The GREAT weed show
Hey Everyone
This Friday we are doing a whole show on Pot. I want your opinions posted here before we get there.
Should it be decriminalized ? Is it a gateway drug ? What are the negatives ? What are the positives ? And can you send some to my PO Box ?
Let me know your feelings on Marajuana and perhaps your experiences with it.
Dont miss the POT show this Friday !!!!
PD
Cigarettes have always been the gateway drug…i don’t know anyone who started out drinking or smoking weed without having first smoked a cigarette!!!
i’m not for legalizing weed though, better you re-legalize LSD.
Acid is the one drug that you find out if you can use recreationally right off the bat, and it should be a pre-requisite to the presidency—shoot all the candidates up with some lysergic and have them watch some of the Russian holocaust & war footage a la Little Alex in "Clockwork Orange"
I hate the whole "gateway" drug thing myself. Of course Pot is often the first drug people take in their lives. It is so easy to get in this nation. Personally I agree with decriminalization instead of outright legalization.
When it comes to legalization, I feel that the nation is just concerned about people smoking and driving. As there really is no way to test if someone is high right at that time (unless you want to crack jokes and do a "Funyuns" test!?). Then again, I don’t want to see 100,000 paranoid drivers all over the place either.
If it is legal to sell, the government will want to know how it is going to get its hands on any tax revenue. Will pot only be sold in state stores like liquor? Hell, why not just go get a fifth of Jim Beam and a 1/4 ounce of some real sticky icky from the same place!?!?!?
Satircally speaking, isn’t our nation full of fat people already? We dont need 100 million people completely abusing Ben & Jerrys while completely being transfixed on a Steven Wright marathon on the Toker Network.
It is this issue where it would help if conservatives would apply the principles of individual liberty they claim to regard highly. Victim-less crimes of all stripes should be stricken. Note: Crimes against one’s self don’t count.
Cough syrup is a gateway to caffeine, nicotine and Tylenol with codeine. Indeed, the road to hell is littered with plastic safety seals, Surgeon General’s warnings and empty ’script bottles…
Todd, I enjoyed your response! You are clever indeed. Amazingly, I think I agree with you. What do you think of that?
Mary,
Why, thank you and so we agree on this, eh? Are you surprised?
Very surprised, yet it seems only natural that we would agree on some things.
Victum-less crimes! Yes! Legalize prostitution already! lol
couldnt help myself… freakin wacked sense of humor
seriously, Decriminalize mary-jane… yes. Legalize… possibly. The driving impaired issue, is the only snag for me. But I am sure there are some pot-head scientists that could figure a way to test for it.
Darian,
Prostitution is legal in Nevada…
The studies on pot-impairment are mixed:
There’s one that says it makes for safer drivers, if you can believe that.
And one that says teen pot smokers have no more psychosocial problems than those who abstain from both substances
Another one says pot has higher levels of certain toxins.
This one says pot smokers face rapid lung deterioration - faster than smokers!
However, this one says there is no link between pot smoking and lung cancer!
Regardless the drug or behavior, if it isn’t infringing on anyone else’s right to life, liberty or property the federal government shouldn’t comment upon it, except to the extent the sales are taxed.
And that isn’t to say I morally approve or endorse any behavior currently or formerly criminalize - just because an act isn’t outlawed doesn’t make that thing wise or profitable.
Gambling is legal. So is alcohol. Do chronic gamblers and alcoholics cause social problems at the very least within their own homes? Is it our business to enact anti-certain-behaviors laws which address social problems caused by those behaviors?
i don’t think pot is a gateway drug, at least not for me. it wasn’t the first drug i ever tried…and its the only one i do now. i don’t see the justification in cigarettes and alcohol being legalized when they cause so much harm. when do you hear on the news that a bunch of pot heads reeked havoc? the most harm they cause is maybe robbing a bodega for cheese doodles because they spent their paycheck filling up their fucking gas tank….you’ve seen the commercial right? if the worst thing that happens to me is that i develop a weed cocoon - sign me right the fuck up! you should do it this show again next year on 4/20 live from Amsterdam
I Know the up side to weed but what is the down side? What long term effects? And if legalized would’t the industry turn into the new Tobacco industry? Wouldn’t we be trading one powerful lobby for another?
