President Obama's puzzling silence on marijuana policy

[RainDog]

63. here are answers to your questions

I would have no problem with my adult children smoking weed in moderation, just as I would have no problem with my adult children drinking in moderation. I think it would be better for them to smoke weed than drink.

I have no problem with the idea that people can enjoy an altered state of consciousness and still be upstanding citizens because I know a lot of people who fit that description. stoners are stereotypes, not the reality for anyone who smokes. my ex's daughter most definitely smoked cannabis when she was a teenager because we talked about it. (she doesn't live in the U.S. fwiw) She has a PhD and does research and now also has a child. I assume she no longer smokes but I'm sure she drinks moderately.

A doctor who studied the issue of cannabis smoke noted that those who smoke both tobacco and cannabis have lower rates of lung cancer - cannabis has tumor-suppressant qualities and no one has ever been dx'd with lung cancer from cannabis in any of the research that I am aware of.

(btw, lots of researchers have started out to disprove the value of cannabis and became supporters b/c their research didn't support their beliefs.)

nicotine is the reason cigarettes are addictive. there is no nicotine in cannabis. again, I urge you to read up on this issue. You cannot compare the two.

what's interesting is that doctors have found that cannabis has allowed patients to wean themselves from opiods - substances that are far more dangerous. some doctors, using a harm reduction paradigm, have found cannabis useful to help alcoholics to get sober, as well.

The reality is that, right now, there are millions of people who smoke pot. They are doctors, professors, lawyers, nurses, accountants, politicians, business owners, professionals in all different fields... so, whether you want a vast number of people getting high, they are doing so anyway. Why should they have to be subject to laws that are not based upon any reality - why should they be treated any differently than someone who wants to have a glass of wine in the evening?

Society's paradox is a joke - people already deal with people who are high - they just don't know those people are. look at the video of Irv Rosenfeld and tell me what's so terrible about him using cannabis. He's a stock broker, well spoken, successful - the Cheech and Chong stereotype is like "dumb and dumber." No one thinks all white guys are like those two characters - but too many people seem to think everyone who prefers cannabis to alcohol is like a movie stereotype.

since cannabis is illegal, many of the people who prefer it are not going to show themselves because they are not going to put themselves in a position in which they could be targeted.

The reality remains that to target people for using something that is less harmful that substances that are already legal simply because you don't like the idea of it and want to claim it's a paradox of society means that you are willing to send people to jail for no crime at all.

think about that. you care more for your mythical "acceptable society" than you do for the right of adults to make choices for their own lives.

I think that's shameful.