Cannabis

You all know what it is and I'm assuming most of you have been indoctrinated from birth as to how it's a 'proper' drug.

The most basic and biggest question is: should cannabis be legalized?

What are your personal beliefs?

I'm not one to make an intro. I'll build on whoever posts next. I'm just waiting to correct anyone who uses the most obvious disadvantages of it such as brain cell loss.

Fun fact: research has suggested cannabis prevents lung cancer as opposed to causing it. Cannabis is nothing at all like nicotine for those of you who think it is, by the way.

« Last edited by Repose on Oct 6th 2009 »

On 06-Oct-2009 Repose said:

You all know what it is and I'm assuming most of you have been indoctrinated from birth as to how it's a 'proper' drug.

The most basic and biggest question is: should cannabis be legalized?

What are your personal beliefs?

I'm not one to make an intro. I'll build on whoever posts next. I'm just waiting to correct anyone who uses the most obvious disadvantages of it such as brain cell loss.

Fun fact: research has suggested cannabis prevents lung cancer as opposed to causing it. Cannabis is nothing at all like nicotine for those of you who think it is, by the way.

Could I have a link to this clearly non-biased, credible, independent research?

Cannabis should be legalized but taxed and controlled like tobacco. I remember reading that legalizing marijuana would bring in billions and billions of dollars into the economy because so many people use it.

It is much less intoxicating then alcohol by far and is easier on the lungs then cigarattes are by a long shot.

-Inhales Deeply-

Glad you asked.

Let's start at the most neutral-fact website in the history of the Internets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)

Long-term effects:

"While a study in New Zealand of 79 lung-cancer patients suggested daily cannabis smokers have a 5.7 times higher risk of lung cancer than non-users,[39]"

... Not looking good now is it. Wait, let's read on.

"another study of 2252 people in Los Angeles failed to find a correlation between the smoking of cannabis and lung, head or neck cancers.[40]" Ooh. Something even The Philosoraptor could raise an eyebrow to. Let's press on.

"Some studies have also found that moderate cannabis use may protect against head and neck cancers,[41] as well as lung cancer.[42] Some studies have shown that cannabidiol may also be useful in treating breast cancer.[43]"

Now you may be thinking Wikipedia's reliability is relatively low in that everyone can edit. In that case, feel free to check the references. I'm sure you noticed them all when reading the quotes.

Now for some corroboration.

I'm sure you haven't seen this video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9077214414651731007

Well, watch it. I guarantee you every argument you (generalization) are going to try use against me is going to be answered in that video. It's an hour and 44 minutes long, I don't expect you to watch it so I'll just explain to you as we go along what it involves and pick arguments brought up that.

I'll save some juice to correct people later on. For now I'll leave you with this:

In the history of the illict use of cannabis, not one. Single. Person. Has died from it. Not one person.

Cigarettes on the other hand... millions. Yet, cigarettes are apart of everyday life.

On 06-Oct-2009 rate_me said:

Could I have a link to this clearly non-biased, credible, independent research?

I almost forgot.

The only study to say cannabis causes brain cell loss was one conducted some many years ago in an animal testing lab. They literally gas masked the monkeys there and fueled it with cannabis smoke for 5 minutes. From this they drew a conclusion it causes brain cell loss after examining them afterwards. What they didn't realize is that those monkeys lost brain cells due to lack of oxygen getting to the brain.

« Last edited by Repose on Oct 6th 2009 »

On 06-Oct-2009 Repose said:

-Inhales Deeply-

Glad you asked.

Let's start at the most neutral-fact website in the history of the Internets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)

Long-term effects:

"While a study in New Zealand of 79 lung-cancer patients suggested daily cannabis smokers have a 5.7 times higher risk of lung cancer than non-users,[39]"

... Not looking good now is it. Wait, let's read on.

"another study of 2252 people in Los Angeles failed to find a correlation between the smoking of cannabis and lung, head or neck cancers.[40]" Ooh. Something even The Philosoraptor could raise an eyebrow to. Let's press on.

"Some studies have also found that moderate cannabis use may protect against head and neck cancers,[41] as well as lung cancer.[42] Some studies have shown that cannabidiol may also be useful in treating breast cancer.[43]"

Now you may be thinking Wikipedia's reliability is relatively low in that everyone can edit. In that case, feel free to check the references. I'm sure you noticed them all when reading the quotes.

