Ban The ***s

I did go for a bit of double entendre with the thread title , rather surprised it took so long myself ; I think my true vocation in life shouldve been headline writer for the Sunday Sport.

 

I was tempted a couple of times, but couldn't be arsed.

 

Tobacco's only as harmful as it is because of the **** that it's mixed with by cigarette companies. It kills more people than Cocaine, Heroin, Alcohol, murder, fire, car accidents and AIDS combined every year.

Cannabis is a wonderful drug, it has innumerable benefits and you'd need to smoke approx. 15,000 joints in 20 minutes to overdose on the THC that makes you high (I'd love to see someone try ).

Cocaine and Heroin I know little about, so I won't embarrass myself trying to defend or oppose them.

You do have to question, though, why David Nutt was sacked as the government's Drugs Advisor 2 years ago for saying Cannabis was harmless and that Ecstasy was no more dangerous than Horse-riding... <theylietheylie>

 

i think the alcohol v tobacco thing is often not clarified properly

At first glance tobacco seems more harmful because the consequences are there to see in the forms of for example cancer

But research has found that alcohol is actually the worst of habits in terms of a holistic picture. people dont relate for example domestic violence to alcohol, thosands of abortions, teenage pregnancy, incest, affairs etc.

The impact of domestic violence can lead to broken families (no pun intended) mental health issues and a kid involved in it may then continue it within his/her relaionships etc

Also its worth noting that, although glamourised today, most of america's gang warfare was a result of prohibition, alcohol caused the deaths of thousands even when banned

Banning alcohol doesnt push the right buttons politically and brings in huge amounts of revenue so you always get excuses for it

 

Under Prohibition, New York had more illegal Speakeasy's than it has bars/pubs/cubs today, despite the fact millions more people now reside there. It just doesn't work.

 

Please re-read those last 2 sentences and try and spot the contradiction

 

i know what your saying, and i knew you would say it

but it may not push the right buttons politically because the know what happened last time, no?

 

Filters give you cancer too, they don't really know if they're better or not for you yet...

 

1. That's true, but it doesn't mean there's a problem with Cannabis itself. If the government were to use this as an excuse, I'd cry. It equates to saying "we have a harmful substance, Tobacco, and a harmless substance, Cannabis. We're not going to decriminalise the latter because users mix it with the former, which we not only condone but subsidise".

2. That's not true. Not a single person, in 10,000 years of known Cannabis usage by Humans, is known to have died from use of Marijuana.

 

In what way does the government subsidise tobacco?

 

I wonder if you have fully thought this through? The likelihood of everybody stopping smoking would leave the government with a deficit of £11 billion pounds which would see stealth taxes on things like fuel, food, clothes, books? or another hike in VAT to 22.5% causing you to bitch even more. I say let the bastards continue to die

 

Not sure that it does now but a few years back the European union had a tobacco regime whereby money was pai to farmers if they couldn't get the market price for their products. They basically just grew a rake of it and claimed the cash. Although it's stopped now there are payments for adptation to the new policy etc. - a little bit like weaning people off a drug really.......

 

First of all, not all people smoke Tobacco with a joint. I'm not a regular Weed smoker, but when I do smoke it, it's always without Tobacco.

Also, this argument is absurd. You simply cannot argue against Cannabis use on the basis that some people mix it with another, legal drug, that 1 in 3 adults around the world use regularly. If you were saying that people you know mix Weed with, say, Cocaine or Heroin, I'd agree. But you're not and they don't. They're mixing it with regular Tobacco, which I assume you're OK with people smoking on its own.

 

Really!? They're not getting the full benefit or enjoyment out of it!

Well, I'm not wrong to say that smoking Cannabis is harmless. It's a harmless plant with innumerable medical benefits, as I said. Just because people choose to mix it with Tobacco doesn't suddenly make Weed a bad or a harmful thing. I don't really 'get' what your argument actually is?
(Other than don't mix smoke something good with something that kills you)

 

cannabis is not harmless

the benefits argument is the same as the against argument

even cigarettes have benefits for example they can act as appetite suppressants, if you choose to argue

but economics wont allow weed being legalised as it is so easily grown and the plants how so many usages that, for example, the cotton industry would go tits up

 

1. Name one adverse effect of smoking Cannabis (that has been scientifically proven). See my earlier statement - if the Chief Drugs Advisor is sacked for saying it is harmless, does that suggest he is wrong or that the government want people to think it is a bad thing?

2. No, the benefits argument is not the same as the against argument.

3. Cigarettes also cause Cancer, Heart Disease, Liver Disease, etc. No sane person would say all of those problems can be ignored because you don't get hungry quite as often.

4. You're probably right about it not being allowed for that reason. Hemp is the most versatile plant known to man, from providing food and paper to incredibly efficient oil for motor vehicles, etc. But is that really a bad thing?