I was kidding in my previous post, I don't presume to know your cannabis addiction limit. I'm sure there are many people that don't get addicted to it.
I'm one of them, because I won't use it.

It's like this; the only way I could try weed would be at a party or at the music festival I'll be going to in three weeks. I was offered some last year but didn't take it.

And you see, if I do start to smoke at parties, then I'd want to smoke at every party with the same atmosphere/mood. Then maybe I'd want to start bying my own weed, and then I'm there. BANG!
And I'll only know that I'm addicted if I stop taking it for a while. And if I have enough money, enough friends and enough parties then I won't need to stop smoking it. Until I get children and have to stop, only suddenly I don't want to.
And I'll lose the respect of my parents, my family, my non-drug friends and subsequently myself (well, the self respect is what goes first, actually).

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"Babies haven't any hair;
old men's heads are just as bare;
between the cradle and the grave
lies a haircut and a shave."

Samuel Hoffenstein

Nimrod: I can understand your apprehension about getting into smoking pot regularly after having done it once. But to allay your concerns, think of the amount of middle-aged people around who more than likely used to smoke pot, and stopped as their responsibilities (to their children, work etc.) took over.

On the subject of self-respect, I personally have lost more self-respect the few times I got drunk and acted like a complete f*cking lunatic, getting sick etc. than I ever could by getting high.

But for the issue at hand, ie. legalisation, the situation isn't really changed. You have access to weed, as you say at parties, concerts etc. despite the fact that cannabis is illegal, and you exercise your choice not to smoke it, which is fine. If it were to be legalised, your access to cannabis would perhaps be easier, and you would probably have more exposure to it, but you could still choose not to smoke it. If you are determined enough not to smoke when you have access to it now, I'm sure you would manage to refuse it if it were legal. We all have the choice NOT to smoke grass if it's legal, but many of us don't have the choice TO smoke it when it's illegal.

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"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen"
Samuel Adams

But again, we come back to the crucial point. If you doubt the studies, if you don't want to smoke it, you don't have to. If the politicians would just legalise it and stop testing the poor animals.....

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"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen"
Samuel Adams

Not addictive, less dangerous to others, and less carcinogenic, than marijuana OR tobacco, and you can do it and do it until you drop, and you can stop anytime you like.

Everybody who wants to legalize that horribly smelly crap should try this at least several dozen times.

Tie that bag off tightly, now, y'hear? Or you won't get the full effect!

"Obviously not, TSN. I mean, what the hell is that supposed to mean? Remarks like that do nothing to progress a discussion.

I beg to differ. My point is perfectly valid. The phrase "don't knock it 'til you've tried it" is not universally applicable.

First: Ah, yes, the wonders of oxygen deprivation... A couple of times, when I couldn't sleep, I tried covering my head up w/ the blanket, so I'd get less oxygen, and fall asleep. It didn't work, but it sure does make you feel funny after a while... *L*

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"Adults Do Not Teach By Examples, But By Word Scams That Brainwash And Indoctrinate Their Children's Malleable Minds, Destroying Youth. Rote Education Corrupts Childhood, Forcing Children To Become Adults."
-Gene Ray

Mota!

Because major world powers have nuclear weaponry, does that mean that we should authorize the use and development of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction as well? No. It is a similar situation to this.

Just because we have two bad things and aren't willing to ban them doesn't mean that we should say "what the heck?" and add something else.

If we were to legalize marijuana, A LOT more people would use it. It would become a viable market. Prices for the stuff would drop, and everyone would be going to school stoned. I don't care whatever studies you have that say so on and so forth. The percentage of people using the substance would increase because heck, it could be sold in supermarkets, and predictably, the number of people ABUSING the drug would also increase. People would become at the very least psychologically dependent and perhaps move on to more harmful drugs.

And do we REALLY want people high, in an altered state of mind, while they're working, or driving, or doing anything? As someone already pointed out, ther are other ways of achieving the same result without using drugs. Look at all those religious folks who had "visions."

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"A celibate clergy is an especially good idea because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism."

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Re: Russia in WWII

"Hey, we butchered Poles! Thats OK."
- DT.

Prove it.

"Prices for the stuff would drop, and everyone would be going to school stoned."

Prove it.

"I don't care whatever studies you have that say so on and so forth."

Oh, I see. Well, carry on then. Purple elephant monkey trouser effect.

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OH NO< THE OLD MAN WALKS HIS GREEN DOG THAT SHOTS PINBALLS!~!!!
--
Jeff K
****
Read three (three!) chapters of "Dirk Tungsten in...The Disappearing Planet" and nothing at all will happen.

What was my point again?

Oh yeah. Legalise it if you want. But limit it in the same way that smoking is limited. As tim has pointed out, smoking DOES affect the people next to you. And for some people, that's not pleasent. Alcohol doesn't. Unless you're standing in the middle of a pub. But who would stand in the middle of a pub complaining about people drinking? EH? EH?

I'm still for draginning Tim and Simon over here and taking them out. (To clubs. not for dinner and a show.) Because Simon would be brilliantly funny, and tim would see that, yes, there are people who use alcohol for fun, who don't turn into raging maniacs who want to drive cars over small puppies. And Parklife is a great drunk song.

Monkeys!

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"Babies haven't any hair;
old men's heads are just as bare;
between the cradle and the grave
lies a haircut and a shave."

Cannabis is, as well as having recreational properties, an extremely viable agricultural plant. Its plant fibres are much more suitable for paper production than tree fibres, so much less chemical processing is required. The fibres from cannabis can also be made into fabrics that are much more durable than cotton. Also, unlike trees and cotton plants, the leaves of the cannabis plant fall to the ground before the stalks are harvested, so much of the plant matter rots and returns nutrients to the soil. The use of hemp would be much more sustainable in terms of the environment for these industries.

Visit the links and inform yourself, otherwise I'll just have to clog the thread with this information, and I don't think anyone wants that.
http://www.cannabis.com/faqs/
This site also gives reasons why marijuana was banned that I guarantee will surprise you.

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"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen"
Samuel Adams