Cannot be any worse than alcohol or tobacco.
I have never had, and would never have, anything to do with it. Nor with alcohol or tobacco. But I don't think we should persecute those who do. Just keep them out of the drivers's seat.
It works to cut down opiate use/addiction it helps epileptic patients,our nervous systems have receptors for cannabinoids.
Kids use it less old folks who use it use it for pain control and to help them sleep.
Colorado had to revise their tax laws to collect the money flowing into the state they couldn’t collect it all, and had tax holidays the first couple of months after legalization.
Terrible stuff.....
The biggest problem with legal marijuana is weight gain.
Ever hear of the munchies? They can be difficult, even impossible, to control. More fat Californians means more medical issues.
Even today you hear people comment," Well, I was 170 before California legalized marijuana. Now I'm 220. I hate when that happens."
Thanks for listening. Now I'm off to find the potato chips, the really BIG bag my wife got me this morning.
People who have never tried marijuana have big misconceptions about the effects. Marijuana doesn't impair thinking. It enhances it.
Carl Sagan was a world-renowned astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science educator. He had a brilliant career and was beloved by the English-speaking world. He smoked marijuana recreationally every day. He said:
"The devastating insights achieved when high are real insights... I can remember one occasion... one idea led to another, and at the end of about an hour of extremely hard work I found I had written eleven short essays on a wide range of social, political, philosophical, and human biological topics... From all external signs, such as public reactions and expert commentary, they seem to contain valid insights. I have used them in university commencement addresses, public lectures, and in my books."
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At the end, the story just kind of...loses it's...what?
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I'm a liberal democrat who is concerned that we are facilitating yet another product (in addition to alcohol and tobacco) that damages health. Why should i pay for /subsidize these people's healthcare through the ACA? Maybe millionaires like Montana, Jay-Z, and other cannabis exploiters can cover the costs. Freedom to use should be accompanied by a requirement to pay for the (medical) consequences.
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@Mikul
In what way do you imagine marijuana consumption damages health? - Science and widespread experience have shown marijuana has no significant harms. - The DEA's own administrative law judge, Francis Young, concluded after an exhaustive review of the evidence:
"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man."
Every person who chooses near harmless marijuana over addictive, very harmful alcohol, improves their health tremendously - as well as the lives of their family and community.
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@John Thomas Almost anything (except opiods) is less harmful than alcohol. But inhaling smoke is not good for you. Indoor cooking smoke accelerates the deaths of millions of people around the world every year.
I'm curious about the DUI laws for pot. In college and after I was surrounded by weed, hash, and psychedelics users. And of course alcohol, the first drink you are offered when sitting down at a restaurant. But from long experience, I will never be a passenger in a car with someone either drunk or stoned. Been there, done that. So the DUI question is key, IMO.
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@Skybird
Marijuana is not alcohol. The preponderance of the research shows marijuana consumption is NOT a significant cause of auto accidents.
In 2015, the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, found that while drunken driving dramatically increased the risk of getting into an accident, there was no evidence that using marijuana heightened that risk.
In fact, after adjusting for age, gender, race and alcohol use, the report found that drivers who had recently consumed marijuana were no more likely to crash than drivers who were not under the influence of any alcohol or drugs.
Studies show medical marijuana law states have lower traffic fatality rates compared to states that haven’t legalized.
It is preposterous that there would be an article on the effects of legalizing pot without mentioning its effects on driving. I expect that after five years the Colorado State Police and the cops in various border communities in other states would have started to aggregate some meaningful statistics, as well as experienced anecdotal evidence.
Smoking pot does not make you a better driver. To the contrary, while its negative effects might not be as pronounced on the road as those of speed, alcohol, and some other drugs, they are clearly not insignificant. As well, there is no reason to think that many drivers who smoke pot are using it to replace another drug rather than simply adding it into the mix. And, mixing drugs is often a recipe for unknown mayhem in one's own body and, consequently, in public behavior.
I am for legalizing pot, but only if a state will substantially increase its enforcement of driving laws across the board. Many more resources need to go into the apprehension and prosecution of those whose driving puts innocent people in mortal danger. We kill around 40,000 people on our roads each year, the large majority of which are preventable. On 9/11 around 3,000 innocent people were killed, and we responded with hundreds of billions of taxpayer money to prevent a recurrence. Since 9/11 over a half million Americans have been slaughtered on our roads. One would think we could afford a few billion dollars to mitigate that recurring carnage.
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@Steve Fankuchen
The pot driving problem for enforcement, as I understand it, is a lack of an efficient way to determine blood level, like with alcohol, or breathalyzer tests. Someone can not have smoked pot in weeks and still have it show up in tests, even though they are straight.
Also, there have been massive amounts of pot impaired people on the highways for decades. Though impaired, it is not in the same league as the severely "dis-inhibiting", legal drug alcohol. A drunk drivers kills someone in America every 45 minutes or so. Recently here in New Hampshire, an off duty cop hit a woman's car head on, killing her. He walked away.
He was drunk. We see horror shows like this all the time.
Alcohol is by far the most dangerous drug on our highways, and everywhere else. The secondary wreckage from alcohol - fights, rapes, murders, auto deaths, work loss, health crisis costs, etc. etc., has no equal in the world of drugs - and we promote it to the tune of billions of dollars in ads - and don't even call it a drug.
Legal pot should help reduce massive problems from the hard drugs - alcohol and opiates.
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@Paul Shindler
Paul. I essentially agree with you until your last paragraph. There is no evidence that smoking pot reduces alcohol and opiate consumption.
In any case, I believe you demonstrate my basic point well: we need much, much more enforcement of traffic laws. With sufficient resources and appropriate penalties we would not have to resort to chemical testing. Speed, drive recklessly, tailgate, swerve, whatever: those are the crimes. It should not matter (legally) what caused someone to drive that way.
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@Steve Fankuchen
See my post above. - I explain how the preponderance of the research shows marijuana is not a significant cause of auto accidents.
It will be hard to stop the illegal growth and sale of cannabis products that has continued in California for decades. All those summer of love teenagers are now in their seventies. They're the ones here and in other states who have pushed the legalization of the recreational use of the drug.
That said, perhaps it will divert users from the harder, worse, and more addictive opioid products.
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@Joan In California
Yes. It does. Research has also shown near harmless marijuana is a helpful aid in QUITTING addictions to alcohol and other hard drugs.
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It is well past time for the U.S. to admit that Portugal largely has the right approach, and to emulate it. I fear that there is too much money flowing through the police, prison, arms, and military industries for us to get to full decriminalization soon, but that is how the war on certain communities impacted by drugs has to end.
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@Fred
You are 100% correct. Portugal has the right idea. Deaths from overdoses have almost disappeared there. Etc. Etc. Etc.
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