Let me get this out of the way first: I dislike marijuana and its use (although I am willing to concede that it may have some medicinal uses in some cases). I don’t think it’s funny that in our western societies it is seen as the acceptable drug. I have had at least 2 friends whose lives have been ruined through smoking marijuana, and the effects it had on their lives.
Now, stepping off my soapbox - but only with one foot - I am amazed to see that South Korea already seems to be heading down the path of many western countries, lead by the very bold actions of the woman to the left of this text. Actress Kim Bu-seon, who was an ???? (Korean softporn) movie actress in the 1980s, has come out saying that she is a pothead and proud of it. She wasn’t quite so proud in the beginning though, trying to jump off the roof of her fifth-floor apartment when the cops came to arrest her for marijuana use.
The court was lenient on her, given her status as an actress, and gave her a suspended sentence. And she was dutifully penitent. “Being released from jail, Kim expressed regret for being punished for smoking marijuana again.” But then it seems she did a Strawberry, and is now “less remorseful, filing an appeal to a court in Suwon last week, saying the sentencing was excessive for what she did. The actress went further Tuesday, submitting a petition to the same court to ask for a judgment on whether the law on narcotics, which regards marijuana as an illegal substance, is constitutionally acceptable.” Ok now marijuana may not be a narcotic, but it is still a drug and a prohibited susbtance in Korea. Ms Kim has two main other lines of argument, it appears:
“Banning marijuana infringes on the right to pursue happiness, which is guaranteed by the Constitution,” Kim said in a meeting with reporters after filing the petition. She pledged if the court rejected it, she would take the case to the Constitutional Court. … The actress also said she wished that marijuana would be made legal because she has found marijuana can be a useful treatment for heart disease and glaucoma, from which she is suffering.
Sweet, she has a catch-all! If she can’t get to smoke it because it makes her happy, then we should let her smoke it because she is sick and needs it.
Besides that, she and her supporters have a clincher:
Jeon In-kwon, a famous rock singer, told a concert audience which included the actress, this week that any entertainers who disagreed with Kim’s argument are “foolish”.
I say let her and her buddies go live in Amsterdam, and rot their brains away there if they like.
28 Comments
I love the snideness that always comes with a converstaion over pot. It never fails. Somewhat akin to a self-righteous virgin Christian who feels all people who engage in pre-marital sex will rot from diseases. Or perhaps it is like a young boy whose parents told him never to go swimming because there is a danger of drowning. So, that boy sits by the cost and scoffs at the funny motions of those playing in the water. Sure herb (aka “POT”) has the potential to be destructive and habit-forming but not all “pot”-smokers are “rotting their brains”. To suggest this shows a complete lack of experience and understanding. I know many, many well-adjusted adults who recrationally smoke some herb. Personally I enjoy smoking a bowl on an early Saturday morning and taking my doggy out for a walk. Or watching a good movie or listening to a good Paul Horn cd or watching a movie like Koyaanisqatsi. I also enjoying smoking after exercising and relaxing in the pool. Sure, some people in my eyes abuse herb and sap their vitality with it but does it deserve more scorn than the folks who thoughtlessly shove factory-farmed beef in their mouths on a daily basis? Uh oh, now I’m a vegetarian-nazi too, right dda?
The laws are there to protect society from pot-heads. smoking pot impairs judgement - I don’t want ppl driving drunk and I don’t want ppl driving high either. It’s all the same thing. Until there is a road-side test available that can check if a driver is high than marijuans should remain illegal, both possession and dealing.
And yes I tried pot when I was in high school so I do know what it does. that was the one of the stupidest things I have ever done and I continue to regret it to this day. Now you are going to bring up alcohol no doubt.
I have been drunk and do not see the point. if alcohol were to become illegal I wouldn’t miss it. If you cannot have a good time without altering your midn with drugs or alcohol there is something wrong. Fun comes from activities not chemistry.
whoops, some typos in my last post. must’ve been that joint I smoked last month.
one more thing… I’m sorry about your friends Hamel. And your negative experience, Blinger. And I apologize for my tone in the last few posts.
Marijuana is not for all people and certainly can be destructive. But I sincerely believe it has a positive potential as well. As cliche as it sounds, it really can open one’s mind. And I feel it can truly be beneficial when used properly. I think it can lead to insights of oneself. I’m glad you concede that it has possible medical benefits Hamel. I certainly don’t want to persuade anybody to start using it, I just want to make a point that I know many responsible adults (and good citizens) who use marijuana positively.
