Hawaii Recreational Marijuana Bill In Legislature

[glinda]

Common side effects of Vicodin include..

Are you posting that to suggest that the list of side effects of marijuana would be any shorter?

[MarkD]

All intoxicants have a fair long list of problems that might occur. Alcohol can be horribly debilitating.

Whether they occur depends much on the level of use. The age-all concept of moderation is highly vexing to the War on Drugs.

It means that virtually all intoxicants can be used safety. But we can't tell people that, right?

So we carry on this narrative that a very few intoxicants are just fine--marijuana being the poster child for this now. And demonizing a long list of other intoxicants as evil, horribly addictive substances. Here's 3 more drugs whose danger has been significantly exaggerated: psychedelics, ecstasy and powder cocaine.

I say we were better off with only alcohol being legal. Because now we are going to end up going down this slippery decriminalization slope--whether we like it or not.

[jahson777]

Some strains have better pain killing properties than others. I have had herb that numbs my pain some and I have also had herb that enhanced my pain. I am guessing there is more to cannabis than just thc and cbd. Thanks to "freedom" science has been oppressed from studying cannabis fully. Of course the euphoria can help distract from pain as well, peace of mind can be a powerful medicine of its own.

[My 2 cents]

quote:

---

Originally posted by glinda

Common side effects of Vicodin include..

Are you posting that to suggest that the list of side effects of marijuana would be any shorter?

---

Point taken Glinda, but yes, I do believe the list is shorter and less severe.

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingred.../marijuana

I was more reacting to the suggestions that opiates are the better choice (sometimes, yes) and that "pot's pain killing benefits are way exaggerated and were used as a false path to decriminalization."

There are many many ways that legalization would benefit us. Medicinal use is just one aspect, but it's a big one and calling it a "false path to decriminalization" is, well, a false path into refer madness.

[kalakoa]

opiates are the better choice

Opiates are allowed under Federal law. Marijuana is not.

[glinda]

Point taken Glinda, but yes, I do believe the list is shorter and less severe.

I agree with the less severe, but man I have seen some that just can't handle marijuana.

I had an employee that was pretty hung up on his Rastas imagine of himself. Had a need to smoke it endlessly. But hey, keep it off the job site who am I to say? But the guy would take a few hits on his way to work and a few more at every opportunity, and I tell you, he couldn't hold a rod straight, plumb, to save his life. We'd be building cement forms and I needed him to pick up that rod and hold it for a few minutes but no... his sense of balance was shot. He didn't last all that long on the job..

Otherwise, most people who smoke it regularly are pretty functional. But then so are heroin addicts to a degree. I had one close friend, rock star kine, who spent his whole adult life on heroin, and pleased millions and millions of people, and made gazillions of dollars, and was the CEO of a corporation... all on the stuff.. functional addict.

So who is to say, really? We have one poster here that flips out repeatedly about folks on pot being in stupors.. whereas I know the guy in real life and can not believe he says that when so many of his co-workers smoke it regularly. Perception? Is his based solely on what pot does to him?

As to pain, man that is a hard one. I hate opiates. Can not take them, but then I had a pretty close relationship with marijuana and can't do that anymore either. Pain? It comes, I feel it, but taking any of the "pain killer" options escapes me. What I have found is addressing certain vitamin/mineral deficiencies has worked better for me than all that other stuff. But, I would not argue with another person's belief that it helps them. If nothing else, placebos are real.

As to side effects.. I think one could compile a list a mile long of the side effects of marijuana..

[My 2 cents]

Anything can be abused. Add caffeine and sugar to the list. Perhaps your former employee will grow out of it like you and I and MarkD did. What I have noticed over the past 20 years or so that the laws have been changing is that the attitudes are changing as well. Maybe it's just my circle but what I'm seeing is that some use it, some don't, and nobody cares. It's a non-issue. I think the forbidden fruit stigma made it more enticing than it is now. Perhaps with fewer taboos we would see more responsible behavior? I don't know, but criminalizing it certainly doesn't work.

[kalakoa]

nobody cares

It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedoms. Just keep that in mind at all times.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Hawaii House bill to charge a $300 fine for less than 3 grams of marijuana passes ( instead of a criminal offense with jail time) goes to Senate:

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/03/08/...ossession/

[MarkD]

Excerpt:

"Under Hawaii’s current law, possession of marijuana (brings) to 30 days in prison and fines as high as $1,000. (The new measure...possession of three grams or less of marijuana, would see offenders fined $200 instead of charging them with a criminal offense."

A great benefit to marijuana users? We all know that few people have been arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana for years now. The defacto policy of Hawaii law enforcement, as well as that of many other states: No marijuana arrests, so as not to clog up the courts.

The new statute makes it easier to target pot offenders--should law enforcement so desire.

I recall reading of a state several years that passes a similar statute. The media there reported that the total number of marijuana tickets for one year ended up being something like 4 times higher than the total number of marijuana arrests the previous year. Revenue generation?