Marijuana users do not 'function perfectly'

Thursday, April 17, 2014

“THERE is no such thing as being inebriated from weed. You can smoke all day long and still work, still drive, still talk, basically you can still function perfectly. But drink straight for two hours. You won’t be able to stand, talk or function at all. Yet weed is illegal... How did this planet get so stupid?”

This was the comment of a Bahamian on tribune242 to National Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage’s statement this week that like many countries in the rest of the world the Bahamas government would soon have to consider the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Already the cry from many Bahamians is that government should also consider it for recreational use — especially if the object is to get rid of the criminal element associated with drugs, and the heavy drain on the country’s resources in trying to stamp it out.

However, we do not agree that a person on marijuana can “function perfectly”. This is just not so. A drunk might collapse faster into his beer jug, but the thought processes of a marijuana user is so slowed that, depending on the type business he is in, he becomes a menace —especially if he is behind the wheel of a vehicle or in charge of machinery.

The drug scandal in the Bahamas reached its crescendo in 1983-1984 with the Commission of Inquiry into the “illegal use of the Bahamas for the transshipment of drugs“ to the United States confirming local sip-sip that drugs had permeated every level of society, even to cabinet level.

Many Bahamians were horrified when The Tribune reported that when a school teacher asked her students to write an essay on what they aspired to be when they grew into manhood, the majority of the boys wrote that they wanted to be drug dealers.

These children were mesmerised by the gold jewellery hanging from the necks and fingers of their fathers, uncles, cousins and friends. These drug dealers drove fancy cars, built their condominiums and had a pretty girl on each arm. Often a dead body was found, gunned down by a rival in the trade who had been cheated of his ill-gotten gains. But to the young, who saw only the glitter, it was a goal to be achieved. It was worth throwing the books aside and being some drug dealer’s gopher. The young man would eventually start dealing in his own right, and before he was out of his twenties, he was either in jail or his body was cold in the morgue. But the young never looked that far ahead.

We knew our society had thrown away its moral compass when these drug dealers, because of their wealth, were accepted in many areas of society. One only has to recall what became acceptable back then to understand what is happening in our society today. It was a simple case of cause and effect — and today we are suffering from the effect. As was said in Hosea 8:1-14 – they sowed the wind, today we reap the whirlwind. The Commissioner of Police had much cause for his comment Wednesday that today the country is “in a bad place for crime.”

There are many stories that we could tell about those years. But we shall tell the one when drugs hit The Tribune where it really hurt.

It was 1984 – the year the Commission released its report on drug smuggling and the extent to which our society from the top to the bottom had been contaminated.

Every morning — The Tribune was then an evening publication— we would take a tour with our foreman, the late Sammy Haven, of the press room and talk with the staff. We noticed that one of our senior pressmen, a robust young man, was not only lethargic, but had lost a tremendous amount of weight. We were concerned, and so was Sammy. He speculated that the young man was on drugs – marijuana to be exact – that was the drug of the day at that time.

We did an investigation and almost passed out by what we discovered. Not only was all of our press room staff on marijuana, but through the back door, as we preached in the columns of this newspaper against drugs, downstairs The Tribune was being sold each evening by a staff member with a pinch of marijuana as his private sideline. With this scenario, we were out of business. If these drug heads were allowed to continue, there would have been a serious accident.

However, we were saved by our son, who was at school in England and on his way home for the long summer vacation.

Unlike others his age who wanted to be a policeman, fireman, or pilot, Robert’s only ambition from a very young age was to learn how to run the large Goss Community press, which, in those days, printed The Tribune. In his 14th summer, we decided as a birthday gift to have him trained on his dream press. We got the best Goss instructor for him and from that day on there was no turning back. With a natural knack for all things mechanical, by the end of the summer Robert was an astonishingly clever pressman.

In the following summer, when he was only 15, The Tribune was in desperate need of his expertise. We had to fire all of our press room staff.

Robert and Sammy Haven hired new staff – mainly from the Family Islands — and the training started. By the end of the summer, Robert had left us with young men, who could carry on until his return for the Christmas holidays. From then on, we had frequent drug tests on our press room staff, where use of drugs or alcohol meant immediate dismissal.

So no one will ever convince us that marijuana users can function normally. They cannot. They never will be able to because their brain — their most vital organ —is badly affected. One can see it in the glassy look in their eyes and the slow movement of their tongue.

If this country ever pushes for the use of recreational marijuana, then businesses will have to have strict hiring practices with mandatory drug testing being a part of their employment contract.

The situation of the country today is bad enough without opening the doors to possibly facilitating a bunch of drug-induced zombies charting our future.

Comments

proudloudandfnm says...

I will bet all of my money right now the author of this has never smoked pot.

