Article: California to Legalize Weed for Everyone

[kilroy0097]

This just came across the wire a few days ago. Holy Ganja Batman!

California to Legalize Weed for Everyone (http://laist.com/2008/06/30/california_to_legalize_weed_for_eve_1.php)


There is an initiative in the works that could end up on the November ballot that allows for marijuana to be sold to anyone, and anywhere that already sells alcohol. Its being called The Inalienable Rights Enforcement Initiative...

... Aside from allowing all willing adults to be able to buy weed easily, this initiative will start to generate revenue for California, and stimulate our struggling economy. More weed stores means more jobs for Californians, more taxes to be collected, and more people enjoying better weed. And finally marijuana will be put into the same file as Alcohol and Cigarettes where it belongs, instead of it being equated with crack-cocaine and heroine.


I think the number of tourists and road trips to California would increase quite a bit. Not to mention it would solve a lot of California's budget issues with a huge influx of money through taxes.

[Winter]

This always makes me laugh:

"It's not the government's business if I want to smoke pot. They oughtta legalize it and stay out of everyone's business.... and then be in charge of regulating, taxing, distribution, et al!"

[kilroy0097]

Here is a funny thing off that site. He actually reviews different strains of weed.

http://laist.com/tags/weedreviews

[kilroy0097]

Wow, and you can buy seeds online! Too bad you probably couldn't get them over here... or could you?
http://www.flyingdutchmen.com/

[kilroy0097]

Here is an interesting series of Youtube videos explaining the usefulness of hemp as a resource.

http://www.hemp.tv/hemp/

[StevenNevets]

Someone found a new hobby.

[kilroy0097]

Nope.. just a new site. ;)
That hobby is an old one.

[Tykwer]

Wow, and you can buy seeds online! Too bad you probably couldn't get them over here... or could you?
http://www.flyingdutchmen.com/

You can. I knew someone who did it, but i don't know exactly how he did it or if he had to do anything sneaky himself. I'm not completely sure, but I think when he got them, they were in a cd jewel case or something like that, as though the company he purchased them from we're the one's pulling the clever ruse. Personally, I would be too scared to do it. You are being watched, you know. :lookaroundb:
I'm not going to claim that marijuana is harmless when smoked, but at least it doesn't make you puke or die as a result of a short period of excessive toking, while nicotine can cause the former and alcohol one or both.

Average THC levels have apparently increased recently
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25117595/
dammit, news, give me the primary sources! Where is the study itself? anyways, this same group, the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project, measured the levels of THC in various years and here's at least perhaps a piece of data from 1985-'98 http://www.drugwardistortions.org/distortion11.htm


I bet the alcohol and tobacco industries lobby against these kind of bills for fear of competition.

[Tigiot]

Thought I posted something about this before, but figures that the only openly gay Senator/Congressman (w/e he is) is the one to sponsor the bill. (Barney Frank)

Also, in the Netherlands they banned tobacco smoking in public places.

[antigen]

btw kids: Hemp is NOT marijuana. Get used to it.

[Tigiot]

Average THC levels have apparently increased recently
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25117595/
dammit, news, give me the primary sources! Where is the study itself? anyways, this same group, the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project, measured the levels of THC in various years and here's at least perhaps a piece of data from 1985-'98 http://www.drugwardistortions.org/distortion11.htm


I bet the alcohol and tobacco industries lobby against these kind of bills for fear of competition.

www.abovetheignorance.org
www.norml.org

http://stash.norml.org/2008/06/02/marijuana-more-potent-than-it-used-to-be/
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5515

[FozzyBear]

I am not a stoner. Nor do I regularly use marijuana.

I want an honest debate, with sources, about why weed is worse than beer/alcohol.

My gut feeling is that weed is not nearly as bad as alcohol or tobacco.

[Tigiot]

I am not a stoner. Nor do I regularly use marijuana.

I want an honest debate, with sources, about why weed is worse than beer/alcohol.

My gut feeling is that weed is not nearly as bad as alcohol or tobacco.

And you're quite right.

Drug Deaths Per Year
http://www.abovetheignorance.org/images/deaths_chart.gif

http://www.google.com/search?q=marijuana+safer+than+alcohol%2Ftobacco

http://www.safercolorado.org/images/clip_image003.gif
Source: http://www.safercolorado.org/safer-doc

[sir_digalot]

hemp is not weed but it was the cotton industry that took both down, remember reefer madness? *L*

i do not partake, but i see no real reason why it should not be legal, a few people i know would much rather get stoned then drink, because of the effects/after effects... okay inhaling microscopic particles of dust, along with other chemicals which are present and changing the chemistry of the body to a certain extent cannot be all good, but, at the moment it seems to do less damage then the other legal vices.

the problem california is almost a none smoking state *LOL* so it is like being stranded on a beach with a bottle of beer that has a hole in it and a woman who doesn't.....

i.e. you can legally by weed and smoke it, but, since the state is none smoking, you can't...

i know it is not entirely none smoking yet, but soon i am sure....

