Paid to smoke Pot

[Kai]

20+ pages, easy

But thankfully, not pot vs anti-pot.

[AFK]

At this point in the game, it really isn't a useful conversation anymore, for my part.  I think maybe I've been denying to myself what is inevitable.  Granted, I think pot becoming legal is going to be a state by state thing, and will take a lot longer before it goes national.  But, I think just looking at certain generations aging out and new generations coming in, it seems almost a no-brainer that there is going to be more acceptance.  So, I'm shifting my energies to thinking about how to deal with that new landscape.

[Adios]

At this point in the game, it really isn't a useful conversation anymore, for my part.  I think maybe I've been denying to myself what is inevitable.  Granted, I think pot becoming legal is going to be a state by state thing, and will take a lot longer before it goes national.  But, I think just looking at certain generations aging out and new generations coming in, it seems almost a no-brainer that there is going to be more acceptance.  So, I'm shifting my energies to thinking about how to deal with that new landscape.

But this is a very interesting conversation. To me at least.

[Kai]

At this point in the game, it really isn't a useful conversation anymore, for my part.  I think maybe I've been denying to myself what is inevitable.  Granted, I think pot becoming legal is going to be a state by state thing, and will take a lot longer before it goes national.  But, I think just looking at certain generations aging out and new generations coming in, it seems almost a no-brainer that there is going to be more acceptance.  So, I'm shifting my energies to thinking about how to deal with that new landscape.

It's an interesting conversation to some of us, because we don't have the expertise you have, and because this thread is a conversation and not the same old same old.

[AFK]

Agreed.  

[Kai]

So, when legalization happens, how will your tactics change? Will you treat marijuana in the same bucket as alcohol and nicotine? Or will a whole new approach be necessary?

[BabylonHoruv]

Now, the anti-pot-legalization crowd will tell you the stats say that pot users aren't all that responsible, either.  As in a drain on society since they eat but don't produce, and the hallicunations can make them do stuff they wouldn't normally do, like letting kids drown (the original premise of the OP) and running them over while driving.  

Substance abuse is substance abuse, imo, as I'm coming to find out.  The relative safety of the actual substance tends to be in the hand of the user, though certainly some are definitely more fatal than others.

You rang?  Actually, I would've pointed out that more and more people are becoming poly-drug users.  While there are certainly people who smoke pot but don't drink and people who drink but don't smoke pot, I think if you could Venn-diagram if, you'd find the overlap to be huge.  

Also, it's interesting this came up.  This morning I was hanging out with a couple of colleagues in the field and we pretty much have resigned ourselves to the fact that pot will be legal sometime in the not to distant future.  Maybe the next 5 to 10 years.  The ball game is going to change completely.  The messaging to kids will have to be drastically different.  And we all agreed, at least here in Maine, that this should be taxed from here until tomorrow.

RWHN,
-card carrying member of anti-pot legalization crowd AND tax them until they bleed conglomerate.  

I think one side effect to this will be less people moving from pot to hard drugs, but I may be hoplessly optimistic.

I think if you can't get hard drugs from the same people you get weed from any more then the likelihood of it being a gateway drug goes down.

[BabylonHoruv]

So, when legalization happens, how will your tactics change? Will you treat marijuana in the same bucket as alcohol and nicotine? Or will a whole new approach be necessary?

Are alcohol and nicotene in the same bucket?  The effects of nicotene are pretty drastically different, most arguements about it boil down to health effects, not behavioral effects.  Meanwhile although alcohol can certainly have a significant negative effect on health the main talking points are almost always behavioral.

I'd expect pot to fall somewhere in between, since the behaviors are not as severely detrimental as alcohol, but they are far more severe than cigarettes.  Meanwhile the fact that it is being smoked means it has many of the same negative health efects as tobacco.

[AFK]

So, when legalization happens, how will your tactics change? Will you treat marijuana in the same bucket as alcohol and nicotine? Or will a whole new approach be necessary?

