Drew Carey defends medical marijuana

[Tsukiyumi]

http://reason.tv/video/show/57.html

An interesting little segment on the problem. A lot of good points made, though it is a bit one-sided.

Thoughts?

[stitch626]

Used to relive pain... so why not morphine?

[Mikey]

Morphine is chemically addictive, and long-term use leads to systemic problems.

Marijuana also quells nausea and improves appetite in chemo patients.

[Sionnach Glic]

Aye, marijuana does have a lot of uses as a medical agent.

[stitch626]

Yeah, and also leads to 12% of stupid actions by teanagers (ie, car accidents, fights, gang wars...).

[Sionnach Glic]

Which is a complete red herring when discussing medical applications.

[Mikey]

Yeah, and also leads to 12% of stupid actions by teanagers (ie, car accidents, fights, gang wars...).

And a far greater percentage of those things among teenagers are caused by the simple fact of adolescence, or alcohol, or abuse of home-based prescription drugs or huffing.

[stitch626]

No its not. If it becomes legal for medical use, most likely there will be more people who will go to it before looking for other treatments. Increasing the supply of it will lead to an increase of illegal use (therefore an increase of stupid accidents), because there have been many instances of marijuana theft from the current "farms" (I call them such for lack of a better term).

And a far greater percentage of those things among teenagers are caused by the simple fact of adolescence, or alcohol, or abuse of home-based prescription drugs or huffing.

And those are illegal for teens. Doesn't change anything.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Being adolescent is illegal?

[stitch626]

Sorry, I meant the drugs, not the fact of life.

[Sionnach Glic]

If it's aproved for medical use then in all probability it'd need to be prescribed. It's not like you can just walk into a shop and buy morphine. Ergo it'll likely remain out of the hands of idiot teens.

[Sionnach Glic]

Oh, and I'd be very interested to see your source that claims 12% of all illegal activities committed by adolescents is caused by marijuana.

[Teaos]

Yeah come on Stitch, you can use statistics to prove anything, 70% of people know that.

But I fully support medical marijuana. Hell I support it being fully legalised. For anyone who has tried it (And I'm going to go out an a limb here and guess most of us have at one time) you know its a pretty soft drug.

Legalise it, tax it, put restrictions on its use (can't drive while high ect).

It cleans up the sorces of weed (The amount of times I've seen people smoke a joint cut with something nasty like P or rat poisin) and provides a source of income that you can then use to inforce proper use.

[stitch626]

Ah.
Sorry, I assumed that it would be grown the same way it is now (though at the moment it is illegal). I never thought of it being through a pharmacy.
Ok, I'll concede my points.

Oh, and I'd be very interested to see your source that claims 12% of all illegal activities committed by adolescents is caused by marijuana.

It was a study mentioned in the New York Times, I think 2001, maybe earlier. And it wasn't illegal activities. IIRC, it was in reference to hospital visits and the number of certain patients who tested positive for marijuana. I don't remember much from the article. And I have already tried finding it on their site and through Google. Haven't found it yet.

[Sionnach Glic]

[snip]

Aye, a guy that's high on marijuana is no more dangerous than a guy who's drunk.