I've seen marijuana fuck up many people's lives... Although it is less physically harmful than alcohol/tobacco, it - more often than not - has a fairly serious impact on cognitive function and motivation. I've known a lot of stoners who sit around all day smoking bongs staring at television screens like zombies. Stoners, in general, yes - there are exceptions, tend to be less functional than drinkers. There aren't a lot of high-achieving people, outside of the arts, who smoke weed on a daily basis. They are the exceptions, not the rule. Weed often makes people boring and lazy. Peaceful, too, sure. But boring and lazy all the same.
I'm not saying that I think parents should rely on alcohol rather than marijuana. What I'm saying is: ideally they should rely on neither. The article doesn't put forward a really positive statement about weed. The argument that "You rarely find a story that says two stoners beat each other up outside of a bar," is really flawed. It's one of the most common arguments to "prove" that weed is "better" than alcohol. It doesn't cause violence, no. But it causes depression and demotivation. Anyone who argues that weed doesn't demotivate people is in denial. Just look at your average stoner. We all know people who treat their bongs like crack pipes.
“It can make folding a pile of laundry fun,” says Margaret, 45, who asked that we not use her last name for fear of getting in trouble with the law. “If I didn’t smoke, that’d be three piles later in the week.”
There's something wrong with this^ psychologically. If she needs weed to function as a parent, and do basic chores , then - I don't know - that's not really a good thing. You can look at it in terms of what's a better alternative. But then couldn't you justify alcohol as a superior alternative to heroin? And so on and so forth?
This preaching to the choir shit. Articles written for one side of the drug war and other articles written for the other. Doesn't achieve anything. Neutrality should be exercised. All this "Fuck yeah, parents who smoke weed rock!" nonsense is pointless. Whenever drug users encounter articles that aren't biased against drugs, we drool all over them and embrace them. Just like anti-drug people drool all over anti-drug articles. What's the point?
Id rather my mum smoke pot than drink and take xanax...
I'd rather my mum not feel the need to take anything on a daily basis. Addiction to alcohol/ addiction to weed/ addiction to xanax... reliance on these things... doesn't matter what it is: it's still addiction/reliance. Smoking weed every day - and relying on it to function - is a little sad. I've been there. Smoking in moderation every day is not that much different to drinking in moderation every day. Both of them have their strengths and drawbacks. They're both drugs. And daily use of - any - drug is bad.
What I mean to say is: "Yay, stoner MILFs! Take that, alcoholic MILFs!" / contribution to the drug war via opposition, etcetera... *sigh*
The only article that is potentially beneficial towards the end of the drug war is one that doesn't preach to a particular side and - rather - presents a neutral and universally accessible opinion.
Fuck this Cheech and Chong journalism.
Those teenage years are just like that, for a lot of youngsters.
