[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', '
')I'm a youngish (38) non-conformist communist. I have a brother and lots of friends back home in South Africa, the UK and in NZ who are nuts for smoking this stuff. My brother has the capacity of a teenager and he is 42. As a teenager, he went through long bouts of hallucinating where he heard voices in his head. I've quite a few friends who have been institutionalised after smoking this stuff. A friend tried to rape his mum while high and in a state of paranoia. My gf works with a bunch of pot smokers who are exceedingly unstable and prone to fits of unprovoked rage. In fact, her employer routinely drug tests, especially those handing heavy machinery and vehicles. Our local town council is having issues with staff, especially ones on the roads, messing up on the job. A whole stretch of the high street had to be redone because of issues with staff who turned up on the job stoned and the fact that the road went where it was not meant to.

Addicts don't want to hear these facts for the simple reason that they are......addicted. Consequently, this is a debate that only those of us who aren't engaged in this nefarious activity can engage in. The expert testimony of addicts is.....tainted and biased.

[Timo]

AD, i rarely disagree with much you have to say here on PO, but i see a serious ommission of cause and effect in your eye-witness accounts of mental illness and Maria Juana. There are such things as coincidences, and instead of MJ causing mental illness, maybe it's the other way around, that the mental illness increases the likelihood of the use of MJ or other psychotropic drugs. Now, i won't discount the possibility that the use of MJ by people with mental illness may cause a worsening of their mental illness, but its use as the principle cause of that illness cannot be proven by eye-witness accounts. By my own eye-witness accounts, there are literally hundreds of millions of adults who act like adolescents, and most of them do not smoke pot. And, to be perfectly honest about such eye-witness accounts, this description fits me, too. I'm well into my 40s, but that doesn't mean that i've matured to any significant degree. Peter Pan and i have very similar genetics. The biggest difference is that he can fly, and i can't. I tried it once, and i broke my leg. And i wasn't smoking pot, either. Just stupidity on my part.

[Plantagenet]

Using MRI analyses, scientists at Harvard and Northwestern have shown that even casual marijuana use among people aged 18-25 damages their brains . Two key parts of the brain were damaged---marijuana use only once a week caused the amygdala ---a key organ in the brain--- to become physically deformed. Prior studies have shown marijuana use is linked to higher incidences of mental illness, including psychosis. This study shows actual physical damage is also done to the brain, even among casual users.

Harvard study shows brain damage results from even casual marijuana use

"Smoking cannabis even casually can damage core structures of the brain, an authoritative study has found.

Just using the drug once or twice a week affects the size and shape of two key brain regions involved in emotion and motivation, the research shows.
Previous studies have focused on heavy users of cannabis – revealing that the active compound in the drug effectively ‘rewires’ the brain.
But this is the first study that has revealed the impact of casual marijuana use.
The scientists, from Harvard Medical School and Northwestern University in Chicago, analysed MRI brain scans of 20 young cannabis users aged 18 to 25.
They compared them to the brain scans 20 young people who never smoked the drug.
Professor Hans Breiter, one of the researchers from Northwestern University said: ‘This study raises a strong challenge to the idea that casual marijuana use is not associated with bad consequences.’
The scientists found major differences in two brain areas, the nucleus accumbens and amygdala. Both are linked to emotions and motivation, and also associated with addiction.
In each case changes were seen that were directly related to how much cannabis was smoked.
The nucleus accumbens of cannabis users was unusually large, while the amygdala was deformed."

[basil_hayden]

Same with alcohol; isn't brain damage the goal?

[Timo]

Coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, lemonaide, mangos, cauliflower, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the pillows we sleep on, the shoes we wear, the websites we read, everything causes brain damage. Degeneration of the brain is a consequence of being born. Next!

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'A')nother poorly designed politically motivated observational study.
...Why is it the right-wing still hates marijuana? Is it a legacy of an ancient curse? Simple racism? Boredom?

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Timo', ' ')Degeneration of the brain is a consequence of being born. Next!

[basil_hayden]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'M')edical Science isn't right-wing or left-wing. Its just science.

Harvard Medical school is top notch---this study is the gold standard.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'W')hile we are at it, here is something else from the esteemed establishment mouthpiece....

A new Harvard study published in the journal Schizophrenia Research has found evidence that cannabis use, regardless of how often or in what quantitieslarge_15749_madmanogbud_1333590824, does not lead to an increase in schizophrenia, despite decades of propaganda to the contrary.

[Ibon]

Harvard studies are irrelevant. Here is what will drive marijuana legisation going forward


http://www.thedailychronic.net/2014/306 ... ons-by-40/

DENVER, CO — Colorado, the first state to tax legalized recreational marijuana sales, expects to bring in an estimated $98 million in revenue this year, exceeding the state’s original expectations by 40 percent.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'H')arvard studies are irrelevant. Here is what will drive marijuana legisation going forward


http://www.thedailychronic.net/2014/306 ... ons-by-40/

DENVER, CO — Colorado, the first state to tax legalized recreational marijuana sales, expects to bring in an estimated $98 million in revenue this year, exceeding the state’s original expectations by 40 percent.

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'H')arvard studies are irrelevant. Here is what will drive marijuana legisation going forward


http://www.thedailychronic.net/2014/306 ... ons-by-40/

DENVER, CO — Colorado, the first state to tax legalized recreational marijuana sales, expects to bring in an estimated $98 million in revenue this year, exceeding the state’s original expectations by 40 percent.

[Plantagenet]

Alcoholics do indeed suffer brain damage after years of heavy drinking.

However, the new Harvard study shows that even casual marijuana use, after several years, results in brain deformity.

Its incomprehensible to me why influential liberals want to legalize a drug that causes brain damage. George Soros, for instance, has spent 80 million on campaigns in the US to legalize marijuana. What in heck is he thinking?

[Plantagenet]

New French study shows marijuana causes increased number of heart attacks in young dope smokers

marijuana-cause-heart-problems-young-adults-

Brain damage AND heart disease. Marijuana is a twofer!

[WildRose]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'W')hile we are at it, here is something else from the esteemed establishment mouthpiece....

A new Harvard study published in the journal Schizophrenia Research has found evidence that cannabis use, regardless of how often or in what quantitieslarge_15749_madmanogbud_1333590824, does not lead to an increase in schizophrenia, despite decades of propaganda to the contrary.