REEFER MADNESS!!!!!!

[AFK]

We still have wood chips AND dodge ball AND red rover in Maine.

We also have Paul LePage, so take that for what its worth. 

[Jenne]

We had steel bars over blacktop.  That shit burns chemicals into your lungs after it heats up and gets soft.  Your shoes start to sink into it nicely after about 95'F or so.

You hadn't been on the playground unless you got rusty blisters and blackened, bloody knees.

[Doktor Howl]

Wait.  Wood chips are now unsafe?

When I was a kid, we had steel monkeybars over CONCRETE.

There was a penalty for lack of strength and agility.

Yes, wood chips became dangerous about the same time they banned dodge ball and red rover from most school systems across the country. 

We're fucked when the Visigoths show up.

[trix]

Wait.  Wood chips are now unsafe?

When I was a kid, we had steel monkeybars over CONCRETE.

There was a penalty for lack of strength and agility.

Apparently.  In Wisconsin at least, they've replaced all wood'n'metal playgrounds with soft plasticky toy equipment and the ground is covered with this blue soft bouncy foam crap, teaching kids that when you jump from the swing while swinging high (which they've also replaced the chains with straight plastic that purposefully stops kids from swinging too high) and hit the ground face first, nothing bad will happen.

[Jenne]

Wait.  Wood chips are now unsafe?

When I was a kid, we had steel monkeybars over CONCRETE.

There was a penalty for lack of strength and agility.

Apparently.  In Wisconsin at least, they've replaced all wood'n'metal playgrounds with soft plasticky toy equipment and the ground is covered with this blue soft bouncy foam crap, teaching kids that when you jump from the swing while swinging high (which they've also replaced the chains with straight plastic that purposefully stops kids from swinging too high) and hit the ground face first, nothing bad will happen.

Aww...they're just keeping consistent with the rest of society's myths.  You gotta give 'em that.

[Doktor Howl]

Wait.  Wood chips are now unsafe?

When I was a kid, we had steel monkeybars over CONCRETE.

There was a penalty for lack of strength and agility.

Apparently.  In Wisconsin at least, they've replaced all wood'n'metal playgrounds with soft plasticky toy equipment and the ground is covered with this blue soft bouncy foam crap, teaching kids that when you jump from the swing while swinging high (which they've also replaced the chains with straight plastic that purposefully stops kids from swinging too high) and hit the ground face first, nothing bad will happen.

What the hell's gonna happen anyway?  The kid is gonna plough into a snowdrift, no harm done.

I mean, this is Wisconsin, right?  The only risk is getting stepped on by a cow.

[AFK]

Or becoming a union worker. 

[Jenne]

Or becoming a union worker. 

[AFK]

[Doktor Howl]

Or becoming a union worker. 

And cheese curd poisoning.

"Just another sad case of over-cheese".

[trix]

Or becoming a union worker. 

[Wyldkat]

I've been reading this thread, I think I might have even read the whole darned thing, and I have a few questions.  If it was already covered and I missed it, well you all are going to be closer to your 100 page thread.

Parenting is part of the issue, but unless you keep your kids at home in a bubble the parents aren't the only ones influencing kids.  Not only that, but in preteen and teen years kids are wired to push limits, rebel, figure out what it means to be independent and make their own decisions and deal with their own fuck ups (unless the parents pad the fuck ups, but that's another topic).  It is normal for other factors in their lives to start taking on nearly as much importance as family.  If that didn't happen they'd never grow up and leave the house.

Experimenting with drugs and alcohol is often one of the ways kids do this (not saying it's a good idea by any means) and unless the substances literally don't exist someone, somewhere will make them available at some point (unless the parents are using that bubble).  I was in Friday Night Live (no drinking, but I remember reading once that kids in the program actually had a higher drinking rate than kids not in it... might be misremembering though), had great grades, did all the clubs, had a strong supportive family and I still experimented with stuff in high school and know lots of other kids who did as well and are not alcoholics or drug addicts.  I also know a few that went on to try harder things and ended up fucked up (prison for murder in fact).  The people who did go further I really feel would have gone further one way or the other if they had any access to anything.  It was just the type of personalities they had.

So, since we can't make substances go away and since we can't wrap our kids in bubbles, wouldn't the most sensible thing be to legalize (at least medically), regulate and pay extra special attention to prevention especially in kids that might be prone to addiction and risky behavior?  It just seems to me that the money would go to better use in this scenario instead of going into enforcement and taxes on the product could go to prevention as well.  I do know that some of this has been gone over, but that's my two cents after having read all this.

The part that I'm really curious about is opinions on "If marijuana is legalized for medical purposes what makes it any different from all the other prescription drugs that kids aren't supposed to get their hands on (and still do)?"

I mean the proof of it being helpful medically is out there and much stronger and more dangerous substances are prescribed every day.  This hits home with me because I have kids and my doctor is discussing writing me a prescription.  I also know parents with medical cards.

[East Coast Hustle]

Also, consider that buying street weed comes with other risks too, as there is nothing in place to assure what the buyer is getting is pure and doesn't have other drugs or chemicals or pocket lint or insects in it that are being smoked as well.

Not to mention, an adult should be free to make his/her own decision on what they wish to consume, especially when the health risks for adults smoking marijuana have been proven less harmful than most other legal diversions.  If your problem is with minors obtaining and consuming pot, then legalization seems to be an effective method at allowing laws and regulations to be passed to help keep it out of the hands of our youth.

Also, the gateway drug argument comes in no small part from the fact that, again, marijuana is illegal.  Thus, the types that people often have to go to, to obtain some weed, can also help them to get other drugs, or at least point them in the direction.  If it were legal, and regulated, and sold at, say, liquor or tobacco stores, even minors that find a way to obtain and experiment, will have far less contact with users of other, more "hardcore" drugs.

- trix

I was gonna totally ignore you since everything you posted has been said a dozen or more times by a dozen or more posters (which you'd have known if you'd bothered to read the thread before jumping in with both feet firmly in your mouth), but...

JESUS FUCKING FUCK YOU FUCKING NUMB CUNTSACK NOBODY "LACES" WEED OR ADULTERATES IT WITH ANYTHING OTHER THAN MAYBE SOME SUGAR CRYSTALS TO MAKE IT LOOK DANKER AND EVEN THEN ONLY SOME HIGH SCHOOL DIPSHIT WOULD FALL FOR THAT. WEED IS CHEAP BOTH TO PRODUCE AND TO PURCHASE. POT DEALERS PROBABLY WOULDN'T STAY IN BUSINESS LONG IF THEY PUT SHIT IN THEIR WEED THAT MADE IT LESS PROFITABLE FOR THEM, NEVERMIND ALL THE PISSED-OFF CUSTOMERS WHO ONLY WANTED WEED AND NOT SOME COKE OR METH OR WHATEVER OTHER RIDICULOUS THING YOU THINK PEOPLE ACTUALLY PUT IN WEED THEY INTEND TO SELL.

[East Coast Hustle]

So?  You think legalization is going to end that?  If marijuana is legalized that means composition will have to be regulated.  When the government regulated marijuana fails to give the end user their bang for their buck they are going to go right back to the cartels who will change their business model to compete with government marijuana.  So it is very likely your hardcore marijuana user will still be dealing with the black market and will still be getting product with mystery ingredients.  

DOESN'T HAPPEN.

DOESN'T HAPPEN.

DOESN'T FUCKING HAPPEN.

[East Coast Hustle]

telling me my freedom to do what I please should be restricted because other people can't parent their children properly, is something I simply cannot agree with.

OK, you're reedeemed. This is really the only thing that ever needed to be said ITT.