strong supporter. alcohol is much more dangerous than marijuana. im sorry endorphin that you saw people get shot because of it but alcohol would have made it worse, and alcohol is legal. not that i know if this needs to be here. but i guess it tells us something more about or fellow linux users.
if you want to make a difference then help support norml. together we can enlighten the publics view.

by the way, you should go to norml and look up your state laws. interesting to know.

Multiple Sclerose , Cancer , AIDS , Fybromyalgiae , Rheumatism.......
'nuff said.

i dont get it.

Sufferers of these illnesses are lobbying for the legalisation of cannabis as it is the only thing that blocks the pain these illnesses cause.

That's different. If people have these illnesses and they need that stuff to relief the pain, then that's ok. Megamieuwsel, as you are probably aware, you can get marijuana at the drug store these day's, if you have clear medical reasons.

Not just a medication against the pain : Also against some other symptoms like lack of apetite and insomnia.

The biggest benefit of THC as a medicine is : aside from becoming a little Drowsy and apathethic , there are no negative side-effects.
Try to find a "regular" medicine , that can live up to that.

Another point in pro of legalisation of canabis : Did you know , that the Netherlands , worldwide viewed as the bastion of Canabis , with it extremely liberal politics towards this drug , has one of the lowest percentages of canabis-use in the western world.
Only Finland and Switserland(Another so-called "Pro-Ganja-country") score lower.
The USA , with it's "War On Drugs" , scores about twice as high (pun intended)....

Just another excuse for anti american idiots to attack our country, if you want to smoke pot why not move to those countries? I know pot smokers and they are the most defensive people i know, and that comment about not having any side effects is rediculous, uuhhh try killing brain cells.

I am against any legislation regarding victimless crimes. From Drug usage to prostitution the only ill effect on society from these two examples is the fact that our legislative system makes the users into criminals. <br> Fact is it would be far more effective and economical to treat those with an addiction illness, than to try and stop the supply of a product or service with limitless demand. Greed is king and as long as there is money to be made someone will fullfill the demand.<br> Oh and yes I smoke. But no I don't get high and drive, or try to fight battles. There is a time and place for everything.

I recently quit smoking (cigarettes, I don't do drugs) on my birthday... and I must say it feels quite nice. The urge comes every now and then when I'm bored but I try finding some things to do.

I also think that alcohol does more harm than drugs, but that doesn't make drugs any less dangerous. However, the reason I say alcohol does more harm is that its readily available in stores as opposed to drugs which can't be sold openly due to laws and regulations.

Banning them all? I know some Muslim countries which does. I too live in a Muslim country (and a Muslim myself) but Malaysia doesn't ban all these things because we do have non-Muslims in Malaysia and in come of their culture drinking alcohol is a norm, if not something that they must have in certain occasions. As for cigarettes, this is where I think the government "talks cock"... increasing the taxes for tobacco-products but at the same time a cigarette company sponsors our local soccer league. Not to mention the hundreds of Marlboro ads on our F1 racing circuit.

And I don't believe that "marijuana high" is harmless, it harms the economy because a stoned person could have done something more productive. It's also a waste of brain cells. And before preaching to me that "at least it doesn't harm others" argument, wait you have children of your own and then tell me if you'd like to see them smoke pot.

Well , that appears to be quite a popular argument amongst the "Canabis-bashers".
I have yet to see any scientific report , backing it up.
Note : having a labrat stuffed with enough THC to kill an elephant doesn't count. That kind of research is highly "agenda-prone".

Another note : I , personally , do NOT use Canabis. Just for the record , mind me.

from the norml site:
oh and that place with the legal marijuana, had like the worse drug use any where but when they legalized marijuana and made stiffer penalties on the other drugs( the bad ones, abominations) they ended up with one of the lowest drug use rates anywhere.

while waiting for the lockdown, i'll just say that as some posters already noted, alcohol and tobacco kill hundreds of thousands of more people every year than marijuana. and yet alcohol and tobacco are "naturalized" in western culture, so much so that the situation can almost be compared to those who use windows. it's like a mass brainwashing that normalizes alcohol and tobacco use/abuse even though those substances are lethal, while the same enculturation villianizes marijuana even though it is essentially harmless. recent research suggests that marijuana might even play a role in protecting the brain.

ScientificWorldJournal. 2002 Mar 9;2(3):632-48.
Cannabinoids on the brain.

Irving AJ, Rae MG, Coutts AA.

Cannabis has a long history of consumption both for recreational and medicinal uses. Recently there have been significant advances in our understanding of how cannabis and related compounds (cannabinoids) affect the brain and this review addresses the current state of knowledge of these effects.
<snip>

Cannabinoids may also be protective against neurodegeneration and brain damage and exhibit anticonvulsant activity. Some of the analgesic effects of cannabinoids also appear to involve sites within the brain.

These advances in our understanding of the actions of cannabinoids and the brain endocannabinoid system have led to important new insights into neuronal function which are likely to result in the development of new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of a number of key CNS disorders.

Interesting thread so far...

Record:
Don't smoke. Never have. Never will. Never done ANY illegal drugs, ever.

Debate:
I'm for it for the following reasons:

* Better control
* Allow taxation (hell, get your hand in the jar! )
* Get room in jails for REAL criminals (when a 'baby raper' doesn't have room in prison but a toker does, something is definitely wrong).
* The belief that it would become far less abused if it was simply legalised (from those who just smoke to rebel)

Reasons I'm against it:

* Damn people are stupid when they are high.
* Damn people are stupid when they are high.
* Same reason I'm an anti-cigarette smoker, it performs no (for the average person) beneficial function, it stinks, it causes more harm than good (the only "good" would be the high I'd suspect, again, for the **AVERAGE** person)
* Damn people are stupid when they are high.
* It's definitely over-rated in several portions of the music industry, I'd simply like to see what they come up with if it got legalised

Cool

I've had my fill of it, now when i do it i'm just staring into space, all it does is ruin what would otherwise productive day. On the other hand if my old friend's would to invite me to bob marley fest, or to a 311 concert, or out to pizza, i'm all for it.

We have a situation these days where more and more police time is being spent on dealing with drugs and drug-related crime, to the point where in the not too distant future, drug-related crime is going to be all that the police deal with. The "war on drugs" is a battle that you cannot win because as soon as you put one scumbag drug dealer behind bars, there's another five ready to fill the void. The truth of the matter is that most people who end up on the harder drugs start out smoking cannabis, but end up getting talked into trying other stuff by their dealer. The old "first hit's free" deal.

Yes, cannabis in some circumstances [i]is[/] a "gateway drug", all the better then, to remove it from the dealer's grasp by legalising it. If people no longer have to go to a dealer to get cannabis for their joints, they're less likely to be introduced to harder drugs. The drug dealers lose a large percentage of their profits, the government is able to generate tax revenue, the police workload is greatly lifted, prisons bewcome far less crowded, violence outside pubs and nightclubs will go down considerably...

I could go on, but I think my point is made...