Community | December 05, 2009 | 35 comments

The Secret to Legal Marijauna? Women

source: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/144333/

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Frossty_MMJohn22
In September, ladymag Marieclaire ruffled some feathers when it published a piece about women who smoke weed. But its most interesting effect was not the "marijuana moms" chatter it unleashed, and instead the fact that it brought to the mainstream media a more open discussion of the fact that women can be avid tokers, too.

Public acceptance of pot is at an all-time high, and the fact that women have drastically changed their attitudes may be what is most fascinating about the sea change in public opinion -- and policy -- regarding marijuana. In 2005, only 32 percent of polled women told Gallup they approved legalizing pot, but this year 44 percent of them were for it, compared to 45 percent of men. In effect, women have narrowed what had been a 12-point gender gap.

Women are also smoking more weed. The most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows that current marijuana use increased from 3.8 to 4.5 percent among women, while there was no significant statistical change for men.
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35 comments // The Secret to Legal Marijauna? Women

  • indecisiveh
  • snarly
  • Found_Avenue
    • 0
      Found_Avenue  

    • AMAZING STUFF FROM THE ARTICLE....

      ...Cheryl Shuman, a 49-year-old optician in Los Angeles, would agree. Up until she started using cannabis therapy to treat her cancer, she was on a daily regimen of 27 prescription drugs, attached to a mobile intravenous morphine pump, and undergoing constant CAT and MRI scans. In 2006, her doctors told her she'd be dead by the end of that year.

      "I had to make a decision [regarding] which way I was going to go and quite frankly, I thought if I am going to die, I want to control how my life is going to be," Shuman said, her voice breaking. "And the only side-effects were that I was happy and laughing."

      It turns out those may not have been the only effects of her cannabis therapy. Her cancer has been in remission for 18 months now -- and that coincides precisely with the start of the marijuana treatment.

      Shuman had previously used pot medicinally in 1994, when going through a harrowing divorce. Up to 80 milligrams of Prozac a day, coupled with multiple therapy sessions a week, did not help her get over the sense that she could barely make it through each day.

      During one session, she says, "my therapist said, 'I could lose my license, but I think what would help you more than anything is just smoking a joint.' I didn't know how to respond! I said I couldn't do that -- I don't drink, I've never even smoked a cigarette!"

      But after researching medical marijuana and realizing that cannabis had been available in pharmacies until the early 20th century, Shuman acquiesced and tried a joint. At 36 -- after learning to inhale -- Shuman says she found she "finally had some peace." ...

      This year, Shuman became the founding director of Beverly Hills' National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) chapter -- and she hopes to attract women to the cause.

    • 2 years ago
  • Lydster
    • 0
      Lydster  
    • Found_Avenue:

      27 PRESCRIPTION DRUGS!!! Holy shit...

      This whole prohibition of weed kinda reminds me of these Heroin therapy tests here in Germany, which were discontinued although successful, because our Conservative party stated "the state is not a drug dealer". There's no scientifical backup for prohibiton of weed, it's just some people's old dogmas: "It makes you high, so it's bad bad bad."

    • 2 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  
    • Found_Avenue:

      @Lydster - and they are the same people who approve of alcohol because it makes you high, and violent, and agressive, and sick, and vomit, and causes countless road accidents and murders, and is dangerous, and it's good, good, good...

    • 2 years ago
  • dudefromtherock
  • CalgarC
    • 0
      CalgarC  

    • according to the ubran dictionary WEED is "An ancient plant, referenced biblically {the Holy Herb}."

      lol just a but of fun... weed should be legal :D

    • 2 years ago
  • AtomUniverse1
    • 0
      AtomUniverse1  

    • Toke on sistas!! It's funny how some kind of thought about sex always pops up when talking about women who smoke weed. Let's start getting serious though. xD

    • 2 years ago
  • bombastinator
  • ahappymintleaf
    • 0
      ahappymintleaf  

    • Most of my friends who spoke are girls. But then most of my friends are girls. I'll double my efforts to get my female sobriety-loving friends more on the anti-prohibition side. Though I think they are. I don't see any argument against it. I wonder for how long the government can ignore popular support for it's legalization before they are motivated to act. Guess it depends how deep corporate pockets run. What a beautiful system we live in.

