Should marijuana ever be used just for pleasure...

[kentuck]

In the state of Colorado, you can get a statement from a doctor and pick up some really good smoke for your "medical" needs. But why do you have to be sick to smoke marijuana? Why should it not be legal just for pleasure? The whole system makes me sick. :-)

[bluestateguy]

1. I'm pro-choice

And that includes an adult choosing to do drugs. If all the potheads want to get stoned all day, I say hey, let 'em. That's that many people that we won't have to compete with for a job.

[spag68]

9. pot

You are seriously misinformed, if you think potheads will be less able to compete with you for a job.I've smoked pot since 1960, and although I am now retired, it never kept me from doing my job. That included working on iron in high rise construction, nuclear powerhouses, and many other jobs as an electrician that required some skill. Maybe young minds are affected by pot, but I have not seen any evidence that pot handicaps adults in any way they don't want to be affected. I admit that I didn't use pot at work much, and rarely drank on the job either. Haven't had a drink for 35 years, but pot is good for us old people and it doesn't slow me down on my motorcycle either. So unless you have info I don't, be a little less condescending to potheads, it's the real druggies that need help.

[ixion]

41. well said...

That's one of the many great things about marijuana, and one of the many reasons it should be legal.

[Echo In Light]

50. It's never kept me from working either, nor many others I know. Alcohol is far more dangerous

Bill Hicks - Mandatory Marijuana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZqYV9KKOZQ

[natrat]

52. it actually helps me to focus for cleaning the house ,riding the bicycle and dirtbike

[Echo In Light]

54. I've been a drummer for a long time...

...and I suppose those stereotypical perceptions of what pot 'does to you' likely conflicts with what's considered the general level of focus, agility and timing required in playing ...contrarily, pot helps me find that perfect spirit/mind-space for playing, and in no way hampers my dexterity or stamina, even for hrs at a stretch. I've played for so long I can find my zone w/o it, but it's definitely a much sweeter spot with ;)

[JNelson6563]

63. That's a red flag to me too.

That post you replied to is unbelievable to me, especially here on DU. Anyone who smokes pot is summarily dismissed as a "pothead" who "wants to get stoned all day". Is there a greater depth of ignorance? Sad to see Reefer Madness is still alive and well.

You make a great point though, there are many out there who partake in moderation and do some serious jobs. I think there are some deeply ignorant folks out there who would be amazed to learn just who in their world smokes. It's much more common than the Reefer Madness hysteria flavored kool-aid drinkers could wrap their little minds around.

;-)

Julie

[change_notfinetuning]

73. Amazed, indeed. As a former air traffic controller who smoked daily, I can

confirm that American pot smokers do hold responsible positions, and do a damn good job, too. Of course I never went to work stoned, and knew no one who did or would. One interesting tidbit - at new-hire training in Oklahoma City, most of the people I trained with who did not smoke pot washed out of training, and were discharged and sent home. Most of the ones I trained with who DID smoke pot passed the training and were sent back to their ATC facility for further training.

It's unfortunate that on almost every issue, just like with marijuana, Americans are too easily baffled by bullshit.

[SammyWinstonJack]

48. Yeah because potheads don't work, now do they. "the potheads"=Spicoli. Every last one of them.

:eyes:

[Arkansas Granny]

56. FWIW, most pot smokers I know hold full time jobs, some of them in positions

of great responsibilities and professionalism. As a general rule they have less absenteeism and other disciplinary problems on the job than their counterparts who regularly use alcohol.

[KG]

70. plus, weed's gotten so damn expensive, i need a full time job to afford it!

[quickesst]

62. Didn't have to read very far down....

...to find the horse-shit that usually shows up on these threads.

"That's that many people that we won't have to compete with for a job."

Because I like to relax with a nice bowl of herb in the evening plays no part in my ablility to do my job. Believe me, those brain-dead public service ads you obviously believe in are not a reflection of reality. Take a worthless piece of crap, let him/her smoke some pot, and claim the pot made them a worthless piece of shit is just fucking simple-minded delusional crap. You are welcome to come on down and compete for my job. Just be ready for eight to ten hour days, five or six days a week, provide your own tools, and you damn well better be in good physical condition. I have to work, and I have to be responsible and reliable. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to buy the pot that I smoke while getting stoned all day.....oh wait, that doesn't make any fucking sense at all does it.:think: Thanks.
quickesst

[The Gunslinger]

69. Were you listening to the Jim Rome show last week.........

That's exactly what he said. Most people that smoke are productive members of society, and would give you plenty of competition for that job.

[Moses2SandyKoufax]

90. That pisses me off.

He cracks on marijuana users, then goes on(for several segments)to mention his fondness for Bombay Sapphire Gin.


