Legalization of marijuana

[Zack]

In canada, there is a debate on whether to legalize the posession of marijuana.
I was just wondering what everybody else here thinks.

My opinion is that we should legalize it, but only for those over the age of 18/19, and control it, like alcohol or tobacco. And there should also be extremely strict laws on smoking it and driving, like alcohol.

[seph]

You forgot the option in the poll "don't care"

[seph]

Then again, a lot of countries have it legalized and have less of a problem with it than we do... Maybe the reason we have so many weed-related problems is because it's illegal? Maybe if we legalized it, poeple might do it less and less?

[Agamemnus]

BEcausse it will give the impression that it is good for you.

Drugs are almost never good for you.

[toonski84]

Are you kidding? Marijuana is like beer in holland now, that's why it's not a problem. But to be honest: I dont care, you dont care, nobody cares unless they smoke pot or are having trouble with a friend/family that smokes pot. Of course smoking pot is damaging to your health. You're sucking in fumes from a burning plant to alter your mind. But if that stupid legislation passes, it wont affect me in the slightest, ergo:

I DONT CARE

[Ninkazu]

I don't do drugs or anything, but I go with what the webmaster of hullo-bulloo says, "I believe that if you do drugs with a certain frame of mind, it could give you a higher thinking point" ....or shumtin like dat.

But... my brother does pot and it kinda bothers me. I think some people get too addicted and obsess over it way too much, y'know?

[toonski84]

It doesnt do anything for you. It's a depressant and a mild hallucinagen. No drug is beneficial to your thinking unless it corrects an imbalance in some way.

The guy that runs hulla-balloo has some odd socio/political views. He's a nice guy in any other context, and mucho-cool for helping run vplanet, but i disagree with the drugs.

[seph]

As far as my girlfriend told me, all pot does is enhances your current mood. If you're happy, you'll be really ultra super happy. If you're kinda bummed, you might sit in a dark room for an hour. Then again, she also said it has different effects on different people, like alcohol does.

[pr0gger]

I don't really care, but to tell you the truth, I don't see any good that can come of it...

[toonski84]

the active chemical in pot is an agonist for the neurotransmitter anandamide, which is part of a chemical family called cannabinoids which play a role in pain relief. that's where the mood altering comes in. It causes you to relax, which can act as a anti-anxiety effect. Unfortunately, it is also concentrated in the cerebellum, which messes up your balance, and your hippocampus, which messes up the formation of new memory and some memory retrieval. It also messes up certain areas involved with movement, the most significant being the basil ganglia. this causes you to lose balance and coordination. this also dialates your pupils and creates a greater sensitivity to senses, so everything looks more colorful. it's anti-anxiety effects also mess up your judgement.

In addition to all this, it messes you up permanately over time. because it affects neuro transmitters, (like tobacco, cocaine, and most other drugs) it creates a chemical dependency on the stuff. though the withdrawal is not as serious, if you've seen some people who have smoked pot for a long time, they are really, really baked.

and on top of all that, it's inhaled from a burning plant that contains about 400 toxic chemicals, which is about 4 times the amount of that in nicotine. So while you may not smoke 2 packs a day, it is cancer-causing.

just so you know, this came from my two psychology textbooks, howstuffworks, and various sites on the internet.