Writer's Block: 420 friendly?

[holly_evolving]

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I wholeheartedly agree, for a variety of reasons.

First, I don't believe in victimless crime. If a competent legal adult makes the decision to use marijuana in a way that doesn't harm anyone else, why should the law or anyone else care?

Second, marijuana has been proven beneficial for a number of medical situations in which the legal treatment alternatives cause more harm than marijuana would. Nausea from chemotherapy and intraocular pressure from glaucoma spring to mind. Research from the University of Israel (where THC was discovered) has also shown that in at least some cases, marijuana use can ease the body's acceptance of a transplanted organ. Vaporized (not smoked) marijuana is in many cases the least harmful treatment available for chronic pain disorders like fibromyalgia. Denying medical marijuana in 2010 is tantamount to forcing doctors to violate the hippocratic oath.

Speaking of marijuana being less harmful, it doesn't cause cancer or cirrhosis of the liver. Vaporized marijuana doesn't do much more to the lungs than scented candles. Far fewer accidents can be attributed to marijuana than alcohol. And yet, cigarettes and alcohol are legal and marijuana isn't.

Marijuana "by-products" are also valuable products in and of themselves. Hemp rope and paper are both more durable and easier to produce than their natural counterparts. Hemp seed oil is wonderfully theraputic for a variety of skin damage. Hemp lotion is the best treatement for sunburn that I've ever used (there's no cure save time, but it does speed up healing quite a lot). Though medical grade marijuana requires specific growing conditions to achieve maximum benefit, cannabis sativa is a weed that grows under almost any condition. Poorer grade plants would still be perfectly fine for non-chemical uses, and if legally cultivated, could be quite cheaply produced.

It's not 1950 anymore. Taxpayer money shouldn't be wasted on the criminalization of marijuana any longer.

Comments

[wolf-nd-shadows.livejournal.com]

actually, hemp and marijuana are not the same plants. they are both subspecies of canabis sativa, but like poodles and St. Bernards, they have completely different characteristics. smoking hemp leaves won't get you high, they will actually make you more sober. the reason I point this out is to point out just how screwed up the drug laws are, because they also outlaw non-intoxicating plants because they are related to the intoxicating plants. Instead, we have outlawed a related plant that represents a billion dollar industry (though there are some anti-drug conspiracy theorists who say that that may have been intentional.)

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

http://www.innvista.com/health/foods/hemp/hempbiol.htm

Found your original article. They're not subspecies. They're both cannabis sativa, just male vs. female. THC is found in the flower of the female hemp plant, making it marijuana.

[wolf-nd-shadows.livejournal.com]

actually, they are subspecies just like the poodle and st bernard are both subspecies of canis familiaris (the article actually says this) Hemp was bred specifically for fiber and seed production, so it grows taller and ended up with low THC and high anacanibidol levels which is why it grows taller. MJ was specifically bred for THC content and leaf size, which is why it is small and bushy (often, when you see MJ in a movie, it is a tall plant, and is actually hemp).

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

That they are different subspecies is patently untrue, and not what the article says at all.

"A beagle and a Saint Bernard are both Canis familiaris, but no one can ever say the resulting characteristics are the same."

Definition of a subspecies:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/subspecies

Subspecies are both naturally occurring and genetically different. A poodle and a Saint Bernard are NOT genetically different any more than a black man and a white man. Black is NOT a subspecies of human.

In fact, the word "subspecies" does not even appear in that article.

[wolf-nd-shadows.livejournal.com]

sub·spe·cies (sŭb'spē'shēz, -sēz)
n. pl. subspecies
A taxonomic subdivision of a species consisting of an interbreeding, usually geographically isolated population of organisms.
sub'spe·cif'ic (-spĭ-sĭf'ĭk) adj.

now the issue here is that the differentiation here is "usually" caused by geographic isolation. in the case of Hemp and Marijuana, the differentiation has been artificially created through intentional isolation and interbreeding. because Hemp was differentiated before 1961, it can be considered a subspecies, not a variety
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_%28botany%29

dogs are not considered subspecies partially because of social/policitcal reasons and because dogs themselves are technically classified as a subspecies of wolf (canis lupus familiaris) and so breed becomes a further classification level below subspecies

whether or not humans have scientific subspecies is a social/political powder keg that isn't comparable to plant specialization (though my own view is that modern man is too interbred to fit the definition.)

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp

If we're going to use wikipedia articles, here's one that says that while one subspecies of cannabis sativa is used for the production of industrial hemp, "Hemp (from Old English hænep) is the name of the soft, durable fiber that is cultivated from plants of the Cannabis genus, cultivated for industrial and commercial (non-drug) use."

As in, any cannabis plant can be hemp. Hemp contains too little THC to produce drugs, but it is there.

"Whether the drug and non-drug, cultivated and wild types of Cannabis constitute a single, highly variable species, or the genus is polytypic with more than one species, has been a subject of debate for well over two centuries. "

There is no settlement on whether or not Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica are subspecies of Cannabis or not. They can interbreed just fine. THC however, is most abundantly found in the female flowers of these plants.

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

So, neither of our arguments are valid.

Still, the U.S. is the largest importer of hemp in the world because we won't repeal our own stupid laws against marijuana.

[nbda1997.livejournal.com]

But what would they do with all that left-over "War on Drugs" propaganda?

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

Maybe they can start a War on Irrationality and jail peole who insist on using faulty logic?

Nah. Never happen.

[professorbird.livejournal.com]

Attack Big Pharma?

[nbda1997.livejournal.com]

Let's everybody calm down, now. I work at a big pharma! :)