why is marijuana illegal?

[[xeno]Julios]

you're right, i should have just laughed at addiction.

aye - was just about to call you on that until i read the rest of the posts

Just as there is caffeine use/abuse there is "pick-your-drug" use/abuse.

(using that distinction crudely, but it gets across the point).

[[xeno]Julios]

All drugs, not just illegal drugs are regulated by the us government.

Would that include caffeine?

Drugs that make it through this process are then able to be prescribed by doctors. Who have been educated on how drugs can be properly used, with out abuse.

I would argue that there is a strong case to be made that despite this education, legal abuse of prescription drugs is prevalent. By legal, I mean that this abuse is facilitated by valid prescriptions.

Pot isn't a light drug, and it isn't harmless. The environment of addiction states that addicts ignore facts and common sense. They have a tendency to want to bring other people into their social circle, witch is just another system to reinforce their drug use. Witch explains why addict have a tendency to advocate that it's a harmless, and that their choice of drugs should be legal.

Not all advocates of legalization consider marijuana harmless. Not all advocates are addicts. There are sound arguments for legalization that do not depend upon a warped view of reality.

Pot also bonds to nerve endings and fat. This slows down the chemical and electrical reaction of the brain and nervous system. Any thing above a very mild use of pot one very couple of months is more then the body can handle. And the user is using the drug faster then the body can recover, causing a build up.

More than the body can handle relative to what? Eating junk food probably poses more serious long term health risks than using marijuana moderately throughout one's life.

Pot is also a powerful stimulant. It causes a permanent change in the brain after only a couple uses.

What sort of changes? The encoding of a long term memory is a permanent change. Many memories are with us from childhood until the grave.

Pot is also a powerful stimulant. It causes a permanent change in the brain after only a couple uses. While anti depressants take a year to cause any kind of permanent change in the brain. Considering we don't know exactly how this change effect the brain, that's pretty crazy.

We also don't fully understand the precise mechanisms and neurophysiological (or psychological) consequences of contemporary "brain medication". Causing a significantly increased amount of a given neurotransmitter to pool in a synapse is a remarkably crude intervention. I don't believe that we know the precise molecular mechanisms of these substances' effects. We are even more in the dark with regard to systemic consequences within the brain. One systemic consequence is that people tend to feel happier, however. There are a host of harmful side effects of these drugs, which cannot be ignored in any balanced analysis of various drugs, whether they be natural or synthetic. One such side effect is addiction. Many people have found themselves addicted to modern SSRI's (paxil being a name that comes to mind) even after a very brief encounter with them. This would seem to indicate a permanent (and harmful) change to the brain.

[Geebs]

BTW, smoking weed means smoking tobacco, which in my opinion should be made illegal.

Geebs, what is your take on things like the availability of prescription pain meds and the like?

Do you have problems with vicodin/oxycodone/other narcotic painkillers over there like we do here? I've got students popping 8
15 mg oxycodones a day...hydrocodone is handed around like candy amongst some of the kids. Don't know where a steady supply of a schedule II narcotic like oxy is coming from.

But I am curious as to whether or not you really think outlawing tobacco, and any other drug, will be effective. We saw what happened when we tried to outlaw alcohol in the states. And the fact that it is illegal to have oxy's, etc., without a prescription here isn't much of a deterrent for a lot of people.

It puts me in a real quandry, personally. I've drank enough alcohol for 6 lifetimes, but I've had maybe 4 drinks in the past 3-4 years. I stopped alcohol entirely when I decided to teach high school. Never tried weed, never had any desire to. But I've seen it have VERY negative effects on kids in my classes. At the same time, I feel that making things illegal does not effectively address the issues related to their misuse and abuse. So, I really don't have a solution to the 'legalize drugs' problem. I sway back and forth depending on the circumstances.

I just usually tell them that they'll get piles if they take too much opioid. Personally I prescribe as little as possible but there's a flourishing black market. I'm more worried about the rates of prescription of antidepressants - basically because GPs don't have enough time for a full psych workup and no-one wants a suicide on their conscience.

I would like to see tobacco smoking made illegal, because most smokers are basically unable to assess the risks and because I'm sick to the back teeth of treating emphysema and heart disease. Round my way, heart attacks in the early 40's aren't uncommon. Plus I'm sick of cunts who come and demand a full cardiac workup, but won't stop smoking. I usually just tell them it's not worth my while.

I'm conflicted on the "harder" drugs (by my definition, essentially that's heroin and alcohol". I fucking can't stand junkies and alcoholics, but I have the impression that it's not completely the drugs - they'd basically be inconsiderate arseholes even if there wasn't anything to get off on. I can't see the point of busting users, though. Not worth anybody's time.

[losCHUNK]

H junkies deserve to fucking die, end of point

also

http://www.wmuk-newmedia...onyOfItAll_war_w_hi.asx

[rep]

It funds Colombian mafia and terrorism. Period.

