Tell that to politicians, stockbrokers (Wolf of Wall Street etc), Cooperate CEO’s, Donald Trump (joking with the last one)
I just mentioned to you how they do. Several things make the world go round. Yes, there are people who believe money trumps nearly all else. Much of what these people do is based on feeling too.
I can also state how religion has helped communities survive and flourish.
We can agree to disagree regarding this subtopic absent of judging each other. It’s a risk/benefit analysis. I’m well aware of the positives stemming from religion (as I’ve specified it preaches morality… generally). I believe the risk outweighs the benefit. You may dislike this ideology of which I harbour, but you won’t change it unless scientific evidence, and a large body of which is provided. My brother would agree with you though, he’s religious.
There is no excuse for religious extremism… in my opinion there is no excuse for the discrimination of homosexuals, reproductive rights etc on the basis of “but… god”. You can disagree with me, that’s fine… There is NEVER an excuse for extermination of a populace on the basis of religious beliefs (this is still happening)… there is never an excuse for extermination in general… but in general the notion of genocide stems from ignorance/inability to cater to or understand differing religion/culture
Australia is particularly guilty within the cultural aspect… look up the stolen generations (attempted genocide in my opinion… it’s debated whether it was/wasn’t)
Out of curiosity, are you a democrat, republican or independent (I’m guessing independent)
I agree.
I’m actually a descendent of Spanish Jews (mom’s maiden name is Perez). So I’m aware. I don’t think the only reason for Spain’s expulsion was only on religious grounds but that’s a whole other topic.
I’m not very religious by the way, and married a white woman. We do attend church here and there and take the Catholic holidays seriously though. Both children were baptized.
Yes we disagree on some matters. It’s simply a conversation.
Independent, I guess. I don’t vote.
Fair enough.
I don’t see anything ignorant about that any more than saying you find heavy drinkers annoying. Also if you’re walking down the street and all you smell is weed for blocks that can be annoying, or if you have your windows open in the summer and suddenly the whole house smells like weed. You could say the same thing about cigarettes, my wife absolutely hates the smell of cigarettes more than anything.
There are a lot of alcoholics who are able to function as productive members of society as well.
Just because alcohol can be worse doesn’t mean you have to love weed.
I’m not anti-weed, and I totally support it being legal, but I can understand why some people don’t like the smell or the way some people act when they smoke.
What do you suggest going forward though? They have been locking people up for drugs for a long time and its not fixing the problem, maybe there is something to Portugal’s approach. Either that or barbaric punishments like public floggings and stoning, anything in the middle isn’t working too good. Weed was illegal and it never stopped me from smoking it, and I never tried hard drugs because I saw what they do to people, not because I was worried about getting caught.
When chronically abused… the physical harm induced via alcohol is worse 100% of the time… neurologically, scientific consensus generally states booze is worse, but the consensus is still out, we don’t have enough data
Whilst anecdotes don’t typically pertain significance just about everyone I know who has chronically, heavily abused marijuana over many years (say grams per day) appear to be slower, appear to have an altered, chronically relaxed demeanour… not threatening in any way… but they seem a bit… off compared to those who say… haven’t smoked multiple grams per day for decades on end. Scientific consensus indicates the cognitive deficits, unlike with booze may be reversible, though after heavy chronic abuse spanning over many years some semblance of irreversible cognitive deficits appear to be present. Occasional use appears to be relatively harmless within those above the age of seventeen… though data conflicts regarding what age of onset is associated with dramatically increased risk factors… typically below 17-19
Though I’ve personally seen many decrepit alcoholics… I’d rather be the stoner than alcoholic. Though weed isn’t all that fun when used frequently… I don’t see the point (it being fun) barring occasional use in terms of recreation
Well they’re executing people in the Phillipines for drug use/possession, yet statistically drug addiction remains a big problem… I don’t know what the correct approach is, but I know our current stance isn’t changing things.
