Legalization or dangers of marijuana

[Lik3]

Does marijuana use REALLY lead to use of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine? Is it any more lethal than alcohol and cigarettes? Unless it is mixed with an illegal, harder drug such as ecstasy, I rarely ever hear about marijuana causing accidents, disease, or death. In those areas, legal drugs such as OTC and prescription medication, alcohol, and cigarettes are even more deadly. Having said that, why are people so against the legalization of marijuana when low grade marijuana can be used for medical purposes? Why is marijuana legal when alcohol and cigarettes that are far more addictive? Is that hypocritical?

 

[QueSeraSera]

I don't know but I saw this today .

Yahoo!

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

the answer to this is not legally allowed nor politically correct, but is yes, no, maybe and none of the above. (not necessarily in that order )....

however, if you research the history before 1940, you might find out a thing or two that usually surprises everyone who finds out.

needed warning >> way way too often, people(of the world) who use it get into much worse stuff and trouble and often end up hurting their family and friends and people they don't know; even causing the death of one or more people they know or don't know, and they often don't care at all).

Does marijuana use REALLY lead to use of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine? Is it any more lethal than alcohol and cigarettes? Unless it is mixed with an illegal, harder drug such as ecstasy, I rarely ever hear about marijuana causing accidents, disease, or death. In those areas, legal drugs such as OTC and prescription medication, alcohol, and cigarettes are even more deadly. Having said that, why are people so against the legalization of marijuana when low grade marijuana can be used for medical purposes? Why is marijuana legal when alcohol and cigarettes that are far more addictive? Is that hypocritical?

 

[Ana the Ist]

Does marijuana use REALLY lead to use of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine? Is it any more lethal than alcohol and cigarettes? Unless it is mixed with an illegal, harder drug such as ecstasy, I rarely ever hear about marijuana causing accidents, disease, or death. In those areas, legal drugs such as OTC and prescription medication, alcohol, and cigarettes are even more deadly. Having said that, why are people so against the legalization of marijuana when low grade marijuana can be used for medical purposes? Why is marijuana legal when alcohol and cigarettes that are far more addictive? Is that hypocritical?

I've heard of someone dying from marijuana because of an allergic reaction. Other than that, the only dangers I'm aware of are lung damage from tar, psychological addiction, and the obvious impairment when using heavy machinery. The illegality of marijuana is a somewhat well documented story if you're really interested in "why". The current trend seems to be leaning towards legalization though...for what seem to be more objective and economic reasons.

 

[Joykins]

I suppose if smoked as frequently as cigarettes marijuana could harm the lungs similarly. Also it causes more motor/perception impairment than cigarettes (in respect to driving/ machine operating skills). I'm not convinced that it is any more of a "gateway" drug than alcohol, and I think it is probably less harmful than alcohol when alcohol is used as a drug (as opposed to very moderate beverage use).

 

[Standing_Ultraviolet]

Whether marijuana is a gateway drug or not isn't really something that we can know through determining the correlation between marijuana use and hard drug use, just because there are so many other factors that can't easily be separated out that differentiate marijuana smokers from non-smokers. Because it's illegal, there's going to be a willingness to use a drug despite potential legal consequences. People who use it are also going to have a social network that involves others with access to the drug, and sometimes with access to harder substances. Obviously, those are serious distinctions that make a simple cause and effect relationship impossible to posit.

What we can know, though, is that, while marijuana does have health risks, its dangers are different than but in some ways similar to those of alcohol. There is a risk of addiction, although it's relatively low in the case of marijuana. Excessive use can cause serious economic or social consequences. There is no risk of immediate overdose with marijuana, as there is with alcohol, but potential long-term health issues might outweigh that benefit. Light or moderate use might have health benefits, as light or moderate use of alcohol does, but those are more difficult to know (since alcohol is legal and frequently consumed both in moderation and in excess, we know its effects better).

I don't believe that marijuana should be illegal, because I feel that an adult's choice of whether to use it or not (and how frequently to use it, if they do) should be within the realm of individual responsibility. That said, I obviously wouldn't use it now, given that it could have serious legal consequences.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Whether marijuana is a gateway drug or not isn't really something that we can know through determining the correlation between marijuana use and hard drug use, just because there are so many other factors that can't easily be separated out that differentiate marijuana smokers from non-smokers. Because it's illegal, there's going to be a willingness to use a drug despite potential legal consequences. People who use it are also going to have a social network that involves others with access to the drug, and sometimes with access to harder substances. Obviously, those are serious distinctions that make a simple cause and effect relationship impossible to posit.

