Celtic Heroes

While yes, the OP is a spam bot (googling their post, you'll find lots of off topic forum links with the same wording), there is a healthy off-topic discussion and bob's impressive reply, I won't lock it and let it continue.

Didn't Colorado have great success with allowing recreational use and imposing strong taxes to it?

Colorado has been extremely successful with both medical and recreational marijuana. It created a huge influx of tax dollars and reduced overcrowding in jails related to small amount marijuana charges which helps ease some of the tax burden from tax payers. These tax dollars went on to provide a ton of funding for education, social programs, more sidewalks, etc.

There are a plethora of stories out there (like Rick Simpson and his thc oil) that medicinal cannabis helped combat cancer and other diseases when 'modern medicine' failed to help. And as someone that has a family member that started using marijuana to combat morning nausea or they spend the first 30 minutes of their morning puking, I'm a believer in the medicinal aspects of marijuana. Not to mention I have a son with autism whose doctor put him on a 10:1 ratio of CBD to THC and weened him off his prescriptions meds and it has made a world of difference for his anxiety in social situations and ability to sleep (which means less stress and more sleep for me).

The key is safety which is why states have been or have started to require lab testing of the plant material, edibles, and other marijuana processed items. Colorado has even mandated how much THC can be in an individual edible so those that consume edibles can correctly dose.

Ya, like I wrote smoking of any substance increases the likelihood of cancer (not just lung cancer) and emphysema due to the nature and toxicity of what smoke is. Even vaping is unknown as to the health effects of it.
As to recreational use, there are multiple variances on how one can consume the drug, and "smoking a blunt" is just one way of use. In fact, edibles, pills, and nonsmoking alternatives are in a higher demand than joints/blunts are likely due to the fact that smoking anything can cause cancer.
Now, "smoking a joint" is less likely to give you cancer, as the main carcinogenic effect in tobacco comes from the additives they put in, but nonetheless is still linked to cancer.

Disclaimer: Personally I’ve never used marijuana either medically or recreationally, nor do I have any interest in self use

As someone that has daily direct contact with medical marijuana patients, the overwhelming reason why so many are turning to vaping, edibles, capsules, oils, etc over smoking is due to the convenience, elimination/reduction of the distinct marijuana smoke smell, and they're discreet. It's a convenient way to get THC into the system while avoiding announcing to the world "I'm smoking pot!"

As someone who has recreationally, and medically used marijuana for over 20 yrs there are a lot of benefits to THC, also a few side effects that can be inconvenient. Paranoia and passing out for instance. The benefits, IMO, outweigh the ill effects. I sleep better, it’s lessened the pain I’ve garnered from over 20 years working on my feet in kitchens. I currently live in a state that has legalized recreational marijuana, and I can say that the tax revenue gathered from the dispensaries is staggering. At this point in my life, currently 3+ years cigarette free, I still smoke pot, it reminds me subconsciously of smoking a nail. But I’d much rather have an edible or any of the other non smoke alternatives. The smell is still stigmatized and it can be awkward to reek like pot when at a meeting. Besides the risks of lung cancer, some of the edibles are so well made you cannot even tell it has THC in it.

Lol

Medical? I say yes, if moderated and it also means it'll be regulated for quality under the FDA or its country-equivalent.

Recreational? I say no. Smoke inhalation of any sort isn't healthy and marijuana does predispose to things like COPD, schizophrenia and pneumothoraces (air trapped in the lining of the lung). At the moment, in the UK at least, people are producing marijuana that's tending to be more addictive and less therapeutic (higher THC content, lower cannabidiol content). There's been the emergence of Skunk, which is also very harmful. I'm against all drugs, including nicotine, for recreational use.

As doctors, we prescribe medications to people only when they *need* it - no drug is safe. In the same way, no one *needs* cigarettes, nor recreational cannabis, nor alcohol for that matter.

I admit I do have the odd drink every couple of weeks or so though aha

Medical? I say yes, if moderated and it also means it'll be regulated for quality under the FDA or its country-equivalent.

Recreational? I say no. Smoke inhalation of any sort isn't healthy and marijuana does predispose to things like COPD, schizophrenia and pneumothoraces (air trapped in the lining of the lung). At the moment, in the UK at least, people are producing marijuana that's tending to be more addictive and less therapeutic (higher THC content, lower cannabidiol content). There's been the emergence of Skunk, which is also very harmful. I'm against all drugs, including nicotine, for recreational use.

As doctors, we prescribe medications to people only when they *need* it - no drug is safe. In the same way, no one *needs* cigarettes, nor recreational cannabis, nor alcohol for that matter.

I admit I do have the odd drink every couple of weeks or so though aha

Medications are so overprescibed, seen first hand what these antidepressants and antipsychotic meds do to people, people are being put on wrong medications these days and then people wonder why people go insane. I myself use medical marijuana for migraines and it works wonders, my doctor refuses to do the injection a month on me just because the side affects would last a whole month because they do stuff to your chromosomes and it costs $700 a month for injections. My opinion smoke a little bud calm the heck down, the only real issue is people charging an arm and a leg so pretty much it’s more expensive than crack these days, I say there would be less problems for people financially if it was cheaper and people could afford their weed, taxed sure but the price doesn’t need to be outrageous. There are strains that are actually higher CBD with some THC like harlequin, cannatonic and other strains. But I myself iv tried the CBD isolates and lotions but I think in my case some THC is needed, I’ll admit that stuff has gotten a lot stronger than it was a few years ago so really a lot less is needed in one smoke session, really at least with my tolerance I think I’d pass out before I started hurting my lungs. Also I thought I would add, I was doing some research on edibles, they say it actually helps your liver heal. Really interested in those THC bath bombs those look like they would make a relaxing bath time. But all in all people no matter where you go people are always gonna hate on weed but many of us end up getting cancer somewhere in our body, might be from smoking, drinking, McDonald’s, crack chicken, inhaling fumes from stripping wax from floors, pest control chemical sprays, people can even get cancer from stress. could be so many things that could give us cancer and we wouldn’t even know which one it is. So stop stressing the world because you might stress them out and give THEM cancer!

