Question: 4/20 and the Wienerdome...

[Theodore]

I don't like smoking. I'd try edibles but can't be bothered to go on a wild goose chase.

 

[Help!I'maRock!]

I've never bought into the whole gateway drug thing. If so, it starts with caffeine not pot

I think it starts with children. Before having a child, I only drank one cup of coffee a day. Now I can drink an entire pot and go to sleep immediately afterwards.

 

[reverend1]

I guess I can't drive @Mark Wein ambulance.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

I guess I could click abstain, but that sounds like I am choosing not to do something I might want to do. No judgment toward others that enjoy, but it is not my deal, and doesn't work for me and how my head works. So, it is really "choose not to" more than abstain. But I will click abstain anyway as that is what I am guessing you meant for me to click.

 

[mongooz]

That was what I always had trouble with. I have dabbled with other drugs when I was younger. I had the opportunity to take many others and declined. I think the main reason people don't start out with heavy duty drugs is the availability. People usually start with cigarettes and booze because, at least when I was younger, almost every house had one or both of those in it. Very easy to try it. Most people don't have heroin sitting on a shelf in their house

WHAAAAAAA?? what kind of cominist country do you live in?


i also dabbled in many 'substances'. some of them top tier addictives.
and today the only thing i still do is beer or vodka/lemon/soda and a sip of rum or bourbon.
but also, at the time i was 'sampling' these things....and that was the intent. i was not trying to hide some problem or other in the substances. just checking out the buzz and moving on. so that's a completely different deal and i quite likely why i never became addicted. but crack and meth and oxy and fentanyl didn't exist back then, so there's that.

 

[reverend1]

I guess I could click abstain, but that sounds like I am choosing not to do something I might want to do. No judgment toward others that enjoy, but it is not my deal, and doesn't work for me and how my head works. So, it is really "choose not to" more than abstain. But I will click abstain anyway as that is what I am guessing you meant for me to click.

Lawyer answer.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Lawyer answer.

Critical thinking is a good thing.

 

[reverend1]

Critical thinking is a good thing.

lol, I'm was chuckling at the wordiness of the response and the need make sure no one was offended. You know I like to needle you Steve.

 

[yabba]

lawyer answer is no, never. and if I did, it was an accident, I was peer-pressured, and I didn't inhale.

 

[mongooz]

lawyer answer is no, never. and if I did, it was an accident, I was peer-pressured, and I didn't inhale.

slick lawyer's answer would be....."that depends on what the word 'is' means..."

 

[Help!I'maRock!]

lol, I'm was chuckling at the wordiness of the response and the need make sure no one was offended. You know I like to needle you Steve.

 

[tiger roach]

Had to pick abstain. I'd love to have the occasional puff if it was legal and easily obtainable. Maybe by the time I'm retired...

 

[DdBob]

Three main issues....

1. Increased DUIs. Not as big of an increase as you might have expected, but there has been an increase tied to high driving. I drive a lot and ANYTHING that contributes to distracted driving (texting, pot, pain meds, booze, putting on makeup while driving on the highway) pisses me off. When you are driving - DRIVE.

2. Despite what the Gov said in the article Howie quoted above, there has been an increase in teen pot usage, and a big increase in pot related teen problems. I have several friends who teach in local high schools and Jr High Schools. At the high school my kids all attended the suspension/expulsion rate this year is more than triple the normal rate and the root cause is underage pot usage (suspensions) and pot selling (expulsions). There are also increased behavioral problems since teens just are not good with decision making and ingesting a lot of very strong pot is not a good contributing factor.

3. Increased pot addictions. I know this is a 'controversial' issue, but I know people who are/have been addicted to pot. It might be more a psychological addiction than a physical one, but it is very real.

I do think that the issues overall are actually less than a lot of people anticipated, but particularly the problems in the Jr High and HS level are worrisome.

I would also imagine an increase of out of staters with stupind bumper stickers (highway 420, What would Jesus legalize {all in green letters of course}, etc) and also panhandling outside the "medical" marijuana dispensary (hey bro I need a miracle) or holding their signs up at the intersections (visions of a cheeseburger).....

 

[Guitar Heel]

Only Barn Stormers know for sure...

 

[yabba]

and also panhandling outside the "medical" marijuana dispensary

I drove past a local dispensary this morning and there was a line out the door and around the block. dunno if they were just getting something new in or what..

