California to legalize pot?

doamasniperx14 said:

I have a question for you, tbug2007. When was the last time you heard of someone dieing from pot?

Granted, there are less deaths that are directly from it. On the other hand, it IS a catalyst, meaning that it starts sequences that cause you to die much faster.

Brain damage
Reproductive organ/tissue damage
Leads to hard drugs (which lead to death)
Suppresses the immune system (increasing susceptibility to disease)
Lung cancer
Flattens brainwaves.

So, no, you're right; cannabis by itself doesn't do harm. What comes afterward though, definitely shortens your life.

Pot should be legalized completely everywhere in the world imo. It's a plant, it isn't addictive, and the only way to overdose on it is if you eat a ton of it. It's less dangerous than alcohol, and far less dangerous than tobacco. It stimulates the appetite, among many other medical benefits. It doesn't cause thousands of deaths by auto accidents a year due to people being under its influence (because it doesn't impair you like alcohol.) People don't go into "High Rages" like with alcohol. It doesn't destroy your lungs & give you cancer like tobacco. It would reduce crime & put a huge dent into drug cartels. And plus, you can make things with it. You can make rope, clothes, and even paper out of hemp. If we would switch to paper made from pot & quit chopping down our forests for it, it would help save the environment. The government could give farmers tax incentives to grow pot for paper, and they could also get paper companies to switch from making paper out of trees to making it from pot. And it would give rise to a whole new commercial pot industry which would stimulate the economy. Legalizing pot can only help the world tremendously, even if you don't smoke it. It's crazy to not legalize it & I wish our politicians would wake up & realize that.

Also, if it gets legalized, you should have to be 18 before you can buy/smoke it, just like tobacco.

That is a very good point because you are right that they won't go around acting stupid. Where as drunk people do a ton of stupid things.

tbug2007 said:

You're saying it's easier to secretly, untraceably go to a drug dealer and risk the one single person that sees you throwing you both in jail than to simply go ask an irresponsible adult to LEGALLY obtain it? Isn't that basically the equivalent of stealing a candybar? Yeah, it really is much easier to just pick it up and take it, rather than stand in line for two minutes to pay for it. But if you get caught (which you probably will be), you're busted (Okay, maybe not too much trouble for a piece of candy, but you get the idea.)

i don't think you realize how easy it is to buy drugs from a dealer and if you are caught you as the consumer will not be arrested unless you are buying a large amount that is bagged seperatly in which case the police will claim you intend to supply. there is a much higher risk of asking someone to go into a shop for you 1) you are putting the person going in at risk of being prosecuted so they more likely to say no and 2)that person may say no then then tell people in the shop that you are out there asking people to go in for you which means they will take extra precaution when somebody does want to buy some, i see this happen on almost a daily basis with cigarettes and alcohol and often get asked myself but im harsh and tell them no.

to simply go ask an irresponsible adult to LEGALLY obtain it?

the law states that it is illegal to purchase products for minors. you will find these kinds of signs written in big capital letters in every single shop in england.

the main point of this seems to be about minors obtaining the drug which you cannot stop no matter you do, if its legal they will smoke it no differently to if its illegal thats just the way it is these days. The advantage to making it legal is it cuts out the dealer, people call cannabis a gateway drug now the reason people gain access to class A drugs is because they have to interact with the dealer who will offer them the drugs because they want to make more money as i said earlier weed is not the money maker it used to be, prices are going up and the weights are going down so dealers are starting to sell harder to drugs to make up for lost profits which they will then push onto their existing customers. if you can buy your weed legally over the counter people don't need to use dealers who will offer them harder drugs which in turn reduces the amount of class A drug use.

doamasniperx14 said:

That is a very good point because you are right that they won't go around acting stupid. Where as drunk people do a ton of stupid things.

just going to quickly add this in here, i've posted it before and i'm sure you all know about it but its the best argument for weed vs alcohol...and i love this song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwDRBm-qbQI

« Last edited by TheLlama on Oct 27th 2010 »

tbug2007 said:

Granted, there are less deaths that are directly from it. On the other hand, it IS a catalyst, meaning that it starts sequences that cause you to die much faster.

Brain damage
Reproductive organ/tissue damage
Leads to hard drugs (which lead to death)
Suppresses the immune system (increasing susceptibility to disease)
Lung cancer
Flattens brainwaves...

About you comment on lung cancer... please read here.

And about brain damage here.

Leads to hard drugs? No, not always, that depends a LOT on the person themselves.

I'll also link here which covers most side-effects you listed...

Therefore that pretty much proves, pot has no major long-term side effects it seems, other than a slightly higher risk of cancer, but hey all smoke, even that from a camp fire can do that :P

« Last edited by g33k on Oct 27th 2010 »

All the problems could happen but are less likely to happen where as with cigarettes someone dies everyday thanks to them. Also alcohol kills more than pot. So all in all is it truly that bad?

Adam, that last link is a PRO marijuana site.. The advertisements are telling you how to create a "legal" marijuana dealing business. Of course they're going to tell you those aren't real side effects..

Coach, it's just as bad, if not worse, than tobacco.

Llama, if you can honestly with a straight face say that you buying drugs wouldn't lead to you in jail, I'll congratulate you. xD If you're buying ILLEGAL drugs ILLEGALLY, there's a problem.

Obviously a man giving illegal substance to a minor is illegal, but it's legal for them to buy it. Meaning that the actual obtaining of the substance is much easier.

g33k said:

tbug2007 said:

Granted, there are less deaths that are directly from it. On the other hand, it IS a catalyst, meaning that it starts sequences that cause you to die much faster.