First off….I think prostitution is only legal in 2 counties or cities in Nevada, not state-wide. As a non user, my only issue would be driving under the influence. I am sure it could be a great tax revenue for the government and more importantly, it could be used for medicinal purposes more freely. The downside is of course lung issues, but that is the chance you take I guess. People who smoke it will continue to smoke it legally or not. Someone like myself who has no interest in it will not try it simply because it is legal. I prefer jagerbombs and imported beer.
honestly everyone knows that alcohol is way more dangerouse than weed as a matter of fact most negative things about marijauna only exist because its ilegal they say in A.A. if you dont stop watever drug your on it only leads three places jail institution or death well i dont know about you but i havent evan heard of a guy who has heard of a guy that died from smoking weed and it gets you in jail not because like other drugs you steel and stuff for it … because its friday night you just got paid from a long week of work and you wanna unwind with a blunt and the remote but instead you get buted by some suburban cop who dosent have half of an idea wat real police work is .And the gateway drug theory is kind of true but its not because weed is bad its because its not so bad and when people try it they realize that something they were told is horrible thier whole life is not so bad after all why should they expect that its any different then coke wich is made out to look horrible too the only difference is that coke will fuck your shit up weed wont but the cops will . I garentee that if you ask every person walking down the street what is worse for you weed or beer 90% would say beer i thought we lived in what is supposed to be a democracy where MOJORITY rules not christianity
holy crap. Try to defend it when you are not currently using it.
You want other things to worry about:
1. The DWI thing (how do you test for current intoxication)
2. Employee usage (again, how do you test for current usage and defend against it… if you suspect booze, you can pee in a cup)
3. How do you regulate it (will if fall under the Clean Food and Drug Act and be watched over by the FDA?)
4. Who can sell it/Where can you sell it (in gas stations, pharmacies, or state stores?) Also, if you put drug dealers out of work, what will they turn to next?
5. Who will be allowed to grow it? Anyone or would the government allow only a few growers to produce it?
6. Who will be accountable for purity? Since there is so much difference from one strand to a next, who will ensure that oregano isn’t ‘cut’ into it?
7. Will it thehn still be a crime to grow it on your own if the government only issues a few pot growing licenses?
I can come up with more but I just have to go smoke one myself and will probably be either too stupid or too ‘out there’ to be understood well.
Big Brother Reply:
May 15th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
John, how does legalizing/decriminalizing pot change anything about points 1 and 2? I don’t get it…
And on regulation, I thought you a lover of the free market. No one regulates weed now, and I’ve never heard of it being cut with oregano (have you even seen marijuana or did you just learn about it on a Brady Bunch episode?). If a dealer doesn’t provide a good product, people stop buying from him or her. Probably one of the very few products the market could actually regulate sensibly.
I did once buy some that was laced with PCP, and I have to admit I went back for more. But that’s because I’m maybe not someone who should be buying drugs in the first place.
Mike from WV Reply:
May 16th, 2008 at 9:19 am
There are people in some parts of this country that tend and watch over their Mary Jane and if you happen to wonder upon them by accident they will quickly turn into regulators. LOL
EminemsRevenge Reply:
May 16th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Weed used to be cut with oregano & other shit if you bought it on 42nd Street, Washington Square Park or in the projects back in the day…just like people sold bread crumbs or soap as crack…but that’s street hustling.
Me & my boy once smoked a joint laced with dust…two tokes and THAT was the end of our PCP career!!!
