Cannabis

CarewsEyebrowDesigner · November 14, 2012

Educate people up to 18 then leave them the **** alone.

That should be the golden rule of society.

Dodgyknees · November 14, 2012

Cannot stand it, for starters it smells (a bit like b.o) and it reeks out public transport (especially here)

Secondly I know a number of people who smoke it and they are paranoid as ****! Fell out with one guy recently as he is convinced everybody is out to get him, he thinks the police are listening to his calls, that black helicopters follow him. Paranoid as **** and yet before he smoked the stuff he was down to earth and logical.

Quite a lot if those I know who smoke it are that way and/or don't work and stay in bed till evening.

Troglodyte · November 14, 2012

Educate people up to 18 then leave them the **** alone.

That should be the golden rule of society.

I agree to an extent, and I think it would depend on how you define 'education'. Some people will still need help with things when they're over 18. An adult should be able to put whatever they want into their own body; however, in some cases they may still not be totally aware of what they're doing, or the effect it's having on others. If they are, on the other hand, they should be allowed to do whatever the **** they want to do, without interference led by a bunch of wholly out-of-touch hypocrites from London.

saturdaygig · November 14, 2012

Fell out with one guy recently as he is convinced everybody is out to get him, he thinks the police are listening to his calls, that black helicopters follow him.

He's not as paranoid as you think. I work for the police and we do follow him in black helicopters and listen to his calls, because so many people are out to get him.

AVFCforever1991 · November 14, 2012

Why should some people be banned from using it, just because others can't handle it?? I run into countless idiots that can't handle their drink, and cause fights etc.

But we don't ban that do we.

Edited April 19, 2013 by AVFCforever1991

MMFy · 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.

All drugs should be reclassified as either recreational or habitual. Controlled manufacture and licensed/monitored supply of recreational drugs would eliminate a large part of the black market.

There needs to be a definite differentiation between recreational drugs and hardcore habitual drugs like heroin, crack and meth.

YLN · April 19, 2013

I've improved greatly on marijuana. It's taken a little bit of time, circa 6 years for me to go from, "I have collapsed and am in a coma and everytime I go to the toilet I'm just pissing myself..." to actually enjoying the feeling and letting go (without pissing myself). Now I thoroughly enjoy the odd smoke I have, but initially it was pretty unpleasant. I think smoking weed with a pretty girl is one of the most fun things a man can do

legov · April 19, 2013

Prohibition does not work, remember when they tried to make Alcohol Illegal? Bootleggers and rise in organised crime.
All there doing by keeping it illegal is creating a whole class of criminals, and lining there pockets full of cash.

It's worked in Singapore.

leviramsey · April 19, 2013

Prohibition does not work in a society that's not prepared to go to the lengths that Singapore goes to, then.

Amsterdam_Neil_D · April 19, 2013

Sorry but nearly everything written in this thread is wrong.

There is nothing wrong with it and alcohol is a lot more dangerous.

Unless you have lived in both countries (Legal / non legal) and know how it actually works in the real world then it just sounds like people saying something is bad without having a clue.

Its not the drugs that are the problem. Holland is number 1 place to bring up kids in Europe yet weed is sold or grown everywhere.

I have smoked it since the early 90's and if all the above is 1 % true I would not have been given a job or managed to crawl out of bed to emigrate and live here for going on 13 years.

I am not an exception to the rule. the country runs fine. Next time you or one of your mates gets glassed in a pub and you are on the way to hospital and I am sitting in a coffee shop full of tourists and locals all having a laugh and getting on fine....tell me again again about the paranoid thing.

Sorry but 90 % of the stuff in this thread is just made up BS IMO based on the Daily Mail.

AVFCforever1991 · April 19, 2013

Sorry but nearly everything written in this thread is wrong.

There is nothing wrong with it and alcohol is a lot more dangerous.

Unless you have lived in both countries (Legal / non legal) and know how it actually works in the real world then it just sounds like people saying something is bad without having a clue.

Its not the drugs that are the problem. Holland is number 1 place to bring up kids in Europe yet weed is sold or grown everywhere.

I have smoked it since the early 90's and if all the above is 1 % true I would not have been given a job or managed to crawl out of bed to emigrate and live here for going on 13 years.

I am not an exception to the rule. the country runs fine. Next time you or one of your mates gets glassed in a pub and you are on the way to hospital and I am sitting in a coffee shop full of tourists and locals all having a laugh and getting on fine....tell me again again about the paranoid thing.

Sorry but 90 % of the stuff in this thread is just made up BS IMO based on the Daily Mail.

Went to Amsterdam for my 18th, and completely agree..

It was just so civilised that you can walk into a coffee shop, buy some and smoke it. Without the fear of being locked up.

And the only time when I've ever felt paranoid is smoking in England, when I was in Amsterdam there was no paranoia. I even asked the police which direction the hotel was.

