Justin Trudeau says marijuana should be legalized

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

I'll be curious as to how companies will enforce this in their drug and alcohol testing. With marijuana staying in your system for several weeks, will there be just cause to lay a person off who isn't high at work (aka smoked it on the weekend).

Like everything else, if they do it, it'll come down to thresholds not presence

[Matata]

The 'keep it away from teenagers' argument seems overblown to me. I started smoking in grade 10 and afterwards my grades got good enough to get into U of C Engineering, it led to me meeting new and interesting people, I increased my participation in extra-curricular activities and overall felt that pot was a net benefit to my personal development.

All the kids who ended up 'burn-out losers' weren't hot #### in the first place. I guess it's easier to say 'Pot ruined my youth' then to admit that you're mediocre and weren't going to accomplish much of anything anyways. People who are searching for an excuse to disconnect and stop caring will eventually find one.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by polak

While I don't disagree with the age for weed being higher because of how it can affect the developing teenage brain, I think raising it for Alcohol is a bad idea.

Then you just have kids hiding it from their parents and that's when things get sketchy. Kids turn 18, get too drunk and need help? They'll call there parents. They might not if they're 18 but the legal age is 21.

Yeah, I don't see a draw back or negative at all with making the age to purchase pot a little higher, other than the "it's not fair" argument posted on the previous page. The best case scenario is that minors have less access and the worst case scenario is that it doesn't make a difference. For the vast majority, nothing changes.

And no, I wouldn't raise the age of alcohol either. I didn't mean to imply that. I would also be in favour of eventually lowering the age to purchase pot once legalization settles in and we have data to look at. For the first little while, there are going to be a lot of apprehensive people looking for their "told you so moments", and I don't think we should underestimate how fast public opinion can be turned. Just because it will be legal, it does not mean the propaganda war against pot disappears.

[Rathji]

I took some drug classes as part of my foster parent training and the main thing I took away from it was that pot influenced the formation of new pathways in developing brains, but had little negative impact on adults. I also learned in another section of training relating to regular brain development processes that brains are developing these new pathways until the early 20s.

I kind of put 2 and 2 together and determined that my personal support for the age of legal pot consumption is for it to be above 18 for sure, likely 21.

If someone can provide me with any information counter to that argument, I would be willing to consider it.

[Drak]

Originally Posted by Matata

The 'keep it away from teenagers' argument seems overblown to me. I started smoking in grade 10 and afterwards my grades got good enough to get into U of C Engineering, it led to me meeting new and interesting people, I increased my participation in extra-curricular activities and overall felt that pot was a net benefit to my personal development.

All the kids who ended up 'burn-out losers' weren't hot #### in the first place. I guess it's easier to say 'Pot ruined my youth' then to admit that you're mediocre and weren't going to accomplish much of anything anyways. People who are searching for an excuse to disconnect and stop caring will eventually find one.

Agreed. Pot actually increases productivity and creativity in those that are inclined to being that way. If you're a burn out chances are you have that disposition to some degree to begin with.

However, there is some science that points to weed creating potential issues with the developing brain. It might be best for younger folks to stay away until they're older.

[Thor]

I think very casual use as a young person is probably pretty safe in development, but yeah there are quite a few studies showing that a developing brain does not do well with everything from alcohol, pot, to pharmaceuticals.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Thor

I think very casual use as a young person is probably pretty safe in development, but yeah there are quite a few studies showing that a developing brain does not do well with everything from alcohol, pot, to pharmaceuticals.

Maybe my kids are the exception, but they are not able to do anything 'casually'. You give them something they like and they will do it in complete disregard for anything else. See the case of Minecraft vs <anything else>

It's probably genetic though, so hardly a great case study.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Yeah, I've started going to one of the ones here in Victoria. I'm not even a huge marijuana fan, actually quit smoking it 10 years ago, but I've been pretty desperate to find something to help with my ADHD, and the stuff they normally prescribe for it (stimulants) absolutely destroys me and turns me into an emotional basket case. Severe anxiety attacks, headaches, insomnia, those stimulants are just the worst. I read some stuff online that they've done some preliminary studies on treating ADHD with weed and had some positive results. Nothing that they could confirm without further research, but as I said, I was feeling pretty desperate. Anyways, it's been a godsend for me so far. A lot of my impulse issues, insomnia, etc., have gotten much better. It's nice to finally be able to sit down and watch a movie for two hours without fidgeting, or needing to get up, or just turning it off after 30 minutes because I can't concentrate. I'm not smoking everyday, usually, only a couple of times a week but it's really helped alleviate a lot of the frustration I was feeling towards life because of my disability.

My personal experience is that MJ helps to focus on one thing really well. I think this is why it's often referenced as a "creativity inducer", but it's really that it helps creative people get zoned-in on their stuff. For me, It's tough to sit over my drawing table for more than 30 minutes at a time. My back gets sore, I get distracted by other chores, my mind wanders into other issues, but if I smoke up first, I find myself spending 2-3 hours working without any other distractions. I find it the same playing music, it's easier to improvise and come up with new tunes when stoned because I can just focus on the guitar frets and access just my knowledge of how it all works without letting other things pull my focus away from it.

I can definitely see how it could help people with ADD or ADHD for activities, but for things like studying it would be detrimental due to the short-term memory loss. It can make reading mroe interesting because you get more immersed in the story, but it's terrible for retaining that information. For multi-tasking, it's awful.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by Drak

Agreed. Pot actually increases productivity and creativity in those that are inclined to being that way. If you're a burn out chances are you have that disposition to some degree to begin with.

