3 Months Since Legalizing Marijuana, Here's What Colorado Looks Like

originally posted by: 3u40r15m
Too all you potheads that want the whole world to get on board with your crap... If you have teenage kids, encourage them to smoke pot since it's so great. I bet the only ones who will are the bums who smoke with their kids already. The parents who think they are "cool". You got the mentality of a 12 year old that wants to fit in.

If you smoke, smoke, but shut up about it. Get your 215 and buy weed at the supply stores. That's as far as it should go.

I believe the legal age for pot should be 21, so no I don't think It's cool to smoke with teens. I don't drink with teens either.

If my kids wish to drink or smoke with me at 21, that's their choice. Has nothing to do with cool. It would be inconsistent for me to support legalization then freak out over my adult son using. I worry more about my adult son going to jail over bad laws.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: crazyewok

Making drugs illegal creates criminal underworlds it doesn't stop drug use CLEARY!

Your are completely ignorant if you believe that making something illegal stops it's availability.

Yup, when something is illegal, it's not as readily available as something legal. Since there is a lack of overall supply, the price goes up. A pound of cannabis is incredibly more expensive than other grown plants/vegetables/fruits/anything in between. People out there realize that there is a lot of money to be made. There is the risk, but the potential earnings are what drive people to do it. You can easily make more money doing that compared to having an average full-time middle-class job. And guess what? You don't have to pay taxes on your income. It's all under the table. Making you be able to generate even more money.

a reply to: spirited75

I firmly believe being addicted to one's smartphone and social media is a snake in the grass for the next generation.

The devil's weed, alcohol, sedatives, and other drugs have been around since people have been writing. Clearly prohibition laws have little effect on consumption.

How many deaths have been directly caused by distracted drivers using such devices? Especially the younger drivers.

Heavy Marijuana Use Doesn't Damage Brain
Analysis of Studies Finds Little Effect From Long-Term Use

I want to say that I am for the decriminalization of all drugs.

Period.

I also want to say that any drug...I repeat...any drug...alters a human mind, physiology, and spirit...

We already have laws on the books and policies in the workplace dealing with these issues...

God, in nearly every religion, prohibited many things, including murder...humanity did not listen to the God of their choice, so what makes us think the same human would listen to a man?

Treating a drug addict, no matter the drug, like a criminal and locking them up in a prison, makes no sense.

Wow! Looks like the DARE program did a really fine job of brainwashing a lot of people.
Whenever I see folks talking smack about "potheads" I always think of Willie Nelson, an avowed "pothead" for many years. According to the logic of the Drug Warriors, he should have been in a mental institution years ago because it gives you mental illness, he should have quit working years ago because it makes you lazy and unproductive. Yet, there he is, 81 years old and still out there working every day to help support his family. How is this man a danger to society?
There are millions out there like him except for one thing---they don't have his courage when it comes to activism for doing the right thing.

Let's face it if canabis is to be legalised it'll come with a booklet full of instructions and warnings

Sure the benefits are endless but it is still a very dangerous drug in the wrong hand or abused, there are a string of mental health issues linked to smoking it... It seems you have to either be medically fit to smoke it in moderation or in your way out, people with certain health issues should avoid it altogether it can help people and it can also ruin people's life's

From experience, I grew up in the 60's, and enlisted in the Marines. Now, forty plus years later, I have a standing script for Oxycodone, the straight stuff, no Tylenol, etc. Look it up, the Tylenol in a Percoset would send your liver over the edge in zero time. It upsets my stomach, so MD went for the plain, unadulterated drug. Thank you, very needfully. However, got to guard the monthly supply like gold at Fort Knox. I am told, the one bottle is worth upwards of a thousand dollars on the street. Talk about being abused. Snorting the stuff. All I get is relief from the back pain. As to the lies. Want to start with the man behind most of the anti-drug hysteria. He, like Gay Edgar Hoover, spent an entire life in a single government agency, the Bureau of Narcotics, Department of Treasury. He went before Congressional committees and lied his butt off, about police reports, etc. New York Mayor F. LaGuardia created a committee of Doctors, Police and Laymen to investigate the new Federal law. Outcome in 1940, the only time MJ users behaved in illegal or illicit manner was the purchase of the "weed." There was no link to crime, etc. Of course, with World War II and all, the report was buried (it is on the web). During the War, numerous businesses operating in ports, supplied the longshoremen, often blacks, with coc aine to increase productivity and work longer hours. If you have never worked unloading ships, I have, it is a back breaking, tiring job, often with long hours, like seven a.m. to eleven p.m. Ship Masters and Shipping Companies do not want their vessels sitting in ports.
In plain words, we have been lied to and mislead for over seventy years by bureaucrats wanting to enlarge their government agencies. That the legal and medical community was engaged in enforcing and justifying the lies is obvious. Now, call it what it is and get on with correcting all the stupid we have to deal with. Time maybe too short, to worship at the altar of prohibition of anything. An additional fact, I remember the arguments back when North Carolina wanted to change the alcohol laws to "by the drink." Before that, only Beer and Wine as available at eighteen. Alcohol was at twenty-one, and you carried the bottle into the restaurant or club. You were discouraged to take the open bottle off the premise. So, people tended to finish the bottle. Talk about wanting drunks on the road.

