Why does so many people aprove of pot?
 

I really dont understand it at all. Pot is a drug. Some people make excuses like, indians did it - cigs are legal - my whole family does it so why not? It really does not make any sense to me at all what so ever. How can you make excuses and say its OK for you to destroy your body like that. I wish that it was never made a legal drug in some states and countries. That alone just gives people more a reason to say they should be allowed to do it. Why encourage something thats bad for you?

I think that people are inherently hedonistic. They like to do things that feel good. And for a lot of people, pot makes them feel good and relax and all that jazz. So they want it. They want it like 18 year olds want booze. If they can go to war, they should be able to legally drink right? But why? Because alcohol makes them feel good, it helps them get drunk and disconnect. They enjoy it. I think people's ultimate desire for any drug is just the selfish desire to indulge and damn the consequences.

Thats a very good point to bring up. What I dont get is how come the country you live in allows it as a medical treatment. Sure they use it to get some people who have an unhealthy apitite for whatever reason - to eat. But what about the bad things that it causes. How is it going to help you to smoke something that will make your medical condition worse just so that you will want to eat more? Isnt there any medical made drug with less bad consenquences out there to give people in that situation?

I don't really know the exact benefits or harms that come from smoking pot. But as far as medical marijuana goes, I've always thought it was something of a last ditch effort to quell pain. It seems that when other drugs have failed, people turn to marijuana to function. I mean, honestly, what does a chronic pain sufferer or a terminal patient care about the harm of the drug when it helps get them through the day with something resembling normalcy or at least a lessening of the pain where other things have failed? When people hurt, they want it to stop. If pot makes it stop, they'll smoke pot.

Ive never heard of pot curing pain. Ive heard it used for cancer victims that have had cemo (sp?) theropy to help them regain an appitite. Or those who are anorexic trying to get back on track. But Ive never heard of it being used as a pain supressive.

It doesn't cure anything, but I understand that chronic pain sufferers and other people use it to help keep the pain manageable enough to function. Of course, everything's so controversial when it comes to discussing marijuana. Some people claim it's just their mind tricking them. I really wouldn't know. Since I'm not into drugs, I haven't really read up on the subject enough to effectively argue either way. I'm mostly in the middle, leaning towards against.

I approve of pot. Pot is non-addictive, unlike cigarettes, and doesn't include most of the harmful additives. The smoke and effects of marijuana are gone as soon as it is out of your system, which depends on how much you smoke... and is at most an hour. The only times it has lasting harm on one's body or mind is when someone takes too much at a time or when someone decides to do something stupid while under the influence. Its just like alcohol, possibly even less harmful.

Now, there is a lot of crime associated with weed, but that is not unlike any other substance. Back in the 1920's, we had Prohibition. A lot of crime was associated with alcohol. Then we made it legal again and the crime eased back up. I think that if we legalize pot, it will make it harder for there to be crime associated with it. Gangs will lose a lot of their money/members because their main source of trade will be no longer as lucrative. Then they'll just pick up another drug and everything will be status quo.

As for the depletion of funding, if the plant were legal it wouldn't be so taxing on our wallets. The reason its called "weed" is because it grows like one, especially in the fertile marshland of the Northern Midwest. Perhaps a law would be passed, allowing people to keep one plant per house. And as an export, it would be legal under a certain license, just like selling fruit or alcohol overseas. This could be a valuable export and may improve the economy.

Many people suffering from eye problems have a pot plant for medicinal purposes, regulated by state law. If we were to take away their only source of medicine, we would have to pour money into researching alternative treatments. With the eyes being a sensitive area, the treatment would have to be calculated, expensive, and time consuming.

So really, I can think of many reasons why marijuana, while not necessarily good on all accounts, is at its most negative "benign." It is just like alcohol. Its less harmful than cigarettes. And as a hallucinogen, its pretty weak. At most, it makes you giggle over nothing for an hour.

If it were to be legalized, I would of course put an age limitation. 21, I think would be appropriate. Its the same age at which you're allowed to make all sorts of stupid decisions. I personally think that pot would be one of the less stupid decisions you could make.

