Sunday, February 13, 2011

Sell Gold? No, That's Too Cheap and Doesn't Grow

My law class is amazing, a few days ago we watched a video about the problems of prohibition of marijuana. Personally, I prefer the term pot. It's the name I'm accustomed too, and I have issues with spelling. Marijuana is just slightly too strenuous for me to try to think through if I'm spelling it correctly and then go back with my spell check after and find out that most of the spellings of it were incorrect.

Remember my How To.. Solve A Rubik's Cube post? Yeah, I spelt algorithm wrong at least fifty times.

Prohibition, never really works. It may detour the use of the use of the substance, but it will never completely scare it away. Just because the sign says skateboarding prohibited, it doesn't mean it will be stopped there; it just means you need to go fast. I was very impressed by the documentary, with how it addressed prohibition and how well it worked.

"Think of the first prohibition." "Alcohol?" "No, no. Before that." "Uh.." "Adam and Eve, and the forbidden fruit."

I'm aware not everyone viewing this documentary may agree with that story, but they all know it roughly. It did go to examine alcohol prohibition after that, and how it did not work well. It created underground pubs, even more pubs and speakeasies than there are now; it upped the number of users (I think) and increased the number of alcohol pointing incidents, and that is a fairly high number at this point of time; and it certainly did not stop people from drinking up when they wanted to.

When something is criminalized, it becomes more dangerous. Alcohol became illegal, and more people start to die because of it. Marijuana (yes, I decided pot looked too.. fancy lacking) becomes illegal, and it now has no regulation. There are several controversial issues surrounding the use of marijuana, many of them are due to a lack of education, but one of the health related issues is around smoking some hard chemicals.

These chemicals are not naturally found in the plant, however it is in the manure that is used to grow larger plants in less time. You are suppose to run your plant under fresh water for some time, I think it could be as long as a day, to ensure the chemicals are off of it; but if someone has a large scale grow off do you think they are going to be cleaning all of those plants? A large scale grow off is going to be for money, and as long as time is money the plants are going to remain dirty.

It may be easy to relate hippies to organic products, but due to social stereotyping hippies, pot, and organic seem to fit together very well in this situation. Grow organic. It's better for you. If you aren't sure of your source and how clean the plants are, be careful.

As for these other health issues that come up such as the killing of brain cells, 'it makes you stupid,' cancer, black lung, poor memory, and and I'll throw the laziness idea into this as well.

The 'study' that claimed it killed brain cells was not conducted properly. Instead of having the monkeys smoke the outrageous number of joints that were claimed; it turns out they pumped, the same quantity of smoke as they should of over a long period of time, into these monkeys all at once. They did not lose brain cells due to the marijuana. Rather it was due to suffocation. The idea of stupidity following a high, well of course you are not going to act as intelligent as you would when you are under the influence of any drug of that sort. Alcohol, marijuana, even too many antidepressants may do that I think.

There have been no studies to suggest that cancer will occur directly due to marijuana. I believe your chances are more likely if you smoke, but that is just if you smoke anything. The chemicals in marijuana do not effect your lungs the same way tobacco will; but the act of hot smoke entering your lungs is going to damaging no matter what. However, there are no cases of anything like black lung developing due to the use of marijuana.

In fact, there are no cases of any deaths directly due to marijuana use as well. Alcohol kills so many people every year. Street drugs claim some more lives. Pharmaceuticals are notable as well. Even over the counter drugs, such as Tylenol, claim lives every year. A twenty-four times overdose of this innocent pain killer will leave you with no pain, ever again. The amount it would take you to over done on marijuana is so ridiculous, I think it's fair to say it is impossible to do. Also, may I add in that marijuana can be an effective painkiller that may even be safer than Tylenol? I think I will.

As for the bad memory, well chronic use of marijuana will effect your hippocampus (a region of your brain that is very key in memory formation, and also a word my new spell check is rejecting) and the rumors are true. You may end up with a poor memory if you light up too often. How often is too often, I'm unsure of, however it may be little as once a week. This may not be related to memory, but I'll get to it later.

Laziness. When you are high, you might not feel very productive. The fact of the matter is that marijuana users are all around us. Half of the Canadian population will admit to trying it, at least, once through their life time. Your family, friends, coworkers and employee, may all be casual users and you'd never be able to tell. They are just as productive as they normally would be, but perhaps they enjoy the occasional joint. It's just like those who drink, but alcohol is a bit more socially acceptable.

In some areas, it has become socially acceptable to smoke marijuana. In Vancouver it is not too uncommon to see people lighting up on the streets. It's just like my favorite comparison, alcohol. Some people may not approve on it, but it would seem most people are not too bothered by it.

Back to laziness. Did you know that prohibition of marijuana originally came to the United States because of the exact opposite reason? The government was afraid that minorities were going to get high, become violent, and attack the rich, white population. This simply would not be acceptable for such a savage act to occur. After some time the government realized that this was not the case, and for a short amount of time it became an O.K. to have marijuana. Then the cold war came about. The idea that marijuana made you lazy, in combination of the Red Fear, the Red Menace, the worst concept to ever hit the Americas even though (in retrospect) it really doesn't look like the government or the general population knew what they were talking about; Communism! Now this plant was banned so the Soviet States did not encourage us all to be zombies due to marijuana; it pulled down hemp (the plant with over seven thousand uses other than smoking, because hemp will not have enough THC in it to get you high) because it was thought hemp would be grown with marijuana, to cover up the marijuana.

