Getting a bit sick of the Pro-Marijuana culture...

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My son is alive because of marijuana. That to me is a miracle.[ yes. I live in Colorado]

Let's not confuse self-medicating with substance abuse, as is so often done. Humans have been self-medicating since we've been humans. Widespread access to organized medical care has only been around for less than a century. That's a tiny fraction of human history. Most people in the world today Self medicate. I don't know how this term came to have negative connotations. Do people think that humans who self medicated for 200,000 years, and survived just fine as a species, became too stupid to know what makes us feel better in the last hundred years? When you drink a cup of coffee you self medicate. When you drink a glass of wine to relax at the end of the day you self medicate. When you take an aspirin because you have a headache you self medicate. Yet all of these things will kill you if you abuse them. See the difference?

Oh but see, doctors are too quick to prescribe medications, and self-medication is bad.

Apparently, homeopathy is the only logical solution.

There's an LD50 for THC tested in rats, and it's actually less than pure alcohol (meaning that pure THC is more poisonous than pure alcohol). Thing is, there's much less THC in marijuana than there is alcohol in an alcoholic beverage. You could easily kill yourself with pure THC, but as for the actual plant, a person would be too dozy to smoke more long before it got toxic, and as for eating it, the human stomach simply won't hold enough to kill someone. It's the same reason you can kill yourself by swallowing a bottle of caffeine pills, but not by drinking a gallon of coffee--there's not enough room in your stomach for a toxic dose of coffee. But of course that's just acute toxicity. Long-term, smoking anything will damage your lungs. Plus there's the possibility that it changes brain chemistry after prolonged heavy use.

But this has been gone over a dozen times. Can we agree that acute toxicity really isn't the issue here? Long-term exposure, side effects, interactions with other drugs, and stoned drivers with slowed reaction times are much more of an issue than that. And it does suppress nausea, which is a good thing for chemotherapy patients and people with AIDS, but not too good for someone who needs to throw up to get rid of, say, a bellyful of too much alcohol.

It's not safe. It's not unacceptably dangerous either. We have to weigh not just the risks of legalizing it, but the risks of keeping it illegal. Whichever one actually happens, I have no desire to try it; it just doesn't appeal to me. Even medicinal use may come with unacceptable side effects for many people. When we take psych meds and they make us feel sleepy and loopy, we don't usually like that because we're trying to get on with our lives. Same goes for medical marijuana--those side effects might be desirable for recreational users, but they're not going to be very useful for everyday life. Maybe a chemical can be found that is similar to the naturally-occurring stuff, which allows for the positive effects without the undesirable change in cognition.

From my experience and observation it is no worse then alcohol as far as negative effects and side effects.

One of the best arguments for legalization to me was removing it as a money maker for organized crime. It seemed that keeping it illegal only promoted and increased gangs/cartels much like 'Prohibition' did in the USA in the 1920's and 30's.

I had friends wearing those NORML T-shirts back almost at the beginning. I remember thinking it was only a matter of time before it was legalized, for decriminalization came fairly quickly in some states. But I would not have guessed then, that it would take so long.

were it not for the oil companies, it would likely NOT have been banned in the first place.

I'm middle of the road on this issue. I have no interest in trying it or any other drugs/alcohol myself because I've got a lot of family members who are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol and have basically ruined their lives, so I choose to stay far away myself. However, I know it can be very helpful for some people, is fairly safe, and legalizing it would cut down on illegal activity and free up jail cells for people who commit worse crimes.

I worry about second hand smoke. I've been so glad that cigarette smoking has been decreasing but now marijuana smoking will be increasing if it's legalized. I can't stand any kind of smoke, and I don't want to breathe it in or smell it in public places. I also worry about an increase in dangerous driving and car accidents that it might cause because not everyone is responsible.

So yeah, middle of the road and so I probably just won't vote on the issue if it comes up in my state.