Now for some corroboration.

I'm sure you haven't seen this video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9077214414651731007

Well, watch it. I guarantee you every argument you (generalization) are going to try use against me is going to be answered in that video. It's an hour and 44 minutes long, I don't expect you to watch it so I'll just explain to you as we go along what it involves and pick arguments brought up that.

I'll save some juice to correct people later on. For now I'll leave you with this:

In the history of the illict use of cannabis, not one. Single. Person. Has died from it. Not one person.

Cigarettes on the other hand... millions. Yet, cigarettes are apart of everyday life.

In the history of the illict use of cannabis, not one. Single. Person. Has died from it. Not one person.

Ahhh wondered how long we'd get into the debate before this line was mentioned, a whole 4 posts, honestly I'm disappointed Now while I'm certain people have died from using it, its true that its nowhere near the sort of problem perhaps casued by other drugs. However lets turn our attention to road traffic accidents shall we. Now your not going to tell me that someone high as a kite on cannabis has never ever crashed a car and killed themselves and others? So we'll turn to a good friend the British Medical Journal. Now I'm well aware that alcohol has much greater significance in all these sort of things but rather than that meaning cannabis should be legalised should it mean alcohol should be made illegal?

« Last edited by super craig on Oct 7th 2009 »

Of course it shouldn't. But what people don't realize compared to other 'drugs' (nicotine, alcohol) cannabis is no where near as bad.

If people are crashing from the use of cannabis why on Earth is alcohol legalized? That causes much more trouble behind the wheel than cannabis does. It's because we were brought up into a world where alcohol is completely accepted despite how much trouble it causes globally.

I'm not at all saying alcohol should be illegal however how can you possibly say it's ok to have alcohol but not cannabis? They both have disadvantages, but they're 'drugs' for recreational use. Maybe it's because in the US back in the early 1900s people thought whoever who smoked cannabis were black men who became very violent after doing so? This was the first time it was prohibited for these reasons. (Funnily enough - I think it was around the 60s - it was prohibited again after being decriminalized to make hemp for World War 2 for the exact opposite reasons.)

If you remember how racist the US was back in those days you'll see that's a very high factor concerning the prohibition of cannabis.

Watch. The. Video.

Also from that site you linked:

"404 Error

The page could not be loaded."

« Last edited by Repose on Oct 7th 2009 »

On 07-Oct-2009 Repose said:

Of course it shouldn't. But what people don't realize compared to other 'drugs' (nicotine, alcohol) cannabis is no where near as bad.

If people are crashing from the use of cannabis why on Earth is alcohol legalized? That causes much more trouble behind the wheel than cannabis does. It's because we were brought up into a world where alcohol is completely accepted despite how much trouble it causes globally.

I'm not at all saying alcohol should be illegal however how can you possibly say it's ok to have alcohol but not cannabis? They both have disadvantages, but they're 'drugs' for recreational use. Maybe it's because in the US back in the early 1900s people thought whoever who smoked cannabis were black men who became very violent after doing so? This was the first time it was prohibited for these reasons. (Funnily enough - I think it was around the 60s - it was prohibited again after being decriminalized to make hemp for World War 2 for the exact opposite reasons.)

If you remember how racist the US was back in those days you'll see that's a very high factor concerning the prohibition of cannabis.

Watch. The. Video.

Also from that site you linked:

"404 Error

The page could not be loaded."

Which one of the sites is it saying that for? I've just tried both and they both came up fine.

The first one.

I'll try posting it again, give me a shout if its still not working.

http://www.timesonline.co.u...9100.ece

My stance on this is essentially the same of that of the well-known publication The Economist - legalise it, tax it, regulate it.

First of all, cannabis is probably the best modern example of the failure of prohibition - it's so easy to get that almost every teenager you talk to will either have had some, or know someone who has. Clearly, making it illegal has, thus far, not succeeded at all in curbing usage dramatically. There seem to be two options, therefore: either make the laws against it stricter, which would result in further government spending, and would not necessarily reduce usage much further; or legalise it and use the money provided by taxing it to repair whatever damage to society is caused by its usage.

