Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

The government wants to make money from alcohol too via taxation. It also bans stills. There are many things the government makes money from via taxation that people can easily produce at home but they don't. Vegetables, for example. People can roll their own cigarettes and make their own wine/beer and realize greater cost savings. But only a small percentage of people do any of this because we're generally lazy, don't have the time, the skill.

So, even if pot were legal, I would think most people would follow the models above and buy a manufactured, marketed product in a cool package. Hence, the government wouldn't lose out on the taxation of another vice.

I think pot is banned for the same reason divorce and birth control were banned for a long time. People simply fear it. People are making laws based on fear and not an examination of the evidence.

[Fishead soup]

[Satori]

So you're comparing poetry to rock lyrics now? Clear they are different media.

And yes, the sixties were seismic, they really created the modern world we live in today. They create a sharp distinction between the 50's and everything that followed. Before the 60's rock music was black and white, after, it was it technicolor. Anyone who says the 60's are overrated dose not have a good ear for music. Come to think of it, anyone who think punk rock is music probably doesn't have ears at all.

[Hollywoodaction]

[endo]

[Satori]

[endo]

[thepeel]

To the original question: No. It isn't.

What is sleazy is buying your weed from some thug who lives with his mommy yet acts like a "bro". I'd much rather get my fun at the corner store. That would remove whatever sleazyness does exist.

I'm one foot in America now.. We are starting out in Miami, but I'm pulling hard for LA a year or so after. I can fake a panic disorder or something to get that medical weed out there in Cali. Dare to dream.. Getting pot from a place with a cash register. Could it be?

[endofthewor1d]

what i find interesting is that in three pages of this thread on the current events forum, there hasn't been one argument saying that marijuana is the harmful thing that we're all supposed to believe it is.
i saw the same thing last night on the history channel. an hour documentary on marijuana, and not one person speaking against it. that was the history channel. i was amazed. there are people still going around saying stuff like 'i think bush really cares about the freedom of the iraqi people', but even the morons seem to have given up this battle.
the history channel documentary was pretty good, by the way.

[Geckoman]

Marijuana May Increase Psychosis Risk, Analysis Says

Fri July 27, 2007

LONDON, England (AP) -- Using marijuana seems to increase the chance of becoming psychotic, researchers report in an analysis of past research that reignites the issue of whether pot is dangerous.

The new review suggests that even infrequent use could raise the small but real risk of this serious mental illness by 40 percent.

Doctors have long suspected a connection and say the latest findings underline the need to highlight marijuana's long-term risks. The research, paid for by the British Health Department, is being published Friday in medical journal The Lancet.

"The available evidence now suggests that cannabis is not as harmless as many people think," said Dr. Stanley Zammit, one of the study's authors and a lecturer in the department of psychological medicine at Cardiff University.

The researchers said they couldn't prove that marijuana use itself increases the risk of psychosis, a category of several disorders with schizophrenia being the most commonly known.

There could be something else about marijuana users, "like their tendency to use other drugs or certain personality traits, that could be causing the psychoses," Zammit said.

Marijuana is the most frequently used illegal substance in many countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. About 20 percent of young adults report using it at least once a week, according to government statistics.

Zammit and colleagues from the University of Bristol, Imperial College and Cambridge University examined 35 studies that tracked tens of thousands of people for periods ranging from one year to 27 years to examine the effect of marijuana on mental health.

They looked for psychotic illnesses as well as cognitive disorders including delusions and hallucinations, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, neuroses and suicidal tendencies.

They found that people who used marijuana had roughly a 40 percent higher chance of developing a psychotic disorder later in life. The overall risk remains very low.

For example, Zammit said the risk of developing schizophrenia for most people is less than 1 percent. The prevalence of schizophrenia is believed to be about five in 1,000 people. But because of the drug's wide popularity, the researchers estimate that about 800 new cases of psychosis could be prevented by reducing marijuana use.

The scientists found a more disturbing outlook for "heavy users" of pot, those who used it daily or weekly: Their risk for psychosis jumped to a range of 50 percent to 200 percent.

One doctor noted that people with a history of mental illness in their families could be at higher risk. For them, marijuana use "could unmask the underlying schizophrenia," said Dr. Deepak Cyril D'Souza, an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University, who was not involved in the study.

Dr. Wilson Compton, a senior scientist at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Washington, called the study persuasive.

"The strongest case is that there are consistencies across all of the studies," and that the link was seen only with psychoses -- not anxiety, depression or other mental health problems, he said.

Scientists cannot rule out that pre-existing conditions could have led to both marijuana use and later psychoses, he added.

Scientists think it is biologically possible that marijuana could cause psychoses because it interrupts important neurotransmitters such as dopamine. That can interfere with the brain's communication systems.

Some experts say governments should now work to dispel the misconception that marijuana is a benign drug.

"We've reached the end of the road with these kinds of studies," said Dr. Robin Murray of King's College, who had no role in the Lancet study. "Experts are now agreed on the connection between cannabis and psychoses. What we need now is for 14-year-olds to know it."

In the U.K., the government will soon reconsider how marijuana should be classified in its hierarchy of drugs. In 2004, it was downgraded and penalties for possession were reduced. Many expect marijuana will be bumped up to a class "B" category, with offenses likely to lead to arrests or longer jail sentences.

Two of the authors of the study were invited experts on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs Cannabis Review in 2005. Several authors reported being paid to attend drug company-sponsored meetings related to marijuana, and one received consulting fees from companies that make antipsychotic medications.

Source: CNN; Fri., July 27, 2007;
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/07/27/marijuana.psychosis.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch

[endo]

[endo]

I've heard the argument before that marijuana use may lead to episoides of schizophrenia.

That might be the case, however what they fail to add is that marijuana users who become schizophrenic are already predisposed to it.

And what they also fail to mention is that cat poop is also believed to trigger schizophrenia. So do we ban cat poop now?



I don't think anybody is saying weed is an asolutely harmless drug. But it is far less dangerous than many other legal substances (alchohol, many px drugs, tobbaco, trans fats, ect...).

And to make it illegal and pose possible jail time for users is a human rights infridgement in my opinion.


People are going to smoke weed. The cats already been let out of the bag in the West. You can try to reduce usage through the courts, but that will only result in other problems (i.e. the War on Drugs).

Legailze it and right away you will be able to take away most of the criminal element from the drug.

As for the suspected psychological problems assiciated with the tiny magority of marijuana users; provide them with the necessary treatment and education.

Don't let this tiny percentage influence the masses.



Finally the British association of psychiatrists are led by a bunch of eliitist idiots. They've previously said that individuals who claim to have had a genuine religious experience with psychedelics did not necessarily have one.

Who the hell are they to say something like that?

Are they prepared to say the same thing for people who have other religious experience associated with their "socially accepted religion".