The New Deal. Sonoma, here I come......

[tmotech]

First off - Beauzeau - very sorry to hear about your father in-law. I am also upset that he didn't have available to him something to help him with his quality of life during his last days while he passed, or possibly might have given him more of the strength he needed to overcome his sickness. Marijuana is an EXTREMELY useful and effective, all natural, non addictive (physically) and mind expanding substance PROVEN to help with many ailments, which grows directly from the soil and needs no additives or chemicals to produce (therefore cannot be PATENTED by a pharmecutical company, which is one of the main reasons it was demonized to begin with). The great states of our nation (U.S) that have figured this out and made it available for the sick and dying should all be praised.

As for kids and pot? I am a parent, my son is only 6 years old, so I don't have to worry about this for a while. But lets face it, he WILL be exposed to all sorts of substances while growing up, outside of his parents supervision. If I could make my sons choice for him, I would tell him to do NONE OF IT! But again, that is not very realistic. As a matter of fact, he will most likely be exposed to the following substances, listed here in order according to what I believe to be the most harmful substance first (my opinion!):

1. Tobacco - by far the most dangerous substance, available to our children on every corner. Easy to get, deadly as hell. Kills upwards of 300,000 people every year in the US alone.

2. Alcohol - every person reacts differently to alcohol. Some are happy, some become sad, and some become violent. But everyone becomes a worse driver, and in the hands of a teenage driver, EXTREMELY DEADLY! The surgeon general report states that 65% of all violent murders involve alcohol. For people who have abused alcohol for many years, it creates a myriad of health problems which can easily kill a person, and yet, it too is also readily available to our kids.

3. HARD DRUGS - (i kind of blanket them all together - cocaine, crack, meth-amphetamine, heroin, opium, etc.....keep in mind that marijuana is "classified" as a hard drug if you are the federal government, but hardly classified as that by anyone who has a brain) -- why number 3? simply because they are harder to get and less available to people. Certainly they would move up the chain if they were legal. I know what these drugs do to people. I've seen it. I've know people who OD'd on H. I've seen friends throw away all common sense and lie, cheat, steal to get their hands on these drugs. I've seen people lose their families, their houses, their cars and their lives from these types of drugs.

4. Caffeine - I know, all the starbuck late mocha freaks are sittin' there with a cup 'o java in one hand, shaking their pointer finger at me "how could you say that it's number 4 on your list? PISHAWWW! Why would it be sold everywhere if it were DANGEROUS?" --- well guess what, it is. People die from caffeine related health problems every year. It is very physically addictive, causing withdrawals such as severe migraine like headaches for people who are ADDICTED to coffee, and can make them real big JERKS if they haven't had their morning dose of java.

5. Pharmecutical medicines - We've all heard really fast talking at the end of all the legalized drug pushers commercials. You know the part that says "side effects may include.....". I get a kick out of hearing the possible side effects of the "legal" drugs they are pushing on us. Half of them mention the same problems the medicine is supposed to be used for! And you can't help but notice when they say "and in some rare cases, death" !!!!!!! WTF? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Our legalized prescription medicine that has been approved for us to use, can sometimes KILL US TOO!

Ok.... if you haven't figured it out yet, MARIJUANA is wayyyyyyyyyyy down at the bottom of my list. Again, that's just MY opinion. I would put McDonalds/BurgerKing/TacoBell/Wendy's/(insert favorite fast food joint here) as much more harmful than pot. That's right, MY opinion is that half of the foods we consume here in the U.S.A are more harmful to you than pot!!!!

soooooooo, my point is, when my son gets older and hopefully comes to me to talk about drugs, I will flat out tell him "son, if I could decide for you what you should do, I would say don't do any drugs at all, but I can't make that decision for you, so I can only tell you what I know about those drugs." I would hope, as a loving father, that my son would come to me and talk to me openly about these things. I can only pray for that. And if he does come to me and ask about this stuff, I will flat out tell him, STAY AWAY FROM ALCOHOL. If you can't stay away from it, then NEVER DRIVE DRUNK OR GET INTO ANYONES CAR WHO HAS BEEN DRINKING, EVER! I would tell him that I would rather have him smoke pot than smoke cigarettes. I would tell him that I would rather have him smoke pot then drink alcohol. I would tell him I would rather have him smoke pot then do speed, or coke, or heroin, or opium, or ANY OF THAT bleep!! I've experienced many of these drugs. I know from experience, marijuana is a WAY BETTER CHOICE THEN MANY OF THE LEGAL DRUGS WE HAVE PUSHED ON US FROM A VERY YOUNG AGE! I would tell my son, as much as I wish he would never do ANY drugs, that chances are that wish will never come true, therefore, if it were my choice, he would just choose pot! Sure, I would like to think my son will make it through high-school substance free, but that is most likely NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! Let's face it, it has only become easier for kids to access drugs. Kids will do drugs, more than not. I would have no qualms with sitting in the basement with my son and a few of his friends, "supervising" them smoking pot. Just as long as they aren't lying in a grave because they thought it was better to drink booze and drive around then to hang out in my basement and smoke a joint, without having to worry about going to jail. I would BEG my son not to smoke cigarettes. I would BEG him not to drink alcohol unless he was at home, where I know he is not getting into a car. But given the lesser of evils, roll up a J son, and enjoy! I would have NO PROBLEM WITH THAT!

