Legalized Marijuana

[Major Robert Dump]

And lost.

Yes. Police jobs and drug agent jobs. What a terrible thing that these people will have to go find another career in which to oppress people in order to compensate for their power issues and penile lackage. I'm crying all over my keyboard. I think I need some weed to cheer me up

[Idaho]

What about the industry "treating" people for the cannabis addiction the courts have told them that they have? Who is going to tell us about this dreadful scourge that will send us all crazy unless we get treatment now?

Won't somebody think of those poor Scientologists at Narconon?

[Fragony]

You are going to hate what the, out of all, the liberals tried here. To acces the coffeeshops they wanted to have you registred, for 7 years the data would have been stored at the tax-agency. To their absolute amazement people won't do that as it can be harmfull professionally or when travelling abroad, so in the south where they allready implemented it they lost all control over the market and sreet-trade flourishes, there is no way the quid pro quo situation we had can be restored there anymore

This idiot http://www.google.nl/search?num=10&h...C8Od0QXq_YGgAg

[Idaho]

The situation in the Netherlands is very interesting. The situation was a finely balanced compromise with everyone choosing to let the the reality and the law diverge. And then they had, essentially, traffic problems with Germans coming over and buying weed, so embarked on a foolish and ill thought out "fix".

What they should have done is just built a car park in the first place.

[Fragony]

Mostly French, and they aren't buying it at the counter, such quantities aren't for sale in coffeshops. It are just tourists who like a smoke and don't cause any trouble at all that go to the coffeeshops. In most towns the new 'rules' that idiot thought up are just ignored and all is just fine there, nobody really wants to enforce them because it's a bad idea. But in Maastricht and Tilburg where they actually did it it's completely out of control, the tourists who have other things in mind than a smoke and just want to eat at a nice restaurant are not comming there anymore. It's so incredibly stupid to destroy a perfectly fine situation.

[HopAlongBunny]

The US has always shown limited imagination politically; why would they surrender the only tool they understand: terror.

International and domestic politics hinges on violence; economic, physical and psychological. The war on drugs is best tool in the drawer for domestic terror; limits "rights", debate, even communication. There is no answer to: "Because it's right!" and no reply asked for or needed from the community of the converted.

[Fragony]

You think somewhat unreasonably bad about your country. America has it's problems but it's hardly hell

[Major Robert Dump]

One of my dearest friends is an old captain who is an anti-marijuana fascist. By fascist I mean "wants life sentences" type.

Why is he like this? Well, becuase his brother ambushed a police officer in california and sits on death row. And was apparently "high on the pot" when it happened, an angle that was very strongly played in the old news stories I have read. I try to reason with him, to let him know that there was something else that pushed his brother over the edge, but he will have none of it. Love the guy, but he will not listen to reason. And even if it was the weeds fault, it would be a rather isloated incident.

Now, if only our resident marijuana fascists had stories as cool to defend their police state beliefs

[Fragony]

He COULD be right, cannabis tends to emphasise psychosis if one is vulnerable for it. There are a lot studies that support that, smoking weed could have absolutily have lead him to doing that.

[Major Robert Dump]

I can think of a lot of other legal things that tend to expedite psychosis in people already dispositioned, so where is the outcry against the Oxygen Channel and the band Rush?

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

It's true that in rare cases weed can cause anxiety our panic in those already prone to it (PTSD and borderline personalities for example). That is not the weed's fault though, and no serious studies suggest it can make you crazy crazy axe murderer.

Well, it's not the weed's fault any more than it's the tobacco's fault you get cancer - but I don't think anyone should be saying we should ignore the carcenogens.

Bottom line - people get freak-outs on weed, I have seen it happen personally, and not from sitting down and smoking it all evening.

That's not an argument for it being illegal - but the people who try to obscure the fact are not helping the debate.

[Idaho]

There's always a down side. Those not busy being born are busy dieing.

[Fragony]

It's true that in rare cases weed can cause anxiety our panic in those already prone to it (PTSD and borderline personalities for example). That is not the weed's fault though, and no serious studies suggest it can make you crazy crazy axe murderer.

True enough. Other drugs like cocaine are much more dangerous when it comes to that. But I will always resist those who assume it's perfectly harmless, it isn't harmless for everybody, but I admit it's really rare.

[Fragony]

Oh i agree. All substances have a risk.