Sorry but if your pressman was losing weight it was not pot he was on. It was cocaine, he was selling the weed to buy cocaine. Medicinal pot is used for a few things, one of which is to give chemo patients an appetite. You do not lose weight on pot. I do not believe in impossible, but losing weight on weed is about as close to impossible as you can get...

There is no such thing as being inebriated on pot. You can drive, you can have detailed conversations, you can work. And you can most definitely operate a printing press.

The above is nothing more than some old person's idea of pot. Someone that obviously bought into the hype that marijuana is some kind of gateway drug that turns you into an axe wielding homicidal maniac or a slobbering idiot.

What you describe above is either cocaine or alcohol. Weed simply does not make a person act that way.

I am not citing any so called "science studies". I am a successful business man that has worked his way to the top in an international field. And I did so high on weed some of the time. I can't telI you how many jobs I've won after interviewing high. I speak from experience. As a matter of fact I as I type I am nicely high, enjoying a relaxing day off.

I'll tell you this with no uncertainty. Drunk on liquor you could not possibly operate a printing press. That is also as close to impossible as you can get. High on pot and you would actually operate it better than you would sober, simple reason really. You'd concentrate more, because your stress level drops and your mind is cleared. You'd also actually enjoy operating the machinery. I love fixing cars when I get high, I can diagnose like no one's business...

You old folk crack me up with your bull.....

Posted 17 April 2014, 12:38 p.m. Suggest removal

ThisIsOurs says...

Posted 19 April 2014, 1:34 p.m. Suggest removal

Thinker says...

The writer is uninformed.

Posted 19 April 2014, 10:02 p.m. Suggest removal

THE BELOW IS ABOUT COCAINE. WHY ARE YOU BEING DISINGENUOUS?

#Many Bahamians were horrified when The Tribune reported that when a school teacher asked her students to write an essay on what they aspired to be when they grew into manhood, the majority of the boys wrote that they wanted to be drug dealers.

#These children were mesmerised by the gold jewellery hanging from the necks and fingers of their fathers, uncles, cousins and friends. These drug dealers drove fancy cars, built their condominiums and had a pretty girl on each arm. Often a dead body was found, gunned down by a rival in the trade who had been cheated of his ill-gotten gains. But to the young, who saw only the glitter, it was a goal to be achieved. It was worth throwing the books aside and being some drug dealer’s gopher. The young man would eventually start dealing in his own right, and before he was out of his twenties, he was either in jail or his body was cold in the morgue. But the young never looked that far ahead.

#We knew our society had thrown away its moral compass when these drug dealers, because of their wealth, were accepted in many areas of society. One only has to recall what became acceptable back then to understand what is happening in our society today. It was a simple case of cause and effect — and today we are suffering from the effect. As was said in Hosea 8:1-14 – they sowed the wind, today we reap the whirlwind. The Commissioner of Police had much cause for his comment Wednesday that today the country is “in a bad place for crime.”

#There are many stories that we could tell about those years. But we shall tell the one when drugs hit The Tribune where it really hurt.

Posted 17 April 2014, 12:51 p.m. Suggest removal

Alcohol used to be illegal. It's the worst drug I've ever known. Seen completely awesome people turn into devils after a few. When marijuana is legal, what will you base your argument on once you cannot call someone who smokes a "criminal"? Read about it. You're misinformed.

Posted 19 April 2014, 9:54 p.m. Suggest removal

I said 'when' it becomes legal.. I guess it will be OK for many when Big Pharma says it is. People drink, smoke cigarettes, eat sugar... There are so many things in this world I doubt that you would agree with. It doesn't make them less human than you and you have no right to determine what is good or not good for another human. It will become legal one day just as alcohol and cigarettes are legal. And marijuana is a good stimulant of the appetite for cancer patients, yes, true. Reach outside of your box a little to find out the truth.

Posted 20 April 2014, 5:45 a.m. Suggest removal

sheeprunner12 says...

Just because several things seem to be in vogue right now (gambling, dope & LGBT), that doesnt mean that a person or society must lower their standards and comply......... its is still called peer pressure, regardless of who it applies to

For the record, we should weigh our long term national interests before making such major decisions................. are our politicians willing to do that????????????????

Posted 18 April 2014, 11:13 a.m. Suggest removal

How is it peer pressure? If it's legal, will you feel the need to try it? It's legal in Holland, but the majority of its citizens have no interest in lighting up. They do enjoy the profits of their sales though.

Posted 19 April 2014, 9:57 p.m. Suggest removal

You're kind of funny. Do you hang out with abusive cops on your days off and talk about all the "bad" people in the world? Do you let Big Pharma sell you pain killers for headaches? Weakling you.

Posted 20 April 2014, 5:48 a.m. Suggest removal

Sicko bro you need to go smoke some grass. Maybe then you won't be the most cynical negative piece of garbage on the net....

