What if MJ wasn't illegal?

What if MJ wasn't illegal? Some speculation:
Well 1) Farmers across the country would be able to grow it and sell the oil from the seeds for use as biodiesel in tractor trailors, school buses, and any type of vehicle that uses diesel all across this great land. Just like Rudolf Diesel visualized his engine would be used.
2) Electrical generation facilities could also use the oil, or the alcohol from the plant's celulose to fuel electric generators to supply electricity from coast to coast.
3) Home owners and anyone else could also use the oil just like kerosene is used to heat homes and buildings!
4) We could greatly reduce our destructive dependence on foreign oil supplies.
5) We could use the fiber in the plants to make paper. Eliminating the need to cut down trees which produce oxygen, and as the MJ fields were also producing oxygen, therefore possibly reducing or stopping the greenhouse effect.
6) We could once again use the fiber to produce textiles at home. I read that the first pair of Levi's were made from hemp. Therefore creating jobs for both farmers and the workers in these fields.
7) Hemp seeds are very nutritional. More so than soybeans, and other foods!
8) MJ is the only known treatment for glaucoma! That really works anyway.
Studies show that smoking it has no relation to increasing the rate of lung cancer.
With scientists free to study it more, what other benefits could there be?

www.jackherer.com
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v4/sub/MarketingPage?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FRTGAM.20051014.wxcanna1014%2FBNStory%2FspecialScienceandHealth%2F&ord=1151547624760&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true

Pound for pound marijuana as a plant has more uses, benefits and potential than almost any other naturally occuring plant on earth. It truly is a wonderous thing.

thus improving overall health

oh, and the Keebler Elves stocks would go UP!

Find a way to keep people from driving on the roads I'm on when they're stoned, and all bets are off. Let 'em grow it, smoke it, make tea out of it (which I prefer), and leave 'em alone.

Them as wants to but it pre-rolled in a store, tax 'em for the convenience.

Redstone

and have a DU chronic pain meet-up! :D Laughter and good company make things a bit easier to deal with.

along with alcohol of everyone's preference.

Keep the water hot, and we'd feel no worse than a standard hangover the next morning.

But if it's restricted to Pain People, we'd have to warn prospective attendants that it wouldn't look like a Victoria's Secret catalog photo-session; scars a'plenty and beat-up bods are typical of those of us who survive The Fight.

Redstone

That's just common sense. I don't care if people can drive better stoned (so they claim), I can barely walk a BLOCK when I'm baked.

Do you hear about accidents caused by someone smoking pot vs someone drinking?

Personally, I've never heard of one caused by a pot smoker. And I know it would be broadcast ad nauseum.

living in pain 24/7 for many years isn't fun.

can bake!

(I am not a dope smoker, so this opinion is truly dispassionate.)

The ONLY reason I can see to not make it legal is a test similar to the Breathalyzer, to keep people from driving when they're stoned.

Once we have that, pull down the gates, and I'll be there to help you.

Redstone

the trick is actually identifying someone who's driving stoned ahead of time. That's not as easy as it sounds.

It helps a LOT. But I've been without for almost a decade.

for me. it sure beats narcotics and sticking one's head in a sink full of ice water before passing out.

I just take my cafergot, which sometimes helps, and sit in the dark and suffer.

I get the sort of migraine where I go blind and have aphasia.

I have puked so hard from migraines that I have broken blood vessels in my face; my boss almost called the cops on my husband once, suspecting that I had been beaten (which I most certainly had not!)

When will people in this country make the connection? Prohibition DOES NOT WORK, and it's not just alcohol prohibition that was ineffective.

Think of the productive ways in which we could redeploy DEA agents...
airport/port security and inspection just for starters...

And those with neurologic pain that *never* goes away might have something better than
narcotics or heavy tranks. I would be lying if I said that after 5 years of this, I don't sometimes
wish the pain would end, even if it meant dying.

It even makes the muscles in spasm relax some, a sensation so good and so rare it can make you weep with relief.

it's easy enough to find.

The Supreme Court says your employer owns your pee.

It was the camel's nose under the tent. Now the camel is eating the constitution
and we are all shivvering out in the cold.

i fully sympathize!

That's why it helps with glaucoma and high blood pressure too.

Yeah, the drug companies would rather sell you Wygesic at an outrageous price.

It also calms nausea for chemo and AIDS patients.

If it weren't illegal...

I mean, I don't care for the guy either, but really, that's just going too far.

:toast:

I like it in here!

The porn is so exotic...

Where did you...nevermind, I DON'T want to know!

:rofl:

and it's called "malebrain".
:spray:

That should really get posted here as well-
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x219651

Great gif!

I had a t-shirt in high school that had a similar graphic... the caption was "group therapy".

That was my first thought, too!


:hi: :rofl:

-Cindy

Are all atheists smart asses, or is it just DU atheists?

