wow Þetta er wierd að heyra frá íslendingum! Maður hefur nefnilega eingöngu heyrt svarið NEI við lögleiðingu canabish eins og með evrópusambandið “Ísland á ekkert með að vera þar”
Æi greyi ísland! Það er ekki sagt okkur neitt! maður þarf að grafa sig inní málefnið til að skilja hvað er í gangi, því stjórnendur hér á landi eru frekar óduglegir með að seigja sannleikann þeir hugsa bara um sitt eigið rassgat og ef þeir fíla þetta ekki þá er þetta ekki gert!
Mig langar að fræða´ykkur sem vitið ekkert hvað Canabis/Marijuana er því ég er kominn með leið af bull svörum um þetta lif. Ég sjálfur hef reykt þetta efni í um 8ár en undafarinn 4ár hef ég verið frá því og ekki finn ég neina breyttingu til hins góða síðan ég hætti að taka reykinn ofaní mig ég er mjög ósamála fólki sem er á móti þessu því ég hef ekki heyrt EINN GÓÐ rök fyrir þessu banni Ég tók nokkrar greinar saman frá virtum Læknum í heiminum. Lesið greinarnar og seigi mér svo hvor þetta eigi að vera bannað eða ei!
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<b>The Legalization Of Marijuana</b>
<b>By Dr.Dennis M. Yates</b>
There is one overriding danger to today's average marijuana consumer. It isn't brain damage, it isn't lung cancer, it isn't going crazy and shooting every thing that moves. No, the largest danger is the fact that, if they are caught, they will be arrested.
<b>Marijuana is illegal for one simple reason: </b>
marijuana is illegal. Currently, it is considered by many health officials to be one of the safest therapudic substances known to man. In a nationwide survey of cancer therapists, 50 percent of them said they would prescribe marijuana if it were legal, while 44 percent admitted they did recommend marijuana to patients. Francis L. Young, the administrative judge for the Drug Enforcement Agency, said “Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeudically active substances known to man.”
Mississippi is a state that has decriminalized marijuana possession, meaning that a first offense for possession for personal useage cannot include prison time or a criminal record. Instead, it is treated much like a traffic violation. For possession of marijuana with a total weight of less than or equal to an ounce, the fine is $100 to $250. From one ounce up to a kilogram, however, the fine goes to $1,000 and jail time for a year can be served. A kilogram or over can give the possessor up to 20 years and a fine from $1,000 to $1,000,000. For sale or delivery of less than one ounce of marijuana, the criminal can be jailed for up to three years and face fines for $3,000. For amounts greater than or equal to an ounce, the jail time jumps to up to 20 years and the fines to $30,000.
Amounts greater than or equal to a kilogram entail jail time for up to 30 years and fines from $100,000 to $1,000,000. If the possessor has over ten pounds, the punishment is life in prison without parole. In addition, the punishment for any sale to a minor and sale within 1,500 feet of a school will both double the punishment.
The federal laws on marijuana possession are even more harsh. Possession of any amount has a fine of $10,000 and a possible one year prison term. Growing, delivering or selling less than 100 kilograms has a fine of $1,000,000 and up to 20 years in prison, whereas 100 kilograms or more has a fine of up to $2,000,000 and a prison term from 5 to 20 years. Over 1,000 kilograms, the fine becomes $10,000,000 and the prison term jumps to 10 years to life. Distribution within 1,000 feet of a playground or school (including public or private colleges or sales to minors) or within 100 feet of a youth center, public pool, or video arcade, the penalty doubles with a mandatory minimum of one year in prison unless the amount is under five grams.
A relatively new practice that flew across the U.S. within the past few years are what are known as the forfeiture laws. These rules allow law enforcement to confiscate items from a marijuana-user's possession if there is a belief the item in question was bought with “drug money,” money gained from illegal drug trades.
Unfortunately, many people are frightened from possible abuses from the forfeiture laws. For example, in Ventura County, California, District Attorney Michael D. Bradford released a document titled “Report on the Death of Donald Scott,” which claimed that Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Gary R. Spenser filed a false affidavit to receive a search warrant to the 200-acre ranch of Donald Scott. In the raid following issuance of the search warrant, Spenser shot the 61-year-old Scott twice, killing him. The report concluded “Based in part upon the possibility of forfeiture, Spencer obtained a search warrant that was not supported by probable cause. This search warrant became Donald Scott's death warrant.” When Bradbury was interviewed by ABC's 20/20 and asked if the lure of revenue gained by the forfeiture laws were corrupting law enforcement officials, Bradbury said “In my opinion, yes.”
Another problem with the current marijuana laws is prison overcrowding. According to the Federal Bureau of Justice statistics, 59,000 inmates were added to the already overcrowded prisons in 1992 to a record 833,600 inmates nationwide. This is a greater than 160 percent increase since 1982 and is mostly attributed to drug violators.
