• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Should marijuana be legalized?

Should we legalize pot?


  • Total voters
    113
What reason do you have besides second hand smoke & people driving while stoned?..... (Which I am sure will still be illegal).........:confused:

The pot that is being consumed today is very strong. It has a negative impact on mental illness. Here is an article by the National Institute of Drug Abuse

"THC acts upon specific sites in the brain, called cannabinoid receptors, kicking off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the “high” that users experience when they smoke marijuana. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. The highest density of cannabinoid receptors are found in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thoughts, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement.1

Not surprisingly, marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory. Research has shown that marijuana’s adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off.2 As a result, someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a suboptimal intellectual level all of the time.

Research on the long-term effects of marijuana abuse indicates some changes in the brain similar to those seen after long-term abuse of other major drugs. For example, cannabinoid withdrawal in chronically exposed animals leads to an increase in the activation of the stress-response system3 and changes in the activity of nerve cells containing dopamine.4 Dopamine neurons are involved in the regulation of motivation and reward, and are directly or indirectly affected by all drugs of abuse

http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html
 
Last edited:
The pot that is being consumed today is very strong. It has a negative impact on mental illness.

I disagree. I think it could be used in mental illnesses especially for people who have lost their appetites.

Pot gives you the munchies.
 
The pot that is being consumed today is very strong. It has a negative impact on mental illness.

Do you have anything to back that up?......:confused:
I've never seen anyone go into a pot induced rage......
Booze, coke & meth, I've seen people get out of control on them lots of times.....;)
EDIT: Thanks for the link.......:)
 
So far it is slightly over four to one here in favor of legal pot.

It makes me proud to be an American.

I would like to also say that American pot growers have been trailblazers (especially california) in growing even better pot than any where in the world.

Thank you Calfornia.:2wave:

When I was in school,.. stoners used to gather and invite me along with comments like,.. "hey man,.. you want to to get stupid with us?"

Seeing what their grades and learning habits were at the time,... I decided early on that it wasn't the right path for me.

The results of this poll tells me that there are still a lot of people "getting stupid" these days.

Oh well,... it is what it is.
 
Last edited:
The pot that is being consumed today is very strong. It has a negative impact on mental illness. Here is an article by the National Institute of Drug Abuse

"THC acts upon specific sites in the brain, called cannabinoid receptors, kicking off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the “high” that users experience when they smoke marijuana. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. The highest density of cannabinoid receptors are found in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thoughts, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement.1

Not surprisingly, marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory. Research has shown that marijuana’s adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off.2 As a result, someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a suboptimal intellectual level all of the time.

Research on the long-term effects of marijuana abuse indicates some changes in the brain similar to those seen after long-term abuse of other major drugs. For example, cannabinoid withdrawal in chronically exposed animals leads to an increase in the activation of the stress-response system3 and changes in the activity of nerve cells containing dopamine.4 Dopamine neurons are involved in the regulation of motivation and reward, and are directly or indirectly affected by all drugs of abuse

Marijuana - InfoFacts - NIDA

No different than daily use of alcohol.....;)
 
When I was in school,.. stoners used to gather and invite me along with invites like,.. "hey man,.. you want to to get stupid with us?"

Seeing what their grades and learning habits were at the time,... I decided early on that it wasn't the right path for me.

The results of this poll tells me that there are still a lot of people "getting stupid" these days.

Oh well,... it is what it is.

People that disagree with your positon aren't neccessarily stupid......;)
 
When I was in school,.. stoners used to gather and invite me along with comments like,.. "hey man,.. you want to to get stupid with us?"

Seeing what their grades and learning habits were at the time,... I decided early on that it wasn't the right path for me.

The results of this poll tells me that there are still a lot of people "getting stupid" these days.

Oh well,... it is what it is.

It's not good for everyone but I think it is good for about 95% of the people.

Different smokes for different folks.

Shotgun!
 
Do you have anything to back that up?......:confused:
I've never seen anyone go into a pot induced rage......
Booze, coke & meth, I've seen people get out of control on them lots of times.....;)
EDIT: Thanks for the link.......:)

I'm talking about exacerbating existing mental illness. I used to work for a program that served mentally ill offenders with substance abuse problems.

It's not a gateway drug, in that smoking marijuana doesn't lead to abuse of other drugs, however for meth addicts, relapse often begins with marijuana use, which alters judgment and makes returning to the drug of choice more likely.
 
I disagree. I think it could be used in mental illnesses especially for people who have lost their appetites.