a reply to: TritonTaranis

You may notice that almost all "mental health" issues associated with it also have the word "Acute" in said description..

Which means temporary...

It doesn't ruin peoples lives, except for the ridiculous laws associated with the ban of it...

It makes some people lazy... Sure its not good for your lungs... Neither is tobacco but its legal...

Heres something to think about though... For first time tobacco users... smoking gets them stoned beyond belief, it even makes people sick in some cases...

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: spirited75

Thus the reasons for the signs "keep off the grass"

Its a parents responsibility to explain the issues with things like MJ, alcohol, tobacco, sex, and everything else....

IF anything blame the parents not the substance...

Exactly. The anti-drug approach we took when I was young did nothing but make me curious. It's counter productive to create forbidden fruits. Parents need to grow up and be real with their kids. Why are we so afraid to teach our kids?

People talk about protecting the kids, but keeping it illegal does the opposite.

Your kids have little problem getting it right now, keeping it illegal isn't stopping them. They are getting it from drug dealers who also expose them to the option of buying other drugs. If you really fear weed, you should realize your kid would be safer if weed was sold in regulated business.

originally posted by: TritonTaranis
Let's face it if alcohol is to be legalised it'll come with a booklet full of instructions and warnings

Sure the benefits are endless but it is still a very dangerous drug in the wrong hand or abused, there are a string of mental health issues linked to drinking it... It seems you have to either be medically fit to drink it in moderation or in your way out, people with certain health issues should avoid it altogether it can help people and it can also ruin people's life's

Alcohol related deaths compared to marijuana related deaths is significantly higher. I changed pot to alcohol in your post to show your logic applies just as easily to that.

a reply to: Akragon

THC in high doses does cause panic attacks in some people... and extreme anxiety...

And in every one of those cases, isn't it true that the THC was used on the back of decades of professional negative propaganda surrounding it? Used with the knowledge that 100,000's of people are wasting away in prison due to falling foul of the legal issues surrounding it?

Of course some people are going to have extreme anxiety. A hell of a lot of time, effort and expense went into making sure they were always meant to.

If say in a hypothetical alternate reality, where almost everybody used THC as part of their everyday lives and NOT using THC was a criminal and jailable offence..i seriously doubt anyone would connect extreme anxiety and THC in any way other than the anxiety generated by being fearful of the law and the applied propaganda if you didn't want to use it.

Same thing, other way around.

a reply to: RalagaNarHallas

And it's not only about what it cost, eh?

The war on drugs is big business in itself because where money is spent it money flows into someone's pockets just like it does for those in the business of supporting any wars, making revenue from the sales of equipment, the prison system, and the seizing of assets.

Just like with any "big" (medicine, pharma, tobacco, MIC, you name it) they hate to see anyone else stand a chance at a share of the wealth.

a reply to: MysterX

Again... I live in Canada... We don't jail people for using MJ

The ones who are prosecuted here are dealing, or in possession of large quantity's of it...

So no... it has nothing to do with the laws, or fear of being jailed here...

originally posted by: MysterX
a reply to: Akragon

THC in high doses does cause panic attacks in some people... and extreme anxiety...

And in every one of those cases, isn't it true that the THC was used on the back of decades of professional negative propaganda surrounding it? Used with the knowledge that 100,000's of people are wasting away in prison due to falling foul of the legal issues surrounding it?

Of course some people are going to have extreme anxiety. A hell of a lot of time, effort and expense went into making sure they were always meant to.

