Re: Marijuana: Potential Reclassification

[Kaere]

20 years of marijuana research shows ill effects of chronic use: review

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/20-years-of-marijuana-research-shows-ill-effects-of-chronic-use-review-1.2043868#ixzz3FYzF4kcT

[Monk (in hiding)]

I suppose we could say the same thing about coffee or tea. The TPB just keep putting fear into people.

[Kaere]

I don't see that anyone here has said anything fearful about medical marijuana.

[Monk (in hiding)]

I don't see that anyone here has said anything fearful about medical marijuana.

True, yeahbut it's a question of civil liberties.

1. the freedom of a citizen to exercise customary rights, as of speech or assembly, without unwarranted or arbitrary interference by the government.

2. such a right as guaranteed by the laws of a country, as in the U.S. by the Bill of Rights.

America’s first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law “ordering” all farmers to grow Indian hempseed. There were several other “must grow” laws over the next 200 years (you could be jailed for not growing hemp during times of shortage in Virginia between 1763 and 1767), and during most of that time, hemp was legal tender (you could even pay your taxes with hemp — try that today!)

The Mexican Connection -> see link

Jazz and Assassins -> see link

Harry J. Anslinger


“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”

“…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”

“Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.”

“Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”

“Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing”

“You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”

“Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

In the year 1090, there was founded in Persia the religious and military order of the Assassins, whose history is one of cruelty, barbarity, and murder, and for good reason: the members were confirmed users of hashish, or marihuana, and it is from the Arabs’ ‘hashashin’ that we have the English word ‘assassin.’”

Yellow Journalism


“Marihuana makes fiends of boys in thirty days — Hashish goads users to bloodlust.”

“By the tons it is coming into this country — the deadly, dreadful poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its cruel and devastating forms…. Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him….”



http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/

[Kaere]

True, yeahbut it's a question of civil liberties.

I did not say it wasn't.

[Monk (in hiding)]

yeahbut....lsol

[Stirky]

I see the establishment has filled you full of misinformation. Where did you learn this nonsense? lsol

Nobody has filled me with misinformation, I have seen the effects first hand, many times.

[Monk (in hiding)]

I see the establishment has filled you full of misinformation. Where did you learn this nonsense? lsol

Nobody has filled me with misinformation, I have seen the effects first hand, many times.

It's none of your bees-wax what people do with their consciousness.

[Stirky]

It depends who those people are!!

[Monk (in hiding)]

lol -prince harry balls can sort all the coke he wants.

[Monk (in hiding)]

The Island of conformity..........

[Kaere]

http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/health-headlines/pot-should-be-legalized-and-regulated-like-alcohol-says-addiction-centre-1.2046372

TORONTO -- Canada's largest mental health and addiction treatment and research centre is calling for the legalization of marijuana, with strict controls that would govern who could buy weed, from where, and in what quantity.

In a policy statement released Thursday, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto said cannabis should be sold through a government-controlled monopoly and with limited availability and an age limit, possibly through outlets similar to provincially operated liquor stores.

"Legalization means that we remove all penalties for cannabis possession and use by adults," said Jurgen Rehm, director of social and epidemiological research at CAMH.

"Canada's current system of cannabis control is failing to prevent or reduce the harms associated with cannabis use," he said Wednesday. "Based on a thorough review of the evidence, we believe that legalization combined with strict regulation of cannabis is the most effective means of reducing the harms associated with its use."

Those harms include respiratory diseases such as lung cancer, the risk of death or disability from motor vehicle accidents, and deleterious effects on cognition, particularly among pot-smoking adolescents because their brains are still developing.

Cannabis use also can also become habitual, said Rehm, noting that about 30,000 people are treated for pot dependence each year in Ontario alone.

Given its potential harms, legalizing and controlling the sale of marijuana in Canada is an important public health measure, Rehm stressed.

Although possessing pot is illegal, a significant proportion of Canadians still use the herb. In fact, Canada has one of the highest rates of cannabis use in the world, with 40 per cent of Canadians having used it at least once in their lifetime.

In Ontario, for instance, a survey showed about the same percentage of people aged 18 to 29 reported having smoked pot in the previous year.

"We have a lot of our adolescents smoking marijuana, so it does not do what it's supposed to be doing," he said of criminalizing cannabis. "We push our youth, our adolescents into an illegal market, and where other drugs are sold from the same dealer."

