Canada may legalize pot! sweet....

[Voltorb]

I'm not giving anyone credit. I was speaking from my own personal experience. I've abused a myriad of different drugs in my time (never tried crank though); most of the experiences were actually pleasant. Would I have tried all these drugs without having smoked pot first? I don't know if I can honestly answer that question. The LSD really busted the door open for me more than anything. I think once you've put enough of that crap in you, you truly are ready to try anything. My circle of friends may have never gotten close to that drug had it not been for the pot we smoked beforehand. It really is tough to say.

I think what motivated me more than anything was curiosity. My curiosity was well-tempered by fear, owed to all the Just Say No propaganda. Until I discovered marijuana, I was far too timid to try anything of this nature. The first time I saw a bag of weed, I was so naive. "Is that really weed?" I couldn't take my eyes off it. I wanted to smell it, hold it, but never would I dare smoke it. Eventually, by watching those who were high and seeing enough people come down without scratching their eyeballs out and blending them into a nice sorbet, I figured "What the heck. A little pot won't hurt me." So I smoked it... You know some people say you don't get high the first time you smoke... That was me. I had to smoke four joints the first time I finally got high; it was the third try. I felt like scratching my eyes out and blending them into a nice sorbet. Eventually I came back into the real world and, being unscathed, was ready for more.

The LSD was different. Never seen it, seen anybody on it, didn't know what to expect. Had a guide, tried it once. He had to physically put the dose on my tounge and order me to swallow. I'm glad he did.

Those were two defining moments that opened the doors to a new world within my mind, waiting to be explored; and explore it I did. Maybe acid was more the gateway drug. I doubt I would've got near it without the experience of pot first, however.

I can understand laws behind street racing and I understand speed limits as well (the limit has to be set somewhere). I've always felt proud obeying laws that I understand. Drug laws I never understood. Didn't understand why drugs made people crazy. Didn't understand how they could ruin lives. I've always felt proud breaking laws I don't understand. It's just the rebel in me. At any rate, I had to know; I had to understand. I thought using the drugs would help me understand, but now I find myself more confused than when I started.

In the end I guess the government doesn't trust that people will use their drugs responsibly. I think they are stupid.

Now that I think about it, I think you are right, bholdr. Pot isn't a gateway drug. Life is a gateway drug. We're all just looking for the next high.

You guys will forget all this if I ever run for president. Right?

[bholdr]

yeah, i was reaching a little bit with the speeding analogy.

However, i still believe that the whole 'gateway' drug idea is 10% fact, 90 percent propaganda.

I personally did a whole bunch of other things before i tries marajuana, and i think if i had to qualify one as the 'gateway drug' it would have to be alcohol, due to its inhibition lowering effects.

[bholdr]

please forgive the (in retrospect) hasty and unapplicable speeding metaphor. apples and oarnges, i was in a hurry.

I think your point about 'life' bwing the gateway is excellent. it gets to the real core of the issue- pot doen not (by itself) make one want to try other drugs, it's one's natural curiosity.

IMO, alcohol was my 'gateway drug' (if i had to choose one) due to its inhibition lowering effect.


[ QUOTE ]
I think what motivated me more than anything was curiosity. My curiosity was well-tempered by fear, owed to all the Just Say No propaganda. Until I discovered marijuana, I was far too timid to try anything of this nature. The first time I saw a bag of weed, I was so naive. "Is that really weed?" I couldn't take my eyes off it. I wanted to smell it, hold it, but never would I dare smoke it. Eventually, by watching those who were high and seeing enough people come down without scratching their eyeballs out and blending them into a nice sorbet, I figured "What the heck. A little pot won't hurt me." So I smoked it... You know some people say you don't get high the first time you smoke... That was me. I had to smoke four joints the first time I finally got high; it was the third try. I felt like scratching my eyes out and blending them into a nice sorbet. Eventually I came back into the real world and, being unscathed, was ready for more.


[/ QUOTE ]

sorbet. LOL! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Voltorb]

Not speaking from personal experience on this one bholdr, but I agree with most of what you say. Crack, heroin, meth, should remain illegal with decriminalization. I've seen/heard about too many people messing their lives up due to these three drugs.

Some of the weaker painkillers i could see being legal. Although this could be dangerous due to overdose potential. I think it would be nice to be able to pop a hydrocodone once a month on a weekend, take a hot bath, and sleep like a baby. Strong painkillers like demerol or dilaudid should not be available.

X I have no problem with. I honestly don't see what all the hoopla is about. I agree with Hunter S. Thompson... its mild, it doesn't do much. Now mix that stuff with some mescaline and a bit of cocaine and you have a party. This is what most of the good X is, at least, in my experience. I say legalize it. When people start taking pure MDMA and realize that it usually makes you pass out in an hour they'll probably stop using it. Or start mxing it with other stuff. Oh well.