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<b>Marijuana Myth # 1.</b>
<b>Marijuana is a “gateway” drug it leads to hard drugs. </b>
This is one of the more persistent myths. A real world example of what happens when marijuana is readily available can be found in Holland. The Dutch partially legalized marijuana in the 1970s. Since then, hard drug use heroin and cocaine have DECLINED substantially. If marijuana really were a gateway drug, one would have expected use of hard drugs to have gone up, not down. This apparent “negative gateway” effect has also been observed in the United States. Studies done in the early 1970s showed a negative correlation between use of marijuana and use of alcohol. A 1993 Rand Corporation study that compared drug use in states that had decriminalized marijuana versus those that had not, found that where marijuana was more available the states that had decriminalized hard drug abuse as measured by emergency room episodes decreased. In short, what science and actual experience tell us is that marijuana tends to substitute for the much more dangerous hard drugs like alcohol, cocaine, and heroin.
<b>SOURCES :</b>
3) The Dutch experience is written up in “The Economics of Legalizing Drugs”, by Richard J. Dennis, The Atlantic Monthly, Vol 266, No. 5, Nov 1990, p. 130. See “A Comparison of Marijuana Users and Non-users” by Norman Zinberg and Andrew Weil (1971) for the negative correlation between use of marijuana and use of alcohol. The 1993 Rand Corporation study is “The Effect of Marijuana Decriminalization on Hospital Emergency Room Episodes: 1975 - 1978” by Karyn E. Model.
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<b>Marijuana Myth #2.</b>
<b>Marijuana is much more dangerous than tobacco. </b>
Smoked marijuana contains about the same amount of carcinogens as does an equivalent amount of tobacco. It should be remembered, however, that a heavy tobacco smoker consumes much more tobacco than a heavy marijuana smoker consumes marijuana. This is because smoked tobacco, with a 90% addiction rate, is the most addictive of all drugs while marijuana is less addictive than caffeine. Two other factors are important. The first is that paraphernalia laws directed against marijuana users make it difficult to smoke safely. These laws make water pipes and bongs, which filter some of the carcinogens out of the smoke, illegal and, hence, unavailable. The second is that, if marijuana were legal, it would be more economical to have cannabis drinks like bhang (a traditional drink in the Middle East) or tea which are totally non-carcinogenic. This is in stark contrast with “smokeless” tobacco products like snuff which can cause cancer of the mouth and throat. When all of these facts are taken together, it can be clearly
seen that the reverse is true: marijuana is much SAFER than tobacco.
<b>References: </b>
5) The 90% figure comes from Health Consequences of Smoking: Nicotine Addiction, Surgeon General's Report, 1988. In Health magazine in an article entitled, “Hooked, Not Hooked” by Deborah Franklin (pp. 39-52), compares the additiveness of various drugs and ranks marijuana below caffeine. For current information on cannabis drinks see Working Men and Ganja: Marijuana Use in Rural Jamaica by M. C. Dreher, Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1982, ISBN 0-89727-025-8. For information on cannabis and actual cancer risk, see Marijuana and Health, ibid.
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<b>Marijuana Myth # 3. </b>
<b>Marijuana “flattens” human brainwaves </b>
This is an out-and-out lie perpetrated by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. A few years ago, they ran a TV ad that purported to show, first, a normal human brainwave, and second, a flat brainwave from a 14-year-old “on marijuana”. When researchers called up the TV networks to complain about this commercial, the Partnership had to pull it from the air. It seems that the Partnership faked the flat “marijuana brainwave”. In reality, marijuana has the effect of slightly INCREASING alpha wave activity. Alpha waves are associated with meditative and relaxed states which are, in turn, often associated with human creativity.
<b>References:</b>
For information about the Partnership ad, see Jack Herer's book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, 1990, p. 74. See also “Hard Sell in the Drug War”, The Nation, March 9, 1992, by Cynthia Cotts, which reveals that the Partnership receives a large percentage of its advertising budget from alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical companies and is thus disposed toward exaggerating the risks of marijuana while downplaying the risks of legal drugs. For information on memory and the alpha brainwave enhancement effect, see “Marijuana, Memory, and Perception”, by R. L. Dornbush, M.D., M. Fink, M.D., and A. M. Freedman, M.D., presented at the 124th annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, May 3-7, 1971.
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<b>FACT SHEET</b>
<b>Marijuana Overdose </b>
No evidence exists that anyone has ever died of a marijuana overdose [61, p. 53 - 54]. Tests performed on mice have shown that the ratio of cannabinoids (the chemicals in marijuana that make you stoned) necessary for overdose to the amount necessary for intoxication is 40,000:1 [1]. For comparison's sake, that ratio for alcohol is generally between 4:1 and 10:1 [61, p. 227-228]. Alcohol overdoses kill about 5,000 yearly [3] but marijuana overdoses kill no one as far as anyone can tell.
