Marijuana?

[Digeman]

Hey guys. I've got this debate thing for school tommorow and we're supposed to debate about different topics and i got the topic "legalising marijuana". So anyways i'm supposed to be for it and another guy is supposed to be against it. The only thing i could think of when marijuana is good for you is when it's used for medical purposes. Tried to look on the web for some info but didn't find anything that good. So I was just wondering if you guys knew some pros with marijuana? Doesn 't need to be that much info really, just to get me started and such

 

[.TakaM]

well

may surprise some people here, but Im pro legalizing it

me and my friends indulge in it fairly often, it's impossible to OD on, less harmful than the repercussions of alcohol.
if it was legal, it could have a form of quality control, atleast an age restriction with a chance of being enforced
and would put some criminals out of work


plus, it just isn't that bad
I've been drunk many times, it isn't that much fun.. people get angry, sleepy, sick and rarely fun
weed is great, just relaxing with your friends, laughing your asses off

 

[BlueStar]

It doesn't need to lower your cholesterol or anything for there to be an argument for legalising it, the onus should be on the person being against legalisation finding reasons why it should be illegal vs the freedom of people to take it. Examine precedents set with other mind altering/harmful substances such as tobacco and alcohol which people are allowed to make their own decision on if they should indulge in or not. Plus if it were legal it would take away revenue from drug dealers and mean people who want to smoke the odd spliff don't have to deal with criminals to do so and free up police time to tackle harder drugs and the associated crime.

 

[.TakaM]

and I just want to add, I'm only pro for legalizing marijuana

 

[jaxxster]

I'd say don't legalize. Its full effects havent even been fully discovered yet, Its possible to get mentally ill from smoking it. Plus if it got legalized i bet the prices for an 8ball would go up and the legal stuff would be really crap stuff.

 

[TPi]

Watch/read one of the things about how it first became illegal. Then you can talk about how messed up the process of it actually becoming illegal (in the US at least, I think other countries followed, though) was. It's not harmful to you more than putting the smoke of anything else into your lungs is, and you can bake it into foods to get around that, even. You don't even have to argue that it is good, just that it's wrong that it's illegal, and the benefits of having a legalized regulated government substance vs. dealing with the drug dealers, gangs, etc. You'll come off as less of a stoner if you focus on the fact that it's not really dangerous as a substance, other than the fact that it is currently illegal, rather than trying to explain how goooood you felt, man.

Also, the other first 2 posts above me were good as well.

 

[jumpman17]

Marijuana only has one real medical use so far and that is for treating people who are undergoing chemotherapy. The other use that is brought up doesn't really work. Supposedly it helps with people who have glaucoma, but all it does is mask it, not get rid of it.

Honestly though, here's how I see the future. I see cigarettes becoming illegal and marijuana becoming legalized. Cigarettes harm other people with their second hand smoke. Marijuana, while not harmless is less harmful then cigarettes. Marijuana isn't going to make you speed down the street at 100 MPH. On the contrary, more often then not, someone on marijuana will be stopped at a stop sign waiting for it to turn green.

I'm in a psychology class right now about the effect of drugs on the mind and this is just what I've learned from class.

EDIT: Why do people still try to bake marijuana into brownies? Eating it hardly allows any of the marijuana to be absorbed into your blood stream. It gets digested too fast.

 

[Teun]

It is legal here in The Netherlands, and it doesn't cause much problems. Is that a good pro?

 

[qusai]

http://everyonedoesit.com/cannabis_information/

You'll find a lot of helpful info there...

 

[Tomobobo]

See what I get upset about s the fact that the biggest thing that Mary Jane has going for it on a track to get legalized is for medical use. I didn't use it for medical purposes. It's a recreational drug with medicinal benefits. If ever it does get legalized, it's because people push on the medicinal positives. That won't help out any stoner in the US, because then instead of being a criminal for possessing an illegal substance, he'll be a worse off criminal for possessing a substance that requires a prescription without one.

