As election day nears we notice that one of the most polarizing of ballot issues is back. No, not gay marriage and not stem cell research. I am talking about that licentious girl Mary Jane.
With a measure to legalize the possession of up to one ounce of pot on the ballot in Colorado and a measure to allow the regulated sale of marijuana and the possession of up to an ounce in Nevada, Tuesday could be the first time voters in any American state have embraced an end to marijuana prohibition. At this late juncture, most polls are painting it as an uphill fight, though organizers have reasons why they believe the polls may be off. The odds are looking better in Nevada than Colorado.
The only state in which marijuana possession is legal is Alaska. There, it was the courts, not the voters, who made the decision. [Link]
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p>Maybe its inevitable that we will have to legalize marijuana in order to reduce our out of control prison population. However, that still doesn’t make smoking pot ok in my opinion. As South Asians, where can we go for advice if tempted (especially you younger readers)? Fortunately our community has a doctor we can trust. He’s a Michigan grad and has an all-American smile to go with his neurosurgeon creds. Let’s see if Dr. Sanjay Gupta has any advice for us before we go into the booth:
… marijuana isn’t really very good for you. True, there are health benefits for some patients. Several recent studies, including a new one from the Scripps Research Institute, show that THC, the chemical in marijuana responsible for the high, can help slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease. (In fact, it seems to block the formation of disease-causing plaques better than several mainstream drugs.) Other studies have shown THC to be a very effective antinausea treatment for people–cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, for example–for whom conventional medications aren’t working. And medical cannabis has shown promise relieving pain in patients with multiple sclerosis and reducing intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients.
But I suspect that most of the people eager to vote yes on the new ballot measures aren’t suffering from glaucoma, Alzheimer’s or chemo-induced nausea. Many of them just want to get stoned legally. That’s why I, like many other doctors, am unimpressed with the proposed legislation, which would legalize marijuana irrespective of any medical condition.
Why do I care? As Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, puts it, “Numerous deleterious health consequences are associated with [marijuana’s] short- and long-term use, including the possibility of becoming addicted…” [Link]
I am totally against drug use (unless its in a dark jungle in Peru under the watch of a trained Shaman). Its amazing how many people think that its okay to drive stoned even if they would be against driving drunk. In any case, please consider Sanjay’s advice before the election on Tuesday.
Really???? against the ganja? go listen to “legalize it” by Peter Tosh. And please work to legalise it and not criminalise it.
Why?
Yep, life’s my drug.
I dont use it myself. But, i dont know why its the governments business that people use it. driving on it should be ilegal, cause you can hurt someone. but, i dont get why most drugs are illegal…
I should clarify that I don’t judge though. I’d lose many friends if I was judgemental 🙂
Ok fine, but what’s wrong with other people smoking pot?
Forget the doctor, ask Shiva about it.
Sorry, you already answered my question.
Could you elaborate?
I’m with you. I have been laughed at for never having tried anything despite it being around me, heck in fashion even coke is omnipresent not just pot. Controlled substance I don’t support the use of it.
Here are some old cliched arguments but its worth repeating. Cigarettes are legal, alcohol is legal, pain killers are legal, why not Marijuana? Can’t adults who are responsible enough to use the legal drugs not be able to handle MJ? I really haven’t heard any good argument for keeping MJ illegal.
colorado & nevada voters:
you have the power to set a precedent ->
let mary jane be as free to roam as johnnie walker
How about reasons like Choice, Freedom and that it is simply immoral to tag someone as a criminal because they smoke pot?!
Do you include alcohol in your definition of drug?
My position has a few main points:
Thoughts?
(p.s. And no, I don’t smoke pot. Or drink, for that matter. But I support your right to do so responsibly.)
has anyone heard of or has any account of people dying from marijuana usage? Say anything like drunk driving or maybe sleeping pills overdose or any kind of fatalaity like that? Or has it ever been proven that marijuana usage causes cancer? I’m just interested to know if this whole criminalisation of marijuana is a farce.
Dealing or using? The former should be heavily criminalized. Drug dealers are no good. No good at all.
This makes a good read.
It’s not a frosty Friday in hell. I don’t notice any pigs flying. But I agree with Puliogre and disagree with Abhi.
Why the hell would the government even want to keep people who wish to smoke marijuana from smoking marijuana? Don’t make no sense. I mean I could see a situation where, if you really really stretched the argument, you might be able to make a social case against the legality of alchohol. Maybe. But pot? And I say all this as someone who much prefers Stella Artois to Maria Johanna.
And this whole “I am totally against drug use.” Wha?? Even legal pharmakon? They’re all poisons, but in small quantities, they all have effects on the body that are considered by (at least) some people to be desirable, palliative, entertaining.
