Originally Posted by PennBF

Regarding gifts to man..God also gave us poison..That does not mean everyone should be sure to use it.
Everyone should go ahead and use any drug they feel they need to ruin their life, escape reality, cause them medical problems, etc. But putting the family at postential risk is another thing. That is not their right.

Penn, while I may disagree with you or whether or not to legalize marijuana, I have to agree with you here. As I regularly point out to my health nut friends, "Crude oil is organic and hemlock is all natural."

Originally Posted by PennBF

I do find there is humor in being called "self righteous" because I don't want to use drugs and escape the beautiful joys of life. If that is being "self righteous" then I confess that is what I am.

Thank you for your confession. My admission is that whenever possible I like to tweak the insufferably self righteous people who try to control the lives of others, for their own good.

I know you mean well. All "do gooders do". Much to the consternation of those who just want to maintain their personal freedoms and have a desire to be left alone to live their lives without undue interference.

Contray to the point made that I would believe we should constrain the rights of the citizens. I am a great believer that all should be free and the government should stay out of the lives of the citizens. As I have said it is the right of evey person to use drugs. However, unfortuantely it becomes a "family" problem and disease as most users have little feeling for the harm it brings to the family and are mostly concerned with their pleasure. They allow the need for a "high" to be their focus and have a selfish disregard for the harm to the family. That is my major concern. If the person is single, on an island and even want to kill themselves they have that right. What they don't have is the right to destroy other people.

Your mind is closed to the real discussion here and so I'm going to leave this where it is, and leave you to wallow in your self righteous nonsense.

It makes sense to discontinue the discussion. My expert Therapist said that
users judgements, logic, etc. are impaired, (brain, etc). There is abundance
of evidence to support this position and therefore it is difficult to have a meaningful discussion with users.

Originally Posted by PennBF

It makes sense to discontinue the discussion. My expert Therapist said that
users judgements, logic, etc. are impaired, (brain, etc). There is abundance
of evidence to support this position and therefore it is difficult to have a meaningful discussion with users.

Nice one. Only I'm not a user. Haven't been for years. Only know way more than you on it's use and effects judging from your ill informed posts. But at least you're showing a sense of humor. That's something in your favor, at least.

I'm sorry. I was only going by the statements in your previous notes; E.G

I'm not a user. Haven't been for years

Again, if you hang out in detox centers, you only see the portion of users who can't handle it. In polling terms, you are skewing your sample.

DJPLong, I understand your point. My "immediate" family member has worked and was taught acupuncture for herion addicts at a Crisis center in the South Bronx in NYC, is qualified by the Caron Instutute, worked in detox centers, has had private patients, received "court" directed patients. Has run group sessions. Has dealt with all forms of addictions, (e.g. marijuana, cocaine, heroin, alcohol, co-dependencies, etc.).
Her experience has been that a certain number of users move from marijuana to other drugs. That after using marijuana the brain has been effected and the person is definitely impaired. Marijuana will impair the brain but most users don't like to hear this. Of course not all marijuana users move to other drugs, but to deny marijuana users brains are not impaired is to deny documented history of the drug. Because a marijuana user smokes it and then stops does not mean the drug did not effect the brain. An educated
person on the subject knows it does and understand the user will have some form of long term effect. It is important for adults to understand this as
they can give good advise and care to the youth who want to try it. THere are manny books and articles on the subject and those who want to use have the responsibility to understand the impacts of their decision.

It is said that there are 7 illion addicts in this country and some 21.2 million people who use illicit drugs, excluding alcohol. If you don't believe those figures then simply observe the alcohol and drug abuse of our young people including those below the age of 15. Can you imagine what kind of a world we would create for ourselves by making marijuana legit and how much less it would cost to purchase it. Finally how much more do you believe it would cost us in terms of treatment and increase criminal activity rapes, burglary, etc to the revenue we would collect by taxing it. Again look at other countries that legalize it and read the nightmares they have created for themselves. The case for legitimizing maijuana is simply one of frustration. What we need are responsible and tough leaning politicians that can't be corrupted or intimadated.

Rubicon, I agree with your note. The only concern I have is leaving alcohol
out of the category. I know the difference is legal vs illegal but it is still a
terrible scurge when abused. The numbers grow significantly when alcohol is thrown into the stew.
(As an aside..I continue to believe there is a place for marijuana for certain
medical conditions and it should be available. But again, the judges and social worker are abusing this and authorizing for things like back ache, etc. I had a neice who died from a brain tumor and my sister was able to get her some for her disease. She was 26 and an Officer in the Army as an attorney when she passed away. I am bias when it comes to people in pain and would be the first to see if I could get it for them..!!).

Wasn't my intent to leave alcohol out especially since we have so many young people abusing it at younger and younger ages. But since the issue was legalizing marijuana wanted to address the illicit drugs .

If we really could control the medical marijuana for that purpose only I would agree but that is not happening in the states where it was legalized for medical purposes

We can get this problem under control if we really wanted to but apparently we have no will to do so.

A little education would be awesome. But, instead and alas, it's always just pontification.

http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/...juana-illegal/

RichieRich- Just imagine the scene set back to the early 1970's. It could have been you and Barack Obama taking a hit off a joint together.

Have a bang-up 4th of July weekend!

You may want to read this for some facts on the drug. I know it will not change some minds for the same reasons stated in the article. But at least
it will educate some.

http://www.psych.umn.edu/courses/spr...psy3061/mj.htm