What is Digg?107 Comments
- Phrag, on 12/01/2007, -2/+51There is no real reason to not allow people to choose what medication they use to treat their illnesses, especially with the approval of their doctor. If people don't have the ultimate authority on what they put into their own bodies, then how can we honestly believe that we live in a free country?
- vault, on 12/01/2007, -3/+20The ~100 million Americans who have smoked pot are not criminals, and 2 out of every 5 Americans believe it should be treated the same as alcohol.
87% of marijuana related arrests are just for possession of small amounts, and that costs us $10-15 billion/year just in *direct* expenditures. This isn't meth, the costs to society for legalizing it would not amount to nearly that, plus taxing it we'd easily turn a profit.
Got all figures from this excellent article http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/buckley20040 ... by Willam F Buckley, who ought to run for president http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley,_J ... - drjones78, on 12/01/2007, -5/+20The active ingredient in the plant is THC, which is, in fact, a drug. I'm all for ending the drug war, but damn am I sick of hearing the line: "ITS A PLANT.... NOT A DRUG, STOOPID". Makes the whole movement look bad.
- vault, on 12/01/2007, -0/+13Yeah, God forbid someone 2 years away from dying gets high. *****.
- amamapeters, on 12/01/2007, -0/+12When I was a toddler and my Mom was dying of cancer (mid 80s) the only thing that helped her pain was a joint or two--my Dad told me the only time they Dr.'s or nurses got pissed was when the O2 was on! And now my Dad has terrible arthritis, and still has a fairly physical job--he calls pot his "arthritis medicine" and having tried every medicine out there for the disease, he told his doc that a joint would ease all pain for 2-3 hours, and the Doc said "whatever works for you." I'm just the daughter of a couple of hippies, who would rather chief than drink....
- Dundasbro, on 12/01/2007, -0/+11You aren't helping
- kleevr, on 12/01/2007, -0/+11Marijuan is Schedule I for it's THC content, then how in the ***** can Marinol (THC pill) only be schedule III? http://www.erowid.org/pharms/dronabinol/dronabinol ...
PS. If you think delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol is a menace, you better watch out for those kids using dihydrogenmonooxide. http://dhmo.org/ - DatVillain83, on 12/01/2007, -0/+10hate to be "that guy" but marijuana was criminalized because of racial tensions pioneered by Harry J. Anslinger the former Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics. He decided to strike the New Orleans' melting pot first as a scape goat and then thought it was best to assuage public tensions with the drafting of the Marijuana Stamp Act....which was a ***** joke, really! Marijuana was permissible for people with a "stamp" however obtaining a stamp was contingent upon possessing the marijuana first which was of course illegal. Then it gets even better, the government doesn't even print enough stamps for people to have, so it mostly becomes moot and thats the story in a nutshell.
- zorpscorp, on 12/01/2007, -0/+9We should be able to put whatever the ***** we want into our own bodies, for whatever reason, without legal retribution. Yeah if you're infringing upon other peoples' rights, face the consequences, but bust the real criminals, leave us honest potheads alone.
- shotgunefx, on 12/01/2007, -1/+10Marijuana helped my brother a lot when he was dying of cancer. Had it everywhere but his brain and pancreas. He was on inhuman amounts of just about every narcotic there was, sub dermal pain pump, the works (and I might add THC) and it still made a noticeable difference.
Grass helped him immensely. It helped him keep up his appetite to keep up his fight, it calmed him a lot (even though he was on ativan, it still helped and had a noticable effect beyond the ativan alone) and it eased his pain a little. - inactive, on 12/01/2007, -0/+8WTF are you talking about? Pretty much *every* pain medication gets you "high" (save an anti-inflammatory), get over your self-righteous *****.
- cranium, on 12/01/2007, -2/+10Thanks, MOM. I'm glad you're looking out for me.
- Blazekun, on 12/01/2007, -0/+7"Marijuana can be laced with other ***** like heroin or meth, and has more long term effects than alcohol."
You're an idiot if you think that is anything BUT an anti-prohibition statement.
Also, remember the 18th amendment? It was required for alcohol prohibition to be legal. How are any drugs illegal?
Really though, alcohol is physically addictive, not psychologically (addiction vs. dependence) vs. marijuana being psychologically addictive vs. physically (dependence vs. addiction)
Also alcohol has a great deal many more negative effects than marijuana. Addiction, liver problems, a greater loss of coordination than that of marijuana, not to mention a loss of inhibition, meaning your more likely to get yourself or others hurt because you can't tell when something isn't a good idea or not.
