Neverside

Marijuana

Well this debate will be about the legalization of marijuana. Are you for or against it?

I am all for it medically and non-medically. Goverment makes me sick with the propaganda placed in anti-marijuana commercials. It has been proven recently that marijuana does not cause permanet brain damage. I will write my views in sections.

"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Smoking marijuana will certainly affect perception, but it does not cause permanent brain damage, researchers from the University of California at San Diego said on Friday in a study. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564 ... nm/health_marijuana_

Tax
Marijuana is about impossible to tax, and practically impossible to regulate its growth and use
because of the practability of growing. If you look at the FDA the same way you look at a drug
dealer, you'll understand. It is partly illegeal due to monopoly.

Propoganda
It is sad the goverment has to lie to the public to justify their cause. Showing commercials with
"high kids" shooting eachother, shoulden't they focus more on not making fire arms accessable?
maybe try educating the kids about gun-control because high or not high kids having access to
guns are a problem. A woman overdosing on marijuana? It has been proven that it is not a product
of over-dose, and if you wanted to knock a girl out wouldent extacy or a stronger drug be more appropriate? Even sleeping pills or abuse on tylenol or easier accessable medications?

Marijuana is being more socially acceptable so the goverment is pressured into making more lies
to "control the masses". Keep pot users low and political figures can have something to boast
about come re-ellection.

Drug Addicts
I think the numbers of "drug addicts" causing problems is so miniscule compared to the total
numbers of users, they distort facts and continue an unjust persecution of citizens.

Medical Marijuana
Recently legal in canada, the sensible swiss are now also and most of western society is
accepting the fact that marijuana can be used to treat a variety of sickness.

"Canada became on Wednesday the first country in the world to start selling marijuana to several hundred seriously ill people but said the pot project could be halted at any time. "

Gateway Effect

"I don't believe any of it. Scientific studies have come out saying there is no evidence for it. A mathematical model of drug use was established, and without accounting for gateway effect, the resulting number of people who would have access/would try other, harder drugs was consistant to what is currently observed. There might seem to be a gateway effect, but I'm pretty convinced it's because pot is one of the most available drugs, with pretty minor effects compared to other drugs. It's just more logical someone who's interested in drugs in general will try pot first, since the danger is low, availability is high, and person is most likely young (first try with drugs) and doesn't have lots of money. Pot doesn't lead the person to try anything else, it's the person itself that decides"

The War On Drugs Indeed
The "war on drugs", declared by the United States of America has claimed hundred's of thousands of lives around the globe. It is really a war on the users of illicit drugs themselves and it is being fought on many fronts in many countries around the world.

This war is being fought on many levels - on individual users as well as on the governments of many countries around the globe. Many countries around the world have succumbed to the pressure tactics of the US Government. The worldwide prohibition of illicit drugs, and the associated harm and devastation heaped on our communities, are a direct result of US imperialism.

Military resources are often used in the "war on drugs". The Colombian army is being funded an inordinate sum of money from the US Government to prolong the civil war on that country, all in the name of the "war on drugs". Colombia is not the only country that has suffered at the hands of "war on drugs" related US intervention.

In their own country, the US Federal Government is expected to spend more than 19 billion dollars to fight the "war on drugs". State and local governments will spend another 20 billion. About 648 US citizens are locked up every day for drug law violations. Source www.drugsense.org

Belenux and germany are also countries that are considerating

legalization, dont you think its united states turn.

My sources: ahh to much to tell just go to www.google.com and type things like "marijuana or alcohol which is worse" or just "pro-con marijuana websites".

BLAH
::classic:

___________________

Toke Up.

Many people think smoking marijuana is just as harmful as
smoking tobacco, but this is not true. Those who hold that
marijuana is equivalent to tobacco are misinformed. Due to the
efforts of various federal agencies to discourage use of
marijuana in the 1970's the government, in a fit of "reefer
madness," conducted several biased studies designed to return
results that would equate marijuana smoking with tobacco smoking,
or worse.

