Reasons marijuana should be legal #158: it may fight cancer

[Chuanzao_El_Ale_Dest]

Leglize it!

[Chuanzao_El_Ale_Dest]

@jimipresley

[quote=“occhimarroni”]I certainly hope no one’s accusing me of being Canadian.

Just joking, occhi, but virtually all Canadians I’ve ever met (and I’ve met a shitload) use the word “pot” in the same hallowed tones as Christians would use the word “Jesus”.[/quote]

I wonder if the knowledge that they are supporting a war in Mexico will change this. you know it won’t.

[bob]

In retrospect bob god realizes he was a tad harsh. He has nothing against the little mom and pop pot shops we all know and love and hopes they are granted a licence too.

[jimipresley]

@bob

In retrospect bob god realizes he was a tad harsh. He has nothing against the little mom and pop pot shops we all know and love and hopes they are granted a licence too.

Smelly hippie!

[bob]

I stink and so do you too. :raspberry:

[Huang_Guang_Chen]

@Chuanzao El Ale Destroyer

[quote=“jimipresley”][quote=“occhimarroni”]I certainly hope no one’s accusing me of being Canadian.

Just joking, occhi, but virtually all Canadians I’ve ever met (and I’ve met a shitload) use the word “pot” in the same hallowed tones as Christians would use the word “Jesus”.[/quote]

I wonder if the knowledge that they are supporting a war in Mexico will change this. you know it won’t.[/quote]
Isn’t it mostly home grown, and indeed exported from Canada?

[quote] US-Canada drug tunnel uncovered
The tunnel was equipped with ventilation and a cart
Police in the United States have shut down a 360ft (120 metre) drug-smuggling tunnel under the US-Canadian border.
Three men from the province of British Columbia in Canada were arrested in the US and charged with drugs offences.

The tunnel, which emerged in the living room of an abandoned home on the US side, is the first to be discovered along the US-Canada border. It was only used briefly to smuggle marijuana, police say, but would also have been used to move people and guns.

Drugs gangs from British Columbia smuggle millions of dollars’ worth of Canadian marijuana to the US every year. [/quote]
But your point is still valid, which is why The Economist, of all magazines, is calling for decriminilsation. Let the government pull the rug out of big crime and terrror funding.

[quote]Failed states and failed policies: How to stop the drug wars
Mar 5th 2009
From The Economist print edition
Prohibition has failed; legalisation is the least bad solution[/quote]
HG

[Dr_McCoy]

I’m hearing good things about Portugal.

The available data suggest that, since 2001, the CDTs have dealt with a large number of drug users, who would have faced criminalisation and penal sanctions prior to 2001.The national strategy has led directly to increases in the scale of treatment and prevention activities in Portugal. The effects of these changes are harder to identify. It seems that there has been a shift in drug use patterns, with increasing use of cannabis and decreasing use of heroin. The rise in cannabis use is probably less threatening to public health than the levels of heroin use that were recorded prior to 2001. The reductions in drug-related deaths and blood-borne viruses also suggest that there have been public health improvements since 2001.

PDF

[lbksig]

[quote=“Dr. McCoy”]I’m hearing good things about Portugal.

The available data suggest that, since 2001, the CDTs have dealt with a large number of drug users, who would have faced criminalisation and penal sanctions prior to 2001.The national strategy has led directly to increases in the scale of treatment and prevention activities in Portugal. The effects of these changes are harder to identify. It seems that there has been a shift in drug use patterns, with increasing use of cannabis and decreasing use of heroin. The rise in cannabis use is probably less threatening to public health than the levels of heroin use that were recorded prior to 2001. The reductions in drug-related deaths and blood-borne viruses also suggest that there have been public health improvements since 2001.

PDF[/quote]

I read through that pdf and it has some interesting findings. As you posted above, there was a drop in blood borne diseases being spread, a drop in the number of people going to prison for consuming the drugs, drop in the number of people doing heroin (with a rise in the number of cannabis users) and a drop in the number of drug related deaths.

The first odd thing was that drug related crimes increased by 9% between 1999 and 2003 while the number of people going to jail for consumption went to 0. The next odd thing was the number of seizures decreased but the amount of drugs confiscated over that time period increase by more than 100%. The final odd thing is quoted below:

[quote]
The new law decriminalized the use, possession and acquisition of all types of illicit substances for personal use, which was defined as being up to ten days supply of that substance. These changes did not legalize drug use in Portugal. Possession has remained prohibited by Portuguese law and criminal penalties are still applied to drug growers, dealers and traffickers. [/quote]

So the rise in the number of drug related crimes is either from people committing crimes to pay for drugs or from people trying to make money from selling. Based on that I would conclude that there are more people trying to make money from selling drugs. They were decriminalized for the end user but only if they magically appear in your hand and in an amount that is less than 10 days personal use.

So Portugal is on the right track in decriminalizing it but the drug cartels are still making heaps of money off of this. It seems kinda silly to decriminalize it for the users but for the growers who make it, it is still illegal. How are the users expected to get the drugs except from someone who grows, produces or otherwise distributes it?

So good for Portugal on decriminalizing and let’s hope it doesn’t stop. Someone has to notice the inconsistency in the law right?