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It's pretty well established by the ADA that if you eat the same amount of marijuana as you consume in alcohol by whatever measure they use (Im not a scientist), you die.
And yes, marijuana is addicting. I think anyone that claims it isn't is full of shit and really doesnt have any experiences with it.
I used to smoke weed regularly, yet never felt an addiction to it.
One day, I decided to give it up for good, and have never smoked it since.
I think it's psychologically addictive, not physically addictive. I used to know quite a few potheads, and each of them pretty much lived their lives relvoving around their particular vice. If they had a job, it was so they could get money to get pot. They all displayed some rather violent mood swings from time to time, but that may have been based on their phsychology or even other drugs, I don't know.
No offense, but as a whole I think this is a horrid statement.Quote:
Originally posted by Pyrosama
I don't understand why people who smoke dope insist that there is nothing wrong with it and try to justify smoking it. If you smoke it, so what. You don't have to announce it to the world and try to get it to be legal just so you don't have to worry about getting caught.
I think your statement is erroneous on the basis that it feeds the whole "let's bitch at the bar about how corrupt the politicians/government is and yet not even exercise our most basic political right (VOTING!!)” mentality.
If the Country you are living in has illegalized something you believe in, then I urge you to stand up and make your stance known. If you are smoking dope, and believe you should have the legal right to do so then you should be trying to make it legal.
I am not endorsing a particular view (In this particular post) on whether or not Marijuana is a good/bad drug, or whether it should be legal/illegal. Merely stating my opinion on the above statement.
Frobozz, I have had lots and I mean this man, lots of experience with the drug and am in no way addicted to it. It sounds to me like you've been listening to the media a bit to much. Don't take everything you hear at face value. I can see how people can be psychologically addicted to it, but that's only if you have a dependent personality. Someone like that can technically be addicted to anything.Quote:
And yes, marijuana is addicting. I think anyone that claims it isn't is full of shit and really doesnt have any experiences with it.
Again Frobozz, you're wrong. I've actually watched someone eat half an ounce of marijuana in butter and brownies. One person ate an entire half ounce. He got pretty high, but it didn't do him any short term or long term damage. I've also seen someone eat an 8th, which is 40 bucks worth. He ate it raw because he heard that when it metabolizes into your system it creates a new chemical, providing hallucinations, sad to say he got stoned, but no visuals came. So, my point, ingesting marijuana is in no way fatal, not even in the least bit.Quote:
Hehehehe... I read the website, it was hilarious!!! Why do we think it doesnt need any pesticides or herbicides? Having grown up on a farm I know this answer, because the only other plants that I remember not needed herbicides/pesticides were fatal upon consumption. (Which marijuana is..)
And thank you Eno, I applaud you and your post, Very well said.
Now for the good things about marijuana.
On an annual basis, 1 acre of hemp will produce as much fiber as 2 to 3 acres of cotton. Hemp fiber is stronger and softer than cotton, lasts twice as long as cotton, and will not mildew. Many textile products (shirts, jackets, pants, backpacks, etc.) made from 100% hemp are now available.
Cotton grows only in moderate climates and requires more water than hemp; but hemp is frost tolerant, requires only moderate amounts of water, and grows in all 50 states. Cotton requires large quantities of pesticides and herbicides--50% of the world's pesticides/herbicides are used on cotton. But hemp requires no pesticides, no herbicides, and only moderate amounts of fertilizer.
On an annual basis, 1 acre of hemp will produce as much paper as 2 to 4 acres of trees. From tissue paper to cardboard, all types of paper products can be produced from hemp. Global demand for paper will double within 25 years. Unless tree-free sources of paper are developed, there is no way to meet future demand without causing massive deforestation and environmental damage. Hemp is the world's most promising source of tree-free paper.
The quality of hemp paper is superior to tree-based paper. Hemp paper will last hundreds of years without degrading, can be recycled many more times than tree-based paper, and requires less toxic chemicals in the manufacturing process than does paper made from trees.
