Are Canadians High?

[Agamemnon]

I've heard many comments from a recent trip to the States on how Canadians are developing a reputation of being enormous pot-heads. It seems Western Canada especially seems to be increasingly seen as worse than the Netherlands (which isn't too bad) when it comes to rampant drug use.

I guess the question is, do you guys think, based on your perceptions living in Calgary or Western Canada, "Do you think (Western) Canadians deserve the reputation of being stoners?"

Personally, I know a hell of a lot of people who have 'tried' weed, and many who are constant smokers. Just a topic of interest.

[AC]

Off topic section might be better, eh?

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Wrong board and I would say it is about the same amount of "weed" smoked in both nations. Take a stroll down some places in LA and other cities and you will see druggies just like you would in Canada.

You should know perceptions are much different than what the truth is.

[Cowboy]

Do be perfectly honest, I don't mind the weed thing because I don't think weed is all that bad for you. If they think everyone does all the other drugs then I have a problem with it and I think something should be done.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally posted by Cowboy@Aug 30 2004, 01:32 AM
Do be perfectly honest, I don't mind the weed thing because I don't think weed is all that bad for you. If they think everyone does all the other drugs then I have a problem with it and I think something should be done.

Tell that to my friend, he lost an arm due to weed.

By the way I have never used drugs and I don't really see why someone would want to use them to be honest with you.

[Cowboy]

Have you ever had liquor Mean Mr. Mustard? I don't like the idea that people hold Weed in such a negative light because the government says illegal. Liquor causes more problems, as does cigarettes. I have never smoked it a lot because I don't like the feeling I get and I haven't smoked in a long long time. But if I had the choice I would rather have every one smoking pot in Canada then everyone drinking!!!

Your friends incident is the first I have heard of, do you mind telling me how it happened?

[Thunderball]

I think when they say Western Canada, they mean more Greater Vancouver and BC, since thats where most of it comes from.

Our part of Western Canada really isn't seen as Pot Paradise.

[BlackArcher101]

I agree. Alcohol is a lot worse than weed. The only reason people are afraid of it is because this country is run by old people with old lifestyles. The media, government, everyone is afraid of it and it soaks into the regular joe schmo that's the way they should think.

[snowdude]

Originally posted by Thunderball@Aug 29 2004, 07:55 PM
I think when they say Western Canada, they mean more Greater Vancouver and BC, since thats where most of it comes from.

Our part of Western Canada really isn't seen as Pot Paradise.

You don't spend much time around the Uni's in this prov do you?

[FlamesAllTheWay]

Alot of it has to do with our relaxed pot laws and the possibility that pot may become decriminalized or even legal. So it's easy to percieve Canada as one big, hippie, weed smoking nation when even your government is thinking of toning down the marijuanna laws a tad.

There are plenty pot smokers down south too, and weed isn't a big deal in my opinion...

[Reaper]

nm

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally posted by Mean Mr. Mustard+Aug 29 2004, 07:36 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Mean Mr. Mustard @ Aug 29 2004, 07:36 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Cowboy@Aug 30 2004, 01:32 AM
Do be perfectly honest, I don't mind the weed thing because I don't think weed is all that bad for you. If they think everyone does all the other drugs then I have a problem with it and I think something should be done.

Tell that to my friend, he lost an arm due to weed.

By the way I have never used drugs and I don't really see why someone would want to use them to be honest with you. [/b][/quote]
I too would like to hear the story of your friend who lost an arm to marijuana. Like fotze said, if it was due to an accident while high, that's different.

The hypocrisy about marijuana is what really gets me. How many Canadians don't use something? Be it alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, some mind altering anti-depressant, ritalin for the wee ones... but reefer is seen as "oooh that's bad you shouldn't take that".

I had a roommate once and he was all up on these crazy conspiracies about oil companies and Henry Ford and John D. Rockefellerwere behind the prohibition on weed. I don't know if they were true or not but they were interesting. Part of his spiel was "George Washington smoked weed" and "Thomas Jefferson grew weed" and "George Bush's parachute was made out of hemp". Stoners -- you just gotta love 'em.

[Thunderball]

Originally posted by snowdude+Aug 29 2004, 07:57 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (snowdude @ Aug 29 2004, 07:57 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Thunderball@Aug 29 2004, 07:55 PM
I think when they say Western Canada, they mean more Greater Vancouver and BC, since thats where most of it comes from.

Our part of Western Canada really isn't seen as Pot Paradise.

You don't spend much time around the Uni's in this prov do you? [/b][/quote]
Well, I do go to the U of C... maybe the University of 9-5 doesn't have it as noticably as U of A.

