After California decriminalized marijuana, teen arrest, overdose and dropout rates fell

a reply to: stumason

cannabis has so many uses if it were to become legal it would affect quite a few large established businesses...you can bet those that stand to be affected are lobbying heavily against legalization behind closed doors and until that changes this path of stupid will remain

a reply to: onequestion

Because it's truly a medication and not some party drug. If the majority view it as a party drug people will have more negative feelings towards it. If it's viewed as a medication, then it's something to be cherished and it'll be held in a more positive light.

a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme

How about we just view it as a plant.

If it's your prerogative to view it as a medicine then who really cares? That's the whole point, who gives a # your all so preoccupied with such crap.

a reply to: onequestion

Why are you so riled up over my pov? If you don't view it as a medication fine, I have no problem with it.

Calm down and have some medicine

a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme

I'm just in a bad mood right now it's not your fault.

a reply to: onequestion

Hey don't worry about it, I understand. Feel better

Orlyyyyy? No $#×+ , world. And heroin addicts that are people too respsond better with heroin than the. Treat ments that are out there now. I live in tye south , opiate ahuse is rampant. I've dro9ped multiple people at the clinic only to see they died because the medicine they give them is dose for dose strongermthan the heroin they dumped in their veins. The systems broke were gonna get high.
Its funny , decrim it all. The ones that cant handle the respsonsibility will be dead one week aftermdecrim.
Ill be back to correct typos on pc.
Also : having a ton of issues on ats mosible if anyone cares out there. Non responsive text boxes in the like.
Good morning its 4:18 , you guys know what to do in just a couple minutes.
Jesus theres like 90 typos with no way to backspace.
ETA : I afree with op and the guy that said its medicine.
It is a plant , true. It is medicine , true. But guess what else it definately is? A party drug , JUST like alcohol. So are benzos , and even the prescribed painkillers I have , its all in the context of how any medicine is used. One pill helps with pain , 2 will rock you. One or two hits helps you eat , smoke the gram and tell me thats not a drug.

I thoroughly deplore the legalization of cannabis.

As long as it was illegal, it was relatively cheap and of high quality.

Now that it's legal, it's only a matter of time before taxes, packaging, marketing, etc., raise the price of the product, while 'moves to improve profitability' replace 80% of it with filler, flavouring agents and other muck.

Greetings and Salutations- Now that I've had My 'head start' this a.m. I can better get an angle on this... If I was not a computer neophyte I'd add a link to a short video of Uncle Suga™ propaganda regarding cannabis that I ran across. This was WWII and the country not only needed hemp to fight the war but needed hemp for victory, that is the aptly named video "Hemp For Victory" of course Uncle Suga™ wanted to destroy ALL evidence but You should be able to view it if so inclined...

As I was filling up this a.m. (VW TDI™) the diesel at the BP™ smelled terrible, rotten, sour.. It was .39¢ cheaper so wouldn't "they" raise the price? Oil was trading at $81/barrel...

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: onequestion

'[...]In fact, California teenagers showed improvements in all risk areas after reform.'

Before we all start dancing, doesn't it seem crazy that teenagers 'improve in risk areas' supposedly thanks to smoking marijuana? Is the world so screwed up that it takes a smoke to graduate school? Why would getting high reduce the risk of suicide?

It's good the article mentions causality as it isn't clear that decriminalising causes these improvements. It's good that any region can cheer about its improvements, but, man, it's not good if teenagers have to get high in this life to avoid suicide, ODing or criminal arrest.

You have to ask yourself, which teenagers are seeking marijuana, or any drugs for that matter.

Do you think Johny Boy with the 3.5 GPA, a loving home life with two stable parents is seeking to get high? Maybe their are a few but this does not make up the majority.

The majority of kids looking to get high are looking to escape mentally challenging situations. We prescribe many antidepressants and anxiety meds to kids who are struggling. Most of wich have worst side effects and cause greater dependency.

What do school shootings seem to have in common, antidepressants. I don't know of one story where a kid smokes marijuana, or quits smoking it, then turns homicidal at school.

So depressed kids, or kids with ADD (high anxiety) take a natural medicine that has been proven to help with these issues and they do better.

Sounds like marijuana is working as an antidepressant, helping struggling kids have a more positive outlook on life. Same thing its been doing for depression and anxiety for thousands of years, without the side effects from big pharma.

a reply to: Astyanax

I guarantee the legal market will be flooded with pesticide-covered gmo product.

Now from Marlboro: a marijuana cigarette. Mass-produced, mass-marketed, low quality material.

originally posted by: Yeahkeepwatchingme
I guarantee the legal market will be flooded with pesticide-covered gmo product.
Now from Marlboro: a marijuana cigarette. Mass-produced, mass-marketed, low quality material.

Oh, no, say the advocates. Cannabis is the savior of mankind and the real crime is not making it legal.

It's just like everything else. Anything you do either way has an upside and a downside. Prohibition generally doesn't work well, because if the payoff is good enough, people will risk crime, and crime creates more crime. Legalize something and it gets taken over by corporations that are going to give you the lowest quality for the highest price to maximize profits. And somebody's going to complain either way. So it will be like alcohol. You can spend less money to get a cheap buzz, but you'll have to pay more to get the gourmet stuff. Market segmentation.

Like the comedians say, if you decriminalize cannabis, at least it shuts up most of the annoying stoners.

a reply to: sacgamer25

I personally can attest to this. Not in highschool but college. I was prescribed it medically in California. I improved in many areas of my life, there's no question. It helped my condition better than antidepressants ever could.

a reply to: stumason

Currently, their favorite go to response to fighting marijuana is, "we need to take this slowly and wait for more research to come out." This despite the fact that there is TONS of research on this plant and that everyone else disagrees with "taking it slowly". They just want to throw out any and all distractions they can to try to drag their feet on this. It isn't working and the public will drag the government kicking and screaming into legalization whether it likes it or not (which means some politicians may be losing their jobs in November of this year or 2016).

nvm.

a reply to: sacgamer25

You have to ask yourself, which teenagers are seeking marijuana, or any drugs for that matter.

This is the point I was trying to make. *If* marijuana is responsible for any of the implications in the article, we should be asking what's wrong with California society that some teenagers need to be using anything at all to cope with it.

Getting high or drunk doesn't change reality, it only changes our personal perceptions of reality.

I'm not afraid to say I've done both and often.

In that sense, we shouldn't be celebrating the success of some teenagers being able to cope with reality via marijuana. We should be asking how society is failing to the point where so many people require escapism to survive it.

a reply to: Kandinsky

I agree with you. But it appears that this is more of a problem then California. It looks to me like kids all over the country are turning to sex, drugs, and outright stupidity looking to escape.

Something is definitely wrong, but that doesn't change the fact that even though they are self-medicating, in all likelihood, marijuana may be a viable medicine for some.

a reply to: sacgamer25

Kids have always done it. But today it's more pervasive to the point of being in pretty much every home.

Society is sinking lower and lower each day.

The belief that young people who take drugs are 'troubled' is, in my view, false.

It is of a piece with the view that conventional behaviour and attitudes reflect happiness and good social adjustment. I have not observed this to be true in practice.

Besides, adolescents are supposed to have adjustment problems and antiauthoritarian attitudes. It's always the ones who don't (or rather, don't seem to) that turn out worst in later life.

Isn't it recreational now in that state and a few others? Meaning no longer a medical need? I saw on MSM news the Traffic Law fine for open container is $70 for it, not jail. Interesting!