Marijuana Legalization/Decriminalization Efforts

[Churchill]

that sounds like you just made it up, everyone knows you drive better because you're more chill

[djzombie]

http://norml.org/library/item/mariju...tific-evidence

Today, a large body of research exists exploring the impact of marijuana on psychomotor skills and actual driving performance. This research consists of driving simulator studies, on-road performance studies, crash culpability studies, and summary reviews of the existing evidence. To date, the result of this research is fairly consistent: Marijuana has a measurable yet relatively mild effect on psychomotor skills, yet it does not appear to play a significant role in vehicle crashes, particularly when compared to alcohol.

[quannum]

i feel like top gear or mythbusters tested this out, the results matched up closest with what djzombie is posting.

[Churchill]

check and mate, gtfo 1950's white people

[archibaldcrane]

Good luck on your quest for marijuana legalization with the opinion that you should be able to drive while high.

[djzombie]

its already happened in two states, at this point its just a matter of time.

[Blackice]

Except no? I live in WA so I'm getting to see everything I-502 related first hand. The one major provision in the initiative that helped it to be taken seriously, was the DUID part. Look it up.

[Salodin]

And back to reality we come.

[djzombie]

I was talking about the legalization. Not it being legal to drive while "high."

That was a pretty large leap to a conclusion.

[Churchill]

I lived in WA too and none of you can drive worth a shit anyway.

IS THAT RAIN OMG

[Mazmaz]

lmao

[Ashmada]

I trust nature to produce something far superior than pharmaceutical companies who make pills with side effects worse than the problem they're attempting to fix.

Basically, if it's not broken don't fix it, and it certainly isn't broken.

http://ozhouse.wpengine.netdna-cdn.c...e_facepalm.jpg

[Plow]

He's not talking about some snake oil pills, he's talking about the proven medical benefits.

A lot of people don't even realize that there's thousands and thousands of people out there getting loaded up on morphine all day every day and dealing with a million times worse shit that could just smoke a joint and actually become functional again.

[Hatedregret]

Marinol is an example of artificial.

http://norml.org/component/zoo/categ...tural-cannabis < probably a bit biased though still factual.

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/doc...emc0004-04.pdf < not biased

You can't compare synthetic to Cannabis with a straight face.

[TheTaru]

Stoner with cancer here with insignificant personal anecdotes.

I found Marinol made me significantly more dizzy (like, magnitudes more) and hungrier than smoking marijuana. The "high" was also more intense but also very different, and worse than, marijuana. It wasn't at all helpful to me since I still couldn't eat/stop vomitting when I took it. Was and still is legal.

Tried a homologue of JMH-018 (when it was legal... I think) that was pretty similar to marijuana in the "high" it caused, but that high was still more intense. The effects were also short-lived (1-3 hours), and sometimes left me feeling anxious or depressed afterward. Was usually enough to shorten my 8-hour+ post-chemo vomitting sessions.

Then there's high-quality weed. Mild high when compared to the previous two (though I wasn't smoking a ridiculous amount each time, maybe 1/4th to 1/3rd of a gram), less dizziness, less apetite stimulation than Marinol (still more than adequate for me), and unmatched reduction of nausea. Rather than vomitting all night long and being afraid of choking to death in my sleep, I'd throw up 2-5 times and not feel significantly nauseated anymore. I'd also describe my ability to be a functioning human being as best on weed when compared to the other two, but would not personally drive while under the influence of any of them.

tl;dr Nothing is perfect.

[Kalmado]

I recently watched part of a special on History regarding legalizing. I haven't smoked in 11 years and don't care if people do or don't. What stood out to me was the people they interviewed hypothesized the government could make around $13B/yr from taxing. Also, the argument for the majority of those against legalization was something like, "it's illegal, so that's why!" or something similar.

I'm not into politics or follow topics like this, but from what I watched on that show, it does seem it would be in governments benefit to legalize it and tax it.

[hey]

What stood out to me was the people they interviewed hypothesized the government could make around $13B/yr from taxing.

A little more than half of that is actually from saved enforcement costs, not from taxes. Still a ton of money either way.

[archibaldcrane]

I really hope they are doing comprehensive studies about the effects of legalization in Washington and Colorado - number of regular and occasional smokers before and after the ban was lifted, prison population stuff, drug violence, DUIDs, etc. - so other states who haven't taken the leap can get a good idea of what the pros and cons are.

[Kalmado]

I really hope they are doing comprehensive studies about the effects of legalization in Washington and Colorado - number of regular and occasional smokers before and after the ban was lifted, prison population stuff, drug violence, DUIDs, etc. - so other states who haven't taken the leap can get a good idea of what the pros and cons are.

A friend and I were talking about it and we both agreed it would be interesting if there were a few states or even concentrated areas where studies could be done to see if it's worth it. Even if it was legal I doubt I'd smoke, but I think it would be cool for the government to have another way to get tax money without having to resort to budget cuts(probably still would).

[hey]

A friend and I were talking about it and we both agreed it would be interesting if there were a few states or even concentrated areas where studies could be done to see if it's worth it. Even if it was legal I doubt I'd smoke, but I think it would be cool for the government to have another way to get tax money without having to resort to budget cuts(probably still would).

Recreational drug prohibition actually costs the US government somewhere around $90B per year, between lost taxes, and enforcement costs.