Was mad in septembers gone by

Some happy tokers in Pearse Street station chilling in front if an afternoon’s rugby then…

heroin comes from a plant, should we legalise that?

Comes from a plant.. Isn’y a plant..

Not for me to say, I’m not educated on that. Cannabis use has little to no health problems. Obviously there are cases of paranoia etc etc… I think people can put whatever they like in their bodies. In an ideal world health care should be free, except on occasions were drug use or any other self inflicted problem is the cause. If the user knows this, I see no problem in drug use unless it is forced on people by criminals.

Little or no health problems???? Well there is an educated statement if ever there was one

Well said Edwina. You look cute by the way…

Get a room you two.
And bring a bong with ya..

@Edmund, yes and what’s more, crazy as it may sound, we should even think about making it free!

We already pay a huge price for heroin. The cost of street heroin is about three hundred times the cost of pure medical stuff. That price difference goes to criminal dealers but that’s only one part of the drug economy. We have given them a monopoly and by their nature they exploit it and sell it to anyone who wants it.
Drug users fund their purchases through crime including burglary, shoplifting, grabbing smartphones and handbags from people on the street, cafe, pub or public transport etc.
Stolen property loses a lot of value,so a stolen TV or iPhone isn’t going to get a user €300 worth of drugs, so they must steal even more. More criminals act as middlemen here taking the difference in value as profit.
Higher crime rates mean higher insurance premiums for all of us.
The fear of crime discourages people from visiting, shopping and socialising in the city centres, further costs to the wider economy.
And how much does it cost to lock someone up?

Don’t get me wrong, heroin is a filthy disgusting drug that rots people but most of the problems come from the wider drug economy. If people are already using let them have it for free, it would be cheaper than the price we already pay.

Perhaps because it is not a harmful drug? However, you try and explain this FACT to people and they shoot you down with the taboo they were fed all their lives from the media.

Cannabis use is linked to psychosis. Psychiatric services are stretched. Just saying.

Cannabis is very loosely linked to psychosis, there hasn’t been a definite link found. There has been a definite link found between alcohol and psychosis.

I think it’s legal in Oregon.
I think legalising a drug sends out the message that it’s harmless.
It’s a harmful drug. Some people are are antipsychotic drugs for the rest of their lives as a direct result of taking cannabis. Some people are locked away in psychiatric wards for years. A lot of people get delusional and paranoid after taking not much cannabis. The effects can be permanent.

It’s not legal in Oregon, it didn’t pass this time but Colorado and Washington State did.
Keeping alcohol and tobacco legal and the safer alternatives illegal sends the wrong message, it tells our young people directly alcohol and cigarettes are grand every once in a while, when 99% of young people try cannabis and they don’t experience psychosis how can you expect them to believe the other messages about other illegal drugs, every 7 hours someone in Ireland dies from an alcohol related disease, cannabis has no recorded deaths associated to it in ten thousand years of use, any switch over to a safer drug instead of alcohol would be of net benefit to society and the individual consumer. By keeping it illegal you are exposing kids to drug dealers with harder drugs for sale, contaminated product and debt.

Another word you could use instead of paranoia is hyper sensitivity, very useful when being creative, problem solving, meditation, relaxation, listening to music, having sex etc. etc.

I think “the public” might be a bit of a stretch. I wouldn’t read too much into the views of de Jurnul “readers”. As a group, they tend to have limitations which make them statistically unreliable, to say the least. Would be good for a laugh though.

There was one in November, only 10% of journal readers said no.., As usual the people are far ahead of the government! See: http://www.thejournal.ie/poll-should-ireland-move-to-legalise-marijuana-664591-Nov2012/

Legalise, I used to smoke it, in fact I used to love it! But I grew up and got on with my life. I would really really love to know what your profession is. Lets play a game! I’m going to put money on now with people that you have a BA or nothing. Come on help me out I’m getting massive odds!

Actually I have a degree in computer science, But I don’t see how that is relevant?

I thought you’re the stereotypical but fair enough

Dont forget big Pharm! Who wants a non toxic pain killer that cannot be copywrited when you can get overpriced pain killers that will destroy your kidneys over time? Right?

