Is Marijuana Harmless?

[Kaylee]

As I recall, the root-reason that marijuana is illegal was for political reasons. Pot came up from Mexico. The white boys had just killed off the Indians and taken their land, then suddenly more guys come up from Mexico that they can't completely kill off (long live the Alamo). So now there are all these undesirable Mexicans hanging about, and it seems they like smoking pot while the white cowboys stick to their toxic booze. So the gubmint passes laws against pot smoking as a way to kick those Mexican (pot-smoking) asses outta Texas. And so the law stands. It’s not much of a big deal for the next 50 years because the white guys that passed the law and kicked the Mexicans out were booze hounds and not into the marijuana thing. Dope then laid underground for some Mexicans, outlaws, and free blacks—especially jazz musicians.

The one I'd heard was that cotton wasn't doing so well against hemp, ( which grows with the least provocation, and more of the plant is useful - e.g rope, fabric and paper), so the cotton farmers "arranged" to can cannabis banned, and oh, that hemp stuff, can't the difference between it and "the good stuff", so we'll ban it to, or at least make it so onoerous to get a license and manage the plantations that it was more expensive that cotton.

Also see this link:

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/12/22/whyIsMarijuanaIllegal.html

Anslinger had political reasons to make marijuana illegal. He was the head of a brand new agency, the Bureau of Narcotics, and he needed an "enemy" to make his agency powerful. Cocaine and opiates were not enough, so he vilified marijuana.

Also Hearst (a contemporary of Anslinger, and a politician and head of a print media empire in the early 20th century) had a lot of timber interests and was interested in knocking out hemp (== marijuana, granted it is considered to have a lower source of THC) as a competitive source of paper.

I consider the illegality of marijuana as proof of the overwhelming political power of special interests groups. When one considers the long history of safe commercial hemp use (paper (including the paper that the USA Constitution was written on), clothing, canvas sails, ropes (esp. used on ships to defeat rot from salt water, etc.) it's amazing that even powerful lobbying groups were able to make it illegal. (If more proof is needed for how ridiculous this is, during WWII, the USA govt. made hemp briefly legal again ("Hemp for Victory")).

Also, Bo's link (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Health+issues+and+the+effects+of+cannabis )
brings up the theory that mental illness may be a correlation but not a causuality of marijuana use. There is a theory that some people with mental illness may be attempting to self-medicate with marijuana. The web site won't allow me to do a cut and paste, but if interested you can do a search for the section heading "Co-occurrence of mental illness".

(In the interest of full disclosure I neither do pot, alcohol or any other drugs.)

 

[strathmeyer]

"Addictive" seems to me a pretty useless word.

However, I do know people who become belligerant if, due to circumstances, they cannot suck on a jont for 30 minutes.

I get pretty belligerant when we run out of milk. Does that mean I'm addicted?

 

[arthwollipot]

My point though was that it's not the marijuana that caused you to become addicted. It was you. Now if we both started freebasing cocaine, we'd both be addicted rather quickly.

OK, well, that's what I understand by the phrase "psychological addiction" - as opposed to physiological addiction. You're basically saying the same thing as me but in different words.

 

[TX50]

Amusing that the study linked to in post #18 by Dredred about "Cannabis use
in the Netherlands" was carried out by the "Bonger Institute"

 

[Infinite]

I've watched my boyfriend smoke pot daily for 7 years and he started when he was 13. He is not 35 years old. He's normally a person who should be taking some sort of anti-anxiety, anti-hyper medication, so the pot just makes him well...normal.

 

[calebprime]

It should be legal, but it is definitely not harmless. It's also far more physically addicting than people realize, if you smoke it all the time.

It seems to reduce blood-flow to the frontal lobes, for as long as a month or more in chronic users. This means long-term issues with attention.

In my case, the withdrawal-symptoms have included: anxiety, loss of pleasure, diarrhea, night-sweats, irritability, tense muscles, jumpiness, insomnia. This has lasted up to a week.

Oddly enough, the more you smoke, the less it seems to do. Tolerance is rapid.

You will be able to drive until the moment when your flighty attention fails you and you do something stupid. In other words, don't drive.

But nothing ever was as effective at getting my overactive, verbal self to just shut up, sit down in a chair, and practice music. I've learned new instruments this way. My chops decline when I'm sober. But my I.Q. declines when I'm stoned.

I've studied who the "famous" pot smokers are--Willie Nelson, K. D. Lang, Tony Bennett, Charlie Parker, etc. Even Carl Sagan used to toke up a little. K.D. Lang is not noted for her brilliant lyrics.

I found that weed turned me into something resembling a normal joe, until I stopped. It reminds me of that episode of the Simpsons where Homer removes the many crayons he stuffed up his nose as a kid--the crayons that caused a mild lobotomy. He becomes a lot smarter without the crayons, but less fun to be around.

