Interesting Article thread II

[Zenophas]

http://yilb.com/yes-we-cannabis/

oho yeahhh

[MrTwosheds]

Growing weed is still illegal. Only the sale (in small amounts) and consumption of weed is legal

Good to see that they have really thought about this a lot. Going to need even more finance for the war on drugs, so you can kill all those evil drug barons and smugglers bringing in the stuff you are not permitted to just grow yourself, but are free to possess, sell ,tax and consume...Drug baron profits up, tax intake up, government expenditure up, Peoples freedoms very poorly defined. Who said you can't have your hash cake and eat it?

It would have been far more sensible to legalise personal growing possession and consumption, while maintaining the ban on import/export, sale and taxation. That way people who want it, can produce their own and keep it to themselves, thus suppressing the further development of a market for it and damaging the profits of existing criminal networks.
The way it will be done now will encourage criminal networks, corrupt law enforcement, politicians and export the profits to unstable nations. A big round of applause for whoever didn't think this through at all.
A personal supply can be easily grown on a balcony, in a small cupboard or tiny plot of land, permitting this would do more damage to organised crime than the war on drugs ever did. Within 4 months the value of the product would have dropped to such a low level that it would not be worth the effort for a grower to sell it. (to your kids) Everyone gets what they want, except the drug dealers, who will just have to find another crime to profit from.

[Zenophas]

I'd love to grow ganja.

[Zero Angel]

...

Except the people who sell weed tend to not be bad people, I know several people who sell or have sold in the past. It's the ones who sell anything harder than that which are more of a problem -- and you know that the gov't is not going to legalize crystal meth, cocaine or prescription drugs that get abused.

[Ded10c]

I would never even consider smoking it myself, but I'm fully in support of the legalisation of cannabis. Most evidence suggests it's no more harmful than tobacco, and I've even seen one study that suggests it improves the ability to concentrate.

[Iron_Maiden]

Do as I say, not as I do?

[Ded10c]

That normally doesn't work when people are advocating the *lifting* of a ban.

[MrTwosheds]

Except the people who sell weed tend to not be bad people,

I don't know about the US, but here that really only applies right down at the customer interface level, the guys who actually make the "hash" from any old garbage/shoe polish/tranqilisers & wax in a backstreet garage somewhere and then sell it for millions on to the streets of the UK as the real thing are not nice people. They are just very lucky that 99% of Britons have no idea what "hash" really looks,tastes or smells like at all.

I would never even consider smoking it myself, but I'm fully in support of the legalisation of cannabis. Most evidence suggests it's no more harmful than tobacco, and I've even seen one study that suggests it improves the ability to concentrate.

In the same way that being drunk can improve physical stamina, true only in a very limited way, while more generally having the opposite effect. Being punched in the mouth can make you run faster too but athlete's tend not to use it as a training method. .
It should be legal simply because you as an adult should have the right to make your own choices about your own life. Even if they are stupid choices. As a herb it has many useful properties for humans, the other herbs are not particularly good for you if you smoke them either. Most things are not healthy if you smoke them. Garbage/shoe polish/tranqilisers & wax is definitely not good for you if you smoke it.

[Red Spot]

I would never even consider smoking it myself, but I'm fully in support of the legalisation of cannabis. Most evidence suggests it's no more harmful than tobacco, and I've even seen one study that suggests it improves the ability to concentrate.

I can assure you that that study is very incorrect. Its generally accepted that its exactly the opposite.
Weed = alcohol. Strong liquor is more damaging to you than weed is if consumed in similair proportions.
And before the argument of addiction comes up, everything you use in a regular interval is an addiction, if you drink 2 beers every evening, try stopping it to see how that applies .. in general.

[MrTwosheds]

Addiction is a fairly complex thing, weed can be very psychologically addictive, but it has no serious physical addictive consequences, ie you are not in any physical risk from not having it.(though some do become a risk to themselves) Unlike alcohol which can cause both psychological addiction and physical/biological dependence, withdrawing from a serious alcoholic dependence can be potentially fatal just like other drugs such as heroin.

[Ded10c]

I would never even consider smoking it myself, but I'm fully in support of the legalisation of cannabis. Most evidence suggests it's no more harmful than tobacco, and I've even seen one study that suggests it improves the ability to concentrate.

I can assure you that that study is very incorrect. Its generally accepted that its exactly the opposite.
Weed = alcohol. Strong liquor is more damaging to you than weed is if consumed in similair proportions.
And before the argument of addiction comes up, everything you use in a regular interval is an addiction, if you drink 2 beers every evening, try stopping it to see how that applies .. in general.

I typed that last bit in a dubious tone.

[Red Spot]

I typed in a 'Dutch' tone .....

[Iron_Maiden]

Yay.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20249753

[Red Devil]

cool, maybe it's not completely swarming with fetid swarms of resource-devouring lifeforms as ours is.

[Red Devil]

http://www.cracked.com/video_18493_a-sn ... ovies.html