Legalizing Marijuana, Hemp

[Domefire]

I'm starting to make a personal push towards people, I mean it's really something that's very illogical to have illegal, especially hemp. But this is a piece I wrote on Facebook that I decided I'd bring over here for discussion.
---

Just because it seems in my state that people form their opinions based on what they're told and not their logic, and because I'm not artistically inspired right now, I thought what I'd do is make a little report on marijuana. This isn't because I'm a stoner at all, but because it annoys me that people get their facts misrepresented because they only agree with what they're told and decide to be passive on many subjects such as this. It's definitely a flaw of a society that's been spoon fed by their government and their parents. Because if you indefinitely think something is right because your guidance counselor, church leader, parents, or government tells you so, you won't think about it at all otherwise, what would be the point, right? Almost conversely, when you're a kid and you disagree with an older person has to say, you're told you're wrong, and that their statement is just the way it is. No real logic in place there eh? But I guess it's fun to play with puppets.

Consensus doesn't equal a fact.

First of all, we've all been told marijuana kills brain cells. This has proven to be untrue, or not apparent in any research. The only study that showed that marijuana killed braincells was done on monkeys, that were suffocated with plastic masks, and they inhaled around 70 marijuana joints worth of smoke in 5 minutes. Marijuana doesn't kill brain cells but suffocation sure does.

Marijuana's effects are caused by the alteration of the brain's chemistry for the duration of your high. Done so by the chemical THC, made of C21-H30-O2. Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. None of these elements are completely foreign to the body, even in ancient times. --This is contrary to some belief that marijuana's high is produced by the killing of brain cells. And if brain cells aren't killed, then this belief is wrong.

No one has ever died from marijuana alone. Marijuana has one of the highest benefit-risk ratio of any drug or herb. Making it chemically the safest. The only cases of an effect of marijuana killing someone is in the UK where two people swallowed their own vomit. Which has nothing to do with the actual chemical properties. Or if the bud is laced with harmful substances, which again, obviously isn't THC or marijuana itself.

Marijuana does have harmful carcinogens though, however a marijuana user would never smoke as many marijuana joints as they would cigarettes, making it so that even if they were to smoke it, that it still wouldn't be as harmful as tobacco. Tobacco, which is legal for users 18+, tobacco that is sprayed with herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, etc. in a controlled farm, and tobacco that is one of the leading causes of death in the US, and tobacco that has one of the highest addictive properties of any other drug, especially with all of the additives. But it's legal? It's laughable almost.

Plus, there are many other ways to get the THC, which is the chemical that produces the high, into your system for therapeutic benefits, other than smoking. Vaporizers, a blast of heat that extracts the THC into a vapor that you breathe in, or simply baking it into pastries are some of the ways.

Last, but no the only remaining topic that could be touched on, is the problems having marijuana illegal causes. It causes the prosperity of the drug cartels, that shoot and kill over their goods. It causes billions of dollars worth of tax paying money going to a "war on drugs" that is an endless and illogical war to begin with. So basically, the tax payers pay the drug overlords, that shoot the tax payers that get caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time. A bit of a love-hate relationship?

Prohibition will never work, for the simple fact the organized crime will always be a product of it. Mexico being the most recent example, where the new president came in and passed all of these new drug laws, and now look at the turmoil. The turmoil that also threatens the U.S. The turmoil that is completely wrecking a nation. All because of prohibition. And of course the most historic example being Al Capone, who prospered in the era of Alcohol prohibition, which gave birth to organized crime.

And here we are now, still clinging to prohibition and not solutions. Admittedly, crack, meth, smack, etc. are problems, but those are drugs that do have MANY more harms than benefits.

So honestly, do you think that marijuana prohibition is worth it?


And if I didn't say it well enough. -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZR0I...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufekh_SwZd0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjtL1xvcleA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4MC5...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_474...eature=related

---

Some replys and answers

"Marijuana is a gateway drug, which means it leads to other potentially addictive issues like Alcoholism and drug abuse related to drugs such as Crack, Cocaine, Heroin, etc... So even if what you're saying is true... its still a dangerous subject.... and you're wrong about the last part, we are moving towards pushing the American health system to view treatment for addictions and recovery as a health concern and give it a budget in order to help people through such issues.... additionally, more and more drug courts are popping up rather than traditional courts... yet i wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of them due to the fact that not very many people associated with the distribution of drugs are fans of them

As far as people dying, the fact that those two people choked on their own vomit shows that they were participating in other activities, most likely to be the intake of another form of drug besides marijuana, which only strengthens the gateway drug theory. Additionally, the reason why marijuana is illegal and cigarettes aren't is because marijuana limits your mental capacity and causes you to not be able to think clearly and make wise decisions.

