No one said anything about just handing it out willy-nilly, or that education and legalisation would be mutually exclusive.
there are receptors in the brain that are designed specifically for the inhalation of marijuana, or a synthetic form of marijuana. if that doesn't speak volumes to someone about marijuana and it's intended place and use on this planet, then i guess you'll just never "get it". as for it being a "gateway drug", it's really not. i know 50 year old men that are giatric, hip-bone breaking fucks, but they've never dropped acid, rolled, shot up heroin, nothing. they just stuck to pot. i don't know who said it earlier in this thread, but chances are if someone goes from weed to something like cocaine, chances are they had thought about doing it before. no one smokes a blunt, then immediately decides, "hey, i want some crack. will you drive me to the ghetto?" wanting to experiment with drugs is natural, in my opinion, and is in no way influenced by marijuana. i guess if i like beer, then eventually i'm going to try hard liquor and become an alcoholic. drug use is dependent strictly on the person and their natural inclinations towards certain things... what came first, the druggie or the drugs? you have to have an interest to even get involved in this culture. when you get right down to it, marijuana is illegal for a number of reasons, but it's not for the reasons the government wants you to think. Doctors prescribe patients in pain all these nasty, fucked up pain killers and sedatives, but a natural growing plant with the same benefits is illegal? it's because hemp has more uses than just to intoxicate. you can make rope, paper, etc. out of it, it's healthy to eat (hemp seeds), but in general it's something that scares the government and can put alot of people out of business. legal or not, it won't get rid of drug deals. there's always going to be a market for cheaper product. but, what legalizing it will do, is cut down on the violence over drugs. notice i said "cut down", not "wipe out", because it won't. it's naive to think otherwise. you can legalize everything and anything in this world, and people will still bitch and moan and stab someone over it, there's no way around it. show me someone's life that was ruined solely by marijuana, and i'll show you hundreds of people that have greatly benefited from the drug, and had some killer times while smoking JUST weed, never killing or harming a single soul. marijuana is beautiful. i'm a passionate stoner.
So according to you my brother would have said one day out of the blue "wow, I'm bored today, I think I'll go try some MDMA or Cocain" had he not been smoking marinjuana? That's BS as far as I'm concerned. Fair enough, pretty much anything can be addictive, but only in rare cases will a sex addiction lead someone to committing some sort of sexual crime or any other addiction lead someone to breaking the law or endangering human life. Weed on the other hand is the gateway that leads many people (mostly young I might add), whether it be a minority of marijuana users or not, down the path of hard drugs. Whether my brother's addiction was psychological or not, it's still an addiction that quite frankly wouldn't have happened if people actually took the time to seriously educate the masses on the issue as opposed to practically branding it taboo. Also, I don't know about here in America, but back in the UK the same laws and punishments apply for smoking weed and driving as drink driving. The government wouldn't uphold that law if there wern't some negative, possibly life endagering effects of smoking weed while driving.
marijuana is a kind of pandora's box. once it's opened, it's very hard to shut it closed again. it's very addicting, but the key to all of this is that it's not a physical addiction, like meth, where the body completely shuts down and starts to destroy itself. it's more of a mental addiction, i suffer from it too. i've been smoking since 9th grade (have been graduated for about 2 1/2 years now), been arrested for it, etc. i've run the gamut with this drug, it's basically been by my side ever since i was a teenager. so, i guess, in a way, i can relate to what your brother went through. i've tried just about every drug there is, but that's due to me wanting to try them, not because weed didn't do the job anymore or something, which btw, is the common excuse for the "gateway users". i smoke weed to calm down and just relax, i drop acid and eat mushrooms to better understand the world around me and this infinite universe, and i eat rolls to heighten my sensitivity to pleasure, sounds, tastes.. quite frankly, if you take a drug and you aren't looking to better your immediate situation, or your perception, then you shouldn't be taking them at all in my opinion. it's not drugs to me, it's a journey. EDIT: your faith in your government disturbs me.
I never understood why marijuana being "natural", a plant, made up for the unnatural behaviour of lighting it on fire and sucking up the smoke. Or how drugs "enhance" your perception, they distort your senses, that's deterioration. More valid reasons to take drugs, to me, are: it's fun, it makes me feel good, it makes me feel cool, ...
and that's also entirely your opinion, as flawed as i think it may be. the way you think drugs make people, that's how i feel when i'm sober. when i'm high, i comprehend things much better. my world isn't "distorted" or "deteroiated" when i'm high, it's... normal. it feels right. i'm sorry if the Dateline NBC special on weed you saw conflicts with what an actual user is telling you, but that's how it is for me. i do enjoy this thread though, kudos to the thread maker. i always get a kick out of anti-marijuana people. rawr rawr drugs are bad. EDIT: so, a legit reason to take drugs, like actually wanting to drop acid and go on a spiritual journey through my mind... that's not a good reason. but, fuck it, if i just want to fit in with the cool kids and get totally fucked up, man... that's a good reason, for sure! that's the dumbest thing i've ever read on this forum. thank you.