What we can know, though, is that, while marijuana does have health risks, its dangers are different than but in some ways similar to those of alcohol. There is a risk of addiction, although it's relatively low in the case of marijuana. Excessive use can cause serious economic or social consequences. There is no risk of immediate overdose with marijuana, as there is with alcohol, but potential long-term health issues might outweigh that benefit. Light or moderate use might have health benefits, as light or moderate use of alcohol does, but those are more difficult to know (since alcohol is legal and frequently consumed both in moderation and in excess, we know its effects better).

I don't believe that marijuana should be illegal, because I feel that an adult's choice of whether to use it or not (and how frequently to use it, if they do) should be within the realm of individual responsibility. That said, I obviously wouldn't use it now, given that it could have serious legal consequences.

Have you actually heard of anyone overdosing on marijuana? I don't think it works that way...extreme usage might cause vomiting or hypoxia, but those are more a result of inhaling smoke in general...not necessarily correlated to the marijuana itself.

As for hard drugs, I think if we're being honest and objective about it...alcohol is one of the "hardest" drugs around. Apart from hallucinogins, I can't think of a drug that impairs motor skills as badly as alcohol. Alcohol is the only (recreational) drug I'm aware of that can so dramatically affect memory. Anyone who has partied with some hard drinking friends has seen the "blackout" effect where the inebriated person has lost the ability to form new memories almost entirely. Think of that for a moment...a person walking around, doing things without any real awareness or sense of what they are doing. Heroin, crack, meth, ecstasy...none of those drugs do that. Yet we almost rationalize alcohol use in our very language. Why do we say, "drugs and alcohol" instead of just "drugs"? There's really no justification for it outside our own vain attempts at normalizing a rather dangerous recreational drug. As if by somehow separating the two, we disassociate those who drink from, say, those who shoot up.

If I had to put it on a scale of "hardness" I'd place marijuana above caffeine and nicotine and below everything else.

 

[Saleena]

I've never seen someone who does drugs that hasn't smoked...cigarettes. Cigs are the gateway drug tbh. Probably idk. But if that reichwing guy who said pot is worse than alcohol can make stuff up so can I.

OP you question things. I like this in a person. Never stop questioning.

 

[Cearbhall]

I suppose if smoked as frequently as cigarettes marijuana could harm the lungs similarly.

Yep. Smoking it causes damage, but eating it in food is fine.

Have you actually heard of anyone overdosing on marijuana? I don't think it works that way...extreme usage might cause vomiting or hypoxia, but those are more a result of inhaling smoke in general...not necessarily correlated to the marijuana itself.

Yes, I know someone who had to call 911 when someone had seizures from eating too many pot brownies. The concentration is higher when you eat it.

 

[Standing_Ultraviolet]

Have you actually heard of anyone overdosing on marijuana? I don't think it works that way...extreme usage might cause vomiting or hypoxia, but those are more a result of inhaling smoke in general...not necessarily correlated to the marijuana itself.

I said that there's the immediate health risk of an overdose isn't there, unlike with alcohol (which you can easily OD on). Technically, you can overdose on hashish or on synthetic THC (like marinol), but there's no risk of overdose with anything approaching normal amounts of smoked marijuana. Maybe there are amounts that you could technically inhale that would kill you, but that's like saying that you can technically drink enough caffeine to OD. Unless you're actually trying very, very hard to kill yourself, it's not going to happen.

As for hard drugs, I think if we're being honest and objective about it...alcohol is one of the "hardest" drugs around. Apart from hallucinogins, I can't think of a drug that impairs motor skills as badly as alcohol. Alcohol is the only (recreational) drug I'm aware of that can so dramatically affect memory.

Some drugs that are used recreationally can reduce memory worse than alcohol (I know that DXM and PCP can cause memory loss), but in general, you're actually right. I think what most people don't realize is that most commercially available alcohol is very dilute. Beer is around 5% alcohol by volume, and wine or malt liquor is around 10%. You can still get very seriously drunk on it, if you have more than a few beers in an hour, depending on a number of different biological factors. Once you get to liquors, which are usually around 40% to 50% ABV, a 12 oz. can would be very unsafe. Beyond that, overproof rum like Bacardi 151 or neutral grain spirits like Everclear are dangerous without serious dilution. A beer can full of Everclear would put you in the hospital or the morgue, no questions asked, if you somehow managed to drink it. A 40 oz., like you can get with beer or malt liquor, would probably put you beyond medical help if you somehow choked it through your esophagus.