    • 2 years ago
  • bombastinator
    • 0
      bombastinator  
    • ahappymintleaf:

      part of the problem is that there are four seperate areas, which people love to confuse:

      There is prescription marijuana, where psychoactive cannabis products may be used only for medical care under either an FDA class change or some other system.
      There is hemp cultivation, where various farming techniques are used to produce non psychoactive plants, generally for use in industry.
      There is decriminalization, in which recreational and medical pot users are allowed to inhabit this legal gray area.
      And finally related to decriminalization, there is full legalization, where pot gains the status of say cigarettes or alcohol, and people develop a 'right to get high'.

      People who argue for full legalization often like to call everything legalization in much the same way that evangelical cultists like to refer to themselves only as christian, attempting to don the mantle of the rationality of the other groups.

    • 2 years ago
  • ahappymintleaf
    • 0
      ahappymintleaf  
    • ahappymintleaf:

      When I say legalization, I refer to the fourth model, actual legalization. If you are comparing it to evangelism, then I'm not sure what to do with that. Of course there would have to be limitations, but it shouldn't be in more of a 'grey area' than alcohol or tobacco.

      Medical use and hemp use should be fully legal regardless, even if recreational use is left behind. But I feel it will eventually be legalized anyways. But if a choice had to be made, decriminalization to get those who committed victimless crimes out of the prison system. Then hemp use.

    • 2 years ago
  • treewolf39
  • Mudboy16
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  
    • Image

    • It's time to stop tearing our families apart. Every person in prison is a family member, mother, father, brother, or sister. If our family members are being sent to prison, or into the criminal justice system, it should be based on science and real crimes, not 'madness', perpetuated by corporate interests who are afrad of their competition.

      Cannabis hemp is a plant, which puts fear into corporate America. They are afraid of competition from a natural plant. Who could blame them? The plant cannabis hemp will not pollute our planet like many of their products. Plus it is 100% biodegradable and does not cause the same side effects as many of the pharmaceuticals being used today. Our drinking water now contains many of the pharmacuticals, which do not get eliminated during filtration. Would the use of cannabis, when possible also help eliminate many of the pharmaceuticals showing up in our drinking water? http://current.com/items/88863455_prescription-drugs-found-in-drinking-water-acr...

    • 2 years ago
  • bombastinator
    • 0
      bombastinator  
    • Conniepae:

      rofl! No really, is this a troll? "time to stop tearing our families apart" You crib that from Jesse Helms? Wow... my eyes are actually tearing up. Getting hammered is now a family value. wheee!

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
  • Conniepae
  • bombastinator
    • 0
      bombastinator  
    • Conniepae:

      It's not the subject, it's the use of ultra conservative Rush Limbaugh type buzzword systems when talking about pot. That whole first paragraph could have been lifted from an "episode" of 'Jack Van Impe presents'. The dichotomy is just hilarious.

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  
    • Conniepae:

      Now compared to 'Rush', sorry I just don't get where you are coming from. The people in prison for cannabis are family members. When a family member goes to jail, it affects the family. Are you just being insulting, or trying to make a point.

      I don't have time today to research the amount of people in prison for cannabis, but I guarantee it affected their families in a negative way. I don't want to bicker with you, or get more insulting than you. So, if my comment offended you, I humbly apologize. My time is limited today and my time to comment is short. Don't be insulting. Post your comments, but don't waste your time attacking me, I'm sure you have more important things to say.

    • 2 years ago
  • bombastinator
  • Conniepae
  • bombastinator
  • Conniepae
  • bombastinator
  • Giganticus
  • jdubsy
  • cephas
  • Psymoniac
  • hunzedog
  • Vierotchka
  • MizPiz
  • Conniepae
  • Vierotchka
  • hunzedog
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