"And we cannot control all of this unless we legalize the substance ... plus we can control the potency and the quality too."

Part of that control would include restricting sales to consumers over a certain age -- such as 19, 20 or 21 -- similar to age rules in place for those buying alcohol.

Ian Culbert, executive-director of the Canadian Public Health Association, welcomed the call for legalization by CAMH.

"The war on drugs has failed and it has done more damage than any possible good," said Culbert. "So we have to take a different approach."

"Canadian society isn't overnight going to embrace this idea of legalization and regulation, so it's a conversation that we have to have."

In May, the association issued its own policy statement saying that "Canada needs a public health approach to managing illegal psychoactive substances that de-emphasizes criminalization and stigma in favour of evidence-based strategies to reduce harm."

Benedikt Fischer, an addictions expert at B.C.'s Simon Fraser University, said the federal government's insistence on criminalizing marijuana possession and use has led to "hundreds of thousands" of Canadians over the years carrying a criminal record, which can have a far-reaching impact on their lives, including being unable to qualify for certain jobs.

"And we're not effectively deterring cannabis use nor are we effectively preventing harms," said Fischer, adding that pricing of a legalized product is also a key element of regulation -- high enough to prevent too much use, but not so high it would send people to the black market looking for a less expensive product.

"The objective is not to make cannabis as cheaply available to as many people as possible, but really to make sure that people who want to consume cannabis have a safe and regulated and controlled supply that they choose over the black market," he said.

Fischer said the federal government already has a model in place for a legalized and regulated industry in licensed growers of marijuana for medical purposes. Recreational pot is no different than medicinal weed, he said, and there are purportedly hundreds of applications by other growers seeking licenses.

Rehm said a legalized system would need to be designed at the federal level and given the blessing of Parliament, but CAMH does not advocate following the somewhat wild-west example of Colorado, which has legalized pot but has few constraints on who can sell the product or to whom.

"That's exactly what we do not want."

[Rockhopper]

It should be re-classified too.

Personally I don't care what people use as long as they don't bother me or cause mayhem in society. If some-one gets stoned on some chemical and causes a car crash or similar, then I do care.

Other than that, what people put in, on or at themselves is no business of mine.

Tim.

[Stirky]

Like I said before in this thread it depends who those people are, if somebody close to you started using a drug and it was having bad effects on them and the people around them, well then you would care.

What if you watched your best friend, or a member of your family starting on that slippery slope. You saw it having an effect on their personality, the way they were conducting their life, their health and the way they were wasting money? Would you sit back and watch, or would you stand up and do something about it? Is it still none of your business when you see them harming themselves and others around them?

[Rockhopper]

That's true enough too Stirks. But it still comes to whether they are harming themselves or others. If they are then I would do something about it.

I am aware that my kids dabbled in Dope when they were younger and I just kept a eye on them to make sure they didn't get into strife.

If some-one wants to sit at home and smoke a joint (or six) then they can. As to whether they are wasting money, well as long as they are adults, that's their choice. The same with their health, again it's their choice. I can and do voice my opposition to it though.

As it stands, it's illegal to even have a small joint in one's possession in many countries and all that is doing is filling the gaols up with people who could be more productive in society.

But, having said all this, I do agree that hard drugs should always be banned. They are so destructive to society and we need to understand why people find it necessary to stew their brains with chemicals just to get through the day.

Tim.

[Stirky]

Although people that drink too much alcohol often can have the same effect, doing harm to themselves and others. Drink drivers, domestic violence, violence in public places etc etc. Alcohol abuse causes a lot of problems in society. But you'd never stop a person having a few recreational drinks.

[Rockhopper]

Quite right it's a case of all things in moderation Stirks.

I don't drink alchohol now nor do I take any drugs of any kind. Hell, I drink coffee and tea very rarely but I have do so in the past.

Tim.

[Stirky]

Too much of anything is bad for us Some people just don't know when to stop sadly

[Rockhopper]

Too much of anything is bad for us Some people just don't know when to stop sadly

Can't argue with that Stirks!

Tim.

[Monk (in hiding)]

Too much of anything is bad for us Some people just don't know when to stop sadly

I've NEVER EVER had to much FUN, ........Also I NEVER EVER laughed to MUCH either.

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