cannabisnews.com: Up In Smoke: Legalizing Marijuana 










  Up In Smoke: Legalizing Marijuana 

Posted by CN Staff on February 20, 2006 at 07:01:11 PT
By Jonathan Shalom 
Source: New University  

USA -- Grass. Weed. Cannabis. Ganja. You can visualize what I’m going to be talking about at this point. Growing up, your parents instilled in you all the negatives associated with the drug, but do the negative aspects of legalizing marijuana really outweigh the positives? Numerous studies have documented the negatives of getting high off of weed. Scientists claim that aside from marijuana’s weak association with depression and anxiety, it can cause brain deterioration of “critical life skills” over time.
The same study further finds that marijuana users impair their ability to memorize and organize information, ultimately functioning at a “reduced intellectual level.” Funny, since half of the people I meet hourly already function on a “reduced intellectual level,” and they don’t even smoke marijuana. More recently, research has made an aim to focus on the positives of the drug. The use of medical marijuana to treat chronic pain sufferers has helped these people live nearly pain-free lives, even after they tried numerous other treatments in an attempt to control their pain. Other arguments against marijuana include “dangerous” behavior, such as driving under the influence or being “boring” as the life-like marijuana commercials out there portray various situations. In other words, the advertisements tend to stretch the truth just a little bit. How about the one where a group of guys smoking weed in their car in the fast-food drive-thru lane run over a little girl on a bike? Private organizations like these invest hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, on commercials like these that depict such incidents that rarely ever happen. Needless to say, similar arguments could be made about alcohol … and they were, back during Prohibition in the United States. After a few years of the government attempting to impose its morals on its citizens, it got smart and realized there was money to be made. The fact of the matter is that legalizing marijuana can help boost the economy, which benefits us all in the long run. Through the implementation of high taxes and regulations on the drug, profits in the billions would help the country by pumping money back into social programs such as Medicare, Social Security and education. Instead, the United States government just stores all drugs acquired from drug trafficking laws into its 60-plus locations around the country, letting the potential moneymaker gather dust. Think I’m crazy? Maybe, but before you jump to any hasty conclusions, consider cigarettes for a moment. Cigarettes alone are the second leading cause of death among males and females. Thanks to their addictive nature, lung cancer accounts for more deaths than any other cancer. Yet studies show that the addictive properties of alcohol, cigarettes or even cocaine exceedingly overshadow that of marijuana’s. Bringing this drug into the mainstream can undoubtedly provide many economic benefits to our society. Although some aspects of weed has its negatives when abused, proper oversight and regulation of this drug, like any other, can potentially make its use beneficial. Jonathan Shalom is a second-year biological sciences major.  Source: New University (CA Edu)Author: Jonathan Shalom Published: February 20, 2006Copyright: 2006 New University Newspaper Contact: editor newuniversity.orgWebsite: http://www.newuniversity.org/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml

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Comment #29 posted by whig on February 21, 2006 at 09:13:10 PT
potpal
I'm a Vonnegut fan, but I never saw that movie.Some of my favorite movies are based on Philip K. Dick stories, btw.
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Comment #28 posted by potpal on February 21, 2006 at 05:40:14 PT
whig
Your last comment brought to mind a play/short story? by Kurt Vonnegut titled Harrison Bergeron..ever see?http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113264/Ok, it was a tv movie...Plot Summary: "All men are not created equal. It is the purpose of the Government to make them so." This is the premise... 
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Comment #27 posted by whig on February 20, 2006 at 20:16:37 PT
Hope
"That is so right! They literally trap people within those really worse options."It really is a giant game for those at the top, "We want people to be slaves for us, but we don't want them to complain about it. So we let them forge their own chains, and we convince them that they are free. Freedom will be the watchword of their subjugation. And they will be free only to choose a master, or starve, and if they strike out on their own, we will burden them with regulations and taxes and make them work directly for us anyhow. The last thing they must ever be allowed to free is their minds, for then they might throw us off, and cease to serve us." Cannabis is the most dangerous thing of all to them.
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Comment #26 posted by Hope on February 20, 2006 at 20:09:09 PT
Rchandar
"In other words, let's make sure that people get to take things that are worse for them."That is so right! They literally trap people within those really worse options.
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Comment #25 posted by Hope on February 20, 2006 at 20:05:51 PT
prisons harbor ... the darkest spiritual energies
Museman, Whig....I hadn't considered that. You're right. 
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Comment #24 posted by rchandar on February 20, 2006 at 17:08:15 PT:
logic?
The UN's logic--We already have legal consumption, distribution, manufacture of tobacco and alcohol, which are both far worse than marijuana, so we can't legalize marijuana.In other words, let's make sure that people get to take things that are worse for them.--rchandar
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Comment #23 posted by runderwo on February 20, 2006 at 15:59:42 PT
some thoughts
Remember that the laws regulating cannabis will more closely resemble alcohol laws than cigarette laws. And in the alcohol model, purity and safety IS regulated and guaranteed, unlike the cigarette companies (who have somehow obtained a free pass over the years of court battles). Maybe this is because tobacco is assumed to be poisonous to begin with, so how much worse could the manufacturers make it? And cigarette smokers are by and large a population that is unconcerned about health, while alcohol drinkers are formed from a much broader cross section. That is probably why the manufacturers get away with it. If a particular brand of beer was tested and found to contain methanol, the word would spread like wildfire and everyone would avoid it no matter how good it tasted. But tell someone their cigarette emits alpha radiation? Shrug, guess I'll die a few years earlier but hell if I'm giving up my brand of choice, withdrawal cessation tastes so good...Oh, and cannabis is closely related to hops...
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Comment #22 posted by museman on February 20, 2006 at 13:13:29 PT
unkat27
I'm glad you brought that up, I had a similar reaction.
 
