Devil Weed!

Originally Posted by madsci_guy

they were changed in personality even when they were "sober". They lost their motivation to work even if they had had no meals for a couple days I'm not sure that I would want to legalize those effects that I've seen.

RCG does this to me.

foam.

Originally Posted by Bilbobaker

Pot was not the first drug I tried, there was this drug called cross tops that my girlfriend talked me into that was extremely addictive but first it was mescalin, (peyote and a bad trip,) then cross tops, (some kind of crude crank of sorts,) next came peanut butter crank, coke, and then pot.

I dumped them all to, "follow Christ," and get back in school.
Feel like I made the right choice and haven't gone back.
But I still have several friends and acquaintances who smoke pot occasionally.

FYI: Cross tops are a kind of amphetamine, more commonly known as speed.

And yes, I am acquainted with them. Fortunately for me, it was not love at first sight.

Here's a thought.
With the current uprising by the Mexican drug cartels, soon to be a big problem here in the US, it might make more sense to legalize pot and coke. You don't hear about alcohol trafficking from Mexico. If pot and coke were legal, grown, sold and taxed here in the states, then the trafficking problem would dry up. We would create jobs and revenue, two things we disparately need right now.
When alcohol WAS illegal in the US there WERE murderous thugs killing police right here.
90% of the money that buys the drugs from Mexico comes from the US. 90% of the guns found in raids on the cartel come from the US. Perhaps that's our governments idea of a "Fair trade agreement"?
Maybe legalizing pot and coke just makes too much sense. Unfortunately, emotions and religious fanatics will always rule over logic.

Kip

Originally Posted by tolladay

I can point to at least 10 people who had this problem (or similar) with alcohol, but it is legal. Why the difference?

IMO, alcohol is less damaging than MJ. The heavy weed users that I knew, dulled their mental faculties as I've described in a very short period, say 3 years or so. As I understand it, most alcohol problems take a decade or more. My brother drank heavy on weekends for five years or so, and he appears to be fully recovered.

I am also of the opinion based on my observations, that alcohol in moderation is way less debilitating than MJ in moderation. Mom drank in moderation, say one mixed drink a night, and it took until she was in her 60's before her liver finally gave up.

Originally Posted by foamnpacktape

RCG does this to me.

foam.

Me too. But in this case, it's diverted energy not dissipated energy.

Originally Posted by madsci_guy

IMO, alcohol is less damaging than MJ. The heavy weed users that I knew, dulled their mental faculties as I've described in a very short period, say 3 years or so. As I understand it, most alcohol problems take a decade or more. My brother drank heavy on weekends for five years or so, and he appears to be fully recovered.

I am also of the opinion based on my observations, that alcohol in moderation is way less debilitating than MJ in moderation. Mom drank in moderation, say one mixed drink a night, and it took until she was in her 60's before her liver finally gave up.

Thank you for your opinion. You might consider poking around a bit on this topic to see what you find.

Among other things, its my understanding that prolonged alcohol use will alter the brain chemistry to the point that it needs a certain level of alcohol to function properly. I understand heroin does the same thing. I've never seen anything about MJ which would suggest such a change to the body. No one gets the DTs when the stop smoking pot.

I know several people who smoke MJ in moderation without any side effects. Some are highly successful big executives in television, film, and music. If you were to meet them, you would simply not be able to tell. I also know several people who cannot drink in moderation. Period. I know of no one who could not stop smoking dope if they so desired.

Perhaps the people you know that are suffering the ill effects of MJ have other psychological issues. There are several people in my family with varying degrees of mental illness, including myself. Add drugs to these issues (any drug), and you simply make a small problem into a big one. This is one of the reasons why I do not take drugs in anything OTHER THAN moderation.

I just smoked da pakalolo but that did make me the odd man out.
Most of my friends dabbled in harder drugs and several got badly strung out on the worst of them.
So far as I know they all started with weed but the problem as I see it is that it was all passed around on the same plate by the same people.
I know several that got hooked on hard drugs and would always be "offering" the crap to others so they could develop "customers" to support their own vile habit.
The worst thing is they would tend to target the younger and more gullible types. Those included my baby brother who is still institutionalized as a result of the heavy drug use that fried his mind.

I would really like to see MJ removed from that scene.

Damaging? Like liver damage, perhaps? I know several people who have ruined their liver due to consumption of alcohol. I know of no one who has ruined anything, even their brain, due to the consumption of THC. So, it seems that the milage will vary, most likely due to the perception of the driver.

The lethal dose of THC cannot be ingested under conventional means. The lethal dose of alcohol can be ingested in minutes, for a couple dollars.

Originally Posted by madsci_guy

IMO, alcohol is less damaging than MJ.

The legalization of MJ is so far overdue it is ridiculous. The societal benefits of a legal, regulated, recreational use of MJ would be huge.

Less people in jail.

Free up resources for abating the hard drugs.

Revenue to the states

Alternative crops for desperate producers

The elimination of an entire branch of underground society

I could go on.

Originally Posted by Lightnin

The legalization of MJ is so far overdue it is ridiculous. The societal benefits of a legal, regulated, recreational us of MJ would be huge.

Less people in jail.

Free up resources for abating the hard drugs.

Revenue to the states

Alternative crops for desperate producers

The elimination of an entire branch of underground society

I could go on.

Then let me go on.
Don't forget hemp products.
Our preamble to the constitution, the constitution and our declaration of independence were all written on hemp paper.
Then there is hemp oil, hemp rope and many others.

Kip

Well I been smoking pot and drinking beer and hard sprits for about 25 years or so. I can tell you the good and bad of both.

Originally Posted by RRR

Well I been smoking pot and drinking for about 25 years or so. I can tell you the good and bad of both.

You drink pot!

Tea, tolladay.

mw

Originally Posted by foamnpacktape

Many of us at least experimented with pot in the past, for some of us the experiment lasted a little longer than others.

Most of us were very lucky we were never arrested or prosecuted.

That little box on our employment application where it says "have you ever been arrested" we can fill out "no"
If you cannot put a no in there it will have a profound effect on your life.

How can any of us, do that to another. How can we condemn them to a harder life just because they were caught and we weren't.

Obama himself admits he smoked pot, if he were caught and arrested his life would probably be very different. Yet now he is the leader of a country that would do that to another. I'd like to see him justify that to someone sitting in a holding room after being arrested. "Well you see son the difference between us is you were stupid enough to be caught, so you deserve what you get."

How hypocritical, how cruel, and how unfair.

foam.

Great post foamy...

Really puts things in perspective.