Should Marijuana be legalized?

Discussion in 'Bulletin Board' started by RedKestrel, Nov 20, 2017.

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Should Marijuana be legalized?

  1. Yes

    33 vote(s)
    57.9%
  2. No

    24 vote(s)
    42.1%
  1. Jay

    Jay Well-Known Member

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    As another user said, not rare, just a small percentage, but that is still quite a large number. However, what concerns me more is that a much higher percentage find that their mental health is affected by the use of hash/cannabis/marijuana whatever you want to call it. Not psychosis, but depression and anxiety. For many, many people smoking a joint will produce nothing but pleasant feelings, but there is a huge section of the population with a predisposition for mental health problems, for whom smoking weed will cause depression and anxiety. Something they may never experience in their whole lives if they didn't take drugs, the trigger for which is undoubtedly the drugs. Maybe not the first time they take it, maybe not the 23rd, but it could be the 24th and it can be debilitating, affecting their whole life for the rest of their life, and their family and loved ones.

    Not that I'm anti-drugs. I'm not at all, I think all drugs should be legalised. But when these discussions take place the affect they can have on a major percentage of the populace is rarely discussed.

    Yours, a drug user who suffers mental health problems.
     
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  2. Merde Tete

    Merde Tete Well-Known Member

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    I think that's a very important point. I never really smoked that much weed, because it was always 50/50 for me whether I'd be in fits of laughter or jibbering in a corner thinking horrible thoughts. How people react to various substances is always a bit of a lottery. Most of us can enjoy alcohol on a weekend or evening without it ever getting in the way of having a productive life, but a significant minority, such as my uncle, end up getting mentally, then physically addicted to it, to the point they can't function without it. Then they can't function at all. Then they die, a horrible horrible death.

    This is not a reason to ban responsible adults from consuming either of these substances and others, but it's also a reason not to be blaze about them either.
     
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  3. hav

    havana red1 Well-Known Member

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    Spot on that mate.
     
  4. Jay

    Jay Well-Known Member

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    Exactly that. I don't want to see any legislation that prevents adults doing anything to themselves, but we're human beings and we're vulnerable and for some people taking drugs really isn't a good option. I don't know whether or not we should say it's OK when for some it really isn't. Legislation has to go hand in hand with sensible, open discussion and I don't think many societies are there yet. I like Portugal's model which appears to work better than any other. And I'd still go for legalising everything even though I know the pitfalls.
     
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  5. Gol

    Goldthorpe-Red Well-Known Member

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    I always think your experience depends on the setting. I was 13 the first time I smoked a joint, it was in a snicket on bonfield cres in wombwell. I walked home through the park and over onto hillies past the high school at about 10pm and I was shot to bits.

    I've always been interested in weed, I've smoked near enough all types, grows etc... "Blues" is a decent smoke. Nowadays we go up to the cricket club and pass a few joints until it shuts on a Friday night. Couple of glasses of coke and about 40 bags of seabrooks, then we head back to one of our houses and have a few games on fifa with a few pizzas.

    Each to their own. We enjoy it, we cause no bother. Much better than going into Barnsley 15 pints deep and ending up getting beat up or locked up.

    For those who know very little about skunk then have a good read about it. Very interesting topic.
     
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  6. Duntpasstome

    Duntpasstome Well-Known Member

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    A disturbing thread with the majority of posts pro drug use. I don't take any drugs, I did try them as a daft late teens but not since maturing in to a sensible life except I do drink alcohol in social occasions and managed to stop smoking a couple of years ago.

    I think the best way to answer a question like this is would you allow or encourage your children when they reach 16 years old to use the drug?
    If the answer is no then you shouldn't condone it for personal use, that's hypocritical.

    I strongly agree that for people truly suffering in pain and these drugs can help then without a doubt it should be issued legally.
     
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  7. man

    mansfield_red Well-Known Member

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    I think that's taking a very simple, black and white view of the matter. If drugs being illegal meant that no-one could get hold of them then yes, I would agree with keeping it illegal. However it doesn't mean that. What it does mean is that we have a multi million (if not billion) pound industry where revenue is not taxed and is often used to fund other illegal enterprises. It means that there is no control over the strength or safety of the drugs being supplied. It means that drug addiction is treated as a criminal issue rather than a health issue. It means that a ridiculous amount of government money is wasted every year fighting an unwinnable "war".

    For these reasons (as someone who doesn't use cannabis) I think that legalising cannabis would, on the whole, benefit society.
     
  8. sadbrewer

    sadbrewer Well-Known Member

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    I think that's a real head in the sand attitude....the war against drugs will carry on costing a ridiculous amount of Govt money..or wasting it as you put it, that is unless you think they should also legalise Heroin?
     
  9. man

    mansfield_red Well-Known Member

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    It's not a head in the sand attitude at all. I would apply the same question to heroin as cannabis - which causes the most harm to society overall - it being legal or illegal? With heroin I think there is certainly still an argument for legalising it but it is more difficult to justify given the massive harm it does to the user. Regardless of whether it is legal or illegal however I think we need to treat addiction more as a health issue rather than a criminal issue.
     
