Absolute low of the low NZ Police. Really low. Really super sh*tty low. Entrap this guy who was genuinely trying to help this douche of a police man posing as someone with an ailment he didn't have...and then bust them.
So this new law brought in by Peter Dunn works like this right- Only substances that are proven 'safe' are legal. Therefore, legal substances are proven safe.
Since Alcohol meets the criteria for being 'safe' (since it's legal) and other substances more safe than this are legal or if not legal, have a strong case for being made legal.
So who wants to put Cannabis in a fancy wrapper and get it approved? Ecstasy? LSD? Magic mushrooms etc?.....all drugs which are safer than the drug Alcohol
There are certainly things that we could do better to reduce the harms associated with Alcohol over-use. However, one of those things isn't criminalising people that drink, people that sell it or people that manufacturer it (as is currently the case with Cannabis).
Is that including the smoke which goes along with the joint? Just curious as I would think that any amount of smoking would be bad for you.
Yes it does. We certainly have a notion that 'any form of smoking is bad' from the chemicals present in tobacco, and smoking anything certainly isn't 'good' for your health. However what seems to be the case is that the chemicals in Cannabis have a protecting effect on tissue, even if the smoke itself (and burnt plant matter carried in it) causes irritation.
The study was very large (~5000 subjects) and over a period of 20 years so the findings are very robust. It should be stressed that the results were for 'casual' smoking as opposed to heavy, chronic smoking which can lead a range of other issues (i.e. if you're stoned all day everyday, your life is hardly going to be very productive and you may suffer health problems)
This just goes to re-enforce the idea that it is better to say there 'problem patterns of use' rather 'problem substances' par se- You drink too much? Not good, You eat too much? Not good. You smoke too much? Not good.
Add one more data point to the decades-old debate over marijuana legalization: A new study concludes that casual pot smoking - up to one joint per day - does not affect the functioning of your lungs.
The study, published in the Jan. 11 edition of Journal of the American Medical Association, also offered up a nugget that likely will surprise many: Evidence points to slight increases in lung airflow rates and increases in lung volume from occasional marijuana use.
I am not satisfied by traditional stoner arguments that weed should be decriminalized or legalized on the residual notion that 'we have legal tobacco and alcohol and they're as bad or worse', because all it really argues for is the compounding of more problematic factors.
No it doesn't- For the most part, what you would see is substitution towards less harmful substances (i.e. instead of people drinking, the would move to more benign substances...and that includes other less harmful substances which are currently illegal such as Ecstasy.
