# thoughts on the legalization of marijuana and DP



## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

I am not sure if this will happen but people are spreading rumors about marijuana becoming legal in the state of California in the near future. I would never wish DP on my worst enemy but since many people with DPD are drug induced especially from marijuana, more than likely if marijuana becomes legal in California there will also be an increase in people suffering with DPD which could potentially cause a huge change in DPD awareness.


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## Conjurus (Oct 25, 2008)

I've also heard rumors of the legalization of marijuana, but not just in cali- all over the states. My thoughts though are that the majority of people that want to smoke it already have and won't suddenly smoke it because it's legal. BUT I'm sure there will be some that give it a try. Hopefully they won't get dp, but yeah like you said, it could lead into increased awareness of it.

P.S.-This doesn't have much to do with your point, but I wanted to throw in the fact that should it become legal, it certainly isn't because the government has some kind of pity or passion for those that want to smoke weed and can't. It's all about money.


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

It would definitely be a milestone in history


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## Matt210 (Aug 15, 2004)

The government should make weed legal and tax it to death like they do with cigarettes. I don't understand the resistance to this. Weed is easy to obtain, smoked by anyone who wants to smoke it, and so much money is lost in half-hearted efforts to try and police it. Not to mention there is always the fact that anything illegal has an extra appeal to young kids going through the rebellious phase.

You legalize it, then you take the criminal and underground aspect out of it - you put heavy taxes on it and make some money instead of losing money. I guarantee smoking would go down, government revenues would go up. Win/Win.

As for DP - doubt it would have much of an effect because as has been mentioned, pretty much anyone in North America that wants to try weed, has tried weed.


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## Conjurus (Oct 25, 2008)

Matt210 said:


> Win/Win.


Except for conservatives and those who wouldn't like the increased price of weed. I'm guessing that the price _would_ go up?


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## Luciiz (Oct 15, 2008)

My DR was somewhat caused by marijuana, and when I smoke it it usually gets worse when high/the day after, and I'm all for the legalization for marijuana. If you do a bit of studying, the case for legalization is staggeringly commonsensical.

But the thing is, prohibition makes consumption increase theoretically, and so if it was legal state-wide, use would go down.

DPD is extremely rare anyway and there would be no staggering increase in the number of DP cases imo. Anyway, the thing I've found as a trend for people (by searching their beginning story posts) is that they smoked marijuana and that they had a traumatic event back in their life or childhood (such as rape, bullying etc). It's most probably that that caused the DP, the marijuana is a simple trigger.

Anyway, loads of innocent kids are going to jail and getting their lives wasted away, so getting them back into the free for doing victimless crimes is just a freedom I'd like to see, even if marijuana use did increase aftere legalization. So it's kind of a trade off for innocent people being let out of jail for more people getting DP...

And in all likelihood many people do recover from DP (the overwhelming message this forum gives off is that you don't recover, but this is fallacy as recovered people do not return here, there is no scientific documentation on DPD at all, and there are different causes for different people), and when I do, this will have been the greatest learning experience of my life. The ultimate low. I've experienced it. Not in terms of poverty, or physical labour, or mental stress. Just, pure, simple, undefined, unreality.


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## Matt210 (Aug 15, 2004)

Conjurus said:


> Matt210 said:
> 
> 
> > Win/Win.
> ...


Social conservatives for sure. Any true fiscal conservative should applaud this plan.

And of course the price of weed would go up. Though probably not as much as you'd imagine because I would think that dealers get quite a large cut of profit off the weed they sell. Instead of going into some drug dealers pocket so he can spend it on a shiny new gun or other drugs for himself - that money can go to the government and be spent in more productive ways.

(Like starting illegal wars overseas  )


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

Matt210 said:


> Instead of going into some drug dealers pocket so he can spend it on a shiny new gun or other drugs for himself - that money can go to the government and be spent in more productive ways.
> 
> (Like starting illegal wars overseas  )


LOL


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

Luciiz said:


> But the thing is, prohibition makes consumption increase theoretically, and so if it was legal state-wide, use would go down.


I don't think use would go down. Marijuana would be sitting there right next to everybody's favorite brand of cigarettes (assuming). It would become like cigarettes have and who do you know that hasn't tried a cigarette?


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## HereIsEverywhere (Dec 22, 2008)

Matt210 said:


> The government should make weed legal and tax it to death like they do with cigarettes. I don't understand the resistance to this. Weed is easy to obtain, smoked by anyone who wants to smoke it, and so much money is lost in half-hearted efforts to try and police it. Not to mention there is always the fact that anything illegal has an extra appeal to young kids going through the rebellious phase.
> 
> You legalize it, then you take the criminal and underground aspect out of it - you put heavy taxes on it and make some money instead of losing money. I guarantee smoking would go down, government revenues would go up. Win/Win.
> 
> As for DP - doubt it would have much of an effect because as has been mentioned, pretty much anyone in North America that wants to try weed, has tried weed.


You are leaving out however that law enforcement gets huge funding for the drug war. They get extra money for catching drug dealers, not murderers. What I mean to say is, the "loss" of money on the war on drugs isn't incidental. Like "oh so much money is lost because these laws happen to need enforcing just like every other law." No, the war on drugs is quite purposefully done.