Hooray for the natural drugs. Including cocaine, since it is just a cocoa extract. Stuff is pretty benign too. Again, I don't see what all the hoopla is about.

Then you get to my personal favorite. The one drug that I hold so many mixed emotions for, hold so many contradictory opinions about. I must say though, bholdr, if you are going to keep peyote legal, you may as well throw LSD in with it. Peyote's far more dangerous in my opinion. Bear in mind, that only one person has been documented of dying from an LSD overdose (not accidental death while on LSD). The guy shot up several hundred milligrams I think. Whoah! The potential for abuse is very low, as well. It is far too rough on the body, and the constant abuser will eventually burn out. This inevitably happens, although you are right, they never seem quite the same.

So my list of totally legal drugs would be, from most speculative to least speculative: peyote, LSD, weak painkillers, cocaine, MDMA, the rest of natures pharmacy, and finally... MARIJUANA!

[Voltorb]

Is it true that DuPont had a hand way back when in pushing for the current classification of marijuana, including hemp, as nothing but a dangerous drug. Apparently the products derived from hemp and hemp seed oil could have been disastrously competitive with their products. Just a rumor I heard.

I think that timber companies having to ignore hemp as an excellent and far more renewable source of fiber for paper is a crime against trees everywhere. Pot is supposedly much easier on the land and grows much faster than any tree. Using this plant could free up land for real deciduous forest, not row after perfect row of pine trees that looks so out of place in the south, or anywhere for that matter.

[Gamblor]

Now, I'm all for the legalization of pot frankly, because I like smoking it and I don't like paying 200% markup to defer black market costs (economic costs, not $ costs).

But I also can't deny that smoking a joint or 5 and doing so on a daily basis certainly can create social costs. Before it is legalized, I firmly believe the government should be setting up huge infrastructure for programs similar to alcohol abuse; R.I.D.E (drunk driving checkpoints), community service for violators, pot-abuse centres and hotlines.

Just follow the trail of Pizza Pizza boxes.

[bholdr]

I aggree that marajuana is a drug that can be abused, and some people should not smoke it and require help if they aquire a habit that they are unable or unwilling to conntrol. AND, that's one of the great things about legalization, A: it removes the stigma that prevents some drug users from seeking help, B: the taxation (even at t moderate level) would more than pay for the social costs (unkilk, for example, heroin or crack, which is one of the reasons those drugs should stay illegal, IMO), and C: Legalization of marajuana would make it easier to keep it out f the hands of minors, since distributers would be liscensed and monitored.


also, the price would drop. ye-ha! 40$ for 1/8th of an ounce is stupid- but i could go to jail if i were to try to grow my own to avoid that cost. if it gets legalized in the us i won't be paying a penny. (except for fertilizer, etc)

[bholdr]

I think cocaine is a tricky one, due to it's highly addictive properties. But, i too, don't see what 'all the hoopla's' about- it's WAY milder than meth, X, etc. i suppose part of the problem is the ease with which it can be turned into crack, which is a REAL BIG deal, super addictive, totally incapacitating (in terms of being able to do anythng productive), and totlly withouit any redeeming medical or social value (even LSD, X and Methamphetimine have legitimate medical uses).

I wouldn't mind seeing pure MDMA being legalized (it is absolutely fantastic with mescaline, isn't it?), and it's legalization would probably cut down on the black market, speedy-X that everybody does at parties and isn't even really the same drug.

If peyote didn't occur naturally, i would like to see it kept illegal. there are far more powerful natural hallunicigens that i would also like to see banned, too, such as magic shrooms (the little red fukers with the white spots- make you trip for like a week), but, then again, they grow from the ground, and i have a real hard time banning a natural substance for personal use. decrim only, maybe.

I do have to say LSD is a fun one (when i was 19 it was, anyway!), but i kow too many people that have permanant psycological damage for all the good times people have on it to justify making it legal. All IMO.

[bholdr]

yes, dupont and the whole artificial fiber industry had a hand in it, as well as the cotton and timber industries.

William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper magnate and owner of huge tracts of timbered land, had a huge hand in it's classification as having no medical or social benifits.

how many people have died for his greed? I have a freind (now deceased) who insisted that smoking MJ after Chemo allowed her to eat and keep up her strength, she said once that 'pot has added two years to my life."

it is a FUKING TRAVESTY that she had to become a criminal in order to survive, to increse the profits of the timber and cotton industries and the profiteers that make their money off of the lies that perpetuate the drug war.

I have another friend that was killed by colon cancer and chemo. he refused to try pot because it was illegal. and so on and so forth. dirty god damn bastards. i'm gonna go smoke a joint before i get any more riled up.

[Zygote]

[ QUOTE ]
It's a myth. doesn't exisc, except in very very rare instances.

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this makes no sense?

Firstly, there are huge problems with PCP being mixed into marijuana. Crack can be used. Windex is quite common. Several kids in my area were hospitilized and i think one died from tainted weed. Just because you haven't experienced it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.