Legalise Marijuana?

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#1689650 15-Dec-2016 17:36

Hammerer:

I do think that the negative impact of marijuana use is in the top 100 pressing issues. In particular, the negative impact on children and young people is a very real concern for me.

I see every day of the week school kids walking around takapuna stonned, Getting stonned in the park (Directly across the road from the local police station). No one does anything, People walk by as its just a common sight. I remember at school teachers would dismiss it and not punish students caught smoking, Only one person in my year got expelled for it.

Given im still quite youthful i can tell you how it actually affects people and how much of a problem it is. Im quite socially outgoing, I go to a lot of parties and have done for many years. Since the start of high school there hasnt been a party without weed. The scary thing is, Even the nice kids from lovely families are trying it or just casually frequently smoking it. Their parents are for the most part unaware.

For those people with children out there, Educate them. If i took your son/daughter on a tour of the people i know and said "These are the real effects of weed" they would be shocked and never touch it.

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#1689723 15-Dec-2016 20:25

TimA:

Since the start of high school there hasnt been a party without weed. The scary thing is, Even the nice kids from lovely families are trying it or just casually frequently smoking it. Their parents are for the most part unaware.

Since the 1970s, I'd hazard a guess that there's been drugs of one kind or another at virtually every party. What this means is that the parents in those "lovely families" have tried it and/or casually smoked. And in fact most of the grandparents too. So I'd say the parents (and grandparents) aren't unaware. They just don't see it as the huge problem that you do. And, given that "people who have tried cannabis" are now the majority in NZ, it's about time the law was changed to reflect their views.

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#1689725 15-Dec-2016 20:29

I support legalisation of pharmaceutical grade cannabis products (capsule/IV/Pills etc) for prescription use and I support non-smokable forms of cannabis for recreational use.

It's not an issue I care about enough to even slightly influence my party vote.

Unless either of the major parties support it, or both make it concious vote, it's unlikely to happen.

Mike

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#1689736 15-Dec-2016 20:45

We have alcohol, so therefore we should enable weed to sit alongside. We could legalise cocaine and heroin and meth as long as it was regulated and health checked, like alcohol. Sounds like great options. Yep. Awesome. Alcohol is a problem. So lets enable everything else as they are on par?

Drunk driver, $5000 fine, lose car if you dont pay, same for everything else. Abuse it, get burnt, big time. Bigly! Those extra funds can be used for the abusers, then the extra for something actually useful

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#1689784 15-Dec-2016 23:04

Apparently Ritalin / methylphenidate was in heavy demand on the street this exam season, performance enhancer when studying and sitting exams (that's now "common knowledge" - was on the internet - even Reddit - so must be true).

I'll check with some medical Dr friends, one who's involved with public health policy, see if he can drag some data on refused requests for scripts. Probably not - as I don't think there's a requirement or method for Drs to report refused scripts and to collate that data.

I presume - if the "system" is working as designed, then every ritalin tablet that exam "drug cheats" used means that someone who does have genuine medical need didn't get their meds. Even if it's expensive at street price - probably not as expensive as private school.

Sorry this is a little off-topic, but I'm almost over talking about marijuana. It's just so last century.

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#1690865 16-Dec-2016 09:01

There's evidence that use does negatively impact growing brains, so I would like to see concerted education around the harm for children/teenagers. Outside of this, I don't have any objection to decriminalisation, or legalisation.

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#1690874 16-Dec-2016 09:17

networkn:
God, another thread about legalising drugs, because well, you know, the others were so constructive and everyone showed such respect for each other.

I asked the question because I wanted to know what people thought about it now.

Some great responses here. Thank you to all.

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#1690885 16-Dec-2016 09:39

networkn:

BTR:

networkn:

Rikkitic:

I am pretty sure everyone knows how I stand on this. I would vote for a party solely on the marijuana issue if they had any prospect of actually making a difference. Next election I would vote for other issues, but for one time this one issue would be enough to sway me.

LOL, really? Because WEED is the single most important issue facing NZ right now?

Give me strength!

Who every said it was the single most important issue, someone asked a simple question and people are giving their thoughts on it. You have just entered the thread in a negative way, if you don't like the topic simply move on there is no need for negative comments.

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that every comment made in a thread, had to be made in support of the OP's position?