Edited April 19, 2013 by AVFCforever1991

legov · April 19, 2013

Sorry but nearly everything written in this thread is wrong.

There is nothing wrong with it and alcohol is a lot more dangerous.

Unless you have lived in both countries (Legal / non legal) and know how it actually works in the real world then it just sounds like people saying something is bad without having a clue.

Its not the drugs that are the problem. Holland is number 1 place to bring up kids in Europe yet weed is sold or grown everywhere.

I have smoked it since the early 90's and if all the above is 1 % true I would not have been given a job or managed to crawl out of bed to emigrate and live here for going on 13 years.

I am not an exception to the rule. the country runs fine. Next time you or one of your mates gets glassed in a pub and you are on the way to hospital and I am sitting in a coffee shop full of tourists and locals all having a laugh and getting on fine....tell me again again about the paranoid thing.

Sorry but 90 % of the stuff in this thread is just made up BS IMO based on the Daily Mail.

Went to Amsterdam for my 18th, and completely agree..

It was just so civilised that you can walk into a coffee shop, buy some and smoke it. Without the fear of being locked up.

And the only time when I've ever felt paranoid is smoking in England, when I was in Amsterdam there was no paranoia. I even asked the police which direction the hotel was.

Smoke it here and paranoia will be the least of your problems.

Link

It's **** up it really is. (sorry, I often get angry when talking about the archaic laws we still have)

Edited April 19, 2013 by legov

AVFCforever1991 · April 19, 2013

Sorry but nearly everything written in this thread is wrong.

There is nothing wrong with it and alcohol is a lot more dangerous.

Unless you have lived in both countries (Legal / non legal) and know how it actually works in the real world then it just sounds like people saying something is bad without having a clue.

Its not the drugs that are the problem. Holland is number 1 place to bring up kids in Europe yet weed is sold or grown everywhere.

I have smoked it since the early 90's and if all the above is 1 % true I would not have been given a job or managed to crawl out of bed to emigrate and live here for going on 13 years.

I am not an exception to the rule. the country runs fine. Next time you or one of your mates gets glassed in a pub and you are on the way to hospital and I am sitting in a coffee shop full of tourists and locals all having a laugh and getting on fine....tell me again again about the paranoid thing.

Sorry but 90 % of the stuff in this thread is just made up BS IMO based on the Daily Mail.

Went to Amsterdam for my 18th, and completely agree..

It was just so civilised that you can walk into a coffee shop, buy some and smoke it. Without the fear of being locked up.

And the only time when I've ever felt paranoid is smoking in England, when I was in Amsterdam there was no paranoia. I even asked the police which direction the hotel was.

Smoke it here and paranoia will be the least of your problems.

Link

It's **** up it really is. (sorry, I often get angry when talking about the archaic laws we still have)

Yeah, I wouldn't even dare to seek out an illegal drug in a place that has such draconian drug laws.

You would have thought the human race would have evolved past the point of hanging people..

Small progress?

As of January 2013, changes to the law give judges a little more wiggle room: instead being required to hand down death sentences for drug smuggling, judges are permitted to impose life sentences instead.

Edited April 19, 2013 by AVFCforever1991

PieFacE · April 19, 2013

Hmm...

From the ages of 13-17 me and a group of other people used to smoke a fair amount of pot. Every day. At the age of 18(ish), I and a few of my friends stopped, and a few carried on. The ones who stopped generally moved on and are doing much more with their lives (job, happiness, socialising etc), and the ones who didn't stop are still smoking every day, they are doing very little (even though some had HUGE potential), are mostly unhappy and generally spend a lot of time on their own really just getting high and doing little else. Even on the rare occasion when they come to the pub, they always get high beforehand. And we're all 25 now.

From my experience, cannabis is a pretty nasty drug. Obviously, it could all just be coincidental that those who stopped moved on, and those who kept on smoking didnt really change at all. But, that's too much of a coincidence for me. I'd like it to remain illegal.

It obviously comes down to how you use and abuse it, if you just smoke a little every now and again then it's no real problem. Though, I think it's very easy to get in the habit of smoking it multiple times throughout the day though. More so than alcohol.

Edited April 19, 2013 by PieFacE

Amsterdam_Neil_D · April 19, 2013

Pretty good reply Mr Pie :-)

It does not explain the Dutch example though, it's not the drug it's the people and environment I have decided since this morning. It must be as your experience is the polar opposite of mine and millions in Holland. I don't even drink alcohol at all either for the same reasons as you listed. In my experience people who drink are more dangerous than virtually anyone else and they tend to turn into pricks so I don't touch the stuff,

It just don't make sense (Not your post) but the fact that a whole country has it legal, is happier, and most things about general life all OK. If it was made legal in the UK I think the place would grind to a halt.