However, there is some science that points to weed creating potential issues with the developing brain. It might be best for younger folks to stay away until they're older.

'Studies' by medicaljane.com aren't really convincing anyone.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

'Studies' by medicaljane.com aren't really convincing anyone.

You don't need to convince anyone. Helping creatives with their productivity is not a reason for legalization, but there is anecdotal evidence that it can help people in that regard. Just like any drug, for some it will work, for others it won't.

[Drak]

Originally Posted by MattyC

My personal experience is that MJ helps to focus on one thing really well. I think this is why it's often referenced as a "creativity inducer", but it's really that it helps creative people get zoned-in on their stuff. For me, It's tough to sit over my drawing table for more than 30 minutes at a time. My back gets sore, I get distracted by other chores, my mind wanders into other issues, but if I smoke up first, I find myself spending 2-3 hours working without any other distractions. I find it the same playing music, it's easier to improvise and come up with new tunes when stoned because I can just focus on the guitar frets and access just my knowledge of how it all works without letting other things pull my focus away from it.

I can definitely see how it could help people with ADD or ADHD for activities, but for things like studying it would be detrimental due to the short-term memory loss. It can make reading mroe interesting because you get more immersed in the story, but it's terrible for retaining that information. For multi-tasking, it's awful.

I definitely feel more creative with my own hobbies (music, writing) when I've used weed. At the risk of sounding cheesy, ideas make themselves more readily available and seem to flow naturally when there isn't a wall of mental stress and anxiety blocking them.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Drak

I definitely feel more creative with my own hobbies (music, writing) when I've used weed. At the risk of sounding cheesy, ideas make themselves more readily available and seem to flow naturally when there isn't a wall of mental stress and anxiety blocking them.

Yeah for sure. I hesitate to say that it makes you "more" creative, I think it just opens yourself up more to self-expression. So you don't feel dumb or lame about something your wrote, or a drawing you did, and you don't feel bad for sitting there working on something creative for hours when you could have been doing something "productive". You're already creative, this is just a tool to help you feel free about expressing it.

I think it's also a reason for the "whoa" conversations people tend to have while stoned. It's not that you don't hold those ideas and opinions all the time, its that you might be too shy or embarrassed to express them because they sound out to lunch.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by MattyC

You don't need to convince anyone. Helping creatives with their productivity is not a reason for legalization, but there is anecdotal evidence that it can help people in that regard. Just like any drug, for some it will work, for others it won't.

Right. Of course. But let's not pretend it is a fact then? Because I feel 10 feet tall after a dozen shots of Jameson doesn't necessarily make it true either. Or do sometimes we have to use evidence based information and at other times just make up facts based on anecdotal experience.
We don't get to play it both ways, unless this you, Mr Harper?

[Drak]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Right. Of course. But let's not pretend it is a fact then? Because I feel 10 feet tall after a dozen shots of Jameson doesn't necessarily make it true either. Or do sometimes we have to use evidence based information and at other times just make up facts based on anecdotal experience.
We don't get to play it both ways, unless this you, Mr Harper?

Except that you're not actually 10 feet taller after drinking Jameson, are you?

Whereas other folks might say they've completed some tasks, and have the work to show for it.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by Rathji

I kind of put 2 and 2 together and determined that my personal support for the age of legal pot consumption is for it to be above 18 for sure, likely 21.

If someone can provide me with any information counter to that argument, I would be willing to consider it.

If you can go to war for your country and die fighting overseas at 18, you should be able to smoke a joint at 18? I guess the counter-counter argument would be to raise the age to join the army at 21 .

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

If you can go to war for your country and die fighting overseas at 18, you should be able to smoke a joint at 18? I guess the counter-counter argument would be to raise the age to join the army at 21 .

You can join at 17, I did.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Right. Of course. But let's not pretend it is a fact then? Because I feel 10 feet tall after a dozen shots of Jameson doesn't necessarily make it true either. Or do sometimes we have to use evidence based information and at other times just make up facts based on anecdotal experience.
We don't get to play it both ways, unless this you, Mr Harper?

It's not making up facts, it's just taking what happens to ourselves and extrapolating it to say that it probably has similar affects for many other people. I'm not claiming anything to be definitive, just using my own experience to guess at reasons why certain people use a substance and what it can help with (because it helps me with those things).

Your analogy about feeling 10 ft tall is a little off, because it obviously doesn't change your physical attributes, both both alcohol and weed are mind-altering substances, so it does change your state of mind. I would say that claiming something like "weed can help expand your creativity" is no different than saying that "booze is a social lubricant". For some ( or maybe most) these things are true. But we know that alcohol can be as much of a depressant as it is a social lubricant. Just like weed can make you burn out just as much as it can give you focus. It all depends on your amount of usage and how your body reacts to it.

In the context of this discussion, a bonus of legalization is that it allows for more research into this. As a banned substance, research into it's benefits is severely inhibited. So by legalizing, you open up all sorts of study opportunities which could possibly lead to definitive answers on these things. It also allows a common person the freedom of exploring it as an option for them not just legally, but morally and health-wise, because you don't have to call a friend of a friend and meet some stranger in a dark parking lot to get it, and the content/quality is controlled.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

You can join at 17, I did.

Wow, that seems crazy young. Not many 17 year-olds I know should be making such a life-altering decision.

[Fuzz]

Good article on what could be done right away:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/dana-la...nada%20Alberta

I never realized bongs and vaporizers were illegal. Was there ever a medical exemption passed for this?

[Puppet Guy]