Posted on 08/08/2014 1:36:04 PM PDT by Mariner
Since Colorado voters legalized pot in 2012, prohibition supporters have warned that recreational marijuana will lead to a scourge of “drugged divers” on the state’s roads. They often point out that when the state legalized medical marijuana in 2001, there was a surge in drivers found to have smoked pot. They also point to studies showing that in other states that have legalized pot for medical purposes, we’ve seen an increase in the number of drivers testing positive for the drug who were involved in fatal car accidents. The anti-pot group SAM recently pointed out that even before the first legal pot store opened in Washington state, the number of drivers in that state testing positive for pot jumped by a third.
The problem with these criticisms is that we can test only for the presence of marijuana metabolites, not for inebriation. Metabolites can linger in the body for days after the drug’s effects wear off — sometimes even for weeks. Because we all metabolize drugs differently (and at different times and under different conditions), all that a positive test tells us is that the driver has smoked pot at some point in the past few days or weeks.
It makes sense that loosening restrictions on pot would result in a higher percentage of drivers involved in fatal traffic accidents having smoked the drug at some point over the past few days or weeks. You’d also expect to find that a higher percentage of churchgoers, good Samaritans and soup kitchen volunteers would have pot in their system. You’d expect a similar result among any large sampling of people. This doesn’t necessarily mean that marijuana caused or was even a contributing factor to accidents, traffic violations or fatalities.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Sorry but it’s not true. There are NO one shot addiction. There are one shot OBSESSIONS but that’s addiction. Words have meaning and addiction is a physical process that requires rewiring the neurotransmitters in your brain, which takes repeated frequent exposure over time. Anybody that says there’s one shot addiction is lying. Period.
I’m sure your anecdote (remember the plural of anecdote is not fact) OG “victims” WANTED more crack after the first one. It’s supposed to be quite a rush. But that’s not an addiction. If they were addicted and he didn’t give them more they’d go through DTs, which they wouldn’t do. Not addicted, obsessed. You shouldn’t go believing gangsters who brag of turning girls out, they’re born prevaricators.
>> I know many in their 40’s and 50’s who are fit, upper middle class professionals. Articulate and engaging. Smart.
Well, our summer house is about 45 minutes from downtown Denver; casual strolls past the dope shops reveal not many of those you describe. Most of what we see are long haired, unshaven, scruffy 20-somethings who look like they have pissed away the last 10 years of their lives.
No, you can't answer it and so you dismiss it. YOU have a big problem with the UGLY REALITY of your ideas. Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
The Platzspitz experiment was a test of YOUR IDEAS. They failed miserably. Legalized Opium was a much larger and much wider test of YOUR IDEAS. They failed massively.
What we can learn from real world experiments is that drugs kill people. Lots of people.
There are studies that show the more often people use weed, the less it impairs them. It may simply be that people who use more often learn to function better on pot.
No. The government's position is "If we let this plague get started, thousands if not millions will die before we can stop it again."
And that does not even address the costs to society of having to deal with drug addicts robbing and stealing to feed their addiction.
OK, chilren, let’s do some math. Pothead hippies take over the arts, media, academia and two generations later, conservatives find their butts getting kicked, scratching their heads and wondering if they really are obsolete. Two pothead phone phrackers invent the personal computer and here we are typing messages on Free Republic. Am I getting through to anyone here? So where do you think we should put the equal sign?
SMARTER - FASTER
They probably have! Pot may have contributed too.
But you can find the same class of folks on skid row.
Not much we can do about that besides try to make it unavailable to them. And, we saw how prohibition worked out last time.
Of course I HAVE seen religious folks on FR over the years advocate for prohibiting alcohol again. While I disagree with them, I respect their intellectual honesty.
After all, it IS far more dangerous and damaging than pot.
I meant quick in the head when they were’nt high.
You can play the sophist all you like, but the fact remains that I have first hand witnessed people get hooked on crack after their first hit. I've watched it. I watched them trying to come up with the money for their second. They generally end up having to "trade" for their next hit, and that is exactly what the pusher was trying to get them to do.
I very much doubt that you have as much experience in the drug underground as I have had. I know what i'm talking about because I've watched it live.
It’s supposed to be quite a rush. But that’s not an addiction. If they were addicted and he didn’t give them more they’d go through DTs, which they wouldn’t do. Not addicted, obsessed. You shouldn’t go believing gangsters who brag of turning girls out, they’re born prevaricators.
And here you are trying to spin it again. He wasn't bragging. I saw him talking up the girls, and a day or so latter they were his motel companions. (Crack Binges normally last three days.) A week later they were on the street selling their A$$.
You can say it wasn't real addiction, but it was the same or so close as makes no difference.
So do cars and fries and whiskey and stupid.
Why should we care if somebody decides to kill themselves?
Oh, and this thread is about POT, not heroin. Or meth or any of that other stuff.
I relied upon Colorado Department of Public Health survey results published on their official website on 7 August 2014.
“Preliminary results from the 2013 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey show the percentage of students who perceived a moderate or great risk from marijuana use declined from 58 percent in 2011 to 54 percent in 2013.”
Here’s the link: https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/news/news-new-survey-documents-youth-marijuana-use-need-prevention
Medical marijuana was legalized in Colorado in 2011. Drug warriors said legalization would increase use by juveniles. The survey data indicate that the drug warriors were wrong. I can only hypothesize about the underlying cause for that fact. Maybe Colorado does a good job in educating kids on the risks inherent to using marijuana and tobacco since tobacco usage is also down. Maybe weed has lost its appeal as a forbidden fruit. In any case, the fact is that legalization has not caused an increase in underage use of marijuana in Colorado. In fact, the opposite has occurred.
“From what i’ve seen, the primary danger from Marijuana seems to be that it turns users into worthless F**ks.”
Most of the people I know smoke pot. None of them are on welfare. They all have better than average careers.
Maybe it’s just that the people you know are worthless F**ks and would be regardless.
“I have a good friend who was a Pimp and Drug dealer in the 1990s.”
I think maybe your conclusions are skewed due to the people you hang out with lol.
Wow! I’m honored!
>> pissed away the last 10 years of their lives.
>> They probably have! Pot may have contributed too.
Don’t care if they have, pot or not, EXCEPT:
1/ Don’t do it with my tax SSs.
2/ The flow of US $$s out of the country and into the hands of foreign drug lords is not a good thing. (You want details? I worked for the Colombian Air Force in the ‘80s.)
[Note to self: gotta re-read Margret Mead’s studies, and about China’s “9-cent solution” to the opium problem]
As I pointed out the plural of anecdote is not fact. Your “OG” is not proof. You’re “watching it” is not proof. The science of addiction is pretty well understood, and it does not happen on one shot. That’s not sophistry, that’s fact.
No DTs no addiction. There’s no such thing as “so close as makes no difference”, they’re either addicted, or they aren’t. And after one shot, they aren’t. And saying otherwise is lying.
Didn't match the prediction?
The Global Warming analogy is sooo perfect.
Thank you. That’s exactly what I was thinking, that you couldn’t draw any conclusions is such a short amount of time, and.....we haven’t even gone through winter yet and my guess is there are more auto accidents in winter, but that is truly just a guess.
more are just “chillin out” instead of gettin on the road /LOL
not if you live in another state.
And if she had been able to purchase it herself at the grocery store like booze she NEVER WOULD HAVE EVEN GIVEN THE PIMP THE TIME OF DAY.
Prohibition, keeping the pimps and gangsters in business!
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