legalise cannabis?

[Zadock]

Following on from betty may I also add that hemp fibres and oils also have other industrial uses so it would be quite and efficient crop to

As for the adulterant point... I'm not so sure, there are some VERY strong varieties around, there was some lethal ones when I was doing my under grad. If cannabis were legalised I think some weaker strains would be preferrable. But this is beside the point it won't be legalised here the government and society are much to fast to blame drugs for problems rather than their own short comings... afterall why do people take drugs in the first place?

[Ben Rogers]

Following on from betty may I also add that hemp fibres and oils also have other industrial uses so it would be quite and efficient crop to

As for the adulterant point... I'm not so sure, there are some VERY strong varieties around, there was some lethal ones when I was doing my under grad. If cannabis were legalised I think some weaker strains would be preferrable. But this is beside the point it won't be legalised here the government and society are much to fast to blame drugs for problems rather than their own short comings... afterall why do people take drugs in the first place?

Sometimes, as a way to escape from a mundane normality is why some people start using drugs, but also peer pressure of course - hanging around with others who do the same thing can be a strong factor for starting using drugs IMO.

I agree that some types of weed can be strong (for class c drug) and perhaps if it was legal only weed under a certain percentage THC should be included.

Im sure some green has some stuff in too, sometimes, such as fibre glass.

[Betty_Swallocks]

Im sure some green has some stuff in too, sometimes, such as fibre glass.

that reinforces my point. You can't trust criminals.

Personally I only smoke weed that I get from a known source. I wouldn't buy from any dealer these days. You just don't know what you're getting. A friend of mine grows it and lets me have some now and again.

If I was able to buy it over the counter and be sure of what I was getting I probably would.

[manwithnoname]

Personally I think criminalising recreational drugs is a futile endeavour, it doesn't matter how bad the drugs are or what we do to try and stop people taking them its never going to work because people have been people will always have vices and will find ways to fulfill them regardless of the threat of inprisionment, corporal or capital punishment. Wouldn't it be better to allow people to fulfill these vices without breaking the law? this way you don't end up with the wrong people making all the money and the quality of what ever drug people want is strictly controlled and you don't end up with people dying needlessly. also education, the money could be better spent there get people who have actually been addicted to drugs to teach kids what its like, impart their experience.

There will always be people who will not try anything just because it is illegal, but i'll agree there are a number of issues cause by criminalisation. Education... there are lots of reports on alcohol consumption is any one listening. Peoples cultures need changing but I'm not sure how this can be done e.g. my Friday/Saturday night ritual was to go down the pub and leave when nicely toasted and all my friend did it - so long as it social acceptable people will do it illegal or not. Obviously some people will part take in social unacceptable behaviour.

Back to the controlling of drugs point; I can't help but wonder if cannabis was legal if some of these potent strains would exist. there could've been safer legal limits on the concentrations much like there is with alcohol.

What concentration limits are on alcohol?
http://www.thedrinkshop.com/products...hp?prodid=3425
I think the best you can hope for is the quality, you are unlikely to get some anti freeze in your drink from a shop - but it's not impossible.

Im sure some green has some stuff in too, sometimes, such as fibre glass.

I'm not sure why someone would 'cut' cannabis with fibre glass when some oregano or Italian seasoning would be more readily available - but I guess it could be cut with something you're not expecting

[Ben Rogers]

I dont know, maybe so it weighs more.

this is rediculous, hardly any sleep woke up 7 times

after 6 years too bad to put up with now by far, need to get something that does something, soon so my thoughts are louder and i can control them and so everything isnt so dia like music sounding awful when words are said to every semi-tone when their are sounds in songs only is ok when it says what the singer is saying AND gets the words right not saying some stupid stuff thats in my head to songs. too stressful and tiring to even think.

the main thing is music used to make me feel slightly ok, now i shiver at best, wish there were words to describe how stupidly annoying this is and wearing and thats when I dont have to do anything such as work - cant imagine how i could cope with the stress of having to work when my brain causes a lot of stress to say the least anyway, now i cant even smoke a fag outside cos the birds do my head in too much and i want to kill them - so i just repeat swearing at whatever causes the noise every second it occurs, which is well, every split second.

