Article on Marijuana on boats

[thataway]

There are a significant number of marijuana users who become addicted (have physical symptoms if they do not receive the drug), and a larger number who have habit forming dependency (psychological dependance). There is also a documented sociological impact of heavy use. Unfortunately the "pro" marijuana groups tend to ignore this, proclaiming it "safe", because no deaths have been associated with "overdose". There are cases of cardiac disease associated with heavy use/contaminates in the material.

[forrest]

[forrest]

whoops must of hit the button twice

[nimrod]

Naturally intoxicating substances have been enjoyed by humanity from the beginning. Any intoxicant will have its abusers. Many (the majority?) of those who enjoy natural intoxicants do so while doing no harm to themselves or others. To paint everyone who enjoys either alcohol or marijuana with broad stereotypical brushes is both naïve and counterproductive.

jd

[ken35216]

[thataway]

[Peter & Judy]

Sometime later this year marijuana will be legal across Canada. There has been a lot of discussion about driving while impaired by marijuana, but this thread is the first place where I have heard any discussion about marijuana impaired boating. How to test for marijuana impaired driving has been a big discussion with law enforcement up here. I wonder who will be checking out on the water. Boating and drinking is a common pastime. But now the question arises about marijuana impaired boating. Will there actually be an increase as people shift from illegal marijuana to legal marijuana? An interesting note, I heard on a radio program recently was that, we have been worried about our kids getting hooked on dope once it is legalized. The stats indicate that it will likely be the boomers that will be the biggest customers for legal marijuana as they are currently the biggest consumers of illegal marijuana. Don't worry about the kids, it's grandpa you have to watch out for.

[RobLL]

Alcohol addiction typically affects 4-5 other people besides the alcoholic, and in major ways. Pot is less harmful.

Followed a family with a pot head husband, hard on the family but not as hard as when he could no longer afford pot and switched to meth.

Most pot users are not heavy users, nor addicted. IIRC, far fewer side effects from pot use than alcohol.

Pot is a downer, far safer for user, family, police, bystanders than meth, cocaine, or alcohol (which causes aggresion in many users).

[localboy]

So much to talk about, so little time.

I see the effects of it all, in real life, daily. One need only walk around downtown Seattle to see the results.

A. the illicit mj trade is alive and well. The financial incentive is too tempting and the risk insignificant here. The retail prices for "legal" mj are sky high, so the illicit market remains.

B. Anyone that thinks teenagers et al are NOT partaking in large numbers is either in denial or just plain brainwashed.

C. Comparing mj to meth, cocaine, crack or heroin is apples to oranges. That does not mitigate the fact that mj is a drug. It's effects are well known and it impairs. Period. Again, they call it DOPE for a reason.

D. Using truly sick people to forward an political agenda is despicable.

E. I heard from all the mj "experts" (aka stoners) how it's "cured", well, everything. Of course this will come as a shock to people who are dying of myriad fatal diseases. Any oncologist will tell you different, as Dr Bob has. But why let facts and science get in the way?

[forrest]

[hardee]

So True, and that is probably only half of it.

I have had patients who had medical mj cards who had to "dose" before bedtime. Usually that was after we had hooked them up for a sleep study (which includes many of the same monitoring leads as an EEG.) There were obvious changes in brain wave patterns from before (which would be the baseline and calibration section), and after which was the actual sleep study. There were changes in eye motion patterns, and in the brain waves.

Full disclosure, I never used mj, but have been where it was being used enough to know that it made my head feel "funny, like heartbeat in my head" feeling. Not something I liked. It was enough to cause me to avoid being around it in the future.

There are differences in the THC content of various species of the plant, but there are no variety that have no THC, the chemical that causes the "high". I have no idea of the THC content of what my patients had used. I do know that over several cases their were consistencies that were similar but variable.

That was enough evidence for me to confirm I had made a good decision way back when.

Harvey
SleepyC

[hardee]

[localboy]

[kennharriet]

Another perspective. I work for a private corporation. Insurability by the company’s insurance company is a condition of employment. If an employee is charged as an impaired operator of a motor vehicle, they are considered uninsurable for a minimum of at least five years, which means employment is terminated. They may have a valid drivers license, but that does not matter because they are still uninsurable. If the company allows them to drive knowing the individual has had an impaired driver infraction, a legal term called “negligent entrustment” comes to play. Basically a private corporation is extremely liable by continuing to employ that individual.

[Ordutch1975]