Aspirin, avastin, mary jane, cocaine…some should be regulated, sure, and some should be over the counter. But illegal? What century is this, exactly?
“I’m totally against drug use” is a personal choice. I am totally against drug use and won’t be using but that’s not to say I will condemn people that do. If you are a pot-smoking friend of mine then you know this to be true. On the other hand, I have seen too many people that don’t treat MJ like a drug. I feel that it should be treated as a drug, that’s all.
Legalize it, tax the hell out of it, and use the money to repair the schools and pay teachers properly. The brain damage to the American youth from weed is small compared to growing educational inequalities.
But the government in theory practices the will of the people. Prohibition against alcohol failed because the people were against it. With the case of MJ the people are FOR prohibition. The government isn’t to blame here. If you want to blame someone you should blame your fellow citizens, no?
then why do we blame the war on eye-rack on our govt officials and not each other?
My fellow citizens don’t know shit, and given the opportunity, would trample on the rights of people who are not like them. I need the government to protect me from the piety and good intentions of my fellow citizens.
Dint the failure of prohibition have a lot to do with the Mafia getting strong from illegal sales of alcohol?
Agreed 100%.
Zeenat Aman to the rescue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LKpiYxxcDk or Peter Tosh makes more sense to you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKasmSpKyLA
We do. We blame it on the Jesusland voters. 🙂
In the 50’s or so the United States government, through the United Nations, pressurized and bullied the entire planet to make marijuana illegal. Prior to that it was perfectly legal in many countries and in India you could even purchase your hashish through the government ration shops. The quality of course was terrible, just like the government rice and government sugar. But still, it was a way for the poor to get their hashish, while the rich got the cream of the crop from the Himalayas. Anyway, I think it is ridiculous to make certain drugs illegal and to me this is the same as making homosexuality illegal. Lifestyle and behaviour should not be enforced through laws but rather through social, parental and cultural constraints.
What makes it worse is that countries like India, and the South American nations have allowed themselves to be bullied by the US. Why should American values be universal values? The US does not stigmatize and criminalize psychiatric drugs so half the nation is on some sort of drugs or the other – some of them starting as early as age 4. And that’s considered perfectly fine, is not a moral issue, and no-one needs to struggle with their conscience about this. But shouldn’t they be thinking deeply about whether it’s okay to put 4 years old on ritalin and prozac and half the adult population on some sort of other drugs with dreadful side effects? It’s a shame that something relatively harmless like marijuana is criminalized while no-one makes moral judgments about popping prozac which to me is a whole lot worse simply because these drugs are really, really bad for you.
One more point – studies have shown that making things legal does not amount to the whole nation running amok – The Netherlands is a case in point. Also, in Europe on highways where there are no speed limits the accident rates are lower than on highways which do have speed limits. People do have internal mechanisms to regulate their behaviour and really it’s about time to legalize the harmless drugs.
There are two separate issue here:
1) Should we legalize it? Maybe. I’m firmly on the fence but feel I will eventually say yes because too much of my tax money is being used to fight the inevitable.
2) Should we smoke it. No. I agree with Sanjay. If too many people smoke it my tax dollars will eventually pay for them too.
In either case the non-smoking tax-payer gets screwed.
again, we blam “THEM” and not “US”
vaht? it’s the love that dare not spake its name… south of the border that is… out here, we create toke rooms for our professors
ahaha..
that being said – i concur with abhi. i think it’s stupid to numb the senses. yea i know people who toke, but not in my place and if they respect me, they are discreet about it. and this was a date-killer for me once – funny how things snowball, eh? – because this was over a bowl of doritos… , if she got preggers with our baby – and she wants to toke – who’s to say the chemicals wont leach into the baby’s head – yea yea… it’s all hypothetical – and your body and all that – but heck – no if the other person wants to take a risk the baby’s born a vegetable, it’s not someone i want to be with. EOM
But in may cases “THEM” are our neighbors. That technically makes them “us” in the context of what I was saying.
FWIW, drug legalization is probably the most cited policy difference between Libertarians and Republicans. For the GOP, this sort of legislated morality is something they don’t mind treading into…
ok – i came across as a nutso in my post up there – but just telling you my mindset in how that conversation evolved – plus i’m older now and (i believe) wiser in people’s personal beliefs. that person above is actually someone i respect highly. lesson of the day – disagreement doesnt mean the end of a relationship.
What about sugar? I’m powerless when faced with a bag of famous amos cookies. I can’t say no. I try and they sidle up to me whispering “yes.”
(insert goofy mcdonad’s commercial quote here–“looks like somebody missed snacktime”)
How so?