[papasan9]

I am not a stoner. Nor do I regularly use marijuana.

I want an honest debate, with sources, about why weed is worse than beer/alcohol.

My gut feeling is that weed is not nearly as bad as alcohol or tobacco.

yeah, a local cop friend made a comment that he has never arrived on scene to a domestic disturbance where marijuana only was involved. alcohol is almost always the main drug, meth second.

the tar content of marijuana is so high, that undoutbtedly it is worse to smoke than cigarettes for coating your lungs. other than that, i think your gut feeling is right on.

[Tykwer]

0 deaths? Some how I highly doubt it. Maybe pure THC and the smoke produced by the combustion thereof is 100% safe and will never cause cancer, but come on! All the other shit in the bud has got to form carcinogenic tar and what not when combusted. Just look at your pipe, your bong, or even your roaches and tell me that the resin left thereon is perfectly safe to bathe your lungs in. papasan beat me to the punch!
EDIT: also, i recall my intro to bio teacher saying something about smoking like it screws with the cilia that remove the bad stuff from your airways. Though it was in reference to cig smoke, i would bet a lot that ganja smoke has the same effect.

I'm not saying it's not more harmful than stuff that is already legal, but come on, don't make it out to be a wonder drug. I think that type of rhetoric hurts, rather than helps, the legalization efforts, which I would like to see passed. I mean even caffeine can do some pretty fucked up stuff to you if you drink too much of it over too prolonged a period of time, but it's an acceptable risk to society.
Maybe if everyone used a vaporizer or something, it would be totally safe, but most people dont have the hundreds of dollars to buy one and will use just about anything they have to smoke: coke cans, apples...If you've never smoked out of an apple pipe, you might not be a pothead.

Dig, who cares if you cant smoke it on the street? I care more about not being arrested on the way back from making a purchase or if a cop comes to your house for another reason like a noise complaint, no longer will anyone have to try to find a place to hide their 4-foot bong.

[JustMeBF2]

Hemp tea
Not the strongest mix but gets the job done without the smoke and tar.
The heat is what releases the THC from the leaves.

Some parents are using it for ADHD.

My son is ADHD/Aspergers and I don't want to use the toxic drugs that
are approved.

But I haven't had the nerve to try the hemp tea.

[sir_digalot]

the whole weed thing is along the lines of the whole smoking thing, those cities/states that have banned public smoking (bars etc) always throw thetoxins and stuff around, but hell i have been living in a city for many years. i have worked on numerous types of internal combustion and gas turbine engines, and i cannot say for sure the toxins and carcinogens from those fumes are any better for me/us then the cigarettes/weed smoke that floats around in certain places.
i do agree however that the stuff has gotten stronger and being unregualted i have seen it cut with some nasty shit, (in order to make it appear to be the weight that it was purchased at) at least legalising it and regulating it properly you may not get kill, but you will have safe bud, rather like the prostitution industry... she may not be the best, but at least she is clean....

weed browneis are cool, if you make the butter have the THC and you don;t get chewey bits in them :D

[Tykwer]

Yeah, I, erm...had a friend who purchased a special brownie from some dealer at school, who either didn't make the butter or didn't strain it afterwards so there were chunks in it, and he decided to consume it during his english class and gagged on a chunk, almost causing him to blow special brownie chunks in class. He managed to get it down though and was crazy blown for nearly the rest of the day. He couldn't smoke pot and eat chocolate together without feeling queasy for quite some time after that.

[Tigiot]

Yeah people need to know how to make the butter right :P

Also, potency isn't a big issue, it's probably better. I know whenever I have shittier bud I have to smoke more of it (therefore get more carcinogens in my system) than when I have chronic.

[[W33T] JimmytehHand8]

Yeah but how does California plan on protecting their citizens from the federal government? Just because Cali legalizes doesn't mean that the feds cant come in and make arrests.

[Tigiot]

JimmytehHand8;275929']Yeah but how does California plan on protecting their citizens from the federal government? Just because Cali legalizes doesn't mean that the feds cant come in and make arrests.

Exactly, state power is still fucked.

Some companies won't recognize medical marijuana showing up on a piss test because of the fed.

But shit, it's a plant that doesn't have nearly as many derivatives as poppy pods so there is no logical reason (wallets aside) it should be illegal with the amount of shit pumped through people in a tiny little orange bottle.

[Tigiot]

.....

[JustMeBF2]

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/9862/9ve93sthtc3.gif