posted
"unlike trees and cotton plants, the leaves of the cannabis plant fall to the ground before the stalks are harvested,"
Trees don't shed their leaves??? Just WHAT has the guy who wrote your information been smoking, anyway?
The truth is, regardless of all the papers written and all the arguments used for legalization, the PRIME motivator behind the movement for canabbis legalization is simply people who want to get high without getting in trouble.
Unfortunately, the movement is probably NEVER going to lose that stigma, which is the main reason that nobody takes it seriously. Because if you took all the weed-smokers out of the lobby, it would essentially evaporate.
------------------ The government that seems the most unwise, oft goodness to the people best supplies. That which is meddling, touching everything, will work but ill, and disappointment bring. - The Tao Te Ching
posted
When trees are cut down for paper, the whole tree is cut down, trunk, branches, leaves. The whole lot is processed later, taking more biological matter from the site. (Although more recent logging machines are able to strip the branches from the trunk). You also get more fibre per unit area from cannabis than trees.
They can make paper from cannabis which is just as good as that from trees, AND with a lot less treatment AND it lasts longer because there is less acid in it. The fabric from cannabis is a bit more coarse than cotton, but there are techniques to make it softer. The main benefit is to the environment as the cannabis plant is more resistant to pests and doesn't need as much pesticide.
"Environmentally, hemp is a better crop to grow than cotton, especially the way cotton is grown nowadays. In the United States, the cotton crop uses half of the total pesticides. (Yes, you heard right, one half of the pesticides used in the entire U.S. are used on cotton.) Cotton is a soil damaging crop and needs a lot of fertilizer."
quote:Unfortunately, the movement is probably NEVER going to lose that stigma, which is the main reason that nobody takes it seriously.
Well where I come from the main reason is that the democracy is more of a gerontocracy, appealing to the older people for votes. So any attempt to legalize it would be political suicide.
I admit that people want it legalised so they can smoke (or eat) cannabis without getting into trouble, but let me ask you this. Why should they get into trouble for smoking it? And I mean thrown-in-prison trouble.
Some of you may be inclined to give the answer "because it's illegal, it must be bad", but perhaps you should question the ability of an ageing bureaucrat to decide whether you can take a relatively harmless drug.
------------------ "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
[This message has been edited by Gurgeh (edited May 21, 2001).]
posted
I must admit, I have not yet had a chance to read the article you so kindly linked me to, but I had to make a response. First, I apologize for my rather rash and un-thought-out comments. There is SOME merit to them though, which I hope you recognize.
Okay. Please define "relatively harmless." And please don't refer me back to the article. I will read it, I promise. But relatively harmless compared to what? Or With what other substances do you consider relatively harmless? Something I would call relatively harmless is tylenol taken in the correct dosages. I would never call marijuana relatively harmless. Correct dosages or not. Smoking and alcohol are DEFINITELY not relatively harmless. So...?
------------------ "A celibate clergy is an especially good idea because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism."
posted
They say it should be legalized because it has so many uses other than as a drug. So let's legalize it for everything but use as a drug. That should make them happy, right? *L*
------------------ "Even the colors are pompous!" -a friend of mine, looking at a Lexus brochure
posted
Okay, "relatively harmless" means harmless in comparison with alcohol and tobacco, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's not addictive, which to me is a huge factor. Secondly it is far less damaging to health. Although this is obvious in the case of alcohol, it is not so obvious in the case of tobacco. Smoke from tobacco cigarettes paralyses the hairs in the trachea and bronchioles, reducing the capacity of the lungs to expel the toxins. In the states, cigarette smoke contains a lot of radioactive material, with ionising radiation that is extremely damaging to the lungs.
Cannabis has never been known to kill anyone, whereas up to 1000 people in the US die from aspirin every year, so I guess marijuana is relatively harmless in comparison with that as well. The surgeon-general's list of fatalities caused by various substances is actually quite interesting.
TSN, by mentioning the other uses of cannabis I was merely lending weight to an already solid argument.
------------------ "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
[This message has been edited by Gurgeh (edited May 22, 2001).]
quote:if cannabis is supposed to act as chemotherapy
You see, no one here claimed that marijuana acted as chemotherapy. Marijuana improves appetite, which helps people deal with the effects of chemotherapy ,ie nausea. So no, it is not ironic that Bob Marley died of cancer. He was advised to get surgery to remove the tumour but he wouldn't lose the dreads. (That's what I heard, anyway).