Compared to alcohol the effects of marijuana are surprisingly benign. Loss of short term memory while affected, slight hindrance of coordination that is compensated for mostly by your increased knowledge that your coordination is hindered, making your work harder. That's not even mentioning the GOOD effects of marijuana, such as reduced risk for cancers, and Alzheimer's.
You could try to pull that weed is worse for your lungs than cigarettes bullcrap but that doesn't hold much water when you consider the many methods of using marijuana, and the fact that you take maybe 1 or 2 hits every few hours. That clears that complaint right up.
The gateway effect just screams of ignorance and is in fact also directly related to prohibition. Any kind of gateway effect marijuana has is directly related to the illegality of marijuana. For instance when you buy from a dealer he might have something else, and asks if you want that? You don't see alcohol being a gateway drug, and it actually lowers your inhibition making you more likely to try something else if offered.
What about the children? Prohibition means that the ones selling the drug make no attempt to not make it available to minors, and in fact there have been studies showing that it's easier for children to find illegal drugs than purchase legal cigarettes and alcohol. Funny how under a microscope there are absolutely no prohibition stances that seem to hold any water at all. - isntreal, on 12/01/2007, -1/+8I need some marijuana right now to ease the nausea from the pain medication I take.
- chrisgnv, on 12/01/2007, -2/+8The fact that alcohol is legal and marijuana is not clearly proves how, well, inane the drug war is. Marijuana is safer than alcohol in ANY respect. I suppose the only reason alcohol is legal and marijuana is not is due to the long historical use of alcohol by humans in power, and the long historical use of marijuana by the indigenous North American populations that the settling Europeans loved to oppress.
I could be wrong, but either way, marijuana should not be illegal. It's egregious. - diespectra, on 12/01/2007, -1/+7"i mean, should i get cocaine for my depression? isn't this my choice?"
Yes. You'd be an idiot, but it is still your choice. As long as you aren't breaking any other laws there is no reason to tell someone they can't use cocaine. If they commit a crime against someone else or their property then there are plenty of laws to take care of that offense. And if it was legal there wouldn't be a black market which means criminals would make no profit off of it which means people wouldn't be breaking laws to feed their habit.... It's called personal responsibility. - newprohibition, on 12/01/2007, -0/+6Actually the methanol found in alcohol is a poison which causes blindness and liver damage. To a certain extent it kills the lesser-working (read: less active) brain cells when large amounts of alcohol are consumed. The petroleum industry even adds methanol, as a poison, to deter people from drinking E-85 at the gas pump in gas stations. The added poisonous methanol will make you sick and possibly lead to death.
- KloroFormd, on 12/01/2007, -0/+6"Marijuana can be laced with other ***** like heroin or meth, and has more long term effects than alcohol."
1. If it was legal, there wouldn't be a risk of receiving something that's laced.
2. I demand proof that marijuana has worse long-term effects than alcohol. - maabus, on 12/01/2007, -3/+8First of all, this is 2007 and nobody calls it grass anymore. Secondly, if you are going to choose which drugs should and should not be illegal, you have to consider this fact: if we were to look at drugs from a new light, i.e. if we were to evaluate all drugs, legal and illegal, as if we never had heard of them before...the #1 thing which should be illegal is cigarettes, and at least a top 5 would be alcohol. Unless you are ready to claim that alcohol and cigarettes should be illegal, than you shouldn't necessarily make claims about opiates.
- theHealingTree, on 12/01/2007, -3/+8As a Tennessean myself, this restores a little hope to my conservative southern state, this makes me happy!
- shotgunefx, on 12/01/2007, -0/+5So what. If someone has bone cancer, why does it matter if it makes them feel good you ***** tard?
Also, THC DOES NOT work as well and it is an order of magnitude more expensive. - isntreal, on 12/01/2007, -0/+5In fact, many people who are medical marijuana patients use it to ease the negative side effects of their other medications.
- DatVillain83, on 12/01/2007, -0/+5whats worse altering your mental consciousness (maybe paranoia) or risking possible side effects from unwanted suicidal tendencies? which is what some synthetically engineered drugs have the propensity of committing. Marijuana is natural, and in my opinion very harmless,it doesn't harness the similar proven risks of cocaine in the same doses as marijuana which can definitely trigger a heart attack and can be physiologically addictive.
- WiseWeasel, on 12/01/2007, -1/+5OK, so how has that criminalization worked out for that town's heroin problem? If it were instead legalized and controlled somehow, it might be possible to minimize the damage and suffering caused by the substance, instead of creating a sub-class of criminal addicts.
