Hot Topic: Marijuana in Colorado- Should it be Legalized as a Drug?

5 comments:

• kevin_hunt posted at 9:35 pm on Mon, Aug 13, 2012.

  Posts: 1

  In Holland, marijuana is sold at coffee shops and the use rate there among youths is 1/3 the use rate in the U.S. "..marijuana used today has a much greater potency than years ago." So what? That means that people need to smoke less of it, which is better for the lungs. FDA approved Marinol is 8X stronger than today's weed. "It was found that 121 of 164 adolescents (73.8%) reported using... diverted medical ... This study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) " So it means that they are getting regulated weed instead of Mexican schwag grown in sewage water. Good. ...and NIDA? NIDA labs created this new "synthetic marijuana" which kills people, unlike real marijuana. I don't trust NIDA.

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• dane posted at 8:38 pm on Mon, Aug 13, 2012.

  Posts: 1

  I would just like to clear up some ideas which you may believe about the own article that you wrote.

  
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  Studies also show that ‘pot’ affects brain development, impairs learning ability and contributes to depression in adolescents and young adults. Marijuana abuse accounts for 67% of the adolescents in substance abuse treatment programs in the United States.

  
  Have you ever thought why Marijuana abuse accounts for 67% of adolescents? Well the reason is because Marijuana dealers do not check a adolescents ID when he/she decides to sell them some.

  Solution: Amendment 64 sets a age limit (21 years old)

  Reason: Going through high-school and several years into college, before I was 21, My friends and I had a much easier time obtaining marijuana. Don't take it from me however, ask any teenager and they will tell you that it is much easier (there is literature about this online as well).

  According to the coalition against Amendment 64, suspensions for drug violations in Colorado public schools increased 45% over the past four years; expulsions for drug violations increased 35% and referrals to police increased 17%.

  
  This further proves my point... pot dealers don't care who they are selling to...

  Ages 12-25 are the most vulnerable. It is shown that smoking pot regularly reduces coordination and impairs decision making.
  Reduces coordination and impairs decision making?

  
  Hmm... I think you might be thinking of ALCOHOL.

  
  It is also shown that using this in the teen years affects stages of brain growth and development that make teens susceptible to addiction. Something shared today caught everyone’s attention in the room. What most people don’t understand is that marijuana used today has a much greater potency than years ago. Parents of teens today may have used pot in their teens, remembering the impact had very little effect on them. If a parent is comparing the effect pot had in their lives as a teen and young adult, to today’s manufacturing of pot, it is not comparable.

  I always laugh at this argument, what are you afraid of? Somebody getting too hungry while high or something? A pot overdose?
  Please... Tell me... Give me the name of ONE single person who has overdosed on pot?
  It is physically impossible to overdose, science proves it.
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  All of this being said, I would recommend that you reconsider your stance on marijuana for the sake of protecting young adults (were rooting for the same side here! )
  Voting yes on Amendment 64 will help Colorado, let us tax it and regulate it like alcohol.
  People should not be thrown into jail , lives completely ruined because plant which has been used for thousands of years, has many medicinal values to it (cures cancer for example) ... That is the real tragedy. Students are loosing their scholarships because of this plant and illogical and political (non-science) laws...

  
  I highly recommend you watch this movie on youtube

  The Union: the business behind getting high

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybf09Bp1syc

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• GustavoP posted at 6:56 pm on Mon, Aug 13, 2012.

  Posts: 3

  Who says that Marijuana should be legalized for young people?? This initiative to legalize is to protect them, not to sell them weed; they can buy weed now ANY time they want from any street dealer and he will never ask for I.D. and he will also try and push crack, cocaine or even heroin if they can. If Marijuana is legalized it would be a positive for our youth, it would create a regulated market like alcohol; ask any teen you want, which is easier to score weed or booze? The majority will say weed, why because it's unregulated and controlled by gangs and cartels which don't give a rats a@# about your kids. How do you expect to control something and keep if off the hands of our youth if you have absolutely NO power over it?? So we should just keep things as they are let the criminals of the world have absolute control over Marijuana? Or you think you can just stop everyone from using it? It's a weed folks, it will NEVER EVER be eradicated, it's been around longer than any nation in the world and has survived for thousands of years, it will also survive the DEA, you can count on that. Not to mention that is has been scientifically proven that it's safer less addictive substitute for alcohol, which does kill people, thousand and thousand of them every year in our country alone. There is NO excuse for procrastinating this inevitable change in policy in regards to Marijuana, it would be irresponsible and it would send a message to our youth that we prefer science-less policy over rational acceptance and regulation.