Anybody see the hypocrisy in that?

[EndersDame]

2. I was at a party last night where alcohol was the drug of choice

I went out with my better half and my co worker and her better half for her birthday. We both are with our partners because they are not jealous people. To make a long story short her better half started getting shitfaced angry sad and jealous and ended up decking my better half just out of the blue as they were leaving. I have never had that angry/sad affect with weed . If anything it makes me feel more loving and more at one with everyone .

[kentuck]

4. What is a contact high??

I seem to have heard that discussed somewhere?

[EndersDame]

6. Getting the feeling that you are high

just by being around those who are

[cherokeeprogressive]

20. A "contact high" is something that someone who was about to be popped by a piss test made up.

There is no such thing. Take that from someone who has been a pretty much regular dope smoker for over thirty years.

The concept of "contact high" is such that someone who is in close proximity to others who smoke pot gets "high" by inhaling their second-hand smoke. It doesn't happen. Being in close proximity to someone high not only DOESN'T make you stoned, it doesn't put you in jeopardy of failing a urinalysis test. Second hand pot smoke never made anyone high.

Been there, done that.

[Why Syzygy]

67. Contact high.

Obviously you never sat in a pick-up truck between three other people passing.

[Threedifferentones]

77. Obviously you have a very active imagination

Or else your body is incredibly sensitive to THC.

And yes, I have been in plenty of "hotboxes" during times in my life where looming drug tests prevented me from indulging, including car cabs. Never got a contact high, since they don't really exist, never failed a DT.

If there were still large amounts of THC in that smoke, the stoners would not have exhaled it yet, lol...

[sam sarrha]

10. i F'n hate drunks.. i was one for 30 years, blacked out on my first drink , woke up a sick old man

was able to stop drinking through meditation

[Vickers]

23. "blacked out on my first drink , woke up a sick old man"

Dude, I hope you're a songwriter.

If not, you should be.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[rcrush]

3. NO Pleasure is bad! Things that feel good will send you to hell.

Now sit in the corner and read the bible and like it!

[JVS]

36. "Now sit in the corner and read the bible and like it!" No! Don't like it. That would be pleasure

Sit in the corner and read the bible and hate it!

[juno jones]

55. But only that Leviticus bit...

And those Pauline micromanagements directed toward minutae of the Roman empire.

And Please, if you value your soul, never read that 'Consider the Lilies' and 'Camel meet Needle' socialist claptrap spewed by that long-haied, sandalled, middle eastern freak, Yeshuah Ben Joseph. We worship Jesus Christ here.

[Skip Intro]

5. Hell yeah. I've often wondered what the establishment's problem is with euphoria.

Wtf?

It's my body, my mind, my money. If I want to spend the day in some drug-enduced state of euphoria, who the hell is anyone to tell me I cannot????!!!

What the fuck is wrong with feeling euphoric?

[alfredo]

18. Pot makes you think.

[kentuck]

19. What do you mean?

It makes you think differently or it makes you think better?

[robdogbucky]

25. Yo, kentuck

Check this out, it might answer some questions for you;

What no one wants to know about marijuana. This was written by Dr. Weil in 1972.

From The Natural Mind by Dr. Andrew Weil
(last half of chapter four pg. 86-97)


"Because marijuana is such an unimpressive pharmacological agent, it is not a very interesting drug to study in a laboratory. Pharmacologists cannot get a handle on it with their methods, and because they cannot see the reality of the non-material state of consciousness that users experience, they are forced to design experimental situations very far removed from the real world in order to get measurable effects. There are three conditions under which marijuana can be shown to impair general psychological performance in laboratory subjects. They are:

by giving it to people who have never had it before;

by giving people very high doses that they are not used to
(or giving it orally to people used to smoking it); and

by giving people very hard things to do, especially things that they have never had a chance to practice while under the influence of the drug.

Under any of these three conditions, pharmacologists can demonstrate that marijuana impairs performance..."

http://deoxy.org/pdfa/marijuana.htm



Read on Master Kentuck


robdogbucky

[Fumesucker]

27. Hmm... That's interesting..

Coincides pretty well with my own fairly extensive experiences.

[Echo In Light]

58. Thanks for posting this

[kentuck]

59. I thought this interesting.

"These considerations mean that there are no answers to questions like, What does marijuana do to driving ability? The only possible answer is, It depends. It depends on the person - whether he is a marijuana user, whether he has practiced driving while under the influence of marijuana. In speaking to legislative and medical groups, I have stated a personal reaction to this question in the form of the decision I would make if I were given the choice of riding with one of the following four drivers:

1. a person who had never smoked marijuana before and just had;

2. a marijuana smoker who had never driven while high and was just about to;

3. a high marijuana smoker who had practiced driving while high; and

4. a person with any amount of alcohol in him.

