http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4582818.stm
I was reading the article here and it occurred to me that most cannabis spoken of in UK is Hash. Over here, at least in California, hash carries a much more serious penalty than cannabis, ie, grass, pot, weed. I believe hash becomes a felony. I may be wrong.
I thought the Uk's action seemed reasonable, but then I haven't been there for 15 years and have no idea what passes as hash over there now. I have been told it's unrecognizable to us 60's folk and would probably lay us low in a couple of drags.
So i was wondering what and how others feel?
Myself, I've always been against anyone under the age of 18 smoking. Mainly cos I feel you have to fill the head with some form of traditional education, and i do not mean religious indoctrination of any kind, i mean yer basic three r's, before you allow someone loose on the world.
I also go along with the use of cannabis as a medication, as in the medically prescribed 'pot club' stuff, not yer pills with only some parts of the drug synthesised.
Just wondering if anyone knew anything about the current scene back home and just how dangerous it is?
Canada has legalised medical marijuana to a few thousand people who are either chronically ill or in great pain. The government even supplies the marijuana - otherwise those people would become criminals as soon as they purchase it.
Like Britain this country is also well on the way towards decriminalisation.
I generally support the idea of decriminalisation. BUT I worry about four things.
1/ Firstly a lot of dope is way, way stronger than what was availble, say in the 1970s - some really destablising skunk out there with much higher THC content. It's not quite the "soft" drug it once was.
2/ I'm worried enough about drunk drivers without having to consider a whole new generation of stoned drivers. Simple breathalysers that are effective with alcohol become blood and urine tests with stoned drivers - bringing up all sorts of civil rights issues.
3/ By sanctioning dope, people may be unaware of that a joint contains the tar of at least a dozen cigarettes. This creates another generation of people at risk of lung cancer and other smoking related diseases, at a time when the war was starting to be won with tobacco.
4/ And I share the concerns of the article that decriminalisation may be interpreted as "safe" while marijuana carries different but no no less serious risks that alcohol does including memory loss etc.
Trouble is, alcohol was legal far before they decided that marijuana ought be illegal.
Apparently medical marijuana was given quite liberally in Boulder Community Hospital at least during the seventies (and possibly the sixties but haven't met a nurse old enough that still works there)
If you compare the qualities of morphine to marijuana in the medical field, marijuana doesn't really pose a threat whatsoever.
Marijuana possession has been leqalized in the city of Denver. However as federal (evil)law supercedes fuck near everything that law hasn't changed a damn thing.
For myself, haven't smoked the stuff in 10 years so wouldn't know what current stuff is like, but there are scare stories in the local papers that dealers are now lacing it with herion.
I think the ocassional smoke is OK, but I could say the same is true for tobacco. After all, there are people in Congress/The Senate acting like they took a full load of PCP and they're not getting arrested..........................oh wait..........................
I've drunk enough alcohol to sink the Titanic but have never done drugs of any type whatsoever and never had an inclination to, so does that make me a stimulant snob?
Yes, re-assess it.
Legalise it, tax it, use the money to bust crack dealers, meth dealers and real criminals like that.
Legalize it all. Prices will presumably drop. Quality can be mandated. Tax it. Tax revenue goes up. Even with tax it should cut the legs out from under the dealers. Crime goes down. Less people are sent to jail on drug charges. Tax burden for and need for the massive penal expansion in the US goes down. Everybody wins.
Well maybe not people who become hopelessly physically and mentally addicted to some of it, but we have plenty of people who can’t get through the day without a pack of cigs and/or a couple of drinks. They’re mostly tolerated.
Is it true that you can buy cannabis over the phone in UK by pressing the 'hash' key?
I awlays found it easier to just call my dealer.
...er I mean what is this cannabis to which you reefer?
/refer?
lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol
Having it will not solve the problem. Many advocates that say that refuse to look at the complete picture.
