Comments (6)

  1. theB1ackSwan

    Reply

    I’d much rather have weed legal and alcohol illegal. Weed is just relaxing. You are a bit introspective and have the tendency to come up with bizarre ideas, but it’s certainly better than drinking poison, slurring your words, blacking out, and very dangerously drinking and driving.

    But, like absolutely any drug, the matter isn’t about whether it is always bad or always good, but about personal limits and decisions regarding it.

    • Eric

      Reply

      Marijuana while it is illegal already shows a death rate of 14 percent in drivers and if made legal, chances are that percentage would increase. Studies show one in eleven become addicted to it the first time they smoke weed. Notice you are breathing in 400 different chemicals. For the complete article on the true dangers check out the website below.

      The paragraph below is from a National Institutes of Health study found on,

      http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites/default/files/teens_marijuana_brochure.pdf

      “Marijuana is UNsafe if you are behind the wheel. Marijuana is the most common illegal drug found in drivers who die in accidents (around 14 percent of drivers), often in combination with alcohol or other drugs. Marijuana affects a number of skills required for safe driving—alertness, concentration, coordination, and reaction time—so it’s not safe to drive high or to ride with someone who’s been smoking. Marijuana makes it hard to judge distances and react to signals and sounds on the road. And combining marijuana with drinking even a small amount of alcohol greatly increases driving danger, more than either drug alone.”

      “All forms of marijuana are mind-altering (psychoactive). In other words, they change how the brain works. Marijuana contains more than 400 chemicals, including THC (delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol). Since THC is the main active chemical in marijuana, the amount of THC in marijuana determines its strength or potency and therefore its effects. The THC content of marijuana has been increasing since the 1980s.”

      • theB1ackSwan

        I don’t deny that doing it while driving is unsafe. However, when not driving, it is practically harmless. You aren’t angry, you don’t lose any control or memory. You are just relaxed. That’s honestly it.

      • Quasar

        Kids! Don’t do statistical abuse! It’s a gateway fallacy and will lead to more hardcore logical fallacy abuse.

        “Despite reductions in alcohol–related traffic fatalities since the early 1980s, alcohol remained a factor in 41 percent of the traffic deaths recorded in the United States in 2002.”
        (Epidemiology and Consequences of Drinking and Driving, National Institute on Alchohol Abuse and Alchoholism, via a google search)

        Soo…
        Marijuana = 14%,
        Alchohol = 44%.

        But wouldn’t legalising Marijuana make that value skyrocket, causing more deaths than banning alcohol?

        In order to work out the effect of legalising Marijuana on usage, we’d need to look at the example of a country that actually did it, like, say, the Netherlands:

        “The number of adolescent cannabis users [in the Netherlands] peaked when the cannabis was distributed through an underground market (late 1960s and early 1970s). Then the number decreased as house dealers were superseding the underground market (1970s), and went up again after coffee shops took over the sale of cannabis (1980s), and stabilised or slightly decreased by the end of the 1990s when the number of coffee shops was reduced. “
        (TRENDS AND PATTERNS IN CANNABIS USE IN THE NETHERLANDS, Parliment of Canada, via a google search)

        So it’s possible that Marijuana usage would actually go down then. Interesting.

        Of course, we can’t say for sure what effect that would have on DUI’s involving Marijuana. Maybe they would increase, because it was now acceptable to use the drug in more social contexts. Or maybe they’d decrease in sync with the overall usage rate. Either hypothesis is just speculation without evidence.

        Either way, it would seem TheBlackSwan’s opinions are more reality based than yours…

      • Garrett

        You are describing the effects of an unregulated substance, meaning that you don’t know if anything has been added to it to encourage buyers to come back to their dealers.

        There is nothing physically addictive in marijuana, although mental dependencies can form just like one can be addicted to gambling, drinking, sex, or Krispy Kreme Donuts.

        Driving under the influence is unfortunate, and we should strive to educate people on the dangers of it. However, as the Prohibition Era showed, you get more death from cartels and black market smugglers than DUIs.

        This doesn’t even go into otherwise benign things that makes us a hazard on the road. Cell phones have been on the rise in the past decade as a contribution to traffic accidents, but nobody is suggested we outlaw cell phones.

        I’m not saying we should just shoulder the inevitable loss of life, but perhaps we can reduce these deaths in ways besides outright illegality?

  2. Yawn

    Reply

    “Marijuana is the most common illegal drug found in drivers who die in accidents (around 14 percent of drivers),”

    As pot takes far longer to exit the system, it is found in the system LONG after the effects are gone. So the statistic is skewed.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *