Prohibition 2012! No more alcohol!
(Then only the dealers will have alcohol AND heroin/cocaine etc.)
Who’s with me?!

The psychiatric meds you cite all have VERY nasty side effects. A good friend was medicated for years on every type of speed-based ADHD med. He broke 9 bones as a teenager (brittle bones being a side effect of speed). When he began using cannabis (which also eliminated his chronic migraines) and dropped all the pharmaceuticals, his GPA jumped 2 points and his life improved dramatically.

I understand that anecdotes are not scientific data but they’re all we have for the moment. Thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of anecdotes. And a safety profile over a millennia that no pharmaceutical can ever hope to match.

Psych meds are a $100 BILLION business. Natural cannabis = free & unpatentable. 

Always follow the money.

I of course recognize that all drugs have side effects, but for the age range and symptom profile for AD/HD I conjecture that stimulants or dopamine reuptake inhibitors like Straterra are more effective, and allow for more precise treatment of symptoms than marijuana.

Ron Paul in 2012? Or will B.O. legalize after he’s re-elected?

PS: Obama is immeasurably better than the alternatives. I suspect his tune will change dramatically in his second term when he’s got nothing to lose. This is election year… he’s gotta appeal to all voters or the opposition will take him to town with his “radical” views. I too expected better from him on certain issues but you’ve gotta keep in mind what Southpark said: In politics, your choice is between a turd sandwich or a giant douche. Pick the one you prefer because you’re not going to like either of them.

Ill just leave these here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000403/
http://www.rxlist.com/marinol-drug.htm

Marinol/Dronabinol – Synthetic THC used: “to treat nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy in people who have already taken other medications to treat this type of nausea and vomiting without good results. Dronabinol is also used to treat loss of appetite and weight loss in people who have acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)”

What it can do, which you alluded to, is make you hang with people who don’t make the best life choices. The reason this is the case is because of the legal status of marijuana. If it were not illegal, people would not have to break the law or deal with people who break the law in order to smoke. You are right on the money when it comes to part of the problem being the people who provide access, and the way to stop that is by providing legal access to a substance that has been the victim of almost 100 years of misleading and unsubstantiated propaganda.

Additionally, as this page points out, the gateway theory only existed since the 60′s (if it were fact you would’ve seen more discussion of it earlier) and it was “refuted by events in the eighties, when cocaine abuse exploded at the same time marijuana use declined”. There is not any evidence I’m aware of that proves the validity of the gateway drug theory.

Anecdotal evidence is not very valuable or reliable because humans are not good at avoiding confirmation bias. I’ll see your ‘marijuana as a gateway drug’ anecdote and raise you a ‘marijuana is not a gateway drug’ anecdote. Despite the fact that I have probably smoked more than every commenter in this thread combined, I do not have any dependencies, nor have I ever tried meth. Why? Just take a look at meth heads… who the hell would wanna end up there? Anyone thinking they are stronger than certain chemical dependencies is deluding themselves. As stated here “Meth is a drug that lab rats will take instead of eating food, and they will die of starvation when food is right under their nose.” I’ll pop e, take acid or shrooms and then go back to work the next day like nothing happened. I’ll go months without taking anything – without any withdrawal symptoms. I’ve taken cocaine a handful of times… I get why people take it but I’ve also seen what douche bags it makes people into – and I don’t wanna be that douche bag. Despite being a heavy weed consumer with access to whatever and friends who take it, I don’t. How does that fit with your conviction that weed is a definite gateway drug? This is the logical fallacy you are falling victim to: http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/false-cause

All the best for your dad.. I truly hope everything ends up OK.

So medical marijuana cures 95% of cancers?

However, I thought the causal link to his meth use was fairly obvious.  So here goes.  Dad thought pot was fun.  He had friends (from buying/selling/growing pot) that had tried other stuff and had it available.  He tried other stuff out of curiosity.  Coke, meth, etc.  He’s currently hooked on meth.  (substituting “soup” would probably not have resulted in the same addiction to meth)

Pot didn’t directly trigger his meth addiction.  It did trigger curiosity and association with people that provided him with access to other drugs.   You asked what makes it a gateway drug.  I gave potential reasoning based on personal observation of an example.  You can debate the size of the gate.  But it exists.

I’ve never argued that THC or marijuana have no use.  I actually believe the opposite.  I also recognize that it has down sides.  On the balance, I support it’s medical use.  So stop bothering to try to convince me.  I’m merely stating that the patent is not proof.  Lots of other stuff is, this patent isn’t.

