Serbian Cannabis: Between Pain and the Law ~ couple bad words ~ subtitles

[Rhodie Ranch]

^^ perfect application!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I feel the need to clarify my position. I'm pro cannabis for medical reasons - not for getting high or fake/made up medical issues.

I want it used for pain relief to lessen the need for opiates, for extreme symptom relief, for those afflicted with tremors, OCD, autoimmune diseases where weed would lessen the course of the ravages on the body, and so on and so on....Also, I've read where some tinctures have helped dogs and cats with unmanageable medical ailments.

I agree with this position. I want true medical marijuana used when it is applicable. I get really disgusted when people promote medical marijuana just because it makes it easier for them to get high or harder for the cops to arrest them. I'm fully aware that like many other drugs people will find unethical doctors who will give them that prescription, life is not perfect. All we can do is try.

Prohibition did not work for alcohol. It's not working for pot. But before I back recreational pot I'd want the same controls on it as alcohol. We need research to determine what levels impair people and a rather inexpensive test to determine what levels are in the person's system. Just saying it is present does not tell whether a person is impaired or not, just like alcohol levels below a certain point are legal.

Pot is a mind-altering drug. It interferes with reaction time and can have other effects. It can cause impaired driving or otherwise put innocent people at risk. If it just affects the person, that's one thing. But if it is putting innocent people at risk that is something different.

I've known plenty of people that can use pot and remain very functional people, just like I know plenty of people that can occasionally have a drink and function well. Because we haven't had the research we don't even now what constitutes pot abuse or what levels are acceptable. That is going to have to be legally defined before I can support recreational pot.

I'm not in favor of illegal drugs. The way I look at it if a cartel or gang was involved in any way getting that to you, you just paid for the bullet that a gang or cartel member used to shoot an innocent bystander.

I'm also aware that addiction is real. It's a whole lot more complicated than just quitting. It is not anywhere close to that easy: alcohol, pot, or other drugs. I don't have any easy solutions either, addiction goes back thousands of years. Any good student of business should know that as long as there is a market willing to pay there will be people willing to supply. That does not excuse the suppliers. It means I think we should hold the users as accountable as the suppliers while doing all we reasonably can to stop people from getting addicted in the first place and helping the addicted break that addiction as much as we reasonably can. My definition of success in this is not to totally wipe this scourge from the face of the earth, that is not going to happen. My idea of success is to hep one person, them another, then another.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

what was the name of that short movie about the oil that helped the little boy?

 

[flowerbug]

for me it helped me focus, especially in math. i grew out of it by mid-high school. haven't touched it since. my lungs don't like smoke...

 

[Zeedman]

what was the name of that short movie about the oil that helped the little boy?

That movie was "Lorenzo's Oil".

Late coming to this thread, probably don't check "herbs" as much as I should... or grow as many as I should. Despite the large amount of vegetables that I grow, my diet, sad to say, is pretty bland.

I've thought a lot about this topic a great deal over the years & have quite a bit to discuss, so forgive me if this goes a little long.

Really great post, @Ridgerunner . In the current rush to legalize marijuana, that is the conversation we should be having... which is if we make it legal, how we need to adapt our laws to accommodate that legality.

I also agree with @Nyboy ; if tobacco (smoking) is legal, and alcohol (intoxication) is legal, then logically it makes no sense to ban something that you smoke to get intoxicated. Especially given that the health effects of marijuana use are far less severe than alcohol (and often beneficial), and it is far less addictive than tobacco.

There are several benefits to legalizing marijuana, in addition to the medicinal uses already mentioned. I've often heard the phrase "marijuana and other dangerous drugs", and heard it described as a "gateway drug". Really the only thing that makes it dangerous, or that makes it a "gateway drug", is that it must be purchased illegally - from criminals. Pushers profit from getting you hooked on something stronger. Legalization would not completely eliminate illegal sales (since legal pot would - and should - have age restrictions), but it would at least reduce the exposure to stronger drugs. Given that this country is currently seeing a serious resurgence of heroin (and all the social disruption that causes), it seems to me that anything which might reduce exposure to more dangerous drugs deserves deeper examination. Furthermore, like prohibition before it, criminalizing marijuana only serves to fund an increase in organized crime - and lifting that prohibition would reduce that crime.

Something else to consider is that once cannabis is legal (and taxed), state & local governments will see increased tax revenue. That alone would be the wrong reason to legalize it; but it should be counted among the potential benefits. A better reason is that under government regulation, users would be getting a safer product than the unknown, sometimes tainted products sold illegally.

