The ABCs of Pot

[tmark]

I heard on the news that all the ABC stores (pharmacies) in Virginia want to get legislation to sell medicinal marijuana. That is most interesting. What do you Virginians think of that???

[Weasel]

What the hell have they been smoking.:icon_scratch::icon_scratch::icon_scratch:

[Hecklerusp45]

This Virginian has not been smoking ANYTHING and thinks that in MOST cases medical marijuana users are not patients but just pot heads.

[da gimp]

There's a series on pot sellers in Caif on cable, one store just had to pay over $1million in fed taxes, the profits are huge, that is why they want it legalized.

[Marine A5 Sniper]

I have an elderly lady who lives down the street that has cancer. The old darling has been smoking pot (her grandson's idea) to help her eat. The stuff has been a godsend for her. I guess there are valid uses for the stuff other than a buzz. I did ask her what she thought of the stuff, and she told me it put her to sleep. I offered to lend her some of my old Allman Brothers albums, but she declined.

We need to change our drug laws, as we are just spinning our wheels. We have lost the war on drugs - simple and true. I don't have all the answers, but I recognize failure when I see it. Time to change course, but in this country, we have no leader capable of changing our course, so we continue to make the same old sad mistakes.

jt

[dave]

I agree, here in MI we have a medical pot law. Its been widly abused by sellers and users and the Docs who write the scrips. They have been trying to stenghten the law but I think its a lost cause.

[UUURah]

Oh GOOD Grief!!! Let's just give up, throw up our hands, all get potted, then hit the freeways. Not enough drunk drivers on the roads, they need some friends.

[Ken The Kanuck]

Time to legalize pot. It is a less harmful drug than booze. It can be grown at home. It would take profits away from the criminal element and reduce their power. Develop testing methods (if they do not already exist) so those under the influence would be caught if driving.

The war on drugs is really a war on crime. The spaced out drug addicts are a bigger threat to themselves than society (if they had access to free dope they would never go through all the trouble to rob anyone, too much work for a druggie), it is the sellers and the organizations which supply the sellers where the problem lies.

Pot like any other substance if abused will cause problems.

I would rather see my kids smoke pot than cigarettes.

KTK

[Guamsst]

I'm all for medical marijauna when used as medicine.

If you watch about 2 minutes of WEED WARS you see that the lines are full of stoner hippy morons and the owners of the pot "boutiques" are making money hand over fist. Although, they do occasionally show a person with a real medical problem.

They have isolated the two chemicals that are effective as mediicine so why do they still have little cookie jars full of weed? shouldn't they have it in pill form? Why don't they? Potheads like to smoke it, that's why.

Pot can cause serious long term problems. But, it is similar to Alcohol and Tobacco in that you generally need to use allot over a long time before it is harmful.

[coppertales]

I am for it. I have glaucoma that the drops have not arrested it. You can always tell the guys that badmouth pot as a traffic killer that have no first hand experience with what they are talking about. When guys get drunk, they blast down the road. When someone gets high, they drive about half the speed limit. I grew up in the 60s so I have seen this first hand.....chris3

[dave]

And driving half the speed limit will get you stopped by the cops!

[Marine A5 Sniper]

Oh GOOD Grief!!! Let's just give up, throw up our hands, all get potted, then hit the freeways. Not enough drunk drivers on the roads, they need some friends.

Do you believe for one second that we are winning the war on drugs following the path we have chosen? They are seizing drugs in the elementary schools around here on a daily basis, and we are backwoods America. If we continue on the path we are taking, they will have home delivery before long. The money goes to Mexican drug lords, Colombians, and Afghans. We are making rich the very people we despise. We threw up our hands decades ago in case you haven't noticed. Our government has absolutely no control over drugs, their distribution, or their use. Oh yeah! Let's just keep doing what we are doing.

jt

[UUURah]

Do YOU seriously believe that we should just open up a Pot Shop on every corner and let it filter down to the 8 year olds? I have three grandsons between the ages of 8-10 and thank goodness their parents are adamantly Anti-Drug.

Like it or not, believe it or not, EVERY Crack and Heroin user started out with a hit on a friend's joint. I knew guys who were dead before they were 30. Had an old girlfriend who started out with pot, she eventually became a Heroin user, was dead at 50. She actually called me when she was dying. The very last words she told me was, "What can I say, I wish I had never started with that first one".

I know debating an idiot will make me one, but I just can't help myself.

