How often do you smoke weed?

How does that demonstrate criminilisation has "nothing" to do with that.

So you don't believe the conditions of prohibition and forced elicit production has any influence on the strains being used, not even slightly? Or that buyers are often left without a choice or adequate knowledge of the drug they are buying so just take what they get and assume stronger is better?

I think its rather ludicrous to mention heroin and meth in the same breath as cannabis, as unlike canabis both heroin and meth carry the (very real) possibility of a fatal overdose. Not the mention the side effects for those too are far more prominent and far more severe (many being permanent in nature).

A study by Professor David Nutt indicated that cannabis was both less addictive and less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. Just for reference Prof Nutt does not see himself as pro-legalization or pro-prohibition, he is very neutral on the subject. Now coffee wasn't included in that study, but a very similarly strengthed stimulant, khat, was and surprise surprise - it can be addictive and can have side effects. Caffeine (perhaps somewhat ironically) has been recently been found to cause chronic fatigue symptoms and alertness drops when used over the long term (with the caffeine being unable to counter this and the user requiring stronger and more frequent doses to keep up the effect). And yet we are comfortable as a society allowing this to purchased cheaply on every high street, and consumed at all hours of the day. My point is how can we logically ban one drug on the sole basis that is may cause some side effects, and yet allow other drugs doing the exact same thing?

On that logic I presume you are critical of e-cigarettes as they make nicotine easier to administer than traditional cigarettes and user's don't get that "beneficial bio-feedback safety feature" of burning tar filled lungs to help them moderate?

And the user's wont be getting as many of those nice toxins either. Yeh, definitely ban e-cigs.

I don't buy that. The current cannabis based products do not contain the active parts of the plant needed to produce a high, so any public demand for these particular pharmaceutical products is based of a genuine need for better medications.

These products have proven successful and continue to be used for a variety of conditions (MS, arthritis etc) - perhaps the previous drugs available were so terrible that a placebo could do better. Or perhaps these things actually work.

EVERYTHING we put into our body carries the potential of side effects. Even good old H20 if "misused" and "not consumed in moderation"! On that note sugar is emerging to be quite the "drug". Some scientists argue its as addictive as cocaine or heroin, it has very real potential side effects (from oral cavities, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, the list is endless). For better or worse we are all users of this one.

There is no "guaranteed zero side effect" medication, natural or not (incidentally cannabis in its raw form is a "natural alternative" to prescription medications).

Now having experienced chronic pain I would be very interested in hearing you out on this one, hit me up! as I myself have exhausted many "natural pain relief" and "alternative therapies". You'd be helping me out here. In my own experience the things can usually slightly reduce pain, but they cannot provide serious relief. And none to my knowledge have as potent a 3 in 1 potential as cannabis.

Cause and effect though. The vast majority of heroin users have used alcohol, is that not the gateway drug? I don't personally know anyone who "started out on cannabis" - thats a rarity given how relatively difficult to obtain cannabis is in contrast to alcohol. Most kids can access alcohol in their home, or can have an older teen buy from pretty much any retailer anywhere in the country. In contrast how many teens know where their local dealer is, or are brave enough to risk it?

Perhaps I grew up in a sheltered environment, but most kids here drink alcohol with their family under the age of 10, and start drinking (usually binge drinking) with their friends at approx age 13. Smoking is also pretty common at this age, but cannabis use currently takes place at a slightly later age. So based on the current scenario surely most addicts start with alcohol, not weed?

I think though Chip you've hit the nail on the head with this line: "their decision to use one drug led to a willingness to try others.". Probably true. The actual drug is irrelevant provided it produces satisfactory results. Its the behavior of wanting to try more (that addictive tendancy) that is the real problem, not cannabis. An analogy:

You go to a buffet. The food is nice, you want to try more. But you can't really solely blame the sausage rolls as the root cause of you overeating!

I think it would be "irresponsible" to censor and provide misinformation the likes of which I was raised with. Young teens deserve better. They deserve all the facts so they can make informed decisions.

I grew up being told that alcohol is safe enough as it is legal, cannabis will kill you if you try it once hence it is illegal. I now know that is an absolute lie and probably one of the biggest government cover-ups going!

Now personally I don't see myself as a "cannabis advocate", instead more of an "alcohol and drug use critic" and a believer in sound science-based (not moral based) laws. I'm not some stoner hippie, it wouldn't affect me if all harmful recreational drugs were banned tomorrow (alcohol, caffeine and tobacco included). However as that would be grossly impractical (as demonstrated by Prohibition in America, it doesn't work) and likely infringe on some people's creativity and free expression (we have plenty of classic drug inspired art, films and novels), I don't think thats the answer. Instead the only "rational" think to do is to legalise softer drugs on a like-for-like basis. In summary I don't want weed, I want common sense.

