Do you mean a difficult brain to pick?

Oh you know, the meaning of your statements doesnt interest me.

Why would I care about the opinion of someone who is so stubborn that once his point is refuted he hide behind a "I can have any opinion I want even if it's wrong". ?

Then don't take the time to quote me?

My point was I know 50+ people who use marijuana, and have no symptoms or marijuana related illnesses. Therefore, I see no problem with marijuana. Despite all the single minded individuals in this thread such as yourself. It's not a debatable issue. None of my "opinions" were "refuted."

Have a wonderful day.

Well I know people who suffered from mental illness and it was directly linked to the use of weed.

And I also read scientific articles proving the link of mental illness and use of marijuana.

So just agree that I'm right and we can move on.

Or I could ignore your useless/irrelevant/wrong posts and move on anyways?

Irrelevant ?

This is about legalizing marijuana and I say marijuana contribute to developp mental illness which is TOTALLY relevant to the topic.

You say " Oh you know... I know friendzzzz who smoke pot and it's alright dude..."

Once you take a few steps outside and experience the real world and realize weed is everywhere, and it's never going anywhere, no matter how many mental problems you think it causes, then we'll have a kiddy debate on a forum.

Untill then, good luck and good day.

It's not the first time I hear you say that kind of thing.

You also asked Sangetsu if he ever stepped out of his mother basement.

So you have the feeling you know so much more about the real world than the others ?

You are a high school kid, remember it.

You don't even have the right to drink, vote, buy cigarettes, it's not for no reasons.

If semantics are the issue, then yes, I should have said "decriminalized" and not "legal". Alcohol is "legal" in the US, but illegal if you are under 21, drink too much of it in public, drink too much of it and drive...etc.

So it is "illegal" but there is no "criminal penalty".

Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work? - TIME

... Portugal, which in 2001 became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

At the recommendation of a national commission charged with addressing Portugal's drug problem, jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy.

Decriminalized or legalized, it worked in the very Catholic country of Portugal, and I think it could work here in the US.

Imagine what would happen if the government sold marijuana at pennies on the dollar of what the drug cartels sell it at. How many lives would that save a year? Decriminalization means no more money to drug cartels. Thousands of lives would be saved every year.

Where have you been? I'm a teacher, a former police officer, and Army Ranger (medical specialist). I've been to more places than you can name. Wait until your friends hit their 20's and their mental development completes, if they are going to have symptoms, they'll begin at that time.

As for links...


Schizophrenia Research Forum: SRF Interviews

Schizophrenia Daily News Blog: Marijuana and Psychosis Link

Schizophrenia.com - Schizophrenia and Marijuana and Psychosis or Psychotic

Marijuana May Trigger Schizophrenia | Psych Central News

Studies link marijuana use with schizophrenia

Cannabis-induced psychosis and subsequent schizoph...[Br J Psychiatry. 2005] - PubMed Result

There are many more if you want to read them,

I'm talking about harm from the use of marijuana itself, not the act or procedures of obtaining or selling it. People die selling weed because it is illegal, if it were legalized, that would take care of this problem. Do people get killed over cigarettes or alcohol? No. Why? Because you can go out and buy them. I guess weed plants and fields are a myth? And I guess somehow Mexico is also supplying weed to all of the other nations that use weed just as much as the states? Australia, Germany, etc. You can blaze all you want in Amsterdam, and I guess somehow people in Mexico are dying so Amsterdam can smoke weed?

Look, I'm not bashing anyone's opinion. LOL
If you think weed is bad, by all means you can go blog about it for all I care. Heck, go ahead and write to your towns congressmen. If you wanna get high, go for it. Again, I don't care what you do.

It's a personal opinion, there is nothing to argue about. It's like arguing about if pink sweaters are cute. They could be to some, and could not be to others.

Have you been hiding in your mother's basement? Haven't you heard of "cause and effect"?

I didn't mention anything about Amsterdam, did I? I said "America", didn't I? If you and your 50 friends are smoking pot, then you and they are contributing to the death and misery which are occurring in Mexico right now, and however indirect that responsibility is, it still exists. But of course you'll do the typical American thing and blame someone else: "if it were legalized, those people wouldn't have died...", while conveniently overlooking the fact that smoking pot is illegal, and if you had obeyed the law and not smoked it, those people would also be alive.

The laws governing the possession and use of drugs are not an opinion, they are laws. Death is not an opinion, it is a fact. As long as people continue to be selfish and deny that their actions have an effect on the world around them, then the world will continue to suffer.

