California's Prop 19

[woot]

The argument about crime going down is kind of lame. If we legalize murder then of course the crime rate goes down. Have you not seen The Wire? Look what happened in Hamsterdam.

I would agree, if the argument made is really that simple. One can't overlook, however, all the extra time that cops will have to actually do productive police work if they're no longer spending so much time raiding people's houses for weed. So, it still might have an effect, depending on how one values the preventive aspect of police work.

[marsupial]

What does more damage to society: alcohol or weed? I would say alcoholism causes more deaths and broken families than excessive marijuana use. As a good little Mormon girl with little to no experience with either substance, I wonder is it the nature of alcohol and what it does to your body and brain that makes alcohol more harmful than pot overall or is it just that it is legal, accepted and more readily available so therefor more rampant than marijuana use.

Also, it's called the gateway drug. Would it cease to be a gateway drug if it were legal? It seems like it is a gateway drug not because of its nature but because it leads you to drug dealers, stoners and junkies who then introduce you to heavier stuff. If you could get it legally then you wouldn't be dealing with such shady characters.

[pellegrino]

Maybe he just wanted information.

I deserved that, well played.

What does more damage to society: alcohol or weed? I would say alcoholism causes more deaths and broken families than excessive marijuana use. As a good little Mormon girl with little to no experience with either substance, I wonder is it the nature of alcohol and what it does to your body and brain that makes alcohol more harmful than pot overall or is it just that it is legal, accepted and more readily available so therefor more rampant than marijuana use.

Also, it's called the gateway drug. Would it cease to be a gateway drug if it were legal? It seems like it is a gateway drug not because of its nature but because it leads you to drug dealers, stoners and junkies who then introduce you to heavier stuff. If you could get it legally then you wouldn't be dealing with such shady characters.

A friend had this posted on his facebook. I'm doubtful of the rankings, but I have nothing to counter it with.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/1...in-1148653343/

Alcohol is a more dangerous drug than both crack and heroin when the combined harms to the user and to others are assessed, British scientists said Monday.

Presenting a new scale of drug harm that rates the damage to users themselves and to wider society, the scientists rated alcohol the most harmful overall and almost three times as harmful as cocaine or tobacco.

[creekster]

I deserved that, well played.




A friend had this posted on his facebook. I'm doubtful of the rankings, but I have nothing to counter it with.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/1...in-1148653343/

I only skimmed the articel to make sure it didnt say anythign about me and bedbugs, but it looked like it didnt reveal any methodology. I am pretty skeptical about the rankings, to be honest. What is it based on? What leve of alcohol use? I have been around users of various drugs and a close family member is an alcoholic and IMO heroin and crack are both worse than alcohol. Marijuana just makes yoiu hungry and stoopid. but it can also make you drive like an idiot.

[pellegrino]

I only skimmed the articel to make sure it didnt say anythign about me and bedbugs, but it looked like it didnt reveal any methodology. I am pretty skeptical about the rankings, to be honest. What is it based on? What leve of alcohol use? I have been around users of various drugs and a close family member is an alcoholic and IMO heroin and crack are both worse than alcohol. Marijuana just makes yoiu hungry and stoopid. but it can also make you drive like an idiot.

No specifics about the methodology were revealed in the article. I tend to agree with you. To say that meth, crack, cocaine, and heroine are all less dangerous than alcohol makes me think there is an agenda behind the study, likely to legalize marijuana. That said, I agree with marsupial's analysis of mj as a gateway drug, and I wouldn't be opposed to legalizing it, even if I can't get my 4:20 jokes right.

[woot]

What does more damage to society: alcohol or weed? I would say alcoholism causes more deaths and broken families than excessive marijuana use. As a good little Mormon girl with little to no experience with either substance, I wonder is it the nature of alcohol and what it does to your body and brain that makes alcohol more harmful than pot overall or is it just that it is legal, accepted and more readily available so therefor more rampant than marijuana use.

Also, it's called the gateway drug. Would it cease to be a gateway drug if it were legal? It seems like it is a gateway drug not because of its nature but because it leads you to drug dealers, stoners and junkies who then introduce you to heavier stuff. If you could get it legally then you wouldn't be dealing with such shady characters.

The jury is in on this question, and the answer is very, very clear. Alcohol is much worse for the individuals who consume it and for society in general than is weed.

