I doubt smoking _anything_ can be considered responsible behavior, but if you only harm yourself then you should be free to do it

You're right, smoking anything has negative health effects because the smoke damages your lungs no matter what kind of smoke it is. I would never smoke anything either.

Basing a moral argument on the fact that people sicken themselves doesn't gel with me (not addressing anyone particularly). Everyone dies and how quickly they do it is largely a personal medical concern. In aggregate, it is a public health concern so it comes under the purview of public policy--which is exactly why this bill should pass. Bringing weed properly under the same regulation as other medicines solves most of the problems people have with it.

The problem of illegal activity surrounding the procurement and distribution of marijuana would disappear and the illegal imports would virtually cease if marijuana were legalized.

What are you smoking? Salvia, shrooms and peyote are commonly considered drugs and they are "natural". Besides that, marijuana is frequently mixed, spliced, cultivated, and concentrated. Pretty much everything is a drug when you think about it: beer, coffee, trainers, chicken nuggets. The distinction is almost irrelevant.

How about this for a realistic advertising slogan?

"Tobacco -- because it gives so little and takes so much."

Good luck getting cannabis prohibition overturned. I'd like to see it happen, but I dont think it will.

I'd love to know how much you would get people who alcohol, tobacco, car, firearms, fireworks (etc) to pay, and how long you would get them to volunteer at a hospital for.

Cannabis causes very little in the way of bloodshed, and what it is connected with is due to the illegal stauts of cannbis, not the drug itself.

IMO its better to have the stores being legal, with the consumer protection, rights, etc. that goes along with that than for it to be an illegal business that doesnt pay tax or have any way of the communtiy controlling the sales.

Smoking cananbis is not anywhere near the same as smoking cigarettes. I know people who have quit heroin cold turkey, but have huge problems quitting ciggies. Cigarettes are one of the hardest habits to break, quitting weed (for almost everybody) is fairly easy.

BTW, you dont have to smoke cannabis. Eating and/or drinking cannabis works as well as smoking does (with the caveat that does can be harder to control), but its not used widely due to increased amounts of cannabis needed (about twice as much needs to be eaten or drunk to gain the same effect as smoking). Drinking has its own issues, the main way to get cannabinoids out of cannabis is with alcolhol (soaking in'everclear' is the main way in the US AFAIK). Eating is less of an issue, you need to bind the cannabinoids to fat (butter is the most popular way).

The main reason why people dont eat more is due to costs, and the process for creation of canabutter (its _really_ stinky). Decriminalisation or legalisation of cannabis should drop costs a huge amount, and make eating or drinking cannabinoids more viable. Also, vapourisation is becoming more popular due to (perceived and probably real) lowering of the risks of smoking.

Original and appropriate symbol of medicine? The rod of Asclepius? LOL. Interesting take on the cult of Asclepius, probably someone dwelt tom long on the greek word pharmakon.

Its hardly going to be the original symbol of medicine. The Egyptians, Harappans and Babylonians all had knowledge of medicine, written languages and symbology. They would have had symbols and words for medicine well before the Dorians even entered Greece, let alone started playing with medicine.

Tobacco is for sure the most addictive of the legal drugs.
This was a chart I was looking for that illustrates this:
http://www.saferchoice.org/safercolo...p_image003.gif

Well, most people cite Hippocrates as the founder of medicine ... so I was going on that. It's true that it is my interpretation, but I think it is accurate.

Just so you know, I never take any drug unless there is reason to. I don't take antibiotics, unless I have to. I don't take pain killers almost ever. I have never smoked or done any addictive drug, nor will I ever. I am also against smoking in public areas. However, people can do whatever they want at home, and I think it is better in most cases to have a legal drug that can be controlled, than an illegal one that just supports the mafias and other illegal activities.

It might; some strong winds of political change are beginning to blow. This from an Avaaz mailing today

The laws have been wrong all these years. Legalize Reefer and outlaw Tobacco...don't bogart that joint my friend!