Hemp can be used to produce fiberboard that is stronger than wood, lighter than wood, and fire retardant. Substituting hemp fiberboard for timber would further reduce the need to cut down our forests. Hemp can also be used to produce strong, durable and environmentally-friendly plastic substitutes. Thousands of products made from petroleum-based plastics can be produced from hemp-based composites. Mercedes Benz of Germany has recently begun manufacturing automobile bodies and dashboards made from hemp.
It takes years for trees to grow until they can be harvested for paper or wood, but hemp is ready for harvesting only 120 days after it is planted. Hemp can grow on most land suitable for farming, but forests and tree farms require large tracts of land available in few locations. Harvesting hemp rather than trees would also eliminate erosion due to logging, thereby reducing topsoil loss and water pollution caused by soil runoff.
Hemp seeds contain a protein that is more nutritious and more economical to produce than soybean protein. Hemp seeds are not intoxicating. Hemp seed protein can be used to produce virtually any product made from soybean: tofu, veggie burgers, butter, cheese, salad oils, ice cream, milk, etc. Hemp seed can also be ground into a nutritious flour that can be used to produce baked goods such as pasta, cookies, and breads.
Hemp seed oil can be used to produce non-toxic diesel fuel, paint, varnish, detergent, ink and lubricating oil. Because hemp seeds account for up to half the weight of a mature hemp plant, hemp seed is a viable source for these products.
Just as corn can be converted into clean-burning ethanol fuel, so can hemp. Because hemp produces more biomass than any plant species (including corn) that can be grown in a wide range of climates and locations, hemp has great potential to become a major source of ethanol fuel.
From 1776 to 1937, hemp was a major American crop and textiles made from hemp were common. Yet, The American Textile Museum, The Smithsonian Institute, and most American history books contain no mention of hemp. The government's War on Marijuana Smokers has created an atmosphere of self censorship--speaking of hemp in a positive manner is considered taboo.
United States Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp, used products made from hemp, and praised the hemp plant in some of their writings. Under the laws written by today's politicians, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would be considered a threat to society--they would be arrested and thrown in prison for the felony crime of growing plants.
The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) classifies marijuana as a dangerous drug with no medical value. That classification contradicts mounds of evidence showing marijuana to be a very safe and effective medicine. Marijuana is more effective, much less expensive, and much safer than many drugs currently used in its place. Marijuana can provide excellent relief for those who suffer from cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, arthritis, rheumatism, asthma, insomnia, and depression. If knowledge of marijuana's many medicinal uses, its remarkable safety, and hemp's enormous potential as a natural resource become widely known, the DEA fears that support for Marijuana Prohibition will collapse, and thus threaten the DEA's budget. To maintain the myth that marijuana/hemp is useless and dangerous, the DEA prohibits medicinal use of marijuana, denies researchers access to marijuana for use in clinical studies, and rejects all applications to grow industrial hemp. In 1988--after reviewing all evidence brought forth in a lawsuit against the government's prohibition of medical marijuana--the DEA's own administrative law judge.
"The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for the Drug Enforcement Administration to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence." Judge Francis Young of the Drug Enforcement Administration went on to say:
"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known. In strict medical terms, marijuana is safer than many foods we commonly consume." Judge Young recommended that the DEA allow marijuana to be prescribed as medicine, but the DEA has refused.