Do you ever drink alcohol Hamel?
Who are you to judge, man? Let her live her own life. Marijuana aint no different than alchohol. Youre just socialized to think its evil.
Drinking causes a lot more damage than pot does
Don’t see to many pot head wifebeaters
Don’t see to many pot head auto accidents
Don’t see to many agressive pot heads
Don’t see to many riots caused by massive groups of pot heads
I don’t like Alcohol or Pot I think you have to be screwed up to use either, but I rather see Pot since if you are going to ruin your life, you are probably less likely to hurn someone else.
Ahhh, the pot nazis, always ready to jump at anybody’s throat, eh… Funny.
The majority of my elder relatives who have died were victims of smoking-related illnesses, primarily emphysema but also cancers and circulation diseases. I know a lot of people whose lives have been damaged by alcohol.
That there are dangers, problems, damages, fine sure okay. But it isn’t that and you know it as well as I do.
It’s not the dangers of pot that make and keep it illegal, it’s not the dangers of pot that have put so many otherwise harmless individuals behind bars in the US and elsewhere. It’s puritanical voodoo. It’s social mumbo-jumbo, and at the end of the day it’s an evil thing that has nothing to do with the given reasons.
The number one killer of children in the US is the automobile. The number one industry in the US is the automobile. Is there a connection? Damn right there is.
I know more people who have had their lives taken or damaged by cars than by anything else.
Your soapbox is made from cardboard and it’s too small. Get a bigger stronger one.
I’m with Hamel on this one. Pot is a waste of time and it is harmful to your body as well as your mind. Don’t let the marijuana crusade decieve you into believing otherwise.
Blinger-
And youre beliefs have what to do with me or the rest of the world for that matter? These social regulating laws are akin to nazism or communism. Laws that protect me from myself? You gotta be f’n kidding me…
It’s none of the goverment’s business what adults choose to do, as long it does not infringe on another. Substance abuse is a health and social problem. Substance use is a personal isssue. Govenrment intervention in this area has always failed, and always will.
I’ve been to the slammer in Korea for smoking pot. I met a bunch of other foreign prisoners, who, like me, weren’t busted for dealing, smuggling or possession, but simply for failing a drug test. Without getting into how good or bad weed is, I think it’s absurd to harshly punish someone who’s only crime is having tainted pee.
Sure, I can believe there are responsible users, but legalizing marijuana doesn’t protect those people who will abuse it. Alcohol abuse is enough of a problem. No need to bring in another that people will abuse. Some laws are made to protect the minorities of society. Hate crime laws and anti-drug laws seem like those to me. You deserve to be in the slammers in Korea if you smoked marijuana there. You didn’t obey their laws.
I say let her and her buddies go live in Amsterdam, and rot their brains away there if they like.
Better yet, stick around Korea and rot your brains away using nothing more than mainstream drinking habits. kombae.
Pot usage can have negative repercussions, but so can booze, gambling, computer games, overextended lines of credit, BLOGGING, ad infinitum. Anything remotely pleasurable can be addicting and ruinous in the hands of a few.
And yes I tried pot when I was in high school so I do know what it does. that was the one of the stupidest things I have ever done and I continue to regret it to this day.
I bought the Vanilla Ice CD the week it came out–one of the stupidest things I have ever done and I continue to regret it to this day. However I would be alarmed if it was illegal to buy Vanilla Ice CDs… especially with Tone Loc still readily available on the shelves.
Koyaanisqatsi
Good choice. Lately I prefer this.
You might want to look at why people take drugs.
I have done considerable research on the subject. Google - M. Simon drug.
The short answer. People in chronic pain chronically take drugs. PTSD is the key.
We do not have a drug problem. We have a pain problem.
So do we acknowledge this and try to find out how to give PTSD suffers the relief they crave? Of course not. We persecute drug users.
We have been doing this for almost 70 with pot. Is it working? Yes. We have a booming jail industry.Lots of jobs for lawyers, jail builders, guards etc.
It is amazing that people are so easily conned into persecuting their neighbors because they need relief from pain.
I started looking into all this after learning of the work of Dr. Lonnie Shavelson.
It is way past time that we stopped persecuting people because they have pain we do not understand.
Chronic drug users are in chronic pain.
I find this whole bit so ugly I could scream.
BTW you might want to look up the work the Israelis are doing re: using pot or its derrivatives to treat “shell shock” in its soldiers. We no longer call it “shell shock”. We call it PTSD.
