Marijuana: Facts, Myths, and plain old Stupidity.

[Nate505]

Okay, so why would the regulations on age limit( like those imposed on alcohol) suddenly make it more difficult for minors to get if the dealers and teenagers are already willing to break the the laws against its use?



Because the regulations would be age limit, and who could grow and sell it. Why would teenagers suddenly decide to obey the laws restricting their use of it based on their age, and why would dealers suddenly respect the laws restricting who can sell it and to whom?

Selling to kids would still be legal and there wouldn't be much profit margin for the dealers to risk selling it to children. Selling to kids isn't really profitable in the first place. When I was in school the dealers we went to were other kids, and they didn't profit much more than getting their pot for free. The people who sold to them (and to adults and tons of others) are the one's who really profited. Now if pot were legal, the total illicit market would be either to undercut the legal price or to sell to children. As long as the legal price is a lot cheaper there is no incentive to undercut it (this is why you don't see people with moonshining operations in their basement). And high school kids are a pretty small part of the overall market, and if you price your stuff too long they will just wait for an older brother or someone else to get it to them near the legal price. When I was also in school, we (and I mostly mean my friends since I didn't really drink at all then and like now) paid some loser $5-10 extra for booze to get it for us, which he pretty much spent on booze as well. The reason the pot was easier to get was I knew 5 or so people who dealt it, and just one guy willing to buy it from the liquor store.

In short, dealers for children would pretty much dry up since the risk for profiting $5-10 a purchase wouldn't really be worth the 3 or whatever years in prison selling it would be worth. Teenagers wouldn't respect the law, but my guess is most people would for the small lure of cash it takes, though I would also bet finding an older brother or whatever to purchase would be relatively easy as it is for booze now.

 

[NUMBERICA]

Pot is bad. It turns you into a pothead (who are bad).

CASE CLOSED.

 

[GVC]

Because the regulations would be age limit, and who could grow and sell it. Why would teenagers suddenly decide to obey the laws restricting their use of it based on their age, and why would dealers suddenly respect the laws restricting who can sell it and to whom?

Because who the "dealers" are would change dramatically with legalization. Instead of marginalized people selling on the street, you'd get everyday squares at 7/11 selling weed at lower prices and margins. Do you really think that person is as likely to break the law, especially since he/she isn't going to make any extra money doing so, than current drug dealers/organized criminals? Legalizing cannabis would significantly reduce the supply of cannabis available to minors. At least, that's the argument.

 

[Bronco70]

Exactly what GVC said. The distribution channels change completely with legalization. That's the most important factor in legalization's impact on marijuana related crime and underage use. Those dealers that kids can go to now aren't going to be there when the product can be had legally. You may say to yourself, "Well, the kids will still want it, so there will still be a market." And you'd be right. But the product will be more expensive and harder to get.

 

[GVC]

But the product will be more expensive and harder to get.

I'm not sure I follow. Cannabis is not terribly expensive to cultivate. With legalization, the price of cannabis is almost certain to fall (for fairly obvious reasons...). If the price were to rise due to exorbitant taxes on the product, the incentive to produce and sell it illegally would still be present, and it would be just as hard to keep cannabis out of the hands of minors. With the fall in price, however, there'd be far less incentive to produce illegally on a small scale basis, and except for some hobby growers (as in the case with alcohol in the United States), most people will obtain their cannabis from legal, regulated establishments (like a liquor store). Kids would require a consenting adult to help them acquire cannabis, as they do with alcohol, at that point. That's what makes sense to me, anyway.

I'm curious what the average price of cannabis is at medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado and California. Nate?

 

[LogGrad98]

Most kids I knew/know got their alcohol from their parent's liquor cabinet or refrigerator. Alcohol is ridiculously easy for kids to get. I saw far far more kids with beer in a thermos than with marijuana when I was in high school. If marijuana were legal and more parents (or uncles, cousins, friends' parents, etc.) used it then it would be far more accessible for kids than it is now when they have to find someone to buy it from. Almost every kid I knew who drank or smoked in high school got the cigs or booze from mom and dad (or uncle, et al.). Almost none of them had to find someone to help them buy it, they just took it.

