Colorado Sells Approx $1 Million of Pot on First Day of Legalization

[MessiahDecoy123]

LOL---this is GOLD, chaseter.



Don't try to rationalize this as something noble. It's nothing more than druggies fighting for easier ways to intoxicate themselves. Forget about the legal ramifications and think about the central issue. A person shouldn't need the law to tell him/her that being intoxicated from any kind of substance is unhealthy and reckless. That should be common sense.

Feel free to keep playing the morally relativistic game of "But...but...it's not at bad as alcohol!", but I've never heard a viable argument for recreational drug use. Sobriety is the only responsible choice.

What's the viable argument for any form of pleasure?

Why not outlaw recreational sex, junk food, and video games?

All relatively pointless forms of pleasure. Can you give a viable argument for those?

It's noble to fight arbitrary laws that ruin more lives than they save.

I have a quote for you:

"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live". - Oscar Wilde

In other words, I should be able to live my own life as long as it doesn't interfere with yours.

 

[The End]

Scar Predator,

You didn't answer my question. You said...

being intoxicated from any kind of substance is unhealthy and reckless.

Have you ever taken pain killers? Would you ever?

Do you take coffee?

What do you think of people being prescribed to take anti-depressants?

You're taking the "drugs are bad, m'kay??" approach; its overly simplistic, and actually not very scientific.

Our brains are made up of chemicals. There is nothing inherently wrong with altering those chemicals, there is no scientific law that says 'problems always follow', if you take drugs.

Demonstrably, much more harm is done keeping marijuana illegal than the substance itself can ever do to any individual. It's actually kind of selfish, then, to keep it illegal.

It isn't up to people that want to use marijuana to justify themselves to you - YOU have to justify why it should be illegal; and you have to do better than "drugs are just bad".

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I don't use any drugs recreationally, including alcohol. And your last line is the very reason that recreational drug use is stupid: innocent people can and will suffer because of the user's habit. Once a person surrenders his/her higher cognitive functioning to a drug, especially on a regular basis, problems always follow.

Stay smart. Stay strong. Stay sober.

Why should I be forced to live my short life based on your values if I'm not hurting anyone?

How would you feel if I forced you to live based on my values?

What if cannabis makes music sound better, food taste better, nature look better and sex feel better? It's not stupid to improve things you enjoy.

 

[The End]

Have I been too harsh on chaseter on the previous page? Thoughts/opinions?

 

[warhorse78]

It's non-lethal medicine with hundreds of medicinal uses.

That puts it above dangerous substances like alcohol and cigarettes which kill millions of people globally every year.

and even above many prescription drugs which kill over 100,000 people per year.

Even if cannabis did cause some health problems from smoking it there are alternative ways of ingesting it like eating and vaporizing.

At the end of the day is it's no where as dangerous as alcohol, cigarettes or even many popular prescription drugs. Add to the the many medicinal, industrial (Hemp), economic (taxes) and recreational uses and it clearly, flat-out STUPID to keep it illegal.

I always thought a glass of wine a day (which is a form of alchohol) is supposed to be good for your health? But, like everything, moderation is the key, not indulgence.

 

[Obi-Ron]

The prohibition of substances may or may not be effective in helping to keep any population as sober as some may want, but there is one thing it does do for sure: IT EMPOWERS EVIL MEN. Period. Without the black market the money and influence of the Gangsters and suppliers would be nowhere near what it is now across multiple governments and agencies across the world. To put it bluntly one does not see the Bud people and the Coors people shooting up neighborhoods or paying off police forces and the like. They take part in a legal above the board business. I know it is popular to think of cartel types and capos and those types as somehow "evil geniuses" but the proof is in the pudding. Our jails are not full of Lex Luthors. They are filled with men with guys with low I.Q.'s and low self control. I dare say that most of the guys making bank off the drug trade, without that source of power, would be janitors and gas station attendants, if that. Keeping drugs illegal lines the pockets of these men, period and grown their influence in the wider world. The "war" against them has not been successful and is a waste of my and anyone else' tax money. Even if one can be against the personal consumption of drugs on a moral level it's kind of hard to justify the effects and cost of the drug war on society as a whole. Legalize it, tax it and allow law enforcement agencies to concentrate on more important matters.

Well said, Krypton Inc.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

And there goes the deficient.