Brain damage
Reproductive organ/tissue damage
Leads to hard drugs (which lead to death)
Suppresses the immune system (increasing susceptibility to disease)
Lung cancer
Flattens brainwaves...

About you comment on lung cancer... please read here.

And about brain damage here.

Leads to hard drugs? No, not always, that depends a LOT on the person themselves.

I'll also link here which covers most side-effects you listed...

Therefore that pretty much proves, pot has no major long-term side effects it seems, other than a slightly higher risk of cancer, but hey all smoke, even that from a camp fire can do that :P

thank you, i wanted to make this point myself but wasn't prepared to find the sources. any of the so called side effects are found in such a small amount of cases that they are still debated about and hence why so much research is still going into it because they are yet to actually prove that cannabis is the direct cause.

tbug2007 said:

Llama, if you can honestly with a straight face say that you buying drugs wouldn't lead to you in jail, I'll congratulate you. xD If you're buying ILLEGAL drugs ILLEGALLY, there's a problem.

Obviously a man giving illegal substance to a minor is illegal, but it's legal for them to buy it. Meaning that the actual obtaining of the substance is much easier.

no it wouldn't, you do not get arrested and thrown in jail for possession of such a minor drug they will only confiscate the drug and MAYBE issue a fine but that is all unless as i said you buy a large amount in seperate bags which will look like you are dealing.

it is not legal to buy substances for minors, it appears legal until it is proven that you are buying it for someone else that is where the problem lies. if you would lke to test this please go to a store to buy alcohol for a minor and see what happens.

« Last edited by TheLlama on Oct 27th 2010 »

Taylor, doesn't matter if it is pro or con, check its sources if you don't believe their words, they are all backed up by reliable information.

I'll make it simple. And this doens't have anything to do with legalizing it or not.

Here is what meth and pot will do to you.



A prosecutor of 19 years also said that "Prosecutor 19 years.....it is your life. I have seen more than a thousand who had their lives ruined."

Taylor, the key drug you mentioned in that post is METH, and meth alone can do what happened to that lady.

Since this is looking like it is turning into an actual debate, I just want to remind everyone that there is a D&D thread on marijuana here. I only mention it because, imo, we are straying from chatting about the bill itself towards general marijuana discussion.

Cigarettes are worse because they are addictive so you begin to smoke them more and more where as pot is a plant and has nothing in it to make you hooked. Plus a high person will be at home or at a friends house or somewhere away from others so they won't cause much trouble.

doamasniperx14 said:

Cigarettes are worse because they are addictive so you begin to smoke them more and more where as pot is a plant and has nothing in it to make you hooked. Plus a high person will be at home or at a friends house or somewhere away from others so they won't cause much trouble.

"We just sit in this hazy bubble with our quarters
Discussing how beautiful Gail Porter is"

i agree with amo though i think we've strayed away from the topic abit and if people want to continue the debate we should carry on in the correct thread

doamasniperx14 said:

Cigarettes are worse because they are addictive so you begin to smoke them more and more where as pot is a plant and has nothing in it to make you hooked. Plus a high person will be at home or at a friends house or somewhere away from others so they won't cause much trouble.

Also, just since you mentioned cigarettes... look here

Yeah your right we probably should.

I first saw the topic got moved in D&D. Come in here and its like reading a D&D topic lol.

Honestly, I'm with Coach on this.

Christ if everyone was worried about every single tiny possibility of something negative happening to them, they'd never leave the house or get out of bed.

Driving a car can have tremendous side effects on ones health. Should be we ban cars for the slight posibility of having an accident? No, that'd be stupid.

So long as there is informative & concise information & press-releases surrounding the use of pot, whats the problem?

You're all getting bent out of shape. We have tobacco, we have alcohol, we have prescription drugs. All of them have negative side effects. If we go around criminalising everything that could do people harm, we wouldn't have anything would we?

Good on california for showing some initiative.

Just to back up Llama if it was legalized it WOULD probably be harder to obtain as a minor, it's already hard to get people to buy cigs and alcohol, and if pot was legalized people would be even more reluctant.. and it IS ILLEGAL for adults to buy alcohol/cigs for minors, don't know where you got the idea it wasn't from O_o

imo it should be legalized, but I cba to make a giant post about it

If I were the President, I would make it illegal everywhere. However, thats just my opinion.

Warrior13 said:

If I were the President, I would make it illegal everywhere. However, thats just my opinion.

care to say why?

as sphynxx has said sure it has some negative effects but so does everything thats enjoyable. Amsterdam has functioned with cannabis being legal for years - sure they went that one step extra with the whole Red Light District and such but its not like everyone has to follow but the weed cafes do wonders for tourism, thousands of people flock there every year to sample the life of being able to smoke weed and not be seen as a criminal by society. I think the main problem is because its illegal people think that those who smoke it are bad people and are out mugging old folks to fuel their habit which is simply not true.

Its a well known fact that alot of people choose to smoke weed so economic benefit is a great reason to legalize it. sure alot of us weed smokers may do other drugs but these are weekend habits that don't last forever where as weed is something than you can enjoy during the week which is something that alcohol cannot live up to for many reasons such as how addictive it is, once you start to have a few drinks you want more and start thinking "oh one more won' hurt" then you end up drunk spend more money especially if your a smoker as well because for some reason drinking makes you want to smoke, fact! then you end up with a hang over in the morning which will affect your performance at work/school - weed has no morning after effects and reduces the amount of cigarettes you smoke.

« Last edited by TheLlama on Oct 28th 2010 »