The decriminalization of weed has been approved by Vermont senate and now has to go through the house. It is the first state to actually legalize it for recreation, with dispensaries available, and it will be taxed and regulated. You cannot grow it yourself, though, and only people 21 years + can smoke it.

My concerns, as a resident of Vermont, are as follows:

1.) Children. Are people allowed to smoke near their children? Recently, it became illegal to drive with a baby in the car and smoke a cigarette which brings me to

2.) /A DUI. Apparently, there is going to be a breathalyzer for THC in the near future, but can it accurately measure the amount that one would have in his or her system? Marijuana, like alcohol, takes a while for the body to metabolize it, and can stay on one's breath for up to four hours at a time. The body would still have amounts of it for days or weeks, though, as the signal of THC fades from a person's breath.

2.) /B Will there be a legal limit? Will people have to sign a contract of sorts with the distributors to have a drug test on site, such as when a police officer pulls someone over and they blow a number on it and must then submit to a blood test?

2.) /C Like alcohol, there are those who are 'lightweights' and more regular ones that have built a higher tolerance. Would this affect the (possible) tests?

3.) Adverse health effects. Yes, there are adverse health effects, according to many studies. In fact, some studies have shown that people inhale up to three times as much tar from marijuana than those of cigarettes, though it could be because people take longer drags and hold the smoke in for longer as well, forcing one's lungs to endure the chemical byproducts associated with smoking, such as tar, cyanide, and carbon monoxide, just to name a few. Other studies have shown that marijuana actually has more harmful chemicals than cigarettes. However, this drug has not been studied as thoroughly as cigarettes and alcohol, so more studies are needed to see if there is, in fact, a link to cancer and cannabis. Just because it has carcinogens does not mean there are enough to cause cancer. Basically, we need to find a cause-and-effect, not correlations.

4.) Will those who use marijuana recreationally be required to have routine drug checks for work? Or is it going to extend to all employees, in order to ensure a safe work environment? What about the ramifications of someone high who acts irresponsibly and someone suffers for that person's decision?

5.) Where can you smoke it? To me, it has a pungent odor--it is nicknamed 'skunk' for a reason. I have asthma as do many others, and others have even worse lungs. And what about the 'contact high'? In studies it has shown in a non-ventilated area, one will ingest the smoke and it is traceable in the blood. Will it be illegal to smoke it out on the streets, like drinking alcohol is?

6.) There have been studies that, if one only smokes marijuana and not cigarettes, one can become mentally addicted to it, just like any other drug. However, studies are showing that there may be a risk of being physically addicted to it if that person also smokes cigs.

My personal views: I don't have a problem with those who smoke it recreationally a few times, but chronic users might be a big issue, like being addicted to other forms of drugs. As long as you smoke safely and responsibly, I think it's okay. But it's not okay to make it a daily habit for anything other than health-related issues, and it's not okay to smoke near children or in public, and you don't smoke and drive.

What do you guys think? Any fellow Vermonters out there?

Right now the only state that has recreational marijuana laws in place, as far as I know is Colorado. They do have pretty extensive laws in place regarding the usage of recreational marijuana though.

Here's a link to their laws, by the way, but I'm assuming Vermont might end up following CO's example and having similar laws in place once it passes. But they have laws in regard to allowable THC limit, where it can be smoked, etc. It can't be smoked indoors in restaurants or bars as it's under in-door anti-smoking laws as well. CO recreational marijuana laws

As for my personal views. I admittedly would like marijuana legalized, but not necessarily because I smoke. I believe that legalizing it would empty out a lot of the jails since so many inside jails in the US are in because of marijuana charges. Also, the amount of tax it would generate would be and is enormous in states that do have it legalized for either medical or recreational purposes. I'm also from CA where it's legal to smoke medical marijuana so I've actively become used to both smelling and in many cases having friends who smoked or have smoked marijuana. It's gotten to the point where while the smell is not something I like it doesn't actively bother me. I usually just walk away from it if it really bothers me.

I do the same for those smoking cigarettes. I don't and never plan to smoke because I seriously dislike the smell, more so than cigarette smoke actually, but two of my roommates do smoke( one for recreational, one for medical) and they usually are courteous enough to air out their rooms or just smoke outside most of the time.

Oh I am familiar with Colorado's restrictions, but I want to make sure these issues are addressed here in Vermont.

I'm all for Vermont getting money and hopefully lowering the effin' property taxes because they are redonkulous. Things are so expensive here. Plus, it's one less drug for the cartels to make money off of.

