It’s 4/20: Do You Think Marijuana Should be Legal?
As counterculture supporters around the country rally for legalization, we want to hear your thoughts on the subject.
While the origins of the 420 movement are murky, its message is clear: supporters want to see the legalization of marijuana.
In recognition of today’s observations that are taking place from California and Colorado to New York and in many points in between, we’d like to hear from you New Port Richey.
Do you think pot use should be legal in America?
About 420
The 420 observation, which takes place on April 20 each year, is one that’s been going on for decades, according to the Huffington Post. Even so, its origins are largely unknown.
“Its use as code for marijuana spread among California pot users in the 1960s and spread nationwide among followers of the Grateful Dead.
Like most counterculture slang, theories abound on its origin. Some say it was once police code in Southern California to denote marijuana use (probably an urban legend). It was a title number for a 2003 California bill about medical marijuana, an irony fully intended.”
So, what do you think? Should marijuana be legalized or should it stay on America’s banned list?
Denise Houston
7:27 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
"Older Adults Increasingly Use Medical Marijuana for Nausea, Pain"
www.aarp.org
Listen to Harvard Medical Professor, Dr. Lester Grinspoon explain his path to understanding cannabis through his son's cancer treatment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tEtpxPWjcrw
Irvin Rosenfeld, who joined the program in 1983, is the most public of the remaining patients and has been using legal federal marijuana for the longest amount of time. Rosenfeld has had the disease Multiple Congenital Cartilaginous Exostoses since childhood. It is a painful disorder which causes bone tumors to form at the joints, stretching the surrounding tendons and veins, making movement almost impossible. Rosenfeld has had 30 tumors removed in six operations. He still has 200 tumors, some too small to remove, yet in the 30 years he has been smoking marijuana, he says, he has not had a new tumor. Irvin Rosenfeld is a successful ions with the legal and medical authorities. Irvin is a stockbroker working and living in South Florida You can find more information about him and what he does here: http://irvinrosenfeld.com
Buzz Man
1:18 pm on Sunday, April 22, 2012
Irvin is in fl. How can he get his meds. in Fl. it is illeagle here in fl.? I have used it in the past and it helped me so good it makes me want to break the law , but I have ten grand kids and seven living children , I cant afford to go to jail for a joint .
Denise Houston
4:05 pm on Sunday, April 22, 2012
Irvin is part of the federal program. click on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassionate_Investigational_New_Drug_program to read about him and the other patients that were grandfathered in. He gets his cannabis from the University of Mississippi in a round tin. To boot it seem that us tax payer pay for this. Why can't other patients have safe access here in Florida? Its a good question to ask some of our politicians that are running for office this year, to support for medical use, or don't support them.
Denise Houston
4:12 pm on Sunday, April 22, 2012
Here is some interesting education going on in Arizona next weekend http://www.prweb.com/releases/prwebMedical-Marijuana/Conference/prweb9401631.htm
Denise Houston
7:28 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassionate_Investigational_New_Drug_program
The Department of Veterans Affairs will formally allow patients treated at its hospitals and clinics to use medical marijuana in states where it is legal, a policy clarification that veterans have sought for several years. The key is states where it is legal. This is not a choice given to our Vets here in Florida. I ask why? Did they not all fight for our country.
Medical Cannabis is now legal in our countries capital, Washington D.C
In my opinion it’s time for the people of Florida to be given a choice of medicine to use. Especially its seniors, cannabis has been proven to work with fewer side effects than some of our pharmaceutical drugs.
RJ
10:45 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
The coolest hippie in the world right now is mohammad goldstein. He is a leftover hippie from the 60's who has created the largest protest against Washington in fifty years. he is on the net with the plot to overthrow washington for nuttin. every politician in DC knows him and they are trying to keep him from full exposure. he is like Martin Luther King and a breath of truth to the nation. So much truth in his speech. Peace Out
Brandt Hardin
9:39 am on Saturday, April 21, 2012
The War on Drugs failed $1 Trillion ago! This money could have been used for outreach programs to clean up the bad end of drug abuse by providing free HIV testing, free rehab, and clean needles. Harmless drugs like marijuana could be legalized to help boost our damaged economy. Cannabis can provide hemp for countless natural recourses and the tax revenue from sales alone would pull every state in our country out of the red! Vote Teapot, PASS IT, and legalize it. Voice you opinion with the movement and read more on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/01/vote-teapot-2011.html
Sherri Lonon
10:23 am on Saturday, April 21, 2012
Thanks everyone for the comments. This is an interesting issue with lots of passion on both sides.
