Should marijuana be legalised? (1 Viewer)

[miaomiao]

then again wtf do I care I'll never see you hopefully

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Why's that miao?
You kno.. u can drink drive without dying, i've done it a couple of times, but alot of people do die from it.. that's why it's illegal.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

according to that study a higher % of australians smoke pot than over in america.

anyway it's only 12% smoking pot within the last 12 months.

Trying something is different to regulary taking it, i've tried alot of things that i've never done again.

 

[imsooverskool]

but do you think more people smoke pot now that its legal? as oppose to prior to the legislation?

i guess you didnt read my previous post... From my observations, more people smoke pot in NSW then in the ACT. In the ACT, it seems that those who live there choose not to smoke pot and they make that choice themseleves it is not enforced upon them. I cannot give a definitve answer but i doubt that more people smoke pot in the ACT now that it is legal as opposed to before the legislation.

 

[imsooverskool]

People die in car crashes. People overdose on drugs. Lets ban cars.

Yes, Jezzmo lets ban cars! Especially for those goddamn P platers who dont know how to drive properly and who are all hoons!!!!

 

[katie_tully]

Start simple. Name ONE goal of prohibition that has been met.

The goal of not meeting any goals?

The only legislation for pot I want brought in, is road side drug tests. Whats the difference between a high person driving, and a drunk person?

Pot is as obtainable as alcohol these days, why do you need it legalised? It's only illegal if you have a mountainous stash, which leads to the question of... What are you doing with 3 million dollars of cannibus..

Think about it. Why does pot need to be legalised? So people can smoke it without prosecution? If it's legalised, do you then think it should have the same restrictions as alcohol when it comes to age, driving and other responsibilities?

 

[withoutaface]

my dad drives stoned to work everyday and has a gold licence.

And I'm sure there are many people on gold licenses who drive home drunk from the pub every Friday and Saturday night. Does this mean it's not harmful? No. It just means that they're yet to be caught or involved in a major accident. Marijuana impairs your ability to react to and judge situations appropriately, as well as making it harder for you to concentrate. You cannot dispute these facts, nor can you dispute that they impair your ability to drive. Your Dad is a moron, albeit a lucky one thus far.

 

[Xayma]

Jezzmo, but until the accuracy of them can be improved, legalising them is pointless, since you are letting people drive stoned. At least with illegalised marijuana if they drive stoned (and it is really the only way you will get caught, bar caught smoking it or random drug tests (eg ADF)) they get punished.

Jezzmo, marijuana is a gateway drug, it gives you the contacts through it, with legalising that might diminish, but don't think the full stuff strength would be legalised think back to 60's strength, about 1/10 if that of todays strength.

 

[katie_tully]

We have to look at the reasons why marijuana became illegal. Then, we have to look at what legalising it is going to achieve.
As it is, growers of marijuana have longer jail sentences than child rapists.

"For most of human history, marijuana has been completely legal. It's not a recently discovered plant, nor is it a long-standing law. Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that it's been in use. Its known uses go back further than 7,000 B.C. and it was legal as recently as when Ronald Reagan was a boy."

"Marijuana was originally made illegal for two rather odd reasons:
To help the Dupont company sell its artificial fibres. Originally marijuana (aka hemp) was grown for rope and canvas fibres.
As a way of giving the racist police a way to arbitrarily arrest black people since it was in common use only among blacks. It was a tool of KKK think. To this day, marijuana laws are selectively enforced against blacks."

It also became illegal in El Paso when a drunk/stoned Mexican man killed a white man. It was blamed on the marijuana, not the alcohol.


Marijuana has only remained illegal due to the now known effects it has. It has only recently became an illicit drug, but that begs the question: Why is marijuana illegal and alcohol/tobacco not? Is one worse than the other?

"About 10% of people who use alcohol have problems in their lives related to alcohol use. Around 90% of all assaults, 50% to 60% of all murders, and over 50% of the rapes and sexual assaults on children are alcohol-related. Alcoholics’ life expectancy is cut by an average of 10-12 years."