 

[Bronco70]

Sorry. I meant on the black market, not generally.

 

[GVC]

Most kids I knew/know got their alcohol from their parent's liquor cabinet or refrigerator. Alcohol is ridiculously easy for kids to get. I saw far far more kids with beer in a thermos than with marijuana when I was in high school. If marijuana were legal and more parents (or uncles, cousins, friends' parents, etc.) used it then it would be far more accessible for kids than it is now when they have to find someone to buy it from. Almost every kid I knew who drank or smoked in high school got the cigs or booze from mom and dad (or uncle, et al.). Almost none of them had to find someone to help them buy it, they just took it.

Yes, and? If their parents have weed, they can no doubt take that too. And if legalization doesn't lead to an increase in number of users (like in Portugal, for example), there wouldn't be an increase in teen-accessible marijuana in households (presumably). What you would see, however, is a reduction in black market dealers, which would cut off a second source of marijuana for teens.

 

[LogGrad98]

It is simply silly to say that weed would be less accessible if it were legal. It would be more accessible, plain and simple.

Don't get me wrong. I am for legalizing it. But the arguments most pot heads make are borderline ludicrous. Just admit you like it, and want to smoke it whenever you want. That is good enough for me. You don't have to create phantom reasoning like it will make it less accessible if it is legal or that it is less harmful than air and better for you than multi-vitamins and everyone is safer driving on weed than without. Everyone knows that when you are high everything seems like a good idea. Just admit you are high so getting high seems like a good idea. That argument is good enough for me.

 

[GVC]

It is simply silly to say that weed would be less accessible if it were legal. It would be more accessible, plain and simple.

Don't get me wrong. I am for legalizing it. But the arguments most pot heads make are borderline ludicrous. Just admit you like it, and want to smoke it whenever you want. That is good enough for me. You don't have to create phantom reasoning like it will make it less accessible if it is legal or that it is less harmful than air and better for you than multi-vitamins and everyone is safer driving on weed than without. Everyone knows that when you are high everything seems like a good idea. Just admit you are high so getting high seems like a good idea. That argument is good enough for me.

We're talking about accessibility for minors. They could still steal it from their parents as no doubt they do now, but would have one less venue, the street, to purchase it. I would guess that the increase in use by parents would be far less than the decrease of weed sold on the street. How many legal establishments are going to risk their licenses to sell cannabis by selling to minors? How many of their employees are going to risk going to jail?

Very few "pot heads" make the more ridiculous arguments you've outlined above. Everything seems like a good idea when you're high? What?

 

[billyshelby]

I'm curious what the average price of cannabis is at medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado and California. Nate?

The guy I buy from is 60 an 1/8th. He supplies a dispensary, but does the service on the side. There's probably ways through illegal channels to get better rates if you buy bulk, but I don't have need for that. I only get high for SNL and scary movies or when I have friends over. I would guess 60ish for an 1/8th is pretty close to the actual price even at the dispensaries.

 

[billyshelby]

By the way, I highly recommend pot for scary movies. They're so much scarier when they're good, and so much funnier when they're bad.

 

[billyshelby]

Ever been high at Thanksgiving? Good times.

 

[billyshelby]

Ever sat through a wedding you only felt obligated to attend? Getting drunk doesn't get you through the boring rituals and mumblemouth priests. Getting high does.

 

[billyshelby]

Ever worked for a summer digging holes and picking up trash on a construction site? I did. Fortunately, I had a Super who liked to drive me out on the site and get me high. Making 8 dollars an hour was never so painless.

 

[GVC]

Ever worked for a summer digging holes and picking up trash on a construction site? I did. Fortunately, I had a Super who liked to drive me out on the site and get me high. Making 8 dollars an hour was never so painless.

I was a little high my last day working at a sheet metal factory (about 3 1/2 years ago). It was unintentional, and I got through the day fine, but I was a little worried.

I knew it wasn't a good idea, just as I know it's not a good idea to be high when studying for or writing exams, driving, etc.

