h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When I hear people talking about cannabis leading onto stronger drugs as an excuse to keep it criminalised i have to laugh at the stupidity of these people. If cannabis was legalised it would leave all the time and effort put in by the police to stop people smoking open for the police to catch heroin/cocaine/exstasy dealers. People who smoke cannabis pose no threat to society as do drunks on a saturday night and there is virtually no chance of an overdose with cannabis as it takes too much of the stuff to do it, the other drugs mentioned could cause damage to a first time user or regular user at almost any time, even alcohol can kill you quicker than cannabis and alcohol is legal.

I'm sorry, I lived through the seventies and I assure you that Cannabis poses a very real threat to society, in the shape of crap records, rubbish clothes and such a lazy bastard attitude that Margaret Thatcher gets elected because nobody can be arsed to pop down the polling booth. Illegal? Hell no. Recommended? Different question.

Crap music & clothes doesn't matter, because while stoned any music can sound quite good but legalisation would take a lot of the fun out of it for petty users like me!!

Blimey, readers, this Forum is full of hippies, isn't it? No, you are quite right, Mr Acid, clothes, music, fashion, taste, literature, all these things are quite immaterial to the well being of the soul. Just so long as we can all get stoned in our kitchens whilst listening to Gong, eating Mars bars and Quavers, dressed only in the very latest designer cheese cloth wear, and hey, sod books, they like, take up time, man, everything will be fine and gear and dandy, daddio. Gosh, kids, doesn't it sound like the life, eh? As a matter of interest, how did you concentrate long enough to type a whole message? Shouldn't you be at an all night garage or something?

god has made some questionable moves in her time,
(you should know, youv'e lived through the disco era)
but in her defence - she gave us cannabis. i should
probobly state that i am not her eartly representative,
but i think we have a pretty good understanting of
eachother and i belive with all my heart that she does not
approve of governments restricting the use of one of her
finest works to date.

I'm glad there are people here backing marijuana. The people who think its evil obviously haven't tried it, or had a bad stone once. Bye the way all the bloody english sarcasm leaves me rather cold. People who force opinions on others, or draw conclusions from absolutely no evidence steam me up. Its a free world right?? oops no, i guess not. Now consider this. Here are my blatant opinions feel free to degrade my personal being if you must. I love marijuana. People irritate me. And music is better stoned. Hell, the world is better stoned. I mean no offense to anyone. When do hippies try to offend people? Now i believe the whole drug paradigm in the United States is just another form of trying to control us. Hey!! you can't do that. No you can not pick up Earths herb and smoke it because it makes you giggle and makes you happy. Thats no allowed in the "real" democratic world is it?? Another form of control, soon they'll be burning books. That moment in time may come and I guess we'll all wonder why we let government control stem so far into our lives. For the people, by the people, it almost makes me laugh.

thats hysterical. I almost peed on myself when I read that. I'm sorry I go to college. In fact I am an English major. And everything is fine and dandy daddio. Yes, people who smoke pot read. OoOOHh. Suprise. I'm suprised I could even write this. I'm suprised you are condescending enough to even speak to the "HIPPIES" fire with fire johnny guitar. If you want to say you think that drugs should be illegal or avoided. Go home find all your compact discs and your tapes and burn em because the people who made them were reaaaaaaaal high.

ONE OF THE MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
MARIJUANA AND ALCOHOLE IS THAT
MARY-JANE (I'M ON FIRST NAME BASIS
WITH MY CANNABIS) IS KIND TO YOU IF
YOUR KIND TO HER. SHE DOESN'T MAKE
YOU LOSE CONTROL OF YOUR SENSES ,
IF ANYTHING SHE MAKES YOU MORE AWARE
OF THEM. MUSIC,FOOD,SEX AND YES B O O K S
BECOME BETTER WHEN YOUR STONED BECAUSE
YOU GET TO EXPERIENCE THEM NOT ONLY
THROUGH THE CONVENTIONAL SENSE ASSIGNED
TO THEM BUT THROUGH ALL OF THEM.
MORE POWER TO YOU MARY-JANE.

Never too difficult to get a rise out of a hippy, but you certainly swallowed that one hook line sinker and copy of the angling times. Perhaps next time you are busy "reading" you might care to read my comments and not make instantaneous judgements without factual basis yourself.
You export the idea that Cannabis use has no side effects, does you nothing but good, is the most marvellous thing and if we all took it then evrything would be fine, peace and love man. I say, Cannabis is a natural substance with some benefits, which I use and am whole heartedly not in favour of being illegal, and some side effects, which I try my best to avoid. Your claim that eating, sleeping, driving, drinking, breathing, reading, music and so on and so on are improved by this herb is painfully ridiculous, as is your claim that if we all took Cannabis we'd in some way be better people. We wouldn't. We'd just be stoned people. There is a difference you know.

I AM NOT A HIPPI!
and as for the better-people-issue,
let's drop the act. the 60's are long
gone.most of the people who support
legistlation (including yours truley)
do so first and formost because it would
make theyre lives a hell of a lot easier.
the whole peace and love thing is somewhat
outdated (not to say carbon dated) and
i should know. i live in the middle east
brothers and sisters. ain't a whole lot
of peace and love going down in this
corner of the universe B U T i dygrese.
you must agree that in comparisson to
the legal drug - alcohole - grass is as
harmless as a pair of wool socks. why not
legalise it?