Although the federal government claims marijuana has no appropriate medicinal use, the federal government contradicts itself by supplying government-grown, FDA-approved marijuana cigarettes to 8 seriously ill Americans remaining from its discontinued medical marijuana program. The federal government closed its medical marijuana program in 1992 after the AIDS epidemic created a flood of new applicants. In November 1996, California voters approved an initiative (Proposition 215) that re-legalizes the personal use and cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
For the first 162 years of America's existence, marijuana was totally legal and hemp was a common crop. But during the 1930s, the U.S. government and the media began spreading outrageous lies about marijuana, which led to its prohibition. Some headlines made about marijuana in the 1930s were: "Marijuana: The assassin of youth." "Marijuana: The devil's weed with roots in hell." "Marijuana makes fiends of boys in 30 days." "If the hideous monster Frankenstein came face to face with the monster marijuana, he would drop dead of fright." In 1936, the liquor industry funded the infamous movie titled Reefer Madness. This movie depicts a man going insane from smoking marijuana, and then killing his entire family with an ax. This campaign of lies, as well as other evidence, have led many to believe there may have been a hidden agenda behind Marijuana Prohibition.
Shortly before marijuana was banned by The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, new technologies were developed that made hemp a potential competitor with the newly-founded synthetic fiber and plastics industries. Hemp's potential for producing paper also posed a threat to the timber industry (see New Billion-Dollar Crop). Evidence suggests that commercial interests having much to lose from hemp competition helped propagate reefer madness hysteria, and used their influence to lobby for Marijuana Prohibition. It is not known for certain if special interests conspired to destroy the hemp industry via Marijuana Prohibition, but enough evidence exists to raise the possibility.
After Alcohol Prohibition ended in 1933, funding for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the Drug Enforcement Administration) was reduced. The FBN's own director, Harry J. Anslinger, then became a leading advocate of Marijuana Prohibition. In 1937 Anslinger testified before Congress in favor of Marijuana Prohibition by saying: "Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind." "Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes." Marijuana Prohibition is founded on lies and rooted in racism, prejudice, and ignorance. Just as politicians believed Harry J. Anslinger to be a marijuana expert in 1937, many people still believe law enforcement officials are marijuana experts. In reality, law enforcement officials have no expert knowledge of marijuana's medical or health effects, but they do represent an industry that receives billions of tax dollars to enforce Marijuana Prohibition.
Before the government began promoting reefer madness hysteria during the 1930s, the word marijuana was a Mexican word that was totally absent from the American vocabulary. In the 1930s, Americans knew that hemp was a common, useful, and harmless crop. It is extremely unlikely anyone would have believed hemp was dangerous, or would have believed stories of hemp madness. Thus, the words marijuana and reefer were substituted for the word hemp in order to frighten the public into supporting Hemp Prohibition. Very few people realized that marijuana and hemp came from the same plant species; thus, virtually nobody knew that Marijuana Prohibition would destroy the hemp industry.
Recently, narcotics officers raided the house of a suspected marijuana dealer in Wisconsin. The unarmed suspect, who offered no resistance, was shot to death in front of his 7-year-old son. His crime? Possession of 1 ounce of marijuana. In Oklahoma, a wheelchair-bound paraplegic who used medicinal marijuana to control muscle spasms caused by his broken back was sentenced to 10 years in prison. His crime? Possession of 2 ounces of marijuana. Another Oklahoma man is serving 75 years in prison for growing only 5 marijuana plants. (These are not misprints.)
Prohibition is the number one cause of America's exploding prison population. Many non-violent drug offenders are now serving longer prison sentences than murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals. It costs taxpayers $30,000 per year to imprison just one non-violent drug offender. Politicians are spending billions of tax dollars to build new prisons and jails so more and more non-violent drug offenders can be warehoused. Meanwhile, funding for education and other services are being strained.
Reducing drug abuse is a desirable goal, but law enforcement methods used to obtain that goal are counterproductive. Prohibition costs billions to enforce, creates a black market that generates violence and corruption, and makes criminals out of millions of productive and harmless adults. Adult use of alcohol and tobacco is accepted, but adult use of marijuana is considered criminal behavior. Why?
