Legalize Marijuana

[Last Nurse Standing]

Dr. Dean Adell was talking about this on his show this morning, and I was wondering what other nurses felt about it.

Do any of you think we might be cheating ourselves as a nation by not legalizing marijuana. I, myself, don't smoke it. But I certainly see the potential in it as a cash crop for the U.S. What do you think?

[cougarnurse]

Do think it would be good for CA patients, etc., and have seen the stuff used, too. But in all honesty...I doubt widespread legalization.

[Last Nurse Standing]

Do think it would be good for CA patients, etc., and have seen the stuff used, too. But in all honesty...I doubt widespread legalization.

I hear you, but I would have never thought our government would be shaking hands with communist dictators or owning controlling shares in the largest banks. We seem to be in an era when anything is possible, anything might happen.

[TheCruiseAcademy]

I think it's time to legalize MJ for medical purposes for sure. It's been proven to be palliative in many cases, and to deny folks ease of their suffering is just wrong.

I really find it so wrong that California can be so liberal with their laws, and yet in another state folks are going to jail trying to score MJ for their cancer ridden family member...

MJ (and most of the other schedule 1 drugs) was only made illegal to keep the mexicans from coming across the border - Now we see how well THAT worked!(The history or MJ - A & E or History Channel!)

My vote - make it legal. NJ is currently voting on this - I hope it passes.

[nursinghumor]

Marijuana and alcohol are gateway drugs, and alcohol is already legal and doing damage.

Very few recreational drug users go straight to heroin, cocaine or any of the other hardcore drugs. Usually they start with a gateway drug.

Marijuana is legal for certain patients, it is called Marinol:
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/ongoing/marinol.html

It is indicated for cancer and HIV patients, legalized for doctors to prescribe.

Might not be as cheap or "fun" or effective as the real thing, but it is available.

I'd lobby for further indications for marinol before I lobbied for legalizing marijuana.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.nursefriendly.com/addictions/

[Last Nurse Standing]

I must say,

[OldSquidNewNurse]

Medical MJ was passed here in Michigan. Also I don't see the problem using it for rec. use. Looking at the drug profile it is far less dangerous than ETOH for example.

[Aaron C.]

I think it is time to legalize marijuana.

I disagree that it's a gateway drug. It's only a gateway drug for people who are going to do harder drugs anyway. Of course anyone who has done heroin or cocaine, etc. has smoked marijuana. It's a natural drug in the progression of drug use. But if you take marijuana away as if it never existed, the next drug up the ladder is the gateway drug.

Alcohol should be considered the ultimate gateway drug if there was one.

Alcohol ruins life after life after life, yet it's perfectly legal. Cigarettes are just as bad though the damage is not immediate like it can be with alcohol.

My opinion is that marijuana is bad for you. BUT the federal government should have no business telling me what I can and cannot do with my body in my own home.

I could write for hours about how the criminalization of marijuana has done and continues to do more damage to our society than the drug itself. People's lives are ruined because they smoked an essentially harmless weed.

We could spend the money we'd save from enforcement and policing to focus on REAL drugs that DO harm others, providing greater policing and enforcement against the use of methamphetamines, and drugs like heroin.

Ever see a meth head looking for their next fix after staying up for 5 days straight? They are a danger to everyone around them. Everyone. They are like mindless zombies willing to do anything to get their fix.

Ever see a pot head willing to harm someone to get high? The answer is no. People don't die of marijuana overdoses. They don't get stoned and get into bar fights. They don't lose their inhibitions and do idiotic and harmful things to other people. Their ability to drive is not rendered completely nonexistent. (though I might argue AGAINST the use of marijuana based on people being under the influence and feeling like they can drive when they shouldn't, and also the greater difficulty in testing for drivers under the influence of thc)

Weed makes people fat and lazy, but there's no law against being fat and lazy.

Additionally, you have HEMP, which is illegal because it's very difficult to distinguish between hemp and the drug marijuana. Hemp being illegal is absolutely insane, given it's myriad of uses and the ease of growing such a hardy plant. Legalize marijuana and hemp becomes one of the biggest cash crops in the country overnight. There are so many benefits to hemp I can't even begin to go into it.