 

[squareinthecircle]

I gotta admit most of this doesn't have anything to do with me despite the fact that I am a medical marijuana patient in CA, other than Obama lying yet again and going after the dispensaries. I don't give much business to dispensaries anyway since I grow my own.

For me this has become an important and irreplaceable medication. It works wonderfully as an anti-inflammatory and actually works to slow the process of my RA. There are many medications I cannot take especially anti-inflammatories because I have a severe stomach ailment that the doctors are still trying to figure out, but that means less pills or more vomiting. Medical marijuana helps both situations tremendously. I also help another lady I know that suffers greatly from RA- she's almost totally crippled. She and I understand this like no one else could, and that's why I say please lay off our medication Feds.

Medical marijuana is nothing compared to the morphine, Norco, chemotherapy, experimental medications, weekly injectable meds, and much much more that I take every week. At this level for them to complain about some freakin weed is just a joke. I guess it takes their minds off the terrible jobs they are doing and how they have run the nation into the ground and the fact that they too will eventually die.

 

[Scat]

I gotta admit most of this doesn't have anything to do with me despite the fact that I am a medical marijuana patient in CA, other than Obama lying yet again and going after the dispensaries. I don't give much business to dispensaries anyway since I grow my own.

For me this has become an important and irreplaceable medication. It works wonderfully as an anti-inflammatory and actually works to slow the process of my RA. There are many medications I cannot take especially anti-inflammatories because I have a severe stomach ailment that the doctors are still trying to figure out, but that means less pills or more vomiting. Medical marijuana helps both situations tremendously. I also help another lady I know that suffers greatly from RA- she's almost totally crippled. She and I understand this like no one else could, and that's why I say please lay off our medication Feds.

Medical marijuana is nothing compared to the morphine, Norco, chemotherapy, experimental medications, weekly injectable meds, and much much more that I take every week. At this level for them to complain about some freakin weed is just a joke. I guess it takes their minds off the terrible jobs they are doing and how they have run the nation into the ground and the fact that they too will eventually die.

Serious question. How long do the effects last? Do you just take a couple of tokes or do you have to smoke an entire joint? Is once a day enough or do you have to blaze up every couple of hours?

 

[DeliveryBoy]

It is simply silly to say that weed would be less accessible if it were legal. It would be more accessible, plain and simple.

Don't get me wrong. I am for legalizing it. But the arguments most pot heads make are borderline ludicrous. Just admit you like it, and want to smoke it whenever you want. That is good enough for me. You don't have to create phantom reasoning like it will make it less accessible if it is legal or that it is less harmful than air and better for you than multi-vitamins and everyone is safer driving on weed than without. Everyone knows that when you are high everything seems like a good idea. Just admit you are high so getting high seems like a good idea. That argument is good enough for me.

Done-I want the freedom to smoke it if I choose because it makes everything awesome. I want to eat peanut better and jelly sandwiches that taste like french kissing an angel, I want to hear music that sounds like a amusement park ride for my brain, and I want something to help me when I'm having a bad day without drinking or popping a pill. I want the freedom to use it because I'm a responsible adult and law-abiding citizen who works a full-time job and goes to night school, and it poses no immediate threat to me or anyone else. It should be legal because the efforts devoted to keeping it illegal are an embarrassing waste of resources and human tragedy, and do absolutely nothing but empower the government to control our lives. Anyone that thinks it should be illegal or that it's a threat on the level of meth or cocaine (or even cigarettes or alcohol) either A) has not tried it for themselves, or B) is lying. I don't smoke it now because the risks aren't worth it, and that's ridiculous.

 

[LogGrad98]

We're talking about accessibility for minors. They could still steal it from their parents as no doubt they do now, but would have one less venue, the street, to purchase it. I would guess that the increase in use by parents would be far less than the decrease of weed sold on the street. How many legal establishments are going to risk their licenses to sell cannabis by selling to minors? How many of their employees are going to risk going to jail?

Very few "pot heads" make the more ridiculous arguments you've outlined above. Everything seems like a good idea when you're high? What?

Hyperbole. Look it up.