Medical Marijuana - Or Marijuana in general. Thoughts?

[Herbalist]

I'll make an admission: I smoke pot. I stopped for many years but recently started again. It helps me more with something I suffer from than conventional medications. I have been in such rough shape I've lost jobs on the old ones, now I hold down two jobs.

I am for legalization, obviously.

Sanjay Gupta changed his mind on pot. Studies have shown it can help with lupus, a previously incurable disease. I have a friend with trigeminal neuralgia, the most painful condition known to man, and only pot helps her sleep and eat. She ain't smoking this recreationally (although she cannot get a medical marijuana permit because she is not a Canadian citizen).

Pot is safer than alcohol, and has more uses besides smoking for example you can make paper from hemp which will prevent the further clear-cutting of forests.

Pot is like the Swiss Army Knife of plants.

What do you think?

[Pjeter Pan]

Its a plant i don't know why in some countries its illegal.

[larali]

I would probably smoke it on occasion if it were legal. I am OK with it being legal... but I don't want to think of a world where everybody is high on pot all the time.

Another problem with it being legal is that it's a hazard to children, so banning it (in theory) can somewhat prevent children from being unnecessarily exposed at a vulnerable developmental period.

[Herbalist]

Another problem with it being legal is that it's a hazard to children, so banning it (in theory) can somewhat prevent children from being unnecessarily exposed at a vulnerable developmental period.

Have an age limit like alcohol does now.

[Eliades]

Bud shouldn't be illegal, it's pretty bad that most places will make legalize alcohol and tobacco when bud is a lot safer for you than those two. I"ll admit I smoke weed pretty consistently and it has never affected my health. Most countries people are just ignorant on the matter, they act like it's crack. Like over here in the states are prison population is mostly people in for drug related crimes, it doesn't make much sense imo.

[larali]

Have an age limit like alcohol does now.

I mean, secondhand exposure. I agree however that alcohol is dangerous to children too (because of parental drunkeness and abuse) but one can drink without exposing children to secondhand effects.

[Manifest Destiny]

I've never used drugs, but I think marijuana should be legal and regulated like alcohol and tobacco. At the very least it would put the drug cartels out of business and generate tax revenue.

[Fortis in Arduis]

Marijuana is harmful to some people and beneficial to others. I think that it can help with painful conditions and it need not be smoked, it can be eaten or even made into pills. It helps with coughs and colds to dry up the rhinitis. In India, marijuana is made into pills and used for general ills. It certainly helps to restore appetite.

Its recreational use is well-known. What matters is that we have a culture of responsible use, but that can only come about through it being decriminalised and for it to be understood as a medicinal plant and a recreational drug.

Spending time in Holland, I found that the coffee shops (dope dens) were frequented by the bored and unemployed, and students having time out. Recreational use does not seem to be associated with healthy living. The coffee shops seemed to be full of slightly depressed people, and they were shabby and a little dirty.

This is the reality of recreational marijuana use. I went to the most upmarket coffee shop in Groningen. They were serving the customers instant coffee, and the people there all seemed to have the complacency associated with pot smoking.

It is also bad for developing brains, and so needs an age limit imposed upon it. In some people, it triggers mental illness. Essentially, it is a low-class activity, but people are going to do it, so... decriminalise and expose it for what it is, the glamour and excitement will be taken out of it, and people can make their informed choice, by going into the coffee shop and looking around at the customers, and seeing for themselves if these people are really having a good time or not.