Listening to this chick talking about her son smoking with his father…WE used to smoke at my boy’s house in the living room, and his father once checked it out…took a few puffs, and said–Eh, my Buds are better.
Cutting Oregano? Tee hee
The only weed worth smoking smells so strong, you have to keep it in tupperware. I have a buddy here in town who has lived here his whole life and knows those who have kept cloning the original ‘Gainesville Green’ for decades. It is a pricey $400/oz, but one or two pulls will keep you stoned for 3 or 4 hours. A joint will make you literally and stupidly cross-eyed. Quarter bags last 2-3 weeks.
Wish I knew how to get the shit without getting busted! I’d quit drinking for good, probably what the liquor manufacturers don’t want.
tupperware?! The shit I buy here in northern cali stinks through any and all air tight containers I can think to put it in. Someone who smokes at work will reek of pot for an hour. Anyway… most people can perform their jobs pretty well when high, as opposed to drunk (not including school bus drivers in that list).
I don’t even understand what there is to debate? It’s not as though we’re talking about some untested or uncharted subject! This is a perfect example of how reluctant we are to examine empirical evidence that comes from outside our borders.
Anyone that has spent any time in Amsterdam can tell you that legalized pot causes no harm whatsoever; all the practical problems addressed above are not even slightly burdensome on the society and if you look at the statistics, it turns out that the majority of the people who smoke pot are, in fact, tourists. There was a massive upswing in pot consumption right after it became legal and then the novelty wore off and the use dropped to levels BELOW what they were when it was illegal. I’d dig up statistics but I can tell by the posts above that we’re all preaching to the converted anyway. Pete, you’re going to get one or two morons who call in tomorrow and delcare that legalizing pot is tantamount to injecting heroin into every new born infant but for the most part you’re going to get people who call in and say that every rational argument is for legalization or at least decriminalization (which is basically the same thing).
You don’t need to look any further than WHY it was made illegal in the first place to understand why it should be made legal again. Like everything else gone wrong in this nation a combination of social zealots and corporate greed tag teamed to ban the substance.
Again… not gonna write a history here… everyone knows this stuff who doesn’t live under a rock.
todd Reply:
May 16th, 2008 at 8:46 am
I saw that study too, Dre. A few years back, may have been pre 9/11. The last 8 years have been a blur.
There may well be social problems if weed is legal, just as there are with alcohol, but there are social problems when a parent or parents are removed from their children to prison because they smoke or sell weed. I choose to err on the side of liberty, individual choice and persuasion over coercion.
todd Reply:
May 16th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Yeah, well the stuff I used to get back north was so stinky and moist it would turn your skin green! We had to double ziplock it, put it in tupperware, then encase it in concrete and sink it to the bottom of our pool!
While I like to agree with you Dre’Del, I have to point out that people in the US are like no other. Using the Dutch example (Amsterdam) makes sense, but we have shown how the typical American is unlike any other beast on this planet. We seem to always go to the extremes, for instance, we have more people in prison than almost any other large nation. I guess that I am saying that our populace is completely unlike those in Northern Europe.
todd Reply:
May 16th, 2008 at 8:42 am
John,
Would it be fair to say we have more people in prison because we criminalize activities harmful to no one except maybe the person choosing the act?
It seems to me you’re essentially saying Americans are too extreme to have the freedom to smoke weed? Are we gonna go Reefer Mad?
Let the common man freely choose and act and do not force him to bend to the will of the state, be it a dictatorship or democratic majority! Even if that means he chooses whores and ganja.
If legalized does the government regulate it or would it just be legal to grow for private use and not for sale in the market place.
If legalized does the government regulate it or would it just be legal to grow for private use and not for sale in the market place?
I’d like to see some statistics on domestic abuse cases in which the perp was using pot versus alcohol. I think I know what it will show!