- vault, on 12/01/2007, -0/+4You mean not keep it banned, right? Last sentence doesn't make sense with the rest of the post :-)
- isntreal, on 12/01/2007, -1/+5I think that was his point in saying "with the approval of their doctor"
- jpowell378, on 12/01/2007, -1/+5Marijuana is legal in Tennessee for four days every June. Well at least on one 600 acre farm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnaroo
It sure would be nice if it was a year round thing. It's also Tennessee's largest cash crop. So what gives?
Tennessee's Top Crop Production Values
Marijuana $4,787,250
Soybeans $277,861
Hay $252,365
http://www.drugscience.org/Archive/bcr2/cashcrops. ... - Blazekun, on 12/01/2007, -0/+4So your complaint is that getting high is bad? Says who?
I don't seem to see many people that think getting drunk every once in a while is bad?
Can you explain why getting high is bad? - wishninja, on 12/01/2007, -3/+7They should also allow it to be over the counter medication. It works well and is safe for most everyone to take.
- Notasheeple, on 12/01/2007, -0/+3Marijuana has been demonized since the early 1900's due to blatant yellow journalism by William Randolph Hearst and Harry Anslinger. Anslinger was a smart man who realized he could make major $ by demonizing, outlawing, and enforcing the "law." Anslinger was only interested in making money but needed help to do this. So, he asked for help from Hearst, who at the time ran many newspapers and could say anything he wanted and helped to demonize marijuana more. Most people don't even know why it's illegal! The FACT is that before it was outlawed, people were bartering with it and using it as a "currency" if you will. The problem that govt. found is the fact that they were unable to tax it. People could grow it and trade with it without anyone knowing, Thereby eliminating Govts. control. Here are some quotes from the "father" of the drug war, Anslinger.
"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others." "...the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races." "Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death." "Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men." "Marijuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing" "You smoke a joint and you're likely to kill your brother." "Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."
Here are some from Hearst. Some samples from the San Francisco Examiner: "Marijuana makes fiends of boys in thirty days -- Hashish goads users to bloodlust." "By the tons it is coming into this country -- the deadly, dreadful poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its cruel and devastating forms.... Marijuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marijuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him...." And other nationwide columns... "Users of marijuana become STIMULATED as they inhale the drug and are LIKELY TO DO ANYTHING. Most crimes of violence in this section, especially in country districts are laid to users of that drug." "Was it marijuana, the new Mexican drug, that nerved the murderous arm of Clara Phillips when she hammered out her victim's life in Los Angeles?... THREE-FOURTHS OF THE CRIMES of violence in this country today are committed by DOPE SLAVES -- that is a matter of cold record." Hearst and Anslinger were then supported by Dupont chemical company and various pharmaceutical companies in the effort to outlaw cannabis. Dupont had patented nylon, and wanted hemp removed as competition. The pharmaceutical companies could neither identify nor standardize cannabis dosages, and besides, with cannabis, folks could grow their own medicine and not have to purchase it from large companies.
This is just blatant propaganda at it's finest! Make up your own minds based on evidence, not on the opinions of those who would profit from this. If you are on here bad-mouthing people for smoking, you probably have never tried it, and if you did you probably didn't like it, and that's fine, but stop demonizing things that you don't know about or understand. God made it and called it good, It survived the flood and is still here today. Do you people think that what God made is bad? Now before you start in with the coca plant (cocaine) or the popi plant, (heroin) notice the way God words the verses: And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after its kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:12) God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so." And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. (Gen. 1:29-31) Cocaine and Heroin are products of CHEMISTRY, they are not herbs that bear seeds, in their natural states they do nothing. At least study it and not automatically dismiss it or it's users!
This is exactly What Timothy writes about in 1 Timothy 4: 1The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
6If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. 7Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. 8For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
9This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance 10(and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.
11Command and teach these things. 12Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
You see the same people that say "you are harming your temple" are the same people that are 300 lbs and hopped up on evrey pharmaceutical that tv tells them they need. - WiseWeasel, on 12/01/2007, -0/+3Maybe that aspect could be minimized if heroin was distributed in a more controlled manner...
- AWooWoo, on 12/01/2007, -3/+6they should not have to mask medical use to legalize it
do you know how awesome it would be to run to the conner
Store and buy a pack of joints - skinjob1, on 12/01/2007, -0/+3Alcohol is the neurotoxin not pot.