Alcohol is very definitely a drug. It happens to be our favorite drug in the West (and I'm partial to it myself, particularly in the form of imperial porter and IPA), but I do think that it's disingenuous to pretend that it's not a relatively hard drug in any serious concentration.

If I had to put it on a scale of "hardness" I'd place marijuana above caffeine and nicotine and below everything else.

Nicotine usually falls around the same level as alcohol, because of the addiction and health risks associated with it. I've used nicotine before and didn't get all that much out of it, but you have to be careful with it to avoid addiction, and you can't kid yourself on the point that even low or moderate use has health risks.

 

[Paradoxum]

Obviously cannabis should be legal.

Being against simply shows that someone is ignorant, or an authoritarian lowlife, treating others like property to control how they wish.

Perhaps all drugs should be decriminalised or legalised. The important thing is good drug education so people can make informed choices. In my opinion the current situation could promote harder drugs. That's because the government is obviously wrong about banning soft drugs, so there's no reason to trust them as good advisers on which drugs are actually dangerously harmful.

 

[PsychoSarah]

My concern is that if marijuana is made legal then companies are going to start adding the same crap they put in cigarettes into it, making it all the worse for people and that much more addictive and unhealthy.

 

[Cearbhall]

My concern is that if marijuana is made legal then companies are going to start adding the same crap they put in cigarettes into it, making it all the worse for people and that much more addictive and unhealthy.

That's an interesting point. I've never heard it brought up before, but you're completely right. If it became a product of big business, you'd have to seek out the "organic" marijuana to avoid the extra chemicals.

 

[High Fidelity]

I think that while it's 'not as bad' as some other legal addictions, it isn't harmless and that seems to be a common misconception.

It most certainly IS NOT harmless.

I do think as well that it can easily facilitate a person's journey to harder drugs.

 

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

Why is caffeine brought up in discussions of recreational drugs? Do people party by getting high on caffeine?

I suppose that some people are dependent on caffeine, but how can its general use be equated to alcohol, cocaine, etc.?

I don't use anything containing caffeine for the effects of caffeine. I drink Mountain Dew because I like the taste, not for any effect that caffeine has. I would gladly drink caffeine-free Mountain Dew if it tasted the same, but not only does it not taste the same, it does not taste good at all. The only way to get caffeine-free tea is to brew it yourself. If I was brewing my own tea I would use decaffeinated tea bags. I drink tea not for the caffeine but for the tea, and neither restaurant tea nor bottled teas are decaffeinated. I choose plenty of products that are caffeine-free, such as ginger ale, so the effects of the drug called caffeine obviously are not what I am trying to get.

 

[Joykins]

If you become physically dependent on caffeine, you will drink it for its effects, e.g. to avoid the horrid headache and bad mood monster. It also speeds up some tasks.

/caffeine addict

 

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

Obviously cannabis should be legal.

Being against simply shows that someone is ignorant, or an authoritarian lowlife, treating others like property to control how they wish...

I think that Americans are over-medicated and put way too many unneeded substances into their bodies.

I think that, no matter what side people are on, the issue of prohibition is fighting over symptoms and failing to address underlying social problems.

To say that opposing the abolition of prohibition is ignorance or any of the other things you name is oversimplifying. People should not have to either take sides in a controversy that they think misses the point or be called "ignorant", an "authoritarian lowlife", etc.

 

[PsychoSarah]

If you become physically dependent on caffeine, you will drink it for its effects, e.g. to avoid the horrid headache and bad mood monster. It also speeds up some tasks.

/caffeine addict

Yup, caffeine is a drug people often do not realize is considered a drug.

 

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

Yup, caffeine is a drug people often do not realize is considered a drug.

But do people use it like they use alcohol, cocaine, etc.?

And if A contains caffeine does that necessarily mean that people are using A as a drug? Again, I drink things like Mountain Dew because I like the taste, not for the caffeine.

 

[PsychoSarah]

But do people use it like they use alcohol, cocaine, etc.?

And if A contains caffeine does that necessarily mean that people are using A as a drug? Again, I drink things like Mountain Dew because I like the taste, not for the caffeine.

Caffeine is more addictive than alcohol, and it can have adverse effects on the body, especially high amounts. And the longer you use it, the more and more you need to keep the energy up, risking your heart in particular. At one point, my grandmother was drinking up to 5 pots of it a day while she was a nurse. Not cups, pots, she would drink that much. And it can mess you up.