The main rationalization for Prohibition is to keep marijuana away from children. That rationalization does not reflect reality. Several surveys reveal that teenagers can obtain marijuana easier than they can obtain the legal drugs of beer or wine. In Holland, where sale of marijuana to adults is openly accepted, the percentage of teenagers using marijuana is less than half that of American teenagers. Because America's marijuana trade is totally unregulated, marijuana dealers are on the streets selling to anybody--especially teenagers. Regulating marijuana like wine would put street dealers out of business, would make marijuana dealers pay taxes, and would restrict sales to adults only. Prohibition does not make it difficult for teenagers to obtain marijuana. Tougher marijuana laws have not reduced marijuana use. Marijuana use has increasedevery single year since 1991.
In 1937 (the last year that marijuana was legal) only 100,000 Americans used marijuana. Now that marijuana is illegal, 30 million Americans use marijuana, and marijuana is easily available to anybody who wants it--including children and prison inmates. 600,000 Americans are arrested for marijuana violations every year and thousands of them are sent to jail or prison, where many of them can still obtain drugs. The government can't even keep drugs out of its own prisons, yet the politicians keep telling us they can rid the entire nation of marijuana by spending more tax dollars. The government now spends $15 billion every year (a 1,500% increase since 1980) waging a war on marijuana smokers--a war that has lasted 60 years and is impossible to win. Another $5 billion per year is lost in tax revenue that could be generated if marijuana was regulated and taxed like wine.
For all practical purposes, Marijuana Prohibition is a $15-billion-per-year government subsidy for drug traffickers, organized crime, and street dealers. Because the government prohibits well-regulated liquor stores from selling marijuana, the government ensures that organized crime and street dealers will flourish. Prohibition escalates violence and corruption as mobsters, street gangs, and thugs fight for control of the marijuana trade. Just as Alcohol Prohibition escalated violence and corruption during the 1920s, Marijuana Prohibition does the same today.
Once all the facts are known, it becomes clear that America's marijuana laws need reform. This issue must be openly debated using only the facts. Groundless claims, meaningless statistics, and exaggerated scare stories that have been peddled by politicians and prohibitionists for the last 60 years must be rejected.
Annual American Deaths Caused by Drugs
Source: United States government...National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bureau of Mortality Statistics
Tobacco - 400,000
Alcohol - 100,00
All legal drugs - 20,000
All illegal drugs - 15,000
Caffeine - 2,000
Aspirin - 500
Marijuana - 0
Like any substance, marijuana can be abused. The most common problem attributed to marijuana is frequent overuse, which can induce lethargic behavior, but does not cause serious health problems. Marijuana can cause short-term memory loss, but only while under the influence. Marijuana does not impair long-term memory. Marijuana does not lead to harder drugs. Marijuana does not cause brain damage, genetic damage, or damage the immune system. Unlike alcohol, marijuana does not kill brain cells or induce violent behavior. Continuous long-term smoking of marijuana can cause bronchitis, but the chance of contracting bronchitis from casual marijuana smoking is minuscule. Respiratory health hazards can be totally eliminated by consuming marijuana via non-smoking methods, i.e., ingesting marijuana via baked foods, tincture, or vaporizer.
A 1997 UCLA School of Medicine study (Volume 155 of the American Journal of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine) conducted on 243 marijuana smokers over an 8-year period reported the following: "Findings from the long-term study of heavy, habitual marijuana smokers argue against the concept that continuing heavy use of marijuana is a significant risk factor for the development of chronic lung disease." "Neither the continuing nor the intermittent marijuana smokers exhibited any significantly different rates of decline in lung function as compared with those individuals who never smoked marijuana." The study concluded: "No differences were noted between even quite heavy marijuana smoking and nonsmoking of marijuana."
Marijuana does not cause serious health problems like those caused by tobacco or alcohol (e.g., strong addiction, cancer, heart problems, birth defects, emphysema, liver damage, etc.). Death from a marijuana overdose is impossible. In all of world history, there has never been a single human death attributed to a health problem caused by marijuana.
Marijuana Myths:
Myth: Today's marijuana is more potent and more harmful than it was many years ago.