As far as prohibition, you can't blame legislation for the existence of organized crime... As far as cocaine goes, there is a 17,000% profit on the drug:..." - continues but w/e.

My reply(s)
"http://www.drugscience.org/sfu/sfu_gateway.html
Which disproves any concrete evidence of it being a gateway drug. And without concrete evidence, a lot of the argument falls apart. And there's no real reasoning to the argument that it's a gateway drug either.

There's a relation between supply, demand, and price. And since marijuana is illegal, it's hard to get a hold of. Obviously if it's hard to get a hold of, the price will be sky high. And if there's a high price, there's a high profit. Which helps cartels outweigh the risk with profit. And since there's profit involved, there will always be a new gangbanger wanting a piece of the cartel pie. And so prohibition leads to perpetual crime.
... Read More
"yet i wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of them due to the fact that not very many people associated with the distribution of drugs are fans of them" so you're basically calling me a drug dealer/user? lol."

And

"So, you're making a false judgment and then throwing out bible verses? Lol.

Even if that is true, it doesn't make it a gateway drug. Simply because it is illegal. Since it's illegal, users from ages 12-17 would have to get it from drug dealers, drug dealers who really don't care much for what they're selling and to whom they're selling it to. ... Read MoreMaking the availability for those harder drugs a lot more prevalent. (And allowing for dialoge like "Hey kid, want something that'll hit you harder than weed?" then the kid saying, "Sure, how much?") So the usage rate going up because of that makes sense, but not because marijuana is a gateway drug itself. Because pharmaceutical counters are much nicer areas than shady street corners."

And that's about it.
I'd appreciate some sort of discussioin for/against.

[Mutiny]

In (my) response to the gateway drug reply:

Marijuana is not, and can not be a "gateway" drug simply because of something you fail to over look: correlation does not equal causation. For example, bread did not lead me to harder foods such as jelly on toast. Another example is that if a blind man is using a walking stick, does that mean that the walking stick is what caused his blindness in the first place?

Marijuana doesn't cause people to try different drugs. Curiosity does.

[Unsurdy09]

Ah, I see, I see.

Then I suppose Marijuana could be legalized under a medical backing and discrimination process. Preferably temporary, though. Eventually we should be able to find a way to work around the "some modern medecines cant reach" problem at hand.

[mrjackfrenkobs]

STROMECTOL* (Ivermectin) is a semisynthetic, stromectol for scabies anthelmintic agent for oral administration. Ivermectin is derived from the avermectins,of stromectol, a class of highly active broad-spectrum, anti-parasitic agents isolated from the fermentation products of Streptomyces avermitilis. Ivermectin is a mixture containing at least 90% 5-O-demethyl-22,23-dihydroavermectin A1a and less than 10% 5-O-demethyl-25-de(1-methylpropyl)-22,23-dihydro-25-(1-methylethyl)avermectin A1a, stromectol without prescription, generally referred to as 22,23-dihydroavermectin B1a and B1b, or H2B1a and H2B1b, respectively. The respective empirical formulas are C48H74O14 and C47H72O14, with molecular weights of 875.10 and 861.07, respectively. The structural formulas are: Component B1a, R = C2H5 Component B1b, R = CH3 Ivermectin is a white to yellowish-white, buy stromectol online, nonhygroscopic, crystalline powder with a melting point of about 155°C. It is insoluble in water but is freely soluble in methanol and soluble in 95% ethanol. STROMECTOL is available in 3-mg tablets containing the following inactive ingredients: microcrystalline cellulose, pregelatinized starch, stromectol scabies, magnesium stearate, butylated hydroxyanisole, and citricacid powder (anhydrous).

Tags:stromectol over the counter, stromectol best price, stromectol in France

[Mutiny]

Originally Posted by Mutiny

In (my) response to the gateway drug reply:

Marijuana is not, and can not be a "gateway" drug simply because of something you fail to over look: correlation does not equal causation. For example, bread did not lead me to harder foods such as jelly on toast. Another example is that if a blind man is using a walking stick, does that mean that the walking stick is what caused his blindness in the first place?

Marijuana doesn't cause people to try different drugs. Curiosity does.

One of the most retarded things that I have posted.