Help needed for a paper....quick ?.

[Intalect]

I'm currently writing a paper promoting the legalization, actully decriminalization of some drugs. Essentailly, for this part of the paper, I need to recognize a drug that causes very minimal damage to humans. Here's some of the paragraph so you have an idea of what I mean.
The last argument I find compelling comes from Tooley’s article and is rooted in laws that prevent people from harming themselves. Seat-belt laws are one example, but they have worth because of the dangers they prevent for children. Adults on the other hand have capabilities to protect themselves as they see fit. There are many different ways in which people intentionally or unintentionally harm themselves. Should we have laws against being overweight, or not getting enough exercise, or not eating properly? Absolutely not, and this theory should apply to recreational drug use as well. Even if we obeyed this absolutely ludicrous theory, drugs that cause minimal damage to humans such as ________, would be considered legal under this reasoning.
Help me fill in the blank here.
This is just a rough draft and in need of some revision. Anything will suffice though, so long as physical damage as well as pshycological damage are relatively minimal. I'm looking to stay away from prescription narcotics and focus on more well know "street drugs" in order to cater to the professor.Thanks a lot guys. You probably deserve the A more than I do.

 

[potgod8700]

marijuana, is there really any question

 

[Intalect]

Thats what I was thinking, although I saw on bluelight that certain amounts of smoking "dope" (I love that word) can result in lost IQ points. Also, this professor is going to be fairly uneducated in recreational drug use. His first arguement will be "Smoking Mary J kills brain cells." I'm fairly uneducated when it comes to marijauna, so I'm going to bank on your advice as of now. But if anyone has more documented advice I'de apprecaite it. "Your money and you don't even know it." Thanks guys.

 

[yasmapal]

Smoking "dope" will not lower your IQ. It will change youir thought process to some extent though. But I would choose marijuana, because it is practically harmless.

 

[Intalect]

The researchers found the IQ scores of the heavy marijuana users decreased by 4.1 points on average, while light users had an average gain of 5.8 points, former users showed an average increase of 3.5 points, and nonusers had an average increase of 2.6 points.
Thats what I'm working with.
Check out the main page news. Thanks for the input though.

 

[PhreeX]

Wow! It's like a cluster fuck of greenlighters....
Marijuana causes damage to the respiratory system and can even lead to other problems - same as smoking ...
The drug that causes NO DAMAGE to the body or brain? Thats actually heroin, you can get addicited (as you can to eating, gambling, or sex) and if you do too much you can overdose... but you can use heroin every day for the rest of your life and never damage any internal organs or your brain (this is true of most any opioid) ...
"marijuana" .. figures someone would say that!
Now, turn in your paper and listen to your teacher say how "heroin causes brain damage" ... morons!

 

[Drayen]

i would go for mushrooms as the subject of your paper for a few reasons.
1. they're about as harmless as weed
and (sadly)more importent
2. they have less of an attached social stigmata to them.
if u wanna prove the second one go up to someone and ask them to describe someone who smokes marijuana. you'll probably get things like; dropout, umemployed, stupid, no motivation, etc...
but ask em to describe someone who does shrooms and you'll probably get a blank stare.
the sad part in today's world is that actual facts are usually only secondary to what a spin docter can do.

 

[RaverMadness]

If 99.9% of marijuana users were cooking and eating it (which is actually a more efficient method - who knows how much THC you're destroying with heat?), it would be pretty safe. It's hard to ingest enough THC to actually kill yourself, and most of those brain-damage studies seem to be a bit biased.
The problem is, of course, *everyone* smokes it. Why? Well, people back in the 60's realized they could exploit the counterculture by selling expensive smoking paraphrenalia to hippies, who were bogged down with their rich parent's money. Horray for capitalism!
Opiate type drugs have been used in medicine for roughly 150 years - there is the problem that you can potentially overdose and die, but that's lessened if you're aware of the strength of the drugs you're taking, and are able to summon friendly Narcan-bearing EMT's quickly. There are some incidental risks such as infection, vein damage, etc., from IV use, but these can be lessened by using clean gear and reading a damn book (at the very least) instead of fishing around for a vein.
If you're looking for the best no-harm, can't die ('cept for that enclosed area/asphyxiation thang), go with Nitrous. I know it's not technically a street drug, but it has a place in almost every rave with lenient security.
Anyway, don't go looking for the "perfect" drug. They all have incidental risks, so do alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine, to some degree.

 

[Thurgood]

If you do a search in social i just did a post for something similar where somepeople listed other resources and their suggestions, you should look at it too as i think it will be helpful, im just too lazy to link it now, sorry!
-Steve

 

[Intalect]

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[PhreeX]

Good point - for any legit school paper you're going to need to cite some legit sources, not the word of us filthy junkies ..