However, I'm a little torn on the jail thing. I realize that it's kinda dumb to be sent to jail for an oz or so of the drug, but sometimes there are other charges against them. For example, say someone is driving and smoking marijuana. A cop pulls them over and smells it, which then gives them the right to search the vehicle for other contraband, and there are a lot of cases in which they do have something bad-- gun violation patrol, unregistered gun, drugs, etc.

I'm not a current resident of Vermont so you might not be interested in my opinion. But, I am a resident of Washington which has legalized marijuana for recreational use. I would imagine Vermont would most likely adopt similar laws as states who have previously legalized it so maybe you'll find this helpful?

Smoking in public here is strictly illegal. No smoking outside, and no smoking in bars and whatnot. You can't even have an open container in public. So, if similar laws were adopted, children in public would be protected. Dispensaries are also not allowed within 1000ft of schools, parks, arcades, recreation centers, public transits, and child care centers. In the home I'm not really sure tbh. I would imagine it would most likely be left up to the parents discretion. Since children in the home can't be easily monitored by law enforcement, I would assume the only way they could be charged with child endangerment is if the child is observed high.(including a contact high)

Here, if you have a blood level of .05+ nanograms per milliliter of blood while driving it's considered a DUI. If charged you'd face the same penalty as an alcoholic DUI. I would suspect that tolerance probably does have some play into this test, but I honestly don't really know.

Yes, there are temporary side effects of marijuana. And yes, it does have more tar than cigarettes, but it hasn't been found to have any correlations to cancer. In fact, THC has been found to have antitumoral effects in laboratory studies. It may actually kill cancerous cells so that they can not multiply, thus possibly preventing the spread of cancer. http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/patient/cannabis-pdq Some scientists even speculate that since THC has antitumoral effects it may cancel out any cancer causing agents in the toxins consumed when smoking. But, I agree with you. There haven't really been enough studies to definitively rule out any correlations between cannabis and cancer. Hopefully, with more state legalization medical studies will be easier to conduct.

Personally, I'm a regular marijuana user, and by regular, I mean daily. I have psoriatic arthritis, more specifically, psoriatic spondylitis. Which essentially means that there is a crap ton of inflammation in my spine causing my spinal vertebrae to fuse together. It can be incredibly painful at times. I also happen to have fibromyalgia on top of that. So, since my diagnoses marijuana has been a primal and very effective part in my pain management. It's also brought in an enormous revenue for my state. They're expecting it to rake in $1 billion in the next four years. So, yeah I'm obviously a bit biased towards marijuana legalization.

I'm actually all for decriminalization for all drugs as I believe it to be more of a health care issue rather than a criminal issue. I personally would like to see taxes be spent on rehabilitation rather than incarceration. If we could focus on rehabilitation instead we'd decrease the demand for drugs, thus decreasing drug related deaths, and possibly decrease the amount of dealers. Portugal has seen great success by doing this, and I believe it could work here too.

Last bit, if you're really concerned about your state regarding marijuana laws you can always write your state representative. Not saying you will get a reply, but you might get lucky.

That helps, and I won't write to them because they just spew BS.

And I totally understand smoking marijuana daily for health reasons, trust me. But to use it every day just for fun or because someone is bored, that I don't agree with. Once in a while is fine, like alcohol. I suppose I am also biased; my parents don't drink alcohol all that often (a six-pack of Sam lasts for months) and I'm the same way. Maybe it's because my grandfather, my dad's father, was an alcoholic, or because Dad was in the military. Or my mom's brother being an alcoholic and drug user, and my dad's brother the same, and my own brother the same way. I have zero tolerance for it being a habit for fun.

Even more so after fully reading and understanding the effects it has on the body, both short and long term, how much it costs our state every year, and seeing what it does to individuals and their families.

Or having friends in high school that didn't give a shit about their lives or futures and drank every weekend and smoked weed all the time. It was frustrating to deal with their antics, so I stopped hanging with them.

And it hurts to see people like that, people smoking marijuana on a daily or near daily basis (even weekly is a bit much to me), because of what it does to the body. Same thing with any other drug.

There is no way in hell all drugs should be decriminalized. Have you seen what heroin addiction looks like? How often it kills? What about its lower-cost cousin, Krokodil? Snorting cocaine literally destroys your nose, not to mention the harmful effects on your system. Bath salts? We've all heard stories about how someone's neighbor dressed in a nightgown and killed a goat. That is not a safe drug for people to use, for themselves or anyone around them and whatever gets into their crazy heads.

MDMA? It heats your body up to dangerous levels, especially doing any exerting activity, such as dancing. It, as well as it's purer sister Molly, will literally cook you from the inside out. You lose inhibitions, and that doesn't seem to work out well for many people. Plus, both are usually mixed with other harmful substances, not to mention that either drug is usually used with other types. People mix downers and uppers, which is dangerous, but so is using either or a downer or upper.