Xann · April 19, 2013

There are some folks that certainly shouldn't smoke cannabis, there are some folks that shouldn't drink booze, ... neck Valium, ... snort cocaine, ...take paracetamol, ... eat peanuts etc etc

There's no hard and fast rule unfortunately, everyone's different. It's a lesser of two evils situation.

Though on the surface the Dutch model would seem to function better, and it's a revenue stream lost to the crims.
.

legov · April 19, 2013

Sorry but nearly everything written in this thread is wrong.

There is nothing wrong with it and alcohol is a lot more dangerous.

Unless you have lived in both countries (Legal / non legal) and know how it actually works in the real world then it just sounds like people saying something is bad without having a clue.

Its not the drugs that are the problem. Holland is number 1 place to bring up kids in Europe yet weed is sold or grown everywhere.

I have smoked it since the early 90's and if all the above is 1 % true I would not have been given a job or managed to crawl out of bed to emigrate and live here for going on 13 years.

I am not an exception to the rule. the country runs fine. Next time you or one of your mates gets glassed in a pub and you are on the way to hospital and I am sitting in a coffee shop full of tourists and locals all having a laugh and getting on fine....tell me again again about the paranoid thing.

Sorry but 90 % of the stuff in this thread is just made up BS IMO based on the Daily Mail.

Went to Amsterdam for my 18th, and completely agree..

It was just so civilised that you can walk into a coffee shop, buy some and smoke it. Without the fear of being locked up.

And the only time when I've ever felt paranoid is smoking in England, when I was in Amsterdam there was no paranoia. I even asked the police which direction the hotel was.

Smoke it here and paranoia will be the least of your problems.

Link

It's **** up it really is. (sorry, I often get angry when talking about the archaic laws we still have)

Yeah, I wouldn't even dare to seek out an illegal drug in a place that has such draconian drug laws.

You would have thought the human race would have evolved past the point of hanging people..

Small progress?

As of January 2013, changes to the law give judges a little more wiggle room: instead being required to hand down death sentences for drug smuggling, judges are permitted to impose life sentences instead.

IIRC there are some caveats, judges are only allowed to do so under certain circumstances but I'm not sure which.

Kingfisher · April 19, 2013

There are some folks that certainly shouldn't smoke cannabis, there are some folks that shouldn't drink booze, ... neck Valium, ... snort cocaine, ...take paracetamol, ... eat peanuts etc etc
There's no hard and fast rule unfortunately, everyone's different. It's a lesser of two evils situation.
Though on the surface the Dutch model would seem to function better, and it's a revenue stream lost to the crims.
.

Agree with this. Also to add to it, Canabis is a pretty broad term, as with alcohol there are obviously different strengths, and people need to be aware of what if any of them suits their brain.

I know what I like, I know what I don't. I also know what I like but can't have as it makes me go Ill, weird or depressed. I take with caution, moderation and responsibility, and most of all I realise and understand the difference between a drug high and true happiness, and I keep it like that.

mikeyp102 · April 19, 2013

What is the rule (basic) in holland these days? Thought a few yrs ago there was talk of the cafes being shut?

b6bloke · April 20, 2013

My mate got me into it and I got reliant on it though wasn't sure if it was the nicotine, what I do know is that during that time my career development stopped, I lost all motivation, I was paranoid and boy did I kick off easy.

I decided to stop and not smoked since, I'm back to how I was before with a new job and more quals, I had some fab nights on weed but I have fab nights off it.

My friends who still smoke it say they are addicted, they call it "their mistress" they smoke it before work and the intelligent one in the group agrees with every downside I had. It kills me to see one of my best mates as he feels he suffers no side effects yet this past lively ex squaddie is moody and paranoid, he slated a girl who dumped him because of his habit refusing to accept her reason saying it must be because there was someone else. He has lost 4 girlfriends for the same reason but refuses to accept its the weed.

One of these exes from 1995 he never stops going on about, he is horrible about her and still blames her, i knew her before him and I bumped into her last year and she struggled to remember him yet he talks about it like its yesterday while she is married with kids!

I was over his recently and they were going on about this new strain they had that knocked them out which knowing what seasoned stoners they were worried me.

Just had a cousin who smoked it be committed by his mom as he started suffering paranoia and threatened to hurt himself or others if they let him out.

There are a minority who suffer no side effects or addictions but they are not high enough in number to justify it being safe in my opinion. My mates son has smoked it since 14 but could stop for weeks leading up to exams, he now teaches abroad and smokes when back in uk.

My step daughter has just came off it and explained that it has changed her life, she is ashamed looking back as she said she would fight strangers for looking at her, smoke in front of her kids and before she took them to school and the realisation at school one morning smelling weed on some of the moms hit her the hardest knowing that she too would have smelt like it too and couldn't face teachers.