kidlewis Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 been off it regularly since Jan 2009, had the odd few puffs now and then (probably since Jan 2009 I have had the equivalent of 2 normal spliffs). Recently I have been wanting to have a bit, but probably been stress and long work days and this time of year I used to love being outside in the cold with a coat on having a smoke, go back inside to make some food and chill on the PC in the evening. oh the days of little responsibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingysilvers Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 I personally cannot see any liberalisation of it in the UK any time soon, as long as law and order if defined by statistics it remains the easiest way to bump up arrest stats and alike. The other major reason I can see is there is unlikely to be a painkiller introduced to the market that cannot be patented while pharmaceutical companies hold the sway they do. Anyway, however pro-legalisation I may be I tend to try and avoid the topic as much as possible, it's a bit like starting a fight with a brick wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidlewis Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 I personally cannot see any liberalisation of it in the UK any time soon, as long as law and order if defined by statistics it remains the easiest way to bump up arrest stats and alike. The other major reason I can see is there is unlikely to be a painkiller introduced to the market that cannot be patented while pharmaceutical companies hold the sway they do. Anyway, however pro-legalisation I may be I tend to try and avoid the topic as much as possible, it's a bit like starting a fight with a brick wall. even though I don't do it anymore and can spot a stoner a mile off and can smell it in the air from 200 yards I think the stigma with cannabis in this country is that it's only smoked by chavs in city centres acting like dicks. the thing is they'd be dicks regardless. I don't believe all the Daily mail articles that show how kids beat up people because they were stoned. they were probably dicks sober as well. I did try and calculate the figures once if the government setup a tax system on it. It would be considerable. the last time I checked figures showed over a million regular UK users. what is regular I don't know, but I think that figure is conservative. If it was legalised a lot more people would come out of the woodwork. I know people who smoke it and no one would ever know. the issue with it in comparison with other drugs is the smell. it's potent and the smell of a few people having a spliff in a beer garden would send the smell wafting far and wide. It won't be socially acceptable until my parents generation die off. I think my generation and age are a lot more liberal and accepting. I have told the girlfriend once I retire I am going to grow my own. if I make it to 65-70 I'll be the coolest toking grandad around. fire up the xbox 2880 grandson! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingysilvers Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 If it was legalised a lot more people would come out of the woodwork. I know people who smoke it and no one would ever know. This is a very good point, for example I won't sign the current petition as I don't want to associate my name and address with it while it's on the wrong side of the law. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidlewis Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 too often we try to regulate human behaviour, but for things like drugs, alcohol, sex, entertainment, love etc it's impossible. could have sentences for all of the above death by being shagged by an elephant, and people would still do the above. laws and regulation only go so far with certain things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanishVillan Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 I think lots of "older" people use cannabis, even in the UK. Just much more secret about it. Anyone seen "Stoned in suburbia"? What a great grandmother to have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Washington State and Colorado go legal on cannabis for fun. An American friend tells me there may be federal wrangles yet, but lets see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 I personally cannot see any liberalisation of it in the UK any time soon I thought the UK was tending to turn a blind eye nowadays so long as what you have is for personal use and not a car boot full ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingram85 Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Working in the mental health services for years means I've seen the worst this stuff can do (even through mild to moderate use) so my opinion on it will be biased against. Don't think i'll be venturing into this topic again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMFy Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Working in the mental health services for years means I've seen the worst this stuff can do (even through mild to moderate use) so my opinion on it will be biased against. Don't think i'll be venturing into this topic again. I've seen some people get in quite a mess from smoking super strength weed. Out of interest, how do the psychological effects compare to those who use MDMA? Not that I would use either, just interested in the legal position of both substances... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troglodyte Posted November 11, 2012 Author VT Supporter Share Posted November 11, 2012 I'm sure I read somewhere a few months ago that recent studies suggest MDMA has no adverse long-term effects on mental health, despite previous claims. Don't quote me on that, though. Generally, I'm strongly against the drugs policy in this country. We need a major overhaul, which was also the conclusion of a recent six-year study that has, unsurprisingly, not garnered much media attention. Our policies are out of date and politicians out of touch with such issues, and far too dismissive of alternative options without basing their judgments on any hard evidence. It's a tough issue, but one that needs to be properly looked at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 I just can't see even Class C drugs ever (not for decades anyway) being available to buy legally over here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 I've seen some people get in quite a mess from smoking super