Originally Posted by redwitch (Post 951279)

Gracie, I'd say that the majority of Baby Boomers have tried grass and, unlike Clinton, they did inhale. Some still use today. Some don't. Some are chronic users. Some aren't. Some smoke grass on a truly recreational basis, don't smoke and drive, and are otherwise very law-abiding citizens. To me, it is less evil than alcohol.

I'm very pro medical usage of marijuana. When I was going through chemo, I could hold nothing down and no legal medication was working. Back then, there was no legalization. Finally got some joints from a friend at the advice of my doctor. That worked. The marijuana helped save my life as much as the chemo did. I didn't smoke any more once I was off chemo and haven't had any since. Please don't think that just because there is a pill that works for some or claims to work for all necessarily works for everyone.

Originally Posted by tommy steam (Post 950809)

CDC.... 480,000 deaths a year from smoking cigaretts and 41,000 from second hand smoke.

Originally Posted by redwitch (Post 950410)

Not sure how causal adolescent use of grass and later psychiatric dxes really relate. The reality is that many who are in the beginning stages of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and many other mental illnesses use non-prescription drugs as a way to alleviate their symptoms. This was true in the 1800's and is true today. It could be just as logical to say that mental illness can cause drug abuse.

Addictions come in all forms. I once had a boss who was a runner. I could always tell if he hadn't had his morning run. Without the endorphin high, he got the shakes, was irritable and hyper until he could get his run in. So, it should be no surprise that someone who uses marijuana daily for years has developed an addiction. Ditto lung damage.

As to driving and being impaired via alcohol, legal drugs, illegal drugs or anything else that floats your boat, no excuse. Hanging by the short hairs is too kind. To me, you are free to do whatever you want to your body in the privacy of your home but you do not have the right to endanger me, my family, my friends or a stranger because you think you can handle your drug and drive.

BTW, I am not a user. Haven't been for over thirty years and then only occasionally. But I really see less harm in smoking a joint than in alcohol usage.

Originally Posted by Sandtrap328 (Post 951246)

This posting is NOT what legalized medical marijuana is about at all. It is to relieve pain from debilitating disease and provide comfort from chemotherapy.

Big drug companies are against it so they can continue to produce the pills we see advertised and we all ask our doctors for the latest and greatest.

Some medical marijuana will be misused for sure. Look, however, to the greater good for the huge groups that will be helped by usage of medical marijuana.

Originally Posted by B767drvr (Post 951392)

Here are a few articles that may assist in understanding the FACTS:


Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Why I changed my mind on weed - CNN.com


Medical Marijuana Legalization: Pro-Pot Laws Do Not Lead To More Drug Use Among Teens, Study Finds


UCSF Study Finds Medical Marijuana Could Help Patients Reduce Pain with Opiates | ucsf.edu


Marijuana Shown to Be Less Damaging to Lungs Than Tobacco | ucsf.edu


As Anecdotal Reports of Anti-Cancer Effects from Cannabis 'Oil' Pile Up, Doctors Stress Need to Document Its Effects | Alternet

Originally Posted by rubicon (Post 951351)

Hi sandtrap: forgive the pun but if you read amendment 2 carefully you will see it is a trap to establish a clearing for recreational use. As to medicinal use they can extract the oil from the plant and gain the medicinal benefit without the pyschoactive highs. States now are grappling with people who abuse opoids and who had to place over the counter drugs behind locked doors preventing dealers from using them to make meth. If it is for medicinal purposes then use the oil extract and meter it closely or we are going to have just another drug problem.

Actually the medicinal thing is a hoax created by profit seekers and tax hungry politicians and of course the stoners who want the right.
Doesn't anyone else see the fallacy between outlawing cigarettes as medically dangerous and socially unacceptable but allowing something more insidious as legal marijuana. what message are we sending to our kids. what parent in their right mind would approve of their kids use of dope?
"Here sweetie take this $20 and go down to the store and pick yourself some good reefers.

Am I still on planet earth???????????????????? Are we actually having this conversation while he rest of the world burns? Where the heck are our priorities?

Originally Posted by rubicon (Post 951442)

UNINTENTIONAL CONSEQUENCES.

Originally Posted by B767drvr (Post 951500)

Peyton Manning did say he's selling more pizzas than ever with the law change in Colorado! :icon_hungry:

Seriously, has anyone heard of all the boogie man bad things happening in Colorado or Washington that some are predicting for Florida? Where's all the death and destruction, hospitals full of addicts, carnage on the roadways?

The truth is full legalization of marijuana won't impact anything but alcohol sales. People have wrung their hands about women voting, civil rights, gay marriage… in the end society continues. I'm very confident full marijuana legalization will eventually be the law in all 50 states and there won't be any negative effect on the good citizens of this country. I understand some might not agree, and that's ok too. You'll eventually see the light! :)

Originally Posted by rubicon (Post 951529)

without drawing judgment it has amazed me how so many people are nonchalant about this issue. there was a time that even the thought would be enough to have parents sternly respond. another clear sign of our decline.

Originally Posted by B767drvr (Post 951538)

>>

Long before I began this project, I had steadily reviewed the scientific literature on medical marijuana from the United States and thought it was fairly unimpressive. Reading these papers five years ago, it was hard to make a case for medicinal marijuana. I even wrote about this in a TIME magazine article, back in 2009, titled "Why I would Vote No on Pot."

Well, I am here to apologize.

I apologize because I didn't look hard enough, until now. I didn't look far enough. I didn't review papers from smaller labs in other countries doing some remarkable research, and I was too dismissive of the loud chorus of legitimate patients whose symptoms improved on cannabis.

Instead, I lumped them with the high-visibility malingerers, just looking to get high. I mistakenly believed the Drug Enforcement Agency listed marijuana as a schedule 1 substance because of sound scientific proof. Surely, they must have quality reasoning as to why marijuana is in the category of the most dangerous drugs that have "no accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse."

They didn't have the science to support that claim, and I now know that when it comes to marijuana neither of those things are true. It doesn't have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications. In fact, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that works.

Take the case of Charlotte Figi, who I met in Colorado. She started having seizures soon after birth. By age 3, she was having 300 a week, despite being on seven different medications. Medical marijuana has calmed her brain, limiting her seizures to 2 or 3 per month.

I have seen more patients like Charlotte first hand, spent time with them and come to the realization that it is irresponsible not to provide the best care we can as a medical community, care that could involve marijuana.

We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.
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Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Why I changed my mind on weed - CNN.com