- DoctorFaust, on 12/01/2007, -0/+3If someone just explained that marijuana serves as a pseudo-aphrodisiac that promotes endurance, all these old farts in Congress would be jumping over each other to legalize it.
- shotgunefx, on 12/01/2007, -0/+3Because it's profitable. I imagine it just took a tiny bit of lobbying on the pharm's part
- GuacamoleSan, on 12/01/2007, -0/+3Theres no difference between cannibanol (thc) and, say, people taking Zoloft to make them happier. Or prozac. Or someone taking a nice sip of ethanol (alcohol) after work. Theyre all chemicals that make you happier.
- zorpscorp, on 12/01/2007, -0/+3I'm under the influence of marijuana right now, for no reason other than the sole purpose of enjoying life that much more :)
- Vanor, on 12/01/2007, -0/+3I think the obvious hipocracy of this is all pretty apparent. We tried to ban drugs in the 1920s....and what did that get us? It was well-meaning, but as they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Alcohol Prohobition has gave us mobsters, drove people into the underground to drink liquor, which because it wasn't being regulared, there was the good chance of people getting bad stuff, which could poison or even kill them.
Prohibition gave us the Valentine's Day Massacre, Al Capone, and scores of other thugs that took advantage of this moral posturing for there own ends, because they knew you can outlaw something, but if people want it bad enough, then they'll still do it no matter what.
Eventually they saw the error of this and repealed it.
But now they've done it again, but instead of calling it "Drug Prohibition" as it should be, they call it the "War on Drugs". Which if they're gonna make such a vague proclomation they may as well rope cigarettes and booze in there with the rest of them.
I've been raised by people that have done drugs. All sorts of drugs. And in my experience alcohol was a far more damaging substance in my family than pot ever thought about being. Cigarettes are more damaging.
I was watching the end of the Untouchables years ago, the one with Kevin Costner, and at the end his character is asked what he thought about Prohobition being repealed, and he was all "I think I'll have a drink."
Being young I asked my dad why he said that when the whole time he was fighting against it.
"Nobody gave a ***** about it, they were just going against it because they were told to. They realized it was a waste of time and did more harm than good, so they stopped trying to ban it."
Now tell me that isn't the exact same ***** ***** we have to deal with today because of drug prohobition. It's probably even worse now. Because instead of just mobsters and gangsters taking advantage of this, we got people in the government who directly or indirectly benefit from all this in a manner most unsettling.
And let's not forget that if you make it illegal, it's taboo can have a corrupting effect on those that are supposed to control it, such as cops, lawmakers, etc.
The reason the government gets away with inane nonsense like this is because we don't allow ourselves to reason things out, to think, and to try to enlighten our intellect towards better understanding. It's so easy to give in to emotional suggestion, so easy to cave to morality, to seeing what's popular and going along with it because otherwise you're blacklisted.
It's entirely different to actually sit down, think for yourself, think beyond the normal "right/wrong", and try to view something from another perspective. I used to loathe all drugs. But eventually I reconciled in the fact that the drugs didn't make my family do bad things. They chose to do those things. If the drugs weren't there, perhaps they'd have found worse ways to vent it. Perhaps not. But that's the cost of choice, you pay the price no matter what, but I have concluded that the government, or anybody else, has the right to dictate what you do with your body, as long as it doesn't harm another.
If you are an idiot, get drunk and drive, wreck and killl a family, then yes, you deserve to be heavily punished for that. But if you're sitting in your home getting drunk or stoned or whatever, then nobody should have the right to come in and tell you what you can or cannot do.
If we ended this war now, I think you'd see an interesting decline in use, in crime, and in arrests. For the most part if people were actually allowed to grow pot, then they wouldn't have to buy it from anybody, and then you'd get rid of pretty much all drug dealers.
As for heroin and cocaine....I don't know, but I do know that you can't put Pot into the same category as those drugs, my friend has been on pot for years and he's never done anything beyond that aside from getting drunk from time to time, and when his mother was dying from cancer, she was able to alleviate the pain of her chemo and restore her appetite with marajuana.
So as far as I'm conerned, if nothing else, legalize pot, it's not even in the same league as beer or tobacco. - spikespeigel42, on 12/01/2007, -0/+2I think thats the core of the issue. Almost everything that gets you high is scheduled, and even sinucichi and the still legal herbs that get you high are being looked at by the DEA for scheduling, no matter if they are good or bad for you. I guess the real point of the drug war is to stop people from getting high, because "getting high is bad, mmkay."
