I just wanted to say a good friend of my sisters was killed early on Wed morning. I just wanted to say he will be missed a great deal, he was a good person and did not deserve in such grave manner. I have very fond memory's of Joe and he'll live on in that respect.
R.I.P. Joe.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Marijuana potency
Story Here.
Norml has a pretty good post about this story but i feel the need to say something on the matter as well.
Even if potent marijuana was a problem (I have no problem with it at all) The White House has given a great argument towards the legalization of marijuana. If you want to control the potency of a product what is a good way to do it? I don't know maybe a law. Like the law prohibiting sales of neutral grain spirits in some states perhaps?
You can't complain about an unregulated product being unsafe and then do all you can to make sure that product says in the black market. It just hurts my head to think about. If marijuana were legalized you could go ahead and put a limit on the THC content just as states put a limit on proof of liquor and no one would complain (OK some people still would but a lot less i bet) as long as it was a reasonable amount.
No one in there right mind drinks a bottle of everclear and doesn't expect to die or at least take a quick trip to the ER. Just as if you sat down with an ounce of 15% THC marijuana and expected to smoke it all, you wouldn't even be able to remember your own name.
Anyway back in the real world, adults (we're still adults and not just large kids right?) know when they've had enough they know when to put down the drink or the pipe and call it quits, thats part of being an adult. At least it was at one point.
Who cares if marijuana is stronger? The fact remains that THC is still one of the safest compounds in the world. Just because we smoke pot thats 9.6% instead of 8.75% doesn't mean we're going to start dropping dead.
You know what comes to mind when i think about this? Caffeine. Here is a compound that really can kill you quite easily yet there is no outrage over the increasing amounts put in to energy drinks or soda's. Why don't i see news story's about how 450 cans of A&W cream soda could kill me?
Norml has a pretty good post about this story but i feel the need to say something on the matter as well.
Even if potent marijuana was a problem (I have no problem with it at all) The White House has given a great argument towards the legalization of marijuana. If you want to control the potency of a product what is a good way to do it? I don't know maybe a law. Like the law prohibiting sales of neutral grain spirits in some states perhaps?
You can't complain about an unregulated product being unsafe and then do all you can to make sure that product says in the black market. It just hurts my head to think about. If marijuana were legalized you could go ahead and put a limit on the THC content just as states put a limit on proof of liquor and no one would complain (OK some people still would but a lot less i bet) as long as it was a reasonable amount.
No one in there right mind drinks a bottle of everclear and doesn't expect to die or at least take a quick trip to the ER. Just as if you sat down with an ounce of 15% THC marijuana and expected to smoke it all, you wouldn't even be able to remember your own name.
Anyway back in the real world, adults (we're still adults and not just large kids right?) know when they've had enough they know when to put down the drink or the pipe and call it quits, thats part of being an adult. At least it was at one point.
Who cares if marijuana is stronger? The fact remains that THC is still one of the safest compounds in the world. Just because we smoke pot thats 9.6% instead of 8.75% doesn't mean we're going to start dropping dead.
You know what comes to mind when i think about this? Caffeine. Here is a compound that really can kill you quite easily yet there is no outrage over the increasing amounts put in to energy drinks or soda's. Why don't i see news story's about how 450 cans of A&W cream soda could kill me?
Monday, March 10, 2008
Media Scare.
Story Here.
When the average person picks up a paper or opens there favorite news site I doubt they read much more than the headline for most stories. I would image they would click on a few a read through them but for the most part my guess is they skim and soak up what they can. So when someone sees a headline like "Cannabis Bigger Cancer Risk Than Cigarettes" or "Smoking One Joint is Equivalent to 20 Cigarettes, Study Says" its easy to see why people who don't smoke and don't have an interest in marijuana have such a distorted view of it.
I would just like to give you this quote from the above story.
"For those who actually bothered to read the study's full text, which appeared in the European Respiratory Journal days after the global feeding frenzy had ended, they would have learned the following. Among the 79 lung cancer subjects who participated in the trial, 70 of them smoked tobacco. These individuals, not surprisingly, experienced a seven-times greater risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer compared to tobacco-free controls. As for the subjects in the study who reported having used cannabis, they -- on average -- experienced no statistically significant increased cancer risk compared to non-using controls."
Now I don't know about you but I don't really think a sample group of 79 is big enough to support any findings, pro or con for marijuana.
Why does the media feels such a need to throw stories out without even the slightest of fact checking? If the media were writing an essay I can sure as hell tell you they would get it back with a big note on the front that said "Check Souces, Rewrite" But thats the problem with todays media no one cares about facts they care about readers and the fact of the matter is that a headline like "Experts Warn of Cannabis Cancer 'Epidemic." sells more papers.
Its time for the people of this country to stop letting everyone tell them what to think and really start to create some thoughts of there own.
Maybe they just need a bowl to get the juices flowing.