A very specific one here maybe, weed won't make you crazy, but it can work as an amplifier if you are already kinda off. Why he was kinda off already has nothing to do with smoking weed, but it certainly doesn't help to be doing it once you already have been broken it can absolutily tear you apart even more badly. The good parts like having better concentration, thinking things through better, aren't all that much fun if things aren't all that much fun.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Alcohol can work as an amplifier in certain individuals to piss on my lawn. This is a terrible tragedy. If only we had the cultural stigma to protect society from tearing itself apart.

There are now dead patches from the sheer volume of piss that these disturbingly accurate drunkards are able to expel.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Oh i agree. All substances have a risk.

Yes, and hash has the risk of causing a psychotic break in certain individuals, or of causing permanent brain damage in teenagers - and don't tell me that's not true, because I lived with a former smoker. At one point I had to sit him down and gently explain that he hadn't been buying milk for two weeks, he'd been using the tiny Welsh girl's and she was too timid to tell him.

[Papewaio]

Alcohol can work as an amplifier in certain individuals to piss on my lawn. This is a terrible tragedy. If only we had the cultural stigma to protect society from tearing itself apart.

ACIN "Officer, our pet dog kept getting out so we put up an electric fence. I honestly did not think someone would pee on it."

ACIN's roommate "What dog?"

[a completely inoffensive name]

At one point I had to sit him down and gently explain that he hadn't been buying milk for two weeks, he'd been using the tiny Welsh girl's and she was too timid to tell him.

I had to read this 6 times to make sure I understood what was being said.

[HopAlongBunny]

I agree with legalization and most of the arguments in its favor. Pranks like this http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8B901620121210 give ammunition to the opposition.

I mean, really; administering drugs to people without consent or knowledge!?

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Hate to break it to you, but that's not the weed. The dude was just a dick.

Hate to break it to you - but he wasn't, and that's just the most obvious example. Nor was he stupid.

[rory_20_uk]

Yes, and hash has the risk of causing a psychotic break in certain individuals, or of causing permanent brain damage in teenagers - and don't tell me that's not true, because I lived with a former smoker. At one point I had to sit him down and gently explain that he hadn't been buying milk for two weeks, he'd been using the tiny Welsh girl's and she was too timid to tell him.

And...? Or is the State there to ban everything that could be dangerous to us? Most scales of drugs that assess both the medical and social damage drugs do has little if any correlation between legality / class of drugs and damage.

Not to mention:

Asprin causes people to die from haemorrages in the brain and GI tract.
Paracetamol can cause people to die from liver failure

I've yet to hear anti-drugs campaigners try to argue the data and prefer to head off into case studies or, in the case of the UK government, sack the independant panel for being independant.

There are many other activities that certain persons will suffer because of, be that gambling, exercise or even (manipulated) images of models.

[Beskar]

UK to have a rethink on their policy

[Fragony]

I think there is an error in the article, I remember reading that drugs are actually fully legalised in Portugal.

[Idaho]

UK to have a rethink on their policy

We go through this sham every couple of years. Some people get given the job of looking at the current policies. They duly oblige and come back with the unsurprising conclusion that our current laws make no sense and cause more problems than they solve. Government then ignores the recommendations and a combination of tabloid opinion writers and vested interests launch a propaganda campaign to make sure the political agenda stays just were it is.

Rinse and repeat.

[rory_20_uk]

Already rejected by the PM

[Lemur]

A decent argument is made here. Bonus points for historical perspective. Summation: "America's been fighting this battle for decades. It can't be won, and it's costing us upwards of $20 billion a year."

-edit-

Have to work, so can't watch this now, but here's a high-production-value documentary about the U.S.A.'s history in the War on Drugs.

[Major Robert Dump]

Damn I am already 3 documentaries behind and still need to finish the Lincoln movie, looks like I need some WEED to get me through this

[Idaho]

Damn I am already 3 documentaries behind and still need to finish the Lincoln movie, looks like I need some WEED to get me through this

Yeah but once you hit that blunt, you know you are going to be stuck on Big Bang Theory re-runs.

[Major Robert Dump]

Yeah but once you hit that blunt, you know you are going to be stuck on Big Bang Theory re-runs.

that show is more educational than a DEA pamphlet or anything discovered by congressional committee

[Montmorency]

Not a very good documentary. Not worth watching.

Not unless you have the sole desire to hear Morgan Freeman and other former world leaders speak.