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Why hemp (cannabis) is a good thing!
Strontium Dog - 10/3/11 at 06:35 PM

Hi, in response to some comments that I have received about my belief that cannabis is a much maligned subject and the desire to try and educate people with the truth I urge any interested among you to spend 50mins watching this interesting documentary. I know from some of the messages/emails I have received that I will be preaching to the converted with many of you, but for those that think that the likes of Cameron are telling the truth when they say that cannabis is very very toxic and evil, please i beg of you, watch this!

http://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/when-we-grow-this-is-what-we-can-do/

Best wishes, Simon


deltron63 - 10/3/11 at 06:47 PM

Every class A drug user i have ever known, started by smoking a bit of pot.
DONT DO DRUGS


mangogrooveworkshop - 10/3/11 at 06:55 PM

used to grow wild out the back of the house in SA never bothered with it.
I have stood on five ton bales being dicected so the police station could burn them for the central heating boiler


YQUSTA - 10/3/11 at 06:55 PM

quote:
Originally posted by deltron63
Every class A drug user i have ever known, started by smoking a bit of pot.
DONT DO DRUGS


Does that include alcohol?


big-vee-twin - 10/3/11 at 06:59 PM

Why canabis is a bad thing link


gingerprince - 10/3/11 at 07:02 PM

Well now, you see.

I can see the argument for Cannabis

but then

I can also see the argument against Cannabis

But which is better?

There's only one way to find out: -



flibble - 10/3/11 at 07:06 PM

quote:

Every class A drug user i have ever known, started by smoking a bit of pot.



Every class A drug user I have ever met started by drinking coffee...

I'd say 80-90% of our sixth fom smoked pot at some point, most gave it up when they got older, some continue and are no closer to deciding to do class A's than anyone else.
I'd rather be outside a cannabis shop at kicking out time than any pub, I say live and let live.
(I gave up a loong time ago, never really enjoyed it that much )


UncleFista - 10/3/11 at 07:06 PM

quote:
Originally posted by deltron63
Every class A drug user i have ever known, started by smoking a bit of pot.
DONT DO DRUGS


I don't believe you.

I'll bet my house they "started"by drinking alcohol or smoking tobacco.
Both totally legal and taxed to high heaven...


RazMan - 10/3/11 at 07:09 PM

It has always surprised me how cannabis is still classed as illegal while alcohol is not. Alcohol (and indeed nicotine) is far more addictive, damaging to health, promotes anti social and violent behaviour, costs the taxpayer millions of ££s in it's associated problems etc etc. Oooooh don't get me started

Cannabis smokers generally do very little harm to other people or their environment - alcohol drinkers often cause havoc in their community! Its a no-brainer IMO


[Edited on 10-3-11 by RazMan]


twybrow - 10/3/11 at 07:29 PM

Lets face it, if someone invented alcohol now, it would be illegal.... It causes far more harm than Cannabis. When was the last time you saw two stoners fighting!? Never! Ban alcohol, and legalise cannabis, and I would bet good money that our country would be a happier place!


Russell - 10/3/11 at 07:31 PM

Tell my next door neighbour it's a good thing. He's doing 4.5 years for growing it


Fatgadget - 10/3/11 at 07:37 PM

I once took a drag on a spliff but never inhaled..Honest!


Agriv8 - 10/3/11 at 07:44 PM

right or wrong make it legalise and tax it.

I have smoked it takin other stuff and it hasnt made me a junkie

but if you legalise it you will

A: reduce petty crime,
B: reduce organise crime / money laundring
C: Reduce drug wars / patch battles.
D: give the govement cash so the dont have to penalise us in other ways.

Try it for 2 years and see what happens/

police sieze any being grown / imported illegally and sell it to legal distributors and the get a cut ( helping them ballance there budgets )

regards

Agriv8


Fatgadget - 10/3/11 at 08:09 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Agriv8
right or wrong make it legalise and tax it.

I have smoked it takin other stuff and it hasnt made me a junkie

but if you legalise it you will

A: reduce petty crime,
B: reduce organise crime / money laundring
C: Reduce drug wars / patch battles.
D: give the govement cash so the dont have to penalise us in other ways.

Try it for 2 years and see what happens/

police sieze any being grown / imported illegally and sell it to legal distributors and the get a cut ( helping them ballance there budgets )

regards

Agriv8

Stick to your present job mate.You will never make it as a politician...Far too much pragmatism and common sense.

[Edited on 10/3/11 by Fatgadget]


MikeR - 10/3/11 at 08:10 PM

Don't have the time to watch the link at the moment, will (hopefully) do so tomorrow.

