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Research helps dispel marijuana myths
Sober Talk ^ | Thursday, August 1, 2002 | By BECKY CLARK, MSW, CSW

Posted on 08/01/2002 5:16:08 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines

Edited on 05/07/2004 8:00:51 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

As we endeavor toward a more lucid and informed discussion of substance abuse, let's deconstruct the mystique of marijuana and recognize it for the dangerous drug that it is.

Marijuana is a substance that's worthy of our concern. It is the most prevalent of all illicit drugs used in the country. The 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse reported that 34 percent of Americans have used marijuana in their lifetime and 5 percent are current users.


(Excerpt) Read more at theithacajournal.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: cannibus; justsaynoelle; wodlist
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To: Scourge of God
Where do you get the drugs, who supplies them? Who suffers when you are inebriated, with impaired physical and mental abilities? Answer: anyone around you suffers. Spouses, children, and total strangers are damaged by your inebriated behavior.

"It takes a village."

541 posted on 08/02/2002 10:01:39 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost
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To: laredo44
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

The irony that Willy fails to see is that Jefferson was talking about being vigilant against the excesses of the Federal Government...
542 posted on 08/02/2002 10:01:41 AM PDT by WyldKard
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To: Hemingway's Ghost; Scourge of God; JediGirl
Where do you get the drugs, who supplies them?

I can't speak for everybody, but I buy my marijuana from a drug dealer.

543 posted on 08/02/2002 10:03:46 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: TonyRo76
freedom means

What is your definition of freedom? Or will that remain your secret?

544 posted on 08/02/2002 10:04:16 AM PDT by laredo44
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To: JediGirl
hm...I'm smoking a joint in the bedroom right now.

Does that make the french horn sound better?

545 posted on 08/02/2002 10:04:55 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost
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To: WyldKard
Yes, but only if they go out and do stuff while inebriated. And those are seperate crimes that are justfully punished. You can be DUI, regardless of intoxication or not.

My point! Why make it legal for even more way to get inebriated, when we already have enough legal ways?

However, you seem to be making the assumption that anyone who, say, smokes pot in their living room is immediately going to go out and commit a crime.

Another point. Do you see how narrowly controlled and how responsible legalized pot smokers would have to be for society to be safe? Do you think they will be? I don't.

You can't legislate morality with any great success. You can't expect most people to do something merely because there is a law for or against it. Morals and ethics begin at home. If parents don't want their kids using intoxicants, they need to teach their kids accordingly. Too many, and I mean WAY TOO MANY parents have no qualms letting the state raise their children for them. They have given up on taking personal responsibility. Most people in this country appear to have. Thats the thing about Socialism..it discourages personal responsibility.

Amen. One hundred amens.

It depends on how much of a Socialist you are going to be. Either you own your own body, or the State does. Which is it for you, then?

If it was up to me, the federal government would be a tiny outfit that fought wars, spied on Moslems and other bad guys, and kept business competition fair. That's it. So I hate big government, I hate the intrusiveness of the nanny state.

Does that mean I want to pay ever-higher insurance premiums because a flood of drug abusers are a drag on the system? Does that mean I want to go out on the fourth of July and risk being hit by a van full of stoned college kids? Do I want my children in school to hear from their friend that "pot's cool, even the government says so"? Answer to all the above: no.

Frankly, I am sick of having my taxes sucked out of me at virtual gunpoint, so that we can waste 10-20 billion dollars a year putting non-violent pot smokers in jail. Think of what we could do if we freed up those resources.

I honestly believe that the social costs, in dollars, of legalized marijuana would equal those of alcohol: $40 billion a year. (That number from memory.)

546 posted on 08/02/2002 10:07:42 AM PDT by Scourge of God
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To: Wolfie
ditto. Ours in on the way right now actually :P
547 posted on 08/02/2002 10:08:05 AM PDT by JediGirl
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To: Wolfie
I can't speak for everybody, but I buy my marijuana from a drug dealer.

Marijuana? What's that?

548 posted on 08/02/2002 10:08:08 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost
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To: Hemingway's Ghost
Does that make the french horn sound better?

lol, hey!! the french horn is a beautiful instrument (when played properly, of course). I'm going through music withdrawals since I have no piano, violin, clarinet, or french horn with me anymore (I've moved)

549 posted on 08/02/2002 10:09:28 AM PDT by JediGirl
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To: Scourge of God
If it was up to me, the federal government would be a tiny outfit that fought wars, spied on Moslems and other bad guys, and kept business competition fair. That's it. So I hate big government, I hate the intrusiveness of the nanny state.

Yet you're leading the cheer for a War on Drugs that's led to the absolute destruction of the 4th Amendment?

550 posted on 08/02/2002 10:11:06 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost
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To: Hemingway's Ghost
Marijuana? What's that?

"Marijuana is the fuse. LSD is the bomb."
- Sgt. Joe Friday

551 posted on 08/02/2002 10:11:56 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: Scourge of God
And how are you getting to the store, smart guy? Driving? Gonna run some other person off the road because you are so high you can't react in time to potential accidents? Maybe you'll walk, and end up stepping in front of a mini van, and scarring some poor soul for the rest of your life because they hit you?