[Zadock]

What concentration limits are on alcohol?
http://www.thedrinkshop.com/products...hp?prodid=3425
I think the best you can hope for is the quality, you are unlikely to get some anti freeze in your drink from a shop - but it's not impossible.

I mean they won't sell alcohol labelled for drinking if its likely to kill you e.g. reagent grade alcohol, methanol etc

the thing I also find interesting is that there is also a woefully inadequate amount of education regarding alcohol as well, its almost as if the same infrastructure for dealing with the problems it causes are there for other drugs as well to the same or often a lesser degree unyet alcohol is legal

More education, more rehabilitation for all drugs. We need careful management not knee jerk criminalisation with harsh penalties. It doesn't work, as I said above people are always going to want to get wasted on something and damn the consequences. And as manwithnoname said above people are sometimes more likely to try things if they are illegal, it adds and element of excitement.

[Ben Rogers]

when i used to have god living in my head, for real he was telling me i was going to die and things 24/7 so i stayed up for 8 days constantly concerntrating on what was said on the tv and he got quieter and quieter until he wasnt in my head any longer, this was when the problems started such as thoughts getting entirely controlled by enviroment LOL.

the day he started leaving my head, in 2004 when I was watching cricket on tv cars were stalling outside my house, motorbikes were too, and their owners had difficulty starting them for about 10 minutes there were 5/6 cars / 2 bikes outside my front door! LOL was hillarious in a way.

other people seem to use my brain for THEIR thoughts to say what they want to say, the words they say are in my head, a split second before they say them and not telling the truth here, no rubbish whatsoever!

used to sit down and hear my mates thoughts in my head and then i went around to their house and they started talking to me and hey presto, the same things were said that i had originally had in my head, 10 minutes previously, weird or what? coinsidental, Im having my doubts with the amount of stuff that has happened to me with situations like I just mentioned.

i hope god lives in someone elses head when im no longer around, else i dont know how the world will work, how people will communicate and stuff!!

this may sound far fetched but its not.

i am willing to bet, in any household what others say is controlled by someone elses brain (as you live with people for a period of time you kind of know what they will say and once they say one word someones brain has the next word in so they say it) im sure thats how everything works when people talk. Might seem stupid but ive thought about this stuff for years now.

what originally made me start thinking about this was listening to Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, in his lyrics he mentions ' we all feed off each other, we can share our endorphines' that is true IMO. I remember feeling other peoples endorphines just speaking to them and the better the convorsation the more endorphines I had and the more the other person would speak to me (probably in an attempt to feel as good as possible)

[manwithnoname]

... And as manwithnoname said above people are sometimes more likely to try things if they are illegal, it adds and element of excitement.

I actually meant some people will never do something if it is illegal, but as you rightly point out that adds to the excitement for others

@Ben Rogers if your having trouble sleeping try doing some exercise - if the mind is tired it helps if the body is tired if you want to get some sleep. If you haven't already it might be worth popping down to the Doc's

[TooNice]

I have noticed is that I don't seem to get addicted to things I put inside my body. Cigarettes/weed (the results are the same with me, I feel like I would choke before getting stoned in the later)? I found smoking to be as unpleasant, if not worse than having to inhaling someone else's smoke (and I was strongly in favour of the smoking ban because I hated second hand smoke). Alcohol? It's still beyond me how anyone can enjoy it for the taste. I'll drink in a social setting, but I find most drinks a test of tolerance. I make exception of cocktails, tequilas (assuming both lime and salt are present) and drinks that somehow hide the taste of alcohol(usually 'girls drinks'), but even then, I don't find it addictive. I can go on with more examples.

