The good/bad opinion "dance" relative to the use of marijuana is likely to continue for a long long time, but the reality on the science of this subject is likely to become more firm over time. This study was performed at the Pir Mehr Ali Shah Agriculture University Rawalpindi in Pakistan. Some of their findings show some very negative results, especially with younger age users - "Boys who smoke cannabis are four inches shorter"!! That is a fairly significant negative finding for the use of this "dope"!
The Telegraph
By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor12:01AM BST 19 May 2015
Boys who smoke cannabis before puberty could be stunting their growth by more than four inches, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that youngsters who were addicted to the drug were far shorter than their non-smoking peers.
And they also discovered that rather than being a relaxing pass time, smoking dope actually makes the body more stressed in the long term.
"Marijuana use may provoke a stress response that stimulates onset of puberty but suppresses growth rate," said study leader Dr Syed Shakeel Raza Rizvi, of the Agriculture University Rawalpindi in Pakistan.
Scientists at the Pir Mehr Ali Shah Agriculture University Rawalpindi in Pakistan studied the levels of certain hormones involved in growth and puberty in the blood of 220 non-smoking and 217 cannabis-addicted boys.
Levels of puberty-related hormones such as testosterone and luteinising hormone (LH) were increased in the cannabis smokers. In contrast, growth hormone levels in the group were decreased.
More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11613107/Boys-who-smoke-cannabis-are-four-inches-shorter.html
It's like anything else use or abuse... but it needs to be legal. Legalization will keep people out of jails, will stop police harassment over a bit of green herb and cut the money that goes to drug lords
With MJ legal people will opt for that and less for other drugs. Hemp has known commercial uses and that will put cheap products on the market and create jobs. Tax revenue has already shown to be huge so huge Colorado is stuck because they have a rule that says any tax collected OVER what they need to run the state must be returned to tax payers :D
The medical benefits are really a side issue... not that they don't exist but even Opium has medical uses and has long been a prescription medicine
So legalize it and free up the cops to go after the real drug lords and stop harassing the locals for smoking a little happy weed :P
Will the country turn into potheads? LOL No not likely because those that will already are :P
Just smoke it outside if ya come to visit :P
I don't know whether or not I've mentioned this before, but I have learned not to give any credence whatsoever to "scientific studies," the results of which I am unable to directly verify for myself.
The reason why is because, whenever there are two or more sides to any given argument, each side will claim to have "scientific studies," to support their position, and in many cases it is impossible for every side's opinion to be true. That necessarily means that someone is lying, and it is almost always impossible to determine who.
Nullius In Verba - Nothing By Another's Word. That was the motto of the English Royal Society, and I consider it a very good one. The irony is that if said motto is adopted, it actually works against institutional science, and those atheists who want to control everyone else's minds.
Centralised, institutional science, whose every word is unquestioningly regarded as Holy Writ, is itself no better than Catholicism was; it is a form of tyranny to exactly the same degree. The great pioneers, whose work we have largely rejected, and whose names remain unknown to many - Tesla, Rife, Reich, Bechamp - all began with no fixed assumptions about the nature of reality at all.
From what I have learned (as a pharmacology graduate) Cannabis is harmful. Less than cigarettes and about as harmful as normal tobacco in terms of smoke damage. Eaten it is less harmful. If smoked heavily in adolescence it is strongly linked with mental illness later in life such as agoraphobia and other "disorders".
I am pro decriminalisation of all drug use. If you are not addicted and know the risks then no problem. If you are addicted and it is making you ill then it is a health problem and you should not be treated like a criminal and treatment is the best thing for those who want it. IF you commit a crime to get the drug then you should be offered treatment as an alternative to prison. Simple really.
This policy works in other countries but the English speaking Nations are dominated by corporate needs (like those of the tobacco and pharmaceuticals lobbies) and therefore rarely do the sensible thing. Sad but true.
The solution? State fund political parties and make corporate lobbying less influential. Have a constitutionally defined right to do whatever you wish to your own body for every citizen. Failing that we take up arms. Fight the war fuc4 the norm! :P ;)
Quote from: Pimander on May 20, 2015, 11:27:24 AM
The solution? State fund political parties and make corporate lobbying less influential. Have a constitutionally defined right to do whatever you wish to your own body for every citizen. Failing that we take up arms. Fight the war fuc4 the norm! :P ;)
Unfortunate that when things are legalized parents let it into the hands of the very young often destroying their future.
Several people I know say smoking weed at a young age left them with little memory of their total childhood.
Still I think the only way to stop things like growing areas we have come across in the forest and can get you killed, is to legalize.
Quote from: Dyna on May 28, 2015, 09:38:04 PM
Unfortunate that when things are legalized parents let it into the hands of the very young often destroying their future.
You will always get idiots. I suspect most of those ruin their kids lives without the help of legalising drugs. Drinkers don't all have alcoholic children.
I stand by my comments above. :)
One of my high school classmates refrained from smoking cigarettes because he wanted to keep his lungs healthy. I never did understand how he was keeping his lungs healthy by smoking pot.
As for Colorado tax revenues... The legislature hates TABOR. If the legislature had shown an iota of common sense in spending and taxing, we wouldn't have voted for it.
Shasta