legalize marijuana?

[Cassin]

i don't think a drug that could cause paranoid schizophrenia being very good at stopping conflict
i mean a condition where you think people are out to get you isn't very conflict preventing

anything and everything you inject in our body could possibly cause a problem to anyone out there. You simply need something to be exposed to enough people to find something wrong with it.

 

[somone uk]

i don't think a drug that could cause paranoid schizophrenia being very good at stopping conflict
i mean a condition where you think people are out to get you isn't very conflict preventing

anything and everything you inject in our body could possibly cause a problem to anyone out there. You simply need something to be exposed to enough people to find something wrong with it.

i haven't come across any scientific link for tobacco causing permanent mental illness alcohol has been linked to depression and anxiety but it doesn't cause schizophrenia and i mean my brothers both know stoners and i could say about 2/3 of them have gradually developed some sort of mental illness from it, i have never seen anything like that with alcohol
i have seen first hand what weed can do and it's not a safe drug, people argue the "lack" of physical symptoms make it safe despite it being linked to quite alot of smoking illnesses like lung cancer and it destroys your mind, it really does
i am a fan of informed decisions but i don't think 99% of people who smoke weed know what it can do
if everyone went out on a stoner rather than getting pissed things will be worse, not better

 

[The Gardener]

my brothers both know stoners and i could say about 2/3 of them have gradually developed some sort of mental illness from it, i have never seen anything like that with alcohol

Really?

I couldn't disagree more. I completely disagree with your assertion that "2/3rds" of marijuana users develop mental illness, and COMPLETELY disagree with your assertion that alcohol and alcoholism is not, at least, an equal cause of mental illness as marijuana is, and a much WORSE cause of physical morbidity. I mean, how many marijuana stoners out of a hundred develop schizophrenia? Now, for comparison, how many alcoholics out of a hundred suffer from profound depression? And, I'm not talking about waking up on the wrong side of the bed, I'm talking about profound clinical depression. I'd wager a guess that most of them do.

Alcohol is FAR more morbid to the human body than marijuana is. Alcohol causes morbidity in pretty much just about each and every tissue of the body.

At a college student honor society conference I attended way back in my college days, one of the "breakout" sessions included an opportunity for a Q&A session with the chief medical examiner/coroner for the metropolitan Atlanta area. Someone asked him what drug he thought was the WORST for humans to take... and his answer was that it was a tie between nicotine/cigarettes and alcohol. He then qualified his answer and said that of the two, alcohol is the worst. It attacks the most vital organs of a human body, especially the liver, and literally scars and kills tissue. Marijuana does not. Alcohol affects the entire brain, including the lower lobes, so when you drink too much and pass out, your mental state is very close to that of a coma, as alcohol affects the involuntary nervous system and can affect heart rate and breathing. Marijuana does not, it has no effect on the lower brain lobes, and as such if you smoke too much marijuana, you will also pass out, but the mental state you are in is much more closer to sleeping... as the central nervous system controlling your body's crucial functions are unaffected by the toxin.

He then went onto the insidious addictive nature of alcohol... while marijuana (despite the myth that it is "not addictive") is also addictive, alcohol creates an exponentially more acute physical dependence. Additionally, because of alcohol's effect on the central nervous system, it attacks the human sense of balance and judgement a lot more acutely than does marijuana. Marijuana might distort your "internal gyroscope" a bit, but alcohol can render it useless... and he told some stories about how most all late night traumatic injuries usually had alcohol as a contributing factor... people slipping and falling, breaking bones, etc.

 

[HughJass]

The hysteria of the 'dangers' of marijuana is so boring, especially the 'OMFG SCHIZOPHRENIA LINK'

The state I live in has just wound back existing cheeba legislation and is dusting off for the never fail hardline policies. The government 'makes no apology for saving young lives'.

Tossers.

If only we heard more on this issue from doctors who work in trauma departments instead of numpty politicians and anti drug ideologues. Might help us get some perspective.

 

[question7]

i don't think a drug that could cause paranoid schizophrenia being very good at stopping conflict
i mean a condition where you think people are out to get you isn't very conflict preventing

With all due respect, your argument seems to be based on one piece of anecdotal evidence. If you look at the literature you will find that marijuana induced psychosis is rare, and that the long term affects of mild to moderate use seem to be few, if any. The reason to keep it illegal is a political decision and not a rational decision.

Also, marijuana seems to have some very beneficial medicinal properties. Neuro-genesis being the big one that people would like to be researching; can be used to treat Alzheimers.

I often find that those who have never actually experienced the drug have the harshest views in regards to its potential legalization. I have been high a number of times and its really no big deal, you just feel kind of pleasant and relaxed.

And, as many others have mentioned, the tax benefits from it would be huge.