Buzz Man
1:33 pm on Sunday, April 22, 2012
No problem Ms. Sherri , Heres one that urks the crapola out of me , They would sell that stuff called Spice (fake Pot ) , That stuff leaves an oil in your lungs that you can pour like cooking oil and it is black ,it kills your lungs. And it shuts peoples kidney`s down and other parts of the body. I even believe that people have already died from that stuff, yet they throw us in jail if we get caught with a little pot. Its all about the people in congress getting rich on busting us , its all about money. The rich getting richer kicking us down and putting theirselves up on a petastal.
Denise Houston
10:07 am on Monday, April 23, 2012
Under federal law, marijuana is still classed as a Schedule I drug which means that it is not legal in any form, including for medical purposes. Despite popular belief, it cannot actually be prescribed (to get it in most states where it’s legal, you need a note, not a prescription, from a doctor). That hasn’t stopped states moving to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. Sixteen states and D.C. have done so: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Twelve more have similar legislation pending: Alabama, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
william billotti
11:38 am on Saturday, April 21, 2012
we have enough people on the highways high /intoxicated i will never be convinced that marijuana is harmless
phyllis
12:11 pm on Saturday, April 21, 2012
marijuana is so pervasive everywhere--we're fighting a losing battle trying to keep it illegal--the same way they fought against alcohol--it's here to stay we may as well get some control over it and legalize it-tax it-control the processing of it so it's clean and not mixed with other products-stop jamming up the court systems at taxpayer expense and move on to more important things like jobs--which could be created by the legal growing -packaging-and merchandizing of pot
Rita
12:30 pm on Saturday, April 21, 2012
I think it should be since its used mostly for medical reasons. There are many benefits from its use. Couldn't the government use the money from the sale of it being legal instead supporting possible terrorists groups and drug lords. Most people that use pot stay home to munch but people that drink go out to bars and nightclubs.
Carla Gibson
10:58 pm on Saturday, April 21, 2012
People who WANT to use marijuana have been using it all along, so why not make it legal and tax it? Of course, legalizing it might keep the smugglers and drug lords from making their $$Billions$$ but who cares about them?
Diane Carlstrom
4:16 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
There are countless medical uses. Go to PubMed and search marijuana, Cannabis or similar terms ad there are over 2500 results. It has been shown to kill cancer. Skin cancer in human subjects and several other types in the lab and in rats. While the gov't says there is no medical use they nonetheless took out a patent on its anti inflammatory and neuro protective properties back in 2003, While there is the claim mo medicinal uses there is a drug called Marinol which is a CIII, meaning barely controlled. It is made with sesame oil and THC, the ingredient that makes people high when they smoke. This drug is missing many other components found in the whole plant that do not cause euphoria but do have healing properties. So how does it have no medicinal uses when it has been sold in a pill for over 20 years?
Almost 800,000 people are arrested every year for drug offences. Many of them for possession, this has ruined many lives. The vast majority of those arrested for possession are people of clour even though more white use it.
The reasons it was criminalised have nothing to do with it being dangerous but I do not have the room to write those here
Diane Carlstrom
4:28 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
Cannabis was a staple with Dr's up until 1937 when the Marihuana Tax Act was passed which began the war on weed. If we were to legalise medicinal use in Florida it would mean millions in tax revenue. Were we to decide to tax and regulate such as we do with alcohol that would become tens of millions in tax revenue. But there is so much more here. Did you know that it was once law that every landowner must grow indian hemp? These are essentially the same plant. If we were allowed to grow it here in FL we could get about 3 crops a year. It leaves the land in better condition than it was to begin which is good news for farmers. There is no need for dangerous herbicides and pesticides either. Everyone knows that hemp can be used for making clothes and paper but it also can be used to make building materials that are lightweight and much stronger than those used now.
Diane Carlstrom
4:29 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
Oh, and hat nasty addiction to oil can be done away with. Anything made with petroleum oil can be made with hemp oil including gas. This is not some silly hippie dream impossible to realise, it is very doable but of course would make certain people very upset.
Hempseed is also a wonderful source of Omega fats and makes a wonderful food source.
SO, if we were to legalise this plant here we could literally change the course of the future for ourselves and our children and it's really not that hard to do. All that needs be done is to overcome our addiction to crude oil and to break the chains big oil, pharma and gov'y has up locked in. The question is do we have the backbone to do it?