It's really hard to say.  It really will be new territory for all of us.  None of us, not even the elders in the field were around when alcohol went from illegal to legal, so it will be very difficult.  On the one hand, prevention efforts don't normally dwell too heavily on the legality of the substance.  Certainly it is addressed when we talk about consequences, but we really focus more on the impacts on the brain during adolescence and the possible long term impacts of longterm and heavy use.  I don't expect that would change, and indeed, we may have more powerful research by then to maybe blunt to some degree the substance becoming legal.  

I think we will also have a lot of educating to do to parents.  For some parents, it becoming legal will be a relief, because a lot of their focus is simply on Johnny getting in trouble with the law, and not necessarily the impact of the use on Johnny's school career.  So I think that's where we will really need to hone our messages.  

[AFK]

I think one side effect to this will be less people moving from pot to hard drugs, but I may be hoplessly optimistic.

I think if you can't get hard drugs from the same people you get weed from any more then the likelihood of it being a gateway drug goes down.

I dunno.  Maybe over the long term but I'm not convinced of that.  I think there might be a short term bump of kids moving to hard drugs as I would expect at minimum, a short term bump of kids using if the drug becomes legal. 

[BabylonHoruv]

I think one side effect to this will be less people moving from pot to hard drugs, but I may be hoplessly optimistic.

I think if you can't get hard drugs from the same people you get weed from any more then the likelihood of it being a gateway drug goes down.

I dunno.  Maybe over the long term but I'm not convinced of that.  I think there might be a short term bump of kids moving to hard drugs as I would expect at minimum, a short term bump of kids using if the drug becomes legal. 

Short term bump in kids using when it becomes legal makes sense, I am not sure I understand the logic behind a short term movement of kids to harder drugs though.  Is that the "teenage rebellion" factor?

[AFK]

Gateway effect. 
Kids move from mariuana to harder drugs
More kids using drugs ergo would mean more kids moving to harder drugs.

It would be a corresponding bump, though probably more of an echo considering moving to harder drugs isn't an instantaneous event. 

[BabylonHoruv]

Gateway effect. 
Kids move from mariuana to harder drugs
More kids using drugs ergo would mean more kids moving to harder drugs.

It would be a corresponding bump, though probably more of an echo considering moving to harder drugs isn't an instantaneous event. 

Gotcha, that's where I disagree since I think the gateway effect is due to pot being illegal.

I do agree that the guy in the OP is stretching the definition of "medical" until it snaps.

[Kai]

So, when legalization happens, how will your tactics change? Will you treat marijuana in the same bucket as alcohol and nicotine? Or will a whole new approach be necessary?

It's really hard to say.  It really will be new territory for all of us.  None of us, not even the elders in the field were around when alcohol went from illegal to legal, so it will be very difficult.  On the one hand, prevention efforts don't normally dwell too heavily on the legality of the substance.  Certainly it is addressed when we talk about consequences, but we really focus more on the impacts on the brain during adolescence and the possible long term impacts of longterm and heavy use.  I don't expect that would change, and indeed, we may have more powerful research by then to maybe blunt to some degree the substance becoming legal.  

I think we will also have a lot of educating to do to parents.  For some parents, it becoming legal will be a relief, because a lot of their focus is simply on Johnny getting in trouble with the law, and not necessarily the impact of the use on Johnny's school career.  So I think that's where we will really need to hone our messages.  

I think your ideas are good. How about focusing as well on the poor decision making that may come from taking the substance, maybe some of the psychological effects to memory and concept coordination (most advocates seem to focus on only paranoia and hallucination). There is of course the issue of respiratory issues coming from tar and other inhaled particulates (aside: which isn't an issue when injested but since the majority of users are primarily smoking this really is an issue). I'm not sure about the psychological effects of long term heavy use (I've heard the term "pot head" used in reference), I've never been shown what the effects actually are. Very different from either nicotine or alcohol, I would guess.

[the last yatto]

The fact that it is being smoked means it has many of the same negative health efects as tobacco.