Here's a 1988 Surgeon General report on fatalities from various substances: http://www.marijuana-hemp.com/cin/facts/dangers.shtml ------------------ "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
[This message has been edited by Gurgeh (edited May 22, 2001).]
posted
That WAS a very interesting list, but I didn't say aspirin. I said Tylenol. Aspirin and Tylenol as I'm sure you know are two COMPLETELY different substances, and I made a clause of "in correct dosages." I'm sure that the list of fatalities with aspirin was made up more of accidental and intentional overdoses and ingestion by young children than fatal reactions to the drug. So, absolutely NO-ONE has ever died using marijuana. I find that interesting.
------------------ "A celibate clergy is an especially good idea because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism."
posted
To quote Nate Dogg: Hope you ready for the next episode HeyyyeyyyeEYEYyyyEYYYY.... .... smoke weed everday!
------------------ It never stops, when my mama ask me will I change I tell her yeah, but it's clear I'll always be the same Until the end of time - Tupac Shakur, Untill the End of Time
posted
The thing about marijuana is, you automatically stop smoking it when you feel its effects, there's some weird name for the process. The toxicity of marijuana is 40,000:1, ie. you've to take 40,000 times the typical dosage of marijuana to die from it. Perhaps if you ate a huge rock of hash there could be damage, but that's not very likely to happen.
------------------ "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
posted
Pleas watch "Half Baked" it's a very funny movie, and it's all about the Wonderfull World of Weed (where do you think they got the WWW thing from )
------------------ It never stops, when my mama ask me will I change I tell her yeah, but it's clear I'll always be the same Until the end of time - Tupac Shakur, Untill the End of Time
posted
>"So, absolutely NO-ONE has ever died using marijuana. I find that interesting."
Well, there WAS that guy who crashed the Amtrak train a while back while happy on the weed. I think he died. I know some people did...
And the buncha folks who tried other, worse drugs because they could 'handle' pot, and then those other drugs killed them...
And then, of course, a lot of the 'stoners' are just about as good as dead, anyway, except that because they live entirely on the dole, they're a bigger drag on the rest of us than dead folks are.
------------------ The government that seems the most unwise, oft goodness to the people best supplies. That which is meddling, touching everything, will work but ill, and disappointment bring. - The Tao Te Ching
posted
"Well, there WAS that guy who crashed the Amtrak train a while back while happy on the weed. I think he died. I know some people did..."
Which would have been illegal whether or not pot was legalised.
"And the buncha folks who tried other, worse drugs because they could 'handle' pot, and then those other drugs killed them..."
Ah yes, the "small drugs make you take bad stuff" thing. You know, I've managed to drink for about 4 years now, and for some reason, I still don't want to take heroin. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong.
"And then, of course, a lot of the 'stoners' are just about as good as dead, anyway, except that because they live entirely on the dole, they're a bigger drag on the rest of us than dead folks are."
Drag = funny pun. 'stoners' = group of people whose problems are not related to cannabis, and who would find other ways of wasting their lives with or without it. Still, nice argument, the "they make us pay money! Join me, and we can crush them, and be rich enough to buy four horses!" thing.
------------------ You know, when Comedy Central asked us to do a Thanksgiving episode, the first thought that went through my mind was, "Boy, I'd like to have sex with Jennifer Aniston." -Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park
posted
Liam: You do realize the difference between 'a buncha' and 'all,' don't you?
And you'll still have to explain to me why I should be paying for other people's poor choices. If a guy scrubs his brain cells out with booze, or pot, or being punched in the head, that's HIS doing. Why should MY money go to pay for HIS upkeep, when it could be going to pay for MINE?
See, that's a question much on the minds of us borderline people who make just a little too much to benefit from government support programs, but just enough to pay the taxes that support them.
------------------ The government that seems the most unwise, oft goodness to the people best supplies. That which is meddling, touching everything, will work but ill, and disappointment bring. - The Tao Te Ching
quote:Well, there WAS that guy who crashed the Amtrak train a while back while happy on the weed. I think he died. I know some people did...
There are probably a lot more Amtrak drivers who've crashed trains because they were drunk. Or had a heart attack at the wheel because they smoked 80 cigarettes a day. See also lorries, cars, boats, planes, Space Shuttles (probably). . . To ignore all those deaths, yet point at one very unusual incidence as utterly condemning the drug in question, is - is, hmm, words fail me. . . totally absurd?
------------------ "If Morden is afraid of green penguins, and Draal is shown to have access to them, a speculation would be that Draal will use them against Morden in the future. However if Draal only has a purple moose, saying that he could use it against Morden would be a story idea."
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