Marijuana for everyone!

[Dinith88]

What is your take on the issue of legalizing marijuana?

[ktwlpn, LPN]

Maybe you should leave the area while the smoking is taking place?

The nurses here just hook the pt up with their joint..the lighter..then they leave or hang out outside the room. No need to inhale it.

no smoking needed while hospitilized-give them marinol...

[GLORIAmunchkin72]

"High driving" laws? Get out of here! We have enough problems as it is.

Did someone say that? I think it should be legalized ,taxed and controlled just like alcohol...with "high driving" laws just like "drunk driving" laws...It's less harmful then alcohol as far as health issues.....

[mattsmom81]

Totally not true! If you're in a room with people smoking pot...you WILL get high. Period.

Do you really think that by smoking pot the THC suddenly magically disappears upon inhaling it? Do you think your lungs filter THC?

As a side note.....contact high here means being around people smoking up.....thus...getting high from it.

Wow...most of us who were teens in the 60's and 70's attended parties where pot was smoked..and can testify that YES the secondhand pot smoke effects us!!

I believe that those who poo poo this secondhand effect are likely advocates of legalization in all forms. I for one think its OK for medicinal purposes, within strict guidelines, IF in the eaten form, and isn't effecting anyone else.

I remember in the 70's catching a whiff of pot smoke down the oncology hall, and making a mental note not to make rounds 'just yet' as I knew I was sensitive to it. This was when patients could smoke in the hospital. I figured cancer patients could be given a break so I never reported.

I like Steph grew up with lots of lazy pot smoking kids who never grew out of it...neglected their kids, didn't work, etc. they'd rather stay home and get high and collect welfare.

Heard a radio show the other day where folks from a legal medical use state were trying to 'de- legalize' marijuana because of all the corruption it spawned. Too many with RX for medical use had became dealers of their own product. I'm not surprised.

[Pvt. Parts]

Legalize & tax the hell out of it.

There are studies in other countries where when they made pot legal, rates of abuse skyrocketed.

Care to cite your source on this?

[Sue7573]

This is my personal opinion/viewpoint on the matter. First of all I don't believe that it will ever be legalized for the simple fact that to many people make too much money off of pot and any and/or all other illegal drugs. AND then if it were legalized and produced such as tobacco when it is sold it is graded and priced accordingly. What would make anyone think that the good "fat hairy red skunk bud" is going to wind up in your joint? The crap would all be the same, save for the top selling brand(s). My point is in cigarettes there are the good brands ie Marlboro, Winston, Camel and then there are the average kind like Doral and then the junk kind like bust buy or GPC. The pot will be graded like that. The taste may be different as in from one cig to the next but as far as the high it will all be the same. In my experience it was the "best s**t" that was sought after that is what brought the best money. If some one got thier hands on the "good S**T" then they could stand to make a very hefty profit. Are all the pot smokers of the world going to just accept what the government offers if it were legalized?

My thinking here makes sense to me, hope it does for you too.

Sue

P.S. Just an FYI my experience is not from me directly acting in or partaking in any of the activities of smoking, selling, or sharing, just observing.

[suebird3]

I believe that, if it helps the medical diagnosis....ie. MS, glaucoma, anorexia d/t CA, etc., it should be legal. I may not have any of the dx's, but one never knows.

I just went back and read some of the other posts. Yes, there is abuse all over, and there always will be a potential for abuse NO MATTER WHAT the substance. This is a very hot/touchy subject, and I agree there needs to be strict guidelines.

Sue

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

Random thoughts . ..

When smoked, marijuana deposits about four times as much tar into the lungs as a filtered tobacco cigarette.

Legalizing it would send a message to children that marijuana use is harmless or even beneficial. (Aren't we having a discussion about cigarette companies targeting kids with those flavored cigarettes on another thread?).

Pot is 10 times more potent that in the 1960's.