Pot gives you the munchies.

I've seen people try and self-medicate severe psychiatric conditions with pot. It doesn't work well.

Someone who is psychotic needs anti-psychotics--not marijuana.
 
Last edited:
The pot that is being consumed today is very strong. It has a negative impact on mental illness. Here is an article by the National Institute of Drug Abuse

"THC acts upon specific sites in the brain, called cannabinoid receptors, kicking off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the “high” that users experience when they smoke marijuana. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. The highest density of cannabinoid receptors are found in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thoughts, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement.1

Not surprisingly, marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory. Research has shown that marijuana’s adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off.2 As a result, someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a suboptimal intellectual level all of the time.

Research on the long-term effects of marijuana abuse indicates some changes in the brain similar to those seen after long-term abuse of other major drugs. For example, cannabinoid withdrawal in chronically exposed animals leads to an increase in the activation of the stress-response system3 and changes in the activity of nerve cells containing dopamine.4 Dopamine neurons are involved in the regulation of motivation and reward, and are directly or indirectly affected by all drugs of abuse

Marijuana - InfoFacts - NIDA

I know from personal experience that marijuana is not addictive as the article in the link asserts. It's a complete fabrication, a total lie.

In my fifty years of smoking pot there were many marijuana droughts. Sometimes I would go a month without pot. I never had any withdrawal symptoms whatsoever except for maybe eating less.

If organizations like the dea claim it is addictive they lose all creditability with me.

I took morphine (prescription) for a few years for back pain. When I quit it I went through about a month of hell on earth. Now, that's addiction.
 
I know from personal experience that marijuana is not addictive as the article in the link asserts. It's a complete fabrication, a total lie.

In my fifty years of smoking pot there were many marijuana droughts. Sometimes I would go a month without pot. I never had any withdrawal symptoms whatsoever except for maybe eating less.

If organizations like the dea claim it is addictive they lose all creditability with me.

I took morphine (prescription) for a few years for back pain. When I quit it I went through about a month of hell on earth. Now, that's addiction.

I'm more concerned with people who have severe mental illness attempting to self-medicate their psychosis with marijuana.
 
Last edited:
It's not a gateway drug, in that smoking marijuana doesn't lead to abuse of other drugs,...

I have been to parties which started out 'innocently' enough with just a little booze and a little weed,... then (peer pressure being what it is) someone always wanted to see how everyone else would act on a (showing my age) lude,... some try it some don't... Then another breaks out with a lttle dust,... and again the exposure to other drugs increases again.

The gates were wide open.

I have also seen (1st hand) the 'gateway' aspect in dealing situations,.. were dealers will try to sell (push) other drugs on someone who was there there just to buy pot.

Why do you think they are called "drug pushers" people?

Anyway,.. my lifetime experiences also tell me that anyone who intentionally (expletive omitted) with their brain for recreational purposes,.. can not be reasoned with.
 
Last edited:
Yes. The effects are no worse (physically or socially) than alcohol. Regulate it in as far as 'driving under the influence' is concerned and clear out room in our prisons for truly deserving criminals.
 
I'm more concerned with people who have severe mental illness attempting to self-medicate their psychosis with marijuana.

Keeping it illegal so that mental patients can't self medicate is not a valid reason, IMO......
Psychotics need anti psychotic prescriptions & they need to be monitored closely.......
I have plenty of experience with someone, 'going off their meds'.......
Many times that problem comes from choosing what meds they need & their drug of choice.....
I knew someone that if forced to choose between meds or cigarettes, it was cigarettes, which always ended in a stay in the psych ward......;)
Most times it was for a criminal act.....
With psych patients it is often, "If it ain't one thing, it's something else".....:(
As much as you want to help them the only way you will keep someone like that from self medicating is through incarceration......;)
 
Keep it illegal.

Kids are gonna get high while driving. And they're going to talk on their cell phones. And all that texting. We need to keep a very serious attitude about drugs and safety at least for the sake of the kids. No legal marijuana, no way.
 
Last edited:
The responses of those who are against legalization, even after I took the time to address the issue, is a good reflection of the emptiness of their argument.

America tried to ban alchohol but it proved impossible.
Alchohol can be a dangerous drug but we must accept that we cant ban it.

How is marijuana any different? Marijuana use has increased a huge amount since prohibition was enacted. I'm sure you know this, so I'm interested in hearing what you think the difference is.