Ronald Reagan started the war on drugs, which really is just a war on marijuana with a few narcotic busts and smuggling operations shut downs on the side, or so it appears to me. He started this on a few ideas that really do not seem very stable, and that isn't mentioning the direct lies regarding marijuana being dangerous or not, and his ignoring the studies that said it was fine. I won't get into that though.

With this war started, of course there is going to be some retaliation. In this case, the retaliation has been the disregard of the war. It is easy to find marijuana, perhaps even easier to obtain than alcohol for under age individuals. Most dealers won't be asking for ID any time soon, just green backs (or money, if you happen to live in Canada and have money differentiable by colour as well as the stamp on the paper).

I mentioned there being a problem with smoking often, as little as once a week. There are studdies to suggest that smoking up when your brain is still developing, will put your emotional development behind and even stop it. If you were to smoke up once a week for your entire teen years, you may have the emotional level of a twelve year old for the rest of your life. You may never be able to understand why people are the way they are, you may never be able to understand how your actions effect individuals directly and indirectly, you may never fall in love.

This is where the idea of legalization may come into play. If it is legalized, it may become regulated. The chemicals that I mentioned before, could be limited or even eliminated if the growers were some how government regulated. Age limits could be put in place, just like alcohol and tobacco. This would not eliminate the use by those who are under age. It will just make it more inconvenient, maybe. I know if I wanted to I could acquire some booze and smokes despite my lack of age. Jails will have less people in them, due to the lack of charges related to petty crimes (the S-10 bill that was recently attempted to be passed in Canada, I'm not sure if it was or not or has not finished the deciding process yet, did not differentiate between having six plants and six thousand plants), and there would be less tax dollars put towards the elimination of marijuana. Canada has a five billion dollar anti-drug budget. Four fifths of that is put towards marijuana related activities (well the governments version of marijuana related activities).

BC has become such a strong point for the plant and those who grow and sell it, that if the police were to bust one grow off a day in some cities, there would be just as many (perhaps more) by the time the year was over. Many communities have way over 365.25 grow offs.

One of the major reasons I do not think marijuana will be legalized, or even decriminalized is taxing though. The dealers do not want it to be taxed. Are you aware of how much a pound of marijuana costs? BC Bud, marijuana grown in BC, will sell for 1800 to 2000 dollars. The further South you go, the higher the price. The further East you go, the higher the price as well. One pound of Texada Gold (a term I like much more than BC Bud) will sell for up to 6000 dollars in New York. Sellers do not want their product to be taxed.

The reason for this high price, no pun intended, is due to the fact it is illegal. The price of something is always going to go up once it made illegal, an example being reflective devices for license plates. In the UK, it was declared illegal to use a device that will reflect light off of your license plate if a picture or video is attempted to be taken of it. The result of using one was your car could not be ID'd by picture or video. There are other devices similar to these that were also banned, such as a cover that only allowed you to view the numbers and letters clearly from directly behind the vehicle using it. Soon as the products became illegal, the sales of them items went up. The demand went up as well I'm sure. With more demand the price of something will natural inflate; and if the fact it is illegal and must be transported around the law's vision, will add to this price.

Marijuana being illegal creates an underground trading system, a criminal trading system, and therefore an expensive trading system. I live in Powell River, right beside Texada. It's a six-fifty dollar ferry ride to the island, I think. I live next to an island that is world famous for having superb product, Texada Timewarp anyone? and if I were go seek out marijuana, I have the lowest price in Canada, if I am not mistaken.

When I say world famous, I'm not kidding at all. I've heard stories of friends who have gone to Mexico being offered Texada Gold. A friend of mine told me of a friend of his who was in the army, and in the middle east he was offered some Texada Timewarp.

Casual users want legalization or decriminalization (don't ask me for the difference, I am unsure). Sellers want it to stay illegal. Supporters who are not users, want legalization or decriminalization. Those who are against the product are likely not to say anything because they are happy with the system; though really, I would love to have a conversation with someone who is against the use of marijuana. I see very few downsides to it, if used responsibly. If I ever find anyone who is of such a state of mind, I should ask them.

I think the final step that Canada will have to take, to get over this idea that marijuana will not kill you on spot and the use or possession of should not be a criminal offense, is the United States. I'm certain that the U.S. is still so scared of not the Red Menace any more, but rather the Green Menace, that legalization or decriminalization will lead to the boarders being shut down. I am not sure if this is true and will actually happen, but I believe I was told that this was one of the biggest problems towards this goal.

I should rap this up, it's getting onto the early hours of the next day. Happy Valentines day, to all those who celebrate it. Personally, I'm just using it as an excuse to hang out with my girlfriend and buy desert. I'm sure many people will be wearing red at school, purposely. I think I'll wear all black, to compensate for their lack of lacking colour. As for my views on marijuana, I think it should be made legal (or decriminalized). It would save many tax dollars, create a taxable commodity. Hemp could also be re-popularized. The quality of the plant being sold could be improved (organic, makes for the win), and as much as a small population will dislike it; marijuana could have an age limit instead of a price limit. Maybe some people could even grow it for the plant itself, not the effects of consuming it. I think it is a nice looking plant, the leaves are quite iconic looking not to mention a very nice shade of green.

By the way, how'd my new spell check work? Anyone see any terrible errors?

#Bugworlds

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