Really? Do you think that the criminals will give up that easily?

The criminals will turn into businessmen over night.

If it was sold legally at fair prices they would have no choice. When I say criminals, I mean the people using cannabis to fund other operations such as harder drugs, prostitution, guns etc… They can make alot of money from selling cannabis then use this money to fund their other operations. Cut of this form of funding and they are left unable to fund it. And as for saying they will turn into businessmen over night, if the sector was regulated correctly it would insure that the market was controlled by the right people. As long as they don’t want to use their profits from cannabis to fund illegal operations, let them become businessmen!

Ryan, your right, they will. One day a criminal the next a legitimate businessman. Right?

In twenty years time people will look back on the the whole criminalisation of cannabis for what it really is, state endorsed torture. Make no mistake, denying life saving medicines to patients is regarded as a crime against humanity under international treaty – torture which can only continue as long as governments can keep pretending that cannabis has no medicinal qualities. In twenty years time people will regard this legal abomination in the same light as the Magdalene scandal is viewed today……….

Mici, are you Ming by any chance?

Yeah, Prof., because there’s only the one pro-weed advocate in Ireland.

I think that you are being naïve about the criminal underworld.

Sorry Declan if my knowledge of the criminal underworld is limited to reading Howard marks, MrNice and underworld to the east. That’s as close as I’v got.

Mici, i bet they said the same thing in the sixties. Poo poo

I’m not against the legalisation of cannabis but ‘state endorsed torture’, ‘denying life saving medicines’, ‘crime against humanity’……OTT lingo to say the least

Declan I think you’re the one being naïve. You don’t see much illegal alcohol or caffeine dealing because those are taxed and sold at a reasonable price making it not worth a criminal supplier’s time dealing in it. Cigarettes are taxed to the hilt but you can get them if you walk along many streets or if you know who to talk to, however most people still buy their cigs legally. Selling cannabis would work in much the same way: tax it lightly and completely obliterate the dealers’ market, or tax the sh!te out of it and only take away almost all of their market.

It may be OTT lingo while you are in good health, tmwtbc – but this attitude will change with the onset of an acute illness which cannabis can help alleviate – then torture becomes a very apt description. Here’s a little link that will bring you up to speed on where science stands in relation to the medicinal benefits of cannabis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDsnh9iXTKU

@Mici – no need to bring me up to speed. I’m well aware of the benefits of cannabis use to alleviate the symptoms of certain conditions. I understand your point, just that your struck me as a bit extreme. That is all.

*your language

From seeing a lot of these articles I can safely say the estimate that they say they are worth is far above the actual value of the plants. They forget about plants dying, reduced prices for bulk sales and most of all they forget that its only the bud that is sold, most of them plants will be useless, and not worth anything unless they are properly maintained and matured into budding. As they said in “The Guard” – “I don’t know what street you buy your drugs on but its not the same one I buy mine on”

Is 130k that significant? 1.3 million and that would be a haul but with the frequency of these busts it seems to me it’s all small fry stuff. Would the criminals sacrifice 130k on a small operation to have their big million € operation go unnoticed.

@Ryan, In the scheme of things 130k is nothing. especially when the figure is probably closer to 65k then 130k. In saying that having a million euro grow house would be extremely difficult to go unnoticed with today’s technology. It is more likely for them to have ten 100k grow houses in separate locations then a big one million euro one.

Ok that makes sense I suppose.

C’mon Patrick, I though you were cool man.

How about we start prohibiting alcohol? Does more damage than cannabis. You have your choice of drug I have mine.

The prohibition of any substance creates crime, lowers standard of living and ruins lives.

You’re dead right about it making criminals rich John, they’re making an absolute fortune from it, selling it to whoever comes their way, at least if it was legalised the government could put measures in place to reduce it’s harm, underage cannabis use is a problem that needs to be tackled.

Adult consumtion of cannabis is realatively safe and has been scientifically proven to be much safer & less harful than alcohol – http://www.saferchoice.org/content/view/24/53/