Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol ?

shadowcat
Atlanta suburb
CARSON CITY — A Las Vegas woman serving 18 to 48 years in prison for killing six teenagers in a car crash in 2000 could be close to release following a ruling issued Thursday by the Nevada Supreme Court.
Jessica Williams was found guilty in February 2001 of six counts of felony driving with a prohibited substance in her blood. The former Las Vegas stripper has been incarcerated since 2000 for killing the teenagers, who were working on a road cleanup crew in the median of Interstate 15.
But in an appeal brought by her attorney John Glenn Watkins, a three-justice panel of the court ruled that “good time” credits earned in prison apply to minimum sentences, not just the maximum.
The decision interpreting the intent of the Nevada Legislature means the credits can apply before a prisoner serves the minimum term needed to be parole eligible.
“It will help her tremendously,” Watkins said.
The decision reversed a lower court finding that prisoners need to serve the minimum time sentenced before becoming eligible for parole. It will also apply to the many other prisoners who are similarly situated, Watkins said.
Williams is serving time on the fifth of the six sentences, having been paroled from the first four. She is serving as a trustee at the Casa Grande Transitional Housing facility in Las Vegas.
Williams acknowledged smoking marijuana two hours prior to the incident, but said she was not impaired and had fallen asleep behind the wheel of her Ford van.

31 comments

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NinaBambina
7 years ago
Marijuana is undoubtedly less harmful than alcohol. Alcohol withdrawal can kill people; marijuana is virtually not physically addictive. No one has EVER died due to direct use of marijuana. The same certainly cannot be said about alcohol, which is one of THE most dangerous substances/drugs out there. Marijuana and alcohol are not comparable. More contrast than similarity.
JohnSmith69
7 years ago
I could list all of the multitude of reasons that weed is far safer than alcohol, but I don't want to see the response that would prompt from the sleepy time rapist.
theDirkDiggler
7 years ago
I don't know if anyone has never died from marijuana. You have to factor allergic reactions (people have died from allergic reactions to much healthier things than marijuana), preexisting conditions like heart disease or asthma where users may have gotten a heart attack or suffocated (particularly with a vaporizer). Kids (very few but still) have been reported to visit the ER for accidental "overdose" even needing intensive care, so death could have been possible even if the actual cause of death may have not been intoxication. Heavy long term use can also cause cancer and lung and heart problems although i'd be more concerned about the brain as well as increased risk of stroke. And there's psychological addiction as well as the overmentioned lack of ambition it creates and the most relevant point from the OP, the terrible decisions resulting from use. Children have died from negligence of pothead parents. I would say it's hardly harmless.
NinaBambina
7 years ago
Thediekdiggler, by that logic let's ban Benadryl too.

At any rate, no one has ever died via marijuana overdose. So there's that. Do some research before you assume.

Plenty of people, on the other hand, have "overdosed" from alcohol (ie alcohol poisoning). So please continue to compare alcohol's dangers to marijuana's.

georgmicrodong
7 years ago
THC is less harmful than alcohol. Smoking weed, with all the toxins, is probably on par with smoking cigarettes.
Cashman1234
7 years ago
I think this is an example of a drug that has been illegal for many years, and there isn't a great amount of evidence as to why it should remain illegal. The only reason it continues to remain illegal (in most of this country) is because the lawmakers don't want to change.

It should be legal and it should be regulated. I'm sure that the more it is used, the more benefits we will find to come from it.

By contrast, there are very few benefits that come from alcohol.
Jascoi
7 years ago
there aint butt two benefits from booze. the buzz and sometimes lowered inhibitions.
NinaBambina
7 years ago
"THC is less harmful than alcohol. Smoking weed, with all the toxins, is probably on par with smoking cigarettes."

Except the average cigarette smoker probably smokes more cigs a day than a marijuana smoker smokes blunts or joints. So there's that. Plus THC is the active ingredient in marijuana, the ingredient which gets one high, and doesn't have to necessarily be rolled into a joint or blunt. It can be vaporized and even eaten, like I'm the form of brownies, cookies, suckers, etc thus removing the carcinogenic effects found in, say, a blunt (or "cigarillo").
shadowcat
7 years ago
I guess those 6 teenagers that died would disagree that it is less harmful.
georgmicrodong
7 years ago
@Nina, that's why I differentiated between THC itself and smoking.
georgmicrodong
7 years ago
And the number of tobacco cigarettes versus weed ones isn't really relevant when discussion the relative danger between tobacco and weed; you need to compare like amounts.