Regarding cannabis there are a few issues.

1) its illegal in the uk. Whether it should be or not is often open to debate.

2) cannabis you buy (like every other illegal drug) can contain a number of impurities which can be very harmful to you. I used to live in nurses accommodation, one of the nurses was a drug dependency nurse. She'd tell stories of how impure the drugs were. One story that stuck in my mind was heroine cut with battery acid in peterborough. It literally ate peoples veins. People were so addicted they couldn't stop, they died horrible deaths. Cannabis resin blocks has a reputation for being very weak as its cut with lots of stuff, frequently poisonous (which i've never understood as surely this will harm your customers and therefore you're screwing yourself unless the idea is to make someone feel bad after they've taken the drug so they'll take it again and feel good). Suppose this is an argument for growing your own.

3) the non positive effects - aka the links to psychosis. Strontium Dog and myself were talking about this earlier. Despite looking twice today I can't find any recent research saying there is no link between cannabis and psychosis. (i struggled to find any peer reviewed research saying there was no link). The issue is no one seems to be able to identity what causes the problem.

So should it be legalised ......... well i firmly believe if we discovered alcohol and tobacco today we'd make it illegal. Although is that really a reason to legalise something else? Personally i think we need to figure out the link between cannabis and psychosis. Until we know what we're dealing with then i think it should investigate further its use in medical situations.

I find it interesting that Holland has been reviewing its position on cannabis recently. I'm going to look up why as i can't remember the reasoning but there were issues around the coffee shops.


contaminated - 10/3/11 at 08:16 PM

I think you should all go and get jobs you smack heads


dlatch - 10/3/11 at 08:28 PM

from my own experience

cannabis is not in its self evil, but a lot of problems caused by it are like every other drug out there, abuse the drug and it will bite you.

alcohol is still in my eyes one of the most damaging drugs available today as its so easy to abuse.

heavy cannabis use can and does lead to psychosis problems.

it boils down to the old phrase "everything in moderation"


Yazza54 - 10/3/11 at 08:48 PM

You lot need to chill out and have a joint


JoelP - 10/3/11 at 08:53 PM

IMHO there is no massive harm in weed but it (like many things) is a waste of time and money, it has a propensity to encourage idleness (where did that saying come from?!), and wont do you any favours in the long run.

I can promise you it ruined my memory and took my ambition away at uni. But, we did have a laugh as kids doing all that stuff.

Which makes me wonder, if i enjoyed my youth so much, why would i be so keen for my son not to get into that scene?


YQUSTA - 10/3/11 at 08:59 PM

quote:


I find it interesting that Holland has been reviewing its position on cannabis recently. I'm going to look up why as i can't remember the reasoning but there were issues around the coffee shops.


Don't quote me on this but I was told by a Dutch friend that the start of the revision into cannabis use and sale was because of the new Christian government that took power at the time.

This was a few years ago iirc and could be complete tosh allthough as said it could have been the first push for a revision.


norfolkluego - 10/3/11 at 09:20 PM

There's two sides to this 1 - The Criminal Justice side and 2 - The Health side

Criminal Justice - This is the easy one, legalise it and sell it in Government shops at a price the dealers can't match. You'll wipe them out overnight and the crime they bring with them.

Health - Bit more difficult as there's bound to be some negative health aspects associated with it but if people are smoking it anyway what's the difference if it's sold legally. If anything it's an education issue as it is with baccy, if people chose to ignore the evidence and carry on smoking it's their choice, it's a free country after all.


liam.mccaffrey - 10/3/11 at 09:23 PM

Cannabis is the perfect drug for chemo patients both my oncologists told me so, stops nausea, increases appetite, calms and improves mood and a damn sight less toxic than some of the stuff they were giving me during my treatments.

I had a drug call doxirubicin/adriamiacin which is nasty, and given the choice I would take weed over it every day of the week.

IMHO medicinal cannabis is woefully underutilised.


Anything else I'm not concerned with really.

[Edited on 10/3/11 by liam.mccaffrey]


bi22le - 10/3/11 at 09:33 PM

Hmm dont really know if I should comment and if I do where to start!?!


Agriv8 - 10/3/11 at 09:38 PM

on the medical side opiates from Opium ( spelt wrong I know ) were used and synthetic versions are still in use or have I made that up.

Anyway like drinking under age the fact that your not supposed to makes it all the more compelling times this by the adolesent multiplier .

