[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

It's a safe bet that any phrase you learned on 4chan is not conducive to good debate in the discussion thread.

[Cold Iron]

Inter-DB lashback? Puhlease not with 99% of our picture thread coming from there.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Well, the picture thread is a different place than the discussion forum, and posting a picture there from 4chan is different than using an adolescent insult to personally attack someone.

Come on, you're better than this. I hope. You're trolling and you know it.

[Cougar]

CI, I've no issue with the derailment. As I said when this was raised in the Modlair, it's CI's thread he can derail it all he wants.

The lack of civility was reference to the gtfo amerifag, Amphibians helpful suggestions and your response to him, none of which are really appropriate for the DB as they aren't discussion.

There is a further question about whether we should be allowing discussion where members (including me) talk about illegal activities. My current take would be that this is techncially illegal but is a choice of a personal nature, unlike theft or assault etc. So it's OK.

[Gothos]

quite on topic here Cougar, what's the wording of the law over there? is it the activity, being under the effect of, or possesion?

[Cougar]

Possession is the offence, or if you have a sufficient amount or it is divided up they might do you for possession with intent to supply.

Only yesterday a friend of mine was caught with a 20 bag (obviously too small to be for anything but personal use) and received a 12 month warning, nothing else.

The only circumstances you could be done are if you were high alone is whilst operating machinery/vehicle, although proving this is nearly impossible. As all they can show is that you have taken it at some time.

If you were caught with a joint it would be unlikely the police would do anything more than throw it in the bin and have a go at you.

[Terez]

MOD EDIT: this post has been edited as it was a personal attack and contravenes the rules, after a warning.

Last chance on this stay on topic or it's closing.

This post has been edited by Cougar: 20 July 2009 - 03:58 PM

[Gothos]

I've heard of people getting >1 year in suspension for getting caught with a single gram over here.
seriously, that's a bit over the top imo. the problem to me seems to be that there's no sane treshold. I can't see how someone having a gram for personal use would be dangerous enough to lead to such a sentence. it's really like posession of a small amount of weed is a worse crime in the eyes of law than people beating a man senseless in a bar...

[Cougar]

That would never happen in this country, I'm certain you could technically be put away for possesion but it would be unlikely as the police don't like to waste their time with something as harmless as canabis.

Interestingly a few people have talked about the carcinogenic effects: a few years ago I read a study had found canabis to be vastly more harmful when directly compared with tobacco, I've no idea whether this is true or not. Of course the amounts of weed people smoke are miniscule compared to heavy smokers of cigs so it may be a bit of a false comparison. But I think the idea that canabis is safe is incorrect.

[Traveller]

Yep, I used to live with a couple of weed smokers, and I recently recognised the same behaviour patterns in two people I work with. Found out later that they both smoke a lot when they get home.
I used to deny any ill effects when I used to smoke, but that's because you only really notice them when you haven't smoked for a few months.

Anyone who says weed smoking has no psychological effects is deluding themselves; also burning anything and inhaling the smoke is never going to be completely harmless.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 20 July 2009 - 04:23 PM

[Obdigore]

Cougar, on Jul 20 2009, 11:06 AM, said:

That would never happen in this country, I'm certain you could technically be put away for possesion but it would be unlikely as the police don't like to waste their time with something as harmless as canabis.

Interestingly a few people have talked about the carcinogenic effects: a few years ago I read a study had found canabis to be vastly more harmful when directly compared with tobacco, I've no idea whether this is true or not. Of course the amounts of weed people smoke are miniscule compared to heavy smokers of cigs so it may be a bit of a false comparison. But I think the idea that canabis is safe is incorrect.

I read a similar (or the same perhaps) study, and found this Article.

This post has been edited by Obdigore: 20 July 2009 - 08:26 PM

[Cold Iron]

Apologies for any offence caused by perhaps a caustic sense of humour but really this is not some random trolling, this was a tounge-in-cheek retort to a similarly tounge-in-cheek attack on spelling in order to basically show to the rest of you that what may have apeared to be a heated discussion was far from it.

Cougar, Ray, Bubba, you may not be aware of off-board discussions between myself and terez, but you can surely detect a sense of familiarity that together with the length of time we have all spent here couldn't possibly lead you to any other conclusion than that which I just described.

