Post by LUCAS STYLES. on Sept 2, 2007 0:36:24 GMT -5
Good or bad in your opinion?
Personally, I find it very logical and in some senses, the lesser of two "evils" so to speak. Now before anyone goes crazy "OH EM GEE UR LYK THE YUNGEST MEMBR HERE U SHUDNT TOK BOUT MARIHUANNA!!!", let me say my piece.
I've grown up around smokers. Regular cigarette smokers. My mom did before she had me, my dad did and still does, my step dad (used to smoke pot, quit recently) my step mom, my dad's parents, my mom's parents (used to, quite recently), my aunt's and my uncles. I was born into a semi-smoking environment. My parent's are divorced so it kind of gave me an even balance. I'm at my mom's house, its smoke free. I'm at my dad's, theres smoking going on in my vicinity. Not it doesn't get to me when people smoke, if they do it within reason. My dad and step mom both smoke outside, fine by me. But people that smoke obnoxiously in front of you and blow smoke in your face well, they have it coming. But thats another discussion.
Basically what I'm getting at is that I grew up around people that smoked so I knew what cigarettes were and what they could do to people at a young age. I was one of those kids that would stick a crayon in his mouth and break off the end like ashes. I thought smoking was cool. Yeah. Growing up thought I evidently learned more about it and the risks etc. Nevertheless in Grade 6 I took my first puff of a Captain Black's cherry tipped cigar...one puff that was all. Just to say I had done it. Walking down the river with two of my buddies. I didn't feel bad about it afterwards, I live once I don't want to regret not trying something. As morbid as that may sound when its on the topic of smoking, I wanted to see if "it was for me". Which it wasn't because to this day I'm not a smoker.
But the topic of marijuana has always been a strange one for me. Some say its good. Some say its bad. Many say its fucking amazing. I agree with the first and last. While marijuana does have its "medical issues" its still healthier then smoking cigarettes. Perhaps its the fact that you get high when you smoke it that has everyone in apeshit mode about it. But the fact is that marijuana is scientifically proven to be less harmful then cigarettes. I'm not gonna lie, I'll be honest about it... I've tried pot. Some people know, some people don't...now whoever reads this does. It was peer pressure yeah. It was curiosity too of course. I'm not an addict, I'm not a druggy... I tried it and I'm not an everyday user. I'm a "When its offered to me by a friend I might" guy. I'm not gonna go out and buy my own. Why? Well I don't have an addictive personality and I have other uses for my cash.
The whole medicinal marijuana thing is a very interesting topic too. The thing people don't realize is that marijuana for some people is the only thing that works. I watched a documentary about a month or so back called "In Pot We Trust" (great film I would recommend it to anyone) and it was extremely informative. It actually slightly swayed my mom's opinion on the matter. There was a man in the film who had some sort of issue where his bones were constantly presses into his muscles, causing him pain and lack of movement in some areas. The marijuana relaxes the muscles and he lives his life normally. He's not stumbling around, drooling and slurring his words, he's an average working class man that makes a living just as anyone else does. The fact that in certain states, medicinal marijuana is legal but it isn't federally, is completely ludicrous. Its like walking into a store and trying to buy M&M's...but the M&M company doesn't allow anyone to buy they're product. If its legal in the state people shouldn't have to worry about getting their medication...their medication that works.
In my closing I'll add a little snippet from a Facebook "Causes" Group called "Legalize It!".
Marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. It fails to inflict the types of serious health consequences these two legal drugs cause. Around 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning. Similarly, more than 400,000 deaths each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. By comparison, marijuana is nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose. According to the prestigious European medical journal, The Lancet, "The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health. It would be reasonable to judge cannabis as less of a threat than alcohol or tobacco."
No one is suggesting we encourage more drug use; simply that we stop arresting responsible marijuana smokers. In recent years, we have significantly reduced the prevalence of drunk driving and tobacco smoking. We have not achieved this by prohibiting the use of alcohol and tobacco or by targeting and arresting adults who use alcohol and tobacco responsibly, but through honest educational campaigns. We should apply these same principles to the responsible consumption of marijuana. The negative consequences primarily associated with marijuana -- such as an arrest or jail time -- are the result of the criminal prohibition of cannabis, not the use of marijuana itself.
No one is suggesting we encourage more drug use; simply that we stop arresting responsible marijuana smokers. In recent years, we have significantly reduced the prevalence of drunk driving and tobacco smoking. We have not achieved this by prohibiting the use of alcohol and tobacco or by targeting and arresting adults who use alcohol and tobacco responsibly, but through honest educational campaigns. We should apply these same principles to the responsible consumption of marijuana. The negative consequences primarily associated with marijuana -- such as an arrest or jail time -- are the result of the criminal prohibition of cannabis, not the use of marijuana itself.