strength weed. Out of interest, how do the psychological effects compare to those who use MDMA? Not that I would use either, just interested in the legal position of both substances... A good friend of mine growing up began smoking weed heavily in high school. This led to mushrooms, and then LSD, the cumulative effect triggering his latent schizophrenia. He's lived with his parents collecting Social Security ever since. **** tragedy, he was such a smart and talented kid, he could've done anything he wanted to with his life. I think cannabis effects people differently, some are more susceptible to becoming total burnouts and/or losing their marbles than others...to a developing teenage brain, heavy usage is a really bad idea, especially nowadays with all the hydroponic turbocharged stuff that's out there. I haven't touched the stuff in years, it tended to make me more paranoid than relaxed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 That said, I'm 100% for full legalization 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 Go ahead, Peter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMFy Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 A good friend of mine growing up began smoking weed heavily in high school. This led to mushrooms, and then LSD, the cumulative effect triggering his latent schizophrenia. He's lived with his parents collecting Social Security ever since. **** tragedy, he was such a smart and talented kid, he could've done anything he wanted to with his life. I think cannabis effects people differently, some are more susceptible to becoming total burnouts and/or losing their marbles than others...to a developing teenage brain, heavy usage is a really bad idea, especially nowadays with all the hydroponic turbocharged stuff that's out there. I haven't touched the stuff in years, it tended to make me more paranoid than relaxed. Drugs definitely need reclassification in this country. I'm not sure I would legalise everything, but I believe the current practices of drugs awareness education are entirely responsible for the situation we are in. When I left school in 1992, the drugs education was pretty much as it was mocked on South Park (drugs are bad, m'kay). There is no differentiation drawn between a drug with no addictive personality and little to no side effects and a drug that will draw a person into a downward spiral of soul destroying addiction. By the age of 14, most people know someone who has or does smoke weed, so when it is communicated to kids as little different to heroin, yet the people they see smoking it appear to be fine, they ridicule and mock the drugs awareness education as scaremongering and propaganda. To classify MDMA in the same bracket as Heroin, Crack and Crystal Meth is just ridiculous, and the try to classify all types of cannabis in another bracket, despite it's many guises and stages of technical development is equally as bad. 20 years ago, cannabis was nothing like it is today. It was a bit of fun as opposed to a super-strength psychological rollercoaster. I know a lot of people that have taken a lot of MDMA over the last 20-25 years and none of them have any issues from it. Most are happily married with kids, owning nice houses and having great careers. Whereas I know people who smoked weed religiously who still live with their parents and cannot hold down a job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 (edited) Prohibition does not work, remember when they tried to make Alcohol Illegal? Bootleggers and rise in organised crime. All they are doing by keeping it illegal is creating a whole class of criminals, and lining there pockets full of cash. Edited April 19, 2013 by AVFCforever1991 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrackpotForeigner Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Working in the mental health services for years means I've seen the worst this stuff can do (even through mild to moderate use) so my opinion on it will be biased against. Don't think i'll be venturing into this topic again. Working in the mental health services for years means you have seen bad things happen to a lot of cannabis users. That does not prove that cannabis use makes bad things happen to you. There's a statistical term for this that escapes me. There is, I believe, a correlation between mental illness and likelihood of being a cannabis user, however it's also true to say that there's a correlation between being unable to walk and likelihood of being a wheelchair user. Maybe cannabis users are a bit bonkers by nature, but I've found that they're normally the best people. Maybe being completely-not-bonkers-whatsoever isn't actually a good thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted November 14, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted November 14, 2012 Category error? All alcoholics started on beer, ergo drinking beer leads to alcoholism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troglodyte Posted November 14, 2012 Author VT Supporter Share Posted November 14, 2012 Most murderers eat bread, etc. There's no doubt in my mind that regular use of high-strength cannabis has wide-ranging detrimental effects. I've seen good mates drop out of uni, struggle to find a job, lose most of their friends, girlfriend and much more besides, as they prefer to sit at home smoking weed. Again, you could say that this is in their personality and, as such, people with this kind of personality are more likely to smoke weed. However, thinking of one person in particular who was a very regular user, he stopped and things did seem to improve. However, the fact that weed is illegal had and has no impact whatsoever on whether or not he smoked it. Many, many other people choose to smoke it, for a variety of reasons, without it having any detrimental effects on their home life, working life, social life, etc. In my mind, the government should seize control of this situation and take the money away from criminals and into the country's coffers by legalising and taxing it. Money generated could go towards decent programmes of education that are widely needed, and the time and money saved by the police force could be better spent elsewhere. This is a very simplistic argument, and there would be potential problems, but I certainly believe that it's the way forward and no-one as yet has convinced me otherwise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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