<b>Brain Damage </b>
Marijuana is psychoactive because it stimulates certain brain receptors, but it does not produce toxins that kill them [7] (like alcohol), and it does not wear them out as other drugs may [57]. There is no evidence that marijuana use is a cause of brain damage. Studies by Dr. Robert Heath claimed the contrary in experiments on monkeys [4], but Heath's work has been sharply criticized by the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences on three primary counts:
1. its insufficient sample size (only four monkeys),
2. its failure to control experimental bias, and
3. its misidentification of normal monkey brain structure as “damaged” [5].
A far superior experiment by the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) involving 64 rhesus monkeys that were exposed to daily or weekly doses of marijuana smoke for a year found no evidence of structural or neurochemical changes in the brains of rhesus monkeys [6, 58]. Studies performed on actual human populations will confirm these results, even for chronic marijuana users (up to 18 joints per day) after many years of use [8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. In fact, following the publication of two 1977 JAMA studies, the American Medical Association (AMA) officially announced its support for the decriminalization of marijuana.
Contrary to a 1987 television commercial sponsored by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA), marijuana does not “flatten” brain waves either. In the commercial, a normal human brain wave was compared to what was supposedly the (much flatter) brain wave of a 14-year-old high on marijuana. It was actually the brain wave of a coma patient [2]. PDFA lied about the data, and had to pull the commercial off of the air when researchers complained to the television networks [62, p. 74].
In reality, marijuana has the effect of slightly increasing alpha-wave activity. Alpha waves are generally associated with meditative and relaxed states which are, in turn, often associated with human creativity [13].
<b>Memory</b>
Marijuana does impair short-term memory, but only during intoxication. Although the authoritative studies on marijuana use seem to agree that there is no residual impairment following intoxication [5, 6, 13], persistent impairment of short-term memory has been noted in chronic marijuana smokers up to 6 and 12 weeks following abstinence [70].
<b>Cancer </b>
Smoking marijuana has the potential to cause both bronchitis and cancer of the lungs, throat, and neck, but this is generally no different than inhaling any other burnt carbon-containing matter since they all increase the number of lesions (and therefore possible infections) in your airways. There are a couple of studies that claim on the basis of carcinogens that smoking marijuana is worse for your body than smoking a cigarette [44], but these are rather simplified. There are actually some very convincing reasons to believe that smoking cigarettes is relatively more dangerous to the body than smoking marijuana on more than one count: (1) It is accepted by a growing number of scientists today that all American cigarettes contain significant levels of polonium-210 [22], the same sort of radiation given off by the plutonium of atom bombs (ionizing alpha radiation). It just so happens that the tobacco plant's roots and leaves are especially good at absorbing radioactive elements from uranium-containing phosphate fertilizers that are required by U.S. law, and from naturally occurring radiation in the soil, air, and water [48]. It is the opinion of C. Everette Koop that this radioactivity, not tar, accounts for at least 90% of all smoking-related lung cancer [29]. Other estimates that have been made are, about 50% according to Dr. Joseph R. DiFranza of the Univ. of Mass. Medical Center [48] and according to Dr. Edward Martell, a radiochemist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, 95% [35]. Dr. R.T. Ravenholt, former director of World Health Surveys at the Centers for Disease Control, agrees with the risk, asserting that “Americans are exposed to far more radiation from tobacco smoke than from any other source” [49]. Supporting the radioactivity notion is the finding that (a) Relatively high levels of polonium-210 have been found in both cigarette smoke [59] and the lungs of both smokers and nonsmokers alike [60]; (b) Smokers of low-tar-and-nicotine cigarettes die of lung cancer just as much as smokers of other cigarettes [39]; and also, © Even the most potent carcinogen that has been found in cigarettes, benzopyrene, is only present in quantities sufficient to account for about 1% of the lung cancer cases that occur from smoking[49].
<b>Why don't you know any of this? </b>
Because the tobacco industry is suppressing the information. (2) Tobacco smoke is theorized to work as a kind of “magnet” for airborne radioactive particles such as radon, causing them to deposit in your lungs instead of on walls, rugs, or draperies [48]. (3) Tobacco, unlike marijuana, contains nicotine, which may harden arteries and cause many of the cases of heart disease associated with tobacco use. It also breaks down into cancer-promoting chemicals called N Nitrosamines when burned, and perhaps even when it is inside the body [37]. (4) THC is a bronchial dilator, which means it works like a cough drop by opening up your lungs and therefore aiding in the clearance of smoke and dirt. Nicotine has the exact opposite effect. (5) Unlike the chemicals in marijuana, nicotine has a paralyzing effect on the tiny hairs along the body's air passages. These hairs normally work to keep foreign matter out of the lungs. This means that carcinogenic tar from cigarette smoke is relatively much harder to purge from your lungs than is that from marijuana. And finally, (6) Marijuana users smoke significantly less than cigarette smokers do because of both marijuana's psychoactive properties (this is called “auto-titration”) and nicotine's high potential for physical addiction [21]. It is important to note that the NCTR study found no signs of lung cancer in its autopsied rhesus monkeys who had smoked marijuana for one year [6].
