Pat Robertson lumps Pot with Booze

That is what I thought but then...I had a fail trying to get a job with the Post office when I was 20. I wasn't smoking but I walked into a room with a Hashpipe that was being passed around for quite sometime. I hung out there for about 5 minutes and left. I failed the drug test I had to take 3 days later. I am not a drug-user.

 

As far as I understand, if marijuana is decriminalized and, say, a cop notices you smoking a joint, s/he can still take it and write you a fine ticket, but you can't be arrested and put on trial. IIRC there were some studies that showed it doesn't really impact marijuana use one way or the other, and between more money coming in from fines and less money spent on prisons, it's probably going to be a lot cheaper.

 

I just wish it would become medically certified in the UK. We're one of the biggest growers of medicinal marijuana but we just ship it all off to Canada. Which instead leads me to think it's mainly remaining illegal (in health terms) in the UK because of the profit margin in selling it

 

My stance is as it has always been, marijuana is bad, alcohol is bad. In a perfect world none would exist. They are roughly as bad and considering how much damage legal and socially accepted alcohol is doing to society I see no reason why we should introduce another drug on the same level? Saying that pot is no more dangerous than alcohol is basically saying that chopping off your head with an axe is no more dangerous than blowing off your head with a shotgun. The procedure is a bit different and it will look a bit different but the end result is still a head less corpse.

I also find it sad that it seems like the entire medicinal marijuana movement has been hijacked by a bunch of potheads which does nothing to convince lawmakers that in certain circumstances it is an excellent medicinal drug just like morphine is excellent in right circumstances

 

My point is that anyone who has used marijuana will tell you that you don't lose control of your senses nearly in the same way you do with alcohol. It's hard to explain unless you have done it, but you're still in the state of mind to make easy decisions like not smoking in front of a child. Granted, you shouldn't be driving or anything like that, but that's simply because of a slightly delayed reaction time, not the lack of rational thought.

As for it being anywhere near on the dangerous scale of alcohol or other legal substances, show me the evidence. Alcohol's link to violence is a severe one, and marijuana has been studied enough that if there was one there is would be shown. It's health risks can be easily avoided. It seems like a good amount of the argument for keeping it illegal is simply a dislike of "potheads". It boggles my mind when I consider all the toxic things we casually allow here in the U.S, things like aspartame for example, but here comes this benign substance but we can't allow that, people might get high from it! As if the the fact that you get a very mild euphoria is enough reason to ban it in and of itself, regardless if any real harm is there or not. I dislike the idea of people telling me what I can and can't use when the consequences of it are so very small.

Maybe it's the fact that this is primarily a board of an older generation, but i'm surprised i'm the only one sticking up for marijuana here. Usually in these debates the majority are for it.

 

I've never used it, I just don't think it's a ridiculous request to have access to a potential painkiller that won't knacker my liver and kidneys like some of the other ones have The ones I'm on now require me to have regular blood tests to watch out for signs of organ failure but they're also known to trigger false results on renal and hepatic profiles. It just seems ridiculous.

 

Recent study on the dangers of marijuana use and driving: http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/02/10/marijuana-driving-collisions.html

Study: Driving Under the Influence of Marijuana a Greater Threat to Teens Than Alcohol

Our (formally) own DotW was a heavy pot smoker and advocate of same and ended up seemingly conceding that it affected him adversely, not the least form of which was the fact that he was addicted and couldn't get off of it. This is all detailed in his blog if you want to read it.

 

Sell it, tax it. It will also give a few thousands of people a job.

 

Nope - because it's an illegal drug the law makes no distinctions in its use, some of the other medications I've been on in the past could in theory lead to confiscation if I still possessed them or used them in public due to changes in their classification and subsequent restrictions. It's all a bit weird to be honest.

 

Perhaps in a few decades or years, we will compare Pat Robertson with Franklin D. Roosevelt (The Prohibition).

I'm of opinion that a nice joint should be enjoyed in your own house or in a coffeeshop and I'd like to keep it that way. But, as with alcohol, there's always going to be a muppet who can't handle his medicine and does something stupid.