July 15, 2012
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Is Smoking Pot Dangerous?
When I was a kid, we were told that smoking pot was dangerous.
I must admit, I always believed it. We were taught that pot was a gateway drug and people started with that and moved on to other drugs. Plus a person could smoke pot and not know it was laced with something more serious.
Is smoking pot dangerous?
Comments (110)
New studies say yes. LINK
I never used it. My impression it is no more dangerous than alcohol which also do not drink due to the medications that I take.
If you grow it on your own and smoke it recreationally (not at work or while driving), no.
If you buy it from random people and/or use it while working or driving, it could be.
I hate the smell of it and it makes me want to vomit, so I just think it’s waste of money, personally.
I don’t think pot’s dangerous. I’d rather drink alcohol, but THAT is dangerous… lol
to an extent. I don’t smoke pot, because I don’t see the point.
new research says yes & everyone I knew who smoked it became significantly less intelligent & those who got off it felt freed.
I don’t think so, but I’d say “yes” just to annoy the fuck out of ASM.
I grew up around pot. While it is not dangerous in the way alcohol and the “harder drugs” are, it is still dangerous. People do all kinds of stupid ass shit on pot that sounds like a good idea. The fact is, although it doesn’t appear to be true for all, pot can make you stupid. Obviously anything that you inhale and it affects your brain will not be good for your brain in the long run. THC may be natural, but it’s still a chemical.
Smoking anything is dangerous to your lungs and heart. Smoking pot could be considered a gateway drug to an addictive personality, but the vast majority of people who try drugs do not go on to become addicted. If you roll your own, you don’t have to worry about smoking something that has been laced with a narcotic. My answer is, yes and no.
Do turtles have shells?
Pot makes you vote for Obama.
Meh, lots of crap is dangerous, depending on a lot of factors. Marijuana is not, to me, as dangerous as going into a gun fight with only a knife, but it is more dangerous than, say, holding a de-clawed kitten.
I would not engage in it, that does not mean I don’t do things that could potentially be more dangerous (like cutting my vegetables toward me instead of away from me). So I guess what I’m saying is, just because something could be dangerous doesn’t necessarily mean you should strictly keep away from it in every instance. That does not, of course, apply to hardcore drugs, which everyone knows should be kept away from, as they’re highly addictive and more dangerous than a great many things.
Maybe not but it’s immature and undignified to chemically induce stupidity. I don’t respect people who use it nor do most employers. I always chuckle when recent college grads are taken by surprise when they are required to submit to a pre-emplyment drug screening.
@SKANLYN - it’s true…they look so shocked…. We even are careful of eating Poppy Seeds & I love Poppy Seed dressing.
Anything in excess is no good..
I suspect anything in excess is dangerous. I used to smoke the stuff, as well as ingest in brownies, etc. back in the late 60′s & 70′s and as far as I can tell I’m doing Ok. Now days I use it medicinally to take care of my Fibro symptoms. It is the only thing that works as far as keeping the pain at bay & making my life easier. A wonderful benefit of living in Calif… *smile…
I don’t know. I guess anything can be dangerous.
yes especially if the stoned idiot is driving a car.
Not as dangerous as sticking it up your butt hole
Only people who say no are those who smoke it.See,it does make you stupid!
@amateurprose - Especially if you light it….Ouchy
Only if you want your guard down.
no, but there are people out there that will take a simple flower of a plant and make it dangerous like anything else. Cheeseburgers are dangerous too. Alcohol, soda, etc. But no one ever seems to pay any attention to that
I’ve honestly never tried it myself, so I wouldn’t know personally, but from what I’ve heard and seen, no, I don’t think it is. At least, no more dangerous than any other activity. I mean, anything can potentially be dangerous, if done irresponsibly. I don’t know why it hasn’t been legalized. There’s no good reason it shouldn’t be.
No but its stupid only cauae that crap atays in your system the longest. Seriously limits what you can do and where you can work.
i wouldn’t say so
I honestly used to smoke quite a lot. I think it definitely can be a gateway, but I don’t think it’s particularly physically dangerous. As you probably know, I stopped for completely spiritual reasons.
It can be.
I think like everything, it’s fine in moderation.
Though I am in the school of belief that it is FAR less dangerous than alcohol.
