Does Marijuana Cause Violence?

[aGameOfThrones]

NEW YORK (MainStreet) — One of the claims by those advocating marijuana legalization is that smoking grass does not lead to the violent behavior associated with drinking alcohol. They instead ascribe qualities to marijuana smoking of soothing the savage beast in humans.

For example, the Marijuana Legalization Organization states on its website, "We currently spend billions of dollars every year to chase peaceful people who happen to like to get high."

But a 2004 report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, strongly contradicts this notion of a nonviolent world of marijuana smoking. The report studied marijuana use and delinquent behavior among youth. What the researchers determined was that frequency of marijuana use by youths is associated with delinquent behavior.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health surveyed youths ages 12 to 17 in 2002. It asked them about six delinquent behavioral activities:

engaged in serious fighting
engaged in group-against-group fighting
attacked someone with the intent to seriously hurt them during the past year
stole or tried to steal something worth more than $50
sold illegal drugs
carried a handgun during the past year


What they learned was that "the percentages of youths engaging in delinquent behaviors in the past year rose with increasing frequency of marijuana use." Problem behavior of all sorts is correlated with smoking grass. For all of the delinquent behaviors reviewed the percentage of the youths engaging in this activity rose with the increase in marijuana usage.

Continue reading: http://www.mainstreet.com/article/moneyinvesting/news/does-marijuana-cause-violence?page=1

[Dr.3D]

I don't smoke pot but I've been carrying a handgun for the past eleven years. How is carrying a handgun considered to be a delinquent behavioral activity?

[Cabal]

Does Marijuana Cause Violence?

No.

[KCIndy]

I don't smoke pot but I've been carrying a handgun for the past eleven years. How is carrying a handgun considered to be a delinquent behavioral activity?


I was thinking something similar. Interesting how the author of the report seems to think some things are unconditionally "bad" by nature. Guns... selling "illegal" drugs.

Some of that could be changed around to: "Staunchly maintains one's independence, is willing to defend himself, and works hard as an entrepreneur to earn a living rather than depend on welfare."

Sounds a bit different then.

[VIDEODROME]

Participating in a drug culture around a banned substance and black market contributes to delinquency. To varying degrees, this basically increases the likelyhood of fraternizing with criminals if you're seeking a drug that is illegal.

Just think back to prohibition. If you wanted booze, maybe the odds are much higher you're bumping into mafia types or bootleggers and moonshiners of the time.

[Philhelm]

Yes. Marijuana causes obscene levels of violence. Heavily armed men across the nation terrorize families in the dead of night because of this plant.

[aGameOfThrones]

Yes. Marijuana causes obscene levels of violence. Heavily armed men across the nation terrorize families in the dead of night because of this plant.

Obama smoked MJ and now he kills middle east people.

[jkr]

NO

[dannno]

Heh, sorry, I can't read the article right now, I can't stop laughing :D

[liberalnurse]

engaged in serious fighting
engaged in group-against-group fighting
attacked someone with the intent to seriously hurt them during the past year
stole or tried to steal something worth more than $50
sold illegal drugs
carried a handgun during the past

ok. Call me racist, but as a nurse in a county prison, for over a decade, with a large population of gang members or wanna be members, this sounds more like gang related offenses then your "typical" young white boy getting high. Just sayin'.

Rarely if ever have I seen violent offenses associated with "typical" cannabis users. It's always just possession charges.

[dannno]

What they learned was that "the percentages of youths engaging in delinquent behaviors in the past year rose with increasing frequency of marijuana use."

Here's the problem.

The people who are non-violent and toke herb and do not participate in delinquent behavior are less likely to end up in the face or in the hands of law enforcement and therefore why would they end up at a treatment facility?????

The other obvious argument is correlation vs. causation.

None of these prohibitionists ask the obvious questions. Try smoking a bowl first, maybe it will help you think.

[JK/SEA]

i smoked a bowl, then set some rat traps....

its true.

[Dr.3D]

Yes. Marijuana causes obscene levels of violence. Heavily armed men across the nation terrorize families in the dead of night because of this plant.
That's why they say it can ruin your life.

[acptulsa]

Depends. Are they smoking weed to settle their stomachs because they just did way, way too much meth?

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Pigs are violent all by themselves without weed. They kill your dog, taze your gramma, and then beat you to a pulp.

[Dr.3D]

Pigs are violent all by themselves without weed. They kill your dog, taze your gramma, and then beat you to a pulp.
Maybe if they smoked some, they would relax and stop being so violent.

[Pericles]

Don't know about that, but is does seem to be touted as a cure for almost everything except stupidity.

[dannno]

Depends. Are they smoking weed to settle their stomachs because they just did way, way too much meth?

Yes, or are they drinking or doing cocaine or heroin?