 

[DarkSentinel]

Imagine how much Florida will sell on its first day, once it wises up t:

And how much better it'll be for it

 

[Hal_Jordan]

I don't use any drugs recreationally, including alcohol. And your last line is the very reason that recreational drug use is stupid: innocent people can and will suffer because of the user's habit. Once a person surrenders his/her higher cognitive functioning to a drug, especially on a regular basis, problems always follow.

Stay smart. Stay strong. Stay sober.

Spoken like a person who has no real idea about the subject (or any factual evidence for that matter), and bases his information on it by watching "Reefer Madness," and listening to Nancy Reagan's "just say no" speeches a few hundred times too many.

 

[jaymes_e06]

I always thought a glass of wine a day (which is a form of alchohol) is supposed to be good for your health? But, like everything, moderation is the key, not indulgence.

Thank you that's what I have been trying to say this entire time.

 

[Feenix]

LOL---this is GOLD, chaseter.



Don't try to rationalize this as something noble. It's nothing more than druggies fighting for easier ways to intoxicate themselves. Forget about the legal ramifications and think about the central issue. A person shouldn't need the law to tell him/her that being intoxicated from any kind of substance is unhealthy and reckless. That should be common sense.

Feel free to keep playing the morally relativistic game of "But...but...it's not at bad as alcohol!", but I've never heard a viable argument for recreational drug use. Sobriety is the only responsible choice.

Don't be so square, man.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Good for them. I fully support states that legalize the green stuff.

Most definitely. This has all been gaining steam for some time as more people wise up and will only continue to do so in the future. I see there are a few in this thread still spewing the same tired, disproven arguments from 80 years ago but it took a long time to convince people the Earth was round too. Progress is slow but steady.

hahahahalolhahaha i kno rite?

I'm sure their time would be much better spent criticizing people on the internet.

"People supporting causes they believe in such as the removal of unjust laws and the rights of a citizen to live life the way they choose are pathetic."

Spoken like a person who has no real idea about the subject (or any factual evidence for that matter), and bases his information on it by watching "Reefer Madness," and listening to Nancy Reagan's "just say no" speeches a few hundred times too many.

Jedidiah Timm
@jedidiah4him
Colorado legalized marijuana use. First day, 37 deaths. Gee aren't you liberals smart?

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Wow, got caught up with this thread and gotta say it felt like it was going to get buried by trolls and the truly clueless but the rest of you came through. Chalk up one for common sense and rational discourse.

 

[KevanG]

Reefer Madness was an amazing movie.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I always thought a glass of wine a day (which is a form of alchohol) is supposed to be good for your health? But, like everything, moderation is the key, not indulgence.

A little wine is good for you but cannabis has literally dozens, if not hundreds, of medicinal uses.

and even if you don't use moderation with cannabis it won't kill anyone, let alone 400,000 people a year.

Cannabis is far more beneficial and far less dangerous than alcohol. It's not even close.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

If you were going to "sweeten the pot" of discourse over normalization/legalizing/de-criminalizing weed, or other drugs, what would you add to the debate as it stands?

For myself, I think the use of the tax revenue is something that people who are for legalization should really start to concentrate on. Don't just leave that up in the air. I of course think that treatment for dependency should be where some of that revenue should end up, no doubt. But if I had my way I would sell this on shoring up pensions and the like for local law enforcement and first responders. I mean, when intoxication of any kind happens (narcotics or alcohol) they are the ones who often have to deal with it's affects first hand. It also helps to frame the argument as one which is about the support for law and order not just about indulgence. Does anyone have any other ideas they think whose time has come in this debate?

 

[Lantern Venom]

Spoken like a person who has no real idea about the subject (or any factual evidence for that matter), and bases his information on it by watching "Reefer Madness," and listening to Nancy Reagan's "just say no" speeches a few hundred times too many.

I'm a mental health professional. I get regular updates on studies done on all kinds of drugs (prescription and recreational), and I've been involved with dozens of cases where the client was a marijuana user. Although there has yet to be definitive proof of a causal effect, the link between exacerbation of schizophrenia and other forms of MI isn't a revelation to the MI community. The younger the user, the more chance he/she has to develop MI or a related polysubstance problem. The effects of synthetic pot are turning up even more troubling results, both psychologically and physically.

Don't assume that a differing opinion means ignorance.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

If you were going to "sweeten the pot" of discourse over normalization/legalizing/de-criminalizing weed, or other drugs, what would you add to the debate as it stands?

