<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote><i>Originally posted by: <b>anonymous</b></i>
Sorry SeanDavis, for me thats not logical! You want to be a policeman and act to your own (homemade and fitting your wishes) laws or what?
Just because some unhealthy things are still legal (like alcohol and tobacco), Marijuana should also be legal???And next: all the other drugs or what?
Nearly everyone who posted here seems to appreciate anti-smoking-laws like the new one in that californian city, but you all want marijuana to be legal???
Emily states in her blog, that everyone who smokes is silly and that she does not feel pity if he/she geets cancer from it, because its his own fault.
And if CFers,whose health is already bad consume alcohol or marijuana its ok or what?
Uli,43,Germany</end quote></div>
Here is the logic, it's pretty simple: Cigarettes are EXTREMELY unhealthy, and people gain nothing from their use besides bad health side effects with prolonged use (cancer, heart disease, emphycema, etc etc). The tobacco companies have been busted adding TONS of other ingredients to their product that does nothing but harm us, their tobacco is far from "natural". Most people I know are a "pack a day" smoker, some much more than that. And as we all know cigs are extremely addictive, some say even more so than heroin. Cigarettes, for all their evil in general (first hand and second hand smoke) are 100% legal. The state taxes the living hell out of them, and uses that revenue to fund schools and health programs statewide per the cigarette revenue taken in.
Alcohol is the same way. It's negative health aspects are well documented (even though it does have some positive health aspects in moderation), it destroys entire families due to it's addiction and ready availability, and is a known carcinogen. 85%+ of all violent crimes committed have alcohol as a precursor. A very large percentage of vehicle fatalities are directly attributed to alcohol consumption. Most date rape type scenarios involve alcohol.
I could go on and on but i'm sure you get my point. Cigarettes and Alcohol are very damaging to our health and society as a whole, but guess what? They are 100% legal and we have the CHOICE to use them or not. The government oversees both substances distribution, and controls them with an iron fist through extremely expensive licenses on every level of manufacture and distribution.
Marijuana has been said to be worse for our bodies compared to cigarettes due to it's high tar content, and seemingly equal carcinogenic properties. There has been other scholarly research that stated that there are special substances in marijuana that counteract many of the carcinogenic properties in it's smoke, within our lungs, and that would explain why exclusive pot smokers (and not cig smokers also) rarely if ever develope lung cancer.
There are real patients of chronic diseases (CF included) that swear by the use of marijuana to ease their diseases symptoms, as well as many doctors who also feel it helps them. Aside from potential soothing of chronic illnesses, marijuana also acts on the brain in such a way to cause a soothing sensation, a form of tranquility. These states have helped many manic depressive individuals.
On top of that, marijuana (if it doesnt have purposeful additives) grows right from the earth, and is MUCH more pure of contaminants that cigarettes are. As for it's tar content, the reason why some research states it is 20:1 higher compared to cigarettes, cigarettes would have the same level if it weren't for the fact that each commercial cigarette has nearly two inches of extremely dense filtration on each end that you suck the smoke through. Pot in it's rolled form has nothing, hence the "much higher tar".
If you use water filtration (water bong - which MANY people do) with marijuana, you can eliminate atleast 90% of the tar, and that is much more than the efficiency of the tobacco filters on cigarettes.
Add to all that, that there has NEVER been a single case of anyone O.D.ing or dying due to marijuana use, and that you can't become addicted to marijuana on a phyical level, and there is ZERO logic as to why it should be illegal while cigarettes and especially alcohol are legal.
I am not an advocate to legalize ALL drugs, clearly some are just way too addictive and destructive inherantly, but within reason, I'm generally a libertarian by nature. I feel people should have the right to choose what they want to do as long as it doesn't harm others (alcohol sure does, as does cigarettes), and everyone involved is concensual.
PLENTY of our founding fathers and early patriots that fought for and spilled their blood for what this country is today, were pot smokers. Not to mention the Native American Indians have been smoking pot and eating Peyote for countless centuries.
There's your logic. Still think it doesn't make sense?