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## Rein (Apr 29, 2008)

I don`t believe they will ever do that in the usa, its legal here i think that's allot better and safer, just let ppl do what they want, also not everybody feels the need to try it out.
Coincidently i where thinking about this last night; What is the percentage of people that become chronicle dp/dr-ed (+6 months) after using weed? i think its probably lesser than 0.01%


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## Matt210 (Aug 15, 2004)

HereIsEverywhere said:


> Matt210 said:
> 
> 
> > The government should make weed legal and tax it to death like they do with cigarettes. I don't understand the resistance to this. Weed is easy to obtain, smoked by anyone who wants to smoke it, and so much money is lost in half-hearted efforts to try and police it. Not to mention there is always the fact that anything illegal has an extra appeal to young kids going through the rebellious phase.
> ...


I agree, but I don't see what I am missing. I understand the U.S. spends a great deal on the war on drugs. I am arguing that this money could be better spent.


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## Mcren (Mar 30, 2009)

I may never smoke again unfortunately, but I still hold my convictions on this subject. Tommy Chong getting arrested for making bongs was a wake up call on this one. Here in America we care more about taking down drug figures like Tommy Chong than going after murderers and rapists just so the law can look like they've actually accomplished something. They gave him nine months for making bongs, but in the town where I live a whole ring of bud dealers (friends of mine) got ransacked by police and slapped with probation and nothing more. Weed may cause dp/dr, and in some cases bring out underlying personality disorders, but if it were legal and sold widely it would be, number one, more pure and unlaced and number two there would be a lot less meth, coke, and heroin flowing around, because if you look at it, these drugs only came about, not because they were a better high, but because they passed through ones system faster and were less detectable.


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## comfortably numb (Mar 6, 2006)

If it wasent for the fact that canada was stupid enough to elect a conservative government cannabis would have been decriminalized here. Before the asshole right wing nut jobs got in the liberals where thinking of decriminilizing cannabis to the point of basically a goddamn parking ticket. No criminal record for anyone caught with less then a ounce or maybe more i think.

But thanks to the conservatives who always let ideology get in the way of scientific evidence that went out the window. In fact the conservatives are now trying to pass drug laws much like what the US has such as mandatory minimums for people caught selling drugs, making them or growing weed. This will never pass though (i certainly hope not anyway) because they are a minority government who needs the support of the other parties to pass it and there is no way that the bloc will agree with this or the NDP and i doubt the liberals will either. It also has to pass the senate which is all liberal.

The bad thing is there is so much money invested in the drug war that a total legalization will be met with fierce opposition from both alot of the police forces in canada, not to mention the DEA and all the police forces down in the US who basically only exist because of the drug war. They would rather piss out a cactus then have drugs legalized. Also the cartels would be really pissed off about this and use their influence to keep the drug war going. The cartels and organized crime don't want drugs to be legal anymore then the DEA. The cartels would collapse in a week if drugs where legalized and made by the government.

I think that not only cannabis should be legalized but also all drugs. This not only makes perfect economic sense since we could legalize all drugs and goodbye recession but it makes perfect medical sense. People would know how potent the drugs they are buying are so there would be no problems with quality. I had a friend OD on heroin and die because he got what he called some really good smack. He was not a addict and therfore did not have much of a tolerance at all. He was what is known as a chippie someone who uses occasionally such as on the weekends. If he had known how strong the heroin was and had pharmaceutical diamorphine that is used in hospitals to treat pain he could have measured out the correct dose that would get him high but not kill him.

Most drug overdoses are due to people not knowing the potency of their drugs or even what is in them. Fentanyl which is a strong opioid used in treating chronic pain (ive had it and it is the best drug ive had for treating pain) is often sold as heroin. This leads to alot of overdoses as fentanyl is about 40 times stronger then pure heroin. The rest of the opiate overdoses you hear of is usually people who don't really know what they are doing taking drugs that are too strong for them. Hell i knew someone who got methadone from her friend and i got worried because she had no tolerance and methadone is quite strong and i asked her what the dose of the pill was and she said i don't know :evil: . Thankfully she was alright.

That is the kind of stuff that gets people killed and makes the headlines. Some kid pops some oxycontins with some xanax and they end up dead and the drug gets blamed. Ya sure it's the makers of oxycontin who killed that kid and not stupidity because he was too damn stupid to know what he was dealing with. Friends always ask me about certain drugs, mixing drugs together, how much to take, etc. Im always very cautious when telling them how much to take and i factor in tolerance and tell them to avoid mixes they probably can't handle with little or no tolerance such as morphine mixed with a benzo or worse alcohol. So alittle bit of drug education of the smart kind goes a long way.

Sorry for that rant/essay. Ive been a wee bit manic as of late and i can't stop typing :twisted: .


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## Matt210 (Aug 15, 2004)

Didn't know you were a Canadian. Harper & Co. are about the worst government this country has ever seen. I've never seen a party so blatantly spit in the face of science and common sense for the sake of twisted right-wing ideology. Other than the Republicans down south of course.

Luckily I can't see Harper lasting much longer - The Liberals have been soaring in the polls.

Here is an article from the Globe by a Liberal MP who talks rather sensibly about the issue (much more sensibly than anyone in Harper's gang anyways) : http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... itics/home


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