.

Here is how you die from smoking marijuana:

Police get a warrant for the wrong address, they bust into your house and when you stand up to see what's going on, they shoot you to death.

Hey wait a minute, that guy wasn't even smoking marijuana.

Marijuana saves lives, police take them.

for years people have argued that marijuana's main harm is that it is a gateway drug. Have any of these ignorant people taken the time to think about why marijuana is a gateway drug? I doubt it. Think about it. Marijuana is lumped into the illegal drug group with heroin, cocaine, meth, etc. So when kids go to their dealers to buy pot, they see these other drugs and begin to experiment. The day marijuana is de-criminalized, is the day that marijuana stops being a gateway drug and starts becoming the accepted healer that it is.

don't you think that if MJ was made legal that the government would modify it as they have cigarettes or beef for that matter? Seems to me that the gov likes to change nice natural products by GMOing or using additives for productivity.

On topic these guys are freaken stupid. Don't know about you folks but I know who is growing my grass and I know they aren't trying to kill me.

21 USC Sec. 802, Makes it very clear that you can't be addicted to cannabis.

I am above the influence, the influence of drug war propaganda

I wouldn't smoke marijuana that came from the government crop, even if they were paying ME to smoke it! What I hear is that is horrid tasting, and very weak stuff. I also know who grows my weed and they are not trying to kill me, either; best thing about it is, it is one hit shit!

But I'd rather feel even safer growing my own, (non-criminal) weed, Like I wrote elsewhere, marijuana should be as easily obtainable, as non-criminal to grow in your home garden, to sell or give away, and to ingest as are tomatoes and cucumbers.

The story percolated up (down?) to Fox News. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcPF59CoGvs

it can hurt u yes but cant KILL u

Reading articles on this site always fills me with such hatred. DEA agents are such shitty people, it's unbelievable.

WHO EVER CAME UP WITH THIS SHIT HAS PROBABLY NEVER SMOKED A DAY IN THEIR LIVES!!! WHATEVER!

I GUESS I BETTER WRITE MY WILL OUT BC IT LOOKS LIKE I WON'T BE HERE AFTER TOMORROW!!!

There are many pros and some cons about legalizing marijuana.
PROS:
- Most marijuana based crimes are because of possession, selling, growing, or usage. All of which directly relate to marijuana being illegal. Considering the average cost to house a prisoner in jail is 9,000-over 75,000 dollars a year (from our taxes) Legalizing marijuana would be a great economic move.

- The other couple percent of marijuana related crimes indirectly come from dealers and buyers fighting, which sometimes leads to murder.

- The only legit marijuana related crimes (meaning crimes that you should be arrested for) are DUI's. Keep in mind that compared to all reported DUI arrest, less than 1% deal with people high on marijuana and 85% are because of alcohol, which is legal and was made legal after it had once been banned.

- The slim remaining crimes involving marijuana occur when a cop catches someone using marijuana and out of fear of being arrested, the person fights or runs away, leading to assault charges or charges for running from the cop.

All of the above marijuana crimes, except DUI's would be eliminated if marijuana was legalized.

