Medical Marijuana is such a stupid topic.

[Utah]

There is no debate when it comes to medical marijuana. How can we be ok with narcotics, including morphine, and not be ok with marijuana? 

It’s stupid. It’s old, white guys “who know best” trying to control things. 

When it comes to medical marijuana, hell, marijuana, use your brain.

There is no intellignet argument against medical marijuana. 

[CawCawUte]

Wonderful.  Let’s go get high.

[Utah]

Totally off topic and completely irrelevant to my post, thereby proving my point. 

BUT,

even so, who cares? I can get alcohol and smokes from the gas station. I can get pain killers from just about doc. Why do we care so much about marijuana? 

Jesus? What other reason is there other than fear? 

[CawCawUte]

Honestly… I could care less if medical marijuan is passed or not.  If it helps then I am all for it.  If not then I believe there are alternatives.  Candidly, it is legal in Utah in some variant.  My FIL was prescribed it in his nursing home to help with appetite of all things – all it did was bake him and make him delirious.  Regardless, as with narcodics, it would simply become WAY over prescribed.  Take Cali… Before it was legal you could walk down any street in San Francisco and see someone leaning against a building and smoking cabbage – medically approved of course.  The odor of refer was thick everywhere I went.

 

Candidly, I don’t want to see weed legalized.  We don’t need more drugs disaffecting folks and it has nothing to do with religiosity (protestant myself).  

[zeous]

 Jesus? What other reason is there other than fear? 

I don’t think he’s registered on UH yet.  But maybe you believe he listens to you no matter where you post.  Not that there’s anything wrong with it.

[ryynoo]

Pharmaceutical companies don’t make any money from it. Thus….

[IrieUte]

Even though Im drug free these days. (not even an ibuprofen 5 hours into a headche, or a nyquil or sudafed 6 days into a flu) It should be legalized. Even the male non psycoactive plants have many uses yet are illeagal. How many “supplements” do you take in any given year? I can count with my 5 fingers how many I had the entire last year.

[Tony (admin)]

I think its mostly a case of moral or religious beliefs which don’t do much more than make your old white guy “feel good.”

[Utah]

I agree, which is not a good reason. Religion just got over being scared of smart women and black guys. 

Maybe religion isn’t the best place to get your morals about social issues from. 

[CawCawUte]

I am looking forward to a good drink tonight – got no compuction with an adult being an adult.  I am happy by the fact that legislation will remove the “zion curtain” here in Utah (how embarrassing was that anyway).  Regardless, I would prefer to see tightening of drug prescriptions not more liberalization of the same.  Again, if you are suffering from cancer (or any other significant malady) and dope makes you feel less nauseated, less anxious, whatever then by all means it should be made available.  HOWEVER, let’s not pretend that some docs won’t prescribe it because someone sprained their toe (or some other non necessary reason).  JMO.

[Utah]

I don’t disagree with anything you said. 

I also don’t think marijuana should be illegal in any form. How can alcohol and tobacco be ok and not marijuana? Doesn’t make any sense. I’ve lived in Washington and Oregon when it was decriminalized and made legal and there was no change to any part of my life. 

How many lives have been ruined over marijuana? How many prisons could we close if we let all the marijuana offenders out? Why can one drink all night long, but if he lights up a joint, he gets sent to prison? Makes no sense. 

Back to the legalization of marijuana, there was one change. Every elders quorum meeting turned into a debate over whether or not it was ok to smoke dope. The young guys didn’t see anything wrong with it, the old guys thought they were going to hell. Quite funny. 

 

[KiYi-Ute]

How many prisons could we close if we let all the marijuana offenders out?

That may be part of the problem right there. Entities (in this case, the private prison system) stand to lose a lot of money if we’re not locking people up over petty drug charges anymore. Police stand to lose money if we throttle back on this ridiculous War on Drugs (that’s working SO well, by the way).

As with most issues, I think it ultimately comes down to one thing: the almighty dollar.

As someone who used to use it recreationally, but not anymore, I’d still like to see it legalized.

[AZswayze]

Obama was a supreme disappointment in this regard. I was thrilled when he put an end to private prisons, but I have no doubt that they’ll see a resurgence under Trump. The war on drugs is a catastrophe, and Obama largely ignored it. Now, there’s no end in sight.