You make it legal= Government will tax it = I don't want to pay your tax = back to smuggling it back in = back to square one.
The Uk losses billions a year to smuggled booze and cigs and they are perfectly legal, not to mention conterfiet booze and cigs.
I think the way they tend to throw people in the slammer for years for small amounts of cannabis yet committe a million pound fraud you get 6 months in an open prision should be looked out
Yes it should be "relegalized". Here it was available over the counter in pharmacies intil the 30's.
It got the biggest laugh from the concern over schizophernia. O.K. alcohol a legal drug that causes alot of trouble with the police and medically (I know coming from a long line of alcoholics). People wear there livers out in 10 years with full blown alcoholism sometimes sooner. Then all the harm tobacco cigarettes do, show some concern with that. Those two drugs right there alone kill millions every year and Cannabis kills about........none. Might make you a little lazy and hungry but I have yet to see someone rob the 7-11 to get money for cannabis.
The only reason it is illegal is because they cannot keep track of it and tax it to make money. It is a plant a simple plant with no man made chemical compunds.
I want to go on and on. Yes as Mr. Tosh say, legalize it. The wqorld would be a better place if everyone smoked a lill every now and then, may not get alot done though.
There was a study done in the UK that put road traffic deaths due to Drugs way above alcohol.
This fact comes about now because they they only used to do breath tests in the UK so if you was high it would not register. Now the police do field tests as well. So more people are now being booked for being under the influence of drugs.
regarding the tracking part. That does not make sence to me either. Anyone can make alcohol, infact it was a national past time over here once called MoonShine.
That arguement carries no weight with me.
Its a case a line has to be drawn at. Same as any laws. When should a child be treated as an adult in a crime
Legalise it.
If it does cause mental health problems, which I very much doubt, then people would be more open about their cannabis use and diagnosis would be easier.
The people that worry about the lung disease forget that you don't have to smoke the drug in a joint, you can get a quick hit in one inhalation from a hot knife or make some nice cakes, apparantly.
I'm not a user myself (very, very occasional) but I've got no problem with people doing so if they want to. In my experience however a room full of pot smokers is one of the most boring places you could ever be in your life.
A study in the UK says more people died in road fatalities from drugs than alcohol, hummmm......the UK ranks I believe third (if not third in the top five) in Alcohol consumption, I have yet to of heard of the drug epidemic that the UK faces, must be bad like opium in China when the British tried to drug the whole nation. In fact I have never once heard (on this side of the pond) anything of a drug epidemic in UK but I know plenty of the alcoholism, something doesn't add up here.
It is stated that DRUGS kill more than alcohol in the study, well to begin with alcohol is a drug, just legal- second the study doesn't emphasize which drugs, if it emphasized cannabis it could carry some validity in the discussion but it doesn't it just says drugs anything from Prozac to cocaine to aspirin fits in there.
Moonshine make your own, you probably won't have much of a problem- try to sell it and you'll have a visit from the ATF. They enforce the illegal sale of alcohol, why you may wonder well it is because TAXES are not paid. Pay the tax (licensing to enforce the payment of taxes) and your O.K. You cannot regulate the sale use or trade of something someone could grow in the backyard as easy as corn.
If you think it is illegal because of the ill health reasons, well why are cigarettes still legal? The the health effects of smoking chemically(700+ chemicals) fed tobacco is evident.
Your right the argument carries little if any weight when some real research is done.
Legalise it.
In my experience however a room full of pot smokers is one of the most boring places you could ever be in your life.
Well I'm more confused than ever now. The beeb carried photos of a joint being constructed, and it was grass.
What riles me though is people who are happy to sit in their house and smoke a joint but won't let you smoke a cigarette, even an golden virginia hand rolly.
I guess they just need to get something sorted.
The upswing in liver disease hasn't reversed the new drink law, but at the same time, an alcoholic can't get a transplant, not to mention a job in politics.
Kind of like a culling really. :???: