Marijuana may not be lesser evil

[foodisgood]

^You're right that alcohol is undoubtedly more dangerous than bud when it comes to stuff like driving a car. But this isn't the case in other areas. You can find a good chunk of your typical middle-class Joes having a couple of shots in the evening. This can already be a tad bit dangerous (e.g., liver, psychological habituation), but replace this with cannabis and your AVERAGE person won't be able to maintain the same normal, productive lifestyle (if they had it to start with).

It just KILLS me how there's always a handful of stubborn replies to threads like this. "Oh this is baloney! Preposterous! MARIJUANA AFFECTING MEMORY? THAT'S NONSENSE! Eye-hand coordination? WHAT? My headshot ratio on Counter-Strike is 9.98! GATEWAY drug? THAT'S REDICULOUS. I got drunk in middle and school and graduated to IV ketamine the next day! Here's 3 Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles that I found on my database crawl for 'Liberal Leary Marijuana Benefits').

Marijuana depletes motivation, it causes somewhat lingering memory difficulties, it affects personality, it IS a gateway drug. Period.

That's not to say of course that it isn't safer to drive while you're ripped as opposed to drunk .

please dont just post things like that with nothing to back it up. The fact is that every individual is different and marijuana doesnt do all of these things you claim. Im going into college for music and what do i do when i get high? i go and write music. I play music. I practice saxaphone. In no way is marijuana essential for this but at times it does motivate me to get up and play. There is some evidence of minor memory changing, but it is hardly anything to talk about. Your personality is what it is. it is based off you, not the drugs you regulary use. And the fact is that there is no proof that is is a gateway drug. corrolation does not imply causeation. its true that most people that have done harder drugs did start using marijuana first, but im sure everyone of them also ate icecream before using harder drugs. you wouldnt say eating ice cream is a gateway drug.

 

[Khadijah]

wow, the quote you were responding to:


"No matter which side you take in the debate over whether marijuana is a "gateway" to other illicit drugs, you can't argue with "indisputable data" showing that smoking pot affects neuropsychological functioning, such as hand-eye coordination, reaction time and memory, says H. Westley Clark, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
"

anyone who denies that marijuana affects things such as hand-eye coordination, reaction time and memory has obviously never smoked the stuff. the quote in question was obviously referring to the affects of being intoxicated on marijuana. you just wasted an entire page posting irrelevant information about the long term affects of marijuana

No, youre also quoting irrelevant shit, becuz whether or not it impairs hand eye coordination dont mean shit as far as if its addictive or not. "No matter which side you take on if its a gateway drug, you cant deny it affects your reaction time and motor coordination!"

How the fuck are those even related. thats bullshit distraction. you cant back up your point with another irrelevant fact that dont got nothing to do with your original point. "While you might argue whether or not pineapples are delicious, you cant deny indisputable evidence that they cost more than most other fruit." Addiction aint determined by if somethin fucks up your reaction time or hand eye coordination, straight up. so i dont know why they felt the need to say it or why you felt the need to defend it.

You can find a good chunk of your typical middle-class Joes having a couple of shots in the evening. This can already be a tad bit dangerous (e.g., liver, psychological habituation), but replace this with cannabis and your AVERAGE person won't be able to maintain the same normal, productive lifestyle (if they had it to start with).

And thats just dumb yo. Replace that with cannabis and youd have 90% of everyone i know. I like how you also say...."I doubt the average person could maintain a normal lifestyle...IF they had one to begin with" like its some kind of rarity to see "productive" weed smokers. LOL. You sound like reefer madness. You think nothin of takin a couple shots every night before bed, and you think that a few hits of weed before bed is gonna fuck up somebodys life that much? I dont know how you can even act like gettin a lil stoned right before bed is some kind of drug problem yo, and i don tknow how you aint met no adults in your life yet that do this on the regular cuz i know plenty.

 

[motorcyclist]

^You're right that alcohol is undoubtedly more dangerous than bud when it comes to stuff like driving a car. But this isn't the case in other areas. You can find a good chunk of your typical middle-class Joes having a couple of shots in the evening. This can already be a tad bit dangerous (e.g., liver, psychological habituation), but replace this with cannabis and your AVERAGE person won't be able to maintain the same normal, productive lifestyle (if they had it to start with).

Dude, I can tell you that you are dead wrong.

I started smoking pot when I was 13.

During college, I smoked daily (multiple times daily), and worked 2 jobs putting myself thru college. Graduated with a 4.0 GPA and had a job offer on the table the day of graduation.

After college, smoking a joint was something I did every night. Some people drink a martini after work, I smoked a bong after work. Guess what- it never affected my "life". I raised my kids, I lived a normal life in the burbs, I climbed the company ladder and ultimately made it to VP.

FWIW- I don't smoke pot anymore. After 20+ years of it, I just quit one day- didn't really care about it anymore.

As for it being a gateway drug. I absolutely believe 100% that it is a gateway drug. And that is the government's fault- in middle school and high school you are constantly being told of the evils of ALL drugs, and marijuana is one they really stress as "bad"- just say no! Then when one does find out the truth about marijuana, that it is not as bad as you were led to believe. Well then everything you learned about drugs must all be false. So now you don't have any reason to fear the other drugs. It becomes much easier to step into the other drugs because the gov't (and schools) lied about marijuana.

 

[RaWr]

DARE was my gateway, all the drugs we learned about sounded fun as hell

QFT

 

[foodisgood]

the whole arguement i see that has any merit for the gateway theory is that smoking pot puts you in an environment wheres its easier to get other drugs

 

[kevz]

damn, i never thought of it like that. but it seems so true. ^----

 

[lyXw33d]

^It's true. If you went to middle school/high school you know the crowd of kids that is abstinent from alcohol, then eases into it, and then they get stoned at some party, but since "weed is not a hard drug" they're cool with that. Before they know it, they're looking at those "hard drugs" in a whole new way. Not necessarily bad, but this is just to say that it's a lot easier to get into drug use through a drug lacking a lot of the media-fueled hard-drug junkie type overtones.

And lacey k, sure a j before bed isn't really gonna change one's lifestyle, but I have yet to see somebody who is a regular smoker and ONLY lights one up before bed. But yeaH yo'z laceyk keep it gangsta.

Not that I don't love cannabis for what it is. I'd smoke it regularly if it didn't get me so god damn tired and wanting more. But for all you pot smoking musicians who just *gotta* get their creative groove on with some smoke:

Rock on duude!