Derbonic

As a recreational drug , there is still a lot of dis-information out there. Even some of the commercials/public anouncements today are highly mis-leading. There is one public anouncement about it that does ring somewhat true. The one where the little brother talks about his big brother that smokes pot and never gets in trouble , but never does anything but hang out in his basement.

Can anyone come up with some figures as to how many US citezens/ Americans/global population smoke pot? My best guess is:
U.S. 50%
America 60%
Global 40%

P.S. Yes I said U.S. citezens. America is after all two very large contenents.

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You can do it your own way, long as its done just how I say.~the hypocrit

Telimaktar

Nothing wrong wit just hanging out alone in the basement whle high. Being high was a personal and private thing for me. I prefered that to being high amoungst friends because you just can't really have a conversation.

1: Hey man listen to this story.
2: Cool bro what is it?
1: Well yesteday I was ... sh*t what was I saying?

Great times

Anyway eating it is a little too hectic, the high just last too long, heart beats like a crazy for WAY too long. Freaked me out.

Buddha

Right on, I had a question. I thought you were trying to make a valid point, and I was trying to see it. Excuse me for thinking we were all on the same team here. I've learned to look past smiles a long time ago.

__________________
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission
Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite
All of which are american dreams

AB517

I explained myself and you still gave me the finger?

You said, "No Offence" and I put smiles in. Isn't that the same thing?

Well, there ya have it. Look past the smiles, and insert you own meaning.

Maybe I inserted my meaning in your post, just like you did mine ... poof ... we have a problem.

I am sorry if I misunderstood you post.

romansh

The way I see it, there are several ways illegal grass impacts taxes at the moment.

1) enforcing the law and the policing the criminal activity that results fom MJ.
2) loss of people's motivation and increasing the resultant social costs.
3) health costs

There are likely more...

Legalizing MJ will minimize the first one and likely increase the second.
Regarding the third this will bring forward costs as people get sick earlier and die earlier. (The first and last years of our life tend to be the most expensive).
But on average may be a cost savings ...... who knows? Just curious are people who smoke grass more likely to smoke tobacco products.... if so then won't be big deal.

Does anyone have any actual data.

I just can't help rationalizing that decriminalizing marijuanna is the very last thing the criminal element wants.

Is that a tomato plant I see growing in your window?

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There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. ........... Douglas Adams

GX

What Specifically do you mean as far as point number 2? Is it that people who get high are too unmotivated to work and therefore will go on welfare? From what I heard, welfare has been reformed. Besides, all of the people I know who "party" are hard working individuals that enjoy it on their own free time. As far as the unmotivated slacker stoner stereotype portrayed in the media, I knew of some of them back in high school but they werent representative of the general "partying" population. And BTW that stereotype mostly represents the adolescent aged stoner. Even many of those guys change significantly when the reality of having to work for a living kicks them in the ass. The best way to prevent adolescents from smoking pot is to make it legal for 21 year olds and up. Its black market unregulated illegal status makes it much easier for adolescents to score weed than it is to buy alcohol.

I have the same question for point number 3. What health costs? How does marijuana intoxication make one ill? I agree that inhaling smoke is not good for you, however, most people inhale 2 or 3 puffs of weed max at a time whereas a cigarette smoker will inhale 20 puffs of smoke from one cigarette. This makes any lung damage from weed negligible to non exixtent. What are the health costs besides this negligible lung damage (which by the way can be avoided altogether by using vaporizer devices and by eating it)?

GX

romansh

Hi GX ..... I don't have all the answers...... but I have seen people go off the rails.....would it have happened without the cannabis...quite possibly? Regarding your comment about welfare reform ..... I'm thinking more internationally. Whether someone can collect the dole or not there is a social cost.

Regarding the specifics of the sterotype and how many puffs one needs etc., I will leave up to you as I suspect you have a greater in depth knowledge than I

regarding health effects .....less than two minutes of searching at my favourite magazine: New Scientist.

toxic and mental illness

I'm not suggesting these are good enough reasons to be for or against legalization. Just trying to be a little more evidence based

__________________
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. ........... Douglas Adams

Telimaktar

The health and psychological effects of cannabis use (National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre)
You can find and download the pdf.

Doc

There are pros and cons. Too many serious long term cons thus I quite the Good Green.

Buddha

That is a great point. I've always wonderd if the general population was aware of this.

__________________
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission
Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite
All of which are american dreams

AB517

You have some good points here.

That’s why I speak of it interns as an arbitrary line. Where you are misleading is the statements about the 3 or 3 puffs thing. That is not totally true. If a person did 2-3 puffs on a Friday or Saturday night that would not be bad.

I have direct experience with families where mom or dad puffs away. I can only say that once they stopped the family life improved. No raw data here, just my little observation.

How does eating make it safer?

Vaporizing it? What does that mean? I am way out of the loop. I

I agree with Rom, we need data.