well Hydra, so we meet again...squarely on the opposite sides of an issue once again.... First off...lung cancer...you would have to smaoke the equivelent of 2 packs of joints a day for years and years to get lung cancer from pot...I don't know of ANY stoners that smoke that much..you would be plastered to the couch all damn day if ya did.... mar1juana does not have even 1/10th of the side effects of extended use of other painkillers.. It also is much more effective against pain, muscle cramps, loss of appetite...and dizziness/quezziness(sp?) it is also much quicker to act upon the nervous system than almost anything that isn't a shot.. Did I mention that it also is not addictive? Forget what the gov is tryin to tell you, take it from someone that's been there...I quit and restarted more times than I can even count...And I don't mean that I quit and couldn't stay off of it..when I quit ..it was for varying lengths of time...some as long as ayear and a half... When I restarted, it wasn't for any other reason than to relax at the end of a long day... but enuff of my life story...Issues like this always have two totally extreme viewpoints and I doubt anything I say will change your mind or anyone elses for that matter...I just wanted to try to explain my take on it .... or as my boy Dennis says, That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
Rockets2K: Great post. I thought pretty much the same thing even thought I don't nor have I ever smoked pot. Non-addictive No harmful side effects Works quickly Non-chemical in nature I mean, that's like a wonder drug compared to Vicodan. I saw a special on 20/20 last year that said addiction to pain medication is the fastest growing drug abuse problem in America. What's worse? Addiction to pain medication or smoking pot?
You know my answer on that one... I saw a show a while back that was talking about hospital drug theft...and the most stolen drugs were all painkillers... Big surprise there huh? I'm not surprised about your viewpoint...You've probably known alot of ppl that do smoke it..it's use is pretty pervasive in the music industry...Would you agree? Question...what percentage of musicians that you know smoke pot? I would find it easier to count the number of ones I know that don't (like on one hand) ...
Sure, I know plenty of guys that smoke pot. The irony is that I play with people who don't drink or smoke - tobacco or otherwise. A rarity I guess. I know an awful lot of guys who don't as well. I think musicians are just more open to things in general like that so they aren't as concerned about experimentation. Frankly, I've played with LOTS of stoned musicians and I'd much rather play with a guy that just smoked weed than ANYTHING else including drinking alcohol. I've played live with guys who were on just about everything you can think of and, obviously, when you are dealing with someone on heroin, coccaine or acid, things can get wierd. But, if I had my choice between pot and alcohol, it would be pot 100 times out of 100. It just doesn't have the bad effect alcohol has on coordination. Some players I know actually play BETTER when they are high IMO, but they've been doing it a LONG time. Personally, I've found it to be MUCH easier to be a good musician sober on all counts. And, the majority of guys who play really great that I have worked with do it sober for the most part.
My sister is seriously addicted to pain killers she spends $70 dollars a day just to feel normal and gets quite ill when she can't get them lung cancer, legal issues and the "Gateway effect" of pot are a JOKE when compared to the seriousness of todays new and powerful painkillers
Definitely a rarity in my experience...I guess it must come down to the style of music being played...most of the musicians I know/have played with/worked for are metal/hard rock musicians and I would put the percentage of smokers (pot/tobacco) at about 95%...funnt thing is...only about 75% are drinkers..hmm...I wonder why... Playing while fryin?? now that's just down-right silly! I've fryed a few times in my life, and I wouldn't be able to even figger out where the strings were, much less being able to hit the right notes...Fuggedaboutit.. Agreed..I've played while under the influence of both..and I play worse than normal when drunk..at least pot helped me relax on-stage..which was important to me since I do suffer from stage fright... I can't attest to that since I'm a MUCH better engineer than I am a musician!
Unconditionally for legalization, medical or recreational, it doesn't matter to me. If booze can be legal, so can pot.
Do I always have to be for or against an issue? What if I just don't care. I don't care if you smoke weed for medicinal purposes or just for recreation. I don't care if its legal or not. I don't care if you can go to jail for it or not. I just don't care about this issue. In fact, this might be at the bottom of important issues in today's society. I don't want to smoke weed, and I don't, but I don't give a flip if you do or not or if you go to jail or not for it.
a ganja cookie a day keeps the doctor away. Granny doesn't like to smoke it anymore. She just cooks with herbs. Would you like butter with your toast, anyone?
R2K, At least we both like Dennis Miller. If mar1juana was legal and people were using it as a pain medication, wouldn't you agree that they would probably smoke a lot more than a recreational smoker. Now imagine everybody in a hospital toking up. That is a lolt of smoke in the air. Do you really believe that it would have no negative side effects on the people in that environment. To quote Dennis "Of course its bad for you, its f***ing smoke."