The problem with trying to persuade the government to legalize it, is that there has to be more of a reason than "it's fun", for it to happen. But I think that's bullshit. Alcohol is fun, and it's legal, tobacco is proven to kill, but it's legal. The government has made up so many false negatives about the plant that it's hard to get it legalized and especially when there are people out there trying to criminalize the use of other two aforementioned legal recreational drugs.

But why should there be any more of a reason? Why not let people do what they want. Even if Marijuana was ever proven to kill or even at the very lease harm someone, fuck it, it's ultimately up to the user whether or not they want to harm themselves. They're not hurting anyone else.

It shouldn't even be a question whether or not to legalize the drug, because it shouldn't have ever become illegal in the first place. It was a series of propaganda and lies that were aimed at immigrants and minorities that got the stuff on the government's bad side anyway. It's in the history books.

It's a very commonly used drug, at least one person in every city in the US either has smoked or still smokes weed. It's far too much of a "problem" for the drug war for it to ever be turned into something the government has the power to control. Which brings me to the point that it's a waste of money to try. So much of taxpayer's dollars go to funding the war on drugs, and housing "criminals", when it's simply too big of a problem to handle. The government lost the war on drugs when it started it, especially with weed.

Damn near every other respectable country on the planet (not to say that USA is respectable anymore but that's another rant) has at least decriminalized the use of the plant. Why be so backwards assed? Oh yeah, it's USA, run by 'dubya'.

 

[F-Ray]

The swedish site http://www.swecan.org/ offers a lot of information. It may not be totally objective information but it's a hell of lot better than the information the swedish government hands out.

On the subject of getting mentally ill of smoking cannabis I wouldn't believe that 'fact'. The human race have smoked/eaten cannabis for over 10 000 years and it's only recently that's it's become illegal for most parts of the world. It's probably true that some people have gone mental from smoking cannabis, but it could've just as easy been triggered by a number of other stimulants or emotional trauma. Read about latent psychosis.

What's important when debating legalisation of cannabis is to always make the con-debater present sources of his facts. ( I guess the same goes for the pro-debater, as well :-) ) If the source(s) is from a single-interest organization the facts are most often wrong. (Again, same goes for pro-side)

WHO - World health organization - Has presented a report where they compare alcohol and cannabis and the results were that cannabis, although it's not good for you, is way better than alcohol. A similar report can also be read from the canadian government I think.

When you debate, don't bring alcohol into the debate. Don't compare plague with cholera.

It's sometimes kinda funny when con-legalize side debates. They may say that if you smoke cannabis the dealers will try to lure you into heavier drugs. They want to make more money out of you, and you don't make much money selling cannabis. It's a silly argument since if you legalize it, the government will control the distribution. The same goes for saying that cannabis is a high-crime drug. Legalize it!

A drug-free society would really be great, but we're still humans and humans really want to use drugs in recreational purpose and that's never going to change.

If you want some history when cannabis got banned. You can read a little about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger
Harry J Anslinger was an evil man

His main argument for banning it was that if a black man smoked cannabis he would look TWICE on a white woman. He also added that it was only blacks, mexicans and homosexuals that smoked cannabis.

/F-Ray

 

[Veho]

I don't smoke it anymore. Used to, got bored. It only made me sleepy.

Legalise it, set huge taxes (like on tobacco), and everyone's happy. The state would get their money, and the competition between manufacturers would lower prices.

There would be more quality control, people would be smoking something other than pesticides.

And the argument that marijuana leads to heavier drugs is just crap. It's just an excuse. "I started off with reefer, and I soon went to heroin chased with PCP." CRAP! If you didn't have marijuana, something else would have "led" you to drugs. Alcohol. Coffee. Cigarettes. Rock'n'roll music. Anything. You're just looking for an excuse. Shut up.

 

[.TakaM]

if anything, weed has made me drink less

a lot less actually

 

[Myke]

I'd say don't legalize. Its full effects havent even been fully discovered yet, Its possible to get mentally ill from smoking it. Plus if it got legalized i bet the prices for an 8ball would go up and the legal stuff would be really crap stuff.

an 8ball??!?! we are talking about weed here not cocaine.