You think your buddy Darryl is legit because he grows his own shit, but he bought the seeds from Eduardo Deiz, who paid his el bosso Don Juan Chiclato who deals on the black market in Sao Paolo and buys used weapons for his thugs from ex-Hamas weapons dealers who deal with...

Get the picture?

[corsair]

holland :lol:

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

wow the level of ignorance in this thread is astounding

[tnf]

wow the level of ignorance in this thread is astounding

You aren't referring to my 'seeing negative effects of weed on my students' comment, are you?

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

wow the level of ignorance in this thread is astounding

You aren't referring to my 'seeing negative effects of weed on my students' comment, are you?

nope, didn't see your comment actually

[shadd_.]

BTW, smoking weed means smoking tobacco, which in my opinion should be made illegal.

Geebs, what is your take on things like the availability of prescription pain meds and the like?

Do you have problems with vicodin/oxycodone/other narcotic painkillers over there like we do here? I've got students popping 8
15 mg oxycodones a day...hydrocodone is handed around like candy amongst some of the kids. Don't know where a steady supply of a schedule II narcotic like oxy is coming from.

But I am curious as to whether or not you really think outlawing tobacco, and any other drug, will be effective. We saw what happened when we tried to outlaw alcohol in the states. And the fact that it is illegal to have oxy's, etc., without a prescription here isn't much of a deterrent for a lot of people.

It puts me in a real quandry, personally. I've drank enough alcohol for 6 lifetimes, but I've had maybe 4 drinks in the past 3-4 years. I stopped alcohol entirely when I decided to teach high school. Never tried weed, never had any desire to. But I've seen it have VERY negative effects on kids in my classes. At the same time, I feel that making things illegal does not effectively address the issues related to their misuse and abuse. So, I really don't have a solution to the 'legalize drugs' problem. I sway back and forth depending on the circumstances.

kids + weed is bad news. it's hard to learn anything at school while youre half asleep.

then i think would those same kids be any better without weed? probly not as they would find something else to fill the gap.

[tnf]

BTW, smoking weed means smoking tobacco, which in my opinion should be made illegal.

Geebs, what is your take on things like the availability of prescription pain meds and the like?

Do you have problems with vicodin/oxycodone/other narcotic painkillers over there like we do here? I've got students popping 8
15 mg oxycodones a day...hydrocodone is handed around like candy amongst some of the kids. Don't know where a steady supply of a schedule II narcotic like oxy is coming from.

But I am curious as to whether or not you really think outlawing tobacco, and any other drug, will be effective. We saw what happened when we tried to outlaw alcohol in the states. And the fact that it is illegal to have oxy's, etc., without a prescription here isn't much of a deterrent for a lot of people.

It puts me in a real quandry, personally. I've drank enough alcohol for 6 lifetimes, but I've had maybe 4 drinks in the past 3-4 years. I stopped alcohol entirely when I decided to teach high school. Never tried weed, never had any desire to. But I've seen it have VERY negative effects on kids in my classes. At the same time, I feel that making things illegal does not effectively address the issues related to their misuse and abuse. So, I really don't have a solution to the 'legalize drugs' problem. I sway back and forth depending on the circumstances.

kids + weed is bad news. it's hard to learn anything at school while youre half asleep.

then i think would those same kids be any better without weed? probly not as they would find something else to fill the gap.

Yea, some of them would be much, much better without it. I have freshmen that came in this year as inquisitive, hard working kids. Now some of them show up every other day stoned off their ass and are worthless. I have sophomores that I also had as freshmen that discovered weed over the summer, and are now failing most of their classes. Hydrocodone and oxycodone are also ruining a few of them. Really, really sad to watch them throwing so much away.

[shadd_.]

yeah it's hard to watch. i would'nt give up on them just yet though. they are still kids and have lots of time to grow up, learn some responsibility, and have some kind of productive life.

[shadd_.]

one thing you could try with them is to set some kind of standard to their use.

don't give them the "don't do drugs at all" line because it likely won't work. instead you could get down on them for being such idiots with the times/places they use.

[tnf]

No no...it is career suicide to give ANY sort of information that could be construed as condoning the use of illegal drugs in a 'safe manner.'

The furthest I go is to tell them "If you can't be good, be careful."

I used to give kids a lot of blunt and honest information about drugs, but have backed off after being told that I might be putting myself in a compromised position. So, instead, kids are left to learn on their own with the internet, and then think they have the whole deal figured out. Most of the time, they look for information to make themselves think that - armed with the appropriate info - they can manage their opiate habit. Doesn't usually work, though, since the teen brain has not developed much of its long-term consequence pathways yet.

[shadd_.]

i guess youre kinda screwed in what advice you can give. not worth your job that's for sure.

[+JuggerNaut+]

you're right, i should have just laughed at addiction.

aye - was just about to call you on that until i read the rest of the posts

Just as there is caffeine use/abuse there is "pick-your-drug" use/abuse.

(using that distinction crudely, but it gets across the point).