Medical Pot.

[Terri]

Actually, almost all of them get caught in traffic stops. Alcohol, MJ, and under any influence, whether legal drugs or not. Only a small percentage came through our jail from party busts or other means (stings). This so tickled Mr Sheanie that he once said to me "Well, all they have to do is stay out of cars". Genius.

I just guessed that they eventually wrecked or got pulled over. A few years ago when I first heard the average number of times people would drink and drive before getting caught I was speechless.

IN is getting pretty close to legalizing MJ I believe. It is a great idea to get a license to sell it. I may check into when it gets closer.

 

[DianaCox]

Well, there are stupid people who ride the bus too, but that doesn't mean I think buses should be illegal.

Smarter people who use or want to use pot recreationally are still laying a little low, in terms of public acknowledgement of illegal drug use, and letting the voluble ones who don't mind increasing their risk of stop-and-frisk in order to make change happen take the lead. But they/we will vote for legalization.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

About 37-38 years ago, I had a job in the civilian sector for the first time in a long time. Drugs were fairly openly being bought and sold. I asked a friend who had been a cop 20 years at that time what THAT was all about. He said that he had, a while back, stopped busting people for pot possession as mostly, they just sat under trees at the park and turned Doritos bags into litter.

People shouldn't drive under the influence of ANYTHING, including a LONG list of prescription drugs. In 2011, over 40 million prescriptions for drugs containing the active ingredient in Ambien were written...and tens of millions of those folks drove to work still under the influence the next morning. I think that legalization won't cause MORE DUIs, just the same number of people who are dumb enough to drive under the influence having a wider selection of drugs/booze to choose from.

 

[Sheanie]

I totally agree with you, @Spiky Bugger and @Diana . It's completely legal to be taking prescription drugs and drinking alcohol. It's NOT legal to get behind the wheel. That's how they get caught. Hence Mr Sheanie's hilarious observation that they should just stay out of cars and they'd never get in trouble.

 

[JackieOnLine]

seriously, the thing I worry about most are people who don't/can't sleep driving.

I have a friend who keeps saying she has learned her lesson but she still takes road trips when she is really low on sleep. staying awake is not just a matter of willpower!

 

[southernlady]

seriously, the thing I worry about most are people who don't/can't sleep driving.

I have a friend who keeps saying she has learned her lesson but she still takes road trips when she is really low on sleep. staying awake is not just a matter of willpower!

Not just driving...but would you want a power plant built by someone who has issues sleeping or issues with ANY drug?

Dh IS medically retired from his position building the next generation nuclear power plants for his inability to remember/focus due to head trauma. And he is still VERY careful about what he takes...He retired in 2009 but it wasn't until the last year that I have been able to get him to toss old medicine bottles...he had it ingrained to keep them a minimum of 30 days after he finished something due to random unannounced drug tests. And we avoided poppy seeds due to their tendency to show in screenings as MJ. After a lifetime of not eating them, we don't bother now.

 

[brooklyngirl]

seriously, the thing I worry about most are people who don't/can't sleep driving.

I have a friend who keeps saying she has learned her lesson but she still takes road trips when she is really low on sleep. staying awake is not just a matter of willpower!

Agreed. I don't drive impaired on substances, but I was driving much more dangerously than if I were impaired before I had WLS because of my ridiculously bad sleep apnea. It had gone on for so long that it almost felt normal to not be able to keep my eyes open without massive doses of caffeine, or even WITH massive doses of caffeine. Driving home from work in the afternoons was dangerous on many days, I would often be slapping myself in the face, pinching the hair on my arms, or keeping the windows wide open on the highway during the winter, all to try to keep myself awake when the drowsiness took over. Terrible

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Not just driving...but would you want a power plant built by someone who has issues sleeping or issues with ANY drug?

Dh IS medically retired from his position building the next generation nuclear power plants for his inability to remember/focus due to head trauma. And he is still VERY careful about what he takes...He retired in 2009 but it wasn't until the last year that I have been able to get him to toss old medicine bottles...he had it ingrained to keep them a minimum of 30 days after he finished something due to random unannounced drug tests. And we avoided poppy seeds due to their tendency to show in screenings as MJ. After a lifetime of not eating them, we don't bother now.

My husband and his coworkers were also subject to those random tests...which is why they almost killed the boss who brought poppy seed muffins to a safety meeting...after which a few guys were nabbed for--AND FAILED--their drug tests. What a cluster-****.

 

[DianaCox]

Not just driving...but would you want a power plant built by someone who has issues sleeping or issues with ANY drug?

