In the spirit of democracy a "pot" poll

[AAbsolute]

Well, just to play devil's advocate. If we keep pot illegal because it's got stuff in it that's bad for you, then why don't we also outlaw BHA, BHT, nitrates, nitrites, pesticides, petrochemical fertilizers, chlorine based products, all chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer, neurological damage, birth defects or other health problems, bacon, artificial sweeteners. Lots of art supplies too - oil paints, polymer clay (Fimo). Fiberglass insulation. Treated wood products. Formaldehyde. VOCs. Alcohol, psychoactive pharmaceuticals. Polyester, vinyl, petrochemical plastics, Teflon for heaven's sakes, and aluminum cookware as well as aluminum foil. Motorcycles. Diving boards and swimming pools, skateboards, snowboards, skis, .....

I could go on, but gee whiz, all kinds of things and activities have various benefits and risks that depend on chance as well as frequency and care with which they are used and undertaken. And medical bills to handle the bad results when things are misused, or accidents happen, can be high whether the causative factor was legal or illegal.

Our medical care delivery system is in worse shape than NOLA's levees pre Katrina, but I don't think keeping pot illegal is gonna work as a finger in the dike. Why not legalize it and tax it like tobacco and alcohol? The revenues could go into the health care fund for pot smokers, so they become self insured. Think of all the law enforcement funds that would be freed up, the reduction in prison overcrowding, the legal commerce etc.

Anybody read Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire? Four sections, one on marijuana. Very interesting insight into how a generation or two of horticultural expertise has gone underground in cultivation of pot. What if all that suddenly was allowed to be legal in the light of day -- what benefits might be made available to the wider world around intensive agriculture?

There's an Amen in order from me to what you've said in the last paragraph.

 

[LuciferSam]

OK, We live in America the home of the free. I have asked the question so many times and have yet to get an answer to the simple question:

If I were to grow and care for 1 female plant, taking care to keep it healthy and private for my own use, who would the victim be in that crime?

Can I hear from a passionate detractor please?

I would say the only victim would be that plant that you've cared for all these years.

 

[AAbsolute]

I would say the only victim would be that plant that you've cared for all these years.

She would be so beautiful I just know people would want clones for Chrsitmas so they could tend to her offspring.......did I write that correctly.....is a clone offspring....

 

[vote]

what an economic boom it could be for say freeport if the city was to decrimitalize small amounts and open "coffeeshops"

 

[Rita]

whatdayamean mean we haven't tried them all... I'm rollin' up some palmetto right now... ya can't be too sure...

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[LuciferSam]

what an economic boom it could be for say freeport if the city was to decrimitalize small amounts and open "coffeeshops"

I would think at the waffle houses they could serve a new form of hash browns.

 

[Smiling JOe]

She would be so beautiful I just know people would want clones for Christmas so they could tend to her offspring.......did I write that correctly.....is a clone offspring....

Are you sure? From everything I've read about pot, I thought the only way to clone a pot plant was to take a clipping and root it. If you just take the seeds and plant them, that won't clone the plant because the seed is only half of the original two parenting plants. You would also need that seed plant to be pollinated by the same pollinator plant.

I recall reading about the DEA using biotechnology to track plants back to the growers by using DNA from plants, which were cloned. The only way for the DNA to match is by the plant being cloned (a cutting of the "mother plant"). They use this method to go after bigger fish and bigger busts, to perpetuate the DEA's "War on Drugs."

(disclosure-- I just like learning about how things work. I'm not an expert on growing weed)

 

[sunspotbaby]

(disclosure-- I just like learning about how things work. I'm not an expert on growing weed)


Oh come on, I thought that's why they called you "Smiling Joe"

 

[Smiling JOe]

I don't need weed to smile. If I smoked weed, they'd call me Grinning-From-Ear-To-Ear-Joe.

 

[Bob]

just say no