For example the Berkeley carcinogenic tar studies of the
late 1970's concluded that "marijuana is one-and-a-half times as
carcinogenic as tobacco." This finding was based solely on the
tar content of cannabis leaves compared to that of tobacco, and
did not take radioactivity into consideration. (Cannabis tars do
not contain radioactive materials.) In addition, it was not
considered that:

1) Most marijuana smokers smoke the bud, not the leaf, of
the plant. The bud contains only 33% as much tar as tobacco.

2) Marijuana smokers do not smoke anywhere near as much as
tobacco smokers, due to the psychoactive effects of cannabis.

3) Not one case of lung cancer has ever been successfully
linked to marijuana use.

4) Cannabis, unlike tobacco, does not cause any narrowing of
the small air passageways in the lungs.

In fact, marijuana has been shown to be an expectorant and
actually dilates the air channels it comes in contact with. This
is why many asthma sufferers look to marijuana to provide relief.
Doctors have postulated that marijuana may, in this respect, be
more effective than all of the prescription drugs on the market.

Studies even show that due to marijuana's ability to clear
the lungs of smog, pollutants, and cigarette smoke, it may
actually reduce your risk of emphysema, bronchitis, and lung
cancer. Smokers of cannabis have been shown to outlive non-
smokers in some areas by up to two years. Medium to heavy
tobacco smokers will live seven to ten years longer if they also
smoke marijuana.

Cannabis is also radically different from tobacco in that it
does not contain nicotine and is not addictive. The psychoactive
ingredient in marijuana, THC, has been accused of causing brain
and genetic damage, but these studies have all been disproven.
In fact, the DEA's own Administrative Law Judge Francis Young has
declared that "marijuana in its natural form is far safer than
many foods we commonly consume."

For more information : http://www.textfiles.com/drugs/MARYJANE/cancersmk.drg

___________________

Toke Up.

Last edited by DSIGN, July 14th, 2003 09:19 PM (Edited 1 times)

Im so bored Ill add on to my arguments.

"Prohibition . goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it
attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes
a crime out of things that are not crimes. "A prohibition law
strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our
government was founded." - Abraham Lincoln December, 1840

Addiction?
No, it is not addictive. Most users are moderate consumers and smoke it soccially to relax.We now know that 10% of our population have "addictive personalities" and they are neither more nor less likely to overindulge in cannabis than in anything else.
On a relative scale, marijuana is less habit forming than
either sugar or chocolate but more so than n chovies.
Sociologists report a general pattern of marijuana use that
peaks in the early adult years, followed by a period of
levelling off and then a gradual reduction in use.9

___________________

Toke Up.

[Edited - Can be deleted by admin]

___________________

Toke Up.

Last edited by DSIGN, July 14th, 2003 09:47 PM (Edited 1 times)

Im so bored Ill add on to my arguments.

"Prohibition . goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it
attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes
a crime out of things that are not crimes. "A prohibition law
strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our
government was founded." - Abraham Lincoln December, 1840

Addiction?
No, it is not addictive. Most users are moderate consumers and smoke it soccially to relax.We now know that 10% of our population have "addictive personalities" and they are neither more nor less likely to overindulge in cannabis than in anything else.
On a relative scale, marijuana is less habit forming than
either sugar or chocolate but more so than n chovies.
Sociologists report a general pattern of marijuana use that
peaks in the early adult years, followed by a period of
levelling off and then a gradual reduction in use.

DEATH?

not one single case, not ever. THC is one of the few
chemicals for which there is no known toxic amount.10 The
federal agency NIDA says that autopsies reveal that 75 people
per year are high on marijuana when they die: This does not
mean that marijuana caused or was even a factor in their
deaths.
The chart below compares the number of deaths
attributable to selected substances in a typical year:

Tobacco.................................340,000-395,000
Alcohol (excluding crime/accidents).....125,000 +
Drug Overdose (prescription).............14,000-27,000
Drug Overdose (iilegal)...................3,800-5,200
Marijuana.....................................0
* Source: U.S. government Bureau of Mortality Statistics, 1987

Marijuana makes you violent?.