When the average person picks up a paper or opens there favorite news site I doubt they read much more than the headline for most stories. I would image they would click on a few a read through them but for the most part my guess is they skim and soak up what they can. So when someone sees a headline like "Cannabis Bigger Cancer Risk Than Cigarettes" or "Smoking One Joint is Equivalent to 20 Cigarettes, Study Says" its easy to see why people who don't smoke and don't have an interest in marijuana have such a distorted view of it.
I would just like to give you this quote from the above story.
"For those who actually bothered to read the study's full text, which appeared in the European Respiratory Journal days after the global feeding frenzy had ended, they would have learned the following. Among the 79 lung cancer subjects who participated in the trial, 70 of them smoked tobacco. These individuals, not surprisingly, experienced a seven-times greater risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer compared to tobacco-free controls. As for the subjects in the study who reported having used cannabis, they -- on average -- experienced no statistically significant increased cancer risk compared to non-using controls."
Now I don't know about you but I don't really think a sample group of 79 is big enough to support any findings, pro or con for marijuana.
Why does the media feels such a need to throw stories out without even the slightest of fact checking? If the media were writing an essay I can sure as hell tell you they would get it back with a big note on the front that said "Check Souces, Rewrite" But thats the problem with todays media no one cares about facts they care about readers and the fact of the matter is that a headline like "Experts Warn of Cannabis Cancer 'Epidemic." sells more papers.
Its time for the people of this country to stop letting everyone tell them what to think and really start to create some thoughts of there own.
Maybe they just need a bowl to get the juices flowing.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Record Arrest Despite New Laws
Story Here.
Well reading the latest news out of Denver I was not surprised to see a story like this. Once again the people have spoken out, they have come out of there houses and come out of the back rooms (red eyed as they may be) and really changed things.
Until the police decide they didn't want to stop arresting pot smokers. The city of Denver has now voted not once but twice to try and give people on both sides a break. Pot smokers can keep toking and cops can keep busting people for real crimes. But the cops must have smoked the wrong bag because they continue to arrest people for simple possession.
This is not your drug ring leader who (if he's smart) could never be tied to even touching marijuana, this isn't even your casual user who sells to friends so he doesn't have to pay. This is everyday users who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Think about this you come home from a long day of work walk to your bar and pour yourself a large glass of booze and sit down to relax. But a large police officer kicks in your door and arrest you for illegal possession an "intoxicating liquor" welcome to the 1930's.
The fact of the matter is that anything can be made illegal if you shine the right rose colored light on too it. I could name off the top of my head 10 things that are legal that kill more people every year then marijuana yet as a "free" American I'm not allowed to make up my own mind about what i want to put in my body.
Novocain = cocaine
Oxycontin = Heroin
Oxycontin is nothing but man made heroin that you take as a pill instead of inject yet I hear no calls for it to be outlawed. You can kill your self with water faster than you could kill yourself with THC yet i sit here enjoying a tall glass of water with no fear of death.
We have been told for so long that marijuana will hurt or that it will be the downfall of the world as we know it. News Flash everyone who wants to smoke marijuana is going to anyway. There is no reason why they shouldn't be able to stop at a shop and buy legal marijuana the same way I can walk down the street and buy (taxed) liquor.
The only thing we are doing by keeping marijuana illegal is fill the pockets of criminals who see how much money there is to be made and fill our prisons with non-violent criminals who in another world would happily be paying taxes on something they find enjoyable.
Well reading the latest news out of Denver I was not surprised to see a story like this. Once again the people have spoken out, they have come out of there houses and come out of the back rooms (red eyed as they may be) and really changed things.
Until the police decide they didn't want to stop arresting pot smokers. The city of Denver has now voted not once but twice to try and give people on both sides a break. Pot smokers can keep toking and cops can keep busting people for real crimes. But the cops must have smoked the wrong bag because they continue to arrest people for simple possession.
This is not your drug ring leader who (if he's smart) could never be tied to even touching marijuana, this isn't even your casual user who sells to friends so he doesn't have to pay. This is everyday users who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Think about this you come home from a long day of work walk to your bar and pour yourself a large glass of booze and sit down to relax. But a large police officer kicks in your door and arrest you for illegal possession an "intoxicating liquor" welcome to the 1930's.
The fact of the matter is that anything can be made illegal if you shine the right rose colored light on too it. I could name off the top of my head 10 things that are legal that kill more people every year then marijuana yet as a "free" American I'm not allowed to make up my own mind about what i want to put in my body.
Novocain = cocaine
Oxycontin = Heroin
Oxycontin is nothing but man made heroin that you take as a pill instead of inject yet I hear no calls for it to be outlawed. You can kill your self with water faster than you could kill yourself with THC yet i sit here enjoying a tall glass of water with no fear of death.
We have been told for so long that marijuana will hurt or that it will be the downfall of the world as we know it. News Flash everyone who wants to smoke marijuana is going to anyway. There is no reason why they shouldn't be able to stop at a shop and buy legal marijuana the same way I can walk down the street and buy (taxed) liquor.
The only thing we are doing by keeping marijuana illegal is fill the pockets of criminals who see how much money there is to be made and fill our prisons with non-violent criminals who in another world would happily be paying taxes on something they find enjoyable.
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