What the hell? marijuana , like anything else, is harmful in large doses. if you smoke 5-10 joints a day its going to be like smoking 5-10 cigarettes a day. same goes for anything else you eat or drink. you eat too much sugar you get diabetes, drink too much milk you get weak bones later in life, eat too much meat you can clog your arteries and have a heart attack. if you take too many aspirins its going to be your last headache. the trick is to use it in moderation like everything else we consume.

to tell you the truth, if you have never smoked marijuana just once then your opinion doesnt really matter. your just "punching invisible people" so to speak. if you at least tried it and didnt like it then you have a proper opinion instead of a made up one. thats how scientists discover things, by experimenting with their experiment. and if you "heard from a friend" that marijuana is bad because they tried it, thats not going to help an argument, like if i heard from a friend that the man didnt shoot the clerk. thats not going to hold in court, only facts and evidence.

How many lives has legalizing cigarettes and alcohol saved? Cheap drugs are no less addicting than expensive ones. The tax and treatment method does not solve problems, it merely changes them. Legalizing a drug does not make it any less addictive.

I don't disagree that Portugal's system has been a success (of sorts), but it's due more to the treatment options which were also implemented. It's not as revolutionary as it is made out to be. Possession of small amounts of drugs is not a serious crime in America, and in may places it is not a crime at all, merely an "infraction", just as it is in Portugal. But drugs are still illegal in Portugal, and drug users are still supporting the drug cartels, are they not?

Were it not for the potential psychological side effects of marijuana use, I wouldn't mind if it were legalized. But as I said in another post, up to 80% of new cases of schizophrenia and psychosis are thought to be related to marijuana use. These side effects are permanent. The side effects from smoking and alcohol are generally treatable, and those who suffer from them can live more or less productive lives. Mental illness is another matter altogether, it's been determined in some studies that smoking marijuana as few as 5 times is enough to bring about schizophrenia in people who have a family history of it, and that's just too scary. If it causes these effects in just 1% of users, that is still too high a number to tolerate.

people die for alot of things. like the rice you eat, the pork you cook, the sugar you put into your coffee, the gas you put into your car, and obviously the diamonds you buy. you may not know it but its true. people find a great source of coffee beans , coacoa beans and such and people die over it so someone can walk into a store and pay 1.99 for a can of it. this is how the world works, im sad to even say it but its the truth. everything you buy has a price on it worth more that the dolllars your paying for it. even if people stopped smoking weed, those people are going to die anyways. when they run out of diamonds to sell in africa, those innocent people are going to die just because of their creed and race. i do believe that if it is legalized ,though, that people wouldnt die. supply and demand would be a factor concerning the growth and production of marijuana. in order to sell it to the states, they would need workers to grow and maintain the plants. because in the U.S. everything must be of a certain quality to be sold. you wouldnt buy water if it had shit floating in it. then they would need people to pick and screen the product. then they would need licensed drivers to drive the products to the U.S. and to other COUNTRIES THAT BUY MARIJUANA AS WELL. without a proper work force the business would go to somewhere else, and making money is something everyone thinks about. one reason that people are killed is because some shipments are stopped by customs and by the guard. if they dont make it to the U.S. then most of the time they blame the people making the delivery and kill them. if your still really interested in doing something to stop the killing then do something about it than jsut arguing about it on here

You're a Democrat, aren't you?

So what you're saying to me is.... since People in Mexico kill each other over weed, it's somehow America's fault for the death's because American's smoke weed too?

I smoke weed...and billy smokes weed...and sam smokes weed. Billy and Sam kill each over over weed. (because it's illegal) and you're saying it's my fault they killed each other? Nothing that you are saying is really making sense.

You said "I never mentioned Amsterdam" but I can say the same thing about Mexico. What does Mexico have to do with America's weed problem? It's not my nor "my 50 friends problem" that people in Mexico are murdered over weed, just like it's not Mexico's problem that people in America are being murdered over weed.

Exactly what I was trying to say. But I guess somehow this weed make me unable to say it. (spot the sarcasm)

People die over weed, it's no one fault except their own. If someone sells weed, then gets killed, it's not America's, Mexico's, Germany's fault. It is your own for selling it.

So finally AlanX, are you for the legalisation of it or not ?

again sorta not
 

Those confused souls -blaming americans who smoke weed for the violence south of the border must have forgotten the history of the US government and law enforcement agencys hidden role in 'importing' drugs such as cocaine across the border specifically the drug called 'crack' . Well documented in Gary Webb ... 1999 book Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion from Seven Stories Press .....also a reporter for the San Jose Mecury News Webb was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his work.