I don't find the 'it doesn't matter how bad the drugs are or what we do to try and stop people taking them its never going to work because people have been people will always have vices and will find ways to fulfil them regardless of the threat of imprisonment, corporal or capital punishment' a convincing defence. You can replace 'drugs' with just about anything you like ('piracy' is a favourite), yet it does not mean that lawmakers should make those things legal. And I am pretty sure that we would see a sharp reduction in people smoking weed would result in capital punishment. Not that I am in favour of capital punishment, especially for this. But I believe many would reconsider if there was a possibility of death.

I do like the idea that people are legally allowed to do whatever they want to themsleves as long as it does not harm others. I also think it should be legal for medical use. Yet at the same time, I think that indirect impacts on the legalisation of recreational drugs or anything addictive for that matter should be studied. For instance how much tax money is used to treat lung cancer caused by smoking (and is the tax on cigarette enough to cover the full costs)? How many deaths/violence/public disorder were alcohol induced? How many crimes were committed so that someone can buy his/her fix? Those needs to be measured properly, and the cost/benefits weighted with the person's right to do what s/he wants to do. If a significant minority can't be trusted to be responsible, then sadly, I would consider it justifiable to make those things inaccessible. I am in favour of education, though I wonder how well it works.

[Spud1]

I'm not sure why someone would 'cut' cannabis with fibre glass when some oregano or Italian seasoning would be more readily available - but I guess it could be cut with something you're not expecting

Main reason (and this is an informed guess - have no evidence for this!) will be to make the product look more appealing. Lots of pot smokers will go by look and smell when buying their grade (assuming they get the chance to inspect it!), and it really is very easy to tell when a bag has been loaded with oregano etc..it just obvious as the majority of herbs come pre-ground and not in bud form..not to mention that they are often easy to smell.

Silica/Sugar/Brix+ etc is different though - no smell, and when added to cannabis it looks exactly like trichomes/kief. There is yet ANOTHER reason though, and that is hash.

Good quality hashish is (reportedly) on the rise again - believe it or not soapbar is much rarer these days..i guess because enough people got wise to it. There is (reportedly) more "blonde" or "pollenator" hash around these days, which for those who don't know is generally made from trichomes that fall or are shaken off bud. SO what the gangs are allegedly doing, is getting in some good cannabis bud (uk or imported), using a pollenator to shake off as many trichomes as possible at various stages during and after plant growth, and using that to make some half-decent hash. Then they are left with average quality bud..but it will look really poor with no crystals..most people wouldnt buy it. So what to do? Add in some trichome replacement, and you have great looking weed that also weighs 0.5g more than usual (thats another £3 profit per bag..), as well as decent hash. Instantly more than doubled your money. If you have a good relationship with growers you can get them to add in brix+ or similar mid-grow too, which will add the fake trichomes inside the buds too (and they don't get shaken off..they stick to the plant).

All in all its a way to make more money out of a product thats becoming more and more popular each day. Not very nice at all

[funke_munke]

I'm pretty sure legalising cannabis would lessen the amount of smokers eventually. Having been to Amsterdam two weeks ago, it seemed to me that the Dutch had given up on smoking more or less, as all the cafes were full of British! Even a lot of the people who worked in them were British.

[TooNice]

Pot getting more potent. I've not verified the methodology/test parameters (if available) from the source, but they suggest some long term undesirable side effects.

[Betty_Swallocks]

I'm really not convinced that pot IS getting more potent. It's certainly easier to get good weed than it was in the '80s but the quality doesn't seem any different.

[G4Z]

Load of rubbish about potency tbh, besides which if you get strong weed you tend to smoke less because its getting you caned as feck on smaller amounts.

[mediaboy]

Legalise it. But with strict restrictions.

Yes, it's bad for you, but so is smoking and alcohol. As someone said right at the beginning, if we discovered alcohol today it'd be Class A. Legalise Cannabis, tax the hell out of it and then shape up the rest of the country.