--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung <no_re...@...> wrote: > > Pot has been used for thousands of years and has never been anything > but a boon to any culture -- until Hearst et al.
Actually, research being done at Columbia University for the last 10 years shows that cannabis use (yes plain old marijuana) increases the likelihood of developing psychosis by ten fold. I have heard presentations by these drs (presented at the annual Schizophrenia Research Conference in April 2008) and it is no joke. Even a single use can trigger psychosis and schizophrenia. I have also met a few young adults with schizophrenia or talked with their parents - kids who developed it after using marijuana just once or twice, say on their spring break from freshman year of college. Even after taking in to account that schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders often develop at that age range, there seems to be quite good evidence of the increased risk involved. A tenfold (not 10%) increase is a lot. Having seen what schizophrenia has done to some of these kids, well, it seems like a big risk to take. I don't mean to sound like a killjoy, but this is the research coming out, good research, not TMO wishful thinking. > > To me this illegality of weed issue is such a disconnect. I can't get > my head around it. How can ANYONE think that pot is anywhere near as > harmful as alcohol or tobacco use when these two substances are well > known to kill hundreds of thousands of people every year? I mean, > it's one thing to speak of the potency of Hearst's propaganda, but > when the truth is right there for all the world to see and yet it is > denied, it blows me away. > > It is absolutely the commonest experience for almost anyone to have > seen a homeless person with their brown paper bag cheap wine sitting > on some stoop in a haze, or we've all seen a person smoking a > cigarette and coughing a lung up at the same time. Who doesn't know > these "end results" that usage can create in some lives? > > Yet, anyone seen smoking a joint in a public place will be thought to > be some criminal-at-large who might do anything any second and should > be feared and shamed and abused in any way possible. > > I remember living in Arcata, CA for a year, and it was hippy-ville > central. Tie dyes. Granny dresses. The whole magilla. > > Every Saturday they'd have the farmer's market, and there'd be pot > smoke easily smelled everywhere -- even some folks openly toking > up....cops ignoring it. I was shocked. Today, I understand that this > is the case in many other venues now in CA. > > It's about time. I think the pot heads in Arcata need to learn > something from the Gay Pride movement in SF -- make it a regionally > identified issue and move now, act up, get in faces, be outrageous, > flagrant, and snotty about it. To hell with anymore submissioning to > haughty moralists with their atomic tsk-tskings. Have a pot parade > like a gay pride parade with giant hookas, boxcar sized blunts, etc. > > If they legalize it in CA, I think it'd be a tipping point for the > whole world. Amsterdam's example is just not enough, but all of > California?....yeah, now ya gots yourself a tipper. > > Edg > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "boo_lives" <boo_lives@> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine <salsunshine@> > > wrote: > > > > > > On Feb 24, 2009, at 9:42 AM, boo_lives wrote: > > > > > > > People I know who "see auras" all say that anti-depressants are > about > > > > the worst drug to take, and no-one is in jail for taking and selling > > > > antidepressants, and anti-depressants are much more common among > ffld > > > > sidhas than pot. I won't even bother to get into alchohol and the > > > > suffering that causes in society and in ffld. > > > > > > Well maybe your friends who "see auras" ought to > > > go back to the loony bins they obviously > > > escaped from, boo. Who the hell are they to > > > pass judgements on medication which has helped > > > millions? > > > > > > Sal > > > > > To clarify I'm not saying that anti-depressant medication can't help > > some people and it's fully up to them to decide what to do. I > > mentioned the aura readers just because someone else did to put down > > cannabis and I wanted to say these people see lots of things and you > > actually shouldn't go by that either way. > > > > I wanted to point out that our society is bipolar regarding drugs. > > Antidepressants help some people, but also have many physical side > > effects plus the well known clouding over of the personality and > > emotions for many people, plus a study I saw last week saying that > > certain antidepressants in fact didn't have any benefit at all, plus > > the overprescription of antidepressants to children and to low > > depression patients who could be treated other ways, YET despite all > > this we still find a way to get antidepressants to people who need > > them... but mention cannabis and immediately scenes from reefer > > madness come to mind and teh possibility that some people will have > > negative effects means hundreds of thousands of americans are in jail. > > I'd like to see more equality in how we view pharmaceutical versus > > non pharmaceutical drugs. > > >