Marijuana has no medical value that cannot be met more effectively by the legal, FDA-approved prescription drug Marinol. (From the FDA) Marinol does not produce the harmful health effects associated with smoking crude marijuana. The active ingredient in Marinol is synthetic THC (the major psychoactive component of marijuana), which has been found to relieve the nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy for cancer patients and to assist with loss of appetite in AIDS patients. Also unlike crude, smoked marijuana, it is a controlled dose and has been studied and approved by the medical community and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), someone who smokes five joints per week may be taking in as many cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a full pack of cigarettes per day. Smoking one marijuana cigarette deposits about four times as much tar into the lungs as a filtered tobacco cigarette.

Smoking marijuana combines the worst elements and long-term impacts of smoking tobacco, plus the mind and memory altering component and impaired judgment.

NIH studies have shown this as one of many long-term health consequences of marijuana use. Marijuana contains more than 400 chemicals, including most of the harmful substances found in tobacco smoke. The harmful chemicals and carcinogens that are byproducts of smoking create entirely new health problems.

Should marijuana be accepted as medicine?

No, marijuana should not be accepted as a medicine. Medical science is willing to approve, after testing, even dangerous drugs if they've been shown to be helpful to sick people, but to quote the FDA, "While there are no proven benefits to smoked marijuana use, there are many short and long term risks associated with marijuana use." And of those leading the legalization movement, some are political activists who have been wanting it legal since the 70s and are now claiming its medical benefits, and others are commodities traders who use their millions to fund initiative movements in states they do not even live in. Aspirin's derived from willow bark - has your doctor ever asked you to smoke a tree and call him in the morning? :rotfl:

Alaska and Oregon experienced a doubling in marijuana addiction rates when they relaxed their drug laws. Alaska finally recriminalized marijuana in 1990.

The Netherlands loosened its drug laws for adults in 1997, and marijuana use jumped dramatically for nearly every age group during a time when marijuana use in the United States decreased.

Great Britain experimented with heroin as a prescription drug and found that it created a huge black market for addicts, raising their number by 100%. A disproportionate percentage of these new addicts were sixteen and seventeen. They have since phased out this program.

In 1992 Switzerland ended their policy of decriminalization when the number of drug addicts they were attempting to contain in their needle park jumped from a few hundred to over 20,000.

*********************

I guess it depends on where you look for information. I certainly found many sites that have studies proving addiction. And increase in usage after legalization.

Which are my points. I do think pot is addictive. I think legalizing would increase usage.

Why have more people impaired?

steph

Pvt. Parts . .. . I got the above from a bunch of different sites when I googled this issue . . .I didn't bookmark them though.

steph

[teeituptom, BSN, RN]

Dont Debate it

light one up and pass it around

[Pvt. Parts]

I was hoping you would actually give me some links, stevielynn. I enjoy reading the research on this stuff.

I would wager to say that your sources are biased towards the anti-pot web sites because of your negative experiences, am I correct?

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

I was hoping you would actually give me some links, stevielynn. I enjoy reading the research on this stuff.

I would wager to say that your sources are biased towards the anti-pot web sites because of your negative experiences, am I correct?

No, I just googled . . .

But in re-reading my post, I see that some of the stuff comes from the FDA and NIH, so you could go there.

Besides, even if the organization is anti-legalization, that stats for increased usage are still the stats.

steph

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

Dont Debate it

light one up and pass it around

Are you sure you aren't my ex-husband? By the way he is moving to Texas soon . . . :)

steph

[Pvt. Parts]

Check this out --> http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_myth.shtml

It's plainly obvious that it's a pro-legalization "fact" sheet.

The reason I posted that link is to point out that if I want to vehemently promote my pro-legalization stance, I can do it easily (thanks to google), despite the fact that some of the information in that link is wrong, but not all of it.

Both the pro-legalization movement and anti-legalization group distort and manipulate actual research results to further their own political agenda.

The most objective summary of the research on marijuana that I have found is a chapter in this book: Buzzed

I highly recommend that book, as I found it to be straightforward, easy to read, and very interesting.