We know about the long term effects of alchohol abuse and we know and can define what alchohol abuse is.
Cannabis can be a dangerous drug and it is already 'banned'.
We know that both drugs are dangerous so what good would it do us to have two dangerous legal drugs.
There is agreat deal of evidence to show that cannabis can exacerbate mental illness but there is not a great deal of evidence of the total effect of long term use and the health problems that it may bring.
It took quite a few years for the full evidence of how destructive tobacco was to health..those people today who say how dangerous tobacco is probably had fathers or grandfathers that thought smoking 30 a day was fine!

I never said that smoking a low thc spliff would get you just as wasted as smoking a high thc spliff..just the opposite.
I said that if we have to legalise cannabis then a compromise would be to make a lower thc bud legal but ban the high thc bud or hash because this is far more dangerous.

This has caused much consternation in one poster who seems to think a nice
bit of lower thc hash the same that was about say in the 60s or 70s(enough to get you mellow and a little high) is far more dangerous than white widow or chronic( enough to get you wasted if you either dont know what you are doing or are a heavyweight toker).

Well, I agree that weed is stronger these days. His point is that if someone's goal is to get high, then they will get high. If they need to smoke 5 joints to get the same effect, that's what they will do-this was the beer/whiskey comparison earlier. I think I understand your point; if marijuana is too strong, then will be dangerously high after smoking one joint. Well, if it were legal, couldn't we label the potency? There's no requirement to smoke an entire joint. On the other hand, who cares how high someone is if they're just going to stay at home and watch tv or whatever?

Marijuana is a cash crop in our county, and it is easy for anyone to obtain a permit to grow and smoke 'medical marijuana.' At the same time, we have huge pot farms grown on National Forest and BLM land, with armed guards which makes hiking and back packing in some areas dangerous.

Medical marijuana is only legal in certain states. I haven't heard of these National Forest pot farms, but this sounds a little farfetched...do you have a source? Well, actually I don't think it's relevant at all, so don't bother.

My concern is people driving while stoned and exposing babies and young children to secondary marijuana smoke. For these reasons I'm not in favor of legalizing marijuana.

I think those who are irresponsible enough to do this are doing it now anyways. I concede that these are worth considering, but even if we take these at face value, is this worse than the negative effects of prohibition? Putting non-violent marijuana smokers in jail exposes people to the worst people in our society, creating criminals. It also takes parents away from their children, leaving single parents and ophans behind. Drug cartels make enormous profits from the illegal status of marijuana. They have no problems resorting to the murder of innocent people to make their money. We need to take this power away from them. As our nation has staggering national debt, struggling schools, inadequate healthcare, etc. we have an opportunity to improve a lot of these problems in both the long and short run by saving money on marijuana prohibition.

Some say it would benefit the government to tax pot, but my feeling is the big pot farms would still avoid taxes.

If you think that legal farms would avoid taxes, how do you suppose they would do this? If you are talking about illegal operations, sure, some people will still grow their own, like with moonshine. But, like with moonshine, most people will choose the legal product because they do not have to worry about getting in trouble for using it.

I'm talking about exacerbating existing mental illness. I used to work for a program that served mentally ill offenders with substance abuse problems.

It's not a gateway drug, in that smoking marijuana doesn't lead to abuse of other drugs, however for meth addicts, relapse often begins with marijuana use, which alters judgment and makes returning to the drug of choice more likely.

Most likely, what happens is that they go back to their old meth dealer, who sells pot as well, and ask him for some weed. Eventually, the dealer says "you sure you don't want some meth?" and convince their old customer to bring back his business as an addict. If weed were available at the gas station, this contact wouldn't occur.


The alcohol comparison is mostly a side argument. It shows that those against legalization are hypocrites, but we can argue for marijuana legalization on its own. For the sake of argument, let's say weed is as dangerous as you say it is. Do you really think that the costs of usage outweigh the costs of prohibition which I discussed before? To windovervocals, sazerac, Chuz Life, anyone else against legalization, I wrote a long post on page 11. It would be interesting if you responded to each of my points. I know it's long, but I think the issue needs to be considered in its entirety, rather than the "It's dangerous! *plug ears* LALALALALA" approach. I don't mean that with disrespect, except to Chuz Life for the "get stupid" comment, I just mean that I think you guys need to make an argument other than "it's dangerous." What are your thoughts on the negative consequences of prohibition?

I won't be able to get back until later tonight, so it should be fun to check back up on the mayhem...
 
Keep it illegal.

Kids are gonna get high while driving. And they're going to talk on their cell phones. And all that texting. We need to keep a very serious attitude about drugs and safety at least for the sake of the kids. No legal marijuana, no way.

