Who would have thought??

[NorthwoodsLife]

I'm going to disagree with this and tell you a story.

When I go to town its more than a hour drive one way so I almost always load up a dog or two in the back seat for companionship and give them some excitement and when in town I like to grab a sub sandwich. I eat in the truck as I have the dogs and don't like to leave my staffies unattended.

Subway is right next door to one of the villages pot shop so I get to watch with quit some fascination the coming and goings into the pot shop. Seems to be one of the busiest places in town. Cheap entertainment watching the comings and goings.

Now my observations are far from highly scientific but what I see is about 40% of the customers being women in the age range of 25 to 40. Now what is shocking to me is about 1/2 of these customers have small children with them with about equal numbers taking their kids into the store and half leaving them in their vehicles while they pop into shop. Can pot be the new mothers little helper??

The next and to me the most shocking personal observation..... 1/3 of the people that come out of the pot store will actually have a smoke in their vehicles before leaving the parking lot!!! Legal to buy, legal to use in public so they are. Enable any lifestyle / activity so I guess I shouldn't be so fundy to see people taking sway of their legal rights.



I don't really function well in this new world.

So true. It depends on the local demographics to the area.
Go to a big city, younger folks are the primary stoners. Cars full of smoke and if you"re beind them they are usually lolly-gagging along. You can definitly tell its pot if you can smell it.

Not a user myself. Tried it once in high school. Not for me.

Maybe if I'm in pain from some disability in the future. I might try it.

 

[jyoutz]

I'm going to disagree with this and tell you a story.

When I go to town its more than a hour drive one way so I almost always load up a dog or two in the back seat for companionship and give them some excitement and when in town I like to grab a sub sandwich. I eat in the truck as I have the dogs and don't like to leave my staffies unattended.

Subway is right next door to one of the villages pot shop so I get to watch with quit some fascination the coming and goings into the pot shop. Seems to be one of the busiest places in town. Cheap entertainment watching the comings and goings.

Now my observations are far from highly scientific but what I see is about 40% of the customers being women in the age range of 25 to 40. Now what is shocking to me is about 1/2 of these customers have small children with them with about equal numbers taking their kids into the store and half leaving them in their vehicles while they pop into shop. Can pot be the new mothers little helper??

The next and to me the most shocking personal observation..... 1/3 of the people that come out of the pot store will actually have a smoke in their vehicles before leaving the parking lot!!! Legal to buy, legal to use in public so they are. Enable any lifestyle / activity so I guess I shouldn't be so fundy to see people taking sway of their legal rights.



I don't really function well in this new world.

I won’t argue. I don’t pay much attention to the pot stores or who and how it’s used. Of course younger people buy stuff there too. I was just describing what the local situation is as reported on the local news. The primary customers are older people. Not surprising if you think of it. The 1960s hippies are now senior citizens. My vice is a bourbon on the rocks after dinner.

 

[DustyRusty]

(probably should throw them down the septic tank.)

The proper way to dispose of any drug is to drop it off at your local Police Station or a pharmacy if they have a take-back policy. Putting drugs into the septic tank will make it through the system to the leach field, and eventually into the groundwater. Most unused medicines should not be washed down the sink or toilet.

 

[Bearcatrp]

Friend of mine in high school had a father going through cancer treatments. Was getting skinnier by the day. No appetite. My friend and his brother decided to introduce him to a joint to see if that helped. This is late 70’s before medical marijuana was approved. He tried it. Got his appetite back and maintained his weight until he died from cancer. Helped with his pain too. It has its benefit. Think they should have left it to medical approved sickness. I’ll give it 10 years or less and these states will reverse there decision after folks high start killing innocent folks.

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

I won’t argue. I don’t pay much attention to the pot stores or who and how it’s used. Of course younger people buy stuff there too. I was just describing what the local situation is as reported on the local news. The primary customers are older people. Not surprising if you think of it. The 1960s hippies are now senior citizens. My vice is a bourbon on the rocks after dinner.

our vice is distilled corn. But me thinks more evaporates over time than that we actually drink.

 

[jyoutz]

our vice is distilled corn. But me thinks more evaporates over time than that we actually drink.

Distilled corn + yeast + white oak barrels (charred) = bourbon

 

[skeets]

Well the Angles need a drink once in a while too you know!

