Guatemalan President to world: Legalize drugs

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Yep. Addiction and drug use are two separate issues. People take narcotics under a doctor's prescription all the time and don't become addicted.

Bullshit. People get addicted to prescription drugs all the time. Just look at Rush Limbaugh.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Bullshit. People get addicted to prescription drugs all the time. Just look at Rush Limbaugh.

That's from abuse, not proper use. Drugs have a benefit when properly dispensed and used.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Bullshit. People get addicted to prescription drugs all the time. Just look at Rush Limbaugh.

True. And the war on drugs does nothing to change that.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

That's from abuse, not proper use. Drugs have a benefit when properly dispensed and used.

I had 6 grains of morphine coming out of surgery once, and I was hooked! You got any more?

True. And the war on drugs does nothing to change that.

It does make it harder to get pain medication.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I had 6 grains of morphine coming out of surgery once, and I was hooked! You got any more?

You were? Did you end up a junkie, selling your body for drugs while living on the street?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

You were? Did you end up a junkie, selling your body for drugs while living on the street?

Yes. No, I can pay cash. Can you get me some more?

Robin Williams once said, "Cocaine is God's way of telling you that you are making too much money."

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

It does make it harder to get pain medication.

And yet, the number of prescription drug addicts continues to rise. If those drugs were unavailable, addicts will find other ####### to get high with.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

And yet, the number of prescription drug addicts continues to rise. If those drugs were unavailable, addicts will find other ####### to get high with.

True. Just look at teens these days taking OTC drugs. I guess taking a whole bottle of allergy medicine at once will give you an amazing high, if it doesn't destroy your kidneys or liver first.

[JohnR! 5,495]

In this way the Communist virtually wiped out drug use and brought the opium problem to a quick end

A fast and simple way to handle the drug situation here. Death to any drug dealer.From weed on up.

Unfortunately that did not stop drug trafficking in China, where one can find drugs virtually everywhere, in addition to money laundering and other vices many consider exclusive to the West.

In reality you can even find drugs in Singapore and Malaysia, where the punishment for possession is death.

It also should be mentioned that China has one of the highest incidences in cigarette smoking in the world. So the Communist party did not really eliminate drug use so much as they brought it unders the control of the State...

Edited September 26, 2012 by Gegel

[JohnR! 5,495]

That's from abuse, not proper use. Drugs have a benefit when properly dispensed and used.

In the least, they should legalize cannabis. It is less toxic and damaging than cigarettes...

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

True. Just look at teens these days taking OTC drugs. I guess taking a whole bottle of allergy medicine at once will give you an amazing high, if it doesn't destroy your kidneys or liver first.

There are always Darwin Awards to be had.

In 1940 it was estimated that there were 40 million opium smokers in China. In 1941 Chiang Kai-shek ordered the complete suppression of the poppy and laws were passed that meted at the death penalty for anyone cultivating the poppy, manufacturing opium or offering it for sale.

The Communist took this policy a step further by executing dealers, declaring that anybody found using drugs would be put to death. and providing immediate cold turkey treatment for addicts. In Canton in 1951, 27,000 pounds of opium was publicly burned and 37 addicts were executed. In this way the Communist virtually wiped out drug use and brought the opium problem to a quick end

A fast and simple way to handle the drug situation here. Death to any drug dealer.From weed on up.

I never thought of you as a closet Communist.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

In the least, they should legalize cannabis. It is less toxic and damaging than cigarettes...

I think you are buying the misinformation saturating the internet by the NORML crowd.

...research from Canada shows that some toxins may be more abundant in marijuana cigarettes than tobacco cigarettes.

The researchers burned 30 marijuana cigarettes and 30 tobacco cigarettes on a machine in their lab, measuring levels of chemicals in the smoke.

Ammonia levels were up to 20 times higher in marijuana smoke than in tobacco smoke. Levels of hydrogen cyanide and nitrogen-related chemicals were three to five times higher in marijuana smoke than in tobacco smoke.

The Woodstock generation is getting some very bad news: Marijuana smoking in middle age may trigger a heart attack in those who still indulge. Marijuana smokers increase their risk of having a heart attack almost five times within one hour of lighting up, according to a study presented here at an American Heart Association (AHA) meeting.

"This is the first documented link between marijuana and heart attack," says Murray A. Mittleman, MD, PhD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston.

Mittleman tells WebMD the spike in risk quickly decreases after an hour passes. Pot smokers are twice as likely as nonsmokers to have a heart attack one to two hours after lighting up.

To put that increased risk in perspective, Mittleman says that the risk of heart attack increases 100 times when a couch potato decides to shovel snow, and it "increase 2.5-fold with sex."

New research shows that among multiple sclerosis patients, those who smoke marijuana may have slower reaction times on mental skills tests and are more likely to report a history of psychiatric diagnoses.

That news, published in today's advance online edition of Neurology, comes from a Canadian study.

The researchers studied 140 multiple sclerosis patients, including 10 who said they smoke marijuana at least once a month.

The patients took various mental skills tests and were interviewed about their mental health history.

Marijuana smokers had slower average reaction times on a test that challenged them to process information quickly. And they were more likely to report a history of psychiatric diagnoses, most of which were depression or anxiety diagnoses.

Smoking marijuana may gradually fade verbal memory and other mental skills, according to a study in Neurology.

"The finding of this study is that heavy, frequent, long-term marijuana use (more than 15 years of use on average) may subtly affect certain cognitive abilities, especially the ability to verbally learn and remember new information and information-processing speed," researcher Lambros Messinis, PhD, tells WebMD in an email.

"However, we do not yet definitely know if these deficits are reversible after longer periods of abstinence from marijuana," Messinis adds, calling the findings "still controversial."

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Who says you need to smoke it?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Who says you need to smoke it?

Alternative forms of marijuana delivery, including sublingual, rectal and transdermal delivery have not been appropriately investigated. - Joy, J.E., Watson, S.J. & Benson, J.A. (Eds). (1999). Marijuana and medicine: Assessing the science base. National Academy Press: Washington.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Where does the private enterprise get the licensing? Do you think that every Joe Farmer is going to start growing weed and cocoa and sell it at roadside stands? What does the Bureau of ATF do? It makes me laugh when people think that the cartels are just going to go away overnight. And peacefully give up a business worth tens of billions.

Most likely it would be similar to ending prohibition.. Rough at first, some of the now drug lords would become legitimate, some would move to whatever drugs the government decided to keep illegal.. Slowly others would join the competition as it was no longer seen as an embarrassing business to be in.. A few large corps would eventually control 80% of all the business while another 20% would be small and stylish and higher priced.

We would have some funny new commercials to look forward to.