Kaneh Bosm
Bluelighter
Why should we legalize marijuana when we are phasing out tobacco use/marijuana 2nd hand smoke myths
I think anyone who has debated marijuana law reform has been faced with this argument. The opponent says something along the lines that when marijuana is legalized everyone and their grandma is going to be smoking on the streets, in restaurants and parks.
Lets ignore the fact that there is no evidence that the legality of drugs have any significant barring on usage. (See Portugal and Netherlands vs. countries that practice prohibition) They are also ignoring the fact that all the laws that concern tobacco use in public are going to apply to cannabis use. Even though I have some major qualms with these laws, it is better to come from this angle then to get wrapped up in the opponent's red herring.
Then they might say something along the lines that cannabis 2nd hand smoke is going to be more carcinogenic than tobacco, even though there is no evidence of users of cannabis developing tobacco related cancers, so why would non-users develop them?
They might then come from the angle that 2nd hand cannabis use would cause non-users to get high etc. There is no evidence that the "contact high" is anything more than a placebo effect. There have been several studies that have subjects exposed to 2nd hand cannabis smoke in enclosed spaces and they passed the lowest drug test cut-offs. It is this myth that even most on our side get wrapped up in. I have to admit there were times when I thought I was picking up a contact high but the science simply is not there. The term contact high really needs to be eliminated from our vocabulary.
I think anyone who has debated marijuana law reform has been faced with this argument. The opponent says something along the lines that when marijuana is legalized everyone and their grandma is going to be smoking on the streets, in restaurants and parks.
Lets ignore the fact that there is no evidence that the legality of drugs have any significant barring on usage. (See Portugal and Netherlands vs. countries that practice prohibition) They are also ignoring the fact that all the laws that concern tobacco use in public are going to apply to cannabis use. Even though I have some major qualms with these laws, it is better to come from this angle then to get wrapped up in the opponent's red herring.
Then they might say something along the lines that cannabis 2nd hand smoke is going to be more carcinogenic than tobacco, even though there is no evidence of users of cannabis developing tobacco related cancers, so why would non-users develop them?
They might then come from the angle that 2nd hand cannabis use would cause non-users to get high etc. There is no evidence that the "contact high" is anything more than a placebo effect. There have been several studies that have subjects exposed to 2nd hand cannabis smoke in enclosed spaces and they passed the lowest drug test cut-offs. It is this myth that even most on our side get wrapped up in. I have to admit there were times when I thought I was picking up a contact high but the science simply is not there. The term contact high really needs to be eliminated from our vocabulary.
