[Quinny]

Maybe I missed it, but thought it was unusual it hasn't been mentioned here.

Apparently revenue from Mary Jane (including medical) surpassed Alcohol in Colorado in first month following legalisation of recreational use.


http://ivn.us/2014/03/15/colorado-recreational-marijuana-tax-revenue-hits-2m-first-month/

[SILENTTODD]

On this issue I have always been an extreme Libertarian. It is time to legalize the recreational use of Cannabis by adults and the many industrial uses it has also.

I don't need to repeat to a group like this (but I will anyway). Cannabis can be the source of a superior fabric fiber (the word Canvas comes from it and George Washington grew it for that purpose). It also makes a superior paper that does not require toxic Chlorine bleach to manufacture. It can be cultivated on poor arid soils successfully that would fail any other type of "crop".

A harmless herb by any comparison to Alcohol (the most dangerous recreational drug). Ever heard of anyone beating up their wife or girlfriend while loaded on "grass"?

Probably the most important thing recreational legalization would do is remove the profit from organized crime, which today makes literally Billions from its trafficking and importation into America, and turned a nation, Mexico, I use to love to travel into a war zone.

As this article points out, the legal, commercial, production of Cannabis for recreational purposes would be a money maker for states strapped for income. At the same time, I might add, reduce their need to waste time prosecuting its possession. A Win-Win if ever I heard of one!

[Quinny]

Seems like a very persuasive argument to me.

[rdberg1957]

I don't want our prisons filled with marijuana users, but I don't think marijuana is benign. There is mounting evidence that it is bad news for the brains of adolescents. I have spent many years working with young men who become psychotic while using marijuana. These are men who are already prone to psychosis, but marijuana appears to make it worse. I am uncertain about what the best policy is, but somehow I am still hesitant to support outright legalization.

[Sixstrings]

I'm not so sure about the legalized pot thing.

It's not even legal in my state, but seems like everyone is smoking weed now, and so open about it. And it's the "chronic" and the "hydro" and it's not like back in the old days. This stuff is *strong*.

Are we so sure it's a good idea? To have people laying around doped up? It's like China and the opium dens. Maybe we've got too many people smoking it now, maybe at some point it's not really good for motivation and productivity.

Maybe I'm a square, but I really don't like hanging around people that smoke it. Weed is supposed to be a phase in your 20s, and then you grow out of it.

You can't even have a conversation with someone that's high (or at least I can't). They don't care about anything. They're "altered." It gets on my nerves. I know some people, you're sitting there talking, and then they pull that out and start smoking so now you've just got to sit there and talk to a person that's high.

There's just no social stigma to it anymore. There's nobody to say "hey, don't you think you're smoking a bit much lately." Whereas alcohol, people know it's uncool to become a total drunk and alcoholic and drinking everyday, but yet they think weed is different and it's okay to become a stoner smoking it every day.

Just my opinion. The cool cats call it "420" -- that's the police code for cannabis. I'm not so sure it's a good idea that everybody is "420" these days, smoking the heavy chronic stuff, and dropping out of clear-headed consciousness / connection to people and the world around them.

This heavy chronic weed is like *opium*, it may not be dangerous but I'm just not sure it's a good idea, and it only gets stronger and stronger with breeding.

Having said that, the cat is out of the bag with legal marijuana so there's no going back -- BUT.. we've got to get some social norms about this stuff, people are just pulling it out and getting high, whereas only an oldschool heavy drunk would pull out out a whiskey flask in the middle of the day, sitting there in conversation with others who aren't drinking, you know?

We need some social stigma on it, and social norms. Problem is that unlike alcohol, cannabis is such a *lifestyle* and people get religious about it, and don't see anything wrong about smoking it whenever they want to. It's a drug, don't delude yourself. Use it sparingly. It's not good to smoke it all the time.

[Quinny]

Never smoked it, but most of the people I have met have dabbled at one time or another without any obvious harm. The only ones who it's caused problems for are those who got arrested and it damaged their career.

I do have concerns about it being a gateway drug, but again my experience of observing people using other drugs indicates a main problem is the 'criminality' angle, which prevents effective treatment.

[SILENTTODD]

Sixstrings wrote:
Are we so sure it's a good idea? To have people laying around doped up? It's like China and the opium dens. Maybe we've got too many people smoking it now, maybe at some point it's not really good for motivation and productivity.

Wow! Sounds a scene from the 1930's movie diatribe "Reefer Madness"!

Sixstrings and rdberg1957, I was hearing everyone of these arguments 40 years ago against the legalization of Cannabis. "Oh! It's much stronger today then it was 30 years ago". Yes, they were saying that in 1974. I don't know where "they" we're living at that time, but here in Southern California I can tell you, you could get just as good of stuff then as anything you find on the streets today.

"Mounting Evidence" that it "appears" to make psychosis worse. Yeh I heard that line in the early 70's too. Not that it caused the psychosis mind you, just aggravated it. What a red herring. Your talking about people who already have a mental problem. Any intoxicant will have an effect on them. Ever seen the Doctor Jekyll/Mr. Hyde effect alcohol can provoke in some people? Two or three drinks and they want to fight everybody. In my experience I have never witnessed that in Cannabis use.

As far as Cannabis use on the job, I don't know many jobs you could hold without it soon becoming apparent you were loaded. I certainly could not have done any of the jobs I held for 33 years at AT&T(they only test new hires for drugs and weren't in 1980). I never worked loaded. You could not function in that setting if you were.

As to driving and being loaded on Cannabis, I'm far more concerned today about people driving and Texting on their cell phone. I've almost been hit twice on my bicycle by idiots Texting while driving. At least the Pot Head is probably looking at the road, and as cops will tell you, tending to stop 30 to 50 feet behind a stop sign (and Pot Heads are not inclined to "road rage" either).

Any of your arguments would make a much stronger case against THE most dangerous recreational drug, Alcohol, and reimposing Prohibition. But nobody in their right mind would favor a return to the 1920's and 30's. The same era they came up with the Prohibition against Cannabis.

P.S. Both biographies I read about the brilliant Carl Sagan, who I quote below, state he regularly enjoyed the use of Cannabis. With no seeming ill effect.

[bettylicious07]

Many people are still confused with legalizing and decriminalization..