I'm not sure how much detail to go into, but the highlights include:

Weed can't kill you via overdose. No such thing as a weed overdose.

Weed doesn't mess with your balance, so being high on weed does not affect one's ability to drive to nearly the degree that alcohol does.

Weed grows easily anywhere (thus the name), and is very cheap.

Alcohol makes lots of people aggressive. Weed makes lots of people sleepy and wooooooo! Dude bro I just thought of something that's going to blow your mind!

Weed does not cause the long-term health problems that alcohol does. It doesn't make you fat (other than giving you the munchies, although there are varieties that don't seem to have this effect, and one still has to make the decision to go eat something), it doesn't destroy your liver, etc. It probably contributes to lung cancer if it is smoked, but whereas smoking a pack or more of cigarettes a day is pretty standard, about half of a MJ cigarette, even of the cheapest stuff, is plenty to get you baked. I don't imagine that half a cigarette a couple times a week is going to kill anyone faster than they're dying already from other causes. Plus, one can always get a vaporizer or just cook with it instead of smoking it.

Good enough, I reckon. The main reason why weed is illegal is ignorance

[il Padrino Ute]

That weed makes one sleepy certainly shows that it does affect one's ability to drive the same as alcohol, no? After all, sleepiness impairs one's reflexes, doesn't it?

[woot]

That weed makes one sleepy certainly shows that it does affect one's ability to drive the same as alcohol, no? After all, sleepiness impairs one's reflexes, doesn't it?

It's not controversial that alcohol makes it harder to drive than weed does. But yes, being sleepy isn't good either. I don't recommend driving while on weed. The fact is that it's less dangerous to do so, though.

While I haven't tried it, I would guess that the sleepiness would give way to the paranoia were one to get behind the wheel. The sleepiness dominates in comfortable settings, while the paranoia tends to dominate in strange ones. I've heard many times that folks who blaze and drive are extra, extra careful about it and that's probably why.

[il Padrino Ute]

It's not controversial that alcohol makes it harder to drive than weed does. But yes, being sleepy isn't good either. I don't recommend driving while on weed. The fact is that it's less dangerous to do so, though.

While I haven't tried it, I would guess that the sleepiness would give way to the paranoia were one to get behind the wheel. The sleepiness dominates in comfortable settings, while the paranoia tends to dominate in strange ones. I've heard many times that folks who blaze and drive are extra, extra careful about it and that's probably why.

Perhaps the paranoia does make one a bit more cautious when driving, though I've never smoked pot so I can't comment on that.

[wuapinmon]

Perhaps the paranoia does make one a bit more cautious when driving, though I've never smoked pot so I can't comment on that.

My mom asked me last night, "Mac, you've never smoked pot?" Me: "No, never. I've never done any illegal drugs." Mom: incredulously, "Really?"

WTF?

[creekster]

Perhaps the paranoia does make one a bit more cautious when driving, though I've never smoked pot so I can't comment on that.

But it isn't good to be so hyper cautious. IN fact, in tehir own way, they create significant hazards.

[il Padrino Ute]

But it isn't good to be so hyper cautious. IN fact, in tehir own way, they create significant hazards.

Agreed.

I suppose that driving after smoking pot is as bad as driving after drinking. I personally believe that to be true, but you just strengthened my belief.

[RobinFinderson]

My mom asked me last night, "Mac, you've never smoked pot?" Me: "No, never. I've never done any illegal drugs." Mom: incredulously, "Really?"

WTF?

Sounds like a free pass, man! Next time you are in Cali...

[woot]

But it isn't good to be so hyper cautious. IN fact, in tehir own way, they create significant hazards.

I wouldn't doubt it. I remember a scene in whatever "Tommy Boy 2" was called where they get pulled over for driving 8 on the freeway. It wasn't weed they were on, as I recall, but that result is probably closer to what weed would do than the sort of swerving recklessness that booze causes.

[il Padrino Ute]

I wouldn't doubt it. I remember a scene in whatever "Tommy Boy 2" was called where they get pulled over for driving 8 on the freeway. It wasn't weed they were on, as I recall, but that result is probably closer to what weed would do than the sort of swerving recklessness that booze causes.

It was nitrous oxide. The film was Black Sheep.