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  10. sadbrewer

    sadbrewer Well-Known Member

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    True to a point...but marijuana is mixed with tobacco, and I know plenty of people who then wash it down with alcohol.
    What I would say is that the Govt are trying very hard to reduce the consumption of both, it hardly seems sensible to make another narcotic easier to get ...and despite what some on here have said about it being harmless, I have contrary personal and professional knowledge of a number of long term users who can hardly hold a conversation these days.
     
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  11. sadbrewer

    sadbrewer Well-Known Member

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    I would agree it needs to be treated primarily as a health issue, but the fact that is illegal will determine some people , which cannot be a bad result.
    As to your assertion that there is an argument for legalising heroin...I honestly fail to see it, Heroin and it's derivatives are the nastiest wrecker of lives ever devised , all it produces are people who are incapable of work and susceptible to early death....I am not saying that from a position of ignorance but through my dealings with an addiction rehabilitation centre and the professionals who run it on the ground at the sharp end.
     
  12. John Peachy

    John Peachy Well-Known Member

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    I wouldn't say the thread was pro drugs. Rather a grown up, open debate about them. One which our politicians are incapable of engaging in. To treat kids as young as 15 as criminals, instead of victims is unforgivable in my book.
     
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  13. PNG

    PNG Tyke (Ok Y Goch) New Member

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    Here in Papua New Guinea- betel nut is legal. Its commonly grown and would be impossible to regulate.
    Its probably on a level with tobacco. Everyone ones chews, even very young children and spits red stuff everywhere.
    Its a massive health problem. Mouth cancers are the highest on the planet. The habit destroys peoples teeth and then nutrition. The poor country has no medical service which can deal with the problem.

    The real problem is not the drug, but a society that drives the need. To an extent, I think this thread is missing the point a bit.
    We need to focus on making the world better for everyone so the "need" to use drugs is reduced.
    I will drink to that ;)
     
  14. sadbrewer

    sadbrewer Well-Known Member

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    As you say the thread per se is not pro drugs, but some of the replies certainly have been...
    I would ask any of those who have extolled the virtues of drugs and the benign happiness of the Saturday night spliff to ask themselves if they would be happy to find their kids or grandkids smacked off their t**s on a regular basis funding the lifestyle of their local drug dealer who will most probably at some stage offer something a little superior.

    To say that anyone is treating kids as young as 15 as criminals is incorrect...at least where I am, the focus is to get the dealers, the kids need discouraging by whatever means and if that means retaining criminal proceedings as a possibility or just an implied threat then so be it, that in my book is reasonable and needs no forgiveness.
     
  15. Merde Tete

    Merde Tete Well-Known Member

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    That's of course where things start to get a bit more difficult from a moral and practical standpoint. Where to draw the line between "recreational" and "hard" drugs? I was very dubious as to how successful Portugal's approach would be when decriminalising all drugs including heroin, yet it has rapidly gone from one of the countries in Europe with the worst statistics regarding intravenous drugs use to one of the countries with the fewest deaths. Legalisation doesn't necessarily mean making access easier. Currently it's just as easy for a 13 year old to get hold of marijuana or heroin than it is an adult. Any regulation will set an age limit on these products, which would actually have the effect of making it harder to get hold of. As far as I'm aware, the way any system where heroin is legal works, is that the supply is accessible and clean, but extremely limited and a lot of different identification is needed in order to obtain it. This kills the black market dead, getting rid of the free for all in which theoretically kids can purchase a potentially lethal product and makes sure that addicts only get a clean product at a non-lethal dose.


    I'm not advocating the legalisation of heroin by the way, but I genuinely don't think that legalisation would mean more people trying it, any more than the fact that vodka being perfectly legal doesn't mean that the majority of people wake up in the morning and down a bottle, something that wrecks lives just as much as heroin addiction. I guess an interesting comparison is the fact that the age of sexual consent in the Netherlands is 14 I think, but they've got the lowest teen pregnancy rates in Europe, as it's coupled with proper education. In Britain, at least when I was a teenager, we were basically just told "don't do it until you're 16 as it's bad", and as a consequence nobody could keep their pants on at school (well, we waited till after the school day had finished but you know what I mean!) That is a head in the sand attitude, and it's the same with drugs now. By the way, I'm not advocating reducing the age of consent to 14 either. What I am advocating is education, open debate and harm reduction. These are the way forward.
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2017
  16. Sco

    Scoff Well-Known Member

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    There is an argument that legalizing drugs and making them readily available from the government (potentially even at cost) will remove the market from drug dealers completely.
     
  17. DEETEE

    DEETEE Well-Known Member

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    Few spliffs like a few beers on a whole cause no bother.

    Problem happens when you go from social to almost reliant.

    That spliff or pint saturday night becomes a friday night treat then sunday so you can sleep before work and before long you become a functioning addict.

    Ive caught the train some mornings and the fumes from the mid 40s 'wine o clock' office women to the red nosed 50 year old 6 pints a night after my shift right down to the youngsters having some puff for breakfast is quite prevailant.

    With that,there becomes a point when the buzz of a spliff or a beer isnt given you the hit you first have.

    You go ask about in town with the smackheads and see where they all began.

    Few spliffs on a weekend....

    And im far from being anti drugs. Ive been around them almost my entire adult life.

    Ive seen the good times and the bad times the devestation caused by both beer and gear.
     

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