I would unhesitatingly take driver number three as the best possible risk. One may wonder how many drivers of types one and two are on our highways. Probably many. But there is some consolation in the fact that persons learning to do things under the influence of marijuana almost always are anxious about their performance and therefore tend to err on the side of overcaution. "

[Fumesucker]

26. It tends to make you introspective..

True also of the psychedelics.

[Mythsaje]

31. Something I noticed is that it made me, at least, less susceptible to influence...

Subliminal messaging, advertising mind-fucks, etc. If stoned, I could see right through them and pin the techniques to the wall for others to see.

[Mopar151]

85. That's the "ED ROSENTHAL" argument

And a good one it is! It's why authoritarians are so scared of liberally educated potheads - our bullshit detectors are tuned up like a bloodhound's nose.....

[ixion]

43. technically, pot is a low grade hallucinogen

which means that by definition one of the affects is increased synaptic activity.

So I would say that it allows you to think differently. It's only better if you do someone with it -- if you learn to focus.

There is an amotivational phase that people can get stuck in. It's very important to learn how to focus and work through that phase. It's what separates a functional pot-smoker from the stereo-typical "burn out." Someone who "burns out" on pot has simply become mired in the amotivational phase.

Just my two cents. :)

[juno jones]

57. I know pot makes me think

It makes me think that if my governement can be so stubbornly pig-headed, evilly wrong on this subject, what else aren't they telling the truth about?

[Echo In Light]

60. Big heaps

[alfredo]

72. When Judge Columbo sentenced John Sinclair to ten years for two joints

he cited the danger of Pot was that people think and don't react. This was during the Vietnam war and thinking instead of blindly following was seen as a threat.

[roody]

91. I'd say differently. It gives you another perspective.

[a la izquierda]

46. I'm an academic...it definitely makes me think.

It also keeps me from completely losing my mind while writing a 300p. dissertation.
Legalize it, dammit.

[ensho]

78. yes it does!

nt

[alfredo]

79. Makes me think about eating.

[Why Syzygy]

7. TPTB seem to think we don't deserve

any pleasure induced by our own choice. (without high risk, ie alcohol)

[shadowknows69]

8. Marijuana has probably kept me from killing myself on a couple occasions

In that respect it is a medicine to me. For my sense of spirituality it is also a doorway to a consciousness I prefer to dwell in. Also I like it with a movie and a pizza and I don't think I should be punished for that either.

[ixion]

44. "a consciousness I prefer to dwell in"

yep, well said.

Given a choice between "sober" reality, and the one induced by pot, I'll take the pot one, any day.

[Voice for Peace]

11. Pleasure is definitely good for health.

Laughing is good preventive and curative medicine.
Pot is medicinal for depression, if used in moderation, only as needed.

[tridim]

22. It's my stress reliever of choice

My biggest fear about getting caught is losing the relief it provides. How screwed up is that?

[canetoad]

12. Is this a trick question?

[kentuck]

14. I think I'm getting a contact...

:-)

[NC_Nurse]

13. A whole lot of other things are, why not pot?

[WeDidIt]

15. In a word, YEAH! n/t

[Rex]

16. Because mary jane is evil like commies and root canals.

Only do what the government tells you.

[tj2001]

17. The Shafer Commission liked it

[TahitiNut]

21. No. Big pharma wants you to use their chemicals. Commie pinko herbalist!

:shrug:

[imdjh]

30. They have better stuff, but they make it hard to get.

There are pharmaceuticals which are amazingly better than pot and you don't have to smoke.

[Ghost in the Machine]

24. Ghost's Magic 8-Ball Says "YES!!"

[Greyhound]

28. Of course, but this is how you allow people to avoid seeing how wrong they've been.

This way allows the self-delusion to continue and still stop ruining lives for nothing.

[Hawkeye-X]

29. In Denver, it is legal to own one oz

of weed and the arrest of people who has 'em has been WAY down on DPD's priority list.

[ZombieHorde]

32. Yes, it should by those who are adults and wish to do so. nt

[frog92969]

33. Are buds sticky?

gees
:eyes:

[kentuck]

49. ...

:rofl:

[alfredo]

74. If you dip them in honey they are real sticky.

Try a honey slide.

[hootinholler]

34. Well since the system is making you sick...

I'm sure a script for some weed would fix that, go see the Dr.