The violence south of the border more closely resembles the present Mexican government who never really won the last elections fair and square is still consolidating it's uncertain hold on power. excerpt from
Name the Dead!
By JAIME AVILÉS
Mexico City
Jaime Avilés is a columnist for the Mexican daily, La Jornada,
In Mexico we have witnessed a naked campaign against López Obrador in the last elections when he was called “a danger for Mexico”; we have seen Calderón claim power after a massively contested election claiming he would grab it “by any means”; we have then seen him back-track on all his promises, starting with that of employment, and embark on an artificial war “against” the narcos [drug industry] which succeeded only in militarizing the country and retrench his otherwise weak grab on power; we have seen him risk through these actions the national security of our country and that of the United States. So we Mexicans have clarity and maturity enough to know that Calderón is not below anything: if one day he dressed up as a soldier to launch the armed forces onto a tragic adventure, he now dons a white coat to succeed in keeping us under house arrest, sweating in panic.

I'd really like to see it decriminalized here in New Zealand. Know plenty of people who smoke or did in the past, don't have a problem with it myself. Drunk people are more of a pain in the ass than stoned people are.

Hey on another point i never checked to see if its true but i heard that weed causes same damage to ur lungs as ciggies > is that tru ?

I heard that too.
I also heard it cause less damage because there is less chemicals
I also heard it cause more damage because it is not filtred.

who really knows ?

DR PHIL !!!!!!!! WHOO HOO !! :D :D :D

i think there about the same. inhaling smoke isnt good for anyone, lol

It would be the same if you smoke weed through a filter, like cigs have. Most people don't.

actually smoking 1 cigarette knocks off 5 min off your life.

This is true, partly. Hearst newspapers owned a bunch of timber to make paper for newsprint. When he found out Hemp was better and cheaper, he was afraid he would lose money. So with the Drug Czar of that time, he helped make the myth that pot smokers were crazed sex fiends and it should be gotten rid of. Since most Mexicans and African Americans were the biggest users at the time, this helped them scare the Mexicans back into Mexico and arrest the other smokers. After prohibition was repealed, the liquor companies paid to keep it illegal since they knew people would prefer it over booze.
It is impossible to overdose on pot. They have found it to kill cancer cells and no one has ever (legally on a death certificate) got cancer from it or died in a car accident from it. Smoking it can cause lung irritation and there are better ways to do it like eating or vaporizing it.
Almost all religions have used it in their ceremonies and it has been used for medicine since the early Chinese discovered it's uses. Not to mention all the uses for the Hemp fiber, like clothes, fuel, oxygen, etc.
Don't always believe what the government tells you. Governor Schwarzenegger used it and was caught on video. He needs to quit being a hypocrite and legalize it.:ywave:

marijuana was made illegal because of some lies that the drug commisioner made up saying that it made u more agressive, such as making you want to kill ur brother, and for racial reasons.im not racist but white ppl back then said that it made a mexican or black man feel the right to look a white man in the eye, and caused a white woman to want to have sexual relations with a black man

My granpda smoked for most of his life and his life ended at 89 years old... I doubt it is 5 minutes.

Weed kills you faster though, many young people die because of weed.

LOL @ alan, five different opinions hahah eh

How sad.. legalising a drug to make money off it, to solve issues caused by the stupid mistakes of government.

Then again alcohol and cigarettes are lawful and taxed so why should it be different for anything else.
Hypocrites just dig themselves a deeper hole by making excuses for their system.

Take another perspective, the sad part may not be in legalizing it, but the sad part in making it illegal in the first place.

A multi-million dollar industry, and all that money goes to drug lords. What if it could go into drug rehabilitation clinics, instead? What if drug addicts could be sent to rehab instead of jail?

The downward spiral that keeps poor drug addicts poor is as much from a criminal record as it is from the drugs themselves.

Hmm...That is a good question. No, I do not think they should legalize it. I think it is a very volital plant, that can do ore damage then harm. You would have to be under constant supervision if you wanted to use it for medical reasons. If you're not using it for medical reasons, I think that's just plain-out unethical...You could do some serious permanent damage to yourself. I study this kind of stuff, and there are plenty of other things that can help you medical-wise, other than marajuana.
~HonoraryJapaneseGirl~

Thousands in Oregon have been prescribed medicinal marijuana and not only are these patients not "under constant supervision", they find relief when literally nothing else works.

Medicinal marijuana has been legal in Oregon for a decade, and so far it has been a very positive program.