Other arguments? Well, cannabis is often cited as a "gateway drug" to harder, more dangerous drugs. However, I believe that although this may have some truth in it at present, it is purely down to the fact that cannabis's illegal status makes it available only through the "drug subculture". It's easy to persuade someone to take cannabis by revealing to them the simple truth that it's not that dangerous (vague links to psychosis are the only major health concern I've seen cited). Therefore, as it is part of the aforementioned subculture, people are more likely to try other drugs that are offered in this subculture. Cocaine, heroin... various things that are more damaging and more dangerous generally.

I suppose some people would assume that society would fall apart if cannabis was legalised, but as I've said already, vast numbers of people have used it in the past or use it currently. I doubt these numbers would be hugely increased via legalisation. Besides, look at the more damaging substances that are both legal, and widely available in most developed countries - cigarettes are far worse for you than cannabis, and alcohol is more likely to promote antisocial behaviour - indeed, from what I've heard, cannabis users rarely feel like doing very much while they're using cannabis.

Finally, regulation - at the moment, there are no regulations on cannabis, because it's a black market. Legalise it, and you can insist on certain standards of purity, which means that any negative effects on the users' health will be minimised. Tangential to this point is the idea that black markets generally go hand-in-hand with organised crime - legalise cannabis, and various criminal empires that depend on it as a source of income are dealt a crippling blow. Yes, eventually they will find other sources of income - crime is an unfortunate certainty in any society - but surely, any damage dealt to criminal organisations, if only temporary, must be considered a positive side-effect of the legalisation of cannabis?

« Last edited by Catharsis on Oct 7th 2009 »

This doesn't necessarily have to do with the topic, but it does, somewhat, back Repose up on the whole "Wiki not credible info. mine" sort of thing. Although it is viewed as a terrible source of info. by the Board of Education and Universities, Wikipedia is actually a very accurate info. site. Yes, it's true, anyone can go in and edit info.,however, the info. is usually corrected at a certain time. The website, like Forums, have moderators who check the info. for accuracy and usually replace incorrect information. School and college would be much easier if they would let us use Wikipedia. It would make writing papers so much easier.

On topic:

So what? Cannabis is basically Marijuana? Well, it may seem like a good idea at first, but it is a drug that damages over time. True, not as much damage is done like with cigarettes and other such drugs, but it's not really healthy. I am ok with it being used for medical purposes as desperate times do call for desperate measures.

Just a question, what is cannabis?

Ok, so we all know that regular Cannabis use over time can lead to mental health problems, and have several socio-economic and socio-cultural effects. Also, it is a mind-altering drug, and that's probably the reason it is banned as such.

However, isn't alcohol a mind-altering drug? Does it not too, have financial and social issues directly related to it? But it's absolutely legal.

My belief is that Cannabis should be regarded on the same level as tobacco and alcohol. The sale of it should be made legal, it should be able to be purchased at the same age as alcohol and tobacco, and yes, there should be taxes and the like to control it's distribution.


I fail to see how it can be treated as a harder, more dangerous drug than tobacco or alcohol.

On 07-Oct-2009 yossy666 said:

Ok, so we all know that regular Cannabis use over time can lead to mental health problems, and have several socio-economic and socio-cultural effects. Also, it is a mind-altering drug, and that's probably the reason it is banned as such.

However, isn't alcohol a mind-altering drug? Does it not too, have financial and social issues directly related to it? But it's absolutely legal.

My belief is that Cannabis should be regarded on the same level as tobacco and alcohol. The sale of it should be made legal, it should be able to be purchased at the same age as alcohol and tobacco, and yes, there should be taxes and the like to control it's distribution.


I fail to see how it can be treated as a harder, more dangerous drug than tobacco or alcohol.

Uhhmm what is cannabis?

On 07-Oct-2009 MenaceSG said:

Just a question, what is cannabis?

Cannabis is Marijuana, Dope, Grass, Hash, Green, whatever you wanna call it.

It is marijuana then? Or something else?

"Cannabis is [size=20][b]Marijua[/size]na,[/b] Dope, Grass, Hash, Green, whatever you wanna call it."

Are you blind?

I'm not saying that, so it basically is Marijuana. You know I've never heard of that term before. I've heard of all the others except that one so don't tell me that.

On 07-Oct-2009 MenaceSG said:

I'm not saying that, so it basically is Marijuana. You know I've never heard of that term before. I've heard of all the others except that one so don't tell me that.

Marijuana and Cannabis are the exact same plant. Just different words for it.