[Cowboy]

Originally posted by Thunderball+Aug 29 2004, 08:16 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Thunderball @ Aug 29 2004, 08:16 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

You don't spend much time around the Uni's in this prov do you?

Well, I do go to the U of C... maybe the University of 9-5 doesn't have it as noticably as U of A. [/b][/quote]
Take a walk down to the bottom Social Sciences, the stairs of the library. People smoke pot there all the time. I have smelled it in Mac Hall for God Sakes, its everywhere, and I mean every where.

[calculoso]

Originally posted by Reaper@Aug 29 2004, 08:07 PM
He lost an arm due to weed? Not possible.

The more likely thing is that he did something stupid while he was high or someone else did something stupid while they were high and your friend lost his arm as a result. There is a big difference.

Semantics.

You hear about people losing their lives due to alcohol a lot, and I don't mean due to the internal tissue damage done from it.

If you're going to make the distinction where weed is concerned, it'd better be done where alcohol and everything else is concerned too.

[Reggie Dunlop]

ummm...
















what was the question again?

[Reaper]

nm

[CaptainCrunch]

I'm kind of back and forth on the whole grass debate, and I've come to this conclusion

1) Anything that alters the way your brain functions even over the short term has to be causing damage of some kind. I've seen people that have smoked dope for years and you can see that there are effects. Its just like people that drink a lot do suffer damage to thier body.

Its like poison, it leaves tell tales that it doing something thats not normal to your body

2) I do think that in the right kind of social setting with the right kind of person that grass can become a gate way to more dangerous drugs. I'm not saying its gateways for everyone tho

3) I guess we're going to need to pass laws about smoking dope and driving, if your going to do it for liquor then you have to do it for grass

4) Liquor is manufactured by actual companies where you can be somewhat reassured of what goes into the product, its the same as smokes, we know what goes into it. With dope its grown and manufactured with no quality control, you don't know whats been sprayed on the plants, or what is mixed in with the weed, a good example of this is the potent stuff thats mixed with PCP to create a more intense and brain damaging high

If its going to be legalized then it needs to be manufactured and sold by people that have been certified, it needs to leave the street corners and sold in legitimate places of business so people don't get shot for buying it

In other words

Make legitimate sources of growing, packaging and selling legal, tax the snot out of it and get it out of the hands of drug dealers, and keep the money from funding terrorist groups

thoughts?

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally posted by CaptainCrunch@Aug 29 2004, 09:33 PM

Make legitimate sources of growing, packaging and selling legal, tax the snot out of it and get it out of the hands of drug dealers, and keep the money from funding terrorist groups

thoughts?

Define terrorist groups Cap'n, if you would. I've heard this argument before but it just doesn't wash for me. No doubt some drugs line the pockets of terrorists, but I can't see how a suburban grow-house in Surrey funds terrorism.

I don't think we really know what goes into cigarettes either. They don't print the ingredients on the side of the box. But they are (hopefully) regulated so I get your point.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally posted by RougeUnderoos+Aug 30 2004, 03:55 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (RougeUnderoos @ Aug 30 2004, 03:55 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-CaptainCrunch@Aug 29 2004, 09:33 PM

Make legitimate sources of growing, packaging and selling legal, tax the snot out of it and get it out of the hands of drug dealers, and keep the money from funding terrorist groups

thoughts?

Define terrorist groups Cap'n, if you would. I've heard this argument before but it just doesn't wash for me. No doubt some drugs line the pockets of terrorists, but I can't see how a suburban grow-house in Surrey funds terrorism.

I don't think we really know what goes into cigarettes either. They don't print the ingredients on the side of the box. But they are (hopefully) regulated so I get your point. [/b][/quote]
Some of the Mexican rebel groups have been linked to the dope trade in the past, just like Hash financed the Afghan rebels.

the truth is when you buy dope from a drug dealer you don't know where tje money is going, what else he sells, and who his partners are.

Are you willing to take the chance that the harmless guy that you buy grass off of isn't buying it from some guy who uses that money to buy hash or cocaine that is provided by terrorist groups in south America, or eastern europe, or the middle east.

The IRA used to stay clear of drugs and actually used to go after drug dealers in Ireland, but when thier funding from the soviet block dried up they got into the cocaine business which led to the arrest of three IRA members in Columbia as they tried to create a drug tunnel into Europe back in 2001.

Your right about the cigarette thing tho, we don't know what goes into smokes, but they do have to hit a certain standard to keep in business. Dope growers don't


.

Sorry I thought about this some more after having a beer, and the other concern with the current situation is you can't tell me that all of the dope sold in Canada comes from and inncocent grow house in Surrey, B.C.