[Puget Ute]

No kidding. He should have at least forced the DEA to reclassify it lower than Schedule 1. It would have been even better to give the FDA jurisdiction to regulate it. The DEA regulates it but also directly profits from enforcement (by confiscating cash at crime scenes).

[jamarcus24]

But I was always told weed makes you do crazy things and dulls your inhibitions.

[Utah]

It makes you want to beat your family, drive your car into humans, have sex with unclean people and you will end up derelict on the streets. 

[jamarcus24]

On any given day any two out of those four side effects don’t seem half bad.

[mesovanhorny]

weed good

[Eggers]

If we’re okay with prescribing narcotics like morphine, which come with significant risks and side effects, then marijuana, with its well-documented benefits for things like pain relief and anxiety, should be a no-brainer.

[Central Coast Ute]

One symptom of marijuana use is anxiety. I always love it when people say they need it for anxiety. I remember smoking it as a teenager and being super paranoid while high.

[SkinyUte]

I was talking with Mrs. SkinyUte about this the other day. We have three kids, ages 15 and 11 (twins). As they get older and consider partaking in something, I would prefer that they smoke weed over drinking and (obviously) any sort of harder drugs. 100 out of 100 times, weed would be the far better choice.

I would, of course, prefer that they don’t indulge of any of the above. But if they’re like 75%+ of kids who do try something, weed certainly seems like the lesser evil. I think back on all the insanely dangerous things we did as underage drinkers, and it’s a miracle that we’re even still alive.

[TheNuschler]

^^^^

IMO experience (and I’ve had a ton at this), alcohol is a complete disaster and can quickly overtake your day-to-day life. As I’ve grown older I’ve tried to maintain my active lifestyle, last check-up with blood work my doctor asks “I see you drink a lot, your counts show it. You’re going to want to cut waaay back if you want to keep playing sports, riding the road bike and functioning into your 70s, or you can have a stroke if you want.” I’ll admit, wfh + covid got to me. So I cut it out about 8 months ago. Productivity, test results since, activity levels all shot back up to my early 30’s. I’m mid 50s, look and feel better while doing everything I did at 30, like great sleep, stronger physically and mentally. Glad I realized it and took steps to cut it out. I admit, I miss a glass of High West on a Friday evening and it was difficult at first not to drink during football season. It is/was really worth it to me to be more engaged socially and with my adult sons (both do not drink but partake). I do use marijuana but not on a regular daily basis. I have some for sleep if needed (I don’t now that I’m booze free) and small doses for Red Butte or State Room shows. Just enough to feel a good vibe and not wreck a del taco drive through at 12:30 am. It works for me and booze is not the first thing I think of during a game or after work anymore.

Also, I think there is a real tax loss states lose out on this. It’s like the lotto, why send Utah’s lost tax revenue to Wyoming or Idaho? You can better regulate and control it on top of that. It’s not a mystery of what you are getting and it can be very specific and safe for a person’s need. Just my opinion, I’ve just seen alcohol ruin way more lives than people that choose to partake in weed.

[Stone]

It is not just a old white religious guy thing. There are credible arguments to restrict it that have nothing to do with one’s skin pigmentation, age, or religion.

Anecdotally, I have seen it mess up multiple people. But I have seen it do nothing negative to others. My point is there are definitely potential negative consequences to it. And not just to the user, society bears the burden of people who’s lives get messed up by substance abuse.

That said, like other drugs with side effects, I am mostly fine with using all substances for a beneficial medical purpose – but I would propose making it an actual medical use, as in, one gets a legitimate prescription and gets it from a legitimate pharmacy. Make it akin to other pain killers. Not from the local weed shop with a note from an online doctor.

Also, nobody is going to prison for smoking or possessing weed. It just is not happening.

[SkinyUte]

Also, nobody is going to prison for smoking or possessing weed. It just is not happening.

Might not be getting imprisoned, but there are certainly lots and lots getting arrested. (around 170,000 in 2021 alone).

[The Miami Ute]

This article from Johns Hopkins takes into account both sides of the issue:

The Evidence—and Lack Thereof—About Cannabis

Some summary points:

1. Does cannabis have viable medicinal uses?

The evidence is mixed at this point. There hasn’t been a lot of funding going into testing cannabis in a rigorous way. There is more evidence for certain indications than for others, like CBD for seizures—one of the first indications that cannabis was approved for. And THC has been used effectively for things like nausea and appetite for people with cancer.

