Crazy Grow Op

[Redliner]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

As for health problems, I think you can argue that alcohol has a very, very bad effect on the health for alcoholics. So are you arguing we should ban cigarettes and alcohol too? If not then your argument is inconsistent.

Cigarettes and large quantities of alcohol have been proven to have an adverse effect on one's health. I can't see them ever been banned outright, but the idea of introducing additional health care user fees for smokers has been floated in the past. Will it ever go anywhere? Who knows. I personally am not against introducing something along those lines for heavy drinkers, smokers, and drug users. If someone is intentionally doing something harmful to their body, why should I have to pay for the extra strain they're going to put on the health care system when the partying catches up to them?

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by SeeBass

If you can prove that the vast majority of people who smoke weed would also be willing to leap to a more dangerous narcotic and that has never been proven.

Its hard to argue that weed isn't a gateway drug for a lot of people. But I think that is partially because its on the illegal side of the fence right now. And its because its probably the most likely illegal drug for people to try first.

So what happens is people have tried drinking which is legal. They might like it or not. Then they try weed and maybe like it or not. But they will question why is this one illegal and the other legal? Which can end up causing people to question the validity of the fence that separates the legal from the illegal drugs and make them wonder what other interesting drugs have been made illegal and for what motives.

I'm not sure how many people I know who've tried MDMA, mushrooms, etc would have tried them if they hadn't first tried weed.

However, almost nobody I know has tried crack. Nobody I know has tried heroine (that I know of.) And a much lower percentage of people have tried cocaine that I know than MDMA or mush. I don't know anybody addicted to painkillers.

So it seems the people who are willing to try drugs often end up drawing their own line. And some of the hardest drugs still end up on the side of the fence that people are very wary/scared of.

Also the drugs themselves have very different frequencies. Most people I know who've tried mushrooms have zero addictive response. They could try it again in a few weeks, or maybe it will be 5 years before they try it again. MDMA seems much more addictive and yet people seem warier of becoming addicting and frying their brain. Weed is a multiple times a week activity for a fair number of people I know.

I know why some people dispute the "gateway drug" theory. But I've seen it in action myself

I think it would be less of a gateway drug if it was legalized because it wouldn't immediately cause people to question the fence or line separating the illegal drugs from the legal ones.

[SeeBass]

^^^
Pot has never been proven as a gateway drug. If you can find a goverment/medical unbias stat that says so please show me.

It is also impossible to be addicted to shrooms it is a poison that brings the buzz and you cant take it again and again as it doesnt work that way. You need time for your body to recover between buzzes. You may enjoy a weekend on it but you cant go many days straight.

Screwing with people heads has been around since the dawn of man and if we had no narcotics there would still be people standing on their front lawn and spinning till they fell down. To say pot brings one to coke or meth is just an assumption. IMHO that most people who went down the road to harder drugs would have been there even if pot didn't exist.

[HOOT]

Originally Posted by FireFly

If and when it becomes okay to do that, don't you think people will still drive home from that? (Oh, I'm only high; it's not like I'm drunk or anything!)

This happens already and will continue to happen legal or not. As of today people who drive stoned on weed, an illegal drug, actually get off easier than someone who is driving drunk, on a legal drug.

Thinking about things in terms of people hiding smoking weed it may be a little different out here on the coast than in Alberta. People in Alberta react very differently to someone walking down the street smoking a joint than they would in Victoria/Vancouver area.

[HOOT]

Originally Posted by SeeBass

IMHO that most people who went down the road to harder drugs would have been there even if pot didn't exist.

This.

I have never, ever even touched coke, meth or any of that stuff. The hardest drugs I have done are weed and shrooms (less than handful of times in 10 years) and they kinda go hand in hand don't they?

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by SeeBass

^^^
Pot has never been proven as a gateway drug. If you can find a goverment/medical unbias stat that says so please show me.

Did it look like I was trying to prove its a gateway drug? I was saying that for me and a lot of people I know, it appears to have been one. Just providing some anecdotal evidence.

I'm not sure how a study would go about proving such a thing anyways. It seems very personal and non-objective why a person decided to try a particular drug. Almost impossible to prove either way I would think.

Originally Posted by SeeBass

To say pot brings one to coke or meth is just an assumption. IMHO that most people who went down the road to harder drugs would have been there even if pot didn't exist.

Well my post indicated that in my experience it perhaps helped lead people to middling drugs like shrooms/MDMA and not to the hardest drugs like heroin, crack, etc.

Seems like you are making an assumption too no?

[Coys1882]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

so why would marijuana not fall under the same public smoking laws for cigarettes that we have now? it would likely be even stricter, as you could combine those with the public intoxication laws for alcohol so that you couldn't smoke weed anywhere in public

I'm sure it would but we all know how quick the police crack down on people smoking outside restaurants and bars. I've seen smokers getting pissed because they are being hit by the doors as people are trying to come and go.