Medical? I say yes, if moderated and it also means it'll be regulated for quality under the FDA or its country-equivalent.

Recreational? I say no. Smoke inhalation of any sort isn't healthy and marijuana does predispose to things like COPD, schizophrenia and pneumothoraces (air trapped in the lining of the lung). At the moment, in the UK at least, people are producing marijuana that's tending to be more addictive and less therapeutic (higher THC content, lower cannabidiol content). There's been the emergence of Skunk, which is also very harmful. I'm against all drugs, including nicotine, for recreational use.

As doctors, we prescribe medications to people only when they *need* it - no drug is safe. In the same way, no one *needs* cigarettes, nor recreational cannabis, nor alcohol for that matter.

I admit I do have the odd drink every couple of weeks or so though aha

Yea I agree with this. Putting smoke in your lungs alone simply isn’t good lmao. It’s annoying when people compare drinking to smoking pot because having one or two beers occasionally at the bar or a get together does absolutely no harm. It’s only when you start to drink excessively the bad effects start to kick in. Smoking is completely different. I’ve seen people take one hit of weed and then they start coughing their lungs out, just from one hit lol. Even with vaping I’ve seen it happen, so clearly your body is telling you to quite putting unfathomable into your lungs haha.

Nothing better than talking about pot at 2am while trying to fall asleep
Can I just say how surprised and happy I am about how civil this thread has stayed. When I replied to the bot I didn’t expect this thread to last more than a day or two
Let’s keep this going

Medical? I say yes, if moderated and it also means it'll be regulated for quality under the FDA or its country-equivalent.

Recreational? I say no. Smoke inhalation of any sort isn't healthy and marijuana does predispose to things like COPD, schizophrenia and pneumothoraces (air trapped in the lining of the lung). At the moment, in the UK at least, people are producing marijuana that's tending to be more addictive and less therapeutic (higher THC content, lower cannabidiol content). There's been the emergence of Skunk, which is also very harmful. I'm against all drugs, including nicotine, for recreational use.

As doctors, we prescribe medications to people only when they *need* it - no drug is safe. In the same way, no one *needs* cigarettes, nor recreational cannabis, nor alcohol for that matter.

I admit I do have the odd drink every couple of weeks or so though aha

Ya I agree that no one needs marijuana recreationally, but the same could be send for countless activities that pose a risk to human health or even our life. As such it seems that we need to be responsible for what is “worth” the risk and what isn’t.
I think this is where it enters the realm of politics over moral does or do nots. For example, morally speaking, if there is a baby drowning, you should save it, but politically, should someone be prosecuted if they don’t. It’s the idea of pragmatism over moral tightness of a good or action. From this perspective, it would seem a libertarian philosophy of sorts would be preferred, the type where an action should not be banned politically if there is no net societal harm. The same way governments don’t ban doing risky tricks on a bike, or mountain climbing, or forgetting a significant others birthday/anniversary (tell me that isn’t risky ). While not safe to the individual, there lies within the idea that it’s not a governments job to chaperone everyone, and we need the freedom to be stupid on occasion. This doesn’t, from where I stand specifically, preclude regulation however. For example, mountain climbing is only permitted in certain areas at certain times, as your injury from an elevated risk poses a net loss to society and thus there exists an interest in regulating this.
The same overall idea could be applied to recreational marijuana, just like it’s applied to alcohol or tobacco or countless other activities we partake in to make us happier, more energized, etc...provide regulations to keep the overall activity safe and constrained, such as the skunk you mentioned that’s more addictive than the average 7% rating given to the pot most think about. Not only could this bring in tax revenue, but it shuts down or limits illegal business operations, keeps products safe, and has been shown through correlations that it decreases use overall, or at the very least, hasn’t been tied with an increase in use.

With where the current science is, I like to claim that there exists a consensus on the research that there exists properties of marijuana that are medical, and thus a reason to push for more research and the legalization of medicinal marijuana. As to what scale, there seems to lie a good amount of debate there!
Recreational however is a whole different ball game, as like you said, it just isn’t needed. Plain and simple, it’s a want. No different than a donut, a white coven, or anything else that we go after for pleasure. Thus the debate is, does the personal pleasure cause net harm to society, whereby most research seems to suggest it doesn’t, but plenty of questions left to answer, as well as can it be regulated, and is it worth it, where countries around the world and states in the US provide optimism that it can be regulated and that it may be worth while.

The real take a way from this I see is less of, this stuff should be legalized, and more so that there seems to be a strong reason to look into the topic more and that as a result, laws at the federal level around the globe should be redone in a way to allow for easier research to find out the best way, if any, to move forward on this issue.