Why marijuana's moment has arrived

CNN ^ | August 11, 2014 | Julian Zelizer

[ConservingFreedom]

A few decades ago, marijuana was a topic that relatively few people, mostly counterculture musicians and comedians, spoke about in public. The comedy team of Cheech and Chong made films such as "Up in Smoke" that extolled the pleasures of smoking pot at a time the subject was still taboo.

"When trouble times begin to bother me," they sang, "I take a toke and all my cares go up in smoke." On the fringes of American society, it was usually possible to find activists who wanted to legalize it, as the reggae artist Peter Tosh famously sang. Efforts to legalize the substance in the mid-1970s failed.

Now marijuana has gone mainstream. Twenty three states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. Colorado and Washington have legalized pot for recreational use. The media has featured lively debate over the issue.

Joining other media outlets that have run articles supporting this cause, The New York Times editorial page published a number of high-profile pieces that call for making pot legal at the national level and outline specific steps that should be taken to ensure that the industry evolves in a safe manner.

How did we reach this point? How have we come to the brink of ending the national prohibition against a drug that has been roundly condemned for years as a grave danger to health and a gateway to drugs that can be devastating over time?

Here are eight reasons: [...]

[tacticalogic]

I miss Gerry Rafferty.....

[discostu]

Abuse or use? There’s a difference. Carl Sagan, definitely one of life’s big winners, said pot helped him puzzle out a lot of things, helped break him out of ruminations and navigate the problem from a different angle.

[refermech]

Smoked like crazy years ago. Pretty harmless compared to alcohol. Not for everyone though. Very straight now. maybe a beer now and then. Living clean is best at the end of the day.

[stephenjohnbanker]

If MJ is legalized, many MORE ignorant teens, even children will use it. Kids haven’t matured enough to understand your adult arguments, and it is obvious that you don’t care.

Oh well.........whats a few million more drug users with bad genes?

[DiogenesLamp]

It’s being alive. We all tamper with our brains all the time. Sometimes chemically, but mostly just being here. I’m listening to music right now, and discussing with you, and another FReeper just taught me something I should have already known. That’s all tampering with your brain, it’s what the brain is for, it’s a learning instrument. If you’re not willing to tamper with it I hope you wear hats.

*USING* your brain is not the same thing as abusing it.

Do you know *WHY* pot works on your brain? It's because plants evolved toxins as a defense mechanism for predation.

How did they do this? There are basic biological processes used by all life forms on this earth, including plants. They create the THC toxin by modify some of their own basic biological chemicals so as to bind with receptors in mammalian brains.

The plant's intent is to kill you, but it just hasn't developed a very good toxin for humans yet. Then again, the entire plant usually gets eaten when a predator attacks it, so perhaps if you ate the whole thing, maybe it would kill or disorient you so bad that you would leave it alone.

Discostu, the plants just want to be left alone.

You should leave the poor plants alone.

[ConservingFreedom]

Attack their positions and they react like an attack on them personally. This is the same way the far left reacts.

Yes, I notice how quickly the Drug Warrior accused me of being stoned - definitely from the far left playbook.

[discostu]

Somebody in my favorite bar put “Right Down the Line” on the jukebox Monday. Now you mention Gerry.

[DJ MacWoW]

Yelling doesn’t make your points better. In fact it shows you know they’re flawed.

Yelling is the only way to get a child's attention. You are exactly what is wrong with this country. The Communist 60's radicals knew there would be tools, sheep and weak people that would fall for the drug scene and even defend the lack of morals.

Tell me, do you think Geo Washington, John Adams & James Madison did drugs? Washington didn't even allow swearing in his troops. They were men of character. You're simply a dupe of the Communists intenet on bringing down America from within. You and all the other fools like you will help.

You have a nice day!

[DiogenesLamp]

Yes, and I believe in freedom ... to drink, or smoke tobacco or pot, or watch 'reality' TV.

I believe in the freedom to keep my own money instead of having to give it to the people who sit around on welfare drinking and smoking and watching TV.