Always glad to meet a fellow DM fan, he's a little too cerebral for most of my off-line friends... now on to serious stuff.... Well, it depends on if you mean that pot for whatever use was legal...I'm really only referring to medicinal right now...my argument about in-general pot legalization could keep us here all week... In an hospital environment...yes..I would agree that it would not be a good thing to have all the smoke floating around... but in the hospital the taking of pain medication can be more tightly controlled... and there are always THC-based substitutes that can be used for the period that they are in the hopital. Most of the examples I've seen of ppl needing the medicinal pot is when they use it at home to control the symptoms of terminal illnesses ie...nausea, loss of appitite, pain, and body aches Alot of those ppl are battling diseases like cancer and aids, which means they are being treated as out-patients and their use of pot would not occur in the hospital..
For. The only difference between pot being illegal and alcohol legal is that pot had lobbyists trying to make it legal and alcohol has big companies lobbying for it. I suspect many more lives are harmed by the effects of alcohol that pot on a per user basis. And for the record, I drink very little and don't smoke - so I'm not exactly biased on the issue.
Well, first of all, I don't agree that smoking pot is "A-Okay" like some would have you believe. I've had high school buddies that effed up their lives smoking pot. And whether they were physically addicted or not I don't know, but I do know they were addicted to the high. After a while that's all they cared about. I don't see much positive in having more people walking around puffing the magic dragon. Sure there will be less money spent trying to control it, but kids these days are apathetic enough without having the complete freedom to get high whenever they want. And if it was made legal it better damn well only be legal to smoke it in your own backyard. It's bad enough I have to inhale cigarette smoke in restaurants, clubs, or simply walking down the street. Having to smell that "mar1juana" stench all the time would be ten times worse. As for the other argument that since drinking is legal then smoking pot should be legal...I just don't see the logic in that at all. Now, as for what this thread is really about, "medical" mar1juana. I guess they could try it out and see how it worked. I just think having to control it could cause more trouble than it's worth.
There hasn't been evidence that mar1juana is physically addictive after all those years of testing, so most likely the addiction is mental. The reason is that THC stays in your bloodstream and slowly dissolves after use, so the gradual ramping down doesn't make it as addictive as drugs that get burnt out of your system like cocaine or speed. It's also why mar1juana is the most common drug tested for drugs when some of the more serious ones can't be tested in the bloodstream. And the logic in "if alcohol is legal, then mar1juana should be as well" comes from the fact that people intoxicated from alcohol are more likely to kill someone or be prone to violence than someone intoxicated by mar1juana. There hasn't been a reported case of mar1juana overdose either. In my opinion, the reason why the Feds are so intolerant of the idea to legalize mar1juana even in medicinal cases is from the fear that it would be seen as a concession on the whole "war on drugs." To some people, legalizing mar1juana could open the doors to legalizing other illegal and illicit drugs.
I understand the so-called "logic" behind it, but it doesn't seem like a very good excuse to me. Let's add to the problem because smoking pot doesn't have quite as negative effect as alcohol? I'm sorry if I don't feel like this is a good reason why pot should be legalized.
a good reason for legalizing it is this fighting mar1juana is a huge waste of resources, our jails are filled with people who just wanted to get high and have fun (as opposed to those who wanted to get drunk and have fun) Also, I believe if pot were legal, it would be less of a gateway drug. Imagine, instead of going to the local dealer who has pot, X, the occasional 8 ball (naw man I'm out of pot but I have plenty of crystal, etc) you go to the store and buy your taxed, safe (not laced) green and that gives you the ability to seperate yourself from the people who will stuff anything and everything into their bodies that will get them messed up. Or we could always use my grandpa's solution PUBLICLY EXECUTE ALL THE DRUG DEALERS hehe old people
No, it doesn't have the same negative effects as alcohol. In fact, it has many positive ones which is why it's being legalized to use as medicine. medicine heals and cures. I don't know if alcohol heals or cures anything. Some studies say wine is good for preventing heart disease, but other than that I don't know of anything. My friends in Mexico say tequila kills gastro-intestinal parasites.
ok, how bout this then.. Why isn't alcohol illegal?? How would legalization of pot add to the problems? I don't understand your reasoning... If pot adds to whatever problem, what does alcohol do?? It causes many medical problems (cirrosis of the liver being the worst), and seems to cause ppl to be more violent and reckless than normal. Whereas most stoned ppl don't want to do anything but chill...they don't want to go start fights, they don't feel like driving anywhere...it can be argued that smoked could possibly cause some lung problems...but that hasn't been proven .. Alcohol is addictive..but in my experience, pot isn't... I also don't subscribe to the "gateway" theory...When I smoked pot (back in the day) it never caused me to want to go shoot up or sniff powder up my nose...
