<p>Actually, I worked profesionally on the public health end of alcohol and substance abuse for 21 years. I don’t know of a single case of anyone dying from an overdose, or a medical complication related to an overdose from marijuana anywhere in the world. Ever. Anywhere. </p>
<p>Not all mind-altering substances kill. And I’m no fan of any of those substances. But I know what the data tell me.</p>
<p>I don’t drive under the influence, which is fairly easy-although sometimes prescription meds make me groggy, but it seems those medicated with marijuana are better drivers than those medicated with alcohol.</p>
<p>
[NIH</a> study- CANNABIS COMPARED WITH ALCOHOL ON DRIVING](<a href=“THE EFFECT OF CANNABIS COMPARED WITH ALCOHOL ON DRIVING - PMC”>THE EFFECT OF CANNABIS COMPARED WITH ALCOHOL ON DRIVING - PMC)</p>
<p>[Why</a> Medical Marijuana Laws Reduce Traffic Deaths | TIME.com](<a href=“http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/02/why-medical-marijuana-laws-reduce-traffic-deaths/]Why”>Why Medical Marijuana Laws Reduce Traffic Deaths | TIME.com)</p>
<p>I have seen four studies that indicate marijuana use among teens actually reduces teen driving deaths? How? It’s simple. They are more likely to do it at or near home, and are less likely to drive while intoxicated.</p>
<p>I don’t think children should be using substances at all except under a Drs care.
I have read studies where marijuana is used to treat ADD and articles where it is used to treat childhood cancer patients.
The only thing I can think of alcohol being good for is relaxing smooth muscle, so it could be used in “emergency” pre term labor when nothing else is available and its good for cleaning.
;)</p>
<p>Coqui mom- a few years ago students at UCSB started an unofficial weekend party on the beaches of IV. They called it floatopia. It is this weekend.The next year and this year as well the sheriff and the school closed the beaches to try to stop the party. The students just moved it to the street above.
Corneliasue- many of the partiers at these big weekends are from out of town. Students from other universities flock into town for this weekend just like they do for Halloween.
I think the law enforcement and university try. On Halloween they block all the streets in isla Vista to all but residents. The surrounding shopping centers block their lots so out of town students can’t easily get into IV to party.</p>
<p>Well, if human beings are going to have to use mood altering substances, and, so far, it appears that they are, Marijuana would be the least dangerous.</p>
<p>This would especially be true if it were legalized and regulated and the user could gauge his/her dosage accurately and without unknown additives.</p>
<p>No mood altering substances should be used by those underage and nobody addicted to any drug, including alcohol, should use any mood altering substances, but so far as studies show, there is no physical addiction to marijuana, which cannot be said of any other legal drug we currently sell.</p>
<p>Obviously I am not being clear.Pot alcohol whatever we are conditioning children to believe it is just a phase an immature lark.Popular culture glorifies and sanctions substance abuse because we may believe it is a rite of passage.Let us reverse the trend stay sober for those we care about and it will trickle down.</p>
<p>Icarus, let ME be clear. I am a tee-totaler. We also keep nothing in our house.</p>
<p>My 22 year old drinks wine, as far as I know. (We never know as much as we think we do about what our kids are doing. None of us) But there was no drinking in my house. So, I’m not saying, “Hey, let’s legalize pot! woo-hoo woo-hoo.”</p>
<p>I’m saying, realistically, as an addictions counselor and someone who has looked at what facts we have on this stuff, Pot is much less dangerous than alcohol, which is highly addictive and dangerous, more dangerous, in fact, than many drugs people are more afraid of.</p>
<p>as a matter of public policy, having legal alcohol and illegal pot makes no sense. You’d do better to reverse the two. And, so far, humans seem to have a need for mood altering substances. In the absence of available mood altering substances, they huff gasoline.</p>
<p>Facts are facts.</p>
<p>Coquimom, Thank you for updating the thread with the latest fatality. Twenty four hours later and they are not releasing any more information, even though the girl has been identified.</p>
<p>UCSB is in a geographically very dangerous location for (drunken) college students. The ocean is deceptively placid and inviting on most evenings and houses along the main party street in Isla Vista are perched on a treacherous cliff. </p>
<p>I had hoped that Goleta would eventually annex Isla Vista, but they don’t want any part of it. Isla Vista remains an unincorporated wasteland with only scarce County money for improvements. It has become for students what the Indian reservations became for Native Americans. The culture of drinking is pervasive and contagious.</p>
<p>Momsquad- 18 yr old from Cal Poly. Tragic.</p>
<p>Very tragic. I am a UCSB alumni. Iloved my time there and I got a good education, but it was a pretty wild place even then. All three of my kids applied to there but none ended up there, which was fine with me. Two things. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>I don’t know how the marijuana issue is relevant to this. Marijuana is legal in California with a prescription and I think those that smoke marijuana also drink and do other drugs. It is not like it is one or the other.</p></li>
