Posted by rojo, Monday, 12 February 2007 9:39:45 PM
""To those who believe that many try dope just because it is illegal, isn't that a good reason not to decriminilise. Once it is decriminilised harder drugs fill the role of "lets do it because we're not supposed to".""

Good point rojo - maybe we should 'decriminalize all drugs' but that is another thread.

Does anyone have any research on why it was criminalised in the first place?

There is no published evidence that cannabis causes psychosis, there is plenty of evidence that psychosis is made worse by cannabis usage. But this evidence overwhelmingly says that anti-psychotic drugs can easily cope with this.

"It is more harmful to smoke than tobacco" is also factually incorrect, recent studies have shown the complete opposite.

Studies also indicate that cannabis use reduces alcohol abuse in young adults.

Evidence shows that several founding fore-fathers of the United States including George Washington grew hemp, sexed and separated his plants, keeping records of resin content and potency. This verifies that they were growing cannabis for its psychoactive purposes.

'...like winning more votes or a net gain to society.'

Maybe it's a bit naive of me, but I believe sensible laws based on science instead of irrational laws based on ignorance and fear is enough of a net gain to society in itself.

'..I just don't want my children to say "Dad, it is legal you know".'

I fail to see how this would be any different from your children saying: "Dad, it's less dangerous than alcohol you know." Personally if it were my kid, I'd say: "Damn right. Well done for seeing through the hypocrisy in our society. Have a gram. *whispering to myself*...thats my son...so proud I am...thinking for himself like that..." *tear rolling down cheek*

I’ve never used cannabis and never will. The smoke stinks and the people who used it, and I have met quite a number, I have found to be half witted and unreliable.

The classification based on statistics that cannabis is safe compared to alcohol is flawed because alcohol users substantially outnumber cannabis users. What really counts is the percentage of users in each category with drug induced health problems. Were the number of cannabis users equal to the number of alcohol users, I suggest there may be a similar number of problems. In any case, it is difficult to produce reliable statistics as many cannabis users also take alcohol and tobacco.

Alcohol is safe in small amounts, and indeed is said to be beneficial to our health. Cannabis even in small amounts, being 70% more carcinogenic than tobacco, cannot possibly be considered a safe substance. Despite the enormous amount of medical research proving the harmfulness of cannabis, and other drugs, people will keep taking them. Perhaps some people are genetically pre-disposed to take drugs to help them cope better emotionally.

You keep to your pot and fags spendo, and your ex mainstream life, while I enjoy fresh air and the occasional glass of wine.

TurnRightThenLeft, I was interested in one of your earlier comments

"Actually, I'm more in favour of having Marijuana illegal, but not really bothering to enforce it"

I tend to take the opposite approach to law enforcement. I think that having something illegal but not enforced weakens regard for the laws we do care about and it opens the door for police corruption and other abuses.

I'd prefer for the government to only regulate what is necessary and butt out on the rest. Do the regulation by holding people responsible for the consequences of their actions rather than stopping the actions in the first place.

In this case my concerns are
- drug driving (and other activities which might impact on my safety). Do we have a simple test to detect if someone's ability to perform tasks is impared?
- cost to the taxpayer of damage done by overuse. Is that a real issue?
- potential benefits to pain sufferers vs other pain killers.
- the issue Col raises regarding massive unexpected reactions in some people. It's to late to find out somebody has a problem once somebody else is dead.

I take the view that we should maximise the freedoms available to people but minimise the excuses that allow people to avoid the consequences of exercising those freedoms. Being stoned should never be an excuse for a bad choice that harms another.

R0bert