Smoking cigarettes and smoking marijuana negatively affect different areas of the body, and therefore cause different problems. But everything considered, marijuana-only smokers who average 3 - 4 joints per day show similar symptoms to cigarette smokers who polish off 20 in a day [74]. Although one well-done study tells us that frequent marijuana smokers have a 19% greater risk of respiratory diseases than people who smoke nothing at all [66], it seems that neck and throat cancers are much more likely to result than lung cancer or emphysema. This is because, unlike tobacco, marijuana does not penetrate deeply into the lung. In order to minimize the risk of acquiring neck or throat cancer from marijuana smoke, it is best to (1) avoid as much as possible cigarette-smoking and heavy drinking while smoking marijuana, and (2) eat plenty of vegetables (such as carrots, broccoli, squash, and sprouts) or vitamin supplements of beta carotene, vitamins A, C and E, and selenium [65]. These are believed to impede cancer's progress.
In addition, there are actually things that can be done to reduce and even entirely eliminate the bodily harm that may potentially result from smoking marijuana. This is possible because all of the principle psychoactive ingredients of marijuana (THC and the cannabinoids) are neither mutagenic (gene-mutating) nor carcinogenic (cancer-causing) [65].
Legalizing marijuana would make (better) water bongs and marijuana foods, drinks, and pills both less expensive and more accessible. Smoking marijuana through a water-filled bong will cool the smoke and there is reason to believe that it will filter some of the carcinogens [69, 36]. Eating or drinking marijuana effectively eliminates all negative effects. In addition, it is conceivable that an aerosol contraption or vaporizer, commonly called a tilt pipe, could easily be constructed that would surpass joints in efficiency, match them in onset and control of effects, and yet would be effectively harmless to the body.
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<b>How can hemp be used as a medicine? </b>
Marijuana has thousands of possible uses in medicine. Marijuana (actually cannabis extract) was available as a medicine legally in this country until 1937, and was sold as a nerve tonic – but mankind has been using cannabis medicines much longer than that. Marijuana appears in almost every known book of medicine written by ancient scholars and wise men. It is usually ranked among the top medicines, called `panaceas', a word which means `cure-all'.
The list of diseases which cannabis can be used for includes: multiple sclerosis, cancer treatment, AIDS (and AIDS treatment), glaucoma, depression, epilepsy, migraine headaches, asthma, pruritis, sclerodoma, severe pain, and dystonia. This list does not even consider the other medicines which can be made out of marijuana – these are just some of the illnesses for which people smoke or eat whole marijuana today.
There are over 60 chemicals in marijuana which may have medical uses. It is relatively easy to extract these into food or beverage, or into some sort of lotion, using butter, fat, oil, or alcohol. One chemical, cannabinol, may be useful to help people who cannot sleep. Another is taken from premature buds and is called cannabidiolic acid. It is a powerful disinfectant. Marijuana dissolved in rubbing alcohol helps people with the skin disease herpes control their sores, and a salve like this was one of the earliest medical uses for cannabis. The leaves were once used in bandages and a relaxing non-psychoactive herbal tea can be made from small cannabis stems.
The most well known use of marijuana today is to control nausea and vomiting. One of the most important things when treating cancer with chemotherapy or when treating AIDS with AZT or Foscavir, being able to eat well, makes the difference between life or death. Patients have found marijuana to be extremely effective in fighting nausea; in fact so many patients use it for this purpose even though it is illegal that they have formed `buyers clubs' to help them find a steady supply. In California, some city governments have decided to look the other way and allow these clubs to operate openly.
Marijuana is also useful for fighting two other very serious and wide-spread disabilities. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness, caused by uncontrollable eye pressure. Marijuana can control the eye pressure and keep glaucoma from causing blindness. Multiple Sclerosis is a disease where the body's immune system attacks nerve cells.
Spasms and many other problems result from this. Marijuana not only helps stop these spasms, but it may also keep multiple sclerosis from getting worse.
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<b>INTERESTING LINKS</b>
<a href="
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/hempfaq1.htm“><b>Frequently Asked Questions about Cannabis Hemp</b></a>
<a href=”
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/LIBRARY/mjfaq1.htm“>Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Marijuana Use.
</a>
<a href=”
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/mjtest1.htm“>Detecting Marijuana Through Urine Testing
</a>
<a href=”
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/mjdriv1.htm">The Interaction Between Alcohol and Marijuana </a>
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