Weed - should it be legal?

[i-need-a-martini]

Uruguay has just changed its legislation and is now the first country in the wrold to sanction the growing, selling and smoking of marijuana.

They have done it to put the illegal drug trade and drug traffikers out of business.

Personally I think it makes sense. If nicotine is legal than there is very little difference between the 2.

Your thoughts?

http://www.smh.com.au/world/uruguay-becomes-first-country-to-legalise-marijuana-trade-20131211-hv59x...

[imastawka]

OH is a cancer survivor.   The hospital (I won't name) supplies it.  So?

[freddie*rooster]

NO

[i-need-a-martini]

But az, I can print similar things for nicotine:

There are more than 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke. Nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide are well known. Nicotine is the addictive drug that keeps you coming back for more. Tar is the black, sticky substance that damages your lungs. Carbon monoxide is the gas that hitches a ride on your red blood cells and takes the place of some of the oxygen in your bloodstream.

From the moment that you inhale tobacco smoke, it takes four seconds for the nicotine to reach your blood stream and about ten seconds to reach the brain. Once the nicotine has attached itself to special sites in the brain, many relaxing chemicals are released. But this effect only lasts for a short time and then the addicted smoker needs to 'top up' their nicotine. One of the reasons people continue to smoke is because they enjoy the effect of these relaxing chemicals being released by the brain. 

The worst problem for health caused by nicotine is that it is so addictive. Most regular smokers would prefer not to smoke, and only continue because they are addicted to nicotine. Smoking tobacco accounts for the largest proportion of preventable illness and death in Australia. Immediate effects of nicotine on the body include increased heart rate and blood pressure and constriction of blood vessels. Over time, ingestion of nicotine from smoking combines with carbon monoxide to damage the lining of blood vessels and make blood platelets stickier. In combination these effects contribute to the development of heart disease.

I am not pro marijuana but how can we allow one drug and not the other?

[cherry*135]

Controlled use for medical reasons is different.

[i-need-a-martini]

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@just_me_karen wrote:
I can only guess you've never met anyone suffering from drug induced psychosis?

I believe it should be decriminalised (but not legalised) and fines used to provide assistance and education.

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Actually I do know someone quite close to me who had to be put into a nursing home at 55 because her brain was so addled. She has been there 5 years now and no longer functions.

I also have another friends who is so addicted to weed that he gets psychotic if he doesn't get any.

But for every on person I know who is showing awful effects from marijuana, I see many (MANY!!) more dying a slow (ans in 3 cases a fast) death from the effects of nicotine.

[i-once-was-bump]

Or should we be looking at making tobacco illegal?

Just because we have a legal substance that causes no end of harm is not a good enough reason to make another drug legal.

[lakeland27]

yes. prohibition is a proven failure, it doesn't work.

[cherry*135]

Do you think people will still try and grow it, to get more than the allowable amount and/or to sell it to others who want more?

I can't see growers/dealers giving up their lucrative businesses.

Uruguay

Cannabis consumers will be able to buy a maximum of 40 grams (1.4 ounces) each month from licensed pharmacies as long as they are Uruguayan residents over the age of 18 and registered on a government database that will monitor their monthly purchases.

When the law is implemented in 120 days, Uruguayans will be able to grow six marijuana plants in their homes a year, or as much as 480 grams (about 17 ounces), and form smoking clubs of 15 to 45 members that can grow up to 99 plants per year.

Registered drug users should be able to start buying marijuana over the counter from licensed pharmacies in April

The use of marijuana is legal in Uruguay, a country of 3.3 million that is one of the most liberal in Latin America, but cultivation and sale of the drug are not.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/uruguay-becomes-first-country-to-legalise-marijuana-trade-20131211-hv59x...

[i-need-a-martini]

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@i-once-was-bump wrote:

Or should we be looking at making tobacco illegal?

Just because we have a legal substance that causes no end of harm is not a good enough reason to make another drug legal.

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Then where do you draw the line?

Cars are dangerous not only to ouselves but cars also kill OTHER people. Yet we keep them.

In the case of marijuana, keeping it illegal means that we support a criminal base. Which is the angle that Uruguay is coming from.

[azureline**]

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@imastawka wrote:

OH is a cancer survivor.   The hospital (I won't name) supplies it.  So?

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not sure what the SO? is for.

My mother had leukemia, she refused to consider it and she was a smoker.

I have survived cancer, there is no way I would use it.

However, that is a different issue.

I have watched the results of psychosis