Spiritual journeys are bullshit. An average teenager wanting to belong is reality, even if no one will admit it. I guess, I'll never understand why people get into drugs. It makes no sense to me. edit: Dateline NBC... I don't even live in the US, our media isn't as flawed as yours.
I have to say, cannabis is not "intended for anything" and receptors in our brains were not "designed". Evolution just happened, there is no goal or underlying purpose. I support it's legalization, but not because that is how some ambiguous entity "intended" it to be. And "natural" also means nothing. There are tonnes of natural poisons.
yeah, and why exactly is it bullshit? i'm sorry if my reasoning for doing psychedelic drugs aren't up to par with what you believe, but quite frankly that's wrong. but, please, explain to me why that's bullshit, i'm dying to hear that. Dateline BBC, then? Whatever, you still got the jist of what I was trying to say, but I guess that's lost on you. EDIT: @esaul: geez, i didn't realize i had to be anal about what words i chose to include in what i say. i thought most people on this board would get what i'm trying to explain, but i guess not.
But the reality is alcohol and tobacco are legal, which makes marijuana's illegality so confounding. Why is marijuana -- which, unlike alcohol and tobacco, does have positive uses outside of recreation -- so demonized? Why are doctors allowed to prescribe synthetic heroin for pain relief but not a plant?
The thing I don't like about the marijuana debate is that so often people who think it's good to use marijuana think it should be legal, and people who don't approve of using it think it should be illegal. The "is weed good or bad?" debate is not really the most relevant issue. It doesn't really matter if you're straight edge or a huge stoner in the grand scheme of things. To me, it's much more a debate on what the role of government should be in the lives of individual citizens. How much power should the government have to control what one does privately? At what point does the government need to step in for the protection of its citizens? If one doesn't draw that line at marijuana, what about crack? And if one does think the government should protect the public from marijuana, how much further should that be allowed to go?
@Luke: I don't know how your brother got in to those drugs, but I'm just saying marijuana is not to blame, it's most likely a deeper psychological problem that your brother needs to deal with. Marijuana has never been proven to be a gateway drug. That's propaganda. Any drug use might lead to more drug use. That's just common sense. You need to be old enough and educated about these things. @11:55: People are trying to educate others about it. Obviously many people have become educated or they wouldn't be decriminalizing it all over the nation. @Christopher: Spiritual journeys are not bullshit. There is actually a lot more to our brains than it seems like you think, and we can actually use other substances to access different parts of the subconscious mind and you really can learn things. It's amazing.
If you take out the idea of nature having intent, and take out the idea of natural = good, then your argument simply boils down to "Cannabis has a specific effect on the brain- therefore we should use it!". You needed the other stuff for the argument to work, which is why I refuted it. It wasn't just semantics.
it's not just an effect, it's a receptor in the brain that is ONLY triggered by cannabis. or something, i'm no brain expert.
What is natural? Is eating steak un-natural because people cook it? I don't think so. So, saying that lighting up a joint is un-natural is too far a stretch I'd say. Do I smoke weed? No. Do I think others shouldn't smoke it? No. Do I think it should be legalized? Yes. As long as they set up restrictions like they have cigarettes, I'm all for it. Really, I can't stand cigarette smoke. It gets me coughing really badly. It makes my eyes water. It makes me gag, but if people don't smoke near me, I'll live.
So you are essentially saying that prescription drugs such as pain killers, anti-anxiety drugs, tranquilizers etc should be illegal? They all impair your judgment. Anyway, I smoke pot, and I have a prescription to do so to relieve my anxiety. I don't believe its a gateway drug, if anything, I have found that more people that use Ritalin as children tend to get into more hard drug use than people that have smoked pot. I have also used other drugs, but I did that long before I ever smoked my first joint. Living where I do, I fully believe it should be legal, as during and right after harvest season, the crime rate here increases a lot, with people breaking into other peoples homes and robbing them at gun point for their marijuana. Its grown in mass quantities in the forests that surround the county I live in and most of the others in Northern California, and its actually dangerous to be in certain areas throughout the year, because people go hiking and stumble upon a grow site, and often aren't seen or heard from again. Illegal large scale grows like that are not only dangerous, but often the sites are environmentally damaged in some way after the harvest is done, and its not a good situation no matter how you look at it. Legalizing marijuana would eliminate the problems that are prevalent with the pot for profit mentality. I say legalize it and tax it. The State of California has this as a idea to generate revenue for the state, but as long as its still illegal on the federal level, its not eligible for taxation.
He was basically saying the way we should educate people on drugs is to legalize it and have everyone try it. At least that's what I got from it.
I would just like to point out that pretty much everything Casey and Jen have said, are my opinions as well. That is all.