Another problem with marijuana being illegal is many good doctors, athletes, and students lose any hopes of being successful when they are drug tested. The doctor that your hospital fired last year because he smoked a joint a couple years ago (gas-mass spectrometer test) could have made a medical breakthrough but gave up medicine because no hospital would hire him.
Ive personally seen and heard of many talented students and athletes, after being busted for marijuana use by their parents, school, or the police, go downhill and destroy any chances of making a difference in the world.
Also, from my marijuana use experience, believe that marijuana can literally make you smarter. Now im talking about when you are actually high, the common long term affects of marijuana such as short term memory loss are very real. But on multiple ocasions, when I was high, I thought about some science that I never studied in detail, and came up with theories.
or instance, one day I was thinking about how sound waves work and wrote down notes. At first I though I made a breakthroughand was going to be famous but I found most of my findings to have already been discovered and published in textbooks. Then it hit me, I just taught myself the advanced physics of sound waves without any prior knowledge and without opening a book. Now Im a decent student (high 80's-mid90's) but nothing like the scientist who first discovered this stuff, so what if a genius were to use marijuana, if it were to produce the same effects on him or her, the possibilities are endless. Don't forget, these scientist may have used marijuana to aid them and never wanted to admit it.
A very common argument against legalized marijuana is that is kills brain cells, damages lungs, and causes some neurological problems. These have all been scientifically proven to be true. However, if marijuana caused one person in a study to slip into a coma, marijuana would be proven to induce comas, even if there is only a 1 in a trillion chance of it happening.
I agree marijuana is going to shorten your life span and cause problems, but what if a doctor were to use marijuana and discover a cure for cancer? Or discover something that brings us a step closer to finding a cure? The fact is nothing comes easy and great accomplishments sometimes come with great losses.
Another fact, no one has ever been reported dead due to a marijuana overdose. The reason for this is you would simply pass out before you smoked enough marijuana to kill you. However, THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannibol) the chemical most associated with being high, can kill you in relatively low doses if it is ingected in its pure form. But understand that the most potent strains of marijuana contain around 25% THC, but most of it is converted into other chemicals when lit, or exhaled out. Another large amount simply stays in your bloodstream and gets filtered out by your liver and kidneys. IF you could absorb all the THC in the marijuana you burn, less than .1g of low grade stuff would get you high.

A theory I have on this topic is, if marijuana were legalized, less people would use hard drugs. I believe this because many people result to harder drugs, cocaine to be more specific, because it is easer, faster, and more concealable to use than marijuana. If marijuana was legal I think a lot of people would not bother wasting money on harder drugs because of the legality and lower cost of marijuana.

Legalized marijuana would also lead to strains that produce the same effect and the same taste but with less toxins because large organizatons and future "marijuana farms" would be able to study it and experiment more openly.

CONS

Many people feel that legalizing marijuana will decrease crime rate, violence, and lower taxes (saving money from less prisoners) which I believe is correct (I have no way of proving it).

The cons are less numerous and most deal indirectly with marijuana.

The main reason marijuana is not legal in the US is because most 1st world countries don't have it fully legalized. Legalizing marijuana in the US would cause mass amounts of attention.

Also, as someone mentioned earlier in the post, most countries hate the US for their radical approach to the war on drugs, so making a drug legal would definitely not help our reputation.

Another reason is if marijuana was made legal it may increase violent crime rate because people would no longer be hiding in the woods or someones house while high. This could easily be fixed by placing usage laws, much like those of alcohol only a little bit stronger making it legal to use, buy, and cultivate marijuana on private property or places that have some kind of license (like that needed to buy and sell alcohol and tobacco).

Another reason marijuana is not legal is because it hasn't been proven to do any of the things I was talking about. Although I swear on my life that I have experienced all the for mentioned effects as well as all my friends, that isn't enough to convince the man.

My prediction is that marijuana will be decriminalized by 2060. Some states allow it for medical purposes and that is the first step. Soon all states will legalize it for medical purposes and that will increase the number of people that use marijuana, thus making more people see the truth. Eventually, it will be legal for people over a certain age too use in private places, then in public places, then stores will start opening and kids will be paying homeless people to buy them bags of weed. (another pro- it would be a charity to homeless people everywhere...jk but think about it)

Hopefully this helped and remember (this is going to sound like its from a Disney movie....fuck it probably is) Alone we can't make a difference, but together our voice can be heard. Remember that we live in a government where THE PEOPLE GOVERN THEMSELVES!!!!

---by the way for her own sake, don't vote for HillaryJERTA, every president we have had was a white male prodestant the only exception was JFK and he was shot by a fricken magic bullet. So if a different sect of Christianity is enough to kill a president, I would NOT throw a women into the mix. by the way I'm not a racist or sexist, a black person or women could be the best president we ever had....until a magic bullet blows up their face, and then some considering the improvements in modern weponary.---but that is for a different post

You are all crackheads!!! Who cares what they say!?! People shouldn't do drugs anyway! Marajauna is addicting and people who use it will eventually die from some kind of health problem! Drugs are never good and only used for some medical problems! Your all trying to say what this guy said is wrong or messed up or BS, but maybe he had a personnal experiance, where maybe a family member of his was killed by a drug addict! how do any of ya'll know?!?! this is one a small pieve of a article! get facts striaght! drugs are bad for everyone!!!