Cannabis happens to be the jam to the world's many peanut butters in the world of drugs (even beneficial ones like hallucinogens). Most drugs are pretty intense and cannabis helps mellow you out.

[dannno]

Don't know about that, but is does seem to be touted as a cure for almost everything except stupidity.

Actually cannabis may help re-grow brain cells.......

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8155-marijuana-might-cause-new-cell-growth-in-the-brain.html

http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/29/how-cannabinoids-may-slow-brain-aging/

[Cap]

Silly article is silly.

[Dr.3D]

Seeing as the prohibition of pot is what causes most of the violence, nearly all of the violence associated with it would go away if they were to legalized it.

[aGameOfThrones]

ok. Call me racist, but as a nurse in a county prison, for over a decade, with a large population of gang members or wanna be members, this sounds more like gang related offenses then your "typical" young white boy getting high. Just sayin'.

Rarely if ever have I seen violent offenses associated with "typical" cannabis users. It's always just possession charges.

I second this^


Note: I'm not a racist... except when I am... which is always.... because everything is racist.

[Mini-Me]

Here's the problem.

The people who are non-violent and toke herb and do not participate in delinquent behavior are less likely to end up in the face or in the hands of law enforcement and therefore why would they end up at a treatment facility?????

The other obvious argument is correlation vs. causation.

None of these prohibitionists ask the obvious questions. Try smoking a bowl first, maybe it will help you think.

This exactly: The studies are poorly constructed on purpose to achieve the desired results. The flaws are so obvious that first year college students have to be more careful with their half-assed psychology projects to get a good grade.

In addition, they're ignoring the fact that prohibition doesn't work anyway...and as Dr.3D says, they're ignoring the violence CAUSED by prohibition:

Seeing as the prohibition of pot is what causes most of the violence, nearly all of the violence associated with it would go away if they were to legalized it.

Good posts.

[DamianTV]

I don't smoke pot but I've been carrying a handgun for the past eleven years. How is carrying a handgun considered to be a delinquent behavioral activity?

It infringes on the claimed Monopoly on Violence.

What gets me is that smoking pot somehow disqualifies a person to have PERMISSION to carry a gun? Theyre obviously smoking something, and it aint pot.

[DamianTV]

Participating in a drug culture around a banned substance and black market contributes to delinquency. To varying degrees, this basically increases the likelyhood of fraternizing with criminals if you're seeking a drug that is illegal.

Just think back to prohibition. If you wanted booze, maybe the odds are much higher you're bumping into mafia types or bootleggers and moonshiners of the time.

When law and morality are in contradiction to each other, the citizen finds himself in the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense, or of losing his respect for the law. - The Law

There is NOTHING immoral about using a drug itself. Its the circumstances that determine the morality, and that is subjectively interpreted. Govt will see disobedience of the law as Immoral, while people will see the Law itself as immoral. This is the root of the "Just-Us" system, which leads to Unaccountable Authority.

[donnay]

In all my years hanging out with people who did marijuana not once did I ever see anyone get violence. It's the mellow drug.

[Ender]

In all my years hanging out with people who did marijuana not once did I ever see anyone get violence. It's the mellow drug.

The most dangerous thing about a pothead is that they might laugh you to death. ;)

[donnay]

The most dangerous thing about a pothead is that they might laugh you to death. ;)


Yeah or eat you out of house and home. :D

[phill4paul]

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services

No agenda there. It's not like they are a bunch of tax-leeches trying to justify their leechiness. Expect more of this. There will be a push back from prohibitionists trying to save their asses. And they will succeed. Just as the alcohol prohibitionists have inserted their bullshit "studies" with regards to drinking and driving and anti-smoking Nazi's doing the same.

[TomKat]

Still laughing at the title and it's false insinuation.

[kcchiefs6465]

MR. DINGELL: I want to be certain what this is. Is this the same weed that grows wild in some of our Western States which is sometimes called the loco weed?

MR. ANSLINGER: No, sir, that is another family.



MR. MCCORMACK: What are its first manifestations, a feeling of grandeur and self-exaltation, and things of that sort?

MR. ANSLINGER: It affects different individuals in different ways. Some individuals have a complete loss of sense of time or a sense of value. They lose their sense of place. That have an increased feeling of physical strength and power.

Some people will fly into a delirious rage, and they are temporarily irresponsible and may commit violent crimes. Other people will laugh uncontrollably. It is impossible to say what the effect will be on any individual. Those research men who have tried it have always been under control. They have always insisted upon that.


MR. REED: The testimony before the committee of which I was formerly chairman in reference to heroin said in reference to the effect of it that it made men feel fearless, and that a great majority of the crimes of great violence that were committed were committed by addicts, and one man stated that it would make a rabbit fight a bulldog. Does this drug have a similar effect?

