Legalize Cannabis

[Bronco70]

LDS should refrain from posting in this thread. I'm sorry.

I know Stoked already chimed in on this, but that was a pretty ignorant statement.

I'm LDS and I'm very much pro-legalization. And I'm not even vaguely alone.

If you're worrying about opinions based on misinformation and/or stereotyping, you may want to evaluate some of your own.

 

[Bronco70]

Technically it is crimal behavior. So technically he is right.

Yeah, I get that. Thanks.

 

[colton]

How many people eat some other food after eating a salad? Is salad a "gateway" food? Should people avoid salad because it puts them at high risk of eating other foods and possibly making them fat?

Or maybe people would eat the other food anyway and the salad is of no relevance.

If salad were addictive and mind altering, then your comparison would be apt.

 

[colton]

Finally a thread I've never seen before.
This place was getting boring, good to see new material.

I'm having deja vu all over again.

 

[PearlWatson]

You do realize, of course, that even heavy cannabis use isn't associated with a reduction in quantity or integrity of white matter, right?

Only someone with a compromised frontal lobe would believe that.

 

[utahjazz107]

Until better, more accurate testing becomes available there are two options:

1. Test for THC and if it is present, prosecute regardless of when the last doobie was partaken of.

2. Test for alcohol. Test for narcotics. Completely ignore pot. After all, it is harmless, right?

Until better, more accurate testing procedures are available, it is what it is. Remember, driving is a privilege, not a right. You can't obey certain guidelines, you forfeit your right to drive.

Tell you what, I hear that people who smoke pot are highly creative and imaginative and have brilliant ideas when stoned. You should get together with Nate and GVC, smoke a fat one and figure out a way to more accurately test for current THC levels. Hopefully you remember what your brilliant idea was once you sober up. VIVA TRES EINSTEINS!!

Not that hard, test for THC levels in the blood. All the urine tests currently used for drug tests just test for metabolites which are basically by-products of THC after it has been metabolized by the liver. Since these metabolites are mostly lipophilic, they get stored in your fat for 1-2 months depending on how heavy a smoker you are. Testing for THC in the blood would give you an accurate way to determine how high the individual is at the present time.

 

[SaltyDawg]

If salad were addictive and mind altering, then your comparison would be apt.

Why would that change anything? Marijuana is not physically addictive, btw.

 

[Dr. Jones]

I know Stoked already chimed in on this, but that was a pretty ignorant statement.

I'm LDS and I'm very much pro-legalization. And I'm not even vaguely alone.

If you're worrying about opinions based on misinformation and/or stereotyping, you may want to evaluate some of your own.

I respect the LDS church and its members as much or more than anyone you know. That was in NO WAY a slam, but I admit it was stereotypical .. not of the LDS specifically, but of all people who have never had to fight an addiction or been enveloped by the 'world.' In my own church, we have those that want to tell the sinners how to live, how to shape up, but they lack an empathy that only someone that has been through can understand and communicate effectively from those experiences.

I was not calling the LDS church immune from understanding, I was actually giving props to the masses of the members for living good God-fearing lives. That can be considered stereotyping, sure, but it's not necessarily a bad thing .. and certainly wasn't meant to be. I probably should have worded it much better in the original post of mine.

 

[Jazz Spazz]

Why would that change anything? Marijuana is not physically addictive, btw.

However, nonspecialists (including many doctors) still tend to use an older perspective, now seen as outdated by experts. From their point of view, some drugs may be considered physically addictive — producing severe withdrawal — while others are psychologically addictive and only cause craving; those that are both are the hardest to quit.

In this view, the paradigm for addiction is heroin: the shaking, puking heroin junkie who can’t quit because the withdrawal sickness is impossible to bear. Because marijuana cessation is not linked with such severe symptoms, the drug isn’t seen as physically addictive. And considering that most people view physical addiction as uncontrollable, but psychological addiction as manageable with proper willpower, marijuana tends not to be regarded as addictive in general.

But virtually all addiction experts disagree with that stance. “The distinction is completely arbitrary. Psychological addiction occurs in your brain and it’s a physical change,” says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Different brain processes may be involved in the psychological drive to take drugs and in the physical withdrawal symptoms when the drug is stopped — but both are brain changes.

As it turns out, the psychological drive is much more powerful than the physical experience of withdrawal. Cocaine, which also produces little withdrawal sickness but does create extreme craving, was once seen as nonaddictive — that was before America was introduced to crack in the 1980s. More than a century ago, Mark Twain summed up the essence of the problem, in reference to the addictiveness of tobacco: “Giving up smoking is easy,” he said. “I’ve done it thousands of times.”

https://healthland.time.com/2010/10/19/is-marijuana-addictive-it-depends-how-you-define-addiction/

Some experts may disagree with you and your experts.

You say it is not physically addictive, I say the brain is a physical part of our body.
Do you disagree that your brain is not physically a part of your body?

Yes, or no will suffice.

 

[Scat]

https://healthland.time.com/2010/10/19/is-marijuana-addictive-it-depends-how-you-define-addiction/

Some experts may disagree with you and your experts.

You say it is not physically addictive, I say the brain is a physical part of our body.
Do you disagree that your brain is not physically a part of your body?

Yes, or now will suffice.

This is all just silly talk. They can quit any time they like.

 

[Stoked]

I respect the LDS church and its members as much or more than anyone you know. That was in NO WAY a slam, but I admit it was stereotypical .. not of the LDS specifically, but of all people who have never had to fight an addiction or been enveloped by the 'world.' In my own church, we have those that want to tell the sinners how to live, how to shape up, but they lack an empathy that only someone that has been through can understand and communicate effectively from those experiences.

I was not calling the LDS church immune from understanding, I was actually giving props to the masses of the members for living good God-fearing lives. That can be considered stereotyping, sure, but it's not necessarily a bad thing .. and certainly wasn't meant to be. I probably should have worded it much better in the original post of mine.

I see where PKM is coming from. LDS (particularly those born and raised in Utah) are sheltered to an extent from the world the rest of us see.

 

[SaltyDawg]

https://healthland.time.com/2010/10/19/is-marijuana-addictive-it-depends-how-you-define-addiction/

Some experts may disagree with you and your experts.

You say it is not physically addictive, I say the brain is a physical part of our body.
Do you disagree that your brain is not physically a part of your body?

Yes, or no will suffice.

The brain is physically part if your body, but that doesn't mean you're physically addicted just because you want to do something.

This is all just silly talk. They can quit any time they like.

Absolutely they can. Nobody gets sick or dies because they quit smoking weed.