JaserST4 said:
Yes, I have a source. It's called reality, apparent to the drug free mind. I don't really care if you accept it or not.
Ah, I was waiting for the inevitable implication that because I'm in favor of legalization, I must be a drug user. Well, I'll have you know that I'm completely drug-free myself. I don't even drink much. So how is it that we disagree on what "reality" is if it's so apparent to the drug-free mind?
Everyone I know that kept smoking pot and everyone else I know that knows someone that kept smoking pot has the same observation. They haven't matured mentally, they have basically the same mentality they had in high school.
You do realize, do you not, that this is an extremely unscientific conclusion? How do you know that those people didn't keep smoking pot
because they hadn't matured mentally, rather than the other way around?
Lots of people experiment with drugs and later go on to live healthy, productive lives. Look at Richard Feynman -- he experimented with acid, and he only won the Nobel Prize in physics. I have a friend who used Ecstasy (probably one of the more harmful illegal drugs) quite a few times in college, but nevertheless went on to get a Ph.D. in chemistry from one of the best grad schools in the country. I could give you plenty of other examples. What would have become of these people if "drug warriors" with half their IQs had busted them?
Ever heard of lung cancer?
Sure -- and tobacco causes it, too. Why isn't tobacco illegal, then? And how about all the diseases (including various kinds of cancer) that are associated with long-term alcohol abuse?
And again, what business is it of the government or society if an individual wants to hurt himself? It's
his health and
his business. Anything else is socialism.
I don't know why you don't think pot doesn't damage brain cells, I sure do.
Because studies have shown that it doesn't. For just one example:
Cognitive Deficits Associated With Heavy Marijuana Use Appear To Be Reversible
Research Findings
Vol. 17, No. 1 (April 2002)
By Margi Grady, NIDA NOTES Contributing Writer
Memory and learning problems caused by heavy marijuana smoking persist for at least a week after cessation of use of the drug, but they appear to resolve completely within a month, a NIDA-supported study shows. "Cognitive impairment from heavy marijuana use may linger for a week or longer, but it does not appear to be permanent," says Dr. Harrison Pope, Jr., who led the study at Harvard University's McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. "Even if users smoke a lot, these tests suggest they can eventually recover," he says. As a followup to this research, Dr. Pope and his colleagues are using functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine whether the more sensitive assessment tool reveals cognitive effects that his pencil-and-paper tests could not detect.
Source:
http://www.nida.nih.gov/NIDA_Notes/NNVol17N1/Cognitive.html
In fact, I believe there was one study that showed pot use had a
protective effect against certain kinds of dementia. (Not that I would use it for that reason.)
If you are limiting your comment to just one evening, sure alcohol can kill you outright but you would need to give it a good effort. I'm more concerned with the long term side effects. I know plenty of people who drink without mental issues.
Drinking kills brain cells if you do it enough, and it has other long-term health effects. Alcohol is unquestionable more harmful that pot in just about every way (except lung damage). Here's yet another study of note:
Study: Alcohol and Tobacco More Dangerous Than Some Illegal Drugs Like Marijuana or Ecstasy
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2975214
That highlights the problem I have with drug legalizers. They can't distinguish a Big Mac from crack.
Obesity causes a lot more health problems in this country than crack ever did. Most people have no desire to use crack, even when it's readily available (which it is and always will be).
I don't know about that but I'd rather fight a war against evil than surrender to chaos.
"Evil" is hurting others, not hurting yourself. And chaos is what we already have. Believe me, everyone who
wants to use drugs is using them right now.
Drug laws are an example of people not being able to mind their own business and