legalise medicinal cannabis

[Jezza]

Medical cannabis is now legal in Australia.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/medical-marijuana-is-now-legal-in-australia-2016-2

[think positive]

Great news, about time

[stui magpie]

I just googled to see what medical conditions it cures apart fro9m anorexia, and apparently it's an effective treatment for high blood pressure.

Where do I sign?

[Skids]

MMJ up to 34 cents before calling for a trading halt pending an announcement.

BOOM! Skidstronamus strikes again

[think positive]

When we were in Denver last year, the homelessnew was shocking, but it was surprising how the locals treated them, like they were a valid part of society. (Not sure how to put that, but if you've seen the beggars in Vegas I'm sure you will get it).

More good news for the homeless in Colorado

http://theheartysoul.com/colorado-marijuana-tax-homeless/?t=SNHHL

As an aside, we only went to Denver for a car auction, and yet we all were so glad we went, it's a really nice place, wish we had had a couple of extra days there. Their trains system is amazing, so clean, so well organised. And the Main Street Mall of Denver Saturday night is fantastic.

[Skids]

[stui magpie]

^

The day shit like ice becomes legal, I'm kidnapping my grandkid(s) and heading overseas.

[Skids]

It's a few years old but the most recent article I can find on Portugals drug laws.

Drug addiction in Portugal has decreased by 50 per cent 15 years after the country decriminalized the use of substances. To fight the drug problem, the country regularized the possession and consumption of substances like heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

The new policy included the offering of services to people with drug problems, adoption of solutions and interventions based on scientific knowledge and the involvement of the community in drug policy implementation, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.



http://projectcensored.org/drug-decriminalization-has-positive-results-in-portugal/

While international organizations urge countries to take similar actions, decriminalization has not been pushed to public debate by mainstream media. Instead, drugs continue to be mostly presented as a cause of social problems instead of a consequence.

[Skids]

[Culprit]

As soon as it's legal you wipe the black market out of Dope production. Prohibition never worked with booze and it doesn't with dope. Make it legal and tax it like California. As for people driving etc, um they do that now. I would much rather have a person stoned behind the wheel than some addict that has just shot up half a gram of heroin. Heroin is currently not detected in road side drug testing. The hysterical group that runs around saying it's illegal have been around since I was a teenager, so 40 years has passed and we still have the same tossers running the same lame arsed arguments. If I wanted to I could get dope and a pizza delivered quicker than an ambulance. I am sure we will hear the same bullshit arguments once I am no longer here.

[stui magpie]

^

if that's aimed at me, I don't care about dope but Ice is dangerous shit.

I've seen Portugal quoted a few times. i don't have all the details but i'm willing to bet there's a lot more to it than just decriminalising stuff.

Prohibition doesn't work, but neither does decriminalisation without regulation. Tobacco and Alcohol are heavily regulated both for production and sale as well as being taxed up the wahoo.

Lets say you make coke, heroin and speed legally available in quality controlled amounts. Big pharma may have more scruples than the average outlaw bikie gang, but not by much. they'll still be tweaking the formula to make it addictive. Without serious effort put into eradicating the home manufacturers, people will be faced with the choice of being able to buy stuff legally, but jump through hoops and pay through the nose for it, or buy the backyard stuff cheaper. Which one do you think the average 16-20 year old will choose?

If we're going to win the war by making it legal we need to:

1: Control and regulate manufacture and distribution heavily
2. Burn badly any bastard making it at home
3. make it affordable
4. invest heavily in education and health

[think positive]

[stui magpie]

^

People want to alter their consciousness, we've been doing it for thousands of years with alcohol and other substances. While pills and powders are cheap and alcohol is regulated and over priced, kids will buy them and become addicted or die.

Prohibition doesn't work, mandatory death sentences for manufacturers of illicit drugs might, but then they'll just make off shore and import

[think positive]

Doesn't make a free for all a good idea though! They have safe injecting rooms, maybe expand that somewhat, bu I just can't go with leagalizing it

[Mugwump]

" Medical use" is a strange term - clearly we use heroin, aka morphine, for medical use. So I cannot imagine why marijuana would banned for medical use if there is a necessity for it. I suspect that what is really being aimed at here is decriminalisation.

I used to believe that decriminalisation (an interesting term in itself) was a good idea, but then one has to ask what truly positive case (and why) can be made for adding to the legality of a drug that has a proven link with (i) the development of psychosis ;(ii) damage to short term memory ; (iii) negative changes to the morphology of the brain when used in adolescence ; (iv) impaired judgement when driving or performing other fairly basic cognitive tasks.

It's not clear to me whether marijuana fills a niche in the medical armoury where there is no reasonable, lower-harm alternative. It may be the case, but I can't find this evidenced anywhere.

Given the above, what is this really about ? If it is decriminalisation, then why would we send a signal that ingesting dangerous substances for the sake of stupefying yourself is a perfectly acceptable idea ? Why normalize the use of any additional drug, when we see so very clearly the massive, destructive effects of normalization of so many drugs right across our society ? I don't know if marijuana is a conveyor drug - I suspect it is - but whether it is or is not, I certainly don't fancy adding to the difficulties of raising children in a society which blurs the line between stupefying drugs and medicines.

The "what about alcohol" question is a fair one. If alcohol were banned today, then given its major harms I think we would be well-advised to keep it so. However, it is nearly impossible (short of a massive and unacceptable apparatus of represssion) to reverse the availability of a drug once it has sunk its roots deeply into our culture, and this is surely an argument against going soft on marijuana, not for it ; and secondly, alcohol is not used by most people as an agent of stupefaction, as dope is. The "what about" argument amounts to the proposition that if you have one bad disease getting other bad diseases is ok.

Whenever something like this is changed, it is a fair bet that someone is lobbying to make a lot of money from it. I would not be too quick to cheer this licensing of new dope for a free people.