You also seem to be confusing several things.  Cannabis, THC, cannabanoid.  Don’t use them interchangeably.  It doesn’t help.

You also have the incorrect definition of a schedule 1 drug.  It’s no “currently accepted medical use.”  Not “legitimate.”  Accepted.  And who gets to define accepted?  The Feds.  Finding examples of legitimate use or someone accepting the use doesn’t change their definition.  Drugs are schedule 1 not due to logic, but because they say so.  You and I can agree it’s silly.  Finding contradictions won’t change anything.  Legislation will.

If this is misdirected, then I’m sorry.  It appears that some dork has been posting stupid stuff under your name and signing your name to it. 

So I watched the entire video and this is the gist of it.
They gently admit the “war on drugs” is a failure and that they could “never arrest their way out of it.”  Then he makes it known that he DOES NOT AGREE WITH LEGALIZING MARIJUANA, and then cites how PILLS KILL 15,000 PEOPLE A YEAR!!?  Nice association jerk off.  Yeah whenever I ponder the legalities of taxing/regulating/controlling WEED, I always go back the thinking about how GOVERNMENT SPONSORED PILLS KILL 15,000 PEOPLE A YEAR because that relates somehow.  (Currently the #1 killer of children=PILLS)
The “War on Drugs” is finally over, *(Really a War on Citizens).   Now its time to begin the “WAR ON LIES” that will never end.

Basically it seemed to be their way of pretending the “war is over” while asserting that “all drugs are bad.”  He also shed the blame by sayin that “its the states” not “the fed” that are arresting people most of the time.  I seem to remember a certain Federal agency raiding the tax paying businesses, caregivers, and patients…

BUT WHAT REALLY PISSED ME OFF
Was when he tried to warp public opinion about whether or not California’s voters got what they thought they would from voting in medical marijuana.  As in, by voting in MM they did not get:  Lower crime rates, Less waste of legal/court/police resources, and profit from taxation.  All of the things that actually did happen.  So he is a lying web spinner to say the least.  No of course crime didnt disappear, but they surely caught an extra thief or murderer while not harassing a weed smoker, they surely wasted less resources police/state/judge/legal/prisons/etc, and the very first year of MM the taxes raked in passed their #1 exported crop at 12 million if I remember right.

Just more of the same.    The end to the “WAR ON DRUGS” should be front page news, and on every media outlet, BUT YOU WOULDNT WANT YOUR MISTAKES PARADED AROUND IN FRONT OF YOU EITHER.  I suppose the government has a really bad ability to publicly admit defeat.   AKA The rightful citizens have WON THE WAR ON DRUGS because WE HAVENT GIVEN UP IN THE LEAST…….

In my opinion if its a plant that can be a salad, it cannot be a controlled drug.(weed)  But processed drugs like cocaine, heroin, and chemicals like lsd should have some form of control/regulation of course as they can lead to dangerous people.

Now everyone go to a secluded location and BE JOHNNY APPLEWEED!!!**********

  Stop killing the baby seeds, stop hiding them or throwing them in the TRASH.   Plant every seed you see all across the world. Just poke a stick or stem 1″ down and then piss on it and walk away. Time to OVERGROW THE GOVERNMENT FOR REAL.  Let them remember who is truly in charge, the masses.

The effectiveness of cannabis for both pain and PTSD has led the VA (a Federal agency) to allow veterans to use cannabis (even though Federal law precludes it).  
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/health/policy/24veterans.html?pagewanted=allMore info on the medicinal uses of cannabis can be found here:http://www.medicalcannabis.com/ PLUS: “Gateway drug” pseudoscience has been soundly debunked: http://scienceblog.com/12116/study-says-marijuana-no-gateway-drug/

This is the kind of stupid government that makes the rest of government look stupid too.  Almost as stupid as Obama claiming to have no ability to influence marijuana’s schedule classification.

I have a police issued “pocket partner” handbook.  On one page it says Schedule I drugs: having no medical use, Marijuana, cocaine, lsd, etc.
Then exactly 6 pages later under definitions it says: “Marijuana: medical uses include cancer, wasting, aids, glaucoma, etc. etc. for about 40 medical uses. 

The only thing blObama made transparent was the lies he made to get in office, be damn sure to expect even more of the same from the hairball you all will end up electing.  He only cares about money, and more specifically walked away from and ignored a medical marijuana patient asking him very pertinent questions about arresting patients.

Fuck this world, there has to be somewhere better.