Regardless of changes implemented (barring weed) I believe the overall goal should be to reduce the percentage of problematic drug users within society
Ban public consumption. Most legal states in the US forbid public consumption. Contrary to common belief (I learned this in Amsterdam from some locals) it’s actually prohibited to smoke outside of private residences/coffeeshops. Though at night no one cares if you’re in the red light district (the government is considering banning tourists from purchasing cannabis… teenage, British male tourists make up the brunt of destruction induced by cannabis/drug tourism in Amsterdam according to the locals)
I recall lighting up a cannabis cigarette of this Thai/brick grass outside of my hotel with a group of teenagers I was with (I prefer low potency product… today’s pot is typically too strong for my liking). I was trying to burn it down quickly and the security guard from the hotel stops me and says “why are you hurrying, this is AmStErDaM… we don’t care, i’d join you if I wasn’t on the job”. Caught me rather off guard, I kept thinking “if stopped where I live it’d be a court date”. I don’t love weed, it can be fun if the set/setting is right, but otherwise in itself it’s not all that great… it can make an already fun night even more enjoyable… but by itself there’s no appeal. I use it as an alcohol substitute at rowdy events, festivals etc as (in my opinion, given the literature I’ve looked at) it’s less toxic than alcohol.
If I recall correctly in an earlier response you’ve mentioned the nearest cannabis store to be far away, thus you’d opt for a dealer. Have you considered ordering online if you’re curiosity is peaked in the future? I dislike the notion of supporting dealers if one doesn’t have to. When I was in Canada I was told one can order cannabis and even psilocybin online through various online retailers free of repercussion, perhaps they were wrong?
Agreed… but I firmly believe if alcohol was phased out in favour of cannabis the outcome would generally be beneficial. Though the emphasis on stronger, more powerful cannabis products needs to stop… dabs, crystalline THC etc isn’t “cannabis”… it’s far stronger, more potent that regular cannabis… the chance of an adverse reaction stemming from these concentrates is far higher. Hashish itself whilst stronger generally has a higher CBD/CBN content as all cannabinoids, not just THC is extracted
I know shit about pharmaceuticals/medical conditions in general (even general meds used to treat angina and whatnot)… I have a strange obsession wherein I spend a lot of time reading about medical conditions, drugs used to treat medical conditions, chemicals, the pharmacokinetics of said chemicals… this also includes recreational drug use to some extent.
I believe it’s somewhat autism induced, I also obsessively read about films/movie trivia, synopsis (so I’ll spoil many movies for myself before actually watching them..) and for whatever reason I’ll retain the vast majority of what I read, esp regarding movie trivia… when I was like 14 people used me to figure out “what was that movie I saw a few years ago”.. they’d describe the plot and I’d have the movie figured out rather quickly despite having never seen it… I have some very strange quirks
Im trying to say… weed/drug knowledge isn’t related to me being a stoner/drug addict… I’m just an eccentric/strange individual
People are free to disagree with me here so long as the response isn’t aggressive
Why not? Every vote counts… seriously, esp with landslide elections. Though if you don’t wish to vote, there’s no reason why I think you should be forced to.
I’m convinced all my choices are psychopaths, some of whom don’t mind hurting people. That’s why.
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You’re probably correct… anyone that high up on the political chain has probably made some dubious/immoral decisions to get there. Though I wouldn’t go as far as “psychopath”. I don’t even think Trump is a psychopath (though the prevelance of psychopaths within the general populace is statistically more prominent than I’d like to think, esp in coorperate/political roles). I think Trump is a narcissistic megalomaniac and pathological liar with a drug problem (potentially)… but not a psychopath
Politicians tend to swim in a sea of corruption + narcissism… even if these values don’t cater to you as a politician, I can’t see how some of it wouldn’t rub off on you if surrounded 24/7 by such ideals
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Not saying I really support that approach, but according to Filipinos it is working well. I know a guy who goes back there every year, he says that crime is way down and also most people there support Duterte. When he first announced that he would be killing dealers and users there were thousands who turned themselves in to face court instead of a bullet. I don’t know what the statistics show or how accurate they would be, but crystal meth was a huge problem there. I know a couple of non-Filipinos who once went there (along with several other Asian countries) and they said they could tell something wasn’t right as soon as they stepped off the airplane. They were getting swarmed by crowds of beggars every time they went outside, they ended up leaving after a couple days.
The problem is that if you live in close proximity to other houses or in an apartment building that is no better, if anything it’s worse because then you will end up smelling it in your own house. The smell doesn’t really bother me, but some people can’t stand it.