Ok…. whoever that supposed doctor that you had on today who talked about pot was a moron. WTF benefit would ANYONE get from putting baby powder in pot??? Pot is green. Baby powder is white….and almost weightless. This is the crazy shit that the Anti pot people spew. They have NO idea what their talking about and they don’t take the time or energy to do a little research before they make themselves look like assholes on the radio.
Ok…. whoever that supposed doctor that you had on today who talked about pot was a moron. WTF benefit would ANYONE get from putting baby powder in pot??? Pot is green. Baby powder is white….and almost weightless. This is the crazy shit that the Anti pot people spew. They have NO idea what they’re (CORRECTION) talking about and they don’t take the time or energy to do a little research before they make themselves look like assholes on the radio.
B.C. Weasel Reply:
May 21st, 2008 at 5:20 pm
DJK, please explain in more detail how you know that what the doctor said is false. Are you a doctor, or have you, or anyone you know ever produced it?? I think that you need to provide more facts to support your arguement after you call someone a moron.
Unfortunately my schedule is now such that I only get to listen to the show in re-broadcast, so, I don’t know what the "expert" said. However, having followed this topic for many years with a very open mind, I keep waiting to hear an argument that even begins to start to convince me, that given what we know, pot is a dangerous substance. I suspect (based on the post above) Pete did not locate such a source.
John, as for our prison population. I have to admit that I’m not sure how many other nations have private prison systems. However, knowing that ours is, I suspect the prison lobby (there must be a prison lobby, right?) influences what the lengths of the sentences are. I lived in Sweden for a while and noticed that people would get, what to me seemed like, absurdly short sentences for very serious crimes. 10 years was an extremely long sentence and no one other than rapists and murderers got them (and even they never did more than 15).
Conversely, here in the states, and specifically in NY State, a good friend of mine got 13 years (of which he served 9) for possession of 3 ounces of marijuana. 13 YEARS!!! Obviously with sentencing like this we have the most people in prison since it takes for EVER to get out and when you do get out your life is so mangled by having been in prison so long that you are extremely likely to wind up turning back to crime.
Perhaps Pete should have a show about our prison problem which, I would argue, is a significantly more controvercial and pertinent topic than when (and at this point it really is "when" and not "if") pot will finally be legal.
What I wanted to tell Pete lastly is the following:
If your little girl or boy asks you to read a story to them and you say NO and instead go and get high, you have a serious issue.
i think it should be legalized because its the healing for the nation. Alcohol is way more dangerous than marijuana. i think our politions should give us the freedom to do what we want because its a natural. if we live in a free country than we should have the freedom of the weed.
i would like to see the weed free so i can be an advisor.
Yes, make it legal already. I am in the small group who has tried it before drinking and before cigs, and didn’t like it. I started bicycle racing at 13 and had no room in my life for something that would decrease my performance. Now at 43 I have no room in my life for something that takes money from my wallet. I don’t like it and don’t use it, but that doesn’t mean I have the right to keep others from using it, as long as they use it in a mature manner
Making it legal would make more people happy than people unhappy. I think there are more people for it than against it. Want to learn more about cannabis? Go to http://norml.org/ to be educated. If you read enough, you to can learn how to say it in many languages, like Dutch: marihuana; Finnish: kannabis; Italian: canapa indiana, or hascisc, or simply marijuana; Czech: konopi. You can also learn that it was named on or about 1728 from a Scythian word.
Cannabis sativa, the wonder drug that makes you wonder.
Go ahead, make it legal; you deserve it. I mean that in a good way. People work hard and need something to help them unwind, this will help. As good as booze is, it needs a little help.
So I have to call out a caller. Unfortunetly I forgot his name. But he said "everybody smokes pot" BULLSHIT! Never touched it and theres a shit load of people around me who claimed to never have either, I have no evidence to call them out. Sure I’ve been around it, smells like a shit wagon. I left long before a "contact buzz" could be made. Point being, that caller, grade A full of shit.