Now, when discussing statistical end results, numbers are absolutely relevant.
Mate27
7 years ago
Lmfao at JS69 comment about the "sleepy time rapist"!
DoctorPhil
7 years ago
@shadowcat “I guess those 6 teenagers that died would disagree that it is less harmful.”

careful there big guy or js69 and nina are going to start calling you names for being a buzzkill. that stupid bitch should never get out of prison and the lawyer representing the murdering whore should get his own cell
WetWilly
7 years ago
This will become a far bigger issue than many of us currently imagine.

A big part of safe driving is quick response times.
Clear thinking is vital for safe driving.
Pot significantly slows response time.
26 of our 50 states now allow an adult to purchase pot for either recreational or medicinal use
Field tests are not currently available for pot, and they certainly don't offer a meaningful answer to whether the driver is impaired with a hair sample taken to a lab. This lab test shows only content, not a meaningful number.

We have a growing problem which is being ignored.....for a while.....125-150 million American adults have some form of access to pot, and to their cars.
NinaBambina
7 years ago
"I guess those 6 teenagers that died would disagree that it is less harmful."

I don't think they have the ability to disagree or agree... They're dead...

Again, a driver who's taken a Benadryl could easily be sleepy and/or impaired just as much as marijuana would make a person. Should we outlaw benadryl as while, and shame anyone who uses it? Same could be said for Dramamine. Let's outlaw that too, big government lover. While we're at it, since no one has died from direct marijuana use but thousands annually die from meds like aspirin and Tylenol, let's take those off the market. Along with any a sleeping pills. Let's pull all pills whatsoever from all shelves. Every pill must go. Does that sound reasonable? No. It does not, but by your logic, that MUST be done.

Any marijuana related death is INCIDENTAL. It is not caused directly by marijuana. The same cannot be said for alcohol or even Tylenol. Why don't you go start a thread about the dangers of headache medicines.
flagooner
7 years ago
The argument about the illegality of marijuana almost always boils down to a comparison with alcohol. Since alcohol is legal, pot should be too. If alcohol had never been a legal substance with such popularity within the white American population it would have the same stigma and difficulty getting legalized too. They should both be illegal, but as prohibition proved, you can't go back once it becomes ingrained in the culture.
jester214
7 years ago
Part of the problem, despite what your wannabe weed experts say, is there hasn't been nearly enough research into marijuana. Regulation and the stigma surrounding it has prevented legitimate research institutions from being able/wanting to do it.

Personally I feel the marijuana vs alcohol debate is silly, there's too many different factors to account for. I know from experience I can get just as fucked up with either one.
NinaBambina
7 years ago
Actually there has been plenty of research on marijuana throughout the last century or so. One relatively recent study, conducted by Harvard University medical researchers, shows marijuana/THC actually shrinking cancerous cells in the lungs of those with lung cancer.

Marijuana is life saving. It helps those with cachexia ("wasting syndrome"), thus saves the lives of those with AIDS or cancer patients undergoing chemo. It is literally life saving for those in those groups. It is a maricld substance. The fact that people want to compare it to somerhing so deadly as alcohol WOULD be laughable if it weren't so disheartening. People who think marijuana is "dangerous" are out of touch with reality pertaining to drugs (including alcohol), and I implore you to do research. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, and a GABA receptor agonist, and an extremely toxic substance. Those same attributes cannot all be said the same for marijuana. If you research it, you'll know what I'm talking about; if not, you're being willfully ignorant.
NinaBambina
7 years ago
^^^sorry for those typos.
flagooner
7 years ago
"People who think marijuana is "dangerous" are out of touch with reality ..."

Are you seriously going to argue that a parent provides the same level of attention/oversight to their kids when high?
Do you not consider that behavior to be dangerous to the child?

To paraphrase Dan Ackroyd...
Nina, you ignorant slut!
NinaBambina
7 years ago
Lol flagooner. Yeah I'm an ignorant slut because I know more about marijuana than you from both a personal and academic perspective. I presume you know nothing about weed, if you did you'd know what I said is the truth. Instead you quote one little piece of my paragraph, without its surrounding contexts, and attempt to argue with me about a substance that I know about far more accurately than you. I'm an ignorant slur? Wow. What a winning phrase you came up with (oops I forgot, you can't even make THAT up all by yourself, big boy). You're an ignorant miserable old man. How's that for accuracy? Plus, didn't you make a cry for help, attention whore thread about going on a hiatus (even that word you mispelled). Gee, that didn't last long!