There have been no known recorded deaths from marijuana consumption. Infact, you would have to smoke upwards of 20kg of marijuana to overdose.

Why is it still illegal then? Many American theorise it's because of racism. Others believe it is because of Republicans over irrational fear of marijuana.

If marijuana were to be legalised, dealers would go out of business. Why? Well, we could grow our own, and it would be quite cheap. What would dealers do then? Possibly move onto harder drugs.

If marijuana were to be legalised, I'd want the same restrictions as alcohol when it comes to driving. Marijuana impairs your ability to react, just as alcohol. You're just as dangerous behind the wheel drunk, as you are stoned.

 

[katie_tully]

The idea is that drugs and the way we see them i racialised. Drugs from the east are illegal. Drugs from Europe are legal and widely accepted.

I tend to agree, but I've never looked at where a drug has come from to decide whether I accept it or not.
Marijuana was only illegalised because of mexican/black vs. white racial tension in the early 20th century.

 

[alien]

Why is marijuana illegal and alcohol/tobacco not? Is one worse than the other?

i say illegalise them all. one of my friends is doing kinesiology and he's told me what both illicit and prescription drugs do to your system. it's not good.

 

[katie_tully]

i say illegalise them all. one of my friends is doing kinesiology and he's told me what both illicit and prescription drugs do to your system. it's not good.

Oh come on, we all know what illicit and prescription drugs do, when taken in a harmful context. Anything is harmful for you if you misuse it.
Alcohol in moderation is fine.
Marijuana in moderation, to some extent is fine.
Possibly the only one that isnt, ironically, is the very legal cigarette.

 

[alien]

nup you are so wrong. sorry. prescription drugs stuff your body around even if you follow the directions. they get rid of one thing and create even bigger problems, that just take longer to set in. alcohol in moderation is never fine. marijuana in moderation is never fine. the very legal ciggarette is never fine.

 

[katie_tully]

nup you are so wrong. sorry. prescription drugs stuff your body around even if you follow the directions. they get rid of one thing and create even bigger problems, that just take longer to set in. alcohol in moderation is never fine. marijuana in moderation is never fine. the very legal ciggarette is never fine.

You're going a bit extreme here, that or your friend is an arse clown.

Prescription drugs, so long as you "follow the intended use" of the drug, are fine. Of course they're going to do harm if not used properly. Many people don't know that panadol literally slices your liver into peices if you have too much, but the affects arent known until 3 weeks later. Then it's too late.
Thats why they have directions. That's why theyre prescribed, so nobody can just go get them.

You cannot overdose on marijuana. In moderation, not addiction, it is quite harmless. It's when you start having 10 cones a day you become lothargic and start getting memory loss.

Cigarettes are not fine. The end.

And it has been proven that alcohol, in moderation is not harmful. It has also been proven that alcohol, ie. a glass of red wine a night, is beneficial.

 

[alien]

sorry that's bull. my friend knows what he's talking about. your pancreas responds to evrything you put into your body. as does your liver. your body works as a system and if you change one part, you effect the rest. do you even know what's in prescription drugs? the chemicals in them have to broken down by your body just like anything else that you consume. preservatives are so complex that your body has to treat them as toxins to break them down. the average western diet is responsible for the massive increase in type 2 diabetes. with the pancreas, it releases chemicals to compensate changes in blood sugars. blood sugar change is supposed to be gradual, so your pancreas doesn't have to work hard. the preservatives and colourings and flavours and sugars in a western diet raise your blood sugar so high that your pancreas goes into overdrive to compensate. then it overcompensates, so it has to release another chemical to restore the balance. the cycle continues like this and your pancreas is doing more than triple the work it's designed for. then, later on in life, your pancreas 'gives up' and you get type 2 diabetes. if a normal western diet does this, imagine what adding marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes does. next time you "use in moderation" think of all the normal food that you won't be able to have later because of it.

