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Legalize Marijuana? (Page 2)
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sek929
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Oct 22, 2009, 03:44 PM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
Maybe marijuana isn't as physiologically addicting, but it seems like (in my completely unofficial study, at least) more people who smoke weed make a hard habit of it. The weed smokers I have known went from "once in awhile" to "every weekend" to "daily" pretty damn quickly.
You could easily replace weed with getting laid in this example and draw a parallel to a really fun and equally risky behavior.

My buddy is a big drinker now, but he used to get high with me all the time several years back. He hasn't smoked in like 3 years, when we hang out I light up a bowl and he cracks a beer. Neither activity is in any way different, and therefore should be treated as such.

Despite being what some would call a 'huge pothead' I've never smoked before a day of classes or work ever before in my life. Seems to me if I had a physical addiction to weed after smoking fairly heavily for 5 years I'd be sneaking away at coffee break to light up.

Edit: Jeez, apologies for the lack of a multi-reply, der.

Weed is addictive the way the internet is addictive.
     
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Oct 22, 2009, 03:58 PM
 
Originally Posted by kido331 View Post
no, but then inhaling smoke from someone else's cigarette, cigar, or pipe does not get me high. the point i am making is that secondary smoke from marijuana may have an effect on others nearby, making it different from alcohol, so you can object without being a
You're right, you can't get high inhaling smoke from someone else's cigarette ... you only increase your odds of developing lung cancer.
     
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Oct 22, 2009, 04:38 PM
 
Originally Posted by sek929 View Post
Weed is addictive the way the internet is addictive.
That shiz needs banning then.
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Oct 22, 2009, 04:44 PM
 
Doesn't China ban the internet?
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kido331
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Oct 22, 2009, 05:37 PM
 
Originally Posted by Wiskedjak View Post
You're right, you can't get high inhaling smoke from someone else's cigarette ... you only increase your odds of developing lung cancer.
Do you think the smoking of cigarettes, cigars and pipes should be criminalized?
     
Wiskedjak
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Oct 22, 2009, 08:03 PM
 
Originally Posted by kido331 View Post
Do you think the smoking of cigarettes, cigars and pipes should be criminalized?
I really don't care one way or the other. But, I think that our laws should be consistent and the harm caused by marijuana doesn't seem to be any worse than the harm caused by nicotine or alcohol. If marijuana is harmful enough to be illegal, so to should nicotine and alcohol. On the other hand, if nicotine and alcohol are considered safe enough to be legal, then so to should marijuana.
     
hyteckit  (op)
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Oct 22, 2009, 09:26 PM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
Maybe marijuana isn't as physiologically addicting, but it seems like (in my completely unofficial study, at least) more people who smoke weed make a hard habit of it. The weed smokers I have known went from "once in awhile" to "every weekend" to "daily" pretty damn quickly.

On the other hand, I've only met two alcoholics. Everyone else I know who consumes alcohol does it rarely or infrequently at most.

It also seems like people don't typically use marijuana in the way that people drink alcohol - I (and everyone I know) rarely have ever had alcohol in order to get hammered, whereas people who get high seem to like getting, you know, stoned.

There may be other valid arguments for both the use and legalization of marijuana, but I don't think that it can be directly compared to alcohol.
You never gone to college? Don't you know binge drinking is a major problem on college campuses?

People smoke marijuana for the same reason you pop those pills you are taking. To calm themselves down and to ease their pain/depression.
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Oct 22, 2009, 11:20 PM
 
Just because something is legal, doesn't make it any better. Alcohol is responsible for more problems than pot use could ever do. Pills are more addictive than pot will ever be as well.
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BadKosh
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Oct 23, 2009, 08:42 AM
 
Originally Posted by sek929 View Post
Sure can, and I'll be the first to say it's really easy to tell is somebody is baked.

Legalize it, tax it, and arrest people for DUI just like booze....case f**kin closed
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Oct 23, 2009, 09:19 AM
 
My, didn't we wait til the last possible moment to play that card.
     
