Disclaimer: I'm not encouraging minors to go out and try drugs. This is merely discussion about the topic as legalization / decriminalization are becoming more common across North America for medicinal and recreational uses.

Cannabis (and hemp) is a pretty interesting topic to me due to the history behind it and its effects in modern day society. Strains high in CBD are becoming increasingly well known for medicinal use in dealing with pain and seizures, as well as helping kill some cancers. It can also help people with extremely debilitating anxiety and depression function and live normal lives for people whom normal avenues of medicine don't help. On the recreational side of things, There are multiple studies that show cannabis is a safer alternative to common vices such as alcohol and tobacco despite both being legal and cannabis being illegal in many places recreationally (medicinally many places are legal now).

My personal experience with cannabis has been odd to say the least. Much of my life I had thought cannabis was dangerous due to my upbringing. My first time experiencing cannabis was at a friends birthday party when I was 17, though at the time it didn't do anything for me besides make me snack out on chips. I didn't experience getting high, which for some first time users ends up being the case.

Throughout much of my childhood into growing up as an adult, I had extremely bad depression to the point of having tried to commit suicide three separate times. After the third attempt (which I was talked down from, thank you Booth) I had sworn I wouldn't attempt to kill myself again, though the depression was still there.

Later into college years I also started to develop incredibly debilitating anxiety attacks, the worst of which ended with me in a hospital before an exam, eventually deciding to drop from the course months from getting my degree in Game Programming at the college I attended as it was a large source of anxiety for me (My main source of anxiety tends to be large groups of people).

Back on topic, I ended up having to move back home being in debt to the government, unable to find a job, and finding my depression growing much worse. Enter November of 2014 where I was visiting family and ended up going to my Uncle's place. My Uncle was pretty quick on picking up when I was depressed and we ended up having a long talk that night about it. After the discussion he rolled up a joint and offered me one. At the time I was tired of the medicines I'd been put on doing nothing and would have done anything to make the depression go away. For the rest of the night I was happy, talkative, able to socialize with the rest of my family next door, and generally just felt good. It managed to lift my mood for the entire week and my family could notice. I started to smoke regularly, eventually switching to a vaporizer for health reasons. Since then I've found a job, get out of the house a lot more to see family / do outdoor activities, have drastically reduced anxiety and have been depression free.

That's about all I really have to say on the topic currently, so I'll end this with a couple questions for you all.

Do you support decriminalization?
If you don't support decriminalization, do you support legalization?
What kinds of laws would you like there to be around cannabis if decriminalization or legalization were to happen to prevent recreational use by minors?
If cannabis were to become legal recreationally where you live, would you try it if you hadn't tried it before?

Think that just about covers everything for now, looking forward to reading some thoughts on the subject!

Legalize it! I haven't smoked it since I was 17 (first time I tried I was 15), and I'll never smoke it again, but I don't see the harm in it. Like Clark said, it's not as bad as alcohol or even tobacco to your body. And nobody is going to a marijuana bar to get high and then drive home (although it might be a possibility). Let's collect taxes on it so it can reduce income and property taxes... But knowing our government (especially in MN) they'd keep all taxes the same and just find a new way to spend money, lol.

Dan H wrote on 08/11/15 at 08:42:22:


Not to mention income from taxation could be used to help improve health care as well! No matter how you look at it, it's a lot better than the money going into the illegal drug market.

Depends on how high of a temperature you can set, mine can go to 240C which does evaporate CBD, though 220C is all that you need (anything more is likely to burn the plant). Incredibly useful little machine

i don't fucking care if you do it or not just confine it to private use and please don't do it in the school restroom

I have somewhat mixed feelings on it overall.

Decriminalization is a completely logical step. Clogging the criminal justice system with small time stoners is simply a waste of resources.

I used to smoke every week minimum but then once when I was far too stoned my heart started going crazy for about 12 hours. It was pretty scary at the time and I was hospitalized overnight with heart palpatations. I've smoked a total of once since then and it sent my heart racing again so I just said tht would be my last time and I've stuck to that almost two years later, except for a single toke with my friends when drunk.

National Geographic did an interesting article on marijuana, and in particular its medicinal qualities and it's definitely exhibiting signs of real promise. I think it would be prudent to allow medical use immediately for people suffering from seizures and other conditions for which there is empirical evidence that CBD can offset some of the harmful effects associated with the various problems. However, a lot of the medicinal properties are based on anecdotal evidence and a lot more research is needed before we truly know of its true benefits and potential long term side effects.

I don't see why jailing a person simply for drug use would benefit society or the person that was jailed. Of course, there can be other charges pressed in cases like drunk driving and stuff, but yeah.

Ayy I'm in College Station during the school year, at A&M, so if you ever find yourself out that way I'll more likely than not be open to a meetup  

(Not related to the thread, I thought I'd add. No cannabis 4me tyvm.)

I personally think cannabis should remain illegal except perhaps in designated, isolated locations where everyone who uses it is fully aware of the risks involved and the pharmacological repercussions of introducing such a volatile and venal influence upon the psyche.

Exactly the same way I believe a similar attitude should be taken for cheeseburgers (replace psyche with BMI) and hammers (replace psyche with technological infrastructure)

Cheeseburgers are one of the leading contributors to obesity, which is one of the biggest risk factors for cardiac arrest; which is one of - if not THE leading cause of death.

Hammers can potentially translate even a normally benign twitch into a force capable of incapacitating or permanently injuring a person. The mechanical advantage they provide has at least equal - if not greater - destructive potential than constructive potential.

Thus brings me to my attitude towards cannabis. Such an introduction into an altered state of awareness does not come without any inherent dangers or risks. Being exposed to an entirely different frame of reference can lead one to prefer it over ones base, sober state - or introduce one to the concept of psychopharmacological modulation of consciousness itself - which is the underlying drive for all drug abuse.

It has been shown that the world cannot handle Cheeseburgers and Hammers.. if cannabis were legalized and permitted to coexist with these, people might use hammers to eat cheeseburgers and the ramifications such a thing would have on society would be impossible to underestimate.

Legalize it! There are worse drugs like alcohol that are legal, so I don't see a problem. It's still illegal where I live, but the police doesn't really care much about private use and only goes after people who produce and sell it professionally. It's likely to become legal soon.  

But despite that, you should still be careful when using it. Don't do it when you're feeling bad, it will only make things worse! It's also a bad idea, like with every drug, to use it too much. Cannabis may not be able to permanently harm you physically, but you can still get addicted to it, with all kinds of bad effects.

LewisRichards wrote on 08/20/15 at 08:18:58:


The stuff you can get from legal stores is just as potent (and in many cases more potent) as what you could get off the street.

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Nothing stops them, but why buy from someone illegally when you can buy legally and most likely get better product due to the quality standards grows need to uphold, on top of having more options / product to choose from. The price difference isn't that big and supporting the illegal drug market (when given legal options) only serves to strengthen cartels. You also don't take the chance that the dealer is lacing it with something else.

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While I'm sure there's some idiot out there that did this (there always is!), you don't use weed and then suddenly decide one day "Gee I'd like to shoot up some meth" because of it. Meth has incredibly serious side effects and can be overdosed on, whereas weed is safer than most legal over the counter and prescription drugs.

Okay,  that's interesting