What is your view on cannabis?

[-:Undertaker:-]

I am rather sick of seeing the arguments saying that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol or smoking - I have never heard of cases of people drinking alcohol or people smoking sending people mentally insane, but I have heard of cases whereby cannabis smoking has permanently damaged the mind. The ridiculous guff put across by organisations such as FRANK in schools is largely the cause of this strange belief, and leads onto the idea of 'harm reduction' which is also a myth. I would challenge people who argue that cannabis is a 'soft' or even 'harmless' drug to take the time to read Peter Hitchens on the subject, or watch in in action in the below video. Whether you agree with him or not over all, he certainly debunks many commonly held beliefs such as the idea that the British government has fought a 'war on drugs' when it has done the complete opposite.

In the legal sphere, however dangerous and stupid cannabis is, I would legalise it given the circumstances were right (we would have to have the NHS privatised and most welfare programmes shut down for this to happen) on the basis that you have the right to be as foolish and as stupid as you wish - provided you pay for your own mistakes and other individuals are not forced by the state to pay for your fix or the consquences of your fix.

Short of those changes, I would not legalise it and would indeed do the opposite as Peter Hitchens advocates.

[samsaBEAR]

Legalise it, restrict smoking it to private properties, jobs a good'un. There's no reason why someone at the end of a busy day can't go home and smoke a bowl while relaxing, it's no different to having a few beers/.

[Adam]

It depends really. Some people don't give a crap and would rather use the most dangerous. I just wonder if people who take it as a form of rebelling will possibly move onto something else.

Obviously and whatever is done wouldn't affect them in any way so why not concentrate on the people who do give a crap about the dangerous drugs? As far as I can see from personal experience of friends and from posts in this thread it's that illegally acquired cannabis is a stepping stone to more dangerous drugs which pose more problems to the users' health and society as a whole than cannabis does.

[FlyingJesus]

I have never heard of cases of people drinking alcohol or people smoking sending people mentally insane

Maybe you should do a search on it then

[=Sam]

It's good and bad. Depends whos smoking it.

[AgnesIO]

It's good and bad. Depends whos smoking it.

I assume you are referring to medical reasons or not?

[4Fraider]

If we have people stupid enough in the world to smoke cannabis, then let them smoke it and slowly kill themselves...

[CrazyColaist]

yea. i got ibs and traumas, without it im ill cant eatn if i end up sleeping without weed i scream in my sleep :\

ibs is from other drugs (ill let your young minds imagine) going raves and clubbing so dont think all drugs are ok. but cannabis should be treated the same as alcohol & cigs. (even tho there bad aswell) but the other drugs coke ket mdma etc all man made, and its chemicals bonded together. so they should be illegal but relaxed (Except heroin and crack obviously) cannabis and tobacco is just a living object it has a life.




L.A confidential.
week 2.

[Stephen]

I think people need to look at what illegality has caused and not just what legality would cause

Simple question.. would you rather have people smoking a natural plant that has years of study done on it

or would you rather people smoke synthetic cannabinoids made in a chinese lab to bypass the drug law with chemicals active below 1mg being sold online in grams to any kid with their mum's credit card

/debate

[FlyingJesus]

The natural vs manmade argument I don't like because arsenic is natural and aluminium is manmade but I know which I'd rather line my baking tray with. That said I totally agree that banning certain compounds or chemical families only makes the situation worse - a pretty huge point here is mephedrone which had one reported death from someone who took it in a cocktail of other drugs (and therefore the death shouldn't be attributed to just the one chemical), and since its ban the "alternatives" and "new" versions of it have been catastrophically dangerous