"The illegality of cannabis is outrageous...

[WilliamPitt]

...an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world."

- Carl Sagan

[Scuba]

1. see link

http://marijuanamovie.org

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Yeah. Good ol' Carl.

America's foremost pothead. Billions and billions of joints, and none the worse for it.

[RadiationTherapy]

3. A billion is a thousand million.

[IntravenousDemilo]

4. Whoa, you just blew my mind, man.

[Jackpine Radical]

7. You are perhaps under the impression

that I don't know that?

[H2O Man]

8. Short term vs

long term memory.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Hah! Exactly.

[RadiationTherapy]

21. I see orders of magnitude misused on a regular basis.

In the context that you used billions, it seemed absurd and I momentarily surmised that you may not realize how big of a number you were throwing around.

Sorry.

[Jackpine Radical]

24. Here's a little clue on where I was coming from:

Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium, published by Random House in 1997 (ISBN 0-679-41160-7), is the last book written by renowned American astronomer and science popularizer Carl Sagan before his death in 1996.

[ZombieHorde]

31. I have done that a trillion hundred times! nt

[EOTE]

9. A quadrillion is a thousand trillion.

A pentillion is a thousand quadrillion. I can count by tens or hundreds too, if you'd like.

[sofa king]

35. ...which must really hack off the Brits.

For them a thousand million was 10^9, while a billion was 10^12 (what we call a trillion today). But Americans, who had more money but less Latin, simply pulled in the b-word and began mis-using it to describe a thousand million. Eventually the force of our ignorance overwhelmed the better spoken Europeans.

Carl Sagan, also realizing that Americans are uh, not all that swift on the uptake, knew that he had to make a clear distinction between "million" (10^6) and "billion" (10^9) in his TV show, so he deliberately over enunciated the "b" in "billion," which in turn was noticed and became the popular catch phrase which has forever since been associated with him. But every time I hear it, I hear Carl gently reminding us all that we really ought to hit the books.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. I misread the thread title as "The illegality of cannibals is outrageous..."

:rofl: Haven't had my coffee yet.

(Personally, I think cannibalism should remain illegal.)

[WilliamPitt]

6. Fascist

:P

[WatsonT]

12. Eating human flesh helps creates a sense of serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship

that is so desperately needed in this world.

How can you promote unity and togetherness more than by actually incorporating someone else in to your body via digestion?

[RegieRocker]

36. You need help.

[WatsonT]

40. We all do

[RegieRocker]

42. Weed will cure that!

If you have a mental problem it will unmask it. If you don't it will help you get better.
:-)

[WatsonT]

43. What if my problem is that I'm too mellow and creative?

[RegieRocker]

45. That is a problem?

[WatsonT]

10. I could care less about it's use to create "serenity and insight"

I think many pro-cannabis types overhype that.

All that matters is A) it is less dangerous than currently legal drugs and B) see A.

If we allow alcohol/tobacco then there is no sane public health or safety argument to be made for continued prohibition.

None whatsoever.

We have less money, fewer freedoms, and are less safe as a result of these laws. So a lose-lose-lose.

[Canuckistanian]

27. I fear that drugs are forcing us to be more creative than we really are

-Lili Tomlin

[Butch350]

37. Cops don't want it...

...because they can't test you quicky as they do for alcohol use????

[Generic Other]

13. Pot is the only thing standing between me and my evil doppelganger

They do not want to go there.

[Rageneau]

14. It's a CHOICE issue. The right to smoke is equal to the right to abort.

I am consistently pro-choice. I believe that in the same manner a woman's uterus belongs to the woman, a person's other organs (i.e., lungs) belong to that person.

I might think different if there was any science that proved that ingesting cannabis is bad for a person, but there isn't. The opposite is true.

[JVS]

15. Billions and billions of sticky buds.

[Uncle Joe]

16. Serenity, insight and fellowship are anathema to fear and hatred, perhaps

this is just another reason, those people profiting from a mad and dangerous world, are so adamant to keep this most beneficial plant illegal?

Thanks for the thread, WilliamPitt.

[Kurovski]

17. Well, there you have it.

Not exactly Republican family values, are they?

K&R

[Yavin4]

18. Well, If Cannabis Is Legal, Then Drug Traffickers Will Coerce People Into Smoking It

:sarcasm:

recalling another thread.

[Zorra]

19. Herb is something that creates fear in those that never used it. nt

[wovenpaint]

20. And-industrial hemp, too!

This is so true! There would be less need for big pharma....oh, wait...

Industrial hemp could make a big difference as well. It has so many uses...hmmmm, Dupont nylon was introduced the same year hemp was made illegal in the US.
See here for lots of info: http://www.facebook.com/#!/votehemp

Presently, we can consume things made from imported hemp in the US-BUT, we can't grow it here. Not even on sovereign Native American land...check this out http://www.pbs.org/pov/standing/

[Enthusiast]

34. As a member of the timber industry

I stand in opposition to legalizing the dangerous drug hemp!



















:hide: :sarcasm:

[Cowpunk]

22. Those are not characteristics valued highly in America.

They make for poor worker drones and cannon fodder.

[spanone]

23. it's so much less toxic than so many of the drugs that are 'approved'

it's depressing that reefer madness still exists in this country

[immoderate]

25. When someone asks why I smoke it...

I say, "So I can talk to you.":hippie:

--imm

[mountainlion55]

26. Good one

:hippie:

[slay]

28. So true

and so eloquent - in that way only Carl could say it.

[PurityOfEssence]

29. Mencken defined Puritanism as: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy

All life must be made a stern and humorless hell, so that people will toe the line even more for the reward to come.

Everything you see is unimportant; the only things that matter are those that can't be perceived.

No drugs may be allowed to intercede between man and the REAL drug.

[Oilwellian]

30. Will, I could not agree more

One of my favorites of Sagan:

Pale Blue Dot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJE_Ld-UyCk

:hi:

[drokhole]

32. Carl Sagan's extended thoughts on cannabis...

...some of the most eloquent words I've read on the matter:

http://forum.grasscity.com/general/219397-carl-sagans-essay-marijuana.html

[Enthusiast]

33. While I'm not a marijuana fan,

I feel that marijuana's legal status is more destructive than the drug itself.

Actually I feel the same can be said of all drugs of abuse.

Rather than spend obscene billions on a war against drugs we could put those same resources to better use through education and treatment. I think we would be money ahead if the tax payer purchased every hit of crack and every syringe of heroin for a nation full of registered addicts. As it is now this unchecked addiction is fueling a massive criminal underground. Really, this is an undeniable fact.

[OwnedByFerrets]

38. K and R

[Butch350]

39. Come on Pot-heads...

quit trying to justify smoking weed. You smoke weed just like people do alcohol, chew tobacco, or what ever.

YOU'RE DOPE HEADS, DON'T BE EMBARRASSED. YOU WANT IT LEGAL - SO YOU WON'T GET BUSTED SELLING, BUYING OR SMOKING IT!
THOSE ARE THE PRIMARY REASONS.

THREE QUARTERS OF YOU PRETEND IT'S FOR MEDICAL REASONS WHEN ACTUALLY YOU REALLY JUST WANT TO GET HIGH!

Peace, have a nice day.

[tekisui]

41. Getting high is a medical use.

[immoderate]

44. Congratulations! You broke the code!

Zounds!

We've been found out. How did you see through the well constructed ruse?

--imm