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Oct 23, 2009, 11:28 AM
 
Originally Posted by BadKosh View Post
Slippery Slope. Mushrooms next? Then what?
Gay marriage
     
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Oct 23, 2009, 11:48 AM
 
Originally Posted by BadKosh View Post
Slippery Slope. Mushrooms next? Then what?
Hopefully decriminalize personal amounts of any drug. That would separate the violent offenders and addicts from recreational and occasional users. It would also lower crime and save our country billions of dollars by not being forced to keep non-violent and non-addicts in prison.
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Oct 23, 2009, 12:06 PM
 
Originally Posted by BadKosh View Post
Slippery Slope. Mushrooms next? Then what?
Yes, that is a slippery slope fallacy. Thank you for calling out your own logical errors.
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Oct 23, 2009, 12:26 PM
 
I just recently decided to switch from coffee to green tea. I guarantee my withdrawal headaches and lethargy were much worse than deciding to stop smoking weed.
     
shifuimam
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Oct 23, 2009, 12:36 PM
 
Originally Posted by hyteckit View Post
You never gone to college? Don't you know binge drinking is a major problem on college campuses?

People smoke marijuana for the same reason you pop those pills you are taking. To calm themselves down and to ease their pain/depression.
Ah, but I don't use *alcohol* to ease depression.

Using a substance that modifies your capability to function as a fully coherent human being in order to "ease your pain" is not a good thing. Sure, it can calm you down, but it can also result in you sitting on a couch stoned for three hours rather than actually doing anything with your life.

The antidepressant I'm currently on allows me to function as a normal, coherent, capable human being. Without it, I sit on a couch in a dark hole of depression, not actually doing anything with my life.

See the difference?
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hyteckit  (op)
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Oct 23, 2009, 12:43 PM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
Ah, but I don't use *alcohol* to ease depression.

Using a substance that modifies your capability to function as a fully coherent human being in order to "ease your pain" is not a good thing. Sure, it can calm you down, but it can also result in you sitting on a couch stoned for three hours rather than actually doing anything with your life.

The antidepressant I'm currently on allows me to function as a normal, coherent, capable human being. Without it, I sit on a couch in a dark hole of depression, not actually doing anything with my life.

See the difference?
People smoke marijuana for the same reason you pop those pills you are taking. To calm themselves down and to ease their pain/depression.

You prefer man-made chemicals.

Some prefer natural cures like marijuana.

Me. I've gone to the doctor like a total of 6 times in my life. Don't think any medications. Never gotten the flu shot. Don't really get the flu either.

I prefer to treat depression with exercise and lots of sex. Best cure for depression.
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Chuckit
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Oct 23, 2009, 12:48 PM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
Ah, but I don't use *alcohol* to ease depression.
But lots of people do, and it's a poor substitute for better, nonaddictive options like pot.

Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
Using a substance that modifies your capability to function as a fully coherent human being in order to "ease your pain" is not a good thing. Sure, it can calm you down, but it can also result in you sitting on a couch stoned for three hours rather than actually doing anything with your life.
If sitting on a couch for three hours precludes doing anything with your life, you're about to die anyway so it really doesn't matter.

At any rate, that "can" is a bit weasely. It can result in that, but in all likelihood it won't if you use the right kind of pot in the right amounts. Some kinds are known for couch lock, others aren't.
( Last edited by Chuckit; Oct 23, 2009 at 02:05 PM. )
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Oct 23, 2009, 01:25 PM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
Ah, but I don't use *alcohol* to ease depression.

Using a substance that modifies your capability to function as a fully coherent human being in order to "ease your pain" is not a good thing. Sure, it can calm you down, but it can also result in you sitting on a couch stoned for three hours rather than actually doing anything with your life.

The antidepressant I'm currently on allows me to function as a normal, coherent, capable human being. Without it, I sit on a couch in a dark hole of depression, not actually doing anything with my life.

See the difference?
Sorry, but your argument for the reason why you take drugs can be applied to people that smoke pot as well. It doesn't give you a one up as you are making a broad generalization about people that smoke. It is akin to saying that all people that drink are alcoholics.
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sek929
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Oct 23, 2009, 02:54 PM
 
Originally Posted by RobOnTheCape View Post
I just recently decided to switch from coffee to green tea. I guarantee my withdrawal headaches and lethargy were much worse than deciding to stop smoking weed.
Sugar and Caffeine withdrawal are a hundred fold more intense than anything you feel quitting weed.

Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
Using a substance that modifies your capability to function as a fully coherent human being in order to "ease your pain" is not a good thing. Sure, it can calm you down, but it can also result in you sitting on a couch stoned for three hours rather than actually doing anything with your life.
This is the baseless crap I'm sick of. If I work 8 hours, make myself dinner, do a load of laundry, smoke a bowl at 8 and watch TV for 3 hours before I go to sleep I'm wasting my life? What about the people who watch TV sober for 3 hours, are they still considered fully-coherent beings? I am a very coherent and intelligent person when I get high. That's something I can't say for 90% of the people my age when they drink, and yes, most people my age drink to get drunk, some drink to get hammered.

Do an experiment. Have one person get really high, and one person get really drunk. Have a conversation with them and tell me which person is less coherent. I've seen kids with red eyes, crumbs all over their clothes 4 blunts deep make more sense than most girls with 3 f**kin beers in them. Alcohol is by far, BY FAR, a more destructive intoxicant.

There are plenty of potheads that will wake up with a bong-hit in the morning and end up doing nothing the whole day, that's not me. I choose to relax in my free time (that's the time after I am doing something with my life FYI) with a little weed and a tasty beer. Now the former potheads may be wasting their life, but why, IN THE NAME OF HOLY HELL, does that make them criminals?
( Last edited by sek929; Oct 23, 2009 at 03:03 PM. )
     
sek929
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Oct 23, 2009, 03:01 PM
 
Originally Posted by Rumor View Post
Sorry, but your argument for the reason why you take drugs can be applied to people that smoke pot as well.
If I don't smoke a bowl after a long day of work I fall asleep at 7pm. You could say weed has the same effect on my life as Shif's pills do for her. Marijuana affects people differently, sometimes vastly differently. I have a friend who graduated Med school being a massive pothead, and I have some friends who took one hit 6 years ago and freaked out. Ignorance drives most of the (mis) information about the effects of pot.

Yes, it is a drug.
No, it's no worse than Booze.

Therefore in a society that doesn't have its head up its ass both should carry the same legality or illegality.
     
shifuimam
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Oct 23, 2009, 04:25 PM
 
I was specifically talking about people who use marijuana as a sedative-type drug to deal with depression.

There is a MAJOR difference between using a controlled-dosage substance to allow me to function as a useful member of society and using an uncontrolled substance to make yourself live in a fantasy world away from depressed state of being. That is indeed akin to someone drinking themselves into oblivion. Hell, it's similar to people who use things like MMOs and immersive television universes to avoid the unfortunate facts of reality.
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Oct 23, 2009, 11:02 PM
 
Originally Posted by PB2K View Post
I do not agree, the semi-legalization in the Netherlands has increased potency of marijuana to such a level that people can be addicted to it.
I'm calling for a source. Higher potency would take less to smoke for the desired effect, so would be healthier.
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Oct 24, 2009, 06:07 AM
 
I hope the weed gets legal. When it does, I'm sinking every dime to my name in Nabisco stock.
     
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Oct 24, 2009, 06:38 AM
 
Let me state my opinion on this subject...

what was the subject again?
     
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Oct 24, 2009, 09:44 AM
 
Originally Posted by Atheist View Post
Gay marriage
Shortly followed by terrorism.
     
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Oct 24, 2009, 07:35 PM
 
Goodie! we can chop down more of the rain forest and waste more resources to harvest this useless plant.
     
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Oct 24, 2009, 07:41 PM
 
Originally Posted by Wiskedjak View Post
Shortly followed by terrorism.
Shortly followed by Socialism, Fascism, and ultimately Communism.

All roads lead to Communism.
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Oct 25, 2009, 06:20 AM
 
Like I-95 north through Lorton and Dumfries, heading towards the 495 and into the circle of insanity, as I call the beltway?
     
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Oct 25, 2009, 08:15 AM
 
I used to buy some great pot from a guy in Lorton.
     
 
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