June 25, 2008 11:26 AM
Would more pot and less booze make the skies safer?
You knew Mason Tvert would get his licks in about the reports of drunks causing a ruckus on airplanes.
The front man for the push to legalize marijuana in Denver and beyond proposes pot-smoking lounges in airports because he believes it will make flying safer.
James. B. Meadow reports:
"There's been this growing trend of alcohol-related air rage," he said Tuesday, alluding to episodes of drunken passengers creating in-flight disturbances.Just last week, Christina E. Szele, 35, a New York woman, was accused of drunkenly disrupting a JetBlue flight, punching a flight attendant and screaming curses and racial slurs after she was prevented from smoking. A cigarette, that is.
Szele's outbursts wouldn't have happened if she'd been inhaling instead of imbibing, said Tvert, whose two pro-pot ballot measures have won voter approval in Denver.
"The studies I've seen say that alcohol . . . contributes to violent and aggressive behavior," he said. "The simple thing is to let people make the safer choice to use marijuana, which doesn't contribute to violent behavior."
Leaving that issue aside for the moment, there is still the sticky problem that marijuana is illegal - federally speaking, anyway. Chances are slim that Denver International Airport passengers will be high on the ground before they're high in the sky.
"I can safely say we have no plans to open any marijuana lounges at DIA," airport spokesman Jeff Green said. "We're not paying attention to this."
Think Tvert is right? If passengers toked up instead of pounding down a few drinks would the skies we safer?
June 25, 2008
11:52 AM
Hogar De Vuelta (العودة) Wright is Wrong writes:
Christina E. Szele and all others like here should be sent to Singapore for some caning. We should legalize drugs, but increase the punishement for offenses committed why UI.
June 25, 2008
12:25 PM
JW writes:
Im tired of paying to warehouse addicts and weed smokers.
June 25, 2008
1:56 PM
MB writes:
It's probably not going to happen, but he makes a valid point. People sit at airport bars for hours during layovers and get wasted! I'd much rather be stuck sitting next to someone high for the next two hours.
June 25, 2008
1:57 PM
Rush L. writes:
More Oxycotin is the answer.
June 25, 2008
1:58 PM
MB writes:
It's probably not going to happen, but he makes a valid point. People sit at airport bars for hours during layovers and get wasted! I'd much rather be stuck sitting next to someone high for the next two hours.
June 25, 2008
2:58 PM
gr8fuldude writes:
Say what you want, but the guy has a point. Look at just this past weekend, and you see shootings in LoDo just as the bars let out. What's Hicks reaction, but to look at closing times at bars. A leading facotr in domestic violence calls is alcohol. The Devon Walker case was attributed to, you guessed, alcohol. Lots of examples to be sited here, aside from Szele.
Point is, we've all known people who take a few drinks and think they are Superman, Brad Pitt, or Kobe Bryant. Few of us, I would surmise, know anyone who smokes and thinks these things. Alcohol brings out violent tendencies in many folks. Smoking usually mellows people out. Solution: Legalize it and slap it with the same age and legal restrictions as on booze.
June 25, 2008
3:01 PM
benn writes:
Ganja baby, sweet ganja baby....
June 25, 2008
3:06 PM
Tree writes:
Weed. Yeah, little Ms. Dangerous needed some to slow her down, take her off her game, make her soft. Works for Carmelo. I'm here all week, tip your waitresses and Mark Wolf. Just think Mark, you get to peddle an hour plus home tonight in 90 degrees down the Platte eating bugs on the way. If you don't ride all the time, I'm betting your arse, neck and wrist are talking to you right now.
June 25, 2008
3:24 PM
Carmelo Anthony writes:
Kin I get good and drunk and then smoke some? It works for us all on our team flights, youknowwhatimsayin?
June 25, 2008
3:36 PM
Shaggy writes:
Dude, And what Law did our Governor just pass that goes into effect in less than a week???????
June 25, 2008
3:46 PM
DR writes:
Legalize pot.
I don't smoke it, but know many people who do, and they aren't adversely impacted, nor drawn to heavier things.
That we incarcerate citizens for smoking it casually is a travesty. It should be placed in the same group as alcohol, where people aren't to drive under the influence, etc.
I've seen a lot of obnoxious drinkers over the years, but never an obnoxious bong or joint user. I really enjoy my scotch, but there are a lot of people who become stupid and violent.
