I am all for the legalization of POT, but geeze!

[freeandfun1]

Oregon Ponders New Pot Law

I am all for the legalization of pot, but this is just STUPID! Nobody but a dealer needs to have six pounds in their possession!

 

[dilloduck]

damn--I wonder what they cut that pot with ? LOL

 

[Hobbit]

Ok, there's gotta be some way to extract the active ingredients from pot so they can actually seperate the medical users from the illegals.

 

[dilloduck]

There is but people "say" that the extact doesn't work as well. If they want to legalize it I wish they would just be up front about it.

 

[5stringJeff]

Six pounds... there's gonna be a whole bunch of pot being sold in OR if this passes.

But pot should be legal to possess and use anywhere in the US, and not just for medicinal purposes.

 

[insein]

I don't even smoke pot, but i agree whole-heartedly that pot should be legal. You can't kill yourself from weed by smoking too much. You can kill yourself from alcohol or cigarettes if you take too much. The later are legal for our own slow painful suicide.

Most of my firends smoke weed. Even my dad smokes weed. There is nothing wrong with it. Some make the case not to smoke and drive. Well you shouldnt drink and drive either but alcohol is still legal.

Make weed legal. Sell it at the local distributor next to the beer or in states without BS drinking laws (ala PA), just sell a pack of joints or a tin of hash at the 7/11. Legitimate businesses could be making money off of weed instead of low life dealers. Kids can stop being killed because they went to some shady back alley downtown to score a couple of ounces from some asshole who would kill his mother if it meant making another buck. Most importantly, we can stop wasting money on the "war on drugs". We're losing on both sides. People still buy drugs and we have to pay for the stupid war to do nothing.

Such a fucking no-brainer its unbeleiveable.

 

[JohnGalt]

Some make the case not to smoke and drive. Well you shouldnt drink and drive either but alcohol is still legal.

hehe, with the added paranoia of being stoned, driving should be even safer.

 

[Merlin1047]

Most of my firends smoke weed. Even my dad smokes weed. There is nothing wrong with it. Some make the case not to smoke and drive. Well you shouldnt drink and drive either but alcohol is still legal.

Here's why I disagree with you guys.


http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n196.a04.html

Studies review marijuana link to hard drugs

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n196.a04.html
Newshawk: [email protected]
Source: The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
Contact: [email protected]
Pubdate: 27 June 1997


Studies review marijuana link to hard drugs

'Biochemical pathway' topic of exploration

TIMESPOST NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON In a finding sure to add fuel to the debate over the medical and recreational use of marijuana, two studies released today strongly suggest that pot is a "gateway" drug whose use leads some people to abused socalled hard drugs, such as cocaine and heroin.

One study in the journal Science, produced by a team at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, demonstrates that the stress and anxiety associated with withdrawal from longterm use of marijuana produces the same biochemical changes associated with withdrawal from harder drugs. This is the "negative reinforcement" that causes a person to take more drugs to alleviate the stress.

A second study from Italy emphasizes the opposite side of the coin, positive reinforcement. It demonstrates for the first time that marijuana activates the same pleasure centers in the brain that are targeted by heroin, cocaine, and alcohol, again providing a reason to seek out the drug.

"We now have ... a smoking gun a biological mechanism by which this gateway phenomenon could be occurring," said Dr. Herbert Kleber, medical director of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

The new studies are unlikely to provide the final word in the ongoing dispute about the risks associated with marijuana use, both sides said. But they will provide powerful arguments for those opposed to marijuana use and may change the terms of the debate somewhat, said Scripps neuroscientist George F. Koob.

"This blurs the distinction between what is considered a hard and a soft drug," Dr. Koob said, "because they all do the same thing."

The backdrop to the argument is government statistics unquestioned by both sides that show that an individual who uses marijuana is 17 times more likely to use cocaine than one who never smoked pot.

But the interpretation of these statistics varies dramatically. Marijuana proponents argue there may be a progression because a person who smokes pot has to buy it from an illegal dealer and is thus more likely to be around dealers of other illicit drugs.

Alternatively, proponents argue, use of marijuana might be a marker for deviant behavior in general, behavior that is likely to include using other drugs.

Opponents, however, argue that marijuana use triggers a biochemical pathway that, in effect, primes the brain for the use of other drugs. The two new papers support this possibility.

"I'm not saying [marijuana] is as dangerous a heroin," neuroscientist Gaetano Di Chiara told Science, "but I'm hoping people will approach marijuana far more cautiously than they have before."

And then there's this:


http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread15244.shtml
Michael Lynskey, at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, and his team found that the early user was two to five times more likely to go on to use harder drugs or become dependent on alcohol - regardless of whether they were an identical twin or not.

The fact that identical twins, who share all their genes, did not differ from non-identical twins, who share half, suggests that the progression is not the product of genes.

Gateway drug

Many hard drug users have followed a similar path from cigarettes and alcohol, to cannabis, to heroin and cocaine. This has led some researchers to argue that soft drugs provide a "gateway" to harder substances. Clearly, not everyone who likes a drink ends up as a coke addict, but very few users of hard drugs have not tried cannabis first.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Now there are at least as many studies out which contradict the findings contained in those that I cited above. But from personal observation of pot users, I believe that for many people, marijuana use is the first step in a downhill slide to addiction.

