The Reason Pot Is Still Illegal • Hacker News Board

Re: The Reason Pot Is Still Illegal

#11

Post by refurb » Sat, Jul 12, 2014, 2:41 AM UTC

I'll bet the reason why the drug companies are funding anti-drug organizations are simpler than what the author is suggesting. They aren't doing it because they think marijuana will steal all their market share.

Companies like Purdue produce prescription drugs that can be easily abused. Purdue pulled some really stupid moves that made it a whole lot easier for abuse of their product. They are funding the anti-drug coalition because it makes for good PR.

"What is Purdue doing about drug abuse??"

"In addition to encouraging the appropriate use of our pain medicine, we are also funding community programs to help stop our children from using illegal drugs."

Re: The Reason Pot Is Still Illegal

#12

Post by hamiltonkibbe » Sat, Jul 12, 2014, 2:42 AM UTC

drakaal wrote: post #7

hamiltonkibbe wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the fact that alcohol use is easily detected in a field-administered test all that keeps surgeons from doing surgery drunk?

No, but easily defined rules about how long between a drink and the surgery is. Just like pilots. You can drink and be a pilot, just not 8 hours before. How long you have a high varies wildly, and under stress old highs can come back. Edit: And if you think you can come up with a combination where you didn't die an hour after your drinks and are still drunk 8 hours later, here is a calculator http://touchcalc.com/cal…

The rules are --very specifically-- exactly as easily defined for marijuana.

There is no test that can determine when someone last had a drink. The results of a blood alcohol test for someone who had a beer 7 hours and 30 minutes ago will be wildly different than those of someone who skipped dinner and crushed a fifth of whiskey 7 hours and 30 minutes ago...

Re: The Reason Pot Is Still Illegal

#13

Post by refurb » Sat, Jul 12, 2014, 2:43 AM UTC

elleferrer wrote: post #8

n0rm wrote: post #2

any TL;DR?

tl;dr: Pot is illegal because of the money coming in from big Pharma companies to keep it down, since they will lose money once legalization occurs. Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America (CADCA) is hypocritical in it's war against marijuana while choosing to ignore the dangers of opioids and related prescription drugs. Also, law enforcement is lobbying hard to keep the status quo since property seizures from pot a…

I find the "bottom line" argument to be pretty weak. Marijuana is not going to replace pain killers like Oxycontin or Vicodin.

Re: The Reason Pot Is Still Illegal

#14

Post by justinator » Sat, Jul 12, 2014, 2:45 AM UTC

From TFA:

> Prescription opioids, a line of pain-relieving > medications derived from the opium poppy or produced > synthetically, are the most dangerous drugs abused in > America, with more than 16,000 deaths annually linked to > opioid addiction and overdose.

But, that's wrong.

http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/alcohol-use.htm

"There are approximately 88,000 deaths attributable to excessive alcohol use each year in the United States.1 This makes excessive alcohol use the 3rd leading lifestyle-related cause of death for the nation.2 Excessive alcohol use is responsible for 2.5 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) annually, or an average of about 30 years of potential life lost for each death.1 In 2006, there were more than 1.2 million emergency room visits and 2.7 million physician office visits due to excessive drinking.3 The economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption in 2006 were estimated at $223.5 billion.3"

Re: The Reason Pot Is Still Illegal

#15

Post by Scitr » Sat, Jul 12, 2014, 2:47 AM UTC

"Overall, we find that the impact of decriminalization is concentrated amongst minors, who have a higher rate of uptake in the first five years following its introduction."

http://scitr.com/a2a

"Early initiation of cannabis use and regular use during adolescence are particular risk factors for later problematic cannabis and other drug use, as well as mental health problems, delinquency, loss of cognitive capacity and educational achievement, risky sexual behavior and criminal offending."