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ml#post5138507I'll let this slide because it was so long ago you probably know by now MJ won't\can't kill if used properly i.e, aside from lung cancer in the olden days MJ does not have to be burned anymore.

Edits to come as I read past my impulse posts: (I'm not sorry! )

[FLASHING]¢ontrol.[/FLASHING](Without animation.gif or.png &c... )

Largely we will all die more so thanks to industrialism+ ah thank you! Again, not that I hold anything against such a (gel lol) old (smart) post.

,___,
[O.o]
/)__)
-"--"-

Whoa! Apparently nobody here is familiar with "Charlotte's Web" originally called "Hippies Disappointment". This is a strain that was evolved by a family of brothers in Colorado for the expressed purpose of increased oils and decreased THC content. It can be smoked, which does have the advantage of making it easier for some people to control dosage, or the oil can be extracted and put in food or used as an elixir.

This strain has amassed such a track record of stopping seizures in people, especially children (it got it's present name from a young girl whose life was saved by it) that there are so many people moving to Colorado from states where cannabis is still illegal, that they also have a name - Marijuana Refugees, because if they were to return to their homes, they would be jailed and their sick children taken from them to Social Services. It is also one reason why this proposed legislation came from Colorado.

There are centuries of solid evidence of the medicinal value of cannabis, not to mention the value of hemp, and there is also evidence of some harm through irresponsible use. This is also true of acetominophen and ibuprofen and most other over-the-counter medicines. It is also true of a hammer, or a knife.

Personally, I have no use for it. I tried it for Fibromyalgia and it mainly makes me sleepy but maybe there will one day be a strain made that alleviates pain and doesn't have that side-effect. However even if that never comes to pass, I hope this legislation passes so that at least the work can continue and families right now can get cheap, effective medicine for glaucoma, nausea, strokes and other seizures and whatever else this natural resource can provide.

How things have changed in this country since 2011!

True, and my fault for not mentioning it sooner: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ml#post5138642

It would just be another thing to get millions of people "hooked" on smoking, as they decimated their lungs in a new and a different way.

This is simply untrue. As I stated above some of the most useful compounds are in the oil and can be tabletized or put in food. For those few who can or prefer to take advantage of the other compounds, vaporizers are capable of only pulling off the volatile gasses and NOT burning anything, stems, seeds, or leaves.

OK. All for it. Funny thing is. All the white folks use the law to control Latinos in my state. Law enforcement survives on seizures. We be one of the biggest prison system
states if not the biggest in the country.

Jobs, The cotton industry (Hemp is a competitor), the paper industry and logging industry, oil, gas, white folks in general, are all hurdles and hoops to jump through
in my state. Hell, they even do redistricting to control voting here besides ID laws and such. We be Good Old Boys here.

BTW. I'm a white dude.

I am all for growing whatever I want in my garden. Peyote, Mushrooms, Cannabis. It used to be legal to make your own liquor till the rich white boys got upset about it. All because they could not make money on it.

I thought this was a free country till all the rich white dudes with their panties wound up too tight decided how I should live.

I think every one against this should spend a weekend in general population in a 250 man squad bay in federal prison and explain why they are against legalizing
what threw these guys into prison.

so to speak. God I wish people would get a clue and grow up. Drug laws are about racism and bigotry and I am aware enough to recognize this. Because I am a 1% in a
Hispanic community. I can watch a Latino kid in cuffs while the police chiefs son is sent home on the same charge.


More kids are gunned down or wreck their cars and kill themselves texting. Inner city people of color don't count
as babies/kids when their parents are torn from them and forced to live in poverty.

The drug war is wrong and anyone with 1/2 a brain and,or, is a person of color knows that. It is a industry with lots of dollars involved for a certain
class of Americans. Oliver North proved that long ago.
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB...B2/nsaebb2.htm

Sheesh.