I say go ahead, decrimalize. For one when a prosicutor calls in and is tired of hearing about it and two our prisons are over filled with "hop heads" its time to give it leniancy. Like Alaska they’re allowed a certain ounce amount in possesion. When they go over that legal limit, they’re fucked. Now we have true law breakers. Like some states don’t allow smoking tobacco products in public places, lets make it so it can not be smoked in public, nowhere in public. Only the privacy of your own home, or some other potso’s home. I could give a fuck. I just don’t want to smell it, or have anybody else who doesn’t wish to partake in the contact buzz or just the plain pleasure of the shitty smelling stuff to have to deal with it, fair enough. Right?
Also, enough with this "civil rights" bat shit. If this country made everything a civil rights dispute we may as be a fucking anarchy. We have laws and morals for a reason. The difference being, everyone needs to collectivly follow the law, deal with it. On the other hand my morals aren’t the same as John’s, Todd’s or Steve’s. Thats fine, those are really just opinions and like assholes we all have them, some just really stink worse then the next.
Here’s an idea:
Outlaw booze and legalize pot. The liquor companies can grow pot and distribute it just like they do alcohol now.
Everybody wins!
Martin from Virginia Reply:
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Not everybody wins. The time from when pot is planted and can be harvested is a long time for a company to have no form of income if booze is outlawed. Not to mention the equipment that will have to be scrapped from booze and purchased for pot. Also, I don’t smoke pot because I don’t like smoke inside my lungs. However, I drink Patron, Don Julio, or Johnny Walker Blue Label from time to time. Both are yummy in moderation.
Steve from Jasper Reply:
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:05 pm
It was kind of a tongue in cheek comment since you took it serious here’s my response:
Pot is basically a two stage product: plant/grow, harvest/package
Booze takes many steps past the harvest to distill and bottle.
Equipment is basically farm machinery and packaging products.
I don’t smoke either but I’m sure many new ways to ingest it would show up if it where legal.
As far as taste, booze is an acquired taste like everything else. Pot could be flavored and processed in many ways to suit the most discriminating pallet just like wine, coffee and booze.
Finally, in my opinion, pot is the lesser of two evils when it come to choosing between booze and pot as a vice. And it has been 30+ years since I inhaled!
Steve from Jasper Reply:
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:14 pm
P.S. I’m not illiterate: The "where" should be "were" in the 5th paragraph.
Don’t want any boneheads jumping on me for grammar!
These bloggers can be brutal.
DJK, please explain in more detail how you know that what the doctor said is false. Are you a doctor, or have you, or anyone you know ever produced it?? I think that you need to provide more facts to support your arguement after you call someone a moron.
Decriminalization or legal, they are not the same.
While decriminalization sounds good it really does not change the nature of the beast. It more or less just makes something illegal respectable for the middle class. Don’t get me wrong, what one does in their own house is there business, and I am firmly against someone being arrested for small amounts of mary jane. Decriminalization most likely will make the form of "usage levels" of marijuana will not be prosecuted. This does not do anything to lesson the dangers of illegal drugs.
It seems to me the greater problem is the illegality itself. It denies goverment of a revunue source (listen up liberals) and makes regulating its use diificult. If pot was legal we would have a taxable substance, potency could be regulated, and local communities, like with alcohol, could give businesses licenses. I envision something akin to cigar bars.
Have you given any thought to interviewing Ben Masel. He has been big on decriminzation for decades. Here is NORML site. http://norml.org/
Well how is Amsterdam and California doing, dope has been legal there for quite some time? I personally think pot should be legal but I don’t want my cardio surgeon taking a bong hit before my surgery and also continually being a lazy piece of crap that expects the rest of the world to wipe his but because he’s always high should be punishable by death.
Todd Reply:
June 26th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Brian,
Do you want your Cardio surgeon drinking before surgery?
I think the same rules would apply if pot was legal.
Hey ya friggin’ pothead…i know you done come up with something else to post by now!!!