 

[Chad]

Three main issues....

1. Increased DUIs. Not as big of an increase as you might have expected, but there has been an increase tied to high driving. I drive a lot and ANYTHING that contributes to distracted driving (texting, pot, pain meds, booze, putting on makeup while driving on the highway) pisses me off. When you are driving - DRIVE.

2. Despite what the Gov said in the article Howie quoted above, there has been an increase in teen pot usage, and a big increase in pot related teen problems. I have several friends who teach in local high schools and Jr High Schools. At the high school my kids all attended the suspension/expulsion rate this year is more than triple the normal rate and the root cause is underage pot usage (suspensions) and pot selling (expulsions). There are also increased behavioral problems since teens just are not good with decision making and ingesting a lot of very strong pot is not a good contributing factor.

3. Increased pot addictions. I know this is a 'controversial' issue, but I know people who are/have been addicted to pot. It might be more a psychological addiction than a physical one, but it is very real.

I do think that the issues overall are actually less than a lot of people anticipated, but particularly the problems in the Jr High and HS level are worrisome.

My oldest daughter is in middle school. Pot is illegal in VA and there have been 3 in school incidents with kids smoking pot in the bathroom this year. It was the first time in the school's history that has happened. They have never had a pot incident since the school opened 30+ years ago. The middle school my brother teaches at in Florida has had its drug issues increase over the last few years there and it is still illegal there. I think it needs to be looked at more and seen if it is just a correlation or if there is causation. I think maybe people are more aware of it now because of the legalization, but I don't know a single person I went to school with who didn't smoke pot at least a few times during high school and that was 30 years ago.

 

[mongooz]

My oldest daughter is in middle school. Pot is illegal in VA and there have been 3 in school incidents with kids smoking pot in the bathroom this year. It was the first time in the school's history that has happened. They have never had a pot incident since the school opened 30+ years ago. The middle school my brother teaches at in Florida has had its drug issues increase over the last few years there and it is still illegal there. I think it needs to be looked at more and seen if it is just a correlation or if there is causation. I think maybe people are more aware of it now because of the legalization, but I don't know a single person I went to school with who didn't smoke pot at least a few times during high school and that was 30 years ago.

i think there's a cyclical component to it.

 

[CBHScott]

Seeing that my wife was recently kind of forced out of the closet with her mix of lupus and bi-polar diagnoses (she was diagnosed about ten years ago, but we kept it under wraps), she also doesn't mind me talking about her getting one of the first 1000 or so approvals for the medicinal marijuana card in Illinois. She has had the card for about a year-and-a-half, and says that it has been THE best painkiller she was ever prescribed, and this was after three years on the Fetanyl patch...she is not addicted, and says the edibles are by far the most potent, but definitely better than smoking or vaping it.

As for me, I have no problems with it whatsoever, and would probably partake maybe once a week, except that my employer would fire me immediately if I failed a test. Oh, well, I'll stick to the occasional beer and maybe a bit of whiskey here and there

 

[Chad]

Seeing that my wife was recently kind of forced out of the closet with her mix of lupus and bi-polar diagnoses (she was diagnosed about ten years ago, but we kept it under wraps), she also doesn't mind me talking about her getting one of the first 1000 or so approvals for the medicinal marijuana card in Illinois. She has had the card for about a year-and-a-half, and says that it has been THE best painkiller she was ever prescribed, and this was after three years on the Fetanyl patch...she is not addicted, and says the edibles are by far the most potent, but definitely better than smoking or vaping it.

As for me, I have no problems with it whatsoever, and would probably partake maybe once a week, except that my employer would fire me immediately if I failed a test. Oh, well, I'll stick to the occasional beer and maybe a bit of whiskey here and there

Like I said, I only smoke, maybe, a handful of times a year. I may up that a little if it were legal, but no more than a once a month type thing. I just have too much going on with the kids do that or drink.

 

[shoeless]

My oldest daughter is in middle school. Pot is illegal in VA and there have been 3 in school incidents with kids smoking pot in the bathroom this year...
....but I don't know a single person I went to school with who didn't smoke pot at least a few times during high school and that was 30 years ago.

In the bathroom? I'm not sure if that's incredibly bold or just stupid.

My high school parking lot was pretty much a party zone in the mornings before class and at lunch. There were occasional busts, but they were few and far between. They could have rounded up groups of folks every day if they wanted to.