Is because all those DEA mother fuckers will be out of work I mean think about it 85% of all there bust is marijuana. When they stop making bust they stopped getting paid.

I had a close friend who came home to his best friend dead in his bedroom, the only drug found in his system was marijuana...

The drug warriors will never give up untill you, your children and your family are all in jail. If it wasn't Cannabis it would be something else, perhaps a "crackdown" on un-prescribed medications. The federal mafia needs funding and they don't care how many families they destroy to get it. The federal mafia and all branches/organizations of it are parasites that feed on the emotions and wallets of the people they swore to serve.

hes talkin about a rogue strategy the DEA is using. what they do is they grow killer pot. and sell it to clubs and people covertly. its weed that got special stuff in it that harms you . watch out.

I've been smoking cannabis for about 6-7 years straight now, and as a matter of fact I haven't been lucky enough to get a single bag that contained heroin or cocaine in it, Per eighth of marijuana, it would cost the dealer about 180 extra $ just to lace the bag sufficiently, and it wouldnt be properly absorbed in the way that marijuana is inhaled, especially with growing development in alternative methods of ingesting THC without smoking. When my dealer throws in that 180$ of heroin that "is going to kill us all!" then i'll just be sure to use it, thank him, and wonder why in the fuck he would ever waste the money or drugs? Lacing is a myth, no ganja grower or dealer is going to spoil their name or spend 4x the drugs worth just to get you higher.

it is true marijuana will kill you.this is a known fact,it killed my 15 year old brother the first time he took a puff on it,he died instentlly from that deadly thc,It's much more deadlyer than cociane,heroin,meth or any other illegal narcodic.the DEA only said that becouse it's true and you need to accept it becouse you live in the best country in the world the goverment knows whats best.and marijuana has killed millions and billions of people.the goverment should impose the death penlety on you people who try marijuana for the first time or ever.You reefer heads make me sick,your scum,you are the reason there's crime in this world.your the reason kids parents beat them and abandon them .MARIJUANA IS NOT HARMLESS IT CAN AND IT WILL KILL YOU.all you people talking bad about the dea should be locked up for life and get the death pently for treson.people shouldnt be allowed to speak bad about the goverment.i love the goverment and how well they've made us safe.i am pro for murder of druggies.stupid pot heads ya'll are going to hell

what do u mean this marijuana will kill? thats just another bullshit remark those government guys say just to get us off this marijuana. Well if everyone stopped smokin pot, then u government guys would start losing your jobs. Because since u keep arresting and charging these potheads, thats where u get 75% of ur pay. You see that marijuana is keepin sort of a balance for a lot of u government, and police guys. If nobody smoked marijuana there wouldnt be as much police officers, so the people that lose there jobs what the hell are they gunna do??? they will probably end up being bums on the street or working at a macdonalds restuarant because less people will be needed for the jobs relating to the law.

I am so tired of the government trying to hide, and refusing to admit that they were wrong. Man if we legalized cannabis our country would prosper so much! In the late 1800's and early 1900's before Harry J Anslenger was the drug Czar, hemp was americas number one export. In fact it was mandatory to grow it to provide for the countries well being. We made everything out of it. It is the most useful plant in the world, that is why God put it on our planet. It is a fact that one stalk of hemp will produce 5 times more ethanol than one stock of corn. 5 times more! That is a significant difference. Also Hemp grows so much faster than trees do, so we can stop destroying our forests and start making hemp paper to satisfy our needs. For Christ sake our Declaration of Independace was written on hemp paper. Our fore fathers would be so pissed off at us if they only knew how corrupt our country has become. The government lies to our faces everyday because they think its good for our well being. Im sorry but the only person who knows what is good for me is me! Cannabis opens your mind to new and inovative ideas. At least it does that to me. It makes you question athority and that is exactly what scares the government. Man the government tells us that they are looking out for our best interest, mother fucker ciggarettes kill 400,000 people a year! Alcohol kills 30,000 just in diseases alone, that doesnt acount for the 20,000 that get killed in alcohol related accidents, and also there is no telling how many women and children get abused by a man who is drunk every night. Legalize pot please. It is a much safer alternitve than alcohol, and it doesnt give you throat and lung cancer like ciggarettes. We are in tough times America, our government has its head so far up its ass that for some reason they cant see the truth. They would rather give money to bail out huge corporations so that their ceos can still pay on there condos in mexico and what have you, rather than stop this ridiculous war on drugs wich is a huge failure. There is about 800,000 people in prison due to marijuana possesion. Its costs the government 30,000 dollars to keep one inmate in prison, so every year our government spends 24,000,000,000 dollars a year just to contain marijuana smokers alone. BULL SHIT so much BULL SHIT. Wake up America its time to end the prohibition on pot!