[Guamsst]

Like it or not, believe it or not, EVERY Crack and Heroin user started out with a hit on a friend's joint.

I knew a guy who used to do enough cocaine to make John Belushi blush. He was very much against legalizing marijuana because it is a gateway drug. Sure, he was able to stop using, but he was a very rare exception and he knew it.
Maybe if it is legal it won't be the gateway it is now but we won't know that until it is too late. I think this one is a tough call, but I know that most of the folks who are blabbing about medical marijuana being a miracle cure are just looking for a way to get high legally.

[Marine A5 Sniper]

I agree that arguing with an idiot is a losing proposition, but here goes. Your two post depict exactly why we should legalize drugs. Anyone can get them now. Legalize the stuff and control who gets it. There is zero control now. No matter how anti-drug you are, you have no control over who can access drugs right now. None. I realize the concept is above your ability to comprehend, but the only way we can control distribution is to be the distributor. It may not be perfect, but it is way better than what we have now.

jt

[Stephan]

People fight over legalizing pot....but seem willing to accept the liquor store down the street and the drunk drivers and the deaths they cause..

My few years in law enforcement leads me to believe a pothead is a much safer person than a drunk. Call marijuana a gateway drug if you will...alcohol is just as bad or worse a gateway drug..it's also a drug of violent crime...you far less frequently hear of reefered up drivers killing someone(it does happen) but you do hear of the damage drunk driving does on a near daily basis.

How often do you hear about a fellow coming home from work..getting stoned on pot..and beating the crap out of his wife/girlfriend?...How often do you hear about a fellow coming home..getting drunk and beating the crap out of his women?

How much money do you think a 'pot tax'(good stiff one) would raise for the nation?

How much of our tax money do you believe the law enforcement/legal/prison systems would save if the didn't have to deal with abunch of stupid potheads?

[Weasel]

Why does everyone think that legalizing this horse sh!t is the answer to all of our drug problems. People dying of cancer sale their pain killing meds to whom ever is will to pay for it. You don’t think people wont resale medical pot? So were is the the cure for the problem at hand. Drugs are drugs and dope is dope, the dirt bags are going to do what ever they can to get or sale it. Can’t even buy cough meds for the common cold with out going through the Pharmacist because of dope heads. Now explain where's the difference, cold meds are suppose to be legal but in order to buy it your treaded just like you’re a druggy or a pusher. This tread sounds more like a bunch of 60’s retread hippies instead of Military veterans.

[chuckindenver]

before my wifes death last summer, she suffered from daily pain do to mutiple surgerys on her shoulder, MMJ was one of those things she did that really made it easy to deal with.
Robin lived with pain every day, suffered through alot, both mental and physical, and in the end could no longer deal with them..
so... i have never tried it, nor do i plan on it.. it doesnt fit in my life... but i saw first hand how it made someone that i cared so deaply for feel..
i know that a lot of BS about pot has been spewed by our Gov, over the years, like guns and gunlaws... MAKE IT LEGAL, for Fk sake..really. i dont know of anybody thats ever killed anyone while stoned, or went on a anger rampage killing or hurting anyone... Ding Dongs, Freeto,s and Pizza might jump in sales...but compared to tobaco and Booze,. pot is a lightweight..

[da gimp]

According to the NAACP, a conservative black org. the USA & the 50 states have spent OVER $3 Trillion on the war on drugs since the late 50's early 60's, and we have resoundingly lost this war....... Talk about gateway effects.. since the "War on Drugs" began we have steadily lost civil rights in order to "curtail the use & sale of drugs".

When I was going tru chemo for my lung cancer, during the last 2 weeks of my 2nd course of treatment post surgery, no anti nausea drugs helped, I lost 65 lbs in 2 weeks. I tried a joint of "exc." quality weed given to me & it didn't help me at all, but some folks say it helped them. Glaucoma sufferers are perhaps the greatest % of people who benefit from weed.

I'm for legalizing all except cocaine & meth, but I'd give the South American countries 6 weeks to end cocaine production or I'd drop enough neutron bombs on them to send em back to the fricking stone age then drop a few more...........a reasonable & practicle way to end the crack epidemic........... Then for good measure, do the same to any country raising the opium poppies...................

[Marine A5 Sniper]

Why does everyone think that legalizing this horse sh!t is the answer to all of our drug problems.
....
This tread sounds more like a bunch of 60’s retread hippies instead of Military veterans.