Again, I'm not saying by any means that marijuana is good for you, or that it is not going to damage some people's lives. But it should not be illegal. People should have the right to use it freely if they so choose.

I definitely do not buy into the gateway drug theory.

I smoked a lot of pot in college. Well, I wouldn't say a lot but more than I should have for sure. I never really felt like it was harmful by any means. Compared to the mass quantities of alcohol I was ingesting on a nightly basis marijuana was like nothing. Alcohol led me to doing a lot of really, really stupid things. Marijuana never put me out of my mind like that. It did make me laugh a lot, and eat some pretty crazy things, but that was the extent of it. I did have two very bad experiences when I smoked it with someone I wasn't very familiar with and I think maybe it was laced with something much harder. I was pretty scared those couple of times, about what I had put into my body.

I stopped smoking marijuana because I got married and had kids and it was illegal, and then of course being a nurse and having drug tests and those kinds of things. It simply wasn't/isn't worth it to put something illegal into my body that is illegal. If it was legalized, I would probably use it recreationally on an occasional basis but it certainly wouldn't change my lifestyle.

I'm sure it would negatively affect a lot of families but so does alcohol, gambling, pornography/sex, SHOPPING, EATING, TOBACCO, and every other obsession or compulsion existing in our society. Anytime you pass the point of MODERATION there are going to be harmful effects. That can evolve from a sports obsession, a work obsession, heck I know people who spend more time on their yards and care more about their lawn than they do their families. It's human nature and you can't legislate against it.

If you do legislate against it, where does it stop? Should coca cola be illegal? Should we only be able to spend X amount of dollars on clothes/shoes/jewelry or other material things? What about watching too much television? Should we legislate that a TV can be on no more than 6 hours per day per household? What about internet usage? I know people who eat at McDonalds 7 times a week and their other meals are all fast food/dine out meals. Should we do something about those people? Is McDonald's gateway fast food? Once you eat their fries, it's hard not to look for the next wonderfully tasteful treat.

[SoldierNurse]

Marijuana and alcohol are gateway drugs, and alcohol is already legal and doing damage.

Very few recreational drug users go straight to heroin, cocaine or any of the other hardcore drugs. Usually they start with a gateway drug.

Marijuana is legal for certain patients, it is called Marinol:
Marinol - the Legal Medical Use for the Marijuana Plant

It is indicated for cancer and HIV patients, legalized for doctors to prescribe.

Might not be as cheap or "fun" or effective as the real thing, but it is available.

I'd lobby for further indications for marinol before I lobbied for legalizing marijuana.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.nursefriendly.com/addictions/

Excellent point regards to marinol. That is the way I'm leaning on this matter, too.

[Robert F]

There exist many plants in this world containing trillions of alkaloids, some of which carry with them properties allowing them to alter human physiology for better or worse.

The active alkaloid in marijuana being THC does in fact have legitimate medical purposes as do the alkaloids of Papaver Somniferum, aka the opium poppy from which we get the analogues for Fentanyl, Morphine, Codeine, etc. Also present within papaver somniferum are alkaloids of a darker nature, such as the active constituent and stereoisomers of heroin, or for instance, the fact that we give potassium to a patient suffering from hypokalemia while in certain states, the department of corrections gives the drug to achieve cardiac arrest. the point being that every drug has a positive as well as a negative.


The problem with today's culture is the stigma placed upon marijuana versus its medical benefits. To a former student of chemistry such as myself, when I see cannabis, I think of those alkaloids and their potential uses, while someone else out there might see the social stigma placed upon marijuana. While I do not personally participate in usage of the drug myself, I have no problem with it being legalized for recreational consumption.

In fact, legalization of marijuana just might take the stigma away over time. If you get the chance, I would advise you to look up how London drug clinics treat addiction, you might be shocked. Before you make up your mind after reading said study, take a look at their crime statistics. I think you will be quite surprised.

Furthermore, I invite you to read up on the three-fold increase in the amount of heroin distributed around the world as a result of the fall of the Taliban due to an increase in opium production(papaver somniferum being about the only crop they can grow in that soil).