;)

-Hoot

[LeftyMom]

35. Only by people with the good sense to go smoke where I don't have to smell and breathe it

I don't give a fuck what other people do, but I'm allergic to hemp and related plants, and breathing that shit will trigger my asthma like you would not believe. Some assholes who sparked up in the pit at a concert damned near killed me doing that, I had to get handed over the rail.

The legal situation is the same here. A whole lot of stoners have developed pressing medical needs of dubious validity.

[Why Syzygy]

65. It never

occurred to you that people would be smoking at a concert? :crazy:

[LeftyMom]

80. I wasn't going to see the fucking Dead.

This was indoors (NOBODY smokes indoors in public places in California- it's a cultural thing as well as a legal one- I know of households where everybody smokes and they still go outside) and not the sort of band where people do shit like that, either (I've gone and seen them before with no issues.) Alas, the show was at one of the state universities and college students can be counted on to be anti-social retards.

[Why Syzygy]

81. I'd

grab a mirror to see the real anti-social. :freak:
(I didn't know progressives used the term "retard".)

[LeftyMom]

82. I apologize for saying something rude about somebody whose poor manners nearly killed me.

:eyes:

[proteus_lives]

37. Doesn't bother me.

Like with smokes, booze, food and sex. It's one of those things that are harmless in moderation. Socially, I mean. I'm not up on whither weed causes long-term health damage like tobacco.

[JI7]

38. as long as you are 18 and over

[meowomon]

39. I get a lot of pleasure from marijuana...

and no calories like from booze. And no hangover either.

[BR_Parkway]

40. You have an solid 30% who think SEX shouldn't be used for pleasure

in this country - and when indulged for strictly procreational purposes and only in their approved missionary/lights out position. And they damn sure don't want anyone else enjoying themselves either.

Their failed "abstinence only" programs are the same as their failed D.A.R.E programs. It's about control, denial now so you can get your heavenly rewards later and all the rest that they use in their authoritarian support (which oddly enough always seems to benefit the corporations bottom line)

It's my body. If I'm at home (not on the road where I could be a danger to the public safety - same as alcohol) and I'm of legal age to make adult decisions - then I resent the government telling me what I can or can't put into my own body. I'd love to see one of these cases make it up to SCOTUS and be declared unconstitutional.

[SeattleGirl]

42. Sure, if that's your preference. Just don't smoke it around me.

:smoke:

[Uben]

45. No! Bad! Shame on you.....

..for suggesting such a thing! That damned devil weed will destroy the world! People will be walking around like zombies and killing people. Have you never watched "Reefer Madness"?

I swear, you people act like pleasure is god given right. Next thing you know, you will want to legalize sex. Buncha damned hippies!




/sarcasm

[Badgerman]

47. Should ONLY be used to see Jesus!

:P

[Echo In Light]

53. Come, my child ... time has come for killer bong rips

[Badgerman]

87. LOL.....gud Un' ;)

[tabasco]

51. Pot is infinitely better than booze.

It should be legalized and regulated.

[change_notfinetuning]

61. That's why the Founding Fathers changed it from "life, liberty and property" to

"life, liberty and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS".

[mdmc]

64. perhaps all use is medicinal

I read a study where 9 out of 10 teens that self reported smoking pot claimed to do so for medicinal reasons, not to get high. They wanted to chill, calm those hormones, take off some pressure.. relax.

[mdmc]

68. Rheumatoid arthritis, cannabis based medicine eases pain and suppresses disease

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/33376.php

The first study to use a cannabis-based medicine (CBM) for treating rheumatoid arthritis has found that it has a significant effect on easing pain and on suppressing the disease.

[Posteritatis]

84. Of course they'd *claim* that the point wasn't getting high (nt)

[mdmc]

89. I found it interesting that self reported alcohol use = drinking to get drunk

[spanone]

66. yes, 100% of the time

[Ezlivin]

71. Reading all of these posts have made me very hungry

Now where did I put that box of Screaming Yellow Zonkers?

[pipi_k]

75. Never cared much for it myself, but

I have no problem with people using it if it floats their boat


As Mr Pip, who was a cop for many years, told me...he would rather have dealt with five pot smokers than one drunk.

[konnichi wa]

76. Isn't the purpose of all "medicine" to make us feel good/better?

And what about other forms of recreation?...many of them have no special therapeutic value yet aren't considered criminal. (I imagine you know the back story and that your question was rhetorical) ;-)

[Blue_In_AK]

83. To answer your question...

Every day. :hippie:

[Cleita]

86. Absolutely not, nor should you have sex with your wife except for

pro-creation. :evilgrin:.

[timtom]

88. Absolutely!

While I don't currently smoke pot, I have before and I may again.

[PJPhreak]

92. Pot or Prozac,Pot or Prozac,Hummm...

Now where did put those papers?