FSM help the believers if it's contagious.

scientific data....and if is scientific it can't be true.....:sarcasm:

However, there are other ways than smoking to ingest MJ.

no matter what the source. I suppose if you filter it through something maybe it makes a difference. I once had a neighbor who lived under me, a tobacco non-smoker, who smoked MJ and she had a pretty bad hacking cough as bad as another 3 packs a day tobacco smoking neighbor. This of course was just a personal observation not a scientific study. Now I'm not criticizing the effects of MJ just the particles of ash MJ smokers have to be breathing in. Also, the paper a joint is rolled in burns as ash as well.

the biggest difference between cannabis smoke and tobacco smoke is the size of the constituent particles. This is easily observable; cannabis smoke is thick and whitish-yellow, while tobacco smoke is thin and grey. Because of the difference in particulation, it's not possible to inhale cannabis smoke as deeply, and studies of heavy long-term cannabis smokers (several joints a day for 15-20 years) showed none of the changes wrought in the alveoli and brachial structures of the lungs observed in cigarette smokers.

It heats the MJ without actually burning it, rendering the volatile THC and related aromatics an aerosol that is then inhaled.

takes care of ALL the "bad stuff".

Bong.

:rofl: Hell, she didn't even drink... Ooopsie!

of my ex's sister... a nurse... on a diet... "naw, she won't eat them"... ooops!

I was baked for four hours on one brownie and she ate about four!

Ah... memories:)

cookies too.

I made them with cannabutter beacause my buddy is allergic to chocolate, and BLECH! Truly horrid. :hi:

June 6, 2006

LOS ANGELES - Marijuana smoking does not increase a person's risk of developing lung cancer, according to the findings of a new study at the University of California Los Angeles that surprised even the researchers.

They had expected to find that a history of heavy marijuana use, like cigarette smoking, would increase the risk of cancer.

Instead, the study, which compared the lifestyles of 611 Los Angeles County lung cancer patients and 601 patients with head and neck cancers with those of 1,040 people without cancer, found no elevated cancer risk for even the heaviest pot smokers. It did find a 20-fold increased risk of lung cancer in people who smoked two or more packs of cigarettes a day.

The study results were presented in San Diego on Tuesday at a meeting of the American Thoracic Society.

The study was confined to people under age 60 since baby boomers were the most likely age group to have long-term exposure to marijuana, said Dr. Donald Tashkin, senior researcher and professor at the UCLA School of Medicine.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12943013/


Probably one of the biggest factors is the amount consumed. Most cigarette smokers consume at least a pack a day of tobacco, paper and additives. Marijuana, even among 'heavy' smokers is consumed in much, much smaller quantities.

People would be spending less on fines and more on goods/services. It's kind of funny to realize that these fines are one type of tax that the wingnuts really love. Maybe they'd shut up about sex and what else if you agreed to tax it :P

less profits on the black market...etc.

The US govt has known for decades that hemp is a plausible solution to many of our energy problems. This film proves it, or at least proves it to those who know it exists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp_For_Victory

"Hemp for Victory is a black-and-white United States government film made during the Second World War, explaining the uses of hemp.

The film was made for farmers because the United States was facing a hemp shortage. The film shows a history of hemp and hemp products, how hemp is grown, and how hemp processed into rope, cloth, cordage and other products.

As it was made by the US Government, it is public domain and is freely available for download on the Internet.

Before 1989, the film was relatively unknown, and the United States Department of Agriculture library and the Library of Congress told all interested parties that no such movie was made by the USDA or any branch of the U.S. government. Two VHS copies were recovered and donated to the Library of Congress on May 19, 1989 by Maria Farrow, Carl Packard, and Jack Herer."

Watch it here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=365500042690869290&q=hemp+for+victory&pl=true

Wouldn't bother me, though. :hippie:

and succeed WMD's control to other ethnicities, and that simply
can't be tolerated, no other races can be seen to command the white
man's pure drugs, and a war must commence. With who? exactly?

"Sir, the computer says 'Strike the enemy?'" But Who is the enemy
if not the man who plans the murder of thousands for his survival.

And so, the nuke at 1600 is finally explained, and the terrorist
cult of the 13 american colonies lasted 230 years before it exploded
in a fire of justice.

Ain't nuklear justice grande... or bioweapons will do the pentagon
fine... whatever deposes the threat to pentagon world power...
must die.

I think maybe I better burn another one so I maybe can figure out what you just said. lol.

Words are heavier than guns. :smoke:

with more prison time

there would certainly be more prison space available for real criminals which truly cause a threat to our society.

history of MJ in this country will realize that without it, there might no be a U.S.A.!
http://www.rexresearch.com/hhist/hhist4~1.htm#vicitory

The society would change. People tend to use their brains when they use cannibis. It's funny how our entire culture has been trained to think otherwise. Stoners don't make good consumber robots. Plus they are much harder to frighten. There are a variety of reasons why cannibis is illegal.

I used cannibis to stop nicotine addiction. And imagine what would happen if lung cancer decreased. Healthy people don't make doctors rich.

We'd lose an entire population to demonize and fill the jails. It's big business throwing pot smokers to the dogs.

"Stoners don't make good consumer robots"

That might lead to some evolutionary streamlining, THAT would really fuck things up.

It is an anti-kool aid tool. They don't want us to smoke it because we won't fall for their crap.