There are other indications where the evidence is a lot more mixed. For example, pain—one of the main reasons that people report for using cannabis. When we talk to patients, they say cannabis improved their quality of life. In the big studies that have been done so far, there are some indications from animal models that cannabis might help [with pain]. When we look at human studies, it’s very much a mixed bag.

2. What do we know about the risks of marijuana use?

Cannabis use disorder is a legitimate disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). There are, unfortunately, a lot of people who develop a problematic use of cannabis. We know there are risks for mental health consequences. The evidence is probably the strongest that if you have a family history of psychosis or schizophrenia, using cannabis early in adolescence is not the best idea. We know cannabis can trigger psychotic symptoms and potentially longer lasting problems with psychosis and schizophrenia.

3. What big questions about cannabis would you most like to see answered?

We know there are certain, most-often-mentioned conditions that people are already using medical cannabis for: pain, insomnia, anxiety, and PTSD. We really need to improve the evidence base for those. I think clinical trials for different cannabis products for those conditions are warranted.

4. Are there studies looking into the risks you mentioned?

Large national studies are done every year or every other year to collect data, so we already have a pretty good sense of the prevalence of cannabis use disorder. Obviously, we’ll keep tracking that to see if those numbers increase, for example, in states that are legalizing. But, you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see an uptick in cannabis use disorder a month after legalization.

[pedro]

Has nothing to do with morals, beliefs, etc..

It’s 100% about big pharma. Do the research. Pharma couldn’t make money off of it and planted these ideas (morals) into our minds. It’s similar to the concept that fat is bad for you. We all still believe that even though research suggest otherwise.

[PNWUte29]

Yup. We give it to cancer patients as a lot of the chemo drugs will decrease appetite. It also helps with nausea and vomiting due to those chemo meds. We prescribe a drug called Marinol…which is essentially “man made cannabis.”

I personally have no issue with either recreational marijuana and medical marijuana. As with everything on the market, moderation is key.

You can purchase alcohol which is by far more damaging than weed both physically and on the community.

I want more research funds allocated towards studying weed as well but I do not think it’s the evil drug a lot of us were led to believe.

[Crow]

I use it for my broken back and it works excellent

[chinngiskhaan]

I have an uncle that has been a bishop multiple times, he uses it for his horrible back and it helps him big time. There has never been any question of his worthiness to hold church callings or anything of the sort

My opinion rant: Medical marijuana is perfectly fine. Legalization of recreational marijuana is a bad idea. Why is recreatinal marijuana legalization a bad idea? If you’ve lived in a place where it is legal, you know how pervasive it can be. I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE the smell of marijuana. That is my ONE and ONLY reason for not wanting legalization of recreational use of marijuana. Are there other valid reasons? Sure… but I don’t care about those. I just HATE the smell.

Have you ever been on a bus when someone who just finished lighting up climbs aboard? The entire bus stinks like a damn skunk, and stays that way for quite some time even after they get off the bus. I don’t want to hear this, “only some marijuana smells bad” bulls**t. There is bad smelling marijuana, and there is unspeakably awful smelling marijuana, there is no such thing as good smelling marijuana.

if you are going to smoke marijuana and not shower and wash your clothes afterward, you WILL smell like a skunk all day, and people will look down on you as a result, and it is deserved.

[Holladay Ute]

I’m not an expert on this subject, and I don’t even disagree w/ you. But is this a political forum now or a place for fans of college athletics?

[chinngiskhaan]

tbf, he posted this under a category that would permit this sort of discussion. Just sayin’

[Holladay Ute]

Maybe everyone on here is totally happy to share perspectives on hot button political topics through the misc. category. I’m not speaking for everyone else on the website and I’m not the administrator. I’m just saying that for me personally, I don’t come onto this website for that. I just want to come on here to interact w/ a community of Utah fans about Utah Athletics and only Utah Athletics. The name of the website is UteHub. In the “About” section of the website, it pretty clearly states what this website was intended to be. There are a million other places online that any of us could go to discuss and debate hot button political topics. Maybe I just need to become a UteZone subscriber.

[Author]

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