
Some Proof that Marijuana is a Powerful Medicine - rms
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/proof-that-mari.html
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schtog
The medical marijuana debate is retarded. Of course it should be allowed for
medical reasons. We already use a lot of heavier drugs for that obviously. The
retardedness comes in when people use that as an argument for legalization.
What does marijuana as medicine has to do with marijuana as a
social/enertainment drug?

Sidenote: I dont smoke marijuana as someone would probably deduce from the
above but I am also not opposed to it. If people want to smoke it it is fine
with me, it just makes my head explode when people use the above
argumentation.

~~~
jey
Yes, that's an awful argument for legalization, but I do think that we need to
either ban alcohol or legalize pot for the sake of consistency. Alcohol is an
addictive substance that kills lots of people[1] directly through toxicity and
indirectly through impaired judgment. Pot is not physiologically addictive and
is nontoxic for all practical purposes[2], and the worst that can happen while
stoned is that you waste a lot of time or anger your roommate by eating his
cheetos.

FWIW, I say legalize both, use it in a safe environment or not at all, don't
drive or operate heavy machinery, don't let it derail your life, etc.

1\. <http://www.csdp.org/research/1238.pdf> (Looks like we should ban tobacco
too.)

2\. The LD50 of the main active compound (THC) is on the order of 500mg/kg
oral in animal models. (That's a ridiculous amount. A marijuana user typically
smokes well under a gram of _plant material_ at one sitting.)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LD50_of_THC>

~~~
schtog
I completely agree with you, like I said I dont smoke it(doesnt give me
anything) but I dont mind if you do.

Legalizing also makes it safer I guess, on the other hand I guess also more
widespread but if it's legalized it can be taxed which is better than the
money ending up in criminal hands.

However I doubt it will be legalized and banning alcohol would be incredibly
hard, at least wine and beer and I certainly wouldnt want it to be even if I
dont drink much of it myself.

Maybe a ban on heavy alcohol(vodka, scotch etc) would work but I doubt that
too.

Anyway what do you think of marijuana as a stepping stone to heavier drugs? I
guess alcohol is one too but do you think the legalization of marijuana would
bring more people to heavier drugs?

~~~
jey
" _However I doubt it will be legalized and banning alcohol would be
incredibly hard_ "

I don't know, I think it's hard to predict. There's a lot of unknown and
difficult-to-predict things that can happen to change public opinion in a
short time. A good example is the sharp turn public opinion took against
racism during the 1960s in the US, or the sharp turns worldwide for and
against prohibition in the early 20th century. So it seems like status quo
bias to predict that these things will just stay the same indefinitely.

" _what do you think of marijuana as a stepping stone to heavier drugs?_ "

That's just a myth manufactured by the anti-drug movements. They take the true
statistical fact that most "hard drug" users also use marijuana and come to
the bogus conclusion that pot somehow contributes to, enables, or causes the
hard drug use. Correlation is not causation!
<http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/factsmyths/#gateway>
<http://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/library/mjgate.htm>

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mynameishere
Marijuana is a plant containing many chemicals, and this article refers to one
of them. So, the word "Marijuana" shouldn't be in the headline. When chemicals
are actually useful, they tend to be legal, as with Marinol (thc) and cocaine
(as an anaesthetic) and obviously morphine. There will never be "medical
marijuana"...no more than "medical poppies" anyway.

~~~
schtog
Good point but some cancerpatients smoke marijuana to lessen the pain.

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biohacker42
I am a libertarian, and I am all for legalizing Marijuana, but god help me I
am so tired of talking about legalizing Marijuana.

Or reading yet another article with yet another perfectly good reason to
legalize it. I know, I agree! But reasoned out arguments is not why it is
illegal.

The only kind of Marijuana article I'd ever want to see is a Machiavellian
political strategy.

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rms
This is probably the first time a cannabis thread is this high on the front
page. No one reading this site can reasonably defend the idea that the
government should ban weed for medical use and research.

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rokhayakebe
Well we already know that sometimes you can get prescription marijuana pills
if you are hospitalized. You just cannot buy it over the counter.

~~~
xlnt
It's not so simple. Places that supply medical marijuana get raided.

~~~
rms
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marinol>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sativex>

~~~
MaysonL
Unfortunately, neither of those drugs are as effective as smoked marijuana.

Two points: 1) Smoking marijuana, it is much easier to titrate your dosage:
i.e. get the right dosage, as the effect is much faster.

2) One of the main uses of marijuana, medically speaking, is control of
nausea. Taking pills to control nausea just doesn't work.

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xlnt
It shouldn't be a matter of what is proven. It should be a matter of my own
judgment about what I want to use, or not.

~~~
derefr
And your judgment doesn't, at least sometimes, rely on rational evidence to
make its decisions?

~~~
xlnt
Sure, evidence is good. But one shouldn't have to prove anything before it's
legal to make my own decision. A proof that marijuana has medical value would
not be very important if we already had freedom on the matter (especially
since we already knew it did).

~~~
fallentimes
I agree as long as your individual decision doesn't hurt others.