Fact: There is no medical evidence that shows high-potency marijuana is more harmful than low-potency marijuana. Marijuana is literally one of the least toxic substances known. High-potency marijuana is actually preferable because less is of it consumed to obtain the desired effect; thereby reducing the amount of smoke that enters the lungs and lowering the risk of any respiratory health hazards. Claiming that high-potency marijuana is more harmful than low-potency marijuana is like claiming wine is more harmful than beer.
Myth: Smoking marijuana can cause cancer and serious lung damage.
Fact: There chance of contracting cancer from smoking marijuana is minuscule. Tobacco smokers typically smoke 20+ cigarettes every day for decades, but virtually nobody smokes marijuana in the quantity and frequency required to cause cancer. A 1997 UCLA study (see page 9) concluded that even prolonged and heavy marijuana smoking causes no serious lung damage. Cancer risks from common foods (meat, salt, dairy products) far exceed any cancer risk posed by smoking marijuana. Respiratory health hazards and cancer risks can be totally eliminated by ingesting marijuana in baked foods.
Myth: Marijuana contains over 400 chemicals, thus proving that marijuana is dangerous.
Fact: Coffee contains 1,500 chemicals. Rat poison contains only 30 chemicals. Many vegetables contain cancer-causing chemicals. There is no correlation between the number of chemicals a substance contains and its toxicity. Prohibitionists often cite this misleading statistic to make marijuana appear dangerous.
Myth: Marijuana is a gateway drug--it leads to harder drugs.
Fact: The U.S. government's own statistics show that over 75 percent of all Americans who use marijuana never use harder drugs. The gateway-drug theory is derived by using blatantly-flawed logic. Using such blatantly-flawed logic, alcohol should be considered the gateway drug because most cocaine and heroin addicts began their drug use with beer or wine--not marijuana.
Myth: Marijuana is addicting.
Fact: Marijuana is not physically addicting. Medical studies rank marijuana as less habit forming than caffeine. The legal drugs of tobacco (nicotine) and alcohol can be as addicting as heroin or cocaine, but marijuana is one of the least habit forming substances known.
Myth: Marijuana use impairs learning ability.
Fact: A 1996 U.S. government study claims that heavy marijuana use may impair learning ability. The key words are heavy use and may. This claim is based on studying people who use marijuana daily--a sample that represents less than 1 percent of all marijuana users. This study concluded: 1) Learning impairments cited were subtle, minimal, and may be temporary. In other words, there is little evidence that such learning impairments even exist. 2) Long-term memory was not affected by heavy marijuana use. 3) Casual marijuana users showed no signs of impaired learning. 4) Heavy alcohol use was cited as being more detrimental to the thought and learning process than heavy marijuana use.
Myth: Marijuana is a significant cause of emergency room admissions.
Fact: The U.S. government reports that marijuana-related emergency room episodes are increasing. The government counts an emergency room admission as a marijuana-related episode if the word marijuana appears anywhere in the medical record. If a patient tests positive for marijuana because he/she used marijuana several days before the incident occurred, if a drunk driver admits he/she also smoked some marijuana, or if anyone involved in the incident merely possessed marijuana, the government counts the emergency room admission as a "marijuana-related episode." Less than 0.2% of all emergency room admissions are "marijuana related." This so-called marijuana-causes-emergencies statistic was carefully crafted by the government to make marijuana appear dangerous.
Oh and one last thing Frobozz, deer and other wild forest animals actually eat, yes eat, cannabis sativa (marijuana) for stomach problems. If marijuana was so fatal, wouldn't it kill them and why the hell would they be ingesting it?
Uh, you can't just say that because you'll legalize something, people will have less prompt to do that action. If you legalize murder, are people going to just stop wacking each other? If you legalize speeding, will people start driving like grannies? If you legalize porn for 15 year olds to view, will they lose interest? Same way goes with pot, people won't just stop doing it cause it's illegal, that's just a poor excuse made with some poor facts.