Let the DEA oversee growing and distribution, and sell a pack of 10 really good joints for $20, most of which is tax - and let's get after that National debt.
Time to grow up America.
June 25, 2008
4:21 PM
Kevin J Jones writes:
When I was a bit younger and dumber, I bought a few of the potheads' assertions about marijuana's harmlessness. But then the science got in the way:
In March 2007, The Lancet, Britain's leading medical journal, declared cannabis to be more dangerous and addictive than LSD and Ecstasy. About the same time, Professor Colin Blakemore, chief of the Medical Research Council (and in 1997, the moral authority behind The Independent's liberalization campaign) unequivocally reversed his cannabis-friendliness: "The link between cannabis and psychosis is quite clear now; it wasn't 10 years ago." As a result, The Independent last year offered its readership a fulsome apology: "If only we had known then what we can reveal today""
Psychiatry professor Robin Murray of London's Institute of Psychiatry estimates that cannabis usage is causally linked to a full 10 per cent of the U K's 250,000 bipolar patients
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/from_pot_to_skunk_new_verdict_on_a_noxious_weed/
June 25, 2008
4:24 PM
gr8fuldude writes:
Shagster - I know...that goes into effect 1 July, I think. Don't much matter to me, as I have an ulcer and cannot drink anyway.
I've always thought the blue laws were antiquated anyway. Real alcoholics always kept a supply on hand, and the rest of us were usually caught unaware. When I lived in Connecticut, people who ran out used to make runs to NY on Sundays, where booze was available after noon on Sundays.
June 25, 2008
4:58 PM
Tree writes:
8dude-
What's the word? You're right, real alcohol junkies keep it on hand. I was talking to my buddy's wife 6 months ago, she turned herself into AA meetings. Told me she would wake up in the middle of the night and would go down the pantry and guzzle some vodka she kept hidden in there. Bottle hidden in the garage in case that one went empty. Another bottle hidden in the ceiling of the basement in case...
Here's a first, I was just at a red light on Broadway almost ready to go as the light turned green- wait a second, this car isn't slowing down, guy runs a complete red light after a good 1-2 seconds of red. He's looking down reading his laptop mounted between the seats. Arapahoe County Sheriff. Nice, and talking on cell phones is dangerous enough.
June 25, 2008
5:14 PM
JMH writes:
Actually a great idea. But sorry, I thought of it years ago. I always smoke a big fat spliff right before I fly.
Keeps me from going off on the silly inspections lines and the stupid TSA agents that man them (wont get into all my grips with this, but lets just say this whole exercise is nothing but "window dressing" to make the ignorant FEEL secure) and it helps me sleep on the flight as well.
...and yes, I always spend a little extra money in the airport since I usually have a raging case of the munches by the time I get done being violated by a bunch of TSA agents that couldn't catch a cold in a closed room!
June 25, 2008
6:01 PM
DR writes:
Kevin -
I'm not saying that those things can't happen, but I've known a lot of pot-puffin-people over the years and not one of them is addicted, none of them are violent, and none of them are bipolar.
It makes me wonder if there wasn't a predisposition for things to occur anyway, and once the doctor finds out they smoke pot, a link is assigned. Who knows?
June 25, 2008
7:59 PM
Anonymous writes:
'more dangerous and addictive than LSD and Ecstasy'
this is funny .... I've done both, many times over the years, and have no 'addiction' at all ... neither do ANY of the other party-doers that I've hung with .... so this line is like saying 'water with a dash of salt is wetter than regular water'
June 26, 2008
7:28 AM
ML writes:
Tree, you bring up a good argument for the return of public floggings.
June 26, 2008
7:54 AM
gr8fuldude writes:
Tree - Ouch! When someone starts hiding it around the house, that is a bad sign...Sounds like she is doing the right thing getting help.
Laptops in the car?!?! wtf? Let's hope that doesn't catch on in the civilain market, as though most aren't already distracted enough. Mkaes me glad to take the bus as much as I do.
June 26, 2008
8:18 AM
JW writes:
"When I was a bit younger and dumber, I bought a few of the potheads' assertions about marijuana's harmlessness. But then the science got in the way:"
KJ,
What do you call someone who ignores science when its conclusions dont fit with their ideology, yet sites science as factual support when it does?
June 26, 2008
8:59 AM
Heather writes:
It might make for a SMELLIER flight. And I unlike some like to keep my wits about me verses being exposed to some stinky drug.