Kids (and some adults) are getting high NOW and driving. People talk on their cells phones AND they text while driving.

None of which is safe or recommended. It is a huge problem - but what to do?

What would your suggestion be? Make illegal ALL stupid things people could possibly do whilst driving, to make sure we're keeping them safe.

This would include people drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, eating, shaving, applying makeup, reading, texting, telephoning, playing with their radio knobs, looking at their GPS, picking their nose, yelling at their kids or their spouse, fiddling with the mirrors, not CHECKING their mirrors, driving like they have their head up their ass in general, not using their turn signals... etc...

The list could go on and on for days.

Unless you are willing to keep/MAKE all things illegal that people are doing while driving, then your argument holds no water.

Make driving under the influence (ANY influence) ILLEGAL and punishable by law - just as it is NOW.

Legalizing marijuana will not exponentially increase those drivers on the road that already are doing just that - same with alcohol. People are taking prescription drugs and driving... should we make illegal prescription meds that warn, "Use caution when operating machinery or driving a motor vehicle" because someone might be abusing it?
 
Last edited:
Medical marijuana is only legal in certain states. I haven't heard of these National Forest pot farms, but this sounds a little farfetched...do you have a source? Well, actually I don't think it's relevant at all, so don't bother.
"So far this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, federal agents have raided 487 pot farms on forest-service land, where they destroyed 2.6 million marijuana plants, seized 138 firearms and made 369 arrests on felony drug charges," writes Simon.

The illegal cultivation presents risks to wayward hikers, who face confrontation by armed guards or injury from booby-traps set to protect plantations, as well as parks themselves. Authorities believe marijuana farmers were responsible for an 88,000-acre fire that burned last month in in California's Los Padres National Forest.
Cartels clear-cutting U.S. national parks for marijuana plantations

Relatively few of the marijuana-tenders are caught. At the first sign of trouble, they usually slip away through the brush. That's the main reason these pot farms are on public land: It's easy to cut and run.

But law enforcement agencies are learning more about these marijuana gardens. For one thing, they're not stand-alone projects. Investigators say pot farms in parks and national forests are often part of larger networks.

A recent Drug Enforcement Administration investigation of a Mexican crime family's alleged crystal methamphetamine ring led agents to discover that the family also had a marijuana-growing operation on the side. They call it a major enterprise; a Seattle-based DEA agent (anonymous here because he works undercover) says it stretched across several Western states.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103866520
 
Last edited:
wind-

fair enough, but what's your point? you've just pointed out that prohibition leads to people illegally growing crops in national parks and protecting them with guns. how is this an argument against legalization? this is another example of giving money and power to criminals (like cartels) instead of putting it in the hand of responsible parties overseen by the government.

are you going to address any of my arguments?
 
The pot that is being consumed today is very strong. It has a negative impact on mental illness. Here is an article by the National Institute of Drug Abuse

"THC acts upon specific sites in the brain, called cannabinoid receptors, kicking off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the “high” that users experience when they smoke marijuana. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. The highest density of cannabinoid receptors are found in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thoughts, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement.1

Not surprisingly, marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory. Research has shown that marijuana’s adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off.2 As a result, someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a suboptimal intellectual level all of the time.

Research on the long-term effects of marijuana abuse indicates some changes in the brain similar to those seen after long-term abuse of other major drugs. For example, cannabinoid withdrawal in chronically exposed animals leads to an increase in the activation of the stress-response system3 and changes in the activity of nerve cells containing dopamine.4 Dopamine neurons are involved in the regulation of motivation and reward, and are directly or indirectly affected by all drugs of abuse

Marijuana - InfoFacts - NIDA

And alcohol's bad for your liver so what?
 
Last edited:
Keep it illegal.

Kids are gonna get high while driving. And they're going to talk on their cell phones. And all that texting. We need to keep a very serious attitude about drugs and safety at least for the sake of the kids. No legal marijuana, no way.

Drug dealers usually don't check ID
 
There is some paranoia about the dangers of driving while smoking pot. I think driving while on a cell or texting are more dangerous.

One of the biggest worries out there while driving iare peoople stoned on over the counter cold medicines, especially cough syrup in a yummy cherry flavor.
 
Keep it illegal.

Kids are gonna get high while driving. And they're going to talk on their cell phones. And all that texting. We need to keep a very serious attitude about drugs and safety at least for the sake of the kids. No legal marijuana, no way.
And no cell phones
 
Back
Top Bottom