The medical marijuana debate is retarded. Of course it should be allowed for medical reasons. We already use a lot of heavier drugs for that obviously.
The retardedness comes in when people use that as an argument for legalization.
What does marijuana as medicine has to do with marijuana as a social/enertainment drug?
Sidenote: I dont smoke marijuana as someone would probably deduce from the above but I am also not opposed to it.
If people want to smoke it it is fine with me, it just makes my head explode when people use the above argumentation.
Yes, that's an awful argument for legalization, but I do think that we need to either ban alcohol or legalize pot for the sake of consistency. Alcohol is an addictive substance that kills lots of people[1] directly through toxicity and indirectly through impaired judgment. Pot is not physiologically addictive and is nontoxic for all practical purposes[2], and the worst that can happen while stoned is that you waste a lot of time or anger your roommate by eating his cheetos.
FWIW, I say legalize both, use it in a safe environment or not at all, don't drive or operate heavy machinery, don't let it derail your life, etc.
2. The LD50 of the main active compound (THC) is on the order of 500mg/kg oral in animal models. (That's a ridiculous amount. A marijuana user typically smokes well under a gram of plant material at one sitting.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LD50_of_THC
I completely agree with you, like I said I dont smoke it(doesnt give me anything) but I dont mind if you do.
Legalizing also makes it safer I guess, on the other hand I guess also more widespread but if it's legalized it can be taxed which is better than the money ending up in criminal hands.
However I doubt it will be legalized and banning alcohol would be incredibly hard, at least wine and beer and I certainly wouldnt want it to be even if I dont drink much of it myself.
Maybe a ban on heavy alcohol(vodka, scotch etc) would work but I doubt that too.
Anyway what do you think of marijuana as a stepping stone to heavier drugs?
I guess alcohol is one too but do you think the legalization of marijuana would bring more people to heavier drugs?
"However I doubt it will be legalized and banning alcohol would be incredibly hard"
I don't know, I think it's hard to predict. There's a lot of unknown and difficult-to-predict things that can happen to change public opinion in a short time. A good example is the sharp turn public opinion took against racism during the 1960s in the US, or the sharp turns worldwide for and against prohibition in the early 20th century. So it seems like status quo bias to predict that these things will just stay the same indefinitely.
"what do you think of marijuana as a stepping stone to heavier drugs?"
>Anyway what do you think of marijuana as a stepping stone to heavier drugs?
In my experience this is not true. I can remember a numerous group of people that used to join to smoke hashish (here it's the most usual preparation) 25 o 30 years ago. Most of the group is now doing perfectly: architects, engineers, businessmen... only two had any problems, one of them died due to overdose. But it was clear before that something was wrong with both of them. I knew the dead man since childhood and he had something inside that he couldn't control, long before he took any drug.
>Alcohol is an addictive substance that kills lots of people[1] directly through toxicity and indirectly through impaired judgment.
There is strong evidence that red wine is a powerful antioxidant that prevents heart diseases. That'd be "medicinal ethanol". I don't find the medicinal argument so ridiculous. Like wine, people has smoked cannabis for a long long time. It isn't toxic and it has several beneficious substances. So why forbid it?
>the worst that can happen while stoned is that you waste a lot of time or anger your roommate by eating his cheetos.
OTOH, I don't think that's the worst that can happen to you. Heavy frequent use makes people lazy and lose their "sharpness", not very good for programmers. And it's still a drug. What you feel while using it isn't real. But I don't even think it's a point against legalization.
I think the people you're referring to are well aware that it may sound iffy. They use this type of reasoning because they know well that acceptance of marijuana as a legal drug will lead to far laxer rules about marijuana for recreational uses.
I don't agree. The acceptance of morphine (a very pure form of heroine) as a painkiller hasn't really created laxer rules about heroine for recreational uses either.
Both morphine and heroine are highly concentrated. I think even the poppies are very strong without too much preparation. If you want a realistic comparison it'd be coca leaves against cocaine. The as-is coca is a mild stimulant used by natives during hundreds or thousands of years for long marchs. The purified cocaine is a strong, potentially addictive drug.
I am a libertarian, and I am all for legalizing Marijuana, but god help me I am so tired of talking about legalizing Marijuana.
Or reading yet another article with yet another perfectly good reason to legalize it. I know, I agree! But reasoned out arguments is not why it is illegal.
The only kind of Marijuana article I'd ever want to see is a Machiavellian political strategy.
This is probably the first time a cannabis thread is this high on the front page. No one reading this site can reasonably defend the idea that the government should ban weed for medical use and research.
Marijuana is a plant containing many chemicals, and this article refers to one of them. So, the word "Marijuana" shouldn't be in the headline. When chemicals are actually useful, they tend to be legal, as with Marinol (thc) and cocaine (as an anaesthetic) and obviously morphine. There will never be "medical marijuana"...no more than "medical poppies" anyway.
Sure, evidence is good. But one shouldn't have to prove anything before it's legal to make my own decision. A proof that marijuana has medical value would not be very important if we already had freedom on the matter (especially since we already knew it did).
Sidenote: I dont smoke marijuana as someone would probably deduce from the above but I am also not opposed to it. If people want to smoke it it is fine with me, it just makes my head explode when people use the above argumentation.