Wasted Potential - Page 2

On October 07 2010 18:02 k2o4 wrote: Show nested quote + On October 07 2010 13:47 LemOn[5thF] wrote:   On October 07 2010 12:41 K40Cheddar wrote: Do you really want people walking around the streets high as fuck doing nothing to contribute to society if this gets legalized? I know I don't. Thats like saying 'Do you really want people walking around the streets drunk as fuck getting into accidents, violence and destroying their braincells if alcohol stays legalized? I know I don't' Pot causes habitual addiction much like alcohol and the long term effects are arguably smaller (I don't think sufficient long term studies have been conducted so far). They are both bad without any doubt, but there is little difference between them apart from the existing rules in the society. Hey lemon I <3 you but you've got your data a bit wrong. Pot does not cause any form of physical addiction and is just as addictive as video games or chocolate - it's enjoyable so you want to do it and we give into temptation (how many responsibilities have we all dodged to play some video games, or how many times have we known we shouldn't eat that desert but we do anyways). Smoking weed every day and then suddenly quitting cold turkey will give you zero physical trouble and the mental trouble will be the same as if you were forced not to play SC2 anymore. You'd want to do it but it wouldn't really be hard to stop. Long term affects of alcohol are clear - death and decrease of health. You can drink yourself to death, but you cannot smoke yourself to death. Marijuana doesn't cause lung cancer, and you can't overdose. Marijuana also has no negative affects on your health other than the problems that come from inhaling burnt plant matter into your lungs, but with the use of vaporizers and bongs that risk is negated. Consistent alcohol use, especially at high quantities, degrades health considerably. Not so with MMJ. Also while pregnant alcohol is the worst thing a woman can take into her system. Babies are born with permanent brain damage and physical deformities. In contrast smoking MMJ while pregnant has no negative side affects and they've even found that in the first 2 years after birth, children who's mom's smoked MMJ in the womb are just as likely to survive for 2 years as children who's parents do no drugs or alcohol (actually the official number was like 9% death of the "clean" babies and I think 7.5% death of the MMJ babies, but that's so close that I won't start claiming that MMJ makes your baby more likely to survive, though that could be the case).   They are both bad without any doubt, but there is little difference between them apart from the existing rules in the society. I totally disagree here. I do believe alcohol is bad for you (which is why I rarely ever drink anymore) but I don't think weed is bad for you at all, and the research supports that. There is a HUGE difference between the two of them, from the way they affect your brain and body to the way people behave while under the influence of each. Alcohol basically shuts down your prefrontal cortex, which is where your ability to think logically, control your emotions, and so on take place. This means that your mid brain has more control, which is why you can go from extremely happy (we won the superbowl!) to extremely angry (who's this asshole talking to my GF) in a split second, and why we feel like our inhibitions disappear while drunk. Weed doesn't do that at all. Every strain has different effects and some are stronger in one area than another, but overall weed calms you down, makes you more peaceful, causes you to think more, relaxes your muscles, helps you sleep, and more. I'll stop now before this gets too long and if you want more info please ask away and I'll respond with more detail, links, whatever. I just hate to see people perpetuating myths and when I read that sentence it made me cringe =)

Are you actually trying to advocate to put weed into the same bracket as chocolate and sell it as such and let 3 year old smoke pot and allow it to be sold with low tax for 1$ per joint in walmart and next to schools with no restrictions?

Because if you don't (I hope you aren't), then weed is and should be in the same category as alcohol, and there is little difference from any relevant perspective.

On October 07 2010 19:12 LemOn[5thF] wrote: Because if you don't (I hope you aren't), then weed is and should be in the same category as alcohol, and there is little difference from any relevant perspective.

I think it should be treated like alcohol and I also think, like alcohol, parents should be allowed to decide whether their kid can smoke or not (like allowing your child to have wine at dinner, which happens in many cultures including the USA). I also think that there should be no criminal crime associated with using pot, like cigarettes. If you see a 15 year old kid smoking a cigarette you don't arrest him. But you don't sell him any cigarettes at the store. If parents provide it, then that's ok.

I also think that people should be careful about smoking pot while at a young age. Now that we know how the brain grows and matures over time, it's clear that your brain doesn't fully mature till the age of 22-26. That means your decision center isn't built yet which makes you more susceptible to addiction, compulsive behavior, and overuse. It's important to be careful about using any sort of substance during the years our brains are growing, and since there isn't any longitudinal research that I'm aware of which says what happens, it's probably best to be safe until we know. On that note, I smoked pot quite a bit while young and didn't have any physical problems or mental deficiencies because of it. I'm 26 now and way healthier than I was when I was drinking every day, thanks to ditching alcohol for weed. And I know many people who are my age and I grew up smoking pot with, who smoked more than me, who are doing great and had no physical side effects. It's a tiny sample size but I haven't really run into anyone who says otherwise except for a correlation between smoking weed and schizophrenia, but it only happens in people who had genes that made them at risk for schizophrenia, and most people don't have those genes.

So I think alcohol and weed should be legal and regulated. I think they should be taxed and that money should be earmarked for things like schools, parks, libraries, roads, healthcare, and not to be used for war, defense, or any other type of aggressive actions the government takes against the rest of the world. There's plenty of funding for war and not enough funding for the people and it's bullshit. I think all use of marijuana should be legal and parents should be the ones that decide when their kid is allowed to smoke it. And I'm willing to bet money that if we had that law in place youth use of marijuana would drop, and youth trouble/crime associated with marijuana would practically disappear.