I’ll give it this much credit. It’s more a part of the natural growth progression that was here, is here ,and does have good uses. Versus artificially produced actual dope that’s literally the #1 killer of Americans minus abortion.
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The berries, like the leaves, stems and roots, contain urushiol, so don’t eat them. Birds can eat them because birds don’t have a reaction to urushiol.
When I was a kid, I heard of a couple eating poison ivy leaves. Apparently they had heard eating the plants would “cure” one of having a dermal reaction to urushiol. As you can imagine, it didn’t work well for them. I was told they got a blistering reaction in their mouth, tongue and esophagus, and had to be hospitalized.
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I’m against legalization for the number one reason that it sets a bad example for the youth. Smoking marijuana from an early age retards ambition. Another ugly fact is families will have to put up with pot smoke at every outdoor event and probably even indoors. We already have a homeless crisis in America and I think legalization of all drugs which is what we are moving towards will only further the downfall of America’s society. I know that I’m not going to be popular after this but that’s my 2 cents
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I don’t totally disagree. Yet I smoked pot from 13 years old to 18. Not going to say I wouldn’t have been a better adult if I hadn’t. I do not know. Most would consider me pretty successful today. I will give you this. I’m not everyone. My will to succeed and fend for multiple families at times is more than most.
Let’s see, my sister introduced me to pot when I was 13 years old and maybe that contributed to my ambition to be a professional musician- a pursuit that swallowed up my youth as I studied music at Cal Arts for a couple years then tried to make it as a performing musician until I was about 40- but growing pot helped me become a competent gardener and orchardist that led to a successful small business I created out of nothing with no models of such a business in existence. Now I have a thriving small, bearing age fruit tree nursery and about 100 orchards I manage. The business I created after I stopped smoking pot but the ambition, early learning and plan came while growing and smoking it.
Two of my pot smoking brothers became civil engineers with master degrees and subsequent successful careers, the sister who corrupted me became a veterinarian who developed a successful practice with a large facility that also boarded cats and dogs and employed 3 other vets and several other staff members. She retired early, selling her business for more money than she or her family will ever need in her lifetime. My oldest brother, who I used to secretly pinch from his stash, graduated from Columbia law school and won a fellowship to Cambridge for a year before settling in S. CA to be a very successful trial lawyer.
I could go on about my pot smoking nephews and nieces but I think you get my drift. If you aren’t ambitious pot can help you spend your time in a much better way than drinking, but if you are ambitious it won’t necessarily interfere at all.
Now, if you want to go to genuine data, I’d be happy to see what you can provide. As far as the downfall of American society, lets see what happens in the states where marijuana is legalized. There is plenty of evidence that alcoholism is a terrible affliction to human society so I wonder if drinking will go down where pot is made legal. Sometimes change is good, sometimes bad, but fear tends to blind us to facts.
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As my honor student son can attest, some lofty sativas are exceptional for writing essays in the college level. Philosophy, computer science, abstract structures… He comes home gets baked outside, comes in and watches physics and advanced math videos for fun…
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He thinks watching such videos and doing research during altered states may produce divergent thinking that is essential for cutting edge discoveries.
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Yeah I know what you mean. My son watches MIT video lectures at double speed because it is almost impossible for him to run his brain at half speed- obviously got the brain from his mother’s side. He makes double my take home as a computer engineer- a lot more than that if Zoom’s stock surge. I will not mention his proclivities, however. The Chinese tend to be conservative.
I think you have to balance “sets a bad example” against the tens of thousands of fathers and mothers that have been sent to jail for marijuana offenses. I have two friends who have been in jail for this. It turned both of their lives upside down.
This for a drug that anyone can get easily- that has been readily available for 30 years. Prohibition doesn’t work. Anyone who has wanted to smoke has been able to. Legalization will keep people who would smoke anyway out of jail, which imo is a very good thing.
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My son and some of his friends where honor students. My son’s genetics allowed him to be in that program with very little effort. One of his drug using friends graduated in the top 10%. Ten years later and the friend’s jobs haven’t advanved past pizza deliveries or door to door salesman. Another pot smoking friend, who graduated in the top 1%, left college the first year with failing grades.
Being an honor student and watching science on tv is not a good argument for kids on drugs being ok or not ok.
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Here is one I saw today from CNN.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/health/marijuana-emergencies-hospitalization-study-wellness/index.html#:~:text=When%20compared%20with%20people%20who,be%20hospitalized%2C%20the%20study%20revealed.&text=Respiratory%20problems%20from%20smoking%20weed,emergency%20care%2C%20the%20study%20found.
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I agree. What bothers me is the implementation of legalization that makes it easier for kids to get high, i.e. retail store sale of edibles.
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Some of the stuff that they have now comes off the plant at 20% THC. Effectively, hashish.
Every day stuff is 7X more powerful than back then. I think that this may end badly.
This is said very often in discussion about today’s marijuana and seems strange to me because when I was young hashish was commonly available and there was never any suggestion that it posed more risk than crap, seedy marijuana. By the mid-70’s Thai stick weed was also pretty widely distributed, and it smoked like hash although we weren’t measuring THC content back then.
That is an interesting story that was picked up like wildfire by the media without any outside expert analysis of the data I could find, but I assume there will be many other studies done in the near future and in time the science will clarify.
Kids can’t buy in retail stores. You’ll get carded just like with alcohol.
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I’m not sure what happened to the last comment I tried to post. I was going to say that if people drive or use power equipment while high, I would expect consequences, but probably nothing quite as bad as what alcohol is responsible for, so the data needs to be balanced to include the possibility that as people smoke more pot the also tend to drink less.
Also here is a rebuttal to a similar study to the one you provided a link for.
Fake IDs or get your old friend, brother or sister to do it. That’s how it was done for generations with alcohol.
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Anyone getting marijuana charges that isn’t involved in illegal dealing or violent acts should never never never spend a minute in jail. We do have a jail and prison overpopulation problem and this would help. Regardless of even that factor marijuana is just not a reason to jail someone IMO.
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Maybe just kids with no incentive to begin with. Some never grow up. My brother died a pauper at 60 with nothing. Very enterprising guy but always looking for the easy way out or up. Never ended well for him.
Just from my own past experience: drinking too much and I feel i can still drive ok. Smoking too much and I feel like I can’t drive and wouldn’t.
Make laws exactly like alcohol. Any kid with a phone or pad can get porn that’s much worse for them than pot IMO. You can’t legeslate morality. Parents involvement and laws that work do matter.
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