Jumpman: ovbiously you have never eatten a pot brownie. They definitely work. Weed is fat soluble not water soluble, therefore when you mix it with butter you get ghee, I E pot butter, which omg it works so well.

 

[nintendofreak]

I would contribute, but everything has already been said

But, from what I understand, its "permanent" effects on the human body are less of that then alcohol and smoking cigarettes.

I think its crap, but If some smoker wants to smoke and possibly risk his/her life and shite then i guess i would support it, with strict laws such as "no public stoners" and even stricter laws to protect children. Because kids always get caught in the middle with drug use

 

[Louse76]

I would contribute, but everything has already been said

But, from what I understand, its "permanent" effects on the human body are less of that then alcohol and smoking cigarettes.

Marijuana carries many times more of most of the items that cause damage to the human body. However, someone might smoke one spliff in a week or so, while a smoker would smoke one or two packs a day. So even if it has six times as much harmful things (which I believe was the number for at least one of the components) a person who smokes weed now and then will be beter off than a heavy smoker.

I am completely against smoking btw. It is just stupid. At least if you're smoking weed, you're getting high. There really is no point for smoking cigarettes. If you smoke them, you are an idiot. Plain and simple!

 

[INTERNETS]

I am completely against smoking btw. It is just stupid. At least if you're smoking weed, you're getting high. There really is no point for smoking cigarettes. If you smoke them, you are an idiot. Plain and simple!

You know, a lot of people smoke because they enjoy its taste and its social effects. Cigarettes are bad for you, but I wouldn't be so quick to belittle someone's ability to make rational judgments and weigh the costs and effects therein.

I smoke a pipe a couple times a month as a social lubricant, and it's fantastic. I don't smoke cigarettes, nor smoke regularly. I also happily accept the ill effects because of the beautiful benefit.

 

[Myke]

I'd also like to point out that doctors have discovered in our brain a few years ago a receptor for the THC molecule. Our brain has lots of receptors to pick up different things like nutrients etc, now they discovered one that is a receptor for THC which is the chemical in marijuana that gets you high. No one has any idea why we have it in our brain. They have also found that as we sleep our brain releases trace amounts of thc.
I think the whole marijuana is bad for your brain is bullshit. If it's so bad for our brain then how come our brian secretes it?

the thing I will agree on is, the harmfullness of the marijuana is simply the act of smoking it. Everyone knows there's all sorts of carcinogens in smoke, you wanna be completely safe? Eat the pot don't smoke it.

also don't go by the anti drug commercials because they just blow a bunch of smokescreens when it comes to drugs. Especially marijuana. if there were horrible chemicals that would kill you fast in it (like cigarettes) many more people would die however all the people who have smoked pot and died, also smoked cigarettes so there's no way to prove that it was the pot that killed them, and honestly it's most likely the cigarettes.

 

[Veho]

I'd say don't legalize. Its full effects havent even been fully discovered yet.

So what? The full effects of coffee haven't been discovered yet, nobody knows what exactly it does to the human body, it's a mix of totally freaky psychoactive chemicals, stimulating substances, altogether weird stuff, yet nobody objects coffee.

GIMME MOAR KOFFEEEY!!!

 

[INTERNETS]

And the argument that marijuana leads to heavier drugs is just crap. It's just an excuse. "I started off with reefer, and I soon went to heroin chased with PCP." CRAP! If you didn't have marijuana, something else would have "led" you to drugs. Alcohol. Coffee. Cigarettes. Rock'n'roll music. Anything. You're just looking for an excuse. Shut up.

I think you misunderstand the 'gateway drug' argument – it's an argument that more or less pro-legalization or pro-decriminalization. The idea is that, while Marijuana is considered illegal, doing it would create a mindset of "Oh, well, this is illegal? I'd thought it'd be a lot worse. It's actually kinda fun!" –– then kids have little recourse than to actually do drugs.

As a result, further 'bad' drugs become less 'bad' as a matter of association – and that's an effect I've seen first-hand.

If it's so bad for our brain then how come our brian secretes it?

I'd be interested in seeing your citation for this.