Cannabis

[Kokopelli]

I was more curious as to whether you thought cell phone use while driving was an inducement for impaired driving and if you think the use of cell phones while driving should be banned? In other words I am trying to figure out if you are just against marijuana or impaired driving.

[stick47]

MJ impairs 100% of the time. You can't compare that to cell phone use. Esp when as I said, maybe only used when level of risk is low.

[kevinpate]

Maybe it's just me, but I'm not envisioning a floor full of parrot heads singing along to

roll me something fat and strong
inhale a water bong til it feels so wrong
My eyes are burning bad but I don't care
It's 4:20 somewhere

Read more: JIMMY BUFFETT - IT'S FIVE O'CLOCK SOMEWHERE LYRICS

[jett713]

Yes but legalizing pot will compound the problem of impaired drivers.

If you think there isn't people driving around high now, you are crazy. Just because cannabis is made legal doesn't mean that that many more people are going to say, oh weed is legal now I think I am going to start smoking it. Not gonna happen. The sames ones that are smoking it now will be the ones smoking after it is legal. They just won't be criminals any longer under a failed drug war. It's time to have these conversations here in Oklahoma.

"Dear Mom" - YES on 64 ad - YouTube

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[stick47]

Sorry but aside from pain relief I just don't see why anyone needs a conscious altering supplement to cope with their life.

[jett713]

Well if you don't like to alter your consciousness don't smoke or drink. But to tell someone else they can't alter their consciousness, if they so desire, is their business and no one else's. As long as they don't hurt anyone else, then it is no one's business but their own.

[stick47]

If you get behind the wheel under the influence you're committing a crime and also jeopardizing public safety. I imagine you disagree with that though.

[jett713]

Just because someone gets high does not mean they are going to go out driving. Just like not all people that drink alcohol are going to get behind the wheel.

[stick47]

Well good luck in passing that job related drug test then. Ya know even if pot is legalized it's still going to seriously limit opportunities for better paying jobs.

[boscorama]

oooooh...

[stick47]

Dude..

[venture]

Well good luck in passing that job related drug test then. Ya know even if pot is legalized it's still going to seriously limit opportunities for better paying jobs.

I've known plenty of people hold off when needing to in order to pass the tests. I also had a boss who enjoyed it every weekend and he was pulling in $1.5M a year in pay. Damn that pot keeping him from getting a better paying job. LOL

[NoOkie]

Sorry but aside from pain relief I just don't see why anyone needs a conscious altering supplement to cope with their life.

If pot were legal I'd definitely spend the occasional Friday night smoking a blunt, watching a bad action movie and killing a bag of Oreos. Back when I was young, rebellious and didn't have to hold down a well paying job and support a family, I treated pot just like I treat alcohol: Something to unwind with, or to enjoy with friends.

Side note: I've known plenty of people in my career that were regular pot smokers. In an office job, as long as you're not showing up stoned or taking regular drug tests, it really doesn't make a difference.

[Bunty]

If you get behind the wheel under the influence you're committing a crime and also jeopardizing public safety.

So the public seems to handle okay over the counter drugs that cause drowsiness. I don't know of any crusade going on to ban sales of them.

[Bunty]

Yes but legalizing pot will compound the problem of impaired drivers.

I don't expect to smoke pot just because it becomes legalized, since smoke tends to irritate my throat. I've seen someone turn down smoking a joint before, because he soon needed to drive. So I suspect impaired drivers won't increase by much. Legalizing and regulating pot may make people more responsible in its use.

[kevinpate]

In theory, if personal consumption were decriminalized, it might well be removed from standard test screenings and tested only on specific events of concern, much like alcohol is today. Not advocating one way or the other, simply noting we don't tend to take punitive actions for use of a legal substance. A person taking Prozac by prescription will pop a positive on a test. Simple use, standing alone, isn't a job killer.

[LandRunOkie]

Marijuana use was very popular on college campuses during the Vietnam era. Most of the Vietnam protests were led by college students so Nixon saw them as the enemy. He commissioned a study about what to do about marijuana. When he learned that the study recommended marijuana to be decriminalized, he tore it up in pieces. He blamed the legalization movement on the Jews:

You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards
that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the
Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter
with them? I suppose it is because most of them
are psychiatrists.