First, I don’t want any weed and I was just talking hypothetically for someone in my neighborhood, or even other places further away from any stores. There are only a few weed stores in the whole province, some cities and towns don’t have a single one. Yes, you can order online from the government store but it will take days to arrive. Before it was legalized there were sites selling weed and all types of other illegal stuff, many of them are still in business. You aren’t likely to get into any trouble because we have some weird laws that prevent mail packages from being searched but for some reason if it’s shipped by courier they can search it, but if you can go around the corner and buy weed, crack, ecstasy, whatever, it’s the same thing, no?
I drank a beer last night, I still felt pretty much sober. Would it somehow be better if I had smoked a joint instead? I really don’t see it.
You could make the same argument for hard liquor. They say the concentrated stuff and high potency weed is actually less damaging because you don’t need to smoke much so there is less lung damage. Compare that to some low grade weed where you have to smoke close to a gram to feel something.
I have never really seen anyone have an “adverse reaction” to any form of cannabis, if you smoke too much then you probably won’t feel too good and want to lay down but that’s about it. Unless it was laced with something, but now that it’s legal and regulated it’s not likely to happen. Some people with mental problems or on certain medications can freak out when they smoke weed, a girl I knew told me a story like that. She smoked a joint with one of her neighbors, the girl started acting crazy and ran home and hid under her bed. Apparently she was bipolar and it didn’t react well with her medication, but people like that shouldn’t be smoking weed or drinking at all.
I guess there are some people who can’t handle weed/cannabis, but they will figure that out pretty fast as soon as they try it.
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There needs to be a weed equivalent to a standard drink… given drug response in proportion to dose will differ from person to person this foruma would be very difficult to figure out. But as I’ve specified prior, microdosing does exist. For me I’d consider 2-3 drags to be a beer.
Though one beer is fine (in my opinion)… the problem is many don’t adhere to one beer
There’s responsible use, intoxication and then outright reckless abuse
I actually have nothing against alcohol, I merely use it as an arguement to demonstrate a hypocritical double standard present within society
When I was referring to weed having a beneficial outcome I was talking as replacement as choice of intoxicant
I should specify I’ve seen some seriously adverse reactions to weed (typically in those who had prior histories of sexual/physical abuse as a child and/or underlying psychiatric ailment)
I recall one adverse response when the girl (Wasn’t her first time either) started talking to someone next to her… but there was fucking no one there
I’ve seen a few reactions like this. Upon scientific consensus it’s more likely to occur within kids and may facilitate the onset of psychiatric ailment within those young (say below 17) absent of pre existing psychiatric ailment
They may not be common (seriously adverse reactions) but they do happen… fortunately these reactions are typically acute
Though I’ve seen far more adverse reactions to alcohol
Weed = 3 adverse reactions
Alcohol = literally hundreds… you’ll see these reactions at pubs/clubs/parties all the time… violent behaviour/blatant misconduct, destruction of property, lack of ability to reason, throwing up, requirement of an ambulance/ stomachs pumped etc
The thing is that beer, wine, and liquor are beverages, they just have the potential to cause intoxication. The whole point of smoking weed is to get high, otherwise you would be smoking a cigarette or cigar or something of that sort.
Those are usually the result of drinking too much combined with being an idiot in the first place. I used to live in an area full of bars and clubs, I saw stuff like that all the time.
What about high cbd cannabis? With near zero thc?
What about poppy seed tea? What about ayuahausca or whatever that brew is called?
Shroom tea also exists
All are beverages, the goal is clearly to achieve an altered state of mind
A BAC over 0.02 (achieved with around one standard drink) statistically increases the risk of fatal collisions on the road, fine motor skills are subtly impaired from as little as one standard drink… the effects of microdosed ethanol are subtle, but present. I don’t buy the arguement of “its one beer, it doesn’t do ANYTHING”
statistically that isn’t true. Though I personally don’t perceive any significant effect from one beer… or even three or four for that matter
The scariest experience I ever had with weed was when I drank a 40 Oz of OE with it. The experience turned psychedelic. I begged my friend to sleep over my house! That was 1997. I never smoked it or drank that much beer in a sitting again! I dont think I’ve had more than 20 Oz of beer in a night since either. Scared the shit out of me!