There is a few things I have to say about your post there Hyena.
1. Your just using excuses like - cigs and alcohol is bad for you too but we are allowed to still buy and use them. In my opinion those are just excuses, not good reasons for being allowed to smoke it.
2. Pot lasts in your system for 24 hours at the least. When ever taking drug tests anyone who has done drugs or anyone who has known someone who does drugs knows this. If you dont do any pot for atlease 24 hours before the test it wont show up. So I dont know where you get that it is out of your system after just one hour.
3. Pot has lasting affects on your body, even if it cant be detected by a test any more it still does damage to your body. Your lungs are damaged, brain cells as well. And those can never be recovered. Once gone they are gone forever. Your lungs can recover but some times cancer is created through scar tissue and other related reasons.
4. If it was legalized, just like tobacco it will be treated with chemicals to cause it to be addictive. Which I still think its addictive even if its a natural not man made addiction. If you tell someone who thinks they NEED pot to stop will they stop? No. They wont cause they are addicted to the thought that they NEED it. Not cause of a chemical that was added but cause of the mental thought that it is good for them and that they will smoke it no matter what anyone thinks or says cause its what they want to do with their life.

Pot stays in your system for 24 hours, but your head is clear to make decisions as soon as you come down from your high. Which is an hour tops.

I'm not using excuses. I'm just saying that there are far more dangerous substances that we have already legalized. The stigma of marijuana comes from centuries of handed-down horror stories.

The damage is, once again, less harmful than cigarettes. Some of the more brilliant friends I have smoke pot. Nothing has happened to their brain cells, and none of them have lung problems. You can also eat and drink pot if you're worried about smoke.

No. Marijuana is not addictive. Of my friends who do smoke pot, none of them have a physical dependence on it. And I think your extrapolation of them being treated with addictive chemicals is misguided. If it were regulated by the FDA, then there is less of a likelihood that its laced with other drugs or chemicals. Most people I know who smoke anything at all, roll their own anyhow.

People smoke pot for two reasons: to relieve stress and to celebrate. I think that hardly qualifies as the behavior of a dependent.

Of course thats only the people you know of. I have atlease one friend off the top of my head that IS addicted to pot. And he does suffer from it. You should see the guy. I knew him before he started smoking it and he was very healthy. Now he cares very little about his appearance, his hair is never groomed, he HAS to have it atlease once a day or else he claims he is going to go insane. And he is not the only person who I know of or knew of that was like that cause of pot. Im not just throwing hear-say out like confettii here. My own experiances with pot as a child was horrific. My mother and father did pot. Every time they would get high they would lock me and my brother out of the house and some times not let us come back in till night fall. They also grew it and sold it. The worst years of my life evolved around the time I stayed with my parents. Of course it wasnt all of my life that I did but it was a huge part of it. After they got busted they went to jail. My mom was able to get out but my dad wasnt for 6 more months. After he got out and they no longer had any pot, or a home to live in. They spirraled down cause they depended on it to maintain a lifestyle. They later got back on it but was too afraid of selling and growing it again to start making any profit off it. They now are dead beats, neither of them work and they live off the goverment. Why might you ask? Cause they both have health issues now. My mom got high one day and decided to ride my uncle's horse, she fell off it cause she was too high ON POT to maintain her rational train of thought. Thus she got dragged down the road by the horse for a good while. Her head was stepped on, brain damaged, and even though I considered her half retarded to begin with, she really is mentaly unstable now from that added to the years of doing pot on top of it.
My dad is unemployeed cause he forgot how to count after doing years of pot. He use to be very good at math when I was growing up. But now he cant get past 20 and the doctor told us it was cause he had done pot so much.

This pretty much boils up to who is lucky and who isnt. Who gets the pot that is grown and treated to be more potent and dangerous and who does not get that "special" stuff. Cigs, alcohol, pot and any other type of drug is wrong to use, should all be illegalized and banned. Anyone who says that is not true is either on it, wants to be on it or is making excuses for people that they know who are on it. Cause the only reason why you could even consider that stuff good is if you, yourself are addicted and dont want to stop doing it cause of that addiction.

