Should cannabis be legal

[Phanerothyme]

Originally posted by mjlacey21

I don't think promoting is the right word. Presenting a side of an argument that a lot of people agree with is not the same as promoting which suggests he is encouraging people to take them. From a search of past posts I found nothing encouraging - merely condoning.

Oh I can't encourage any more....but

 

...back when it was a harmless legal activity, and not a vicious criminal act of depavity, i felt free enough to post this - which is what riles the anhedonic one.

 

Originally posted by Phanerothyme on 27-05-2004 05:33 PM

I love magic mushrooms.

 

Mother Nature has provided us with a nutritious snack, full of protein with a pleasant, nutty flavour and it reconnects you to the planetery entelechy from which we have become estranged.

 

...

<snip>

 

...

Magic Mushrooms are not drugs but food.

 

Let me reiterate - Magic Mushrooms are Wonderful - if you have even the slightest doubt that they are bad for you, then I seriously suggest that you go and munch a handful, maybe five or ten liberty caps. What you will experience is the lightest touch of the entheogenic properties of this splendid fungus, which will give what you need to know if you are going to take it further.

 

To paraphrase someone or other -

"if you have never taken mushrooms then you don't know what you are talking about, and if you have taken them, then you are biased."

 

 

 

caveat. know what you are picking. know about psilocybin and the risks. dont eat mushrooms that someone else has picked for you - they may have no idea.

 

don't dry the mushrooms, eat them fresh. They are much better this way.

 

If you do dry them, dry them whole. As soon as you grind them up, or in any way 'make a preparation' of them, you will be in possession of a Class A drug, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison and/or an unlimited fine.

 

Of course now that the fungal rapists have brought the full weight of the law crashing down on semilanceata.

 

That final paragraph should read:

In the short moment between picking the mushroom and eating it you will in possession of a Class A drug, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison and/or an unlimited fine

[Cyclone]

Why is it (apart from bringing the law down on the activity) that you seem so upset that someone would make a profit from cultivating and selling something for which there's a demand?

[mjlacey21]

All sounds like sensible enough advice to me. Found some students wandering about the fields one year picking the scariest collection of mushies because their mates had said they looked like that. If we hadn't stopped them they would have eaten them. If they're legal than people can be educated about them to prevent this sort of thing happening. The Collins Gem Guide to Hallucinogenic Fungi would be a bestseller!

[chickmonk]

Hi Cyclone

 

Think that Phan is upset about that very thing. And also maybe cos shrooms should be there for all to enjoy and they're not now because people were out to make a profit...

 

However, I can also see that if some people were (as mjlacey21 pointed out) picking the wrong ones etc, then these sellers (one could argue) were doing a good public service. And people could see what they were getting and get good advice about taking shrooms.

[Phanerothyme]

Originally posted by Cyclone

Why is it (apart from bringing the law down on the activity) that you seem so upset that someone would make a profit from cultivating and selling something for which there's a demand?

 

That's a hard question to answer. To me the practice is akin to the video religion industry, making what is meant to be a numinous and sacred experience into a packaged and paid for product for the sake of personal profit.

 

It's like selling sunshine to platonic troglodytes - all you have to do is come out of the cave.

 

Basically, it's so immoral it disgusts me from the pit of my stomach to the rising bile in my throat. But it never impinged on me until now.

[Cyclone]

Originally posted by Phanerothyme

That's a hard question to answer. To me the practice is akin to the video religion industry, making what is meant to be a numinous and sacred experience into a packaged and paid for product for the sake of personal profit.

 

It's like selling sunshine to platonic troglodytes - all you have to do is come out of the cave.

 

Basically, it's so immoral it disgusts me from the pit of my stomach to the rising bile in my throat. But it never impinged on me until now.

 

you could argue the same about most grown products though. Do you hate the sellers of frozen peas, because if we could be bothered we could grow our own (or search them out growing wild).

 

I would see it as a normal extension of most popular activities. It's not like they were forcing you to buy it from them, just that if you were short of time or didn't have a convenient field for picking them you could pop to the market and pick up half a pound.

[mojoworking]

Originally posted by Cyclone

i've not seen you complaining about those of us who 'boast' about and encourage the use of the mind altering drug alcohol. Why's this one particularly got your goat?

 

Well, I thought that one went without saying. Much as I may find boastful drunks distasteful, it is a legal activity. Although the aftermath is not always so, unfortunately.

[Cyclone]

Originally posted by mojoworking

Well, I thought that one went without saying. Much as I may find boastful drunks distasteful, it is a legal activity. Although the aftermath is not always so, unfortunately.

 

so it's all about the legality.

 

Don't you feel the need to question why one is legal and the other not? Or to laugh at the villification of all 'drugs' whilst most adults most weeks partake of one of them.

[Phanerothyme]

Originally posted by Cyclone

you could argue the same about most grown products though. Do you hate the sellers of frozen peas, because if we could be bothered we could grow our own (or search them out growing wild).

 

I would see it as a normal extension of most popular activities. It's not like they were forcing you to buy it from them, just that if you were short of time or didn't have a convenient field for picking them you could pop to the market and pick up half a pound.

 

Well, yes, if it is potatoes you are talking about.

 

But it's not. It's something quite different.

 

I'm not a fan of analogies, but take your example and extend it to something a little more elevated.

 

Holy communion is a popular activity worldwide.

 

What sort of reaction do you think a company would get if they offered a service whereby they would collect a communion wafer and tot of wine, videotape the blessing and send it to you mail order with a certificate?

 

How would the church feel? How would the faithful feel ?

 

And what sort of person would subscribe to such a venal and cynical service?

[mojoworking]

Originally posted by Cyclone

so it's all about the legality.

 

Don't you feel the need to question why one is legal and the other not? Or to laugh at the villification of all 'drugs' whilst most adults most weeks partake of one of them.

 

No, it's more complicated that that.

 

I meant that railing against alcohol would be like pi**ing in the wind. Alcohol is so much a part of the social fabric that it has become almost pointless to speak out against it (much as I would like to).

 

Unregulated "fringe" drugs, however, are a different matter. Unlike booze, fags and the other major drugs, we are more or less starting with a clean sheet with the likes of mushrooms and have the chance to assert much more control than we did in the past.

 

Quite apart from all that, I really feel it's irresponsible to openly condone illegal* drugs on a family forum.

 

(*regardless of the level of illegality)