The invisible elephant in the room, though, may not even involve intoxication, or any of the ethical dilemmas that revolve around legalizing marijuana. That issue is the large-scale cultivation of hemp as a crop, and the economic impact that could have. Hemp is an incredibly useful plant; highly nutritious seeds, strong fiber, high biomass... and it will grow on poor soil, and in short seasons. It would offer farmers a great alternative to the crops which currently keep them on indentured servitude to bio-tech & Big Ag (unless, of course, it too becomes GM), and if grown in quantity, industries would grow to utilize it. All that currently keeps farmers from growing hemp, is the fact that hemp (which is low in psychotropics) is indistinguishable from its high-inducing (and currently illegal) cousins.

All that being said... I am not in favor of encouraging intoxication; but neither am I in favor of incarcerating people for the "crime" of getting high, or of getting a criminal record for doing so. As Americans, we have always believed in personal freedom, as long as that freedom does not infringe on the rights of others. High behind the wheel, or high on the job, are obviously serious matters, since they imperil others. But I've known (and still know) people who use cannabis; except for those who do so in excess (as there will be for any intoxicant), they lead productive lives, and you would not know from their day-to-day behavior that they did so. Contrast this with the poor job attendance, drunken violence, and broken families caused by alcohol abuse... marijuana is tame by comparison.

Full disclosure: like many others in the 70's, I experimented with cannabis - and was even arrested once. It was the closing years of the Vietnam conflict, and drug use was very widespread in the military back then. I stopped when I met my wife 41 years ago, and never looked back. As far as I can tell (DW may say otherwise ), I don't think that experience negatively influenced my character... and I would not use marijuana again even if it was legal. I did, though, get to witness how some of my friends lives were destroyed, as they went on to do pills, LSD, or heroin. It is my hope that if marijuana is legalized, it would break the dealer connection that leads to so many into ruined lives.

 

[aftermidnight]

I did, though, get to witness how some of my friends lives were destroyed, as they went on to do pills, LSD, or heroin. It is my hope that if marijuana is legalized, it would break the dealer connection that leads to so many into ruined lives.

Same here, in the 70's many of our friends smoked pot, I never did or ever will, Being in a room with people smoking pot, they way looked, eyes glazed with that stunned look on their faces....not me. I've also know people that smoking pot WAS a gateway drug, wanted bigger highs and went on to other drugs, some are no longer with us.
Medical marijuana, that's another story, it has some good benefits. They have strains that won't get you high but helps with so many health problems. Pot will be legal here in Canada in October, I hope all the problems I think it's going to cause don't materialize but not holding my breath.

 

[Nyboy]

A very close friend has AIDS he tested positive over 20 years ago. That was a time AIDs was a death sentence. He takes a lot of drugs everyday to stay a live. Without the drugs he would have died a long time ago. The drugs that keep him alive make him very nauseous. because of the nausea he will go without eating, not good for his body. He will smoke marijuana and it will help get his appetite back to the point where he will eat. For the longest time he had to trust in the street dealer.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

As someone who lives in MJ territory, there is state tax revenue, but most of it does not filter down to the counties who are the largest producers. At least in Oregon.

MJ legalization has brought in hoards of out of staters looking for a quick buck and damaging our fragile ecosystem by stealing water, dumping chemicals, and more. My prior county, Calaveras County in CA, has experienced even more horrible eco destruction.

MJ legalization has brought in the low lifes, who followed the yellow brick road, and now are homeless and jobless due to the drop in production. Crime and robbery is staggering.

MJ legalization had dropped the price per lb of the finished product by greater than half. There are dozens of grow sites on the main road to my home that are now abandoned and it will be up to us tax payers to have them cleaned up, as the "owners" have abandoned the land and not paid their yearly property taxes.

MJ is now a rich man's crop. Only the Dr's and movie stars can afford the permits, the high tech greenhouses, and the day labor to produce weed. Some smart growers have switched over to hemp, but that is a burgeoning market with little outlet at this time.

MJ was a gate way drug for my daughter. She jumped straight into crack in 2004 upon HS grad, was homeless for 1.5 years and it was only MJ that she bought for herself that helped her wean her habit on crack. I had nothing to do with it. She herself did all of it.

 

[flowerbug]

for me, i don't have any desire to get into drugs again of any kind, they were a phase to go through and i learned from it and moved on. i don't particularly like alcohol much any more either.

where i feel sorry is for children who get dragged into it or people who are harmed as bystanders. i think if all states were legal there wouldn't be people moving in from other states, etc. it is just the transition that is chaotic (like many edge effects it is during change and disruptions where the energy is made available) - think things will settle down once it is uniformly available and i would really like hemp to be back in production instead of cotton. hemp is much easier and can grow in marginal areas in terms of inputs...