by OpenFireGlass 145 Replies latest jw friends
Oh yeah, one more item: The human body has many MANY cannabis recepters in the brain and throughout the digestive tract. My question to both the Bible Thumper and Evolutionist who discredit cannabis with this:
If we as humans are not supposed to use cannabis, why do we have receptors that set off all kinds of possitive physical responses when triggered?
<openw>....sorry I went off on a tangent..the simple answer is no - I don't think its the gateway. Period. In relation to Brenda's post, I have always believed its a case of 'follow the money'. Drop marijuana from the legalization issue and you end all the crap we've made of its production and use over the years. Concentrate on whats really making society ill and what we are doing to our kids and lets fix that so we aren't so reliant on so many drugs to keep everyone happy and calm all the time. A study done somewhere here in the States, reports that almost half of all working people never take holidays. Why? Afraid to. Too much work. Can't afford it. Take a pill and keep going instead of taking a rest to recharge your body. Anyway....I digress..interesting topic. sammieswife.
sammieswife,
Don't be sorry... I enjoyed reading your tangent...
This whole issue is so stupid! I have plants in my yard (not pot, just weeds) that are more dangerous than any cannabis. One plant that grows naturally in my yard is called "Poke root" it's a narcotic, and it will kill you if mis-used, but if used properly it has many benifits, that's just one plant I have many other's that grow naturally and if mis-used will kill you too. So am I a bad person because these plants grow naturally on my property. and I do make use of them. All plants have a purpose, just because some don't know what they are, is no reason to denign their use to those who do. What ever happened to education? Give people knowlege not propaganda! As far as any substance, no matter what it is, can either be good for you or not. And that includes all pharmacuticals also. One person may benifit, where the other may have a bad reaction to the same drug/substance What it boils down to, is pure greed. Because if the govenment was really concerned with public safety they wouldn't allow many of the things sold in stores to be sold.
Excerpt from U.S. Federal Court Decision in the Case ofAlliance for Cannabis Therapeutics, et al., vs. US Drug Enforcement Administration (IRS):
In the Matter ofMARIJUANA MEDICAL RESCHEDULING PETITION
September 6, 1988.
Docket No. 86-22.
Francis L. Young, DEA Administrative Law JudgeHighlights of the Judge's decision:
VIII: Cannabis/Marijuana's Accepted Safety for Use Under Medical Supervision
3. The most obvious concern when dealing with drug safety is the possibility of lethal effects. Can the drug cause death?
4. Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana (cannabis) is not such a sub-stance. There is no record in the extensive medical lit-erature describing a proven, documented cannabis-in-duced fatality.
5. This is a remarkable statement. First, the record on cannabis encompasses 5,000 years of human experi-ence. Second, cannabis is now used daily by enormous numbers of people throughout the world. Estimates suggest that 20-million to 50-million Americans rou-tinely, albeit illegally, smoke marijuana without the benefit of direct medical supervision. Yet, despite this long history of use and the extraordinarily high num-bers of social smokers, there are simply no credible medical reports to suggest that consuming cannabis has caused a single death.
6. By contrast aspirin, a commonly used, over-the-counter medicine, causes hundreds of deaths each year.
7. Drugs in medicine are routinely given what is called an LD-50. The LD-50 rating indicates at what dosage fifty percent of test animals receiving a drug will die as a result of drug induced toxicity. A number of re-searchers have attempted to determine cannabis's LD-50 rating in test animal, without success. Simply stated, researchers have been unable to give animals enough cannabis to induce death.
8. At present it is estimated that cannabis's LD-50 is around 1:20,000 or 1:40,000. In layman terms this means that in order to induce death a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 time as much cannabis as is contained in one marijuana cigarette. NIDA-supplied marijuana cigarettes weigh approxi-mately .9 grams. A smoker would theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of cannabis within about 15 minutes to induce a lethal response.
9. In practical terms, cannabis cannot induce a lethal response as a result of drug-related toxicity.
10. Another common medical way to determine drug safety is called the therapeutic ratio. This ratio de-fines the difference between a therapeutically effective dose and a dose capable of inducing adverse effects.
11. A commonly used over-the-counter product like aspirin has a therapeutic ratio of around 1:20. Two as-pirins are the recommended dose for adult patients. Twenty times this dose, forty aspirins, may cause a lethal reaction in some patients, and will almost cer-tainly cause gross injury to the digestive system, includ-ing extensive internal bleeding.
12. The therapeutic ratio for prescribed drugs is commonly around 1:10 or lower. Valium, a commonly used prescriptive drug, may cause very serious biological damage if patients use 10 times the recommended dose.
13. There are, of course, prescriptive drugs which have much lower therapeutic ratios. Many of the drugs used to treat patients with cancer, glaucoma and multi-ple sclerosis are highly toxic. The therapeutic ratio of some of the drugs used in anti-neoplastic therapies, for example, are regarded as extremely toxic poisons with therapeutic ratios that may fall below 1:1.5. These drugs also have very low LD-50 ra-tios and can result in toxic, even lethal reactions, while be-ing properly em-ployed.
14. By contrast, marijuana's therapeutic ratio, like its LD-50, is impossible to quantify because it is so high.
15. In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating 10 raw potatoes can result in toxic response. By compari-son, it is physically impossible to eat enough cannabis to in-duce death.
16. Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis cannabis can be safely used with a supervised routine of medical care.
If ya got'em smoke 'um Acadian
So paranoia whoul be produces by "over anylizing" the situation (thinking too much)?
No paranoia like if this doesn't stop, I'm going to have to do something to make it stop! All my friends would be laughing and having a good time. I'd be like the evil ghoul, that smoked weed, in Scarey Movie that cut up all the people!
In contrast to alcohol, weed has the power to permanently alter one's perception of reality. Churches would be in big trouble if weed was legalized, IMO. I say that because for me, being high makes all of human activity seem so completely absurd, it's a feeling of complete hilarity and utter despair at the same time, I don't know if anybody can relate to that. So I smoke every once in a great while, and to tell you the truth I may never smoke again, because the experience is so fucking intense I can barely handle it.
Dan, some people are highly sensitive to MJ, or are even allergic to it. You may well be one of "those".
I like this analogy: A drunk will speed and run a red light. A stoner will have a difficult time keeping up with the speed limit, stop at a stop sign and wait for it to turn green!
Some interesting reading... A Brief Summary of the Uses of Hemp http://www.jackherer.com/chapter02.html For those who may not know it's many uses. Acadian
(which noodle came up with burning leaves and inhaling smoke in the first place??).
Could have been related to the same noodle that decided god wanted goats burnt on an alter...
In contrast to alcohol, weed has the power to permanently alter one's perception of reality.
Yeah, I mean, if you were taught that cannabis was addictive, evil, and all that other propoganda that they tell you, and then you experiment with it, and find out it's none of the above; It really will change your perception of the reality of this plant...