PS went to amsterdam on my stag weekend and lost a good few hours 'Now that was cool man' sex museum nicley stoned god how I lauged !!!!

Regards

Agriv8


Ninehigh - 11/3/11 at 09:29 PM

quote:
Originally posted by UncleFista
quote:
Originally posted by deltron63
Every class A drug user i have ever known, started by smoking a bit of pot.
DONT DO DRUGS


I don't believe you.

I'll bet my house they "started"by drinking alcohol or smoking tobacco.
Both totally legal and taxed to high heaven...


Strangely enough I went the other way, I didn't start on cigarettes until I could get a joint for 2 weeks


David Jenkins - 11/3/11 at 09:36 PM

A while ago 5th Gear did a comparison on their test track - one driver had too much to drink, while the other had a couple of spliffs...

The drunk drove too fast, cut corners, missed stop lines, etc. etc. The guy on cannabis drove like a pensioner - bit too slow, ultra careful, super safe.

I know which I'd prefer to meet on the road...


gazza285 - 12/3/11 at 04:35 AM

quote:
Originally posted by deltron63
Every class A drug user i have ever known, started by smoking a bit of pot.
DONT DO DRUGS


Never liked pot at all, didn't stop me from taking loads of speed as a youth though, because my main gateway drug was Tennants Extra or Holsten Pils (showing my age now). I'd tried Coke, resin, grass, hash oil, 'shrooms, speed and acid before I became an addict to anything I found hard to stop, and that was Regal King Size. Government wins.

Legalise all drugs I say, at least then we can control the quality, price and hell, even tax them then. Driving anything underground has never worker before, but acceptance has, I'm not saying sell it in corner shops, but why not not take the control out of the criminal's hands? Most heroin deaths go down as overdose, but most are killed by either poo gear or getting some that's too pure, having control of the quality that is on the streets would prevent most heroin deaths.

Rip Clag, not my brother in name, but definately in deed.

Clag Beast

How many of these pot smoking class A users that you know Deltron, started by having a drink or a fag? I'd been a user of speed and mushrooms quite happily before I became a tobacco addict, took me the day after to give up my class A drugs, but I smoked for nearly 15 years before I kicked that one.

As for alcohol, always remember to take the glass to the bottle, never take the bottle with you.


Triton - 12/3/11 at 04:45 AM

I say legalize weed too, I don't do it anymore as just made me sleep or eat mars bars like a complete moron. So what if it mashes folks brains, at least they don't become violent unlike booze.

As for other drugs I dunno as only tried speed the once and beggar me never again I hardly had a face left ....


Nutters should be made to inhale weed 247 to calm them down


MikeRJ - 12/3/11 at 08:26 AM

quote:
Originally posted by norfolkluego

Health - Bit more difficult as there's bound to be some negative health aspects associated with it but if people are smoking it anyway what's the difference if it's sold legally. If anything it's an education issue as it is with baccy, if people chose to ignore the evidence and carry on smoking it's their choice, it's a free country after all.


Not such a great plan when we all pay for the NHS.


Ninehigh - 13/3/11 at 08:04 AM

quote:
Originally posted by MikeRJ
quote:
Originally posted by norfolkluego

Health - Bit more difficult as there's bound to be some negative health aspects associated with it but if people are smoking it anyway what's the difference if it's sold legally. If anything it's an education issue as it is with baccy, if people chose to ignore the evidence and carry on smoking it's their choice, it's a free country after all.


Not such a great plan when we all pay for the NHS.


Well, smokers, drivers and easy targets pay for the NHS... But that's a different rant


Jasper - 15/3/11 at 03:20 PM

Just a bit of research facts for you - it's the new hybridised strains of skunk that are causing all the psychological problems due to the imbalance of the active ingredients THC and CBD. Outdoor grown weed and hash have these two chemicals in balance and very few long term problems have been shown with regular use of this type of cannabis - certainly far less than other intoxicants us humans seem to like.

Skunk on the other hand, grown under artificial lighting is pushed to produce as much THC as possible, but in doing so almost no CBD is produced leading to an imbalance. It is the use of skunk, especially amongst younger smokers that can lead to pyschological problems - shown now by extensive research.

In a recent BBC doc about cannabis they went into this at length and actually showed the difference when a regular smoker tried both and did a psychological test after each type (with time in between). After the skunk the person thought she had a 'special' connnection with her boyfriend and thought she could communicate telepathically with him, she also got paranoid which she didn't on the regualr stuff.

So if you're gonna smoke people, stick the the nice natural stuff and leave that super strong skunk to the crazy kids......