The 'life skills' they are talking about has to do with the ability to be an unthinking, unresisting slave. I atually had to go through a program in the 'welfare' system which was called 'life skills.' It was 100% propaganda and programming. Total BS.The phrase sounds nice though, put it right next to 'liberty and justice for all.' that sounds nice too, but it ain't real.
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Comment #21 posted by unkat27 on February 20, 2006 at 12:31:26 PT
"Critical Life Skills?"
"...aside from marijuana’s weak association with depression and anxiety, it can cause brain deterioration of “critical life skills” over time."More BS. I suffer from depression and anxiety when I DON'T have marijuana. When I do have it, it relieves these problems better than any other substance in the world. As for deterioration of "critical life skills", this is more BS. What they are talking about here are those cases of foolish over-use where young fools with no money or means to do other things waste all their time smoking to no end until they can't remember how lousy reality is outside their hole in the ground and don't have a care in the world. Such cases usually result in shocking stupidity when they finally get around to attempting to join the f___ked up human rat-race again. "Critical life skills" probly refers to the dog-eat-dog competition for money that nobody who gets high to escape really wants to waste their time with."Critical life skills". Ha. Killing your neighbor to get ahead, stabbing your associates in the back to steal the credit and get a promotion, lying about someone to make yourself look better, getting some guy drunk so you can steal his girlfriend... yeah, real "critical life skills" alright. 
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Comment #20 posted by FoM on February 20, 2006 at 11:04:24 PT
museman
 I would have to agree to tear them down. Good vibrations can linger and so can bad vibrations.
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Comment #19 posted by museman on February 20, 2006 at 10:44:25 PT

prisons, schools, and RJ Reynolds
Whig is right, knock 'em down. Those prisons harbor some of the darkest spiritual energies ever known to this continent. In fact, though I am into recycling, I would pay extra to make sure that every last inch of those places is ground into little rocks that could then be hauled out about 30 miles and dumped in the deep.Schools are already prisons. They don't teach the right things, their academics is one-sided and all about servicing the status quo. The things that we learn in school are all about wrong human behavior, we then (if we care about truth, justice, love. etc.) have to spend twice as much time getting rid of all the garbage that is put there when we aren't mature enough to block the crap out.I say turn the schools into homeless shelters, and invest in families so that they can raise their own kids the way they know they should.The tobacco companies are a perfect example of how political lobbying can justify poisoning a population. They would do exactly the same thing with herb that they did with tobacco. Would the drug companies go broke? One could only hope.
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Comment #18 posted by Hope on February 20, 2006 at 10:30:18 PT

Corporal punishment...
I can't say that "I know" on this matter...but I think we might have fewer school yard bullies and intimidaters than we do today. If they want to bully and boss around other students through intimidation, they can grow up, go to college and be principals.
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Comment #17 posted by Hope on February 20, 2006 at 10:27:25 PT

That's a good idea, Whig.
"older kids helped teach the younger kids, which is one of the best ways of learning things too."I like the Montessori method, too...or something based on it.I don't think any Montessori student ever got bored. If he did he could take a nap or do some sit ups.
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Comment #16 posted by whig on February 20, 2006 at 10:20:08 PT

Hope
I don't think corporal punishment is the answer either. I think the problem is forcing children to sit in schools where they aren't getting a good education anyhow. The best educational system in our country's history was when we had one-room schoolhouses, and the older kids helped teach the younger kids, which is one of the best ways of learning things too.
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Comment #15 posted by whig on February 20, 2006 at 10:17:43 PT