A dealer. He walks over here. And I walk just fine high. I can see just fine. And when I rarely do walk around high, it's on paths, not streets. Normally when I light up, I stay in the house and chill out.

552 posted on 08/02/2002 10:12:02 AM PDT by JediGirl
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To: Scourge of God
Actually, let's examine this. We'll take it in stages.

You: "I don't want people smoking marijuana, in their homes or anywhere else. Smoking a joint is no different than rape or murder"

Me: "That doesn't seem reasonable."

You: "You want my children to live in a cesspool!"

553 posted on 08/02/2002 10:12:56 AM PDT by tacticalogic
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To: laredo44
And even if drugs were legally purchased, you'd just be creating more skunky millionaires like the Coors family or the Levi bunch. And the problem with this is? Do you not like free market Capitalism?

I'm a big fan of the free market. I guess that point would have been better stated that drug money making empires rubs me wrong. But then, so does Tom Hanks or Harrison Ford getting $20 mill to make a movie, when a single cop or a fireman is worth ten times those silly Hollywood dorks. But I wouldn't change the system, I'd try to change the hearts of people.

554 posted on 08/02/2002 10:13:03 AM PDT by Scourge of God
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To: WyldKard
I believe Knighthawk posted the link in posts #333 and #447.
555 posted on 08/02/2002 10:13:28 AM PDT by 4Freedom
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To: JediGirl
"And I walk just fine high. I can see just fine. And when I rarely do walk around high, it's on paths, not streets. Normally when I light up, I stay in the house and chill out."

Man, if the above doesn't just say it all. My comments can't add anything.

556 posted on 08/02/2002 10:14:57 AM PDT by Scourge of God
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To: Scourge of God
I honestly believe that the social costs, in dollars, of legalized marijuana would equal those of alcohol: $40 billion a year. (That number from memory.)

By what data do you use to draw these conclusions, and that figure? You seem to be assuming that pot use would shoot up DRAMATICALLY if pot was legalized. Do you really believe people are baseless savages who are merely held in check by force of law alone?

By what data do you use to make this hypothesis? (I'm just trying to understand your logic process here.) Given that alcohol seems to cause MORE problems than pot, why not ban the former, and legalize the latter? If re-legalizing alcohol didn't destroy the Republic, why do you make such dire preductions for marijuana?

If nothing else, would you at least agree that a Federal War on Drugs is a violation of the 10th Amendment, and that the issue should be decided upon by the individual States? If you believe that the Federal Government has the power to do what it does with the WoD right now, please point out to me in the Constitution granting this power to the Fed.

At least we agree more than we disagree. However, I think the only way you are going to reduce demand is through honest education. You tell people what substance X will do to them, and all the consequences of taking substance X. And if some idiot gets drunk and causes a DUI, throw the book good and hard at him. It's not like he didn't get fair warning...

Trust me, we lose far, far more money (billions upon billions) with smoking, drinking, and fatty foods. Why aren't you championing the illegalization of alcohol, smoking, and fatty foods?
557 posted on 08/02/2002 10:15:14 AM PDT by WyldKard
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To: JediGirl
lol, hey!! the french horn is a beautiful instrument (when played properly, of course). I'm going through music withdrawals since I have no piano, violin, clarinet, or french horn with me anymore (I've moved)

Get yo'self a nice Telecaster and learn how to play the blues, man!

558 posted on 08/02/2002 10:16:19 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost
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To: 4Freedom
If they were stealing for enjoyment to begin with....I wouldn't connect that drugs. If you give the dopers free dope, they still don't have the money for tatoos, body piercings, cars, partying, gangster gear, etc..

Um. We have plenty of money for what we need. It's just like going out and buying a few 12 packs of cola....you make room in your budget for recreational items and snacks. And my favourite Jedi girl? hm....Probably Mara :P

559 posted on 08/02/2002 10:16:20 AM PDT by JediGirl
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To: TonyRo76
no matter how many cool people do it, nobody's going to convince me that smoking pot is anything more than an attempt to temporarily escape from reality

All the pot smokers I've seen are quite real. I've never met one who has actually succeeded in escaping from reality...so I think you'd better be more precise. What you mean (I think) is that people smoke pot only to cease thinking about their problems. And that's bad?

Well, then. No more television, movies, fictional books, junk food, chocolate, parties, casual conversation. No more hiking, biking, casual sports. No more war and scape-goating of foreigners. Would you also ban research into esoteric subjects like mathematics...which one of my finest professors told me he engaged in whenever other aspects of his life became too difficult?

I'm sorry but I find your statement to be entirely without merit. After 40 plus years of smoking I have a pretty good idea about why I do it. It began as experimentation. I was very curious as to what it did. Then I wanted to master it, and I found it helped me perform better and appreciate more in certain situations. Finally it was great fun socially. I almost never smoked alone, and I found that smoking when one had serious problems was the worst time to do so.

I don't feel that my experiences are at all unique. And I don't need fools like you telling me to try Prozac when I prefer pot.

560 posted on 08/02/2002 10:19:48 AM PDT by liberallarry
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