As for legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes? HELL YES! As for legalizing "POT" for recreational purposes? Another HELL YES! We have already spent 19 Billion dollars this year alone, of our tax payers money, toward eradicating marijuana. If "POT" was legalized for recreational use, we could make that a several hundred billion dollar swing into the coffers of our government via taxation of sales and distribution. And that's just for the "recreational" use of it. I have not even covered the industrial use.

The hemp plant could help to save our earth in several ways.

1. Paper - the hemp plant is a renewable crop that can produce all the paper we need without cutting down our endangered forests. Let's face it, if we keep clear cutting our forests, our planet is going to be in dire straights, and if good old mother earth is hurtin', guess what, SO ARE WE!!!! As well, to produce the paper from the hemp plant, there are NO TOXIC CHEMICALS produced as a bi-product. When we make paper from trees, Di-Oxyn is released into our rivers, streams and ground water. Di-Oxyn is one of the most toxic chemicals to living creatures, and is a bi-product of making paper from wood. The hemp plant in one growing season can reach upwards of 15 to 20 feet tall. It's a weed for gods sake! It is a renewable source of material for use not only in paper but in fabrics, and you can even make a particle board out of it's fiber which is far superior to wood! The biomass of a hemp plant is far greater then any forest as it can be harvested every year!

2. Fuel - The hemp seed can be pressed to produce high quality oil which can easily be converted to run in diesel engines. An all green fuel that burns clean. Henry Ford ran his first prototype cars on fuel made from the hemp plant. We are at war in Iraq, spending 10 billion a month to finance that war, under the guise of "weapons of mass destruction"..... errrrr, wait, ummmmm saving the world from "terrorism", right? I forget, why are we in Iraq? It couldn't possibly be anything to do with our former presidents families business, right? NO...... the president of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA would NEVER do anything, such as invade a foreign nation, take over it's oil fields, thumbing it's nose at the UN the whole time, to help out a family business, right? RIGHT? PLEASE TELL ME THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN? PLEASE TELL ME WE ARE SPENDING 10 BILLION A MONTH FOR SOMETHING ELSE - ANYTHING ELSE........ PLEEEEEEAAAAAASSSSSEE! -- Oh, THANK GOD, we found Sadam and hanged him quite publicly. So, some good did come out of our war over there. It couldn't possibly be our troops on foreign soil, killing foreign people for "black gold", right? Hey, we found what we were looking for and killed him, right? Does anyone know we put Sadam in power there? Anyone? HELLO? Our past president literally put our economy in the dumps, blamed it on "wall street greed", overlooking the Trillions of dollars spent on procuring oil in a foreign country to further the fortunes of his own family. NAH, THAT COULD NOT HAVE REALLY HAPPENED, COULD IT? please don't even get me started.

3. Food - Not getting into any specifics here, you can do the research yourself, but again the seed of the hemp plant, as mentioned above, produces oil. In fact, the oil from the hemp seed is rich in Omega6 essential fatty acids - LA and LNA amino acid, which is ESSENTIAL to healthy living. The seed contains protein and amino acid-rich oils which if eaten will help to sustain health. It is the same stuff people pay high prices for at the health food store. It would be easy to genetically alter a plant to produce an extremely high yield of seeds to feed starving people in our country and abroad. I'm not making this stuff up here. This is real. We could feed starving people everywhere with one of the healthiest foods on the planet!

So, I vote yes to legalize marijuana for medicine. I vote yes to legalize marijuana for recreational use. I also vote yes to legalize the hemp plant for industrial use to help remove our dependency on oil, slow our global deforestation by providing a renewable resource for paper production as well as high quality building materials. I vote YES to helping save our sick and dying from suffering needlessly, I vote YES to letting our people choose which intoxicants they prefer to use and I vote YES to saving the world, one plant at a time!

