CURRENT medical marijuana is mooostly bullshit, in that marijuana really only does what marijuana does- it gets you high.  It doesn't cure anything, but it's good at taking away pain- which makes it an attractive alternative to opiates, as you can use as much as you like and not Ledger yourself.  Everything else marijuana legitimately treats it just treats with the effects of being high- anorexics get their munchies, the depressed and stressed forget what the hell they were thinking about two minutes ago, etc.

I think, though, that it's a question of what properties we could discover to be useful in the plant in the future, if it were legal and lacking the social stigma it now carries.  There's already evidence that long term cannabis users are less likely to develop certain kinds of cancer- and that research was done with people who just take the damn buds, grind them, and inhale them.  I think there's potential in medical marijuana... eventually.  For now, outside of people with real pain who are using it as a substitute to harsher drugs, it's mostly just a way around the law.

I agree with everything Dorkman said.

Never tried, probably never will, think everyone should be able to get as fucked up as they want.

Fairly simple.

Been there, done that, I'm over it now.  Weed just turns me into a semi-comatose junk food zombie.  I'm all for legalizing it along these lines though.  It's always been interesting to me how alcohol is legal, and weed isn't.  How much do we spend on The War on Drugs every year? (Bill Hicks has a great bit about how "There's a war on drugs, that implies that there's a war, and the people on drugs are winning.)  For that matter, just open up YouTube and watch every one of Bill Hicks's bits on drugs, starting with this one.

I'll take this discussion to the extreme; what if all drugs were legalized today, how many folks are going to run right out and start using Heroin? Cocaine? Barbiturates? Special K? Speed?  Heck, the average home is full of substances that will get you buzzed just for the trouble of breathing them in an enclosed space.  I could care less what your vice is, so long as it doesn't affect your ability to function within society, and you're not out there pushing it on others.

Spot on, I agree 100%.

And I don't smoke it either but I've been around folk who do/did (my dad for one).

I've never bothered to have a drink because I figured I was screwed up enough as it was without adding alcohol, and legal drugs would have gotten the same response when I was younger. It would have helped my mom, though, as chemo really did a number on her.

Tell that to someone suffering from the effects of chemotherapy.

Medical marijuana is no more 'because you want to get high' than medical morphine is.

Sure, there are people gaming the system, but there are always people gaming the system. That's why we have licensing for doctors.

So, there's three things going on here:

1. Some people desperately need cannabis because they're suffering from debilitating illness.
2. Some people want to get high.
3. Some people believe it's their moral imperative to stop other people from doing what they see as a sin.

Remind you of anything? Situation 2:

1. Some gay people desperately need to have an official familial relationship with their life partner, to visit them in the hospital, be able to have children, pass on wealth after they die.
2. Some gay people just want to get married.
3. Some people believe it's their moral imperative to stop other people from doing what they see as a sin.

God, that third group of people are obnoxious, aren't they?

So what's the solution to Situation 2, in many states? Civil unions. Helps out the people in Group 1, is kinda a half-way measure for people in Group 2, and isn't quite egregious enough to piss off Group 3 enough that they vote all the politicians out of office.

Medical marijuana = civil unions.

Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition

Last edited by Gregory Harbin (2010-09-21 00:15:34)

I re-read your post after the edit (and then re-read your new post after ITS edit), it doesn't appear to address my post. Medical marajuana is a half-way measure designed to get through SOME sort of legislation. The 'war on drugs' is killing people, but religious groups and teetotalers are too short-sighted to see it.

If Prop 8 still gets passed in a state as liberal as California, how exactly do you expect to win people over with "There's no reason for it not to be illegal"?

You get MM passed, you help the suffering people, you let some people get high, and slowly the attitude of the nation changes. Slowly marijuana isn't the evil devil that's turning our kids to rock & roll. Slowly it's just another vice, not even an expensive one.

Slowly the religious nuts turn their attention elsewhere. And THEN we can get the "There's no reason for it not to be illegal" law passed. But you have to do these things in steps.

And the reason *this* step isn't bullshit is because it's helping out actual people.

Last edited by Gregory Harbin (2010-09-21 00:22:08)

Weed should be legalized immediately. Other drugs... not so much.

I agree with Greg Oryharbin. I do think in a few years top she'll be legal, if not for any other reason then the US needing the money.

Well it's true. No one cares about weed anymore.

Heck, the real problem with the drug war right now is that we're bankrupting ourselves (including CA) trying to put all the black people—er I mean cocaine users—in jail.

But it's impossible for a politician to come out against being hard on 'hard' drugs users, and then there's that argument that weed is a 'gateway drug,' just like homosexuality leads to bestiality.

*the more you know* it's not BEAST-iality, it's BEST-iality. Yup, pronounced that way too. *the more you know*

Why?