Cannabis is to be reclassified as a class B drug (UK)
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7386889.stm


it's about time.

so they made it harsher on weed smokers, giving more power to the cops, and you are in favor?

im against the abuse of weed, and as a matter of fact i don't smoke it, but i don't think it should be a police problem-- just like alcohol.

nobody likes an alkie, but the cops shouldn't be busting everyone who drinks or sells booze.

and i can attest, gin is more dangerous than skunk.

i am just against people smoking too much of it. I have had two of my friends develop schizophrenia from smoking too much weed, one is now dead.

how do you know the weed did not help them deal with the schizophrenia?

there have been countless hundreds of clinical sudies on weed and not a one has shown any mental illness as a result.

Stop talking bullshit rob, my mum works for a mental health charity and has done for most of her life, she knows her shit when it comes to talking about cannabis and mental health issues it can trigger. You don't.

sure, same here. but throwing the cops into the mix doesn't help anyone, i think.

alcohol is a big factor in domestic violence. lots of women get killed by angry drunken husbands. also, alcoholism causes cirrhosis of the liver, brain damage, kidney damage, car accidents, etc. still, most people enjoy a beer every now and then, and are able to go to a pub & enjoy a nice time without fear of prosecution.

drug abuse (any kind of drug abuse) is a public health problem, and the solution is not criminal prosecution, but treatment.

people who want to get fucked up are always going to do it-- whether it is with illegal drugs, prescriptions, industrial glues and solvents, sugary foods, etc. just look around & you'll see-- you think macdonalds doesn't kill people?

"Last year, Netherlands researchers reviewed five studies and concluded that the use of marijuana (cannabis) approximately doubles the risk of developing schizophrenia. Because the studies excluded anyone with a history of psychosis and controlled for the use of other drugs, they were "able to show the specific effects of cannabis."

etc:

http://bipolar.about.com/od/relatedd...schizo_pot.htm

--
ha ha, this brings back memories:

"The abnormalities occur in a brain pathway related to language and auditory functions which is still developing during adolescence."

^^ i remember i used to hear shit that didn't exist, ha ha. chronic use of weed is not for me!

I don't know much about alcohol abuse or domestic violence, as luckily i have not experienced any of it first hand. What i have experienced is people i have known my entire life going completely insane from smoking too much weed, and then stabbing themselves to death with a pair of scissors in front of their family.



but once you have triggered schizophrenia in yourself treatment can only go so far, you will most likely suffer bouts of schizophrenia throughout the rest of your life.
Reclassifying it will hopefully prevent it getting to that point, it will prevent the people most likely to suffer schizophrenia at some time in their life from bringing it upon themselves earlier or even at all.

well, take cigarettes-- cigarettes cause lung cancer. so people who smoke have a choice to risk lung cancer for their pleasure.

theoretically, you could sell weed with warnings about the risk of schizophrenia. just like alcohol should have warnings about liver damage (but doesn't).

about your friend, i'm very sorry. but still, you can't tell millions of people what they can or can't do with their minds and bodies. we live in what try to be free, open societies, not in authoritarian dictatorships-- and that's a good thing.

if they make it more illegal, then people are going to desire it a lot more.

it's stupid; besides, the cops are going to be looking for potheads instead of more dangerous criminals.

...on a lighter note, CANNABIS CORPSE!

You have a point, but there is a big difference between someone who has lung cancer's behaviour and someone who is a paranoid schizophrenics' behaviour. Its about their safety and the public's safety.



Isn't that what the government is all about, they tell us what is legal and what is not.

I'm with sskull on this one. I don't know much about weed triggering schizophrenia, but I know that weed fucks me up pretty bad always I do it (not exactly when I do it but afterwards - several weeks after I get smoke up I tend to get terribly depressed).

Maybe I just made up that shit in my head, who knows. But it works like that, so i know it can have adverse effects on human mind too.

Don't do it then honey, its not worth it. If you were to see some of the people my mum has to work with, and the parents of these kids who are now their full-time-carers. It's fucked up, its a horrible horrible illness to have.

the real way to get people to at least consider and know if they can smoke weed is by getting informed and being well educated.

yes, that's what the government is all about, but there are degrees of government intervention. most people like less government intervention and the freedom to make their own choices, even if those involve some risk.

sure a government can act like a big parent and regulate every aspect of your life, from what you eat to how you spend your weekend, but those social experiments failed miserably in the XX century for a reason. oh, north korea is still around...


yes, it does you. but what would you do if your government criminalized beer?