 

[ctfjr]

From an NIH study whether pot is a gateway drug:

These findings are consistent with the idea of marijuana as a "gateway drug." However, the majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, "harder" substances. Also, cross-sensitization is not unique to marijuana. Alcohol and nicotine also prime the brain for a heightened response to other drugs51 and are, like marijuana, also typically used before a person progresses to other, more harmful substances.

It is important to note that other factors besides biological mechanisms, such as a person’s social environment, are also critical in a person’s risk for drug use. An alternative to the gateway-drug hypothesis is that people who are more vulnerable to drug-taking are simply more likely to start with readily available substances such as marijuana, tobacco, or alcohol, and their subsequent social interactions with others who use drugs increases their chances of trying other drugs. Further research is needed to explore this question.

That said, many of my friends and I smoked a lot of pot in our youth and some have continued to this day. Not one of them ever went on to addictive drugs other than me.
I had a nerve problem in my arm And the genius doctor I went to kept me on vicadin for a year without telling me how addictive it was - and it was. Took me a very uncomfortable week cold turkey to get off it, only after a second doctor warned me about it.

The gateway drug argument has been around a long time - Essentially unproven.

Reminds me of the argument from the sixties. It was said that 75% of cocaine users also smoked pot. Then it was pointed out that 99% of cocaine users drank milk.

 

[rc51stierhoff]

From an NIH study whether pot is a gateway drug:

These findings are consistent with the idea of marijuana as a "gateway drug." However, the majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, "harder" substances. Also, cross-sensitization is not unique to marijuana. Alcohol and nicotine also prime the brain for a heightened response to other drugs51 and are, like marijuana, also typically used before a person progresses to other, more harmful substances.

It is important to note that other factors besides biological mechanisms, such as a person’s social environment, are also critical in a person’s risk for drug use. An alternative to the gateway-drug hypothesis is that people who are more vulnerable to drug-taking are simply more likely to start with readily available substances such as marijuana, tobacco, or alcohol, and their subsequent social interactions with others who use drugs increases their chances of trying other drugs. Further research is needed to explore this question.

That said, many of my friends and I smoked a lot of pot in our youth and some have continued to this day. Not one of them ever went on to addictive drugs other than me.
I had a nerve problem in my arm And the genius doctor I went to kept me on vicadin for a year without telling me how addictive it was - and it was. Took me a very uncomfortable week cold turkey to get off it, only after a second doctor warned me about it.

The gateway drug argument has been around a long time - Essentially unproven.

Reminds me of the argument from the sixties. It was said that 75% of cocaine users also smoked pot. Then it was pointed out that 99% of cocaine users drank milk.

Well, milk and water aren’t the solution. So that’s why I self medicate with the devil’s water. Bourbon .

 

[skeets]

Hell if you are going to legialize drugs might as well let the girls do their thang too

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

Hell if you are going to legialize drugs might as well let the girls do their thang too

in Canada it has been since 2013

 

[lugbolt]

took a vacation to an area where pot use is legal in public

there is not a single place you can go in that town that doesn't STINK, and everywhere you (or we) went means you're probably gonna have contact high.

I will not go back and for that reason alone and I don't want it here either. But some seem to think that it's ok. Kind of like a car that's been smoked in. If you are a smoker, you don't care. If you aren't, you DO care and as a nonsmoker myself, I will NOT buy a car that has been smoked in, and believe me, I can tell-no matter how well it's treated.

went to a wal mart recently (which is admittedly rare) and there were some people sitting outside the door huffing a joint. Soon as I got back home I had to take the clothing off and throw it in the washer, just that quick, it stunk. Had I gotten pulled over on the way home, I'm sure the cops would have been searching my car and such, as the smell of pot is considered probable cause here.

 

[WFM]

A customer of mine had taken his family to Colorado on vacation.
He said it was basically ruined as every park or attention they went to there were pot smoking teenagers 'hanging out' passing around dope.
As far as the argument that pot doesn't lead to other drug use. That's BS. Read all the studies you want, who's paying for the study gets the result they want.
If your dieing of cancer use whatever you want. Here in the welfare state where I live the liberals ligelized dope. It makes for more lazy dopes on welfare and attracts welfare seekers from other states to come here. Ridiculous. Nothing good comes from intoxication of any kind. Recently we had a 20 yr old needing drug money, he drove from one town to the next stopping entering and robbing church goers. Three churches before the cops cought up to him and ran him off the road. He had a hand gun to threaten parishioners then went to the next church. I'm guessing if this was texas he'd been full of holes the first church he walked into. Unfortunately not here.