No one is suggesting that legalizing drugs is the answer to all our problems. I am suggesting it is a far better answer to the problem than what we are doing. Pick any elementary school in your neighborhood (not a high school) and go ask them how much drugs they seize every day. If it is a typical elementary school, you will be shocked, just as I was. Kids now have ready access to any drug they desire or think they desire. The war on drugs was ill conceived and ill implemented, and it is a total failure in every respect. If this was a military tactic that was getting your troops slaughtered, you would hopefully be the first to suggest an alternative tactic. It is time to gain control over the situation, something we currently do not have.

Are you suggesting we just continue what we are doing?

60's retread hippies? Hardly. I had a 16 year old friend who was beaten to death in a restaurant parking lot for having long hair in 1967. He was a gangly, likable kid who laughed a lot. They crushed his head like it was an egg. They never caught the men who did it (I don't think they tried very hard). There were two sides to that hippie argument also.

As for me, I was more likely to have a Mohawk! Been thinking about getting another one lately. Might shock the grand kids.

jt

[chuckindenver]

hmm Hippies...ya know, some of my closest good friends feel they are through backs from the Hippie era...i would do anything for them in a split second.. though politicaly we may not agree on a few things, i can agree on the good friendship that i have with them.
matter fact im loading up some hot .357 mag ammo for my best {hippie through back} buddies..
as for me??if you judge a book by its cover and are that narrow minded... im 6"2, 225 LBS. im tattooed from head to toe, sleeved, you may think im a biker, convict, dope dealer, whatever... maybe look whats on the inside rather then judge by the cover...
iv learned to over look a few things in life, and get to know someone and judge then based how they act, and treat me..rather then lable them as something that our Gov, dreamed up years ago, thinking we are sheep and would belive anything they shoved at us.
as far as the war on drugs... are there bad drugs? like theres bad guns??? or is it bad choices from people... how about a war on pour choices..based on a selcect fews opinions?? sound good??? havnt the anti gunners been pumping that argument for years...those guns are bad, that music is bad, those drugs are bad...lets outlaw all of it take all that freedom....personally i dont do drugs, dont drink or smoke.. but i belive that we all have the right to fail, destroy ourselves, ruin our bodies, and do what ever we like.
i also belive that nobody else should be responsible for your choices or actions...

[PeteDavis]

Mohawk Sniper speaks the truth.

PD

[tmark]

I think it is the Juniper tree whose bark has cancer-fighting chemicals in it. The rainforests of South America have so many types of plants whose chemistry we haven't even begun to research. Unfortunately, such plants are being destroyed as a species because of the landscape being bulldozed for farmland or housing.

My point is so many of these "drugs" come from natural sources such as the poppy, cannabis sativa, coca plants, peyote cactus, mushrooms, etc. These plants evolved on earth through the tens of millions of years. God must have placed them for us for a reason. Of course, fruits when fermented yields alcoholic delights such as wines, for example. Moderate use of wines, according to studies in certain cultures, have had beneficial health effects.

These drugs/substances surely must have an intended beneficial purpose, some of which man has discovered but many more yet to be discovered.

Use is the key; not abuse. Even water can be a poison to the human body if too much is internalized.

[Griff Murphey]

Not taking sides here as it is obvious many here are poles apart. I will only offer the observation that I have seen several cases of individuals, users in their teens and 20's, who have wound up working below the level of their education, which in some cases included advanced degrees. Also have seen people who just lay in bed and eat, having become habituated to it. End game: diabetes, amputation, loss of mobility, isolation, death. It has a definite effect on destroying an individual's work ethic.

Of course alcohol kills hundreds of thousands through it's causative effects: cirrhosis, liver cancer, overweight, and heart disease (cardiomegaly - enlarged heart) well apart from drunk driving deaths.

Both drugs have negative, deadly effects, and few benefits. LE tries to deal with them on the street, but cannot go into private homes and run people's lives.

[bonnie]

Retired after 28 years in law enforcement. 13 years on a tactical team with the last 9 years as commander. Been first in on many crack houses. Helped arrest and jail many dealers, users, drug theives and thugs.
Didn't change a damn thing.
Whatever drugs people want are readily available wherever they live in this country. Millions of people want, buy and use illegal drugs everyday in this country. It is big business. Government cannot stop it. We, as a country, have to recognize and understand the implications of that fact. We need to take the crime and the criminals' profit out of it.