I'm sorry that you have bad memories related to it, but I personally don't see anything wrong with it as long as it is used with discretion. Many countries that legalized pot have laws about how much you are allowed to have on your person at any given time. I just think that attitudes can be changed if we gave it a good college try. We tried outlawing alcohol for eight years, why not try legalizing pot for eight. The worst I can foresee is the amount of protestors and a few people ODing. And if its too muck, we appeal. There will be an adjustment period and things will be back to the way they were.

And, of course, a chapter in our history books.

Something to keep in mind guys and gals. I'm nuteral on this subject but I do want to say this. Pot is one of the easiest drugs to lace with other more potent drugs and that might be where ll the bad stories come from.

I feel the bad part about weed is when people obsess over it for profit. Like in some counties in California its legal to grow up to 15 plants of pot in your home. Thats unhealthy when everyone in the neighborhood is growing weed just to survive in this worlds economy.

Another reason why Im never moving to cali lol I have a few friends online that live in Cali and they keep trying to talk me into moving there. And yes almost all of them use pot. XD and yes Ive likely made them sick with badgering them about quiting.

Pot is okay if used in moderation. It's very similar to alchohol in the way that it makes you feel, but you can't overdose because it's herbal (unless it's laced with another drug). It's also not addictive. it has no addictive qualities to it. The government could also make a lot of tax money from it if they legalized it, considering it currently is the largest cache crop in the US.

and if you think about it, we would also be able to control it better as in what age groups if we put restrictions on it like ciggarettes or alchohol. I also think the only reason why ciggarettes are legal is because of how much money it brings in.

Well, considering that it flourishes in places like Kentucky because of the ridiculously fertile soil in the Midwest, we could very easily make it an export. It may not exactly save the economy, but I certainly don't think it would make it worse. And that would be another form of escapism, which is a business that is marginally recession-proof.

Really, the only things I ever hear about related to the drug that are negative are negative because its illegal to have it in your possession. I have never heard any accounts (apart from things very close to propaganda) painting marijuana negatively.

This doesn't really add much to the debate, but your post made me clap Dr. Nyx. Probably because it's a similar stance to my own.

The thing that bugs me about "debates" like this is that there generally tend to be two outspoken sides that feel that they are correct. On the one hand, we have the side that is against marijuana and vehemently so. On the other there are the advocates, who very strongly advocate their own pet habit. Neither side ever wishes to make a concession and frankly I'd rather just bang my head against a wall than get caught in the middle of it all. It's more constructive really.

But in the spirit of conceding, I will just say this, I don't think marijuana is the ultimate evil of drugs. I also don't think it's perfectly harmless and everyone should run out and smoke some. I think those against should realize that there are some genuinely useful applications for this drug, most especially on the medical front. And those for, well, not everything's a conspiracy and if you have to constantly expound the awesomeness of your drug of choice maybe you're trying too hard to justify your habit.

Did that all make any sense? I really need to go to bed. Maybe I'll try to make more sense later. Maybe not. I hate the feeling of yelling into the void, which most online arguments "debates" tend to turn into.

Well I can tell you this;
I'm from the Netherlands, smoking pot is legal here. We can buy our stuff in coffeeshops, where the quality is alot higher compared to the pot you can buy on the streets or home dealer.
So this means, the weed I smoke (yes, i do occasionally smoke pot.) was not thrown in a bathtub, and mixed with all sorts of chemicals. And beleive me I am not by far the only one who smokes pot around here. It's something you see here in everyday life.

And for me, and all the people I know who smoke; we're doing quite good actually.
I work, go to school, have a lot of friends, including my family (<3).
There are alot of things to live for in my life, and believe me pot isn't one of them.
I am not controlled by it, nor am I destroying my body.

Okay I won't deny smoking weed affects your braincells, but I really think you have no idea howmany of them grow back before you can even roll your next spliff.


You'll never know what it's like until you've tried it several times, weed can be a liberating experience. For example it helps me with my ADD. I don't need to take stuff like Ritalin or Melatonine.

Caffeine is a drug.
Cigarettes contain drugs.
Alcohol is a drug.
Are you opposed to people using these?

Either they support it because they're already smoking it, or they figure that it's a harmless drug and there's no reason to make it illegal.