Dh IS medically retired from his position building the next generation nuclear power plants for his inability to remember/focus due to head trauma. And he is still VERY careful about what he takes...He retired in 2009 but it wasn't until the last year that I have been able to get him to toss old medicine bottles...he had it ingrained to keep them a minimum of 30 days after he finished something due to random unannounced drug tests. And we avoided poppy seeds due to their tendency to show in screenings as MJ. After a lifetime of not eating them, we don't bother now.

I believe poppy seeds show up as opiate metabolites, not MJ.

 

[Sheanie]

I believe poppy seeds show up as opiate metabolites, not MJ.

Why yes, that's exactly what poppy seeds show up as. Opiates. We had buccal cheek swab tests that could detect that, and 6 other drugs. Reserved for those who "couldn't pee" for the cheaper tests, which revealed 10 drugs.

At the debate, I so badly wanted to stand up and ask Dr Bob this pointed question: "You are air lifted to a neuro-specialist teaching hospital after a traumatic head injury. You must make the choice between two equally qualified surgeons. The only difference between them is one smokes MJ several times daily for recreational purposes, the other does no drugs. Who would you choose?" I'm pretty confident I know Dr Bob would SAY he would choose the MJ surgeon, and why. Because Dr Bob is full of ****.

 

[southernlady]

I sit corrected...but I KNEW it was on the short list of foods he shouldn't eat.

 

[JackieOnLine]

LOL@ "sit" corrected.

long as we are talking about impaired driving - I see a lot of folks who should not be driving because of the beginnings of dementia. sometimes there isn't a clear line...sometimes they are way past it.

 

[southernlady]

LOL@ "sit" corrected.

long as we are talking about impaired driving - I see a lot of folks who should not be driving because of the beginnings of dementia. sometimes there isn't a clear line...sometimes they are way past it.

AMEN!

And it's usually stand corrected...but I wasn't standing.

 

[HazelsGrandMommy]

In my personal experience working with offenders, it's absolutely a gateway drug. Most of the ones I came into contact with definitely had learning disabilities, couldn't read or write, never graduated. They self-medicate with whatever they can get. The MMC (Medical Marijuana Card) for these people is awful. It has it's place, but those I saw who truly needed MM didn't smoke it, they ate it to keep a better therapeutic blood level. Smoking it exacerbates COPD, asthma, and also puts it into the surrounding air for other people to second-hand inhale. Today's pot has a very high potency, it's nothing like the stuff of the 70's and 80's for sure. I've learned things about pot I never wanted to know working with offenders.

In response, I really believe that if we were able to get the low THC plants that did Not get us high, .... Using the high CBD plants we could HEAL an amazing amount of pain and other conditions. It so depends on the plant type. I would go anywhere to find that kind of plant. I was a pedestrian hit by a car in 2007 and the pain every day is HELL. So, if you hear of a place for low THC, high cannabanoids, Sign me up!

 

[DianaCox]

At the debate, I so badly wanted to stand up and ask Dr Bob this pointed question: "You are air lifted to a neuro-specialist teaching hospital after a traumatic head injury. You must make the choice between two equally qualified surgeons. The only difference between them is one smokes MJ several times daily for recreational purposes, the other does no drugs. Who would you choose?"

This is a false dichotomy. "Smoking MJ several times a day for recreational purposes" is not the opposite of does no drugs. A surgeon who uses for "recreational purposes" is not going to be smoking "several times a day." Someone who uses recreationally may use it once or twice a month, or possibly to go to sleep when not on-call. Substitute "opiate pain meds" or "alcohol" being used recreatioinally for MJ in your false hypothetical, and you will see that.

I'm very against kids being given access to pot before age 21, frankly. I have two mid-50s brothers with IQs in the high 160s who never went to college, never married, never had kids, live with each other in the sketchy old Volvo repair shop they rent for their joint business which does not make enough money for them to have health care, dental care, proper food, decent cars, vacations - OR EVEN AN APARTMENT to live in - because they were allowed to smoke pot in their early teens. And I'm not sure even some 21 year olds - especially boys - have sufficient brain development to handle it responsibly.

But full-fledged adults? It's none of your business whether I smoke recreationally or not. If I smoke IRRESPONSIBLY and when I am supposed to be performing my job to the extent that it affects my performance - well, then, just like if I were a practicing alcoholic, that's where intervention is necessary. But the rest of the spectrum? Paws off, unless you are proposing Prohibition again for the equivalent harm cause by "irresponsible" recreational use of alcohol. MJ use is nunnayabizniss.