Whilst blood THC concentration isn’t associated with impairment, I do believe scientific literature has shown as little as one standard drink doubles plasma concentration of THC…
Cannabis is classified within some bodies of scientific data as a hallucinogen, albeit a mild one
I’ve seen small patterns/shapes from cannabis… and prior like you’ve said, combined with alcohol I’ve experienced environmental distortions…
However the most significant hallucinogenic experience I’ve ever had from “cannabis” (this is an arguement for regulation) was the second time ever trying it… laced with PCP… I knew almost immediately something was incredibly off
Yeah, I guess you have a point there. That wasn’t really a thing until recently and it’s for medical use, not recreation.
But drinking a beer or a glass of wine with your dinner is not normally done for any such purpose. You can have a shot or small drink of some nice liquor just for the taste too.
Did I mention driving anywhere?
Being tired impairs motor skills, but you can be tired and drive. You’re not likely to get caught either because the sirens and flashing lights will wake you right up. I don’t drink at all and drive because here they have some new laws where if you are over .04 they will tow your car, suspend your license, and give you a fine, plus your insurance will go up. I don’t own a breathalyzer machine and it’s not worth the risk for a drink or two. Only if I go out somewhere that I plan to stay for several hours and eat at some point, then maybe I will have a drink shortly after arriving.
I think that law is overkill, it’s not stopping people from driving drunk, it’s criminalizing responsible drinking. One beer doesn’t do anything to me, but if I don’t sleep at night I will feel like shit the next day yet there is nothing to stop me from driving. Or if I had the flu, a fever, etc. I think the old .08 law was fine, they just need severe punishments for drunk driving, and it’s pretty severe already.
I remember drinking 3 40oz bottles a few times. I don’t remember what I did after, but I remember drinking them. I used to smoke weed and drink too much regularly so I never had a problem with it, but it’s true that combining weed and alcohol gives you a stronger effect.
A few times I smoked weed that must have been laced with something, I don;t know what but it wasn’t weed alone. That’s one reason why it’s better for weed to be legal because while it’s a low risk for “adverse effects”, PCP and other cheap drugs are not.
Where I live the law is .05… though if you don’t have you’re full license (we have literally the most draconian regulates regarding licenses… I’m on my green P’s… don’t get my full license til I’m 21-22… so my limit is 0.00)
I’m actually all for the law, statistically speaking .08 allows you to have about four beers/shots and still get behind the wheel, the risk of crashing is more than 2x from .05 and above, I don’t mind regulatory standards being present when getting behind the wheel under the influence
even if you believe you’re okay to drive (but might not be)… the risk is on more than just the driver, but to others around the driver
What I don’t agree with is the roadside drug tests here looking to pin you on a trace concentration… the smallest penalty for stoned driving (not even stoned, a trace… people are getting caught out having smoked days ago) is worse than had you blown 0.3… it’s retarded
The Netherlands has a system/measurement in place that looks to detect impairment via cocaine, MDMA or whatever… there’s legitimate cutoffs somewhat backed by scientific consensus… here it’s “oh, there’s a trace, you’re under arrest”
Why can I drink a bottle of vodka, drive the next day despite data indicating a hangover impairs driving ability… me getting behind the wheel 24 hours after smoking a joint isnt dangerous
Furthermore there have been cases of people coming up positive who have
- never smoked cannabis in their lives (typically after re analysis comes up as a false negative)… still can’t drive for a few days until you get the lab results…
- coming up positive after second hand smoke exposure… the device is supposed to be fool proof within this retrospect, the number of anecdotal reports would suggest otherwise
It probably depends a lot on the person as well, some people handle alcohol better than others. Also 2x what, the risk or crashing while sober? The problem is and has always been people driving drunk, not people driving after 2 drinks with their dinner.
Yeah that is stupid, there is someone here taking their case to the supreme court in hopes of overturning the law. From the first time I heard of this law I thought it was only a matter of time before they get rid of it. Test for impairment, nothing else for weed. And why no roadside test for coke, heroin, meth, etc? You say they have it in the Netherlands, why not elsewhere?
Also drug field test kits testing positive from crumbs of whatever and people spending months in jail for drug charges when there were no drugs. That’s even worse. There was one case where they found crumbs from the icing on a donut on a guy’s car floor and charged him for possessing meth.