Ok everybody, heres the facts. marijuana can kill you. it has happened before.

***BUT... the facts are that its not likely at all. there is a small(about 1%) percentage of people that are allergic to the plant
in the same way some are allergic to chocolate, which what it does is it sticks inside you, causing a "permanent high"
so to speak. and it fries your brain cells at a fast accelleration, and eventually you die.
this is where the GOV and everybody gets there info from sayin it is bad.

No it wont heal cancer either, back in the day, yes. now no, the weed now is not pure like it was, so it doesnt do the same thing
thats why we get alot higher now.

No weed isnt bad, as far as physically, unless you are allergic to it, yes i myself smoke bud, both for medical reasons, and just to
get fuccin toasted. i think it should be legalized, for the fact that honestly, how many people do you hear about dying that anything to do
with marijuana? not many, people dont hurt people when they are high on weed, its usually controllable when your driving, which is still not a great idea, and overall, you just dont hear about it much, aside from the laws bout it. alcohol is legal and it kills way more people.
its completely unfathomable why they made it illegal.
but now yall know the truth. it aint bad, it dont hurt people, unless your allergic to it in a deathly way, and it feels so good

so smoke a blunt and say screw the gov, cuz we gon do it anyways.

LISTEN HERE all you people who have posted comments hating on the DEA have been reported and will be kept a close eye on.YOU PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES do not understand how you need to be arrested for marijuana,#1 it's illegal! #2 it's for crimials and terrorist,if u smoke marijuana YOU SUPPORT TERRORISM.YOU have no right to speak bad about the dea they are trying to keep this country clean of pushers and dope fiends.if' i became priesident which i plan too i will make sure THE bill of rights is BANNISHED for there is no need for it people need to be controled should not have the right to privicey nor freedom of speech.you do not deserve to have the right tell the police and goverment not to come in ur home without warrent or search u without perimisson .THE GOVERMENT NEEDS COMPLETE CONTROL IN ORDER TO KEEP YOU SAFE they KNOW WHATS BEST FOR YOU and they will not legalize marijuana becouse it's simple unlike tabacco it doesnt kill people so if it has no way the goverment can make money and kill most of the population by charging them taxes whats the point the best thing is to kill someone with possision of pot even if its less than a gram on sight becouse they are what cause these stupid ridulice dreams of peace when PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE FREE

LOOK man all you reeferheads out there need to PUT THE JOINT DOWN seriouslly you wanna enjoy urself go to a park and DROP ACID it's much more fun than pot TRUST ME