And the next year saw a dramatic increase in marijuana arrests. That's right, modern marijuana policy is brought to you by the same man who authorized Watergate (illegal espionage), Kent State (4 dead protesters in Ohio), and the Cambodia firebombings (largest American war crime).

[BlackmoreRulz]

If I had my choice I would rather my kids smoke a little pot rather than take up drinking alcohol

[PennyQuilts]

If I had my choice, my kids would drink wine or beer at the dinner table and leave the rest alone. More and more studies are showing that kids' brains are affected by pot in detrimental ways that might not affect adults the same way, and let's face it, the pot kids smoke, these days, is much stronger than it was decades ago. I saw nothing good come from teens smoking pot as a guardian ad litem, and plenty just horrible in terms of memory impairment (even when not stoned), lack of motivation, school achievement dropping off, poor social skills and interactions, retarded maturity and addictive personality development. It also allows underlying mental illness to more easily gain a foothold. Excessive drinking is no good, either, but to pretend pot smoking is no big deal for kids, IMO, is dangerous. It is very dangerous for some kids (perhaps not all) but you just don't know which ones will be severely affected.

For that matter, it would worry me more to have my kids running with a bunch of potheads than kids who sneak beer. I say that from purely practical reasons - kids who drink can more easily hide it and if they are drinking, chances are if their parents don't know it, it is more likely because they were fooled. Plenty of good parents with good intentions are fooled by sneaky kids. it means they were fooled - it doesn't mean they aren't making a good effort to set a safe environment.

But kids who smoke have clothes and rooms that reek. Parents of the kids who ignore the smell are liable to be either potheads, themselves, dysfunctional parents who let their kids run wild, or clueless. How many of those parents are going to call the kid's parents and tell them that, although they let their own child smoke, they want to make sure it is okay for the neighbor kid to join in? They won't. They will just look the other way and that sets kids up to end up in a smoking den with no real adult supervision.

Good parents might let their kids drink at a certain age, in moderation, but I can't see good parents throwing open the bar for the neighbor kids to do the same because they'd realize that wouldn't be appropriate. Maybe I was wrong but I let my kids have a short glass of wine or beer with dinner (at home) beginning they were in their mid teens (16 - 17). We treated it as a learning experience and would discuss different types of wine or beer, how it was brewed, moderation, etc. But I can't imagine having one of their friends over and offering them alcohol without their parent's permission. And I wouldn't serve my kids alcohol if we had company because that is something another parent might not feel comfortable with.

Kids sneaking behind the barn to smoke or drink is one thing. It happens. Kids whose families tolerate unsupervised drinking, smoking, etc. and allow other parents' kids to use their home as a safe haven tend to be bad news because there is a break down in boundaries. I wouldn't trust those families to properly keep an eye out for my kid.

[onthestrip]

Penny, no one is talking about letting kids smoke. The new laws in CO and WA require you to be an adult to have possession.

[NoOkie]

If I had my choice, my kids would drink wine or beer at the dinner table and leave the rest alone. More and more studies are showing that kids' brains are affected by pot in detrimental ways that might not affect adults the same way, and let's face it, the pot kids smoke, these days, is much stronger than it was decades ago. I saw nothing good come from teens smoking pot as a guardian ad litem, and plenty just horrible in terms of memory impairment (even when not stoned), lack of motivation, school achievement dropping off, poor social skills and interactions, retarded maturity and addictive personality development. It also allows underlying mental illness to more easily gain a foothold. Excessive drinking is no good, either, but to pretend pot smoking is no big deal for kids, IMO, is dangerous. It is very dangerous for some kids (perhaps not all) but you just don't know which ones will be severely affected.

For that matter, it would worry me more to have my kids running with a bunch of potheads than kids who sneak beer. I say that from purely practical reasons - kids who drink can more easily hide it and if they are drinking, chances are if their parents don't know it, it is more likely because they were fooled. Plenty of good parents with good intentions are fooled by sneaky kids. it means they were fooled - it doesn't mean they aren't making a good effort to set a safe environment.

But kids who smoke have clothes and rooms that reek. Parents of the kids who ignore the smell are liable to be either potheads, themselves, dysfunctional parents who let their kids run wild, or clueless. How many of those parents are going to call the kid's parents and tell them that, although they let their own child smoke, they want to make sure it is okay for the neighbor kid to join in? They won't. They will just look the other way and that sets kids up to end up in a smoking den with no real adult supervision.