FoM
The cost savings will come anyhow, do you realize what we spend to house all those prisoners today? They can keep some of them for tours, like Alcatraz.
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on February 20, 2006 at 10:16:21 PT

Lock downs in schools
Whatever happened to, "Students, please stay in your seats."Arrested and taken away in cuffs and punished by the city for school yard scuffles and spats? It happens every day in this nation.Maybe we need to give the paddle back to the principal. I don't think it did us that much harm as children and youngsters...certainly not as much harm as the humiliation of being arrested and starting their criminal record. Make them criminals? Treat them like criminals? Getting them used to being criminals so they can support the punishment industry the rest of their lives with losing their freedom and paying constant probation fees? I think that's a really bad idea....unless they have done something like shoot or knife someone. That's the way it used to be and it worked better than this.

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Comment #13 posted by FoM on February 20, 2006 at 10:15:33 PT

Whig
I hate to think that they couldn't be saved just because of the cost to us. Maybe making them housing dorms for employees! That el do!
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Comment #12 posted by whig on February 20, 2006 at 10:12:34 PT

Knock down the Prisons
There is no rehabilitating them.You cannot put people in CELLS and call it a hospital.These facilities were NOT built for that purpose.Maybe Abu Ghraib Hospital sounds okay to some people in Iraq, too, but I say -- KNOCK THEM DOWN.
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Comment #11 posted by whig on February 20, 2006 at 10:10:32 PT

Comment #7
I don't smoke tobacco anymore, but when I did it was American Spirit Organic. However, how many people smoke pure tobacco at all? Most people don't care, they'd rather save their money and buy the cheaper crap. Same would happen with cannabis cigs, guaranteed. Then, even if some minority of us cared about the difference, the rest who smoked the crap would come down with all sorts of problems from them, and it would get blamed on cannabis again.
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Comment #10 posted by Hope on February 20, 2006 at 10:09:39 PT

FoM comment 8
That's so true!
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Comment #9 posted by Hope on February 20, 2006 at 10:08:35 PT

School as Prison...
Indeed, Whig. It sure looks that way.Schools to prison is sorry. But prisons to schools....it could be done.Heck. Make them economy motels...for those who want to experience the cell experience yet be the keeper of their own key.The way they should be built...they might make good community storm shelters.Rent out the cells as storage. Kind of like the mini-warehouses.Warehouses themselves even could utilize cell space and it already has locks and ventilated barriers.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on February 20, 2006 at 10:06:30 PT

Hope
Prisons could be helpful in so many ways. We have a state hospital in a town near by. A friend of ours worked there years ago. Many of the people in jails are just mentally ill. We need hospitals not jails.
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on February 20, 2006 at 10:04:48 PT

They might have, Whig...and might would.
But they would have to know they are known for their little tricks and might clean up their act, so to speak, and keep in mind that there are a lot of naturalists and green earth people out there that might buy their easy to use product on occasion if they were having a little trouble with their home grown or favorite organic, whole cannabis dealer.Just a thought.
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Comment #6 posted by whig on February 20, 2006 at 10:03:52 PT

Perhaps state of the art schools?
Aren't many of the schools today basically daycare prisons?
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on February 20, 2006 at 10:01:29 PT

What if....
the excess prison space could be turned into shelters and safe houses and day care centers? Perhaps state of the art schools? Perhaps hospitals...or libraries?
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Comment #4 posted by whig on February 20, 2006 at 10:01:02 PT

Hope
I'm telling you, if the cigarette makers get into the act, they are going to STEP ALL OVER our beautiful plant, inject all kinds of chemicals into it to make it "burn faster" or whatever the heck else they do to "flavor" their tobacco-derivative-soaked-paper-product crap today.
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on February 20, 2006 at 09:59:00 PT

I wonder if pharmeceutical companies
would lose less profit if cannabis is legalized than they think? They might actually have a better bottom line in the long run if they don't have to do pay outs because of the people they harm or kill and they won't have to pay blackmail to people like you know who.
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on February 20, 2006 at 09:56:19 PT

Maybe,
if the Tobacco lobby would see the future value of an almost anti-cancer cigarette and look into the possiblility of an already well known nicotine free cigarette they might come over to our side.Although, them being on our side would probably hurt us more than help us.If the breweries saw the future of and the beauty of hemp of natural whole cannabinoid wine or beer....no.That would probably work against us, too.
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Comment #1 posted by potpal on February 20, 2006 at 09:04:45 PT

type
In other words, the advertisements tend to stretch the truth...a lot! Legalize it.

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