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• Josh posted at 3:56 pm on Mon, Aug 13, 2012.

  Posts: 1

  I agree with you that teens shouldn't use marijuana, which is why I support regulating and controlling marijuana, as opposed to leaving it to unscrupulous drug dealers. According to the Center for Disease Control, it appears that our states medical marijuana regulations are working. Colorado began regulating medical marijuana businesses in 2009. Here is the data since then:

  Teen marijuana use has stayed the same or is down in Colorado since Colorado began regulating medical marijuana

  1. Colorado: Youth marijuana usage in Colorado went down 2.8% (24.8% to 22%) from 2009 to 2011.

  2. National: Youth marijuana usage nationwide went up 2.3% (20.8% to 23.1%) from 2009 to 2011.

  3. National v. Colorado: Youth usage in Colorado fell below the national average in 2011 (23.1% US v. 22.0% CO).

  
  The availability of drugs at school down in Colorado since Colorado began regulating medical marijuana

  1. Colorado: Availability of drugs on school grounds in Colorado went down 5% (22.7% to 17.2%) from 2009 to 2011.

  2. National v. Colorado: Availability of drugs on school grounds nationwide is 8.4% higher than in Colorado (25.6% to 17.2%)

  Additionally, in Adams County, where regulated medical marijuana businesses are banned, there is evidence showing that in 2011 Adams County’s teen marijuana usage rate was about 6% higher than the rest of Colorado (27.8 v. 22%). This supports the idea that regulating medical marijuana provides a better mechanism for limiting youth access to marijuana than leaving medical marijuana in the black market.

  Here is a link to the CDC data:
  http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/youthonline/App/Results.aspx?TT=F&OUT=0&SID=HS&QID=H48&LID=CO&YID=2009&LID2=CO&YID2=2011&COL=T&ROW1=N&ROW2=N&HT=&LCT=&FS=1&FR=1&FG=1&FSL=&FRL=&FGL=&PV=&TST=False&C1=&C2=&QP=G&DP=1&VA=CI&CS=N&SYID=&EYID=&SC=DEFAULT&SO=ASC

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• Rfgamble posted at 1:45 pm on Mon, Aug 13, 2012.

  Posts: 1

  Donna Schwartz/donnas@valleyhope.com,

  Made it to 28 currently.
  https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/lead-world-again-and-admit-medical-and-industrial-uses-cannabis-plants-can-help-entire-world/bnHZcrwZ

  A real nice place for links to cannabis information, groups http://Cannabis.from-oh.com
  I think after at least 38 years of exposure to the use and sometimes using that I prefer a free choice to use Cannabis in all of it's different species to help the world relieve basic pain in its basic form and to be able to destroy cancer in it's condensed essence, use for human food ( Flours, butters, oils, raw grain meal ,etc ) , animals feeds ( domestic and wild ), Use for Industrial building fibers in sheet boards, insulation, cloth, concrete reinforcement fiber, Use for Seed Oils to be processed into many different fuels and lubricants.
  It grows quickly and in varieties of environments (weed?) and produces massive amounts of seed producing pods full of seeds in a short time with very little effort. Since regular hemp doesn't even get the birds that feed on them 'high' it should be sown as feed for the animals and possibly harvested and used when needed from the wild. More free food in the natural environment has to help with some of the coming food shortages we are starting to hear about due to droughts. More seeds in the environment is more food for everything. We could even use the seeds as a meal to feed the oceans fish populations. How can anybody even have a chance at calling that idea wrong at all or not very easily possible?

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