For myself, I think the use of the tax revenue is something that people who are for legalization should really start to concentrate on. Don't just leave that up in the air. I of course think that treatment for dependency should be where some of that revenue should end up, no doubt. But if I had my way I would sell this on shoring up pensions and the like for local law enforcement and first responders. I mean, when intoxication of any kind happens (narcotics or alcohol) they are the ones who often have to deal with it's affects first hand. It also helps to frame the argument as one which is about the support for law and order not just about indulgence. Does anyone have any other ideas they think whose time has come in this debate?

Portugal has enjoyed massive success after decriminalizing drugs and offering would-be offenders treatment instead of jail time. I know legal sales aren't the same as decriminalization but the potential benefits are similar. Colorado earmarked a large portion of their proceeds to building schools iirc but with $1 million in sales in one day, through just 30 or so shops this is going to generate insane amounts of money that could and should be used for a wide variety of betterment programs.

At the recommendation of a national commission charged with addressing Portugal's drug problem, jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy. The argument was that the fear of prison drives addicts underground and that incarceration is more expensive than treatment — so why not give drug addicts health services instead? Under Portugal's new regime, people found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent to a panel consisting of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser for appropriate treatment (which may be refused without criminal punishment), instead of jail.

The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.

"Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."

Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work? Time, (Apr. 26, 2009)

 

[Feenix]

I'm a mental health professional. I get regular updates on studies done on all kinds of drugs (prescription and recreational), and I've been involved with dozens of cases where the client was a marijuana user. Although there has yet to be definitive proof of a casual effect, the link between exacerbation of schizophrenia and other forms of MI isn't a revelation to the MI community. The younger the user, the more chance he/she has to develop MI or a related polysubstance problem. The effects of synthetic pot are turning up even more troubling results, both psychologically and physically.

Don't assume that a differing opinion means ignorance.

I can see synthetic pot being an issue because it's laced with a bunch of chemical crap. However, the plant itself is not the problem. You're forgetting the reasons a young person may begin to use drugs in the first place. To say marijuana exacerbates or even causes mental illness is very short sighted. The people I know who have dabbled in drug use (not just pot) had problems well before they tried any drugs. It's the reason they turned to drugs in the first place. Mental illness and the environment that one grows up in plays a bigger part in their development than drugs. Drugs are a by-product of problems that already existed.

The marijuana itself is not the problem. If anything, it helps those with medical conditions or people with anxiety. It just needs to be regulated.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

Boy, Scar Predator you sure have a chip on your shoulder about people having the occasional toke.

No one is saying weed makes you smarter, better looking, more athletic, etc. But like alcohol, it's a release from stress, and isn't harmful if it's in moderation. Some people don't want to spend their entire lives sober because life needs a bit of fun every now and then or you'll go crazy. Maybe you should partake some time and judge for yourself.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Maybe you should partake some time and judge for yourself.

In a bit of cosmic irony he would probably snap and kill a few dozen people in a psychotic rampage. No thanks. Nobody wants that kind of press.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Use of weed is a red line for many. Not to put words into people's mouths, but I think it's really about weed/drugs in general being a signifier of "those" people. "I oppose the use of drugs by ALL because THOSE types seem to be the ones using it."

In this context, THOSE people are just whoever you want the outsider group to be. Could be based on culture, politics, religion, race... ect.

 

[Figs]

I can't stand when straight edge people start pointing fingers and judging others who like to drink and or smoke. Keep thinking you're better than the rest of us...

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

I can't stand when straight edge people start pointing fingers and judging others who like to drink and or smoke. Keep thinking you're better than the rest of us...

It's a line of thinking some who are SE have, not all. In the eyes of those who are more militant someone who uses pot on the weekends or the end of the day are the exact same thing as an out of his mind tweeker that would stab his own mother to get money for the next hit.

 

[Thundercrack85]

I can't say I am a proponent of drinking or smoking. Particularly the former.

Having said that, I think life is about personal choices. Provided you don't bother anyone else.

The criminalization of a fairly mild drug like marijuana, combined with ridiculous, draconian, not to mention unconstitutional mandatory sentencing laws have put millions in prison (I believe the number right now is 750,000 or there about), which hasn't helped anyone, except for the companies building prisons.

This system is broken. It's costing the country billions, and ruining lives. No one in their right mind could think the status quo works.