Or pay for their kids.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” There’s a difference. Carl Sagan, definitely one of life’s big winners......”

Thank you for exposing yourself.

[ConservingFreedom]

You didn't know about Wickard? Why am I not surprised? I seem to have an endless supply of people with whom to argue, who do not even have a decent knowledge of history

How many of the people on whose side you argue do you think know about Wickard?

[Vision Thing]

Carl Sagan? The guy was more a performing showman (much like those shaky musicians) than anyone who had to compete to win something important.

Therefore, Carl Sagan was no winner.

His contributions were far from memorable.

[discostu]

We ignore what the plants want all the time. I live in the southwest, we eat hot peppers. Do you know why hot peppers are hot? We eat em anyway.

Although actually I don’t think making a buzz is defense, I think it’s to spread the seeds or pollen. Humans are by no means the only animals that get high. Just about any herbivore will eat pot when presented, often in preference over non-buzz causing food. At certain stages in a plant’s life cycle getting eaten is good, helps with the reproductive cycle and gives access to new territories.

And I gave up pot a long time ago. Scotch tastes better.

[discostu]

Do you not think Sagan was a winner? Made a lot of money, made some discoveries that advances science. Yeah he had serious lib leanings, but sometimes libs win too. And the statement was they couldn’t think of any winners that smoked pot.

[DiogenesLamp]

One of the biggest differences is learning is more permanent. Drugs do their thing and wear off. But we all know that that which is seen cannot be unseen.

Marijuana Use Does Cause Brain Damage Says Study

The debate on the negative consequences of marijuana use seem to go on and on with no conclusion in sight. Research released today, however, on marijuana use and the brain may bring the debate to a close, as it puts forth that the casual use of marijuana does indeed cause brain damage. The study, published on Wednesday in the Journal of Neuroscience, which was undertaken by psychiatrist and mathematician Hans Breiter from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, analyzed the correlation between casual marijuana use and structural changes in the brain. The conclusion: that even casual use among young adults was enough to cause significant brain abnormalities in two important brain structures.

Read more at http://guardianlv.com/2014/04/marijuana-use-does-cause-brain-damage/#HL3BiMud5IIhkP2F.99

[ConservingFreedom]

If MJ is legalized, many MORE ignorant teens, even children will use it.

"a higher percentage of teens surveyed finds marijuana easier to buy than both cigarettes and beer." National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse, http://www.casacolumbia.org/download/file/fid/640

Looks like the best policy for keeping drugs out of kids' hands is to legalize them for adults; this gives sellers an economic incentive to sell to only adults.

[dmz]

I’ve gotten a bit lost in all the rhetoric back and forth.

All the people listed here died exclusively from smoking pot (which was, at one time anyway, the subject of this thread). They never drank, used cocaine, acid or anything else besides pot?

The two closest friends of mine that I have lost (I’m 56, and we were all stoners back in the day) were to alcohol. One at 39, one at the 49. But I don’t kid myself and think of booze as something other than a drug. It is, and it is the most widely abused drug on the planet.

[discostu]

Oh look more ad hominems. If somebody here is what’s wrong with the country I’d say it’s the close minded person that can’t accept that maybe they’re wrong about stuff.

I once saw a letter that was purported (couldn’t verify it myself) to come from George Washington. In the letter he outlines how to separate male hemp (aka pot) plants from female hemp plants to prevent fertilization. One must keep in mind that at that time a significant chunk of the cloth and rope used in this country came from hemp. But it’s also worth nothing that prevent isn’t necessary for turning hemp into cloth or rope. But anybody that’s ever grown their own pot knows it substantially increases the THC level. Like I said, never confirmed the origin of the letter but if it’s true...

Interesting you think legalization is a communist plot since illegalization actually happened at the same time as the rise of communism.

[discostu]

So does alcohol.

[ConservingFreedom]

I believe in the freedom to keep my own money instead of having to give it to the people who sit around on welfare drinking and smoking and watching TV.

Or pay for their kids.

I also believe in that freedom for you and for me - but it doesn't justify a general ban on watching TV, drinking, or smoking.