05-22-2007, 07:27 AM
This is a good discussion: very interesting and informative to hear different opinions.
As I type this I'm listening to a radio show about pharmaceutical drugs which are used for mental illness for adults and children and how dangerous they are. Ironic.
A huge ramification of keeping pot illegal is that Northern California is being over run by the Mexican Mafia. They grow huge--tens of thousands of plants--patches out on public land snd private timber company land. They bring in 'desperados'-- illegals from Mexico and arm them with uzis. They pollute the streams and rivers, disrupt ecological systems, put out rat poison which kills wildlife indiscriminately, and leave behind tons of litter in their 'camps.' They also threaten hikers and quite often kill each other. It's bad. If pot was legal, I think this element would leave the woods.
Here in Mendocino and California in general, medical marijuana is legal. It is a sane approach to a harmless herb which has been used for millenia for healing a multitude of ailments and other uses--rope, for instance. I know someone is going to say pot is harmful and some people do mis-use it. But, anything can be abused from credit cards to food. I even heard of an individual who killed himself by drinking too much water.
I would like to see rationality re-established regarding marijuana. People are going to get 'high.' A wish to do so seems to be inherent in several species. I certainly would rather deal with a stoner who has the munchies than a drunk any day. As I have heard quoted: You never hear that someone who had smoked pot beat his wife or robbed a convenience store.
As for equating heroin, ice, meth and even alcohol with pot--that is just, to me, the result of propaganda and scare tactics which result from both a lack of information or bad information. I seldom hear peyote being vilified. It is rather equated with spiritual practice and not a substance which is used widely or abused (I'm sure that some do abuse it, just not many). That's because it is an intense drug to deal with physically and mentally. I would classifiy marijuana with the psychoative drugs--a very mild one--which is used for introspection, spiritual growth and journeying into the vast psychic landscape. The fact that, in this culture, we do not educate our children (and our society in general) about the spiritual (and healing)dimensions of this sacred plant is a failing of our society. Think of the difference if children were told that it is a special substance, not to be used lightly, but with respect and that, while not being harmful, it was an experience to be saved for older individuals, much like driving, sex, voting. I think that if we were truthful about marijuana, its uses and effects, and if we legalized its use, most of the undesirable effects that have been artificially created will disappear.
I really don't understand the impulse that humans have to police and control the actions of others. That is, of course, unless they are harmful to others and to society as a whole. I don't believe that everyone will work and be productive members of society with or without drugs. Don't you know anyone who is just plain lazy or has mental problems and won't or can't work? In fact, what is so great about someone having a corporate job, helping to create an essentially useless and environmentally damaging product (like a t.v. with more square footage than most of the world's population's living space) in order to enrich some already super rich people who, by the way, DON'T WORK, but live off the labor of others. Stealing is bad, but I do not believe I have EVER heard of anyone stealing a stereo to buy pot. That's cause it's not addictive, folks, nor does it cause permanent changes in the brain which result in psychosis or just plain crazy thinking. (There is some research that suggests that it may be detrimental to schizophrenics--but this is fairly new and sparse research that is anything but certain at this point.) And you can grow your own. Is this one of the reasons the Feds won't legalize it? It can't be controlled?
I have heard educators who should know better demonize marijuana, for what reason I do not know. Perhaps they are just afraid of people who might think for themselves and go off the reservation of approved cultural thought...and not take their proper place in the status quo.
april
As I type this I'm listening to a radio show about pharmaceutical drugs which are used for mental illness for adults and children and how dangerous they are. Ironic.
A huge ramification of keeping pot illegal is that Northern California is being over run by the Mexican Mafia. They grow huge--tens of thousands of plants--patches out on public land snd private timber company land. They bring in 'desperados'-- illegals from Mexico and arm them with uzis. They pollute the streams and rivers, disrupt ecological systems, put out rat poison which kills wildlife indiscriminately, and leave behind tons of litter in their 'camps.' They also threaten hikers and quite often kill each other. It's bad. If pot was legal, I think this element would leave the woods.
Here in Mendocino and California in general, medical marijuana is legal. It is a sane approach to a harmless herb which has been used for millenia for healing a multitude of ailments and other uses--rope, for instance. I know someone is going to say pot is harmful and some people do mis-use it. But, anything can be abused from credit cards to food. I even heard of an individual who killed himself by drinking too much water.
I would like to see rationality re-established regarding marijuana. People are going to get 'high.' A wish to do so seems to be inherent in several species. I certainly would rather deal with a stoner who has the munchies than a drunk any day. As I have heard quoted: You never hear that someone who had smoked pot beat his wife or robbed a convenience store.
As for equating heroin, ice, meth and even alcohol with pot--that is just, to me, the result of propaganda and scare tactics which result from both a lack of information or bad information. I seldom hear peyote being vilified. It is rather equated with spiritual practice and not a substance which is used widely or abused (I'm sure that some do abuse it, just not many). That's because it is an intense drug to deal with physically and mentally. I would classifiy marijuana with the psychoative drugs--a very mild one--which is used for introspection, spiritual growth and journeying into the vast psychic landscape. The fact that, in this culture, we do not educate our children (and our society in general) about the spiritual (and healing)dimensions of this sacred plant is a failing of our society. Think of the difference if children were told that it is a special substance, not to be used lightly, but with respect and that, while not being harmful, it was an experience to be saved for older individuals, much like driving, sex, voting. I think that if we were truthful about marijuana, its uses and effects, and if we legalized its use, most of the undesirable effects that have been artificially created will disappear.
I really don't understand the impulse that humans have to police and control the actions of others. That is, of course, unless they are harmful to others and to society as a whole. I don't believe that everyone will work and be productive members of society with or without drugs. Don't you know anyone who is just plain lazy or has mental problems and won't or can't work? In fact, what is so great about someone having a corporate job, helping to create an essentially useless and environmentally damaging product (like a t.v. with more square footage than most of the world's population's living space) in order to enrich some already super rich people who, by the way, DON'T WORK, but live off the labor of others. Stealing is bad, but I do not believe I have EVER heard of anyone stealing a stereo to buy pot. That's cause it's not addictive, folks, nor does it cause permanent changes in the brain which result in psychosis or just plain crazy thinking. (There is some research that suggests that it may be detrimental to schizophrenics--but this is fairly new and sparse research that is anything but certain at this point.) And you can grow your own. Is this one of the reasons the Feds won't legalize it? It can't be controlled?
I have heard educators who should know better demonize marijuana, for what reason I do not know. Perhaps they are just afraid of people who might think for themselves and go off the reservation of approved cultural thought...and not take their proper place in the status quo.
april
april