There is one other drug I would consider only for medical use, and it's a hallucinogenic. There have been studies to show that psychedelic drugs, like LSD, can help people who suffer from chronic depression, but there needs to be more studies before anything comes from that.

And of course, there's prescription abuse drugs.

HOWEVER, I do agree that (using) it is more of a mental and/or physical health issue for most people (as other people do it just for fun, and they have no physical or mental illness, until it turns into addiction). I am not for decriminalizing other drugs, considering both short-term and long-term abuse they can have on the brain and body. Alzheimer's disease is linked with alcoholism, not to mention other drugs. Your brain literally shrinks itself and kills nerve cells and tissue. As the brain shrinks, it affects all facets of the brain.

I could go into a whole spiel on that, but I won't. I think this post is long enough as is.

Finally: Please don't take this as me getting angry at you, your situation, or your words; it's a rant from the medical and personal parts of me. I agree with some things you said and you explained the rules and regulations in place for your state, which make me not as worried.

But yes, there is a correlation between marijuana and caner, but we do not know if it is a causation.

Yeah, I don't blame you. Politicians are basically BS artists.

I agree with you about daily recreational use. I don't think it's healthy to rely on drugs on a daily biases if there is no medical reason. Personally, I don't even like smoking it daily, as it makes me feel guilty. Almost like I'm a burn out or something. But, between weed and what prescription drugs can do to the body, I feel like I'm choosing the lesser of two evils.

I also had some friends in high school that completely ruined their lives due to drugs. And by drugs I mean marijuana, alcohol, LSD, molly, ecstasy, cocaine, meth, crack, oxycontin, mushrooms, heroine, really the list could go on. So yeah, I've witnessed first hand what heavy drug use does to the body and mind. Like you, I had to drop all of them pretty much as soon as I graduated, as it got too depressing to see them utterly destroy themselves. Witnessing all of that is probably part of the reason why I'm more sympathetic to the idea of decriminalization. Because every single one of them had either some sort of psychological issues and/or had a really poor home life. And rather than incarceration, I would have liked to see them be put into rehabilitation. Instead of just getting back onto the same drugs as soon as they got out of jail. I fully admit that my view points could be wrong, though. I just think that the war on drugs in this country has been absolutely abysmal and we need to find a better way of handling the drug problem rather than just throwing more and more people into prison.

Also, has krokodil become a problem in the states? I haven't really heard of any wide spread use. If so, that's terrifying.

You're right, there is some correlation between cancer and marijuana. As I stated previously, it's been observed to have antitumoral effects, so obviously there are correlations. What I should have said is, I've never seen any studies indicating negative correlations between marijuana use and cancer. That's not me saying you're wrong. It's ignorance on my part, and I plan to look into it more.

Please don't take anything I say as anger or condescension towards you either. I fully respect your views, and even think you make some good points.

I understand your feelings of guilt about having something like that in your life, even though it's for medicinal use. You see, I have panic disorder with agoraphobia, and major depressive disorder. I am anxious almost all the time. I have panic attacks every day, and I don't even like to leave my room in my house because I live with my parents. I am prescribed 1 mg of lorazepam, to take three times a day, just to feel normal. but I hate the way it makes me feel and since it's a regulated drug that people can easily abuse and/or depend on. I need it, but I don't want to have to need it, because it makes me feel guilty and like a drug addict or something, even though I'm not.

There have been reported cases of krokodil, or at least one (I did look it up). I hope it doesn't become an issue, but because it's so much cheaper than heroin I'm afraid of it becoming popular.

As for your friends using such means to remedy themselves... let me tell you a story.

A boy and a girl grow up in a house with a mother and father. Father punishes son by beating him with a belt, but never touches the daughter. Mother yells at son and calls him stupid and retarded, because he has a low IQ, ticks, and a learning disability. Mother beats daughter with belt, cooking utensils, and hands. She calls daughter fat and ugly as she starts to gain weight upon entering puberty. Mother goes into dressing room with daughter and yells at her if something doesn't fit. She tells her she'll never have a boyfriend or husband because boys and men don't like fat women. Hits daughter with hands and hangers. Daughter his disease that causes her to gain weight because her body processes food differently. Daughter has a friend that gets in trouble with her mom and daughter is confused--why did the mother not hit or beat friend with a belt? Friend tells her her mother would never do that and that it is abuse. Daughter finally understands that slapping and beating and yelling are not normal or safe things. It took her 14 years to find out that she and her brother were being abused.