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/...full/155/4/552

Ian McKay strikes again!

from the above link


Thus if a young person is genetically at risk for schizophrenia, the research suggests, the use of marijuana can cause the same kind of damage the schizophenia would cause, which could bring on the illness when it might otherwise have not have emerged, cause earlier onset, and/or worsen the condition.


and that is why you should not smoke weed until you are a adult and your brain is fully formed, as I did.

No no, I try to avoid it. I smoked pot like 5 times in past 5 years.

i fucked the link above, here is a better one:

alcohol's damaging effects on the brain

Most cases of schizophrenic behaviour due to smoking cannabis takes place when that person is already schizophrenic, the drug just makes it worse. I don't think cannabis is a clever thing to do whatsoever, however I do feel its a convienient scapegoat for a highly complex mental condition, all cases of mental illness and severe depression are a result of numerous external and internal factors, not just drug consumption.

well no the studies don't say that.

still, a matter of risk is no cause for criminalization

we take lots of risks in our lives-- i don't want my life in the hands of an overprotective government nanny

I don't know anyone that has gotten any mental illness derived from excessive pot usage anyone who has had latent schizophrenia and pot has triggered their psychosis. From my own personal experience, pot appears to be one of the safest drugs out there. I have known people that have been smoking grass upwards of thirty years and have never experienced a problem and are fully functional members of society.

nonsense. your subjective experience doesn't trump a scientific study. i know plenty of crazed potheads. but still-- and this is the point-- criminalization does nothing to help the problem. NOTHING.

Also, the schizophrenia in those cases is triggered by using vast amounts of the drug for a prolonged period of time. The same way as when you will end up chronically depressed if your alcohol usage spirals out of control.

So there is something to this "reefer madness"!!!

yes.

and by the way, you can die from drinking water.

when are the potheads coming here?

What if I smoke to calm the anxiety of developing schizophrenia?

Legalizing pot really would solve a lot of problems. For one thing, there's less allure to something that's legal, especially among teens. In theory, then, fewer people might be attracted to the idea of smoking pot.

In addition, it takes an enormous load off the justice/prison system, affording more resources for far more serious matters.

And it provides another tax revenue source for the government, and opens the way for better investigation of medical uses.

yeah.

it would also be wonderful to have coffee that tasted as great as it smelled and that we could all fly.

You'd be dosing what you're taking, the same way as when you take the prescribed dose of any kind of medication that your GP advised you to. Since you are self-medicating umonitored, the risk is that you overdo it or don't do enough.

its hard to believe amphetamines and cocaine are class b, many opiates class c and d, but grass is class a. ridiculous.

scientific studies can be used to prove anything. There are just as many scientific studies out there supporting both sides of any argument. I've seen studies saying that pot doesn't cause lung cancer, just as I've seen studies that one joint has four times as many carcinogeons as a cigarette. I haven't looked into this one, but I can assure you I can find studies to support both sides of this.

with that said, my subjective experience is starting to sound pretty good.

hahahaha

Fortunately I don't smoke often, nor do I fear schizophrenia (ha ha, though weird occurrences inspire fear from time to time).

that's not science.

I know at least ten people who have smoked it regularly for ten years or more, and nearly all of them are agoraphobic, very lazy, have a terrible memory, and the intelligence and sense of humour of a stupid toddler (wearing-a hat-with-a-propeller-on-and-dribbling-stupid): which is the opposite to how they were nine years ago (which is why I know them in the first place). Now they're just tree-stumps, and will never get better. I do think it needs to be reclassified as Class B so that possessing it is taken seriously rather than remaining a kind of 'tut tut' non-crime like bicycling on the path.

but you still have smoked pot, so isnt it better that you had the choice to smoke and decided that you do not want to than having the government decide what is good for you?
sniffing glue and inhaling airconditioner gas is not healthy but it is legal. and SSK-no i do not belive that it is the governments job to make laws. it is their job to obtain order, but not to dictate our day to day lives.
i am lactose intolorent but the government shouldnt tell me when i can and cant have milk. (i know thats a bad excample....)

in addition to un criminalizjing pot the US should lower the drinking age and make alchahol more accesable. it is obsurd the frenzy that americans get into over booze and how uncontrolable drinking can be. where as in a lot of countries where the dinking age is lower and booze can be bought pretty easily, it is much less a big deal




(im sure that somehow connects to the conversation)

i don't think the government's decision to reclassify cannabis had anything to do with the police or what scientific studies have shown, i think i'm right in saying cannabis use is on the decline in the uk, and the way i see things is that cannabis was reclassified for political reasons, this is a reactionary decision by a weak labour party who want to impress swing voters who voted conservative in last week's local elections.