Posted by bleauberry on August 18, 2010, at 21:03:15
In reply to Re: Marijuana as a Medication in Depress and Anxiety, posted by sigismund on August 17, 2010, at 20:36:38
Quote from one of the earlier posts:
"So it's illegal in order to protect us."
If that were true, then why are not cigarettes illegal? That's a leading cause of multiple diseases and death. Pot never killed anyone or gave them a disease. Well, I mean, I am sure someone somewhere has been injured by longterm chronic smoking, but really, no contest when compared to tobacco.
Same with alcohol. No contest. Drunk drivers kill all the time, mj drivers hardly ever.
We know alcohol and cigarettes cause serious problems and death on a wide scale. But they remain legal and widely accepted as ok. We have not even a small fraction of evidence pointing to mj having that kind of destructive power. On the contrary, what evidence we do have points to it as having healing power.
So the reason it is illegal has nothing to do with protecting us.
Several states now have made it legal with a prescription. Punishments in some states have been lowered to not much more than a traffic ticket for possession or cultivation of small personal amounts.
Some countries view it as so illegal that the punishment might be life in jail or execution. Other countries allow full cultivation, genetic modification, and buying it to smoke in your local coffee shop.
The story of why it is illegal is pretty interesting. Several variables involved with that. But none of them have anything to do with protecting our health.
poster:bleauberry
thread:958696
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100811/msgs/959112.html