I'm aware of the extra scrutiny this thread would be getting due to the subject matter and having never been a mod myself I'll stress that this is merely a slightly incredulous defence rather than any sort of attack and allow me a final chance to apologise for any offence caused, it was certainly not intended.

/blowing things out of proportion

On topic, I can attest to the physical damage caused by smoking weed. I went on a ski trip when I was smoking heavily and couldn't believe my lack of lounge capacity. I had been a cigarette smoker for many years but nothing compared to this. I was completely unable to exert myself without becoming scarily out of breath. Not good.

[HoosierDaddy]

Why can't we have a serious discussion over booze? I could be an expert in that thread. Here I just snicker the entire time, muttering "potheads" to myself.

[Traveller]

Cold Iron, on Jul 21 2009, 12:42 AM, said:

...this was a tounge-in-cheek retort to a similarly tounge-in-cheek attack on spelling...

Sorry, but that made me laugh a bit!

[MTS]

Haha, now if it had only went "gfto my spelling amerifag " this derailment would have been avoided, but anyway.


Like Traveller said, smoking anything does at least some harm. When I smoke weed I can feel the smoke searing my lungs, and I do notice a decreased lung capacity than say, 4 years ago, whenever I go running. The effects on your lungs are very similar to those caused by cigarettes; the harmful chemicals in the cigarette itself only exacerbate the damage to your lungs. I'd agree with the psychological effects too. It's a real demotivator in some people, causes people to live in a privately defined world (thanks for that one Weeds! ), slows down brain function, and while not terribly addictive, it does create a serious dependency. Also causes schizophrenia and dementia and other brain conditions too. I haven't met anyone who deludes themselves about it though - all of the smokers I know are aware of weed's effects, but the common argument I get is "meh, it's not like it's worse than cigarettes or alcohol".

[Traveller]

I hear that too, but I've also known people who smoked a lot, and suffered from obvious paranoia and depression. They deny any sort of a link - but it's amazing how these things seem to decrease or disappear entirely once the smoking stops.

[MTS]

Paranoia! Knew I'd missed something. Didn't know about depression though. I was told some doctors treated severe depression with medical marijuana, but I wasn't sure if they were being serious lol.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

It can treat depression in the depressed, but can cause depression in people not depressed but inclined to be so.

[Terez]

Did someone claim that weed has no ill effects? If someone did, I must have missed it.

As I've said before (perhaps in this thread), the argument for its legalization centers on a comparison to alcohol (and also a comparison to Prohibition in the US), rather than centering on a claim that it's not at all harmful. And Cougar, we've discussed the carcinogens already in this thread - I remember that much - and yes, the comparison doesn't really work because potheads (even seriously addicted ones with busted tolerance) don't smoke nearly as much weed as the average tobacco addict smokes cigarettes. Also, the harmful effects of smoking weed, in that sense, can be almost completely neutralized by using vaporizers, which would be much easier to use/get hold of if weed were legal.

Also, there's a great deal of misinformation on weed simply because the subject is so taboo, and proper studies are discouraged and even prohibited in many countries.

And CI - just because we're chums doesn't mean I like it when you're rude to me. I prefer polite debate.

@RLY - Marijuana, like any other drug with medical benefits, will work for some people and not for others.

As for paranoia...it's something that can generally be controlled if you are accustomed to it, and it sure beats the recklessness that accompanies drunkenness. If drunks were more paranoid, there probably wouldn't be so many people killed by drunk drivers, for instance...

This post has been edited by Terez: 21 July 2009 - 08:28 AM

[HoosierDaddy]

Terez, on Jul 21 2009, 04:25 AM, said:

Snip
Snip
Snip

As for paranoia...it's something that can generally be controlled if you are accustomed to it, and it sure beats the recklessness that accompanies drunkenness. If drunks were more paranoid, there probably wouldn't be so many people killed by drunk drivers, for instance...

Terez. I'm a drunk. I don't drive. In fact, most drunk don't drive. It's the few that give cause to the many, just like other abusers.

Mod Edit: Easy there HD. Remember this thread is being watched.