People need to get over the stigma that comes with pot. ANYTHING is dangerous if used improperly. Pick an object and I could probably tell how you could use it to hurt yourself. Pot is no worse than alcohol. If you don’t like it, that’s cool, I can respect that. What gets me is when people are so anti pot, they have to over glorify its dangers. Let’s at least be realistic about it.
Its only dangerous if you use it wrong. I believe it should be used for medicine and religion. The only people who go into harder drugs from pot are people who would have gone to it any way; pot was just the first thing they happened to try.
I’d rather gaze at pics of david gandy
he’s a natural relaxant
I’m melting and can’t see over the keyboard just thinking about his dreaminess
Maybe if you were having sex . smoking pot maybe harmful
I don’t know but it sure makes people stupid! Have you ever tried waiting on them?
That’s like asking if driving a car is dangerous, there is no set yes or no answer. Is driving good for you? No. Is it bad for you? Car fatalities are a leading cause of death in younger populations, so yes. Are there precautions you can take to avoid being the body on the road? Yes. Do they always work? No. Is driving a car better than making sure everything you do (grocery shopping, work, school, etc etc) is within walking distance? Depending on where you live.
Is smoking pot good for you? No. Is it bad for you? Probably. Is it better for you than alcohol, heroin and ectasy? Yes. Compare pot to a carrot and yes, yes it’s bad for you. Ask a police officer or paramedic how many pot smokers they’ve scrapped off the side of the road vs. drinkers and you’ll get a resounding round of, “Much better for you than alcohol.” Stoned people do stupid things. Drunk people do dangerous things. Pot is better than alcohol but worse than vegetables and a healthy diet.
Haha, no, it’s not dangerous to the majority of people who smoke it. As with any substance, however, when used in excess it can have negative effects and become an addiction (Hey, man, but, it’s like totally not addictive… psychologically anything can be addictive especially if one is predisposed genetically), at which point it becomes harmful.
There are always a few irresponsible morons who ruin things for the rest of us. Pot consumption is no different.
Oh, and remember kids, always know your dealer.
Buy from someone you know or grow your own, removes the threat of it being laced.
It’s not a gateway drug unless you’re weak-minded enough to make it one.
Pot is not dangerous. In fact, it’s a lot less dangerous than say, cough, alcohol.
Any mind altering chemical you put in your body is probably dangerous. Especially if it’s in your body while you’re driving a car. (Even caffeine has it’s ‘dangers’) And you can legislate laws to dissuade people from this sort of behaviour, but bottom line is that you’ll only be preaching to the choir.
It’s not as safe as all of the stoners would leave you to believe, but it’s not going to immediately damage your health as fast as some other drugs.
It is not if it’s self grown. Person opinion says “yes”. Just as alcohol, it kills brain cells. Therefore, with that research it’s not good for you. I personally can’t stand the smell. I think it’s worse then nasty dirty socks!!’
Ask Micheal Phelps if it’s dangerous.
When I was a kid, I decided to be a police officer and my parents told me that if I did ANY drug even once that they’d know and never ever hire me. While I realized it was a scare tactic, I also realized that my parents never tried to scare me if it wasn’t serious. So, I just never did it. In high school, I found out I am allergic to hemp lotions. And my neighbor smokes it and the smoke sends me into an allergy fit of epic proportions. So, yeah. It is also known as a gateway drug, like you said… I guess the way *I* look at things in life is that if it’s illegal, just don’t do it.
I like the idea of using it for medicinal purposes. Making a cancer patient want to eat (a la the munchies) and helping with the nausea.
Obviously it is harmful to the body. As “bad” as it is though, it isn’t nearly as worse as cigarettes, and alcohol, which are legal. People who say it doesn’t effect people give pot smokers a bad name, haha jk.
No more dangerous than other legally ingestable substances.
Also, I do not believe it is a gateway drug. If that is a gateway drug, so is alcohol then.
Considering all the stuff people put into it today yes. I’m not sure on it being the gateway drug since its really up to the individuals choice. Weed is weed. It doesn’t need to be legalized cause it smells like a dieing skunk. As far as being more dangerous the Heroin or cocaine or other heavier drugs, no its not. You can’t overdose on weed unless of course it has something else in it. And Ive never seen a real drug addict going up to someone needing a fix for weed like crack & the others. I don’t feel weed as the same effect as Heroin, cocain & crack do.
what isnt dangerous?
I’d say it’s equatable with alcohol—the problem is, a lot of potheads don’t have the “after 5″ attitude that people do with drinking, or the “only have a couple” attitude. If you drink all day or drink several drinks, it’s going to affect you. If you smoke pot all day or smoke a religious amount, it’s going to affect you.
And as for the whole “laced” thing… unless you’re buying your pot from someone who’s clinically insane, it’s not going to be laced with anything. It’s not profitable. Seriously, I don’t understand where people get this idea from, this is a 2 + 2 = 4 kind of situation. Why would someone sell you 2 drugs for the price of 1? Unless they’re specifically telling you it’s laced and charging you extra for it, it’s not laced. Even then, it’s probably still not laced and you’re just being ripped off.
@TiredSoVeryTired - Alcohol can make people do stupid things because they lose their control of their motor functions. PCP makes people do stupid things because it’s a severe dissociative. Pot “makes” people stupid because they were already stupid to begin with.
As someone who has smoked weed, I’ve never lost control of myself. I’ve never thought about doing stupid things. I’ve never done anything stupid after smoking. I don’t understand how people think that smoking pot makes you wanna do stupid things other than maybe watch some cartoons or talk about getting a cheeseburger for 2 hours.
@exprudentiavirtus - I agree with the second paragraph. They’d charge extra or something.
I think it depends on the person and what you mean by danger. I mean, it’s dangerous for everyone’s health but there are other things that it is a danger to.
For example, someone who has strict parents and wants to study medicine has a lot more to lose than someone on benefits who already has no chance of getting a job. Do you know what I’m saying. For some people, the high outweighs the risks and complications.
@Rainbows_N_Kittens - What is “all the stuff” that people put in it? This doesn’t even make sense…
Yes it makes people obsess on it and oh God stoners are boring to talk to if you do not smoke.
The real question should be: What isn’t dangerous?
The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, all contains added chemicals that can effect the brain and the human body.
The truth is, marijuana has been smoked by humans for a very long time.
It was only until it was introduce to the United States by the Mexican Workers that is was ‘dangerous.’
It was a way to control people.
(Do some research about the history of marijuana)
And for people that believe that it is a gateway drug to other drugs, then I would assume that they would also believe milk or apple juice is a gateway drink to alcohol…
Also, if you do enough research, and not be a complete fucking idiot, then you will know just by looking at the buds if it is laced or not.
I personally believe that is you are a smart intelligent person, then smoking marijuana is not ‘dangerous.’
But if you are a complete utter fuck-tard and you do absolute no research, then you could find yourself in a ‘dangerous’ situation.
I don’t really see it as a gateway drug. I’ve had many friends over the years that have done nothing else, but smoke pot. There are those few exceptions where a couple of friends will go off on a rather bumpy road, but you can’t help that and you can’t blame just the one drug. There are many factors as to why people go on to harder things. I also don’t think pot is any more dangerous than drinking alcohol. There’s also a bunch of different facts that play into those situations as well. I think it’s all about where you put yourself when you’re doing it.
Back when I was in high school, they told us that smoking weed would give girls chest hair and boys a pair of DD’s. Probably a good thing it rang so loudly of being bull – I knew people who would’ve been nursing a bong 24/7 if it didn’t.
everything in this world is dangerous. duh.
on a serious note, it can be dangerous. i assume just stay away from it.
Alcohol and tobacco are proven to be more harmful than weed, yet they are legal and most people don’t fuss too much about having them..
well 400,000 deaths per year caused by cigarettes (legal) 100,000 deaths per year from alcohol (probably not counting the innocent bystanders killed by some stupid drunk) 800,000 deaths due to prescription drugs (legal), sorry, couldn’t find any death statistics for weed. I’d say a big no. Not saying it’s for everyone. If you’re an idiot to begin with, it might make you more of an idiot. If you’re lazy to begin with, it might make you more lazy. As someone who’s smoked for a long time (I rarely drink and will only take a pill, aspirin, if absolutely needed) I’d much rather have my kids smoke weed than drink, smoke cigarettes or take ”legal” drugs. Just reading random blogs, I’d say 80 percent of people on this site are on some type of legal medication, adderall, ambien, painkillers, whatever the doctors hand out like candy. You should do a poll on that, it would be interesting to see.
Any smoke that you inhale is dangerous IMO. Especially if you use wraps and such, it chemicals in it, so just as bad as cigarettes. if you are using a bong or pipe it won’t be as bad, but IMO still bad all together to smoke.
I don’t think smoking anything is great for the ol’ lungs.
It’s probably fine to eat it though. Yummy.
No idea.
Not in small doses and if it is fresh off the farm…off the street yes its dangerous (to many additves).
Honestly have you ever heard of anyone overdosing on it? That’s because it’s virtually impossible. It’s not as harmful as people say it is. Just don’t be high at work or doing serious stuff. I personally think it should be legal over alcohol because the effects of it is way worse and the behaviors of people using alcohol are way more dramatic usually.
@Saridactyl - I’ve been around pot for almost 40 years. Some people will most definitely do stupid things while high on pot! I don’t care if you have smoked weed at all. I’ve gotten drunk and all that but have never gotten into a fight. Does that mean drunk people don’t fight? Of course not. I stand by my stance that some people on pot do really stupid things regardless of whether they were stupid to begin with. Pot affects reasoning skills, no matter what. Another scary thing I’ve seen with pot is that stoned people don’t take a dangerous situation seriously. That can and often does have dire consequences.
@trunthepaige - No kidding! Stoned people are annoying and look stupid with droopy faces. At least drunk people are fun (well sorta, kinda). lol
nope. the way in which you smoke it can be dangerous – i.e. tobacco blunts, etc..
and anything in excess is bad.
@alwaysjanedoe - I’ve seen people smoke so much weed that it knocks them out and they can’t be woken up. Maybe not an overdose that would result in serious health consequences, but still annoying as hell.
@slinky - True, I think it would be great for cancer patients going through chemo and probably can’t get out of bed and drive around town causing ruckus.
Everything has turned out to be dangerous when you have too much of it. People have argued the pros and cons of marijuana for quite some time now…but I still choose not to participate.
@TiredSoVeryTired - Well I’ve seen people black out and knock out over being so drunk and people dying of liver cancer all the time. I just think it’s a way better alternative to alcohol. It has health benefits. Alcohol doesn’t have any benefits.. (btw i like your username)
@alwaysjanedoe - I admit I feel alcohol is more dangerous in total than pot, but that doesn’t mean pot can’t be dangerous. Alcohol does have health benefits, as most drugs tend to. There are just more adverse health effects to override the health benefits. I mean wine can protect against heart disease, yet it will kill your liver.
And thanks.
i’d probably put it in the same category as alcohol. i’ve never smoked, but anything you inhale into your lungs other than air is not good… right?
I remember telling my mom that (an old pothead who still can’t wait for it to be legal), and she said she’d just eat it or make brownies. LOL
The responses to this question give you an interesting cross-section of the range of public perception about marijuana.
One unique property it has is that it’s sort of anti-addictive. The THC stays in your system for so long that few people ever get the addictive “gotta have more” urge that accompanies people coming down off a crack high, for example.This drug has probably been around as long as alcohol, but has many fewer problems associated with it. Look up the history of how it happened to be listed as a “seriously addictive and dangerous drug” back in the 1930′s , if you want a laugh.
@trunthepaige - That’s for sure. There’s nothing worse than someone who has to make every conversation about weed (which is more or less everyone I know who smokes it). I don’t care about how good that shit was you smoked last night and I certainly don’t want to listen as you go on on endlessly about all of the stuff that’s worse for you than pot.
you ask the stupidest questions. no it is not dangerous and i drive high all the time hahahahahahahahahahaha i hope that makes whoever says it is dangerous REALLY mad because it isn’t dangerous at all. AT ALL! lmfao wait is this seriously a question? omg it is wow well i guess this comment is as stupid as your question and the comments that i see about it, so i succeeded in being stupid with you. anyway NO NO NO it can never be dangerous and it is not a gateway drug wtf only idiots want to go on to something ‘stronger’ + ‘addicting’ that’s them, not everyone.
damn i wish i was high right now because this question annoyed the hell out of me ugh.
is this a serious question? or a desperate attempt to get a lot of comments? obviously it is dangerous. it alters the chemicals of your body. obvious answer that’s only a google search away.
I’ve smoked pot and I’ll prob do it again
There has been terrible cases where “fake” marijuana has been used recently in the news.
Pre puberty males should not smoke marijuana because it delays their maturity.
Cigarette smoke has a lot of Carbon monoxide, that drowsiness is probably a type of poisoning symptom and can hurt your brain. Who has a study on how much carbon monoxide is produced when smoking weed?
Anyone has some cultural studies on how smoking “ganja” in Jamaica has effected that population?
@TiredSoVeryTired - you can’t drink alcohol and then hate on weed, that is ignorant and you are making weed look bad like everyone else on here lmfao.
@TheySangTheBlues87 - i LOVE you (well your comment)
Well, too much of anything can kill you.
And when your “pot” is really poison ivy because you pissed off the wrong person, you end up in the hospital and almost die. I guess that could happen with food….
I think anything not done in moderation is dangerous. Alcohol is legal and has as much if not more of a damaging effect on the body.
@blowingmoney - lol I’m not much of a drinker at all. But I can still have an opinion on weed! I don’t much like either one especially when either is used wrong. But one is legal and not making drug dealers rich. And if push came to shove, I’d rather alcohol be illegal than pot legal.
Son los pasos que das en la drogas 10-0 y despues quieres algo mas fuerte,si no trabajas robas y te convierte en un delicuente no respecta a nadie y te hecha de casa.cambia tu cuerpo y tu mente y al final un desecho humana si es que no mueres antes
@comet555 - can you be my mom? lol
seriously, you said everything I had in mind.
@Cestovatelka - It’s only dangerous if you get drunk. I drink alcohol too, but I have never nor will I ever get drunk. It just doesn’t look like an appealing pastime, nor does getting high. I actually know what getting high feels like, because of drugs I had to take for surgeries. And I hated the experience and the feeling.
hahahahhaa NO.
Smoking anything is dangerous. Your lungs generally work pretty hard to keep the particulates out. I would much rather advice extracting the THC for cooking purposes.
yes, but so is cigarettes, alcohol, and a bottle of Tylenol. I’m kinda surprised that it’s illegal in some places.
@SKANLYN - so you experience schadenfreude against otherwise functional responsible people? cool. if people want to chemically induce stupidity on their free time, I don’t see what that has to do with their value as an employee, intellectual, or human being in general. pot is a drug with largely temporary effects (the report above seems to mainly deal with the method of ingestion, hardly unique to the drug as much as to combusted plant matter in general). i wonder what said companies think they are getting out of judging people’s professional worth by their personal habits.
NO. i just smoked pot yesterday and i’m alive
to be real, just have boundaries in terms of what drugs you are or aren’t comfortable experimenting with. i know a lot of people who only smoke pot and never would consider harder drugs. just fyi, weed is less dangerous than alcohol.
I’m going to eat a jumbo bag of Doritos and get back with you …. what was the question, again?
@comet555 - Thank you for pointing this out! MJ has helped me get off of Clonopin and Cymbalta (prescribed), which were devastating to my physical and mental state. I couldn’t concentrate on any complex ideas for very long when I was on them, nonetheless do the math, coding, and writing to see through the ideas. They were also making me gain weight and feel physically sick. With the help of weed, I am completely off other psychiatric meds and have had higher grades and greater creative and scientific output since (ended up with 2 minors and a 3.9 and am for the first time considering graduate school).
don’t smoke anything. nasty stuff
Deaths from Pot: 0
Deaths from Alcohol, Cigaretes, And all other drugs: hundreds each year.
@TiredSoVeryTired - there is fun stupid and boring stupid. Stoners are simply boring
@SKANLYN - exactly! I know all about the many qualities of weed and the methods of its propagation not because I really wanted to know. No I did not, I know thist because I have been stuck in a few convos with far to many stoners with no polite way to get away from their boring ass and their single minded conversations.
Wow how many of you are from California? Just about everyone I know here smokes pot on a regular bases and thinks it doesn’t affect them. They will even try to argue that pot isn’t harmful to anyone, but yet most of them smoke pot and drive while high. There is a pot clinic right outside my work and I’ve seen a lot of teenagers and old hippies come out of there. There are car accidents in the parking lot all the time because of the pot heads smoking out before leaving the lot. None of them look like they have any terminal illnesses, in fact the healthy teenager going and come out of the clinic with their brown bags to a car full of teenagers. Talk about a racket. I’ve never done hard drugs or pot, and when I smell it in the air, it makes me want to vomit. I have an easy job, but you’d be amazed as to how many idiots have gotten fired for being under the influence of pot. So I vote yes to the fact that pot is a danger to everyone.
yes, at catholic school they made us watch the movie ”Killer Weed” they didn’t know that we would laugh and love the movie.”
the bad thing is that kids smoke it and say,”that’s not bad ” then we thought what else are our parents telling us that isn’t true?
not everyone who smoked pot went on to other things back in the 60′s. I think everyone tries it nowadays but probably at a younger age.
When my sons tried it and alcohol I just looked the other way and trusted that they would be smart enough to figure it out without my help since I raised them right. I’m a retired nurse remember.
Medically, there’s nothing wrong with it other than smelling like terrible body odor and slowing down your physical responses. Really, can’t they make some chai-smelling pot?
It does tend to make people hang out with a unambitious crowd and be more likely to succumb to peer pressure, and any after-school special will let you know that’s the real danger.
@excitingfloatybubbles - On their free time you say? I take it you are either unemployed, self-employed, or work at Taco Bell. Those of us who work in Corporate America don’t have free time. We put in 10, 12, or more hours a day and even after that our Blackberry’s are bombarded day and night with emails requiring an urgent and immediate response. We work most weekends. And we find ourselves routinely dialing into conference calls while we’re on our vacation. Unfortunately none of this accommodates getting stoned and subsequently recovering from that perpetual state of grogginess and semi-retardation that’s seems to envelop you stoners even when you haven’t been high in days. Smoke all the weed you want but don’t expect any respectable company to hire you. As for what “said companies” get out of judging people’s professional worth by their personal habits, the answer is simple – they don’t have potheads working for them. Of course the more legitimate question to ask would have been “what do I think I’m getting out of smoking weed when it’s clearly a habit that makes me unattractive to prospective employers.”
@trunthepaige - lmao!!! You’re right though. In my experience, the pot smokers think they are entertaining because their perception of reality is skewed but that is fun for like ten seconds.
@TiredSoVeryTired - That is true.. I guess I’m just more on the pot over alcohol thing than the pot is good for you thing. I love to debate though! lol well i’m all for going out and having a fun time and I think alcohol or pot (in Moderation!!!) isn’t super bad for you. I love a glass of wine but I’m not out for the whole bottle, and having a drink doesn’t mean I have to get drunk, and smoking doesn’t mean I’m looking to black out. Just to unwind or have fun. And not with a bunch of people at a party that I may or may not know, but with a tight group of friends I trust. I think that’s as safe as you can get if you don’t want to be totally clean and sober..
……Only if it becomes a be all/serve all/do all habit, something that everything else revolves around…. then you are in danger of losing everything, and I do mean everything…… Peace
No. But smoking crack is.
There are people out there with 10 DUI’s before they are not allowed to drive anymore. Or God forbid they kill some one.
What is exactly a gatewaY drug anyway? Like is it that the drug was engineered to make people to crave other drugs? Does alchohol make you want to smoke ciggarettes? Maybe it’s just that people that are willing to do illegal drugs are most likely to also trying other illegal drugs. But one thing about pot, when you smoke it, you don’t want to do much else. I think that making pot harder to get has encouraged harder drug use. Since cracking down on pot all sorts of other drug use has skyrocketed.
My G/F smoked marijuana. She tried to get me to (I guess so she wouldn’t feel so guilty), but it smelled really bad so I wouldn’t. I won’t drink beer today either.
Anyways – as near as I can tell – yes – smoking marijuana is dangerous – it impairs your common sense from not wanting to do it.
I smoked every day for a little over a year (Ya, ya – I was a pot head).. I am now almost 3 years sober from any and all forms of weed.. It seriously messed with my critical thinking abilities. I dont remember a thing I learned in college those years. Plus, even now – 3 years later.. I am still recovering from short term memory loss, disorientation, inability to focus for nearly any amount of time. I never had these problems before I smoked my first joint. Its a nasty habit – and YES, very dangerous to your overall health, well-being, and relationships.
Thumbs up guys you are really carrying out a great job.
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