The main reason marijuana is illegal is to keep "HEMP" illegal. The main reason there is a war on drugs is help the alcohol and tobbacco companies making money, while they make money from fines for possession and distribution charges, and to imprison lower class citizens(the ones that are on wellfare and don't pay much into taxes). In the Netherlands where pretty much every drug is legal along with prostitution they have less crime, less drug addiction, and less std's. Now back to hemp. Hemp produces less than 1% THC (YOU COULD SMOKE A WHOLE OUNCE AND GET MORE OF A HEAD ACHE THAN A HIGH) and yet it is illegal to grow hemp in the U.S. The fiber can be imported but it can't legally be grown. Why? because it would completely wipe out the cotton and logging industry. These are huge corparations with alot of push and pull within our government. Most people don't even know the difference between hemp and marijuana, and the only ones that do a reporters from high times or stoners that put on events like hemp fest where they talk more about medical marijuana than hemp. I suggest anyone who reads this to check out Jack Herer's The Emporer Wears No Clothes and read or get the video which is a slimmed down version with lessinfo but still gets the point accross. We need more people that don't smoke pot to support the legalization of Hemp. I also believe marijuana should be legal but I am way more passionate about the legalization of hemp. Hemp is one of the most benificial plants on the planet, you can't get high on hemp yet UNCLE SAM says no no no when it comes to hemp production in America. HEMP COULD SAVE THE WORLD (thats a bold statement, but if you do just a little research you will see the truth) Everyone has it backwords they think hemp is illegal to keep pot illegal. It's the complete opposite Hemp would wipe out big dinasaur corparation so the government keeps marijuana illegal so they can keep blinding the people from the true benifits of hemp.

First off I don't think that anyone who can't spell properly is able to make claims about the consequences of marijuana use especially when the comment box has spell check. Second the fact of the matter is that whether marijuana is harmful or not it shouldn't be illegal unless it is harming someone other than yourself. Just as laws against drinking and driving and no smoking in public places don't allow you to harm others. Marijuana, like every drug, has many effects both good and bad. None as bad as alcohol, which is well known for killing those who take too much. Those of you saying that the government should control everything are the only anti-america people here. If you are truly patriotic then you would believe in the constitution which states that we are free and the government should not control us. You are just too weak to think for yourselves and need someone else to tell you what to think. Check out this cool video and you'll see that the cops are doing it too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrZLc9lqQM0

I hate the DEA -- they're turning themselves into the bad guys for prosecuting people that use marijuana. I hope God forgives these criminals for the lives they destroy.

I have a few questions about marijuana and the war on drugs. Actually I think they are questions everyone should be asking. And to you anti-cannabis, pro-DEA people out there, if you attempt to answer them, actually try to come up with something that's original and (more importantly) true/factual. Don't BS me.

1. The DEA classifies marijuana as a schedule I drug. This class is reserved for drugs which have no medicinal value. However, today 13 states recognize it as having medicinal value, and many scientific studies have shown it to be beneficial for Alzheimer's disease, neuron growth, lung cancer (ironic huh?), breast cancer, AIDS/HIV, brain cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis..., the list is quiet extensive. Why does the DEA refuse to reclassify it?

2. This question goes in hand with number one in a way. Again, we all know marijuana is a schedule I drug. Its synthetic counterpart, Marinol, is a schedule III drug. Why is the natural substance in a more strict classification? Shouldn't they be the same? Someone on the DEA classification committee dropped the ball on that one.

3. These laws are 72 years old and the constitution was never amended to give the federal government any power over cannabis (or any other drugs for that matter). It was amended for the prohibition of alcohol. Why are we still enforcing outdated and unconstitutional laws? A good link for a little more on this: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/623215 (sorry, don't know how to hyperlink).

4. The decriminalization of MJ would save us $7.7 billion a year if we didn't have to prosecute non-violent people and put them in state penitentiaries. Then we could rake in another $6.2 billion if it was taxed and regulated like alcohol and tobacco. The US is $11.4 trillion in debt. You do the math. And don't get me started on the value of industrial hemp. For those out there that think its the same as weed, its not. No one tries to get high from smoking their hemp bracelet, at least not twice. Why do we make working America suffer? Why do we keep the economy in a rut?

5. Why do anti-marijuana activists always bring up addiction? We have far more addictive substances that are legal and easily obtainable. I've even heard pornography is more addicting than crack and its everywhere (do you think your kids really click the "no thanks' button?). To some TV is addicting, or potato chips, or the computer. For more on addiction and its rankings, Google "Henningfield ratings".