<li><p>My daughter graduated from San Diego State. San Diego State has always had a reputation for being a party school (as does UCSB), but I really felt the administration was doing everything they could to change that image and cut down on the partying. San Diego has an ordinance (minor consumption) where if someone under 21 has been drinking they can ticket you for it (not drunk in public and not possession, just being under the influence), the San Diego police will often stand out in front of a Frat house with a breathalyzer and give tickets to everyone that walks out, and regularly ticket the person giving the party. Not that that is necessarily the right approach, but they are making an effort, whereas I think the UCSB administration feels like that’s the way Isla Vista is and there is nothing they can do about it.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>[Mason</a> Tvert: College Students Nationwide: Allow Marijuana as a Safer Alternative to Alcohol](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>College Students Nationwide: Allow Marijuana as a Safer Alternative to Alcohol | HuffPost College)
</p>
<p>Just as the numbers of alcohol related casualties went down during Prohibition, problems with pot are a lot lower because it is illegal IMO… I don’t think we’ll know what the consequences of legalization will be until it happens. It is happening now in Colorado, I believe, but there are still consequences for college students due to federal laws. Outlawing substances does have some effect. There are those who have too much to lose to fool around with illegal substances and if they do so, are very careful. When it’s legal, not so much. Right now I have no idea how to even buy pot (probably ask my kids, ha, ha), and buying large amounts is very risky. I have more issues with the buying part of it then in taking it, though come to think of it, considering the chain of who is handling the stuff, who knows what I’d even be getting. Any ways, that does have a direct impact on the quantity bought and used, and whether one will buy or use at all. A huge impact. I’ll be danged even if I loved the stuff in my youth, if I’m going to be looking for some pot dealer to make purchases, but if it were sold in my local drugstore, …well maybe. </p>
<p>Full disclosure here–I have no interest in pot legalized or not, and am adamently against smoking anything… Here we are trying to get rid of cigarette smoking and now we are considering legalizing smoking something that will lower ones reflexes and also cause driving ineptitude. Has the whammy of tobacco and alcohol in one. And it can stay in your system a lot longer than alcohol does, so getting caught with it in there when pulled over for reckless driving is going to be one fun trip.</p>
<p>Marijuana was illegal in the 1970’s too.
But it was 100% easier for high school students to obtain, because drug dealers don’t ask for ID.</p>
<p>Studies show that drivers with marijuana in their systems perform better than those with alcohol.
Im not sure what the comparision to cigarettes & alcohol is.
It is nothing like nicotine or alcohol.</p>
<p>Preaching abstinence is only slightly effective.
Education about substances & risk taking behavior helps, but it has to start much earlier than when students go off to college.
Getting kids involved in absorbing activities that they choose ( but can be guided to) can sometimes provide them with enough challenge & excitement that they don’t feel as compelled to binge on substances.</p>
<p>When I see schools/parents wanting to play enforcer & think that is enough to stop minors/young adults from trying to alter the way they feel, I want to shake them.
Shouldn’t we be looking at * why* they are seeking this outlet?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree with this. Compounding the problem is that the kids themselves are never going to demand change, the slumlords collecting outrageous rent for code deficient apartments and houses are never going to demand change and the IV markets raking in profits on alcohol sales are never going to demand change. The surrounding community doesn’t really care because IV is geographically isolated by the ocean on one side and the airport on another. As one blogger put it, the prisoners are in charge of the prison. </p>
<p>It’s not known yet how the latest casualty, an 18 year old Cal Poly SLO freshman, perished and ended up in the ocean. The fact that she was not a UCSB student is irrelevant. It could have been anyone’s child. </p>
<p><a href=“https://calcoastnews.com/2013/04/cal-poly-student-found-dead-following-spring-break-party/[/url]”>https://calcoastnews.com/2013/04/cal-poly-student-found-dead-following-spring-break-party/</a></p>
<p>" I’ll be danged even if I loved the stuff in my youth, if I’m going to be looking for some pot dealer to make purchases, but if it were sold in my local drugstore, …well maybe."</p>
<p>The irony in Washington State is that you’ll be able to buy it from a store if you are over 21, and it will be taxed, etc., but the majority of customers, being under 21, will still be purchasing it from the drug dealers (likely cheaper), where it won’t be taxed.</p>