By the by. Never smoked weed have you?

Sheep runner. Believe me. I have done it all. Weed is the most benign of all. No danger whatsoever. Good for you actually. Should be legalized immediately. If sheeprunners smoked weed instead of drink rum LI would be a different place....

Posted 18 April 2014, 2:10 p.m. Suggest removal

And that is the crux of the matter, you've summed up the benefits based on **your** experience. Our bodies are chemical compositions each one a different mixture, who is to say that the effect marijuana or cocaine has on you will be the same as its effect on your brother or son? I know of two cases like this, a group of people experimenting and all walk away unaffected with exception of one person in the group, who continued a downward spiral from casual smoking to daily to skipping work etc.

I heard a new age theory on MSNBC that the drug itself is not bad, that science has unnecessarily given cocaine, heroin, marijuana etc. a bad name. What the professor speculated was that these drugs only take hold of people who are either emotionally or chemically predisposed to become addicts...it's an interesting theory and it might explain why some people can do a heavy drug like cocaine and function (mayor of Toronto) while others end up sleeping in gutters and mumbling to themselves.

If this is the case, which one of us can look at an entire society and tell them "responsibly", go ahead, have your fill

Posted 19 April 2014, 1:38 p.m. Suggest removal

Why are alcohol and cigarettes allowed? And Big Pharma drugs that actually cause death as a side effect?

Posted 20 April 2014, 5:51 a.m. Suggest removal

Newsflash: Cannabinoids, the active ingredients in THC, are naturally occurring in BREAST MILK! Look it up. Big Pharma has begun patenting cannabinoids to sell you in a pill form via a pharmacy near you! And THEN will you think it's OK?

Posted 19 April 2014, 10 p.m. Suggest removal

They sell all kinds of plant extracts in pills...a percentage of the population have severe reactions to those drugs too...

Posted 19 April 2014, 10:14 p.m. Suggest removal

How would someone get you high without your consent? Please do tell.

Posted 20 April 2014, 5:53 a.m. Suggest removal

I'm not going to school you on what cannabinoids do for baby in baby's milk. You are supposed to research more, but sadly, so many have decided opinions based on emotion, not scientific fact. Yes, it's true, so many drugs have side effects! Have no fear. Death will not result from using marijuana.

Posted 20 April 2014, 5:58 a.m. Suggest removal

I would bet all of you opposed to legalizing have never used it. This is ours. I don't care what your chemical make up marijuana is still benign, period. And should never be included in a sentence with heroin, coke and the others, including alcohol.

Marijuana should never have been criminalized in the first damned place.

To compare it to heroin or coke is insane. Compare it to alcohol and weed wins every time. It is impossible to ever get inebriated on weed, I don't care if you smoke constantly for 8 hours straight. You would not get inebriated or lose any control. Drink straight liquor for 20 minutes straight. No breaks, shot after shot for 20 minutes. You would not even be awake. You'd pass out in a slobbering piss filled pile on the floor.

Posted 20 April 2014, 6:02 p.m. Suggest removal

"Harmless" I recall overhearing the hilarious story of a candidate who showed up high to a job interview, I'm sure he thinks it's harmless as well. I was not saying all of the drugs are equally as potent, my point was your experience is your experience period. You have no idea the effect (or domino effect) it would have any anyone else's life. That is a fact.

Posted 22 April 2014, 12:57 p.m. Suggest removal

Sicko. You know I think that could one of your dumbest posts of all time? Trying to remember the many dumb ones from BI. This one has to be in the top 5 though.

Posted 20 April 2014, 6:52 p.m. Suggest removal

This is ours.

NO.....

It is benign to all... Period....

Posted 22 April 2014, 1:38 p.m. Suggest removal

Anyway to the editor.

Your story above is nonsense, it's about cocaine, it is not about marijuana....

Posted 22 April 2014, 1:39 p.m. Suggest removal

My life is awesome dready getting on a plane next week to go to Singapore on business. What you doing next week? Sitting ya ma's couch typin away on the internets? Such a negative loser. Been living wit ya ma since you was born and wanna talk about get a life!?!?

Get ya witless ass of ya ma's couch son...

Posted 23 April 2014, 11:16 a.m. Suggest removal

So sicko, be honesty now. Do you ever actually leave ya ma's house? Or is it your plan to spend the rest of your days on her couch watchin porn?

Singapore on business lil brain. That's what grown ups do. We work for a living cause not all of us have a ma that'll let us live on their couch...

Posted 24 April 2014, 2:14 p.m. Suggest removal

Of course you're in perfect health sicko. You never leave ya ma's house. Zero stress. You'll probably out live all of us. Course I'd rather die than live in my ma's house. But hey that's me. You do you son.... lol....

Posted 29 April 2014, 12:52 p.m. Suggest removal