Why are we making war on people in pain?
Because we can.
Did I mention that a number of mental health organizations say that chronic drug use by youth is a likely marker for chil abuse?
So tell me. Why the rush to punish abused children?
You want to do something serious about eliminating drug use by society?
Eliminate child abuse.
How hard can that be?
Have you ever heard of two stoned guys getting in a fight and beating the crap out of each other? How about drunk guys?
Alcohol is far more physically addictive, physically harmful, and apt to create violent/antisocial side-effects than marijuana.
Pot should be de-criminalized and put for sale to adults on the shelves of Canadian and American liquor stores. Criminalizing it MAKES it a gateway drug. It forces people with little interest in hard drugs to go to pushers “Naw, no pot today, but how about this….”
This post was so unbelievably lame and unworthy of this website. In contrast, even the way out there Abraham Lincoln = War Criminal was at least well presented.
Hamel, give your weak pontifications a rest. Coming down so harshly on this reason reveals a whole slew of prejudices and retarded thinking on your part.
The fact of the matter is Korea’s drug laws are extraordinarily harsh. However I have a feeling they will change over the next 20 years as more and more of the lawmaker’s sons and daughters will spend time in Western countries and will pick up a fondness for recreational drug use.
After one or two of them bring their habits back home and get caught by police who firmly believe they have nothing else to do, the horrible gulf between the punishment and the crime will be exposed. When these kids are rotting away in 20 year stretches, the light of far more serious things like violent or corporate crime will be shed on the parliamentary floor.
Where’s the crime, Hamel? Smoking pot, or a state making one so scared of doing something so innocuous that people are willing to jump out of a five story building to avoid being caught? Which is the life enchaining devil-on-the-right-shoulder?
We know you’re answer : “I say let her and her buddies go live in Amsterdam, and rot their brains away there if they like.”
Yes, because if Holland and other countries like Portugal have taught us anything with their doctrines of tolerance, it’s that it leads to a nation of brain-rotted backward hicks. Why all the hatred? Did your two buddies stop going to church with you?
Who is it?
It’s me, Dave. Open up, man, I got the stuff.
Who is it?
It’s me, Dave, man. Open up, I got the stuff.
Who?
It’s, Dave, man. Open up, I think the cops saw me come in here.
Who is it?
It’s, Dave, man. Will you open up, I got the stuff with me.
Who?
Dave, man. Open up.
Dave?
Yeah, Dave. C’mon, man, open up, I think the cops saw me.
Dave’s not here.
No, man, I’m Dave, man.
Hey, c’mon, man.
Who is it?
It’s Dave, man. Will you open up? I got the stuff with me.
Who?
Dave, man. Open up.
Dave?
Yeah, Dave.
Dave’s not here.
What the hell? No, man, I am Dave, man. Will you…
C’mon! Open up the door, will you? I got the stuff with me, I think the cops
saw me.
Who is it?
Oh, what the hell is it…c’mon. Open up the door! It’s Dave!
Who?
Dave! D-A-V-E! Will you open up the goddam door!
Dave?
Yeah, Dave!
Dave?
Right, man. Dave. Now will you open up the door?
Dave’s not here.
Go after the POT heads!! They are a danger to all those intoxicated people that urine on the street and beat up foreigners!
HAHAHA Zecks is stoned…
duuude…I got the munchies…
Pot causes psychosis and paranoia in some people and is a higher cancer risk than smoking. The less people touch it the better. The same goes for cigarettes.
Sure there are responsible alcohol users but legalizing it doesn’t protect those who would abuse it.
Besides we have wards filled with pot smokers with emphzema and cancer. Besides even if that isn’t true pot is bad. I’ve seen it myself. Why it is just like sex. Only more so. Or fat people eating.
Why just yesterday I was totally disgusted. Fat people eating and smoking pot. The very thought sends chills up and down my stomach. Why if it wasn’t for drugs I might have gotten heart burn.
So I say ban aspirin and all other recreational drugs. Because if they make you feel better they must be bad.
What more proof do you need. You can learn every thing you need to know about pot from government pamphlets and government authorized TV spots. I mean why would the government lie about any drug related matter? It is not like any government jobs depended on it or anything.
M. Simon, I have been looking at your well-reasoned and cogent arguments, and I must say that you have won me over.
[...] lling for a judgment on the constitutionally of Koreas drug law, something that was covered quite well by Hamel [...]
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