Pot Legal in Colorado and Washington for Recreational Use

[scho63]

Peter Tosh is a great reference! Pos Rep!!!

[Braincase]

Easy solution... you want less grass related crime, decriminalize it.

[Halfcan]

What the hell is Mexico going to do with their truckloads of pot when every one in the midwest is geting it from colorado?

Colorado is about to have the Best economy in the Nation. Throw in the drug tourist with everything else the state has- wow it will be The place to live.

[JohnnyHammersticks]

Originally Posted by Halfcan

What the hell is Mexico going to do with their truckloads of pot when every one in the midwest is geting it from colorado?

Colorado is about to have the Best economy in the Nation. Throw in the drug tourist with everything else the state has- wow it will be The place to live.

This.

It's going to be like the 70's, when people drove to Colorado to get Coors. But without all the drunk driving accidents on the way back to wherever they came from, of course.

[JohnnyHammersticks]

Why Medical Marijuana Laws Reduce Traffic Deaths

States that legalize medical marijuana see fewer fatal car accidents, according to a new study, in part because people may be substituting marijuana smoking for drinking alcohol.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia, have legalized medical marijuana since the mid-1990s. For the new study, economists looked at 1990-2009 government data on marijuana use and traffic deaths in the 13 states that had passed legalization laws during that time period. The data were from the National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Comparing traffic deaths over time in states with and without medical marijuana law changes, the researchers found that fatal car wrecks dropped by 9% in states that legalized medical use — which was largely attributable to a decline in drunk driving. The researchers controlled for other factors like changes in driving laws and the number of miles driven that could affect the results.

Medical marijuana laws were not significantly linked with changes in daytime crash rates or those that didn’t involve alcohol. But the rate of fatal crashes in which a driver had consumed any alcohol dropped 12% after medical marijuana was legalized, and crashes involving high levels of alcohol consumption fell 14%.

The authors found that medical marijuana laws reduced crashes in men more than in women — by 13% compared to 9% — in line with data showing that men are more likely to register as medical marijuana users than women.

The overall reduction in traffic deaths was comparable to that seen after the national minimum drinking age was raised to 21, the authors note.

“We were astounded by how little is known about the effects of legalizing medical marijuana,” lead author Daniel Rees, professor of economics at the University of Colorado-Denver, said in a statement. ”We looked into traffic fatalities because there is good data, and the data allow us to test whether alcohol was a factor. … Traffic fatalities are an important outcome from a policy perspective because they represent the leading cause of death among Americans ages 5 to 34.”

The authors also found that in states that legalized medical use, there was no increase in marijuana smoking by teenagers — a finding seen in other studies as well. But, in many cases, the laws were linked with an increase in marijuana smoking among adults in their 20s; this rise was accompanied by a reduction in alcohol use by college age youth, suggesting that they were smoking weed instead.

Studies have consistently found that while mixing either marijuana or alcohol with driving is unadvisable, driving high is much safer than driving drunk. Research on stoned driving is inconsistent, with some studies finding impairment and others not; the alcohol data, however, is clear in establishing a link between drinking and significant deterioration in driving skills. The data also consistently shows that using both drugs together is worst of all.

Driving under the influence of marijuana seems to be less risky because people who are high tend to be aware that they are impaired and compensate, while alcohol tends to increase recklessness and create false confidence. Also, people are more likely to smoke weed at home or in private, rather than out at bars or other public events that require driving to get to.

The research was published by IZA, a nonprofit labor research organization associated with the University of Bonn in Germany. It is a working paper, which means it has not yet been subjected to peer review.

Maia Szalavitz is a health writer at TIME.com. Find her on Twitter at @maiasz. You can also continue the discussion on TIME Healthland’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIMEHealthland.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/0...#ixzz2BaBH81Vq

[Stanley Nickels]

Marijuana isn't illegal because it's dangerous, it's dangerous because it's illegal.

Cliched though that phrase may be, it's absolutely true. The border just became a LITTLE BIT safer, and the Mexican cartels just lost a LITTLE BIT of their stranglehold over nearly every facet of Mexican life.

I think it's absolutely prudent and appropriate to restrict its sale and growth, just like alcohol.. but I think it's an absolute sham to proclaim it as a dangerous drug. If you think you're just going to have a bunch of stoned-to-the-gills kids walking around your city, you're probably unaware of how many people are already high on a daily basis. I'm not a big weed smoker (maybe a couple times a year, if that), but I certainly see no reason why it's any more dangerous than alcohol (in terms of its effects on the general public) or cigarettes (and their effect on personal health). I don't think any of the three should be prohibited, and it's very concerning that there are those who would allow the government to simply dictate to a populace what they can and cannot do in their private lives. Driving high? Give 'em a ticket.

Borrow my analogy from earlier... say that, by some irrational change in logic, hordes of people will (only now that it's legal) get stoned and hang out in public... would you rather that, or have the typical college town experiences where hordes of kids stumble into the street drunk, fighting each other, making out while stumbling over cars, and driving while severely impaired? My answer doesn't take much deliberation.

[JohnnyHammersticks]

If you'd like to know the true depth of hypocrisy of our federal government in terms of classifying cannabis as a drug with no medicinal value, take a look at the verbiage in US Patent 6630507, titled “Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants”, held by the US Government as represented by the Dept. of Health and Human Services.

The patent claims;
"Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.”

Our government knows that cannabis is effective against Alzheimer's, it's right there in black & white. Our government knows about the alarming Alzheimer's "epidemic" we're starting to experience in this country. Yet our government refuses to do anything about it, and we as a citizenry sit and do nothing. We allow ourselves to be brainwashed into thinking that voting for any candidate other than republican or democrat--which is the only way things are ever going to change--is "throwing our vote away". We deserve the shitshow masquerading as leadership that we get because we're the morons who keep electing them, even though we have alternatives available right there on the ballot.

The average American has the IQ of a prairie dog, and the scariest thing is, by definition, half of us are even dumber than that.

[MeatRock]

If George and Martha Washington smoked, then we all should be able to smoke, didn't you know that dude?

[DaFace]

I didn't even realize this was another friggen pot thread. What a goofy title.

Merged them all together.

[Cannibal]

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), most employers will continue hire and fire based on testing for it. So this doesn't really affect people who actually work for living.

[nychief]

Originally Posted by Cannibal

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), most employers will continue hire and fire based on testing for it. So this doesn't really affect people who actually work for living.

Yep, people who smoke pot...never work.

[Cannibal]

Originally Posted by nychief

Yep, people who smoke pot...never work.

I didn't see that. But many wont be able to due employer drug screening whether weed is legal or not.

I'm still a fan of legalization though.

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by nychief

Yep, people who smoke pot...never work.

posting like a bauce

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by Cannibal

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), most employers will continue hire and fire based on testing for it. So this doesn't really affect people who actually work for living.

All it will take is one lawsuit - legal substance - employer can't prohibit my after work consumption - case closed

Insurance companies OTOH can make their lives miserable with really high premiums

[Buck]

How is this not happening in California right now?