GX

Have you actually read this report?? The government has been trying for years to find the dangers of pot and so far have come out empty handed. I have read the report and the following are the only definitive “cons” they listed which do not seem too serious. Everything else in there is speculation and inconclusive and only applicable to animals that received doses impossible for a human to consume.

“The effects of cannabis depend upon the dose received, the mode of administration, the user’s prior experience with cannabis, any concurrent drug use Some users report unpleasant experiences after using cannabis. These include anxiety, panic, a fear of going mad, and depression (5–7) These are often reported by users who are unfamiliar with the effects of cannabis… The most common unpleasant effects of cannabis are anxiety, panic reactions, and depressive feelings. These are most common among users who are unfamiliar with the
drug’s effects”

In other words these effects are largely due to the high potency and unfamiliarity. Decrease the potency and you decrease these effects. Once familiar with the effects, you know what to expect and don’t experience them. No danger here except a possibly a little fright the first time in some cases. Legalize it and you can control potency. Conclusion: No reason for illegality and criminal penalties due to this effect

"The most immediate effect of smoking cannabis is to increase the heart rate by 20% to 50% within a few minutes to a quarter of an hour of smoking cannabis (9–11). Changes in blood pressure also occur. An increased heart rate is most obvious in occasional cannabis users because regular users become tolerant to this and other effects of THC (4). Tolerance occurs within
24 hours in laboratory studies and even large amounts of cannabis may have little effect on heart rate (1, 2, 6–9). Tolerance to these effects has also been observed in field studies
of chronic heavy cannabis users in Costa Rica (10), Greece (11), and Jamaica (12). These studies failed to find any adverse effects of cannabis on heart function."

Bottom line, no heart damage to healthy adults. This kind of heart rate increase also happens during physical exercise and smoking cigarettes. If you are healthy enough to exercise, you are healthy enough to smoke pot. If you have heart disease, you should stay away from pot just as you would cigarettes and booze. Conclusion: No reason for illegality and criminal penalties due to this effect

"It is likely that regular cannabis smoking adversely affects the respiratory system (22). Cannabis smoke is similar to tobacco smoke, and contains a higher proportion of particulate matter and more of some carcinogens (e.g. benzpyrene) than tobacco smoke
(22, 23)."

No argument here. As I mentioned previously you only need one or two puffs instead of the 20 to 30 that cigarette smokers inhale when smoking one cigarette and there are other options (eating and vaporization) so lung damage is negligible and can be eliminated completely. Conclusion: No reason for illegality and criminal penalties due to this effect

That’s it as far this particular report is concerned, the rest is speculation and animal studies that didn’t translate to human studies. It concludes as follows

"There are no cases of fatal cannabis poisoning in the human medical literature."

I didnt bother to list the obvious "psychomotor effects". When high or drunk, you are not going to perform tasks as well as you would when sober. Thats common sense and also no reason to keep a substance illegal.
There you have it. That is all that this report states as far as hard definitive evidence. Everything else is inconclusive and speculation. There are much more dangerous legal substances out there. There is absolutely no reason to keep pot illegal due to the findings of this report.

GX

GX

A valid response which I would like to address. First of all I read both of those studies and I grant you the evidence regarding the toxicity of the smoke but there are alternatives to smoking it and you don’t smoke it as much as you do cigarettes so the lung damage is negligible to non-existent. As far as the mental illness is concerned, I read that report and it is just a theory and there is no direct causal link there. In other words it is inconclusive.

Now lets get back to the social costs. Pot is out there whether it’s legal or not along with all of its “social costs” and its not going to go away if you enact laws. You have to ask yourself whether the social costs of its illegality outweigh the social costs of its legality. How about you giving me the social costs of its legality while I will list the social costs of its illegality which
follows and we can compare which social costs are higher (no pun intended):

1) Minors have easy access to pot because of its illegality. This would change if you were to make pot legal. If so, it would be just as difficult for a 12 year old to score pot as it would for them to score beer.

2) The strength is not regulated (currently the stuff out there is moonshine grade, if legal, you can make it “beer and wine” grade). This is important in the case of parental use. If parents are using a weak grade that gives them a controllable pleasant intoxication as opposed to a “zombified incoherent” high they get smoking the illegal moonshine grade stuff, they are just as in control of their home situation as if they were to have a few alcoholic drinks.

3) The proliferation of violent drug dealing street gangs and jail overcrowding of non-violent “drug criminals” exacts quite a high social cost

4) The robbing of our civil liberties in the name of “protecting our children” from drugs exacts a high social cost (see point one on how to best protect the children)

5) Holland and switzerland has done it without any impact whatsoever on social costs. As a matter of fact, adolescent use in those countries is less than what it is in the countries where it is illegal

And finally, we as a nation are spending 50 billion dollars a year (law enforcement and incarceration etc.) for the “war on some drugs”. If you take marijuana out of the picture (make it legal) that would leave you with the truly dangerous hard drugs and the number of illegal users of hard drugs numbers at 3 million. In other words, we are spending 50 billion dollars a year to keep 3 million people in line. Lets legalize pot and spend this 50 billion dollars on education and the treatment of people addicted to hard drugs. Im sure treatment and education would cost less than 50 billion. Drug abuse is a medical issue not a legal one.

GX

[/quote]

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.[/quote]

You make some good points as well which I will address one by one.

“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.”

This is where education comes in. There is a point of diminishing returns when toking. After 2 or 3 puffs you reach a plateau and technically do not need anymore weed and will not get any higher than if you smoke more than 2 or 3 puffs. Those who do are wasting it and needlessly trashing their lungs. There is also no evidence supporting that if you hold the smoke in your lungs longer, you will get higher.

“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.”

I agree, but did its illegality stop them from smoking in the first place? Also, if it were legal, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the thc content would be dramatically reduced so good ole dad would be merely “lightly intoxicated” around his kids instead of in a “zombiefied” stupor that the current illegal moonshine grade stuff gives you. If parents are to smoke, a better situation would be “light intoxication” similar to a few drinks as opposed to a “zomibified stupor”.

“How does eating make it safer?”

You do not do any damage to your lungs. That is big health reason given by the anti pot advocates against legalization

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

Vaporizing is a new technology of ingestion. Quite simply a vaporizer is a device that heats the plant material to a point prior to combustion that releases the thc into a non-smoke “vapor”. This makes any negative consequences to your lungs virtually non-existent

“I agree with Rom, we need data.”

We already have data and it is quite benign. The government has pumped millions into research to uncover the dangers of pot and have found nothing. See my previous postings today on the research conclusions of the studies that were conducted.

Telimaktar

Keep speaking that that GX and I might just start enjoying the good green again.

GX

Please dont get me wrong here! I am not encouraging marijuana use, just its legalization

brandon13830

Legalize it.

Buddha

If it was legal there would be less under age use. I remember first time I tried it was like, "can you get me a six pack", "no but I can get ya weed".

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Yes Man

I'm pro-legalization.

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magisterfaust

haven't read all the posts so this may have been said already. The MYTH that the stuff makes a person feel "mellow" is b*@!#?t. I never felt mellow. quite the opposite. I felt paranoid and agressive, so I quit taking it.
Also it is alot stronger now than it was in the seventies, so the arguement for legalising it must change accordingly. I agree in the resrect of illness like multiple sclerosis, but beyond that, it's a political and cultural minefield.

xxkayxx

I'm totally against marijuana. It caused my parents divorce, my dads death, my friends problems. Besides medical resons, i see no point in making it legal. Seriously, would you want your kids to be able to smoke marijuana freely when they grow up? I'm going to guess no for most of you, so i dont see why people think its OK.

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