Friend of son sexually abuses the son. Son tries to protect his sister but the sexual assault happens to the sister when brother's back was turned. Both kept quiet. Sister cuts, has major depressive disorder, and tries to kill herself. Son cuts, parents find out about the sexually abusive friend, and ask daughter if he ever did anything to her.

She lies and tells them no.

Brother starts abusing drugs and alcohol, stealing, and finally leaves home for good. Sister feels guilty for not telling parents because maybe then the authorities could have done something to the little asshole and brother would have gotten closure. She has nightmares and panic attacks and goes years without seeing brother.

Hears brother stole from their grandfather when son and father went to check on him and take him to the hospital. He tries heroin.

Sister hasn't heard from him in years again.

Yeah, that's my family. Do you see the difference? My brother chose drugs and criminal behavior (because there are police reports on him and he's in the paper and I am so embarrassed and sad and guilty) and I chose not to. We bother chose to cut ourselves but he stopped and I didn't for a while. I decided I needed help and told my parents and they said I had nothing to be depressed about. I was 12, and just a year prior, my brother's friend...

They found out about my brother's issue two years later.

I still choose to better myself with therapy and medication, and trying to get my life together. I had the opportunity to drink and abuse drugs but decided not to.

There's a point when personal responsibility comes into play. I don't blame or hate or begrudge my parents anymore, and sometimes I forget I have a brother.

I do believe that the people who use and abuse drugs and alcohol need help, but they can't or won't reach out. Incarceration gives them a chance to see where there life is going and get help.

HOWEVER, I do believe the prisons need reform for people like that. I just think that if they get in a car and get caught under the influence, the streets are a little bit safer from those people's poor judgement.

I don't live in Vermont but I would hope that they would make the rules the same for smoking cigarettes, ie not doing it in the public, not doing it around children, you have to be a certain age, etc and add in laws for drinking, because weed changes your state of mind like a drug does, such as jail time for public "drunkeness," and drug tests at work, and dui's.

I'm personally against legalizing recreational marijuana. It makes it easier for it to get in the hands of kids, and it has been scientifically proven that, in not as bright of words as they used, the younger you start smoking it the stupider you become. Furthermore, you can get addicted to it despite what people say and there's also studies to back that up, and I've experienced marijuana addiction, or marijuana "dependency" as some like to call it because they refuse to call it addiction eyeroll, in others.

Not to mention the fact that marijuana is a gateway drug, and I don't care who says differently. I've seen so many documentaries and heard so many stories and seen firsthand how marijuana smokers turned into people abusing pills and doing harder drugs.

There's a huge market for weed and the government is taking advantage of that and it's sad. People argue for it, saying it grows naturally and therefore it should be allowed, but that's pretty dumb in my opinion. Shrooms also grow naturally but they're dangerous, poisonous, have killed people, and have caused hallucinations in people to the point to where they committed murder or suicide. Should we allow them because they grow naturally? Coca also grows naturally, which is where we get cocaine from. Should cocaine be made legal too?

Anyway, I am okay with medical marijuana. I also think jail time for possession of it should be lessened unless of course that person is a gang member or someone with several different offenses against them.

I'm sorry you had to go through that; my friend, when I was in high school, was addicted to marijuana. And I have always know it can become an addiction because anything can... just because your body doesn't go into DTs/withdrawals doesn't mean you cannot psychologically depend on it, like food addictions. It's still a chemical that alters your brain, same as sugar and caffeine.

And I also know it makes people...not as smart as they could be. I haven't read any research on physical withdrawal symptoms from marijuana yet but I would not be surprised if there are. Since it's a depressant, maybe people who try to quit become more anxious as a result.

And the brain... I fear what this will do to people who smoke it regularly for any reason--if alcoholism can be a risk factor for dementia, marijuana abuse doesn't look like it would help. There really should be more studies before making this legal, but people just want to toke up and have money.

And while I wish it was not something people use, it is and it's being allowed by the law.

As for that 'natural' BS argument... belladonna grows naturally, would you eat that? So does foxglove. Heck, might as well eat asbestos, since it's natural.

And I one hundred percent agree that marijuana is a gateway drug.

It greatly saddens me to see people want this to become legal, and to see how popular it really is. But I cannot do anything about it. I cannot stop it from growing, from people selling it and making money off of it, whether it be the government or the cartels.

But if the government allows cigarettes, what's another form of it, huh? :/

Thank you. Also I read about you and your family and I want you to know I'm sorry for what you've gone through.

What I've noticed mostly as a withdrawal symptom in people who smoke marijuana on a daily basis is anger, intense anger.

And I agree with you, they should research it more before making it legal recreationally. I feel like all it's gonna do is dumb down the population, but hell maybe that's what the government wants to do, lol.