OP is comparing the dangers of weed vs alcohol... I promise you, that's not something you want to go toe to toe with me on. I'm clearly more learned on the subject than you. Go down a gallon of vodka then report your results... Oh wait, never mind. You'd be in the hospital with alcohol poisoning fighting for your life by then, if not dead already.

Weed is something I'm not ignorant about. Try something else when you get back from another one of your extremely short haituses. Idiot.
DoctorPhil
7 years ago
^^^^ lmfao. nina, aka comrade STASI, has yet another melt down. it must be a day that ends in Y
flagooner
7 years ago
LOL, too easy to bait.
DoctorPhil
7 years ago
in addition to being dumb she always seems so hormonal. i guess mary jane must not do anything for a visit from aunt flo
flagooner
7 years ago
Okay, I wasn't able to respond right away, had to put meat on the grill. Now dinner is over.

1. I guess it did serve as a bit of an attention grab when I said I was going on a couple days "hiaitus". I will acknowledge when I'm in the wrong. BTW, we'll done in reading that someone else recognized I spelled something wrong.

2. You are also correct that you have more knowledge about marijuana than I do. I'm embarrassed to say that I try to cope with life without the need to chemically alter my state of mind. I guess I'm just not cool. And, yes, I mean in the Fonzie cool kinda way.

3. "Nina you ignorant slut" may not be original, I did attribute it to the original. But I'd rather speak the truth than worry about originality.

4. My original premise was that an argument based on a comparison to alcohol is a strawman argument. It can just as easily be used to argue that alcohol should be illegal.

5. Finally, I opt to spend my time doing things other than research the benefits of marijuana in an effort to rationalize my need to get high because I am unable to deal with real life in any other way.
flagooner
7 years ago
"Try something else when you get back from another one of your extremely short haituses. Idiot."

LOL. After pointing out that I spelled hiatus wrong, so did you.
Who is the idiot?
NinaBambina
7 years ago
1. No, I just also notice you spelled it wrong. English is a strong point of mine.

2. I don't "have" to smoke weed, I choose to. I don't tell junkies or crackheads how they feel when they do heroin or crack, so if you don't smoke weed please don't presume to tell me how it feels. Dumbass.

3. No, you'd rather speak on false assumptions because you don't value validity.

4. So you think the government should outlaw not just weed, but alcohol too? So in other words you value huge government control over our choices. Nice!

5. I don't care what you do to alter your mind. Marijuana isn't just some hippy trippy mind fry you ignorant ass wad. It has a plethora of health and life saving benefits, without the horrible addictive qualities of other "mind altering" pharmaceuticals. It's life saving and kinda immeasurably less toxic than pharma pills that treat the same thing.

6*** bonus --- I spelled it wrong you dumbass. I tried to spell it the way you did it but I didn't even have low enough IQ to add the extra vowels that I now realize you did. My bad for failing at being as dumb as you are.
NinaBambina
7 years ago
****7. Meant that I tried to spell it wrong on purpose but couldn't even purposely be as dumb as you are. That's sad for you. As from other posts, I've known how to spell hiatus; you do not.

Oh and for your white knight doctorphil,
"she always seems so hormonal"
Well I am a human and my body does produce hormones; I have a healthy pituatiry gland as far as I know, and my reproductive organs work perfectly. So yes, I produce hormones. Do you not??? I mean, shouldn't you be producing hormones as well? Do you not have any testosterone?



flagooner
7 years ago
Webster's new definition of hormones:

The sounds Nina makes while getting fisted in the VIP room.
jester214
7 years ago
Nina says plenty of research has been done.

Medical doctors and researchers in the field say that's not the case. That's why they've pushed for the DEA to allow more people to grow marijuana for research, right now there's only one: Ole Miss. The guy in charge there says there's not nearly enough hard data.

But hey, Nina might know more than the experts.
jester214
7 years ago
Oh and that Harvard study you cited is 10 years old and as far as I know hasn't been repeated in this country since.

Yeah, research is plentiful!
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