Chris

[Wedgebill]

tmotech for president I say.....ooh sorry, I forgot, I can't vote I'm only a legal alien in FLA from UK

[tmotech]

ok, i got off my soap-box now! lol -- Anybody want to discuss this further? --- Bill, trust me, you don't want to vote for me!!! muahahahahahahahahahahahaahhaha- COUGH, CHOKE, WEAZE ---

[gromitsdad]

NICE! It's good to see some youth to be proud of.

Just still try to watch the swabbing type stuff... :0

[Rotund]

@tmotech Great points, except you have to inhale it and that is not good for your lungs and is considered more harsh than a filtered cigarette. I am not arguing your points as cigarettes are addictive and pot is occasional thus you must eat it to be safe.

[solone1]

Man made alcohol and cigarettes - God made pot. Who do you trust?

[Rotund]

He made woman too so I have a hard time with that one . Just kidding if you read this.

[ThrobbyRobby]

God made pot immediately after making woman, just to give us a little relief from the tension created!

[solone1]

God made pot immediately after making woman, just to give us a little relief from the tension created!

F'ing perfect explanation!

[url]
http://74.94.71.237/songport/images/sol_smiley.jpg
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[solone1]

God made pot immediately after making woman, just to give us a little relief from the tension created!

F'ing perfect explanation!

[url]
http://74.94.71.237/songport/images/sol_smiley.jpg
[/url]

[solone1]

God made pot immediately after making woman, just to give us a little relief from the tension created!

F'ing perfect explanation! LOL!

http://74.94.71.237/songport/images/sol_smiley.jpg

[vad1er]

God made pot immediately after making woman, just to give us a little relief from the tension created!

The truth shall set you free...

I came up with some cool tunes in those days too bad I was too lazy to set the 4track up.. really thats the big problem with the Noble Weed... What got me to quit though wasn't the lack of a job (self-emplyment rocks! no UA's) or the laziness. It was my kids... But then I don't want my kids Drinking Alchohol or smoking cigerettes either(note to self Quit smoking Cigs and Drinking)
Personally I think they should just legalize all the drugs then regulate and tax the hell out of it... kill off the drug cartells too. But I know this will never happen they are making way too much money keeping them Illigal.. with Diversion programs... busting and reselling ect.. PLEASE GOVERMENT CONTROL US WE ARE LOST WITHOUT YOUR IDIOCRACY...

IN The words of Timothy Leary, "Tune in, Tune out, Drop out!"
http://www.riffworld.com/Members/vad1er/421-sam/

[Guitarsmurf]

I've read on N.O.R.M.L.'s web site Rockerfeller lobbied to out law pot when it was found that gas and oil could be produced from hemp seeds,a renewable energy source,but that would make it cheap and lord knows we can' have that,i wonder if cigarettes were illegal(and they should be,and i smoke!)what crop could tobacco farmers replace their income with,hmmmm? making a natural occurring substance,a plant for god's sake! has never made sense to me.this plant has way more uses than just a recreational drug.

[beauzeau]

@tmotech Great points, except you have to inhale it and that is not good for your lungs and is considered more harsh than a filtered cigarette. I am not arguing your points as cigarettes are addictive and pot is occasional thus you must eat it to be safe.

This is true. Pot IS considered more harmful than cigarettes in so far as the damage it does going in and out. However, vaporization has now became a viable option for smokers of both pot AND cigarettes. The new e-cigs are the way to go for smokers who haven't been able to put down the cancer sticks. I'd try one, but I'm afraid I'd get hooked again. I put down the cigarettes 18 months ago and have been on the gum ever since! I figure, I have a better chance of getting off the gum than I do getting off the e-cigs. But I AM considering buying a couple for my parents. My stepfather has chronic emphysema, and it's not slowing him down at all. Still smokes a couple of packs a day. Still stubborn as hell about it too. "Damn people trying to ban smokers! I can't even smoke in my favorite restaurant anymore!" "Dad, you can't even WALK into your favorite restaurant anymore, without stopping to catch your breath".

So yeah, when people say "pot never killed anyone", they're probably wrong. Surely, someone's smoked enough to get cancer and die. But not in one sitting. Oxycontin, on the other hand, can kill you in one sitting.

I get sick to my stomach when listening to these tv commercials for prescription drugs. They always put that disclaimer at the end. "Some people should not take this drug, as it can cause serious liver problems, kidney failure, and/or early onset of senility, and some people have reported strange dreams and suicidal thoughts while on the drug". And I'm thinkin, geez man, I'd rather just keep the toenail fungus!

[vad1er]

Oh yea man that Oxycotin is bad stuff. Most thest perscription drugs are far worse than Mary Jane... But I think Oxycotin and Diladid are the Worst of all.