MR. ANSLINGER: Here is a gang of seven young men, all seven of them, young men under 21 years of age. They terrorized central Ohio for more than two months, and they were responsible for 38 stick-ups. They all boast they did those crimes while under the influence of marihuana.

MR. LEWIS: Was that as an excuse, or a defense?

MR. ANSLINGER: No, sir.


MR. ANSLINGER: As to these young men I was telling you about, one of them said if he had killed somebody on the spot he would not have known it.

In Florida a 21-year-old boy under the influence of this drug killed his parents and his brothers and sisters. The evidence showed that he had smoke marihuana.

In Chicago recently two boys murdered a policeman while under the influence of marihuana. Not long ago we found a 15-year-old boy going insane because, the doctor told the enforcement officers, he thought the boy was smoking marihuana cigarettes. They traced the sale to some man who had been growing marihuana and selling it to these boys all under 15 years of age, on a playground there.


“By the tons it is coming into this country — the deadly, dreadful poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its cruel and devastating forms…. Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him -- Harry Anslinger



"Colored students at the Univ. of Minn. partying with (white) female students, smoking [marijuana] and getting their sympathy with stories of racial persecution. Result: pregnancy"-- Harry Anslinger



"Two Negros took a girl fourteen years old and kept her for two days under the influence of hemp. Upon recovery she was found to be suffering from syphilis."-- Harry Anslinger

Still harmless? :rolleyes:

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

I have not smoked weed in many years, but I still want to give some of these people a swift kick in the ass.

Oh wait, maybe it's a flashback!!!!!

[Dr.3D]

Still harmless? :rolleyes:
That reads like a script out of Reefer Madness.

[Lucille]

Back in the 90s, there was a talk of the town in The New Yorker, and this sociologist said he was so happy to smell mj in air again, because instead of committing crimes to get cash for drugs, they'll be opening up craft stores.

[phill4paul]

Still harmless? :rolleyes:

No. Anslinger is about as dangerous a man, a bulldog on a rabbit, as one will find.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Still harmless? :rolleyes:

Wonder if there was any real world testimony. You know, the kind of reality where most people just sit around, tell dumb jokes, and eat candy bars.

[kcchiefs6465]

Wonder if there was any real world testimony. You know, the kind of reality where most people just sit around, tell dumb jokes, and eat candy bars.
Anslinger got roasted by a couple Congressmen. Even within the excerpts I just posted there was plenty of skepticism towards his "expertise." I don't have my references handy or I'd post the exact details.

(I'm drinking and cannot remember it clearly enough to confidently post of the scenario.)

ETA: I remember it was hilarious, though.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Anslinger got roasted by a couple Congressmen. Even within the excerpts I just posted there was plenty of skepticism towards his "expertise." I don't have my references handy or I'd post the exact details.

(I'm drinking and cannot remember it clearly enough to confidently post of the scenario.)

ETA: I remember it was hilarious, though.

Oh, I see. Was this the guy before a politician in TN? The guy testified that all parents are against weed.

[kcchiefs6465]

Oh, I see. Was this the guy before a politician in TN? The guy testified that all parents are against weed.
Harry Anslinger was the first head of the DEA (the Federal Bureau of Narcotics). He was instrumental in scaring white folks of the [racist driven] 'dangers' of marijuana and helping to pass the Marihuana Tax Act in which stamps would be required to possess marijuana. It was largely the scheme to not issue any stamps. Thus they would make marijuana illegal without the need for a Constitutional Amendment.

As absurd as the argument is today, in many regards, it was even worse then. People are dumb.

[NorfolkPCSolutions]

"The National Survey on Drug Use and Health surveyed youths ages 12 to 17..."

Why the fuck...the article is talking about legalization, which to any logical supporter would mean folks 18 and up. Or, 21 and up. Should I finish reading this biased bullshit? Moving on to page two...

[NorfolkPCSolutions]

Ok, finished reading it. I want those five minutes of my life back.

Proper headline:

"Kids Who Smoke Weed Do Dumb Shit, Slanted Studies Indicate"

[Dr.3D]

Ok, finished reading it. I want those five minutes of my life back.

Proper headline:

"Kids Who Smoke Weed Do Dumb Shit, Slanted Studies Indicate"


Thing is, kids do dumb shit anyway.

[LibertyRevolution]

No, smoking marijuana does not make you violent.
I had friends that would get stupidly violent when drunk, but not when they smoked marijuana.

Only violence caused by marijuana comes from it being illegal..

[mrsat_98]

Yes. Marijuana causes obscene levels of violence. Heavily armed men across the nation terrorize families in the dead of night because of this plant.

And further it's a misdemeanor, the more I miss the meaner I get.