6. This one really gets me upset. Picture, if you will, two scenarios. Scenario 1: Police raid the wrong house, shoot and kill an innocent victim. The officers involved are acquitted of any crime. Scenario 2: Police raid wrong house again, this time an officer gets shot and killed by a homeowner protecting his family from what he thinks are intruders. Homeowner receives life in prison or death penalty. Both are scenarios of mistaken identity, but it seems the public is held accountable while the police are exempt. Innocent men, women, and children are dead! Why do we not hold those officers accountable for what they did? If you really wanna get worked up, Google "drug war victims"

7. Prohibition didn't work with alcohol. What makes it different for cannabis and other drugs? All prohibition does is make the wrong people very rich. Does Al Capone ring a bell? I'm not really for legalizing the hard stuff, but who am I to tell someone what they can or cannot ingest, inject, snort, or lather all over their body? As long as they don't violate the rights of others I'm ok with it. If you want to slam Drano, go ahead. If you want to drink alcohol, its your right. But if you want to smoke pot and drive, you get punished (hey just like alcohol!). If you want to tweak and steal copper, you go to jail (I could really care less if your teeth fall out as a result, that's your problem). Oh, and if you decide drugs are more important than work and you are physically and mentally able to work, you don't eat and you get kicked out of your income based housing. Screw the welfare people who don't really need it...lazy bastards. With that said I think people who really do need help because they are unable to work should get it.

8. Science has been unable to reproduce absurd claims against marijuana and has actually shown it to be beneficial as we saw in question one. Why are we still lying to our children and the rest of the world?

9. Who thinks we should all send a letter to President Obama and urge him to stop the persecution of those who use cannabis for ANY reason at all? Let's make our voices heard!

Enough questions now, although I'm sure there are plenty more. Now I'd like to bring to your attention, jury nullification. It's a powerful thing and should be used wisely. I'm NOT saying every marijuana case or drug case should be nullified, but lets be reasonable. I think the jury should nullify every case on medical marijuana if the patient was following the laws of his/her state. I would personally nullify any case where the person was selling marijuana as long as it wasn't to children. We let our kids smoke cigarettes when they are 18. Weed is far less harmful than cigarettes so i suppose the age of the child would be relevant. I'd say 17 as long as the young adult was responsible.

"It is not only his right but also his duty... to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court."
—The Works of John Adams

Well that's all from me for now. I hope I got a few people thinking. If you care to learn more about cannabis I recommend "The Emperor Wears No Clothes". It's easily found and is a great read for those who are anti-cannabis and pro-cannabis alike. Chapter two is especially for you "anti" people.

its bad when the government lies to us. thats called treason. its worse that they lie about it and create monsters in society that believe that anybody that smokes pot should be murdered, beaten, tortured, or locked away. yes. i actually HAVE heard people threaten with ALL of those things. i got the highest grade in all my teacher's students on my standardized test (thank you Bush) with a whopping 88%. and i wasnt in the retard class. i passed all his tests with 100% on every one, i know my government and how it works. im not letting the DEA get to me cuz i know my basic rights as a citizen of the United States. i know that i can sit here and say whatever the fuck i want and the government cant do shit to me. i know i can smoke in my own home because they legally cant raid my house without a warrent and SOLID EVIDENCE that i do it. for all they know i could just be rambling at 4 in the morning and dont really smoke pot. unless they physically catch me with it they cant touch me. all you people trying to say that you've had family die from weed in one hit. you're retarted. he was probably slipped heroin, cocaine, or another hard drug as well. marijuana DOES NOT kill you. if anything it benefits. hell, if i have kids that wanna smoke pot. im gunna make sure they know the concequences, im gunna make sure they know how to be responsible with it, and im going to teach them how to properly inhale this magic grass. as a person stated ahead of me, cannabis is even in the bible. now im gunna get a shit load of replies such as "your horrible and id never let you have children" and all that bullshit but lemme tell ya. i have friends parents that are pill popping whores that dont give a rats ass about their kids. so before you start ragging me imagine having parents like that.

here is how you will die from smoking weed:
the cops raid house u have big bong in hand and freind has gun freind accidently shoot gun cops shoot you for trying to hide the bong under your shirt

cops defense: our team is highly trained and will not shoot unless shot at. the deceased man/woman was obviously hiding a gun under his/her shirt and he/her is obviously the one who shot at police so my team in defense of their lives fired 44 rounds into the person