No. In fact, Federal Bureau of Narcotics director Harry
Anslinger once told Congress just the opposite - that it leads
to non-violence and pacifism.12 If he was telling the truth
(which he and key federal agencies have not often done
regarding marijuana), thethee-legalizing marijuana should be
considered as one way to curb the growing violence in our
cities.

The simple fact is that marijuana does not change your
basic personality. The government says that over 20 million
Americans still smoke it, probably including some of the
nicest people you know.

Marijuana Effects In your health.

Smoking anything is not healthy, but marijuana is less
dangerous than tobacco and people smoke less of it at a time.
This health risk can be avoided by eating the plann instead of
smoking it13 or can be reduced by smoking smaller amounts of
stronger marijuana.

There is no proof that marijuana causes serious health or
sexual problems14 but, like alcohol, its use by children or
adolescents is discouraged. Cannabis is a medicinal herb that
has hundreds of proven, valuable therapeutic uses - from
stress reduction to glaucoma to asthma to cancer therapy,
etc.15

What About All Those Scary Statistics and Studies

Most were prepared as scare tactics for the government by
Dr. Gabriel Nahas, and were so biased and unscientific that
Nahas was fired by the National Institute of Health16 and
finally renounced his own studies as meaningless.17 For one
experiment, he suffocated monkeys for five minutes at a time,
using prorortionately more smoke than the average user inhales
in an entire lifetime.18 The other studies that claim
sensational health risks are also highly suspect, since they
lack controls and produce results which can not be replicated
or independently verififi.19

___________________

Toke Up.

Whoa-ho! A quadruple poster! A new record!

Anyway,

marijuana= drug
marijuana= kills
kills= deaths
deaths= not good

So,

marijuana= bad

Marijauna is addictive and studies that prove otherwise are plain bs!

My bro says its not and hes on it so he really cant say anything about it so In my opinion its bad

___________________

..........................................................................

This is the debate forum you guys hold no argument ::angry::

I am a quadrople poster because this is the only debate forum I ever seen that get slept on so much. one

___________________

Toke Up.

LoL, yeah, like no one comes in here but me normally. I'm here every 20 seconds expecting a reply like in the water cooler.

Marijuana should be legal, because it is not at ALL as harmful as alchohol. As for it being addictive, I'm a former daily user, and had no trouble stopping when I decided to. Not like cigarettes at least, which when I quit, I feel like shi*t for 48 hours as the nicotine leaves my system. Marijuana should be regulated by the goverment like alchohol is. There is so much misinformation out about it!

I basically stopped smoking because because no one knows what the hell they are selling. "It's just weed" they say. It's not just weed, different varieties of cannibus have drastically different effects. A strong indica is the kind that is gonna floor you and make you consume a cabinet full of munchies, which isn't generally how I like spending my nights. A good sativa on the other hand can really enhance your creativity, give you energy, and just leave you feeling very chill. I used to call it "work weed" because I could go toke up in the back of the theatre/resteraunt I used to work at, and have a great day at work. I would chat it up with the customers, keep co-workers sane and having fun through the rushes, and did a great job at work while I was at it. Imagine someone trying to do that while drunk!

Point is, I've seen alchohol and cigarettes end far more lives and create so many more problems than marijuania. Most problems with marijuania could be solved if it were regulated.

btw 420DSIGN, no one here really takes the time to read through that much of a post. If you want to get people involved you have to start the thread with something like "Should Marijuana be legal? Discuss." then bring your points afterwards.

___________________

"It feels like a koala bear crapped a rainbow in my brain!" - Captain Murphy