To address your question, obviously, it must be the most important issue she believes needs solving despite the crazy small numbers of affected people compared to superannuation or raising the retirement age which would affect everyone, otherwise, she would wouldn't vote for a party soley because they support it. Surely I am entitled to question her opinions if I find them incredible?

Anyways, it's clear that anyone espousing a different opinion to yours isn't welcome here, so on that note, have fun, I'm out!

Haha really??? I was just simply saying that if your opinion is the thread is cr*p and a waste of time why bother telling everyone that, at no point did I say everyone has to agree with the OP. I'm just going to put your response down to you having a bad day.

dafman

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#1690887 16-Dec-2016 09:43

There's an outstanding 2012 documentary for those that can track it down called "The House I Live In" which examines the huge human cost of Amercia's war on drugs as declared by then President Nixon.

For Wellington residents, Aro Street video have a copy.

For non-Wellington residents, Aro Street Video have a courier service.

arovideo.co.nz

MikeB4

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#1690910 16-Dec-2016 10:15

My Son is a Psychologist so knows a bit about this. I was chatting with him during the week and his reaction is an absolute no. The damage it causes is not a myth and he was saying that the damage is generational. In other words given to off spring, So it is not an individuals decisions.

He cannot understand why anyone would choose to put those poisons into their bodies intentionally. He concedes that there are some medical uses and these can be done under strict management regimes, similar to what I go through with the medications I am receiving.

He said that anyone who believes marijuana is safe is delusional already. Just because other nations have screwed up does not mean we should follow.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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#1690940 16-Dec-2016 11:17

MikeB4:

He said that anyone who believes marijuana is safe is delusional already. Just because other nations have screwed up does not mean we should follow.

Anyone who says *anything* is safe is delusional.

The fact that other nations are changing their policy means that they believe they screwed up in the past, and are correcting the perceived screw-up. Could it be that NZ screwed up when it followed the other screw-ups who banned marijuana?

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Rikkitic

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#1690941 16-Dec-2016 11:20

I am not a psychologist but would still be interested to know what studies have been done that underpin this conclusion. I have only anecdotal evidence, including my own example, but there are plenty of people I know who smoked dope vigorously when they were young, grew out of it, and went on to do other things, like become psychologists, with no apparent ill effects. I have also seen plenty of damaged people but I don't know what the source of their damage was. I do admit to some concerns about the apparent difficulty young kiwi males seem to have with moderation and self-restraint. For me the bottom line continues to be that the only result here from years of criminalising drugs is that kiwis are apparently amongst the biggest drug users in the world. Prohibition hasn't worked. Something else needs to be tried.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

networkn

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#1690944 16-Dec-2016 11:22

Rikkitic:

I have only anecdotal evidence, including my own example,

Well, erm, ummm... *cough*...

networkn

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#1690946 16-Dec-2016 11:25

frankv:

MikeB4:

He said that anyone who believes marijuana is safe is delusional already. Just because other nations have screwed up does not mean we should follow.

Anyone who says *anything* is safe is delusional.

The fact that other nations are changing their policy means that they believe they screwed up in the past, and are correcting the perceived screw-up. Could it be that NZ screwed up when it followed the other screw-ups who banned marijuana?

Prove this isn't safe.

See, I am not delusional :)

Fred99

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#1690953 16-Dec-2016 11:35

MikeB4:

The damage it causes is not a myth and he was saying that the damage is generational.

I'm very skeptical of the evidence for multi-generational (epigenetic) harm from marijuana (and other drugs).

The research seems to be funded by anti-drug agencies, carried out by zealots, very small-scale studies on rats/mice with dubious controls, and no reference point ("what other multi-generational harm / epigenetic change is caused by eating potatoes?").

Even when you look at how they attempted to assess behavioural change, they set up a test not to study general behaviour of rats, but by allowing them access to heroin and assessing how hard they'd work to get a "hit". Others tried to suggest that multi-generational offspring from reefer-mad rats were fatter because they'd inherited an epigenetic change which gave them "the munchies". Those seem like very weird tests, and strongly suggest bias and preconceived ideas by the researchers.

You can find a research paper to "prove" just about anything you like. What I didn't find in the articles I did read on the above, were comments and responses from independent peer reviewers.

I'm not saying that marijuana isn't harmful, nor that there could be significant (to society) multigenerational epigenetic behavioural change from all kinds of different environmental exposures, but there are probably far bigger fish to fry than that one.

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