I’m for a junkfood tax. I don’t want my hard earned money being taxed to pay for the healthcare needs of a weak-willed sugar lover like you. 🙂
“But shouldn’t they be thinking deeply about whether it’s okay to put 4 years old on ritalin and prozac and half the adult population on some sort of other drugs with dreadful side effects?”
a relative of mine just came back from a several months stay in india. we were discussing the differences in tv ads (good and bad on both sides) and the first thing they noticed upon returning was that every other ad here is for some drug or the other.
Healthcare. I don’t believe anyone that tells me that marijuana isn’t a gateway drug. I’ve seen way too much evidence to the contrary.
fair enough … i was just noting how its never “ME”….
anyways, i do hope the people vote to legalize it …
i really am out this time …. cheers everyone, happy weekend
Didn’t anyone read the great article I linked in my post about proper drug use in Peru? Ok, I’m out. Have a good weekend everyone and maybe I will smoke up with some of you after the show.
Ok! I have not seen any such cases and hence am predisposed to believe that it can not be a gateway drug. But even if we are to accept your notion that the use of MJ leads to other drugs (and hence a healthcare problem) can’t we apply the reasoning of healthcare cost to alcohol and cigarettes as well? So where do we draw the line?
Some of the more important reasons why MJ use could possibly lead to other drugs are 1. The very fact that it is illegal! 2. Exposure to drug dealers who might be interested in pushing the more expensive and addictive drugs 3. Peer pressure (for teens mostly) 4. Coolness factor (not much I would say) 5. Curiosity of the user, combined with ignorance.
This is going to cause a lot of deforestation (like it already has in NorCal) and all the same problems that every other agricultural sub-industry has. Not that I’m against legalization, but the plan needs to accommodate for a lot of things that are going to derail the cash flow of the marijuana—>schools—>bridging the socioeconomic gap in education plan.
Let’s see how you do when faced with row upon row of marshmallow peeps. This past halloween marked my first introduction to never before seen ghost peeps. Oh the madness. Perhaps instead of bemoaning the tax dollars that will be spent on my healthcare, perhaps you should start championing the cause of federally provided chocolate from certified “sugar centers.” I will get my fix anyway that I can, better that I get it in a “safe place” then by surreptitiously spooning sugar into my mouth in dark alleys. 😉
(I think I am taking this joke waaaay too far)
.
I. CAN’T. STOP. LAUGHING.
I honesty don’t know enough about what the US did or didn’t do, but the serious tone of that post, the whole “USA is a big bad bully”, marijuana, the world being oppressed into giving up their weed. HAHAHAHAHAHAH.
All brown people subscribe to National Geographic Adventure
Not everyone who smokes is as high functioning as Harold and Kumar but I am for legalistion because it should be a personal choice. Ask me again though, after its legal and the secondhand smoke is choking us…
I believe it is no more harmful than alcohol and less so than cigarettes since most people who smoke, don’t smoke a pack of marijuana a day. It should be illegal to smoke and drive. It would be hard to enforce that though because MJ stays in ones’ system up to three weeks, so if you should have a car accident, you can’t prove you weren’t high while driving if you smoked last weekend, can you?
If it were legalised/decriminalised, it would be less of a ‘gateway drug’ wouldn’t it? If there is such a thing? Peer pressure/coolness factor would be less because it wouldn’t be so taboo. One would get it at stores rather than drug dealers and curiosity would be less since it would be more available.
I don’t espouse its virtues though because I am an athlete. Part of our PE curriculum in our school system is the dangers of drugs and alcohol. It’s hard to get through that section because the kids think it’s such a joke.
The criminalization of Mary Jane wrecks my community on a very large scale. I tried to find some stats, but couldnt on a quick search… sorry razib. Anyway, most MJ arrests are for possession and not for intent to sell. Black and Latino men are disproportionally targeted by police, which means that they are far more likely to go to jail for doing what many of their white and asian peers get away with regularly.
Actually, screw “regularly” and put WAY MORE OFTEN. Because the reality is that despite the reputation that black people have as being weed’s best friend (I swear if another white person askes me where they can buy weed…) white people smoke it way more:
White youths were more likely to have used marijuana during the past year (15 percent) than Hispanic (13 percent), black (9 percent), or Asian youths (6 percent) (Figure 3).
Or try this.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta a.k.a. asshole.
So where to start with Mr. Abhi. So you are against drugs. Fine. Don’t do them. But what we talking about here is two things:
Your analogy to drunk driving is very poor. I do not advocate driving while stoned. But that does not mean because some people will drive stoned, that it should be illegal. If you want to take your case further to its logical conclusion then ban alcohol to prevent all drunk driving. You say to consider Dr. Sanjay’s advice, so in effect you want to keep any use of it banned. We have prescription drugs far more powerful that Smith-Kline makes, but they are legal.
Ganja is Awesome.