 

[katie_tully]

sorry that's bull. my friend knows what he's talking about. your pancreas responds to evrything you put into your body. as does your liver. your body works as a system and if you change one part, you effect the rest. do you even know what's in prescription drugs? the chemicals in them have to broken down by your body just like anything else that you consume. preservatives are so complex that your body has to treat them as toxins to break them down. the average western diet is responsible for the massive increase in type 2 diabetes. with the pancreas, it releases chemicals to compensate changes in blood sugars. blood sugar change is supposed to be gradual, so your pancreas doesn't have to work hard. the preservatives and colourings and flavours and sugars in a western diet raise your blood sugar so high that your pancreas goes into overdrive to compensate. then it overcompensates, so it has to release another chemical to restore the balance. the cycle continues like this and your pancreas is doing more than triple the work it's designed for. then, later on in life, your pancreas 'gives up' and you get type 2 diabetes. if a normal western diet does this, imagine what adding marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes does. next time you "use in moderation" think of all the normal food that you won't be able to have later because of it.

My mother is a nurse practitioner, your friend is doing Kinesiology... the science of movement?...Okay.

Infront of me I have 41 medical books, medical dictionaries, drug guides. What you're refering too is not moderation, it's over use.

 

[katie_tully]

Free choice, yes... But even to some extent there needs to be a restriction on free choice.
Schools put bans on junk food, because 50% of Australian children are obese. Some argue we should have the right to eat what we want, when we want, but ultimately who is going to pay when these people start clogging up the hospital's because of obesity related symptoms?

Cigarette smoking is banned from pubs and clubs because people argue they don't want to suffer second hand smoke. Personally I think if you're going to a pub, you should expect it. Places you shouldn't expect is, is when you're walking down the street and some fucker blows it in your face.

Same with hard drugs. At the hospital mum works at, people are denied beds and are sent 100 km to Orange, because junkies are given the hospital beds. Some people even want heroin to be available over the counter, with a syringe, so people won't share needles.

Is this increasing or decreasing the problem?

 

[alien]

yes jezzmo, i went on a tangent but read all the posts before that one and it sort of leads up to it... katie_tully, kinesiology is a 6 year course and it involves units from chiropractic, nutrition, i can't name the rest because i haven't memorised all his subjects but right now he's doing a unit on eyes, it's really diverse. your most recent post makes a great point though.

 

[katie_tully]

OK I agree with your post 100%. 1000 years ago, free choice might have worked, and in an ideal world it still would (people would just have to make the right choice everytime ). But because of the increase of social services that the community choose to pay for and provide for everyone, I can understand why there should also be some form of social control. Perhaps if someone choose to live an ultimately unhealthy lifestyle, they should have their rights to these services reduced, or have to pay more money/tax than their healthy counterparts (already implemented to an extent with health care). I don't think its fair for a long-term couch potato to clog up the hospital like his arteries, mooching off medicare, just as i think it unfair for a drug addict to pass out in hospital for months for treatment. How this would be fixed and balanced, however, would be both difficult and controversial.

Exactly. 1000 years ago though, they didn't have the variety in diet. They didn't have the lifestyle we had today.
Personally, I'm against these injecting rooms. I'm against giving junkies free needles, and I'm totally against making heroin available over the counter. Why are we making their habit safe for them, instead of stopping them?
The same goes for people on methadone. People have worked out that methadone is cheaper, and far more addictive hasbetter sensation than straight heroin, so they're coming to the hospitals for their quick fix.

You're right. We need a solution, but unfortunately nothing can be done without treading on toes.

 

[alien]

lets cut off toes for all i care and fix this mess. my cousin's a heroin turned methadone junkie who spent a month on ice and does pot recreationally. she started with pot. so you could say it's a gateway drug. we need to stop more people becoming like my cousin.