Good parents might let their kids drink at a certain age, in moderation, but I can't see good parents throwing open the bar for the neighbor kids to do the same because they'd realize that wouldn't be appropriate. Maybe I was wrong but I let my kids have a short glass of wine or beer with dinner (at home) beginning they were in their mid teens (16 - 17). We treated it as a learning experience and would discuss different types of wine or beer, how it was brewed, moderation, etc. But I can't imagine having one of their friends over and offering them alcohol without their parent's permission. And I wouldn't serve my kids alcohol if we had company because that is something another parent might not feel comfortable with.

Kids sneaking behind the barn to smoke or drink is one thing. It happens. Kids whose families tolerate unsupervised drinking, smoking, etc. and allow other parents' kids to use their home as a safe haven tend to be bad news because there is a break down in boundaries. I wouldn't trust those families to properly keep an eye out for my kid.

I did some googling, and found multiple sources that do agree with you on THC concentrations. Interestingly, one of them stated that while potency has gone up, the average amount used has gone down. It's a pro marijuana site, so hardly unbiased, though. I do think the research on TCH's effects on a developing brain is very interesting, but there are studies that show similar problems with alcohol consumption.

To your main point, though, I think that your heart is in the right place. Kids need to be taught how to responsibly handle things like alcohol and drugs. With alcohol, it's easy. Give 'em some beer and wine with dinner. Teach them that it's a regular thing that regular people consume in moderation. My kids can have a glass of wine or a beer when we have a get together, and they see it as normal. Since pot is illegal, I can't exactly share a joint with them like I shared a few beers with my dad when I was a teenager. I suspect that the effects of THC on brain development are more related to habitual, heavy users(We all knew that pothead that was too stoned to remember what day it was...).

Really, as far as bad habits go, I'm not that concerned about my kids drinking or smoking pot with moderation(I do worry about binge drinking, I saw way too much of it when I was in college). I feel that we, their parents, have done our best to educate them on what the effects are, and what the consequences are and what not to do(For the love of god, call us if you're ever too drunk to drive). What really worries me is that one of them will take up smoking. Their mother and I, as well as their dad, smoked for a long time. We managed to quit a few years ago, and their dad managed to quit this year, but I'm worried that the damage is already done and the behavior is already imprinted. Out of all the dumb things that I did as a kid(And there were plenty!), smoking tobacco was easily the stupidest with the longest term effects.

[PennyQuilts]

Penny, no one is talking about letting kids smoke. The new laws in CO and WA require you to be an adult to have possession.

Actually, they were talking about kids, onthestrip. My comment was in direct response to the comment just before it.

[PennyQuilts]

NoOkie, I think the problem, is often practical. As you say, it is relatively easy to control the amount of alcohol you provide your child and you can easily couple light drinking with education. You always end up having to hope for the best but it helps that few responsible parents are going to serve your child alcohol without your permission. Culturally, that doesn't happen that much.

Pot smoking, not so much and that isn't going to change for quite some time. That might be because of the stigma of smoking and it might be that might change over time, but we aren't nearly there, yet. For every sensible pot smoking adult who would see the benefit of educating their child about pot smoking - and the wrongness of exposing someone else's child to pot without their express permission - there are 100 more that would just look the other way when junior and his buds lit up. And that leads to really dangerous situations. I DON'T want my stoned fifteen year old daughter making decisions about sex and birth control while over at some pothead's unsupervised house in the afternoon anymore than I would want her to make those sorts of decisions when she is drunk. I just don't see any reason to believe that pot is less dangerous in any tangible way for kids than alcohol - they are both dangerous in different ways - and some in common.

[RadicalModerate]

If Ganga is "legalized" wouldn't all of the gangstas behind bars for related-activities have to be released and provided with lawyers to sue for wrongful imprisonment?
(FlashForward to Lawyers Office . . . Guy pounding on door . . . "Dave???" . . . "Dave's not here, man . . . i mean mon" . . .)

[BlackmoreRulz]

Penny, I guess my rationality is that the 15 yr old girl would be able to make a more rational decision while being high over being drunk.