But there is a limit to how much you can smoke before you begin to go insane and talk to your grass and WRITING IN CAPITALS.
Personally i binge and purge. i do find that when I smoke every day before work and when I get home and all weekend etc etc for months and months I do find some of what Mr Guitar for a head up there is talking about, namely a lack of coherent thoughts, a desire to visit 24 hour service stations in the hopes of finding a vegetarian pie and a general overall seepage of motivation (soMetImES I EVEn START TALKING TO MY POT!!.)
When this happens I take a month or so off, and quickly get all my thinking done so I can go back to smoking pot again.

Please. do not ASSUME anything about me. You don't know me or my judgements or what they are even based on, Mr. johnny guitar. First of all Have you tried weed?? If you have and you don't like it i guess you are one of the few. Also, I will agree that pot has side effects. These side effects include not wanting to participate in daily life (I DO NOT THINK THAT IS SO BAD), since daily life is a big piece of meaningless bullshit... What ever you wish to presume on me, you may. But it doesnt meant that you are correct. It just means that you are drawing conclusions upon nothing but what you WANT to hear...

ello once again you are assuming. I didn't say everything was better on weed (even though most of it is) Just try to base your judgements on true statistics. And once again do not assume anything about me.

Its all about the use. You must tell yourself what you want. If you want to use it a small amount that is good, thats fine.. Although certain potheads use weed constantly, making mistakes and such.. That truly does not mean the rest of the pot consuming population does... Also I'd like to say if I were sober EVERYDAY< i don; think I would be able to live in this world. That may be sad but it is true.

Sorry chaps and chapesses, I am afraid I am either not explaining myself very well or you are all missing the point. I am saying; legalise this drug, I use it all the time myself for medical reasons and I see no reason why this should make me a criminal. I thought I made this plain from my first posting.
HOWEVER (writing in capitals - now even I'm doing it), you cannot have the argument about legalisation of this substance by pretending it does nothing but good, ignoring any harmful side efects, denying some of it's less desirable qualities, not least of which is befuddled thinking, which some of you seem to enjoy, that's your choice, and Pink Floyd records (Gimly I have read your home page), which you are more than welcome to enjoy provided you keep the windows shut and don't make the rest of us sit through it.
If you wish to enjoy this substance, or to benefit from it, you will not change this law or the mystique and misinformation about Cannabis by talking in a washed out voice about not wanting to live in the real world. Alcohol, I think nearly everybody in this debate agrees, is a far more harmful substance but is not illegal. Why? Because historically it can be made to make money, has big business on it's side and a (semi) coherent voice in the world. Endlessly harping on about which kaftan you are going to wear and your right to opt out leads to exactly the type of stereotypical opinions about yourselves that some of you, in reverse, have mistakenly foisted on me, an inveterate drug user; because I won't join in your homage to Hendrix I must be a "straight" .
Until you change this public perception, you can expect to be persecuted, whether you are right or wrong. And whilst they are busy persecuting you because you wish to opt out, please bear in mind that some of us actually need this substance for health reasons and we are being persecuted too.
Sorry, very long message, just trying to correct a mis-interpretation.

legalisation of cannabis for health
reason is an issue on it's own right.
most people i know who smoke and want
it legalise do it for recreational use
only.i don't pretend to be better to the
world through smoking pot. the world is
better to me.(reality doesn't matter.all
i know of the real world is my perception
of it). there would be no point in trying
to explain the non-medical benefits of
marijuana to the world. they are not relevent.
neither are the side effects for that matter.
those are no more or less severe then those
caused by caffeine or nicotine or antibiotics
or a dozen other daily used substences and
like many of those the use of marijuana should
be legal and restricted.

@the NON-HIPPIE pot smoking federation ltd.

Thanks. That's what I was trying to say. I just get frustrated when people start latching loads of ridiculous arguments, false claims and just general misinformation on to what should be a straight forward question without considering the consequences for the rest of us.

I can't really understand why anyone would think that pot is detrimental
to society. When I am high I just sit there thinking. I am not ruining
any lives. I am not hurting anyone. Personally, I think that I am much
more dangerous when I am sober. Legal or illegal, people are still going
to smoke. I would have to say I prefer legallizing so I don't have to
deal with the damn cops that have nothing better to do.

I love it when people start heaping irrelevant arguments on top of other irrelevant arguments ad infinitum. It is the very fabric of our legal system and possibly even society. In fact it is the whole reason that pot is illegal is probably the irrelevant, inaccurate or generally made-up-on-the-spot arguments.
If our government clued on to a few relevant facts pot would have been legal a few years ago: there are thousands of hippies living up in the bushes of the coromandel making more than enough money for comfortable existence, not paying any taxes and receiving a government benefit. A good proportion of people in this country (rather than making up statistics) have at some time smoked pot and heaps smoke it regularly (I got blown out by a 75 year old lady while hitching once). most of the businesses in some of our towns were started from (and are still supplemented by) marijuana profits.
I have never had a problem with pot but a friend of mine did 4 months in prison at the end of last year for manufacture (oil) and spent the time (when he wasn't being beaten up) learning the recipe for LSD, as well as how to break into a vehicle, how to. . . the list goes on. Although he wouldn't use this knowledge, it is a bit silly that a talented and intelligent chemistry student (with a hobby that society frowns on) be sent to a place to learn a whole lot more about real crimes.

that's frustrating.

Also I always wanted to opt out. Even before I got into the pot. {{SIGH}} I don't think I've missed your point. However, I may have involved too much of my emotional tie with the drug into my arguments. ACK so sue me.