That's my opinion, I believe its sound and no I don't believe its harmful to teens. So many teens are already dieing due to existing legal drugs (you have teens with liver disease for crying out loud!), and from unregulated and unpure "legal highs" which exist largely due to prohibition (why else would people be buying dangerous synthetic cannabis?). This is thankfully beginning to be addressed across the world (in the states particularly), so if teens don't read about it here they'll likely be hearing it on the news (albeit likely in a heavily biased and scaremongering fashion).

Of course its not going to stop all people, its the same with any drug. Hell, people still make dangerously strong moonshine even though alcohol is legal and widely available. Its a niche though, the vast majority of people are happy purchasing legally.

 

I've never smoked weed...the smell puts me off it for one xD I might try it in like a brownie or something as a one-off but it doesn't really interest me.

I have no problem with people who do it though- it's a lot less harmful than alcohol and tobacco so..

 

Actually, Mike is right. Take my country as an example. Many of the more southern cities made it illegal for non-Dutch people to buy marijuana, because they didn't like all the Belgian, German, and other people crossing the border just to buy marijuana. However, what happened was a market for illegal marijuana on the backstreets grew. There was lots of really, really bad marijuana going around being sold to these foreigners since they couldn't legally get their hands on it anymore. Also, most importantly, crime rates related to drug deals massively increased. Lots of people who were at first very positive about making it illegal experienced the consequences and pretty much all wanted it legalized again.

So, really, I know for a lot of people this is all speculation, but to me this is just a simple fact you can't ignore: legalizing marijuana has way more benefits than it has downsides. (Whether or not it is good or bad to use it, that's a completely different topic of discussion.)

As for the original question: I started smoking around 14, my "best" days I smoked about 3 times a week. Right now maybe once or twice a month, tops. Not that interested in it anymore as I used to.

*Also, for the record, almost all of my friends have smoked marijuana at some point in their lives, some of them amounts that most people on here would find shocking, and I know not a single person who's become addicted to it. (Tobacco? Yes. Every single person who smoked when I was 15 still smokes today.)

 

I've never done weed before. I've kissed a guy directly after he did weed from a bong and it didn't taste bad. The smell isn't terrible, at least when "done" that way. I used to be completely opposed to it, but maybe because my depression issues, I would consider trying it. Funnily, I never had and probably won't have the opportunity in the future though. I don't care too much. No rush. Haha

 

And thats not mentioning the massive societal benefits from redistribution of police forces (and police funding) to more pressing areas.

Police in the UK currently "successfully" raid about 10,000 cannabis farms a year... for perspective its estimated that there are up to 500,000 grows of varying sizes. Thats not even scratching the surface and its estimated to cost us £1-2billion a year for the hassle. Now given legalisation would not only eliminate these costs, but actually allow for massive generation of tax revenue (which would more than compensate for any new problems introduced), creation of jobs etc I think its a no-brainer.

 

@741852963

I don't know what's happened, but you've quoted me as saying something I haven't said.
It's about half way down your post at the top of this page.

Anyway, at the end of the day, people will disagree on many things.
It's all about personal experience in my case.

 

So the reason why marijuana is outlawed in many countries is much like why illegal downloading is outlawed, somewhat.
Because pharmacies/the big corporations don't want people to be growing these things for free and miss out on profit they should be getting? Or for whatever reason that they don't want people growing this.

I have wondered why the use of marijuana hasn't been taken too seriously... Driving with it only gives you a 3 month license suspension and a $300 fine here...

 

Apologies there, must have had a mishap with the old quote button.

Unfortunately it won't let me edit the post anymore. But I have this.

 

I highly doubt marijuana is the panacea that advocates claim. It seems like a conspiracy theory to me. I don't see it being used extensively medicinally in countries where it is legal. And even if it did have medical benefits, any significant benefits would be from specific compounds which would have to be separated in the laboratory. Smoking a joint isn't going to cure cancer. It's possible that maybe there is something in it that will help prevent cancer, but that's as far as I would go. Home growers wouldn't have the chemical know how or equipment to separate the chemicals that might be potentially medicinal.

Also, this may be complete misinformation but wasn't it outlawed out of racism or something? Before anyone had any idea of what it could really do to you (good or bad)?

 

^It's definitely not a panacea, but it does have real medicinal benefits; I read about it being used to treat severe epilepsy, which was pretty cool, since that can be a pretty devastating disease. Most of the people I've known who use it medicinally already tried numerous "Western" medications and tried weed as a last resort, surprised by its benefits.

But most of the people I know who smoke just like to get high. They claim it "de-stresses", but there are certainly other things that can do that. They just want to smoke that good good. At least in my home state, they can legally do it (well the 21 year olds and above can), so whatever.