Taking the fun out of pot

Great article Jack..

Obviously our Canadian cousins are a step ahead of us. Or maybe a flight of steps.......... In struggling to work out the mechanics of how to provide medical marijuana, at least they've taken the leap of imagination away from whether they should or not.

With the DEA busting distribution centers of medical marijuana in states that have voted it legal to do so, federal law is flying right in the face of what the voting citizens themselves have chosen to do. It's almost as if the Federal govt is in loco parentis to the states.

Lord know there are a lot of Americans that are interested in this. Witness the responses on Mr. Obama's web site.

It doesn't surprise me that the Dutch have seen a decrease in pot smoking during the 30 years it's been legal. They took the "mystique" right out of it. I thought this was just great: "When teens in Amsterdam think of pot smoking, they think of the chronically bewildered tourists they have to look out for while cycling downtown." LOL Said tourists being those fortunate enough & well off enough to afford a temporary escape from their own countries laws. Over indulgence being the rule.

Of course as America has always believed in bigger & better; we've got more kids sitting in prison than anybody. Not only do we throw money away trying to stop it here, we send it overseas trying to stop it there. The logic escapes me.

I'm not even going to mouth the heresy of legal drugs when so many of us still refuse to see their hand in front of their face. But the marijuana prohibition has to be the all time champ of bone head. Why smart people do dumb things should be required reading.

Ahh George.... Why did you have to die on us right when we needed you?

call me crazy but i think pot will always be fun.

Marijuana should be legalized, taxed and regulated for medical and recreational purposes.

Occasional recreational use of marijuana is therapeutic and beneficial.

Do yourself a favor. Go ahead and get high. Burn one down. Take a moment and contemplate the world and your place in it.

peace

I think this is pretty funny. There's alot of stuff people only do cause they want to feel like outlaws lol

I don't think it should be legal in america though because it affects your judgement. its just like how its legal for people to be drunk, but theyll have an excuse to be high.....

I'm allergic, and it really smells horrible.

Pot was the drug of preference in my teen years. It's easier to act sober in front of your parents when you're high, with the assistance of Visine and some cologne, than when you're drunk. No hangovers with weed, so you can get up and get going the next day. And you absolutely never get carded when buying pot, thus eliminating the hassle of finding a "good" fake I.D.

Hmm, it's easy for us to say, "Make pot legal," but looking at the Netherlands situation tells me it's a lot more complicated than it appears on the surface. Legal use, but illegal growing doesn't compute! It would be wise to have a very well-thought out plan for all aspects of marijuana production, sale and useage.

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Pot is the stairway to higher drugs. Forget anything, It's a Drug and people get stupid by smoking it. Why Promote it?

Only in dreams.

100 years from now, people are going to be reading about this new prohibition shaking their heads saying, "man, the gov't really did waste all that money on prosecuting and persecuting it?"

Just slip lawmakers some E and you'll get it legalized in no time!

Interesting perspective....we already know that most of what our youth pursue are things that they really don't want....with peer pressure and the foolish examples that we as adults set for our students, so many young people are smoking and drinking and they have no real personal desire to do so.....

I don't believe the laws are in place due to the effects of cannabis. History of cannabis/hemp leads me to believe it's the competitiveness of the plant. There are so many other uses for cannabis/hemp. Using the drug aspect represents the negative sides of the plant, distorting the real discussion.

People in America have become very judgmental. All the reality shows have led ordinary Americans to think they are entitled to judge everyone else. They jump at the chance to criticize others. They hang up on the drug topic and ignore the facts about the plant. The drug conversation is the deterrent to an educated discussion about all the qualities of the plant.

Cannabis/Hemp has so many other uses, which compete with synthetic manmade products. Corporate America has worked hard to stifle the discussion. Any time people start talking about cannabis/hemp the discussion goes to drugs, bad. But, a natural plant, which has so many uses, is far more important than the effects of smoking it. Whether someone smokes it and feels a bit euphoric, or buzzed, should not hamper the discussion of the industrial uses of the plant. This doesn’t happen by accident, it is spun in a way to hamper discussion.

It’s time for change. Educated discussion of cannabis/hemp should not be controlled by one aspect of the plant. Facts about cannabis/hemp have been removed from educational material. People do not know the many uses of hemp. That didn’t happen by accident. Synthetics have been very profitable.

I think it's absurd that marijuana is illegal, and I do believe there is a direct correlation between its desirability to all and its prohibition.
I remember when George Shchulz, Reagan's Secty of State, said the war on drugs was a waste of time and money and they should all be legalized. He was lambasted by so many, but he was right and courageous to say it. Restricting freedoms and building larger prisons to do so will never be an acceptable or productive solution to ANY problem

Prisons are being privitized, making criminals profitable. Non-violent criminals are probably the most profitable, easier to manage.

i think labeling marijuana a drug makes it more appealing, just like the increase in cigarette use as people are told it causes cancer or the high rate of alcoholism...if we were told to smoke and drink what we want without breaking any laws, then it wouldn't even matter

Hi,I'm a former Dutch teacher and I agree,that allowing marijuana -use under strict conditions and making distinction between soft drugs and hard drugs is probably the best way of dealing wih the matter.But on the other hand,please don't underestimate the dangers.My son,who is 40 now,smoked his first hasjish when he was twelve years old,you know,wanting to ''belong'',peer-pressure,junior highschool etcetera.Unfortunately,he belongs to the easily addicted ones and by the time,we discovered,what was happening,he was addicted and before long he dropped out of every school,tried to kick the habbit several times,managed to become a printer,had one job after another and now 28 years later is is in rehab again and heaven knows,what next.When I was a youg man,in the late 50's and early 60's,I tried the stuff and fortunately it did not much for me,so I simply stopped.That's not my merrit,just coincidence.So,once again,I think,that marijuana is not a very dangerous drug,but our rehab-clinics have waiting-lists,not just for heroin- or cocain-users,but just as well for marijuna-addicts.

I'm surprised that nobody has quoted Mark Twain yet...

"The surest way to make a body want to do something is to tell him he cannot."

if it weren't illegal, i probably never would've done it because the person who peer pressured me into doing it probably would never have thought it was the cool thing to do, so in a way, i'm kinda glad its illegal... but then i think of the millions of lives the laws have ruined in so many different ways and i'm not so glad any more...

decriminalize the damn thing already! stop turning innocent and sick people into "criminals" and stop wasting my hard earned dollars dammit!!!

A friend of mine went to school in the netherlands this year and she cannot find pot anywhere!!!!! I was personally suprized at this fact. Though there is a supply, the circle is tight and she was told they dont want to be drug dealers........ We in America have a stigma of being abusers. We abuse beacuse all use is taboo. The gateway drug theory is an absolute myth, but I probably wouldnt have tried the things I did try if pot wasnt illegal.

I have been saying this for years! When will our country get it?

crime rates would go down.

Heck Yes this is interesting! You should try surfing current.com while being HIGH! very fun stuff!

There's still a lot of work before pot is legalized. It would probably have to be decriminalized in all 50 states before anything about legalization is motioned.