http://scitr.com/a29 http://scitr.com/a2b

Re: The Reason Pot Is Still Illegal

#16

Post by bpeebles » Sat, Jul 12, 2014, 2:47 AM UTC

drakaal wrote: post #5

While Marijuana may have uses for medicine. As a recreational drug, I think the in ability to easily check when you consumed it, or to have a high as a result of just burning off fat. (it is fat soluble, and you can end up high even years later if you burn enough calories) Makes it harder to enforce responsible use than say alcohol. I don't think we want pilots, surgeons, or police doing their jobs while high, and si…

Do you have any links to actual studies that find you can get high by burning fat "even years later"? Everything I've read has said that some of the metabolites of THC can be stored in fat--and those are the actual compounds tested by "marijuana" tests, but THC itself isn't stored in the human body after the initial processing even if it is fat soluble itself.

Lengths of high vary, but so do lengths of being drunk. And lengths of undergoing caffeine or nicotine withdrawal or being high on them.

Re: The Reason Pot Is Still Illegal

#17

Post by MichaelGG » Sat, Jul 12, 2014, 2:50 AM UTC

What a terrible, lying, article.

"Prescription opioids ... are the most dangerous drugs abused in America"

That's patently untrue. Alcohol is far more harmful, as is smoking. Their opiate death counts probably also include deaths from combinations of drugs. And, the antidote for opiate overdose (Naloxone) is difficult to obtain.

The article goes onto say that painkillers are "overprescribed". What does that even mean? Sounds like they're simply disagreeing with somebody else's choice to use opiates. Which is thing they're arguing against with pot.

The article further spins Zohydro as some terrible thing, when it's really just the removal of a denaturing agent from hydrocodone tablets. But the article states it as "ten times stronger than OxyContin", which is a nonsensical fabrication.

Re: The Reason Pot Is Still Illegal

#18

Post by ggfdsgsdfg » Sat, Jul 12, 2014, 2:51 AM UTC

drakaal wrote: post #5

While Marijuana may have uses for medicine. As a recreational drug, I think the in ability to easily check when you consumed it, or to have a high as a result of just burning off fat. (it is fat soluble, and you can end up high even years later if you burn enough calories) Makes it harder to enforce responsible use than say alcohol. I don't think we want pilots, surgeons, or police doing their jobs while high, and si…

You're going to have to post some citation on the whole "getting high from burning THC-laden fat" point. Just because it's fat soluble doesn't mean you can get high enough concentrations in your bloodstream from exercise alone to cause impairment, or even be noticeable.

Re: The Reason Pot Is Still Illegal

#19

Post by blacksmith_tb » Sat, Jul 12, 2014, 2:54 AM UTC

refurb wrote: post #13

elleferrer wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tl;dr: Pot is illegal because of the money coming in from big Pharma companies to keep it down, since they will lose money once legalization occurs. Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America (CADCA) is hypocritical in it's war against marijuana while choosing to ignore the dangers of opioids and related prescription drugs. Also, law enforcement is lobbying hard to keep the status quo since property seizures from pot a…

I find the "bottom line" argument to be pretty weak. Marijuana is not going to replace pain killers like Oxycontin or Vicodin.

Not as prescribed, no, but as an alternative recreational drug is less far-fetched. What surprises me more frankly is that no large corporations appear to be gearing up to enter the legal pot market (think BT developing solar power; can't hurt to diversify...).

Re: The Reason Pot Is Still Illegal

#20

Post by chroma » Sat, Jul 12, 2014, 2:56 AM UTC

drakaal wrote: post #5

While Marijuana may have uses for medicine. As a recreational drug, I think the in ability to easily check when you consumed it, or to have a high as a result of just burning off fat. (it is fat soluble, and you can end up high even years later if you burn enough calories) Makes it harder to enforce responsible use than say alcohol. I don't think we want pilots, surgeons, or police doing their jobs while high, and si…

Even if your claims are true, the harm caused by imprisoning users is much greater than the harm caused by allowing use.