And just because it says 0 people have died of marajuana, that does not mean 0 people died because of marajuana. If a person dies from driving high and plowing into a fence, it will not list the drug on the death certificate.
Nobody said legalizing marijuana will stop people from using it. Legalizing marijuana would in my opinion increase use of marijuana. A) because people would not be discouraged from having it because they were committing a crime and B) because all sorts of businesses will develop out of this new opportunity for profit, and they'll be doing their best to convince people to buy as much as they can afford. Marketing works, so I'm sure usage would increase.Quote:
Originally posted by Sier
Uh, you can't just say that because you'll legalize something, people will have less prompt to do that action. If you legalize murder, are people going to just stop wacking each other? If you legalize speeding, will people start driving like grannies? If you legalize porn for 15 year olds to view, will they lose interest? Same way goes with pot, people won't just stop doing it cause it's illegal, that's just a poor excuse made with some poor facts.
What I said was, it will make using and selling the drug safer and cheaper, and Kian said that society could benefit from the many industrial, commercial, and medical applications...etc. etc. see the above posts. If it's legal, the government and other groups can monitor it for quality and purity (like I said before, you'd be reassured for example that the product you were buying was not laced with anything else). It would be in producers' and merchants' best interest to strive to offer the best-quality product possible to satisfy consumer demand.
As for the general distain expressed in your post: Just stop and think about why you believe there is some stigma attached with using marijuana. All of the examples you used (speeding, murder, porn for minors) would, I believe, still be considered morally wrong by the people even if the laws did not prohibit them, and I think the people would still expect those who committed such crimes to pay for their actions even if there was no law to assist in making them pay.
But, would it likewise be considered morally wrong to use marijuana if the law did not disallow it? If it was legal for a marijuana user to partake, would the people feel the need to exact vengeance for the pot smoker's 'morally offensive' behavior every time they light up a cigarette? Heheh. No.
Are you sure it doesn't list on the death certificate that the person was under the influence when they 'plowed into a fence'? I'm asking seriously if you know this for a fact, as I don't. If a person dies from driving drunk and plowing into a fence, is alcohol listed as the cause of death on the death certificate? If a van full of Jehovah's Witnesses explodes upon impact when hit in a head-on collision caused by a drunk driver in another car, does their death certificate say that alcohol was the cause of death, or just that they died in an accident? I honestly don't know the answer and since you seem to be an authority on death cert procedure, maybe you can tell me.Quote:
Originally posted by Sier
And just because it says 0 people have died of marajuana, that does not mean 0 people died because of marajuana. If a person dies from driving high and plowing into a fence, it will not list the drug on the death certificate.
Yes. If we're looking at "because of" deaths, then we should also tack on all the numbers for alcohol and other harder drugs as well. Like people who are killed on accident by drunks or crazed drug users, or people who die in drug-related violence, and so on. I bet Kian's stats for alcohol and hard drugs would soar if these were included, but I don't think the marijuana ones would. I never hear about crazed potheads plowing into fences, and I've never seen an erratic driver that made me think, "Oh, man, that guy is so stoned." However I hear a whole lot about drunk driver-related tragedies, and it's quite clear when someone who is driving a car is drunk, as they are obviously seriously impaired. I absolutely do not believe someone high on any kind of drug should be operating any kind of heavy machinery, but I'm telling you, just turn on the news and you try keeping a tally between alcohol-caused fatalities on the road (or wherever) and marijuana-caused fatalities. I'd bet it's pretty one-sided, pointing to alcohol as the bigger killer.
I realize that there are people who have died 'because of marijuana' due to illegal marijuana drug trafficking-related violence. If marijuana was legalized, however, then there goes the violent, dangerous, illegal drug trade of marijuana. Why buy from a gun-toting thug when you can get it at Walgreen's?