- vault, on 12/01/2007, -0/+2I would only be in favor of a tax when it's bought at retail price from someone licensed to sell it...if you grow your own, you haven't bought anything, so there's nothing to tax.
Let the tax revenue go towards drug/alcohol rehab programs for harsher drugs. Or even better drug education, medical research, etc. - DatVillain83, on 12/01/2007, -0/+2vault, dude, you're totally correct. i just can't see how the government could tax marijuana.
I'd like to see the advocates propose something to the House and then the Senate eventually pass a bill but taxing a naturally growing plant like that would be too difficult to regulate (financially). People can grow plants at home. Naturally, the smell would be a dead giveaway however, how would "Marijuana Corporations" (lol) prohibit people from buying it at the convenience store, immediately going home to plant seeds, then growing plants independently purely for profit. They'd have to start hiring seed counters. And i'm sure low-wage "seed counters" would love for an opportunity to start a side business selling seeds to other interested parties. Hell I would. - HitmanJustin, on 12/01/2007, -0/+2on the contrary, if all drugs where legalized like alcohol in ways, of saying you can't drive while on them, then crime would go way down, and gangs would have no way of funding themselfs, so they would go away aswell. and as Drjones78 said, yeah you should get your ***** straight, most drugs in fact originate from plants, including cocaine and heroin
- serval, on 12/01/2007, -1/+2"Got all figures from this excellent article http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/buckley20040 ... by Willam F Buckley, who ought to run for president http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley,_J ..."
William Buckley was a conservative his whole life then decided that the drug war was--like most Americans already knew--total BS. He renounced his support of it and began to oppose it with well written articles. Still ... he was the brain and verbiage behind Reaganism for decades and supports many other views which I'd guess a strong supporter of legalization or medical use of marijuana would oppose (not to group medical MJ supporters into a group, but Buckley says some far out stuff even for staunch conservatives).
On abortion and choice a couple days ago:
"judges who believe in a woman’s “right to privacy”—the code word for unlimited access to abortion."
On the reasons for the Iraq war:
"We should all be ready to go to war to defend Christian individualism and the separation of church and state, but who all is pressing this point beyond western endurance?"
"Buckley’s most infamous TV moment occurred in 1968, during a debate with writer Gore Vidal. Vidal, who is gay, called the conservative a “pro-war-crypto-Nazi,” to which Buckley replied, “ Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in you goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered."The exchange led to a series of counter-essays in Esquire magazine and then a series of libel lawsuits. Buckley apologized to Vidal, but wrote that “the man who in his essays proclaims the normalcy of his affliction [i.e., homosexuality], and in his art the desirability of it, is not to be confused with the man who bears his sorrow quietly. The addict is to be pitied and even respected, not the pusher.” Well-known as a fervent follower of Roman Catholicism (except when it comes to the Pope’s teachings about social justice and fighting poverty), Buckley apparently buys into its interpretation of homosexuality."
Here he looks pretty ***** debating Noam Chomsky (I like Noam, but it's not too hard to look "mainstream" relatively to him ... Buckley can't even pull that off!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYlMEVTa-PI - isntreal, on 12/01/2007, -0/+1no, i have some wonderful little friends named kidney stones.
- MrColdheart, on 12/03/2007, -0/+1ok we all know the powers of cut and past just leave a link next time
I got to smoke just to tolerate reading all this
- inactive, on 12/01/2007, -0/+1Take the "medicinal" out of that sentence and I'm down.
Look, I really don't give a ***** about medicinal purposes - I just want the thing to be legal because really, we have every right to smoke it if we so desire. You don't need a reason, a purpose, or anything else to justify something that YOU want to do. - Hobbes24, on 12/04/2007, -0/+1oh don't give me that "it's natural" line. there is aproximately 1 ***** ton of things in this world that are all natural and would still kill you. like, arsenic? or asbestos?
- WiseWeasel, on 12/01/2007, -0/+1You tax the commerce, and then you go after unregulated distributors, encouraging them to declare their profits.
- skews13, on 12/01/2007, -0/+1as poor as some states are,like tennessee.you would think they would welcome any kind of economic developement.hemp which is the very best source of cellulose for biofuel production.could bring untold wealth to that state if they would utilize it.the enormous amount of farm land they have,with their location.tennessee could grow,and refine enough biofuel to be a leader in this industry.i'll bet if the people of tennessee were given the facts of just how much money was involved.they would be in buisness tommorow
- tango1110, on 12/01/2007, -0/+1If you don't like my fire, then don't come around: Cause I'm gonna burn one down.
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