11th State to Legalize Medical Marijuana

[dilligras]

Quote by: Athena Among other things, pot does to the brain what candy does to the teeth.

Ouch!

Should I offer my most humble apology for presuming to converse publicly with my rotten, cavitated, and otherwise wholly deficient CPU?

Shall I discreetly withdraw, that I might not further suffer you to indulge my mindless blather? :)

[Osborn F Enready]

Anyone who would like to help change the classification of marijuana, please PM me, as there will soon be a national petititon circulating. Any help in collecting signatures would be greatly appreciated, whether through e-mail circulation (friend to friend, no spammers please) or person to person in your local areas.

[nm420]

Quote by: dilligras You wouldn't happen to have this evidence in your bookmarks, perchance? I need all the help I can get with Mom.

In the drug library referred to by Milton, there is another page specifically about medical marijuana with multiple links on past research at

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/medical_mj.htm

One organization devoted to ongoing research with psychedelic drugs in general is the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and I also find Erowid to make an honest effort at providing factual information about all kinds of drugs.

You will also find information on these sites on the massive attempts by government agencies and a few other organziations to keep these studies in the shadows, be it through outright hostility or subversive propaganda. While I can sympathize with your mother's stubbornness due to lack of information, willful ignorance I find to be inexcusable. I hope she may find some eye-opening revelations in these pages. If she should fall back on the "well, it's illegal" argument, at least that is a personal belief that can't be guided by misinformation.

Quote by: Athena Among other things, pot does to the brain what candy does to the teeth. And although a person may not become physically addicted to pot, a person can become psychologically addicted. Young people who use substances, risk delaying their development and this is really sad! I have worked with people who have no life other than as a substance users. When their substance is taken away, they don't have careers or talents or interest to fall back on. I think it is extremely important that substance use does not begin at least until a person has a fully developed life and this would be after 30 years of age.

I certainly agree with you that marijuana, or really any psychoactive drug, should not be used on developing minds. And it is possible for people to become psychologically addicted to the substance, though the accepted clinical definition of addiction is in a state of constant flux. We all have crutches to get through in life, but I would argue it is more a statement of an individual's integrity as to how dependent a person may be on one of these crutches which is the important aspect of the issue. I know plenty of people who smoke dope that really seem to be going nowhere in life, yet I also know plenty of people who can use it responsibly and still work diligently for their higher aspirations in life. There are plenty of losers who don't touch a drug but spend their leisure on the couch in front of the TV. That technology, which is perhaps the most popular "drug" of our culture, is just as psychologically addicting and capable of rotting the mind much like candy would do to teeth. Yet keep in mind that the candy itself is not what is so bad; it is the improper hygiene that allows the sugar to fester into a cavity. Likewise, if you go around messing with mind-altering substances without the proper precautions, there is no one to blame but yourself (not the drug) when things start turning sour.

[dilligras]

Quote by: nm420 In the drug library referred to by Milton, there is another page specifically about medical marijuana with multiple links on past research at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/medical_mj.htm One organization devoted to ongoing research with psychedelic drugs in general is the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and I also find Erowid to make an honest effort at providing factual information about all kinds of drugs.

Thanks, I must have missed it.

You will also find information on these sites on the massive attempts by government agencies and a few other organziations to keep these studies in the shadows, be it through outright hostility or subversive propaganda. While I can sympathize with your mother's stubbornness due to lack of information, willful ignorance I find to be inexcusable.

Willful ignorance? Please explain in explicit detail, ommitting gratuitous adjectives, how such a thing is possible, much less likely.

How does one exhibit controll over of what one may be informed? My mom reads her local paper every day.......does she get to decide what's in it? Not lately.

Now, if it is a case of reading a story and ignoring it, then I submit you have used the word "ignorance" inappropriately, and that a better phrase for your intentions would be "willful disregard".

[nm420]

Quote by: dilligras Willful ignorance? Please explain in explicit detail, ommitting gratuitous adjectives, how such a thing is possible, much less likely. How does one exhibit controll over of what one may be informed? My mom reads her local paper every day.......does she get to decide what's in it? Not lately. Now, if it is a case of reading a story and ignoring it, then I submit you have used the word "ignorance" inappropriately, and that a better phrase for your intentions would be "willful disregard".

You're correct. Willful ignorance is a contradiction in terms, but I like to take liberties with language at times, with the hope that my meaning is still clear. I don't mean to suggest that your mother, or the vast majority of people who believe marijuana is an extremely harmful drug, consciously disregard factual information debunking that myth. When claims are made which do contradict one's predispositions, it would be wise to at least check up on those claims, though a failure to so I wouldn't call inexcusable. A little irresponsible, perhaps, but it is something practically all of us are guilty of to some extent. But when these claims are made alongside a multitude of supporting evidence, if someone continues to hold their opposing viewpoint without at least trying to refute said evidence, my patience has worn thin. This I call willful ignorance, though as you mentioned willful disregard would be a better choice of words.

[macnpat]

Oh wow, they are starting to legalize a weed that grows wild and can be cultivated.

How progressive of them. I'm going to go now and smoke some dandelion weed. Do you think they will arrest me? :rolleyes:

[nm420]

Quote by: macnpat How progressive of them. I'm going to go now and smoke some dandelion weed. Do you think they will arrest me? :rolleyes:

Only if you have fun with it!

[RickSp]

Keeping marijuana illegal just continues the idiocy. In early America, hemp (cannabis sativa) was a significant crop. Medicines were made from THC. The best Bibles were made of hemp paper and all good rope was manufactured from hemp. The American clipper ships could never have sailed without miles and miles of hemp rope. A few miles outside New York City on Long Island is Hempstead, NY. Marijuana was good enough for the founding fathers, mothers and brothers.

It is actually funny to read the comments of a no doubt beer guzzling, self described "redneck scum" complaining about folks using grass. Annual deaths from alcohol use in the US yearly are estimated to be around 85,000. Annual deaths due to marijuana - zero.

[dilligras]

Quote by: RickSp It is actually funny to read the comments of a no doubt beer guzzling, self described "redneck scum" complaining about folks using grass. Annual deaths from alcohol use in the US yearly are estimated to be around 85,000. Annual deaths due to marijuana - zero.

Waaal, y'know what they say about books and their covers, pardner.

I rarely drink alcohol, and in fact, the only bottle of spirits in the place at present is a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale, which I keep as a fond reminder of an inport in that fine city one snowy January long ago.

As for smoking, I didn't get this cough from tobacco, comprenez-vous, s'il vous plais?

BTW, I was wearing a golf shirt made of hemp last tuesday, as I played in the scramble out at Willie Nelson's place. The shirt was a gift from Willie and NORML for the volunteers who assisted at the First Annual Willie Nelson/NORML Golf Tournament..........so eat yer heart out, bunky. :)

[RickSp]

Quote by: dilligras BTW, I was wearing a golf shirt made of hemp last tuesday, as I played in the scramble out at Willie Nelson's place. The shirt was a gift from Willie and NORML for the volunteers who assisted at the First Annual Willie Nelson/NORML Golf Tournament..........so eat yer heart out, bunky. :)

Kewl. And I do drink beer and scotch and haven't smoked in many years.

[dilligras]

Who'd a thunk it?