Does Pot smoking cause brain damage?

[Sundancefisher]

Originally Posted by Big Daddy Badger

Of course it harms the brain... so do cigarettes and alcohol and a myriad of other legal activities.
The only question is...how much and whether that harm is worse than the harm done when you start locking people up and forcing them into a life that results in lost opportunity.... poor diet...depression etc etc.

Does the harm done by pot use outweigh the harm done to the person and their brain and subsequent generations by a system that calls them criminals for their vice and truly results in a life sentence?

Is the current cure worse than the disease?

Its pretty clear that it is.

Open usage in the US will expose the truths. I expect it will not be black and white yet multi shades of gray.

[Mistagin]

Originally Posted by LongRangebugler

Bottom line is if alcohol and tobacco are legal why isn't marijauna?

So let's outlaw both alcohol and tobacco. Then pot will be on a level playing field and that old argument won't be valid anymore

[NEWB]

Originally Posted by Mistagin

So let's outlaw both alcohol and tobacco. Then pot will be on a level playing field and that old argument won't be valid anymore

Alcohol was illegal at one point not too long ago.

Please research the temperance movement and prohibition era in Canada and the USA....

[MrDave]

I was started on pot and alcohol by the time I was ten. My POS family figured it was OK, because I would learn it on the street. Better to learn from someone I could trust??? Classy hillbilly family.
Certainly would not recommend doing this. No telling what my life would be like now.
Looking back, I probably would be dead. Without the substance abuse,I would never blocked out the deaths of Betty and Sheldon. My suicide attempt would have been more successful. Like my mothers slow suicide with alcohol, after she tried going for her walk into the blizzard.

You cannot take what you read and see as the whole truth. Its like learning to hunt coyotes from studying Wile E Coyote. The stuff you have seen on TV and movies is far from the truths. So much myth is involved.
Stupid people make stupid pot smokers. No doubt about it. Like alcoholics there are many chronic smokers who you will never see straight. Until you know them, you won't know it.

This is from having to hide. Pot itself has never caused me paranoia, people have. When your habit can land you in jail you get nervous.
Greening out is an old term. Been around for a long time. A bad trip was its predecessor. Like everything else, you can have a bad reaction.

I have seen many jobs in the patch where the only ones to keep doing it were the pot heads. The guy running behind the welding truck with the ground cable. All day holding a cable moving only when the truck moves. The poor kid holding a shovel while the hoe fills the pipe ditch. Ten hour days of watching for rocks. Many such jobs. Many more jobs where the pot smoker says"later". While the drunk guy thinks he's the best.

And the guy who hit me with the back end of the backhoe, he was a straight. Non drinker, non toker. Just had a mind that never stayed on the job. Just a problem worker. He didn't need either.

So many myths on pot smokers, and nearly zero unbiased studies. Because we have had to hide our habits.
I was tested in the fifth grade, scored 128. Today I test out at nearly the same. Why? Because I am still me.
Unlike the guys who looked down their noses at us, and consumed huge amounts of alcohol, I am still healthy and alive. Lots many to alcohol, but none from pot..

[LongRangebugler]

Originally Posted by Mistagin

So let's outlaw both alcohol and tobacco. Then pot will be on a level playing field and that old argument won't be valid anymore

Yah why don't we outlaw alcohol an tobacco then? Good call man! Drinking and driving won't be as prevelant as it is today, lung cancer and other cancers will decrease dramatically. Sounds good to me.

[takeiteasybird]

Originally Posted by LongRangebugler

Yah why don't we outlaw alcohol an tobacco then? Good call man! Drinking and driving won't be as prevelant as it is today, lung cancer and other cancers will decrease dramatically. Sounds good to me.

That would be a gold mine for organized crime...

[LongRangebugler]

Originally Posted by takeiteasybird

That would be a gold mine for organized crime...

Exactly! So might as well legalize the herb! Decrease unauthorized grow ops by helps angels and other gang affiliates.

[Mistagin]

I think some of you guys can't see the sarcasm through the haze - so here it is again:

So let's look into the crystal ball: let's suppose pot is now legal everywhere, and everybody knows it has harmful effects that cause distress in society - just like tobacco and alcohol, and we all happily ante up and pay even more taxes to try to help the poor folks who've partaken too much of said substances (on their own choice), but there's still not enough money to pay the increased costs, so then what? How many of you would be happy to pay more taxes and fees for increased 'costs' for having such 'vices' freely available to be used and abused?

Let's take things the other way, lets suppose there were no tobacco, alcohol, or mind-altering drugs to be used and abused, what do you suppose the societal costs would be?

Or do we all just keep burying our heads in the sand and deny there are repercussions to such substances that cost us all?

[dmcbride]

Originally Posted by Mistagin

I think some of you guys can't see the sarcasm through the haze - so here it is again:

So let's look into the crystal ball: let's suppose pot is now legal everywhere, and everybody knows it has harmful effects that cause distress in society - just like tobacco and alcohol, and we all happily ante up and pay even more taxes to try to help the poor folks who've partaken too much of said substances (on their own choice), but there's still not enough money to pay the increased costs, so then what? How many of you would be happy to pay more taxes and fees for increased 'costs' for having such 'vices' freely available to be used and abused?

Let's take things the other way, lets suppose there were no tobacco, alcohol, or mind-altering drugs to be used and abused, what do you suppose the societal costs would be?

Or do we all just keep burying our heads in the sand and deny there are repercussions to such substances that cost us all?

Legalize it and tax it just like everything else. It is going to get used legal or not.

[raab]

Originally Posted by dmcbride

Legalize it and tax it just like everything else. It is going to get used legal or not.

I'd be for legalizing it as long as they had a way of testing drivers. Don't now how many people I know who smoke weed and drive and think its ok.

[Winch101]

Here's one take on pot use , even on the medical side .


http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/04...n_5169125.html

[Kanonfodder]