🚀 go-pugleaf

In calgary.general Mark <mark1w@n.o.s.p.a.m.oanet.com> wrote:
> A few years ago I was in a room with a fellow who lit up a joint.

A few years ago I was in a room with a fellow who was drinking. He got sick
and threw up on my shoes. A few days ago I was in a room with a smoker. The
smoke caused me to gag and cough and I felt like *I* would throw up. A couple
weeks ago I was in a room with someone smoking pot. We had a really
interesting conversation.

Anecdotes can be interesting, but don't really help the discussion. I've been
in a room many times with people smoking pot, with no noticeable effects on
me. You simply have a low tolerance, much like some people have for alcohol
(the so-called "cheap drunk"), and I must have a higher tolerance. Individual
experience is not useful in the deciding of whether or not to decriminalize
marijuana. Statistics are much more useful. And statistics show us that
alcohol is one of the number one killers in our society, while marijuana
doesn't even register (unless you count people like that innocent man in
Montreal who was shot dead in a drug bust at the wrong address).

> It only causes intoxication if taken in sufficient quantities.  You stated
> that alcohol *only* serves to get one drunk, I dispute that claim.

You are entitled to your opinion on that matter. However, it has nothing to do
with the topic of this thread.

> Not by smoking it, however if you drank several ounces of pure THC perhaps
> you would die. I don't think anyone has tried it. 

As a matter of fact, people have tried it. Granted it wasn't "pure" THC, it
was only about 40-50% THC. It used to be sold in pharmacies several decades
ago. No deaths were attributed to its use.

> I did meet someone who's uncle smoked 2 ounces of hash in on big hit, he
> passed out for two days.

And I knew someone who drank so much they got liver failure and died. I'd
rather pass out, thanks.

> Alcohol adds a bitter and metallic taste to beverages, it also has a warming
> effect.  There is a big difference in the taste of a 5% beer and an 8% beer.

Marijuana buds can add a bitter taste to food. Are we to deny people who want
this taste?

> Cocaine is a stimulant and alcohol is a depressant.

Nicotine and caffeine are both stimulants, and are addictive. Heroin is a
depressant like alcohol, and it is an accepted medical fact that all
depressants are addictive. Marijuana, on the other hand, has not been
classified as a stimulant or a depressant. It has never been shown to be
addictive. In fact, it *has* been shown that there are receptors in the brain
that serve no other purpose than to accept THC. Further, from "Marijuana And
the Brain", by John Gettman in High Times, March, 1995:

"...the discovery of the THC receptor site and the subsequent research and
observations it has inspired conclusively refute the hypothesis that marijuana
is dope. Many important brain functions which affect human behavior involve
the neurotransmitter dopamine. Serious drugs of abuse, such as heroin and
cocaine, interfere with the brain's use of dopamine in manners that can
seriously alter an individual's behavior. A drug's ability to affect the
neural systems related to dopamine production has now become the defining
characteristic of drugs with serious abuse potential. According to the
congressional Office of Technology Assessment, research over the last 10 years
has proved that marijuana has no effect on dopamine-related brain systems."

So, if we are to argue the relative merits of intoxicants, nicotine, caffeine
and alcohol all deserve to be outlawed, while marijuana is one of the very few
intoxicants which is not deserving of such measures. Indeed, it seems our
brains have evolved special receptors just for THC.

> I didn't know that you could make an addiction legal or illegal.

I clearly meant nicotine and alcohol were legal. Don't make me have to call
you a twit.

> Marijuana is addictive and does have a harmful effect on the user.

Please quote some scientific sources, other than:

> http://www.newscientist.com/nsplus/insight/drugs/marijuana/drdave.html

Which is nothing more than an interview, with a lone individual expressing
their own opinions and anecdotes.

> I'm not opposed to the legalisation of marijuana simply because of the
> harmful physical effects it may have, as your statement about cigarettes
> implies, but because of the harm that intoxication can do, not only to the
> user but to everyone else around him/her.

And once again we come back to it being none of anyone's business what someone
does alone in the privacy of their own home. We already have plenty of laws
governing behaviour in society, including laws which apply to those who are
under the influence of intoxicants. Just as we can't stop someone from getting
drunk and not disturbing anyone, neither should we stop them from getting
stoned. If we are going to ban marijuana because someone "could" get
intoxicated, then we should outlaw alcohol as well.

-- 
Scott Barker       scott@mostlylinux.ab.ca
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