I believe it! I remember in my 20's when I needed to do some heavy thinking... spark it up!


I'm convinced it helped me to pass the Mensa test;)

Who knew?

Man, nobody tells me nuthin' around here.

I have always felt the the little crimes make the big ones easier to do, and either that is logical or most of the drug war is not.

An end to poverty, hunger, and illness. A kinder, gentler people coming together to walk hand in hand through the healing terrain of a new world order. Dogs and cats playing together, birds singing in the trees, babbling brooks gently carrying our dreams down the mountain toward a brighter future with no pain, no loss, and a newfound sense of purpose in all humanity.

That, and Big Mac sales would go through the roof.

It does seem overblown at times, but there are good uses that are being restricted today for no good reason. Take paper for instance, hemp produces (going from memory) maybe three times as much pulp suitable for paper on the same land in the same time as a tree farm does and requires little in the way of fertilizers or pesticides. It can be grown on poor ground and the long thick tap root will break up hard-pan and help make a soil suitable for more sensitive crops in the future. There's a good market for the oils and such too.

Somehow I don't see it as being the solution to all of our problems though, just a nice tool we could use. If corn is suitable for bio-fuels so is this, and probably better for the environment. You're probably right about the Big Mac sales though ;)

maryjane is the reason we are in the predicament we are in. maryjane allowed the first unaposed war of our government on it own people...breaking the constitution at will, breaking into homes and confiscating property...maryjane is 90% of the pugs mojo...jailing nearly 40% of the black and hispanic male population who are overwhelmingly dem. without the war on drugs the pugs would be nothing but a bunch of dangerous nazi types who would be a laughing stock...if we have any sense and if we win the house back an adult policy on drugs should be one of our first priorities.

The "war on drugs" is so blatantly racist...and it certainly disenfranchises a disproportionate number of people who might vote dem if they could vote at all. You'd think people nowadays would be taken aback by a law that was enacted, well, basically on account of an orchestrated media blitz convincing the terrified white population that if they didn't put a ban on things like cocaine and marijuana, the "coloreds" would get whipped up into a frenzy and rape all the white women they could find. It's been racist from its inception, and looking at the prison populations, it's clearly largely meant to keep non-white people down.

But still we have people, otherwise progressively minded, who buy into the idea that drugs are so inherently dangerous that we have to keep our stupid prohibition laws, to "protect our children" and whatnot. Well, folks, all your kids are on drugs anyway...but there's no regulation of the substances, and they have to buy them on the black market, and probably actually have easier access to illegal drugs than to the legal ones, if you think about it. So, the thing that makes drugs really dangerous in the first place is the prohibition laws themselves. Shit, it's not rocket surgery....

believe that.

back to the reaper with you

You left out the best reason why weed should be legal!

A) it impairs judgement less and appears to be less dangerous than alcohal.
B) it can be used as medicine
and C) I know someone personally (who of course I will not name for obvious reasons) who is only alive today because of it. And yet if he was discovered, he would go to jail.

Anyone who says it should be illegal because there's a CHANCE that someone might 'sell it to kids' (that's the last right-winger's excuse I heard when the subject came up.) is no kind of human being. There are people who NEED it. I'm not talking about wanting, I'm talking about true need. It can be used as medicine. You are taking away their right to use a drug that can take away pain, restore appetite, and keep people strong enough to continue fighting whatever disease is causing their pain and loss of appetite.

That being said, I have never smoked pot, and probably never will. But I've known people who do, and none of them have had their lives ruined by it, unless they were caught and prosecuted.

The corporate owned federal govt. Think of the profits they would loose. Any who dare cross the cross the line and do something that truly harms no one, they must be made an example of.

Freedom and Liberty my backside.

We are free to be controlled and/or ripped off by any one with greater cash and power.

Aside from the obvious hemp-economy stuff, the biggest effect is that our society would grow to develop a sense of what is and what is not excessive use of marijuana.

In other words, just like we know how much drinking is normal and how much is a sign of trouble, we'd know what what normal in terms of cannabis.

We don't know that now.

That means every pot smoker from the weekend toker to the hardcore space case is painted by a large minority of the population as a "druggie." And they see what they want to in the users, and beat them over the head with it, real or imagined.

How many social outcasts would return to community as a result? How many people who actually have an abuse problem would be forced to finally admit it to themselves instead of excusing it as the fault of the oppression?

(And how much less gasoline would get burned on weekend trips to the city to score?)

Cops out of work

empty prisons

court employees no longer needed

state mandated rehab shut down

drug testing companies close-up

The money invested in keeping drugs illegal will never allow a normal society.

His first job?....Taco bell :9

Rush after football games would last half the night

anyone know of any site that has done any in-depth look at the finances of legalization as far as lower prison population and tax revenue raised by legalization?

Or is the US gvmt. trying to stop him from another ill-fated comeback??

:P

was once a dedicated toker but had to quit so I could hang onto a job with excellent benefits. I drove stoned for about 12 years with no accidents. But, championing pot and it's limitless benefits is a loser for politicians right now.

The birds would sing just a little sweeter.
The air would seem just a little fresher.