Fat alot of good weed would do ya when the plane is going down! Instead of helping people you're sitting there and could care less! Talk about self-centered!
June 26, 2008
9:09 AM
Observer writes:
Yes Heather, you are definitely right. Drunk people are always far more helpful during a crisis. And they are never disruptive at all. What were we all thinking.
Thank you for straightening us out.
Idiot.
June 26, 2008
10:04 AM
SirRealist writes:
Heather, actually I think it would be a matter of allowing people to use the "bong area" in the bars or something along those lines, not actually allowing smoking during the flight. It would be banned just like cigarettes.
Observer, a bit harsh this morning, it seems.
June 26, 2008
12:08 PM
Hogar De Vuelta (العودة) Good health is more important than political affiliation writes:
Heather,
Hash brownies would be the cure for your concern and JMH's.
June 26, 2008
12:22 PM
Stone(d) Cold writes:
The vast majority of opposition to Marijuana are those who have never used it.
Marijuana can devastate a person's life - turning them into someone who is less motivated than they would have been otherwise- but this is ONLY if they ABUSE Marijuana by smoking it too often and at the wrong times (i.e. before going to work). Alcohol is the same - if you ABUSE it, you can ruin your life.
Light or moderate use of Ganja, at appropriate times, cannot possibly do much more harm than good. Finish your work, go the gym, come home, put the kids to bed, then light up a big fatty while sittting on your balcony watching the sunset. It's a great "capper" to the day.
Not that I'd know (snicker).
It can also cause the same types of cancers that smoking cigarrettes can, but that is a personal risk vs reward choice.
Of course, one should never drive while high, and if they do, they should be treated the same as those who drive drunk.
June 26, 2008
1:06 PM
DR writes:
Good one 'dude.
And, I agree with you Stone(d), as this is fairly representative of my knowledge of friends of mine who partake. Personal responsibility is the key.
June 26, 2008
1:46 PM
Tree writes:
8dude-
Glad I didn't go to that weed smoking Rush concert last night at the colored rocks last night. They had to get soaked.
JW- "but science got in the way" That was good. Made my day. Can't believe I let that one go yesterday. I'm so used to the neocons rewriting history for personal power, profit and hate those contradicting statements flow thru me like smoke at at a Dead show when I'm one toke over the line partying with Heather.
June 26, 2008
2:01 PM
JW writes:
Tree,
I didnt even get into the validity of the conclusions of the study KJ sited. I was meerly pointing out his (and Hogar's, and other wingnut/fundies) tendency to totally disregard the science when it goes against their ideology, and site it as proof when it agrees with that ideology.
That said, I read that particular report, and the statements of others about that study. While it does go along with other studies in terms of showing that pot used by those with a predisposition to depression increases the instance of depression, and while pot does cause memory problems, it simply isnt as bad as the conclusions KJ was pimping.
I loved this part as well;
"declared cannabis to be more dangerous and addictive than LSD and Ecstasy."
First off, LSD is neither addictive nor dangerous. No one has ever overdosed. No one has ever "gone on a trip and never come back". It doesnt build up in your spine and subject you to flashbacks. Thats all "urban legend". Its not addictive AT ALL.
Ecstasy is the same in terms of addiction. It is dangerous on the other hand. Use can lead to death by over heating, though the dangers here can be limited by drinking water. One of the products of its use is ammonia build up in the brain, which kills braincells, obviously not good. In these respects, pot isnt anywhere NEAR as dangerous.
June 26, 2008
2:22 PM
Tree writes:
I got a good laugh at that too, lsd is addictive.
These are the same people who still listen to Rush Lintball and don't think he's paid for his BS opinion.
If you listen to Rush Lintball, you also believe this clip, it's the law, they go hand in hand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDVmgUeFkE0
June 26, 2008
2:55 PM
gr8fuldude writes:
Tree -
The really odd part about last night's concert is that the weatehr was lousy, but it was the makeup show for the rainout that turned out to be a nice night.
Got that?
June 26, 2008
4:06 PM
Tree writes:
laugh, I forgot about how the original rain out turned out to be a nice night. A caller into the Lewis and Floorcleaner show after the rain out said they called it off early that day b/c they wanted to film the event and it was nothing but bad weather moving in. If they were filming last night, that snake bit them hard.