 

[DustyRusty]

The liberal New England states have taken every form of defense out of reach for the law-abiding citizen. The standard answer is that if you need assistance, you should dial 911. The problem with that is that many areas of New England don't have a law enforcement officer available 24/7 and even if they do, they are spread so thin that it can take 45 minutes or more for them to reach your emergency. The laws are written that you have to make every available move to take yourself out of harm's way before you can take lethal force. That means that you must retreat until you are backed into a corner. In CT they have increased the jail time for breaking into a home when it is dark outside, however, criminals don't abide by the laws, and they only take advantage of the law-abiding citizens not having the right to protect themselves in their homes.

 

[fried1765]

took a vacation to an area where pot use is legal in public

there is not a single place you can go in that town that doesn't STINK, and everywhere you (or we) went means you're probably gonna have contact high.

I will not go back and for that reason alone and I don't want it here either. But some seem to think that it's ok. Kind of like a car that's been smoked in. If you are a smoker, you don't care. If you aren't, you DO care and as a nonsmoker myself, I will NOT buy a car that has been smoked in, and believe me, I can tell-no matter how well it's treated.

went to a wal mart recently (which is admittedly rare) and there were some people sitting outside the door huffing a joint. Soon as I got back home I had to take the clothing off and throw it in the washer, just that quick, it stunk. Had I gotten pulled over on the way home, I'm sure the cops would have been searching my car and such, as the smell of pot is considered probable cause here.

Totally AGREE !

 

[ctfjr]

The liberal New England states have taken every form of defense out of reach for the law-abiding citizen. The standard answer is that if you need assistance, you should dial 911. The problem with that is that many areas of New England don't have a law enforcement officer available 24/7 and even if they do, they are spread so thin that it can take 45 minutes or more for them to reach your emergency. The laws are written that you have to make every available move to take yourself out of harm's way before you can take lethal force. That means that you must retreat until you are backed into a corner. In CT they have increased the jail time for breaking into a home when it is dark outside, however, criminals don't abide by the laws, and they only take advantage of the law-abiding citizens not having the right to protect themselves in their homes.

I dunno Dusty - certainly there is a lot of crime here in CT but from the last year complete state statistics are available (2022)

maybe the criminals are getting the message? the trend is down. . . at least here in CT

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

I dunno Dusty - certainly there is a lot of crime here in CT but from the last year complete state statistics are available (2022)
View attachment 127729

View attachment 127730

maybe the criminals are getting the message? the trend is down. . . at least here in CT

or when the powers to be decide to take a kinder / gentler / sanctuary approach is desired and not prosecute it APPEARS official crime stats is going down when in reality on the ground it is going up.

that is what is happening around here.

Enforcement is dropping so indexes going down (and leaders get to appear smug on TV) but businesses closing due to increased theft and staff assaults and more and more areas / places being avoided as they become more sketchy.

 

[Fordtech86]

Amazon.com

 

[NCL4701]

I quit smoking pot in 1985. Smoked it partly because I was a teenager and it was easier to get than alcohol. I don’t drink either. For the people I have personally known that smoke pot or drink alcohol the percentage that partake in moderation v those that have a problem (i.e. “pothead” or “alcoholic”) are about equal between the two. I really don’t much care if pot is legalized here for recreational use or not. It’s so readily available, not sure it would truly increase usage much as opposed to simply making it a more visible activity.

I am very much an advocate of legalizing it by prescription for medical use. Currently available opiates utilized for chronic pain have the side effect of constipation. Pot doesn’t. If you have chronic pain with meds as the only treatment option AND chronic constipation, the opiates that make life bearable also damn near kill you routinely. (BTW, my wife of 35 years has fit that description for the past 9 years.)

The real problem with medical marijuana is it isn’t making bank for Johnson & Johnson or Bristol Meyers Squibb.

 

[DustyRusty]

I dunno Dusty - certainly there is a lot of crime here in CT but from the last year complete state statistics are available (2022)
View attachment 127729

View attachment 127730

maybe the criminals are getting the message? the trend is down. . . at least here in CT

When it comes to crime, the statistics are fine if you are not the victim of the crime, but if you are, then the statistics don't mean anything. Care to walk down many streets in Hartford, Waterbury, New Haven, or any large city in Connecticut in the nighttime? I certainly don't. I like living.