marijuana. The statistics for the damage that cigarettes and alcohol do far outweigh the statistics for marijuana. Personally, I've never done it, only because I'm afraid of the damage it would do to my throat. I've always wanted to try brownies or something, though. And, for some reason, I like the smell.

[Alexander III]

See, I don't really get Lok's comment, because how many lives has alcohol destroyed? How many lives has cigarettes taken away? Hell, over-eating had crippled many a person. Plus, in many cultures, marijauna is just as a part of history as alcohol, so I'm not sure how that argument is supposed to work.

Frankly, I have a problem when someone uses a personal anecdote to lambast others for something that really isn't anyone else's business. It's like that person who'll complain when someone tells a joke, "My cousin's gay, so don't go there," or some such BS. Seriously, just shut the **** up. Once, in an episode of South Park, they had a character called "Gross Skin-disease Guy," and you know what I did? Laughed, because I'm adult enough to accept that my personal experience doens't dictate how others should act or think.

As far as I'm concerned, if alcohol and cigarettes are legal, so should marijuana. The statistics for the damage that cigarettes and alcohol do far outweigh the statistics for marijuana. Personally, I've never done it, only because I'm afraid of the damage it would do to my throat. I've always wanted to try brownies or something, though. And, for some reason, I like the smell.

Love the second paragrapgh truley much love from me on that

As to the third paragrapgh if I ever findmyself in Illinoise I will bake you a btach