Marinol is a joke--both less effective, and more expensive than just smoking the stuff. If I get sick and have problems with nausea, I wouldn't hesitate to start smoking again.

 

[calebprime]

...

I have friends who tell me that if I just take LSD, I will see the answers to all the unsolved mathematical problems I am working on. While this may be true, I suspect the "answers" will look like total crap when the effects of the drug wear off.

I've conceded that maybe someday when I no longer need my brain, I might be talked into some drug experimentation. Then again, perhaps not.

Here the effect is COMPLETELY dose-related. 5-10 micrograms feels like a powerful cup of coffee that lasts 8 hours. Insights, lucidity quite possible.
Fatigue later, lasting a day or two. The higher the dose, the more likely you'll be risking something unpleasant, or really bad. There's a thread here. (I wouldn't do it if I were you, because you are already worried about it.)

If you are the kind of person who has insights, you will have some insights on small amounts of LSD. But step-by-step mathematical reasoning is nearly impossible under the influence. If you are the kind of person who thinks 9/11 was an inside job, your delusions will be worse. Chronic LSD use seems to cause a strange urge to decorate your environs with art (especially faces, animals, etc.) as well as a sort of paranoid schizophrenia. (Ask Owsley or Paul Krassner, etc.) If you're robust, this will go away when you stop, after a while. Sort of a drying-out process.

My opinion.

 

[Huntster]

I think it's a sign of the times when bureaucrats or substance abuse counselors try to sell the idea that marijuana is a dangerous substance to a society that grew up either smoking the stuff or watching friends and siblings doing it.

They're not fooling anybody but prudes. Of course, the wacky weed isn't good for you, but it causes so little harm when used occasionally that it isn't an issue. The issue is with potheads, and potheads are a drop in the bucket to drunks, who are carnage incarnate on the roads.

The whole issue with the feds playing hardball with states that are experimenting with medical marijuana reminds me of the little boy with his finger in the dike watching a flood a few hundred yards away where the dike was breached. There are way too many problems for the feds to deal with than grown adults smoking weed in a private, controlled setting.

 

[pchams]

I think it's a sign of the times when bureaucrats or substance abuse counselors try to sell the idea that marijuana is a dangerous substance to a society that grew up either smoking the stuff or watching friends and siblings doing it.

They're not fooling anybody but prudes. Of course, the wacky weed isn't good for you, but it causes so little harm when used occasionally that it isn't an issue. The issue is with potheads, and potheads are a drop in the bucket to drunks, who are carnage incarnate on the roads.

The whole issue with the feds playing hardball with states that are experimenting with medical marijuana reminds me of the little boy with his finger in the dike watching a flood a few hundred yards away where the dike was breached. There are way too many problems for the feds to deal with than grown adults smoking weed in a private, controlled setting.

Blue moon.
I agree completely with Huntster's above post.
Well said.
Good hunting.

 

[SirPhilip]

According to a new study by shocked scientists at the University of California Los Angeles, even heavy marijuana use does not increase a person's chances of developing lung cancer.

It's God's gift to humanity, I tell you! Blows organic milk completely out of the water.

 

[SirPhilip]

I think it's a sign of the times when bureaucrats or substance abuse counselors try to sell the idea that marijuana is a dangerous substance to a society that grew up either smoking the stuff or watching friends and siblings doing it.

I always say, if you think making an assertion that the American political system is largely corrupt is baseless, research the "drug war".

 

[Huntster]

...Good hunting.

Thanks. I'm headed out in a few moments to try to catch a moose.

I love the autumn wind blowing the leaves off the trees, the smell of rotting cranberries, and the chill in the air..............

 

[atari24]

Is anything harmless?

 

[Steve]

I think it's a sign of the times when bureaucrats or substance abuse counselors try to sell the idea that marijuana is a dangerous substance to a society that grew up either smoking the stuff or watching friends and siblings doing it.

They're not fooling anybody but prudes. Of course, the wacky weed isn't good for you, but it causes so little harm when used occasionally that it isn't an issue. The issue is with potheads, and potheads are a drop in the bucket to drunks, who are carnage incarnate on the roads.

The whole issue with the feds playing hardball with states that are experimenting with medical marijuana reminds me of the little boy with his finger in the dike watching a flood a few hundred yards away where the dike was breached. There are way too many problems for the feds to deal with than grown adults smoking weed in a private, controlled setting.

Well said, Huntster. I must confess to a mild surprise to read this from you based on what I thought I knew about you based on your posts on other topics. It goes to show that I should always listen to what a person has to say and not assume without hearing their point of view.

