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I made my son cannabis cookies. They changed his life

washingtonpost.com

221–230 of 290 posts

Re: I made my son cannabis cookies. They changed his life

#221
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is a false equivalency for two reasons: marijuana is not physically addictive, and THC doesn't have near the same capability to incapacitate people that heroin does.

>marijuana is not physically addictive, One of my friends complained for months about headaches, loss of libido, tummy cramps while getting off of it after years of use.

I've been physically addicted to alcohol and opiates, and also a long term daily marijuana user (currently over a year of sobriety from all drugs). THC has no physical withdrawal symptoms.

Re: I made my son cannabis cookies. They changed his life

#222
post #213

Without getting into the debate about the recreational use of marijuana ... we've classified it as a drug so I don't see a reason we can't agree that there might be some legitimate uses for it.

It's classified as schedule 1. A criteria of schedule 1 classification is "The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States"

So, at least the folks who wrote down those schedules disagree that Marijuana has legitimate uses.

Note that "accepted" here basically means whatever the person in power wants it to mean. There's absolutely no criteria that "accepted medical use" corresponds to doctors' opinions on the matter.

Re: I made my son cannabis cookies. They changed his life

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Terrorists are an existential threat Give me a break. I've never heard a more hyperbolic statement even from diehard warmongers. There is no conceivable way that terrorists threaten our national existence/security. Even several orders of magnitude more attacks a year would be barely a blip in terms of actual casualties.

> Give me a break. I've never heard a more hyperbolic statement even from diehard warmongers. There are sizable portions of the US and Europe that believe muslims are terrorist sympathizers who want to enact Sharia law. To them terrorists, immigrants and muslims are existential threats: they want to blow them up, take their jobs and run their lives and government. > There is no conceivable way that terrorists threate…

> There are sizable portions of the US and Europe that believe muslims are terrorist sympathizers who want to enact Sharia law.

Sure, and there are millions of people who believe all sorts of nutty things. Millions of people believe that stars predict the future or that aliens regularly abduct people. That doesn't mean we should legitimize these beliefs.

Re: I made my son cannabis cookies. They changed his life

#224
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if there was an all-out war on poverty, disease and corruption. The progress we could make.

You mean like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Poverty ? Good luck.

No, more like: Spend all defense budgets around the world on programs that reduce poverty, increase health and functioning governments.

Re: I made my son cannabis cookies. They changed his life

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand your point but as a New Yorker, an order of magnitude greater would be 20 buildings or a nigh-complete distruction of downtown. Sorry if my comment is emotion driven but the above comment seems very cold. Edit: just reread your comment and several orders is 200 buildings?

I'm not saying that terrorism isn't bad. Obviously it would be upsetting, but to be clear: an order of magnitude more terrorism would be a 9/11-level attack every year . Even with that catastrophic level, NYC would still survive. I understand this is an emotional topic (especially living here) but it's impossible to pretend that terrorism is an "existential" threat. Realistically, as cold as this sounds, a terrorist…

I concur with your assessment regarding human lives. That said, I think it's also important to take into account the effects those attacks have had on American society, such as the reduction of civil liberties, the increase in surveillance, and the changes in US foreign policy which have changed the position of the US in the world. These are significant. What would effect would additional attacks have? Yes, these are reactions rather than direct action, but at this point they've been frighteningly predictable. One could argue that this is an existential threat to the US as we know it, even if it isn't existential in terms of human lives, or in the country per se.

Re: I made my son cannabis cookies. They changed his life

#226
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course there is no reason to put pot smokers in jail - but this antagonism about the 'war on drugs' is very naive, unsympathetic, and dangerous. The part of this sentence after the hyphen is where you're fundamentally wrong. You listed a lot of sad facts and stories about drug abuse, but those do not constitute a defense of the war on drugs. It's naive to excuse the war on drugs simply because some drugs cause h…

"some drugs cause horrible effects for some people." No. Meth, cocaine and opioids represent the vast majority of illegal use outside of weed (which I think is a different category, and it is treated differently in most places) - and they represent a huge risk to society at large. Prescription opioid use is becoming a massive problem (and now the #1 source of addiction etc.) in the US - it's systematic - not just a p…

Sorry, what is your dispute with my claim? That is indeed some drugs causing horrible effects for some people.

Re: I made my son cannabis cookies. They changed his life

#227

Is the opposition to cannabis as a therapy at least part rooted in the fact it is not patentable? Large Pharma can't make enough money from something people could grow themselves? A parallel story is the guy in the UK researching treating depression with 'magic mushrooms' in small doses (too little to be psychoactive). As I recall it took him 10 years to get a license to do the study! These things grow in your lawn i…

That argument has never made any sense. There's an extreme amount of money to be made from national legalization. Moralization of pot as an issue is the primary culprit in question. The same type of moralizing, for one example by the Rockefeller Baptists, led to alcohol prohibition despite the incredibly vast amount of money to be made from keeping alcohol legal (which we see today in the truly massive scope of the US alcohol industry).

The argument that certain power interests wanted to keep it illegal, to fund secret wars, has never made much sense either (other than that such activities might occur as a monetary & political convenience while prohibition exists). Marijuana legalization is worth perhaps $30 billion per year nationally, at all levels, via taxation (sales taxes, income taxes, specialty taxes, etc); the industry would generate at least $150 billion in sales nationally were it legalized. There's a vast amount of money that should motivate legalization. Moralization of an issue often trumps monetary concerns (we see this frequently in biotech / pharma as well, the FDA prevents rapid progress in all sorts of ways).

Re: I made my son cannabis cookies. They changed his life

#228

If you're ok with this, ask yourself if you'd be ok wih a parent giving a kid bourbon to put it asleep. This used to be a common household trick before people decided it was probably not a good idea. Granted I think the war on drugs is stupid but I also think a failed parent shouldn't be the one championing the anti-war-on-drugs movement as that's only going to give the opposition ammunition. I'm also not a developme…

Man, i remember your name, and thought you'd be a little smarter than to attack the parent before even having read the article.

I don't think it's not smart to have a misunderstanding or an assumption. I was wrong and definetly will own up to that but from the first 2 paragraphs I assumed this was going the "I just assumed this would be a good thing". The article really takes a turn after the first few paragraphs and morally muddles the situation to where there isn't a right answer.

But yea, you're right. Was bad to jump to a conclusion.

Re: I made my son cannabis cookies. They changed his life

#229
post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying that terrorism isn't bad. Obviously it would be upsetting, but to be clear: an order of magnitude more terrorism would be a 9/11-level attack every year . Even with that catastrophic level, NYC would still survive. I understand this is an emotional topic (especially living here) but it's impossible to pretend that terrorism is an "existential" threat. Realistically, as cold as this sounds, a terrorist…

I concur with your assessment regarding human lives. That said, I think it's also important to take into account the effects those attacks have had on American society, such as the reduction of civil liberties, the increase in surveillance, and the changes in US foreign policy which have changed the position of the US in the world. These are significant. What would effect would additional attacks have? Yes, these are…

That's a fair point, but it's not what people who talk about the "existential threat" of terrorists are talking about. They're usually the ones pushing for more surveillance.

More terrorism might change the nature of US democracy, but it will still be the US.

Re: I made my son cannabis cookies. They changed his life

#230
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point, though, as I take it, is, would you be satisfied if someone took the time to isolate and synthesize the active ingredients in weed and made those available in prescription form?

> if someone took the time to isolate and synthesize the active ingredients in weed and made those available in prescription form What is the advantage of this over raw plant material?

"What is the advantage of this over raw plant material?"

To a point, consistency. It might not even be pill form: vaporizers, inhalers, and other such things might work as well. It might be that the best way to do it is via hash instead of the unprocessed plant.

All that said, there is some concern with the synthetic. I have a feeling the very reason the plant works better is because of the high. For example, MS patients have problems with muscles. Patients report better mobility and less pain, yet the muscles don't actually improve. It seems it just doesn't bother them - and I imagine some of the synthetics wouldn't produce this effect.

It doesn't mean that synthetics won't work for some folks, though, and might be better for kids.

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