Haha, I'm glad someone else agrees with me on the natural thing. Just because something is natural doesn't mean it should be legal.

I guess we can only hope that this'll turn into one of those things where when you make something normal, the hype over it dims down. But in reality that doesn't really happen with things.

I really do appreciate your sympathy for my past, as even now, the present me craves validation.

I'll have to look around for some experiments or case studies. Good thing I still have ebsco. Honestly, I'm a scientist... I do have a bachelor's of science in psychology and you best believe there is all sorts of science and math involved, especially in what I want to do.

I'll see what I can find out and ping you, if you would be interested, that is.

I really do hope that the hype will die down. I don't know why it's so popular--it literally smells like skunk, you have to inhale it which is bad for your lungs, it's bad for your overall health, and when my friend shotgunned me (totally by surprise, btw) I only had that smoke and nearly choked on it, and then I felt sick for the rest of the night. I understand once in a great while to relax, but I don't think anyone really needs it unless they are on the brink of a mental disorder or breakdown.

I understand craving validation. It's odd how that's a thing people need sometimes, but it helps us cope.

I am interested, thank you.

I don't know why it's popular either. It's viewed so positively in the media that people refuse to believe it's bad for you anymore. Or people just use that as an excuse for smoking it. You're right, the smoke hurts your lungs and my boyfriend actually had an argument with someone recently who was trying to claim the smoke from it didn't hurt you. False. Completely false. Any kind of inhaled smoke harms your lungs.

What I see a lot of in underage teens smoking it right now is them saying they smoke it because of it's health benefits. "Well it helps people with cancer... it helps people with depression... anxiety.. blah blah blah." Here's an actual conversation between my boyfriend and his 14yo cousin:

"Why are you smoking weed?" "It's proven that it helps cure cancer." "Do you have cancer?" "No." "Exactly. You know it's also proven to make young people stupid?" "Well if I wanna be stupid then that's my choice."

...Kids are ridiculous nowadays. That same cousin is now 15 and hasn't smoked for the past two months, from where before she was doing it daily, and guess what symptom she has all of a sudden from not smoking it? Anger, just like I said earlier that I've observed in people who have withdrawals from smoking weed on a daily basis. I don't think it's been scientifically observed, but I think it should be. I know my account is anecdotal, but every single person I've observed who smoked weed daily and then stopped for whatever reason, turned angry and violent. Not to mention the fact that after she started smoking weed, she began taking acid, drinking, and smoking synthetic mixes. More proof that it's a gateway drug.

I really don't understand the NEED to smoke it, especially daily. People say they do it for this, and that, and that and this, but really they're only doing it to get high. That's it. That's all there is to it. They do it because it's considered cool and it makes them feel good, and they use excuses the media gives them to validate them smoking it.

I did find a longitudinal study that monitored 70 people in this study since they were born. They had an age ranging from 17 to 20 year olds, and had given the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III when they were around 9-12 years of age and at the young adult stages (17-20) took the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III. They relied on self-report and urinalysis to determine usage, and anyone who was not consistent in their self-report and the urine test, or those who took other drugs, were excluded.

They chose to use the those tests to see if there were any differences before, after, and during, among the four groups. That is to say, those who did not use the drug, those who currently were using it lightly (which the study determined to be less than five joints per week), those who were heavy users (five or more joints per week), and former regular users.

Validity was determined with a two different but similar tests: comparing self-report to urinalysis results, and measuring the cannabinoid to creatinine ratio within the urine results.

Extraneous variables were controlled to the best of their ability, but they could not account for those, if any, who had smoked the days of the tests taken, human error, or the potency of the marijuana smoked.

They did use the hierarchical regression approach to consider factors such as sex, socioeconomic situations, education level, the age of the birth mothers when they had the child, if the mother smoked cigarettes and/or marijuana and use of alcohol during pregnancy, parent's education, and whether or not the subjects were exposed to second-hand smoke or used cigarettes and/or alcohol.

The results were varied, as they used the mean amount of joints smoked per week as a continuous or categorical variable. Under the continuous variable, those who smoked marijuana performed poorly on the IQ tests. As a categorical variable, there was a significant difference between chronic users and those who never and did not use. At the same time, no differences were found between the light users and former users.

HOWEVER, as this was a fairly short longitudinal study, I do not know the consequences on IQ further down the road, or if certain impacted parts of the brain (mainly memory) was a contributing factor to continued lower IQ or to some form of dementia.

Another study found that, compared to those who did not partake of the drug, users had different levels of gray and white matter density in parts of the brain, and longtime use of the drug suggests a correlation between chronic use and the structure of the brain itself.