Pot Smoking Redux

After a lengthy comment left by kmprophet regarding my previous post on this today, it seemed worthwhile to revisit the subject.

I guess I've seen it all now (no, there are plenty of liberals left, so I'd better not say that). But quoting Jesus' admonition to love our fellow man to justify drug use...that's a good one.

This study was done at Yale University, neither a bastion of moral uprightness nor a government agency. Similar results were obtained by British researchers. So while you might disagree with it, kmprophet, I don't think it's fair to call it "government propaganda."

I agree with you that government's concern for our safety is questionable at times, but why add to the dangers by legalizing a drug which carries health hazards and is primarily used for recreational intoxication.

Another important observation that I failed to bring out in the previous post is that apparently what pot smokers tell you is suspect (surprise) as well:

While the doctors expected to see marijuana improve the conditions of their schizophrenic subjects — since their patients reported that the drug calmed them — they found that the reverse was true.

Finally, to the best of my knowledge, marijuana isn't purported to cure cancer, just ease the pain of cancer and some cancer treatments. And the active ingredient--THC--can be obtained in pill form already, with more variations of THC pills currently undergoing testing. As with the HPV vaccine and calling it a "cancer vaccine," it's becoming a pattern to mask something that's less than reputable in terms which will illicit a sympathetic emotional response.

It's just that with these pills, they don't carry the same satisfaction for recreational drug use, and don't serve to muddy the waters of enforcment for those who are clearly smoking pot for recreational intoxication.

They're having problems with armed robberies, burglaries, vagrancy and resale to nonqualified persons out in California where it's legal by state law (still illegal under federal law). Many want to shut it down there because some folks are realizing it's a big smoke screen (excuse the pun) and more trouble than it's worth.

Even a liberal British newspaper recently apologized for pushing legalized marijuana because they've faced the fact that it's doing more societal harm than they understood.

If smoking pot was the only way for pain sufferers to get relief, I might support it's use...but it isn't. If the "medial" marijuana movement wasn't being pushed by (among others) a lot of pot-heads who clearly just want a smokescreen to make it difficult to stop recreational use, I might be more open to it.

But neither of these are the case.