 

[insein]

That whole gateway drug thing is bullshit. My dad has smoked weed for probably 25 years. If he ever did hard drugs it was before he smoked pot. Same thing with my friends. they all did hard shit before pot. Then they decided that it wasnt worth it on the hard shit and now they just smoke pot. Im not saying it doesnt happen. But its to the people that are drug addicts.

This whole argument is like saying beer is a gateway alcohol to hard liquor. You have alcoholics and you have drug addicts. There is no saving these people. Who are we to control their lives. Meanwhile we're pouring more of our money down the drain on a war against a product that 50% of the population uses. Legalize it. Make money off of it instead of spending money to stop it.

 

[freeandfun1]

That whole gateway drug thing is bullshit. My dad has smoked weed for probably 25 years. If he ever did hard drugs it was before he smoked pot. Same thing with my friends. they all did hard shit before pot. Then they decided that it wasnt worth it on the hard shit and now they just smoke pot. Im not saying it doesnt happen. But its to the people that are drug addicts.

This whole argument is like saying beer is a gateway alcohol to hard liquor. You have alcoholics and you have drug addicts. There is no saving these people. Who are we to control their lives. Meanwhile we're pouring more of our money down the drain on a war against a product that 50% of the population uses. Legalize it. Make money off of it instead of spending money to stop it.

If there is any drug that leads to hard drugs, it is BOOZE!

I have tried "drugs" other than pot twice. And both times were when I was drinking and not only drinking, but darn right drunk.

I smoke pot and I just wanna chill.

 

[5stringJeff]

I think the biggest reason that MJ is a gateway drug is because you have to go to the same person to buy both MJ and hard drugs. In fact, MJ is how drug dealers make contacts with people. If you legalize MJ, then drug dealers have no drug in their inventory to use to 'ease' customers on to hard drugs.

Not to mention, alcohol was one of the drugs that affected the same part of the brain as MJ does... yet alcohol is legal.

 

[insein]

I think the biggest reason that MJ is a gateway drug is because you have to go to the same person to buy both MJ and hard drugs. In fact, MJ is how drug dealers make contacts with people. If you legalize MJ, then drug dealers have no drug in their inventory to use to 'ease' customers on to hard drugs.

Not to mention, alcohol was one of the drugs that affected the same part of the brain as MJ does... yet alcohol is legal.

Another excellent point. Its like the salesmen that tries to upgrade you to the $4000 Plasma HDTV when all you came in for was the 27" with decent sound and picture. Drug Dealers are out to make money at the cost of anything and anyone that gets in their way. We could put soo many of these fuckers out of business tommorrow if we legalized weed today.

 

[Big D]

Don't panic, it's organic.

Don't criticize it, just legalize it.

 

[tim_duncan2000]

I think the biggest reason that MJ is a gateway drug is because you have to go to the same person to buy both MJ and hard drugs.

I had not really thought of it that way. That's probably true. I'm sure most weed dealers probably have other drugs too.

I think those anti-drug ads are stupid. Especially the one where someone dies because the other person did something stupid while stoned. Well what about people who do stupid things while drunk (run over someone, get in a fight and kill someone, etc)? That happens much more often. And alcohol is legal (and should remain so because 1) we saw what happened during prohibition, 2) alcohol, unlike many other drugs, is legal in just about every country, and 3) many people drink but don't drive drunk, kill people, or do other stupid things).

 

[nycflasher]

Oregon Ponders New Pot Law

I am all for the legalization of pot, but this is just STUPID! Nobody but a dealer needs to have six pounds in their possession!

Legalize it. Don't criticize it.

 

[nycflasher]

Another excellent point. Its like the salesmen that tries to upgrade you to the $4000 Plasma HDTV when all you came in for was the 27" with decent sound and picture. Drug Dealers are out to make money at the cost of anything and anyone that gets in their way. We could put soo many of these fuckers out of business tommorrow if we legalized weed today.

uh-huh

 

[Zhukov]

6 pounds does seem excessive, but if you consider the fact that when police confiscate marjuana plants they take into account the entire weight of the plant, including the stem and the root ball, it makes a little more sense. After you've harvested and cured your buds, a single six pound plant isn't going to produce that much smokable weed.

You can't smoke a stem (and get high), but the state won't hesitate to prosecute based on the highest weight value they can get.

 

[Hobbit]

Legalize it. Don't criticize it.

[sarcasm]I am so moved by your five word slogan that I have now completely turned my views on drugs around and think it's ok for anyone to smoke pot, even though I've seen what it does to people. Thank you for that moving and extensive speech on the idiocy and futility of supporting anti-drug laws[/sarcasm]

 

[Said1]

If there is any drug that leads to hard drugs, it is BOOZE!

I have tried "drugs" other than pot twice. And both times were when I was drinking and not only drinking, but darn right drunk.

I smoke pot and I just wanna chill.

Interesting, but I have to agree. I think people are more likely to try things they other wise wouldn't when drunk, not stoned (THere are always extreme cases).

People who smoke, drink or use anything else on a daily basis have a problem using which needs to be addressed. Smoking or drinking here and there does not make a stoner or a drunk IMHO.

 

[5stringJeff]

Legalize it. Don't criticize it.

Legalize it, yeah, and I will advertise it!!!

Yay for Peter Tosh!