I love the autumn wind blowing the leaves off the trees, the smell of rotting cranberries, and the chill in the air...............

Yes, fall comes early in Alaska. I too enjoy the weather change at this time of year, although here it will not really be noticeable until October.

Cheers

 

[Josh Redstone]

Is marijuana harmless? I say no for the simple fact that most things you put into your body which aren't there anyway can sometimes have adverse affects, even if they also bring positive effects at the same time.
The thing about marijuana is that since it's not legal in many places, it's difficult to study it's effects, so that means there's a lot of junk science surrounding it. I myself think it should be legal the same way alcohol is...why, we'd be elimitating a huge portion of crime and the government and entrepreneurs could make a lot of money off of it.

 

[Jerry_ex_machina]

It ain't no thang, really. Is booze harmless? Yeah, you can kill your liver and wreck your car. But you bake yourself up a good old batch of pot brownies, pop a cold one, and park it in the back yard and you got nothing to fear. Just don't do it when you're supposed to be on the way to work!

 

[Huntster]

Originally Posted by Huntster
I think it's a sign of the times when bureaucrats or substance abuse counselors try to sell the idea that marijuana is a dangerous substance to a society that grew up either smoking the stuff or watching friends and siblings doing it.

They're not fooling anybody but prudes. Of course, the wacky weed isn't good for you, but it causes so little harm when used occasionally that it isn't an issue. The issue is with potheads, and potheads are a drop in the bucket to drunks, who are carnage incarnate on the roads.

The whole issue with the feds playing hardball with states that are experimenting with medical marijuana reminds me of the little boy with his finger in the dike watching a flood a few hundred yards away where the dike was breached. There are way too many problems for the feds to deal with than grown adults smoking weed in a private, controlled setting.


Well said, Huntster. I must confess to a mild surprise to read this from you based on what I thought I knew about you based on your posts on other topics. It goes to show that I should always listen to what a person has to say and not assume without hearing their point of view.

Yeah. It's easy to assume things about people, especially on an internet forum like this. I do it all the time.

Originally Posted by Huntster
I love the autumn wind blowing the leaves off the trees, the smell of rotting cranberries, and the chill in the air...............

Yes, fall comes early in Alaska. I too enjoy the weather change at this time of year, although here it will not really be noticeable until October.

It's beautiful here. The migratory birds are on their way south, making all kinds of noise and leaving lots of ...............well, piles.

The snow is creeping down the mountains. We call it "termination dust."

The berries in the woods have suffered their first frost. They stink, but it smells wonderful to me.

The caribou have headed to their rutting area. That area is getting deeper and deeper into the wilderness as more and more people head out trying to catch them.

It's absolutely beautiful out there.

Cheers

Same to you, my friend.

 

[Polaris]

I think it's a sign of the times when bureaucrats or substance abuse counselors try to sell the idea that marijuana is a dangerous substance to a society that grew up either smoking the stuff or watching friends and siblings doing it.

They're not fooling anybody but prudes.

Unfortunately, the latter group is the one that votes.

 

[clarsct]

Is it more harmful than nicotine?
(According the the Guiness Book of World Records, circa 1986, the third most potent drug known to man!!!)

What about alcohol? Does THC have lethal detox syndromes?
(Alcohol can, not including the sudden stop of usage associated with the sudden stop of your car from hitting the tree/other car/house/et cetera)

Too much chocolate is harmful(sorry ladies, sad but true). Are we going to outlaw chocolate?

(If your answer is yes, then I deduce that you aren't in a relationship with a female, nor are you female yourself.)

We can't nanny everyone. I'm not too sure we ought to even try.

 

[Huntster]

Originally Posted by Huntster
I think it's a sign of the times when bureaucrats or substance abuse counselors try to sell the idea that marijuana is a dangerous substance to a society that grew up either smoking the stuff or watching friends and siblings doing it.

They're not fooling anybody but prudes.

Unfortunately, the latter group is the one that votes.

Yeah, and usually have no clue what's going on.

We have a very unique situation here in Alaska regarding marijuana. The State Supreme Court in the mid 1970's handed down a ruling which effectively decriminalized marijuana in the privacy of one's home. The feds and the prudes simply can't stand it. In 1989 a ballot initiative was voted on in the state which would make all marijuana possession illegal again, and it passed by a narrow margin. Four short months later the State Supreme Court threw it out, and the Alaska media giants simply didn't find it necessary to let folks know. People were going on with life up here for years thinking marijuana was illegal, but it wasn't. While on grand jury duty I actually caught the DA in a bald faced lie when she told us that marijuana possession was illegal. During our lunch break I simply went into the law library there at the court building, made copies of the Supreme Court decisions, then that afternoon confronted her with them, and passed them out to the other grand jurors.

She didn't like me very much..........