If say in a hypothetical alternate reality, where almost everybody used THC as part of their everyday lives and NOT using THC was a criminal and jailable offence..i seriously doubt anyone would connect extreme anxiety and THC in any way other than the anxiety generated by being fearful of the law and the applied propaganda if you didn't want to use it.

Same thing, other way around.

I think the anxiety relative to ingesting any drug is there to begin with and simply magnified by the effect of the drug...

That said, the "taboo," adjective has surely magnified things...

a reply to: EasyPleaseMe

And the real irony?
Professor Nutt and his team were commissioned by the then UK Labour Brown's government to look into the effects of Cannabis on mental health specifically.

The study took over a year and cost the taxpayer a fair bundle...but when Nutt and Co told Alan Johnson, the then home secretary the 'bad news', nutt was fired.

The bad news was that the study could find no link between Cannabis use and mental issues...other than Cannabis actually helped relieve some of them.

This wasn't what the Government wanted to hear,they ignored the advice to not reclassify it to a higher class B drug and he was prmptly fired when he spoke out about what he saw as a coverup of evidence he and his team determined to be true.

Brown later remarked that cannabis was 'lethal'...

Ignorance is bliss until people are thrown in jail because of it.

a reply to: Akragon

Thanks for that.

What about growing?

Is it legal to grow your own for example or would the dealing angle be levelled at you if you did?

IOW, is there an acceptable personal use quantity?

a reply to: MysterX

I"m sorry but Akron is wrong.

Canada still has pot deemed just as illegal as the US does. The Police simply don't enforce it very much, because they have better things to do.

There are minimum sentences of 10 years for trafficking and production.

Medical MJ is completely legal by prescription. I work for a program that grows medical MJ for patients in my local area.

WE have decriminalization under 1/4 ounce is just a fine.

~Tenth

a reply to: MysterX

Mostly they turn a blind eye to it as long as you don't have a huge cultivation...

You're not supposed to grow your own, but tons of people do... and they rarely get busted for it as long as its not several plants or an obvious growing operation...

technically its still illegal here, but its a little strange...

For example... even though its illegal, there are places in Toronto where you can go, pay $5 and smoke all day and night if you choose... but you can't sell in the establishment, nor are you allowed to ask other people to share... Its strictly bring your own... they stay open by providing legal sales of various drinks... tea and coffee, and other fun stuff like munchies... Nothing that actually has any MJ in it... they also let you use the bong, or evaporator of your choice, but you pay to "rent" them so to speak...

There are NEVER any problems with these place, but of course there are always a few die hard idiot cops who come and bust people or give the place a fine... even though there is no trouble... Yet amazingly the 10 or 15 bars down the road from the place im referring to have drunkin morons starting fights with other idiots... starting real trouble, and its all good

For the most part you can have your own personal supply in Canada... IF you get caught with it, they will take it away from you, but you won't even get a slap on the wrist unless its in several bags, which looks like you're dealing...

Theres even a few dispensaries here and there, and many doctors who will sign for a licence for it, IF you can show its needed... I even have a resident where I work that takes THC pills...

She was in a lot of pain until just recently because she has MS... but shes pretty happy now

a reply to: tothetenthpower

how am I wrong?

a reply to: tothetenthpower

As someone who lives in Colorado and within one of the counties welcoming the new laws allowing both medicinal and recreational I can tell you that I have seen nothing but professionalism within the businesses in the industry. The laws on the dispensary side are pretty heavy (at this point) but people are following the laws very responsibly.

In fact I would say that the culture and business growing around this new legalization are far more responsible and respectable than other similar industries that really do create a lot of chaos...(hello alcohol!)

All in all I intuitively knew the chaos some people had parading in their heads was just paranoid delusions from propaganda, and ignorance well done...

The "concerns" while some may be legitimate are so marginal and insignificant in comparison to other industries its getting hard to even feign a real concern for what is otherwise relatively harmless.

ALL things have consequences...ALL things can be abused and ALL things can become an "issue" some quicker than others...I'm glad that people are starting to realize the concerns of chaos are more likely paranoid delusions brought on by ignorance passed down from much less educated generations.

As far as the economics side of this goes were seeing the money in taxes come in from sales and its really good for the state so far...the under-reported effect on the other side of this coin though is the economic benefits from NOT having to "fight" the drug war in regards to marijuana anymore. This is saving the state tons of money and I would love to start seeing some people put some numbers to this because I think that will be even MORE enlightening to many.