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Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

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Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#241

Post by jlgreco »

thedigitalengel wrote: post #107
mikeash wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weed is easier to get hooked onto than alcohol? Do you mean in some hypothetical universe where weed is legal and widely available? Because that's definitely not the case right now.

I'm from the same place as the artagnon. Anti-weed laws are almost never enforced, and weed is incredibly cheap (you'll get enough weed to get 10 people stoned out of their minds for the price of a bottle of beer). And the ease of storage means you can easily maintain a huge stash.

Where is this wonderful place?

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#242

Post by JPKab »

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #216
kyro wrote: post #191

I'm glad that Gupta has made this public apology. It takes a lot of courage to make that statement especially for someone with great public influence. I'm just curious as to why it took him this long. Medical marijuana has been prescribed in hospitals for some time with great benefit. I mean, just from a clinical standpoint, he should've seen the great upsides and limited downsides to using the drug. Patients, typica…

Being a bit pedantic here, I'd just like to point out that development of schizophrenia is not a mild side effect. With higher THC% strains, we have no idea the extent of latent mental disorders we're stimulating.

As a person who had a roommate whose schizophrenia was likely induced by heavy marijuana use (along with his tripping on multiple bottles of Robitussin), the fact of the matter is that the harm done to this small percentage of people is vastly outweighed by the damage done to people who can't get access to it for their medical needs. And that's ignoring the huge harm caused by prosecuting recreational users due to an absurdly ineffective prohibition policy.

The higher % strains, by the way, are a direct result of prohibition. If a drug dealer is caught with an ounce of high grade that sells for 400, vs. an ounce of low grade that sells for 100, he gets the same penalty. Take a wild guess which one brings more reward for the risk. And this, my friend, is why you have higher THC %.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#243

Post by leoedin »

hanley wrote: post #156
bjourne wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is not lagging behind. When it comes to marijuana liberalisation, it is definitely leading the way. With the exception of Netherlands, attitudes to marijuana is pretty strict in Europe. The US has the most pot smokers/capita by a long shot. Also, Hollywood movies seem to portray it as some cool party drug, that hippies and pseudo-intellectuals use. The drug is present in most American Pie-style movies, many si…

I don't necessarily disagree with your post but you should be careful with generalizations that aren't backed up with evidence. "The US has the most pot smokers/capita by a long shot" sounds a lot like some assumption you just made up based on your own personal experience. A study like marijuana users per capita is inherently difficult because people don't like admitting that they partake in illegal activity. The onl…

The "how many arrested" statistic is completely useless because the level to which marijuana possession results in arrest varies wildly between countries and even states or cities. Equally the frequency of searches, the criteria for selecting people to search all vary wildly.

Anecdotally, marijuana usage was much more prevalent amongst students I knew when I lived in Canada than it is in the UK. My experience (admittedly while travelling through) in the US was similar to Canada. This drug-use map[1] corroborates that (US 14%, Canada 12%, UK ~7%), although I do agree that any survey about drug use will probably not see completely truthful answers.

[1]: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2012/ju...

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#244

Post by jlgreco »

hanley wrote: post #181
artagnon wrote: post #83

[I'm not talking about most parts of the US, where weed is harder to obtain; I'm talking about most poor countries, where it is readily available] I've seen many of my friends waste years of their college lives running around like stoned hippies, overeating junk food, and watching absolute trash with loud sounds and bright colors. To make things worse, it's considered a great "social activity", much like going to a b…

"Only weed is _much_ easier to get hooked onto, because it's much cheaper than alcohol, and you don't need much more than rolling paper (as opposed to refrigerator, soft drinks etc)." Stop spewing bullshit. You clearly don't know what you're talking about. A gram of marijuana costs $10-20 and that will get 4 people properly stoned with some even left over. Meanwhile, I could go to a liquor store and buy a handle of s…

Furthermore, that bottle of vodka can kill a full grown man. That gram of weed? It couldn't even kill a scrawny teenager; not a chance in hell.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#245

Post by foobarbazqux »

duaneb wrote: post #227
knowaveragejoe wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a bit pedantic here, I'd just like to point out that development of schizophrenia is not a mild side effect. With higher THC% strains, we have no idea the extent of latent mental disorders we're stimulating.

It's not clear whether the schizophrenia induced is stimulated or just aggravated—i.e., was the person already a schizophrenic with a high threshold for psychosis that the weed lowered? I don't think we'll know for a long time.

You can't "already have" schizophrenia without having the symptoms of schizophrenia (assuming you aren't on medication that completely controls the symptoms). The reason is that schizophrenia and almost all other mental illnesses are diagnosed on the basis of behavior. The current thinking is that there's a genetic predisposition, and then certain environmental factors like child abuse (linked to mental illness in general) and exposure to hallucinogens will increase the chance of the condition developing.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#246

Post by militiaman21 »

_sentient wrote: post #33
tareqak wrote: post #6

Honest question: How many drug companies' bottom lines would be affected if marijuana was legalized right now? Reminds me of the quote: If you're not a part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.

I was under the impression that the primary anti-marijuana lobbies were funded by tobacco companies along with the beer/liquor industry. Medical use aside, marijuana would primarily be competing with those other recreational substances.

Tobacco companies have no problems with marijuana - that's a new product line for them! They already have the machinery in place to roll cigarettes, so it's probably easy enough to change the substance inside of it.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#247

Post by rlucas »

jarrett wrote: post #49
tptacek wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an article of faith that cannabis is a major contributor to US incarceration, but I think that's a belief worth questioning. I looked into this briefly for a thread a year ago and in the states I researched, domestic violence was far and away the leading cause of incarceration. In many major metro areas, you're more likely to be ticketed for cannabis than arrested. I haven't taken the time to come up with a conc…

This data point is over a decade old, but still: "the proportion of state prison inmates who were sentenced for marijuana-only offenses rose from 2.6% in 1990 to 3.6% in 2000" http://www.aclu-wa.org/library_files/BeckettandHerbert.pdf The DOJ reported that there were 1,236,476 state inmates in 2000 ( http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p00.pdf ). So 3.6% of that would be 44,513 state inmates who were imprisoned for ma…

It's important to remember that in most states, sentences of under one year are served in county jails, not state prisons. The state prison numbers you describe are likely significantly to understate both absolute numbers and relative proportion, for this reason.

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#248

Post by jlgreco »

pekk wrote: post #237
WarDekar wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 3 main active ingredients in marijuana: THC, CBD, and CBN. The places I go get their strains and edibles/topicals/whatever lab tested so you know the %s of each. In general, higher CBD+CBN levels are better for pain relief and insomnia and will cause more grogginess/drowsiness than strains higher in THC which are more for appetite stimulation, euphoria, anxiety relief, etc. At least in SF the legitimate dis…

If I am trying to get relief for pain and insomnia, why would I begin with the assumption that I am looking for a strain of THC at all? Why not get medical advice on how to treat the pain/insomnia/underlying conditions?

Because weed is safe enough to treat as an over-the-counter remedy? Because many people in this country find medical care to be inaccessible?

Re: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

#249

Post by ledge »

criley2 wrote: post #200
pdeuchler wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really good article (despite it's admittedly biased source) on driving while under the influence of marijuana: http://norml.org/library/item/cannabis-and-driving-a-scienti... It's also important to note the most dangerous thing you can do, bar none, is to drive tired and unfocused. Which is very much legal.

Not the most dangerous thing. Try driving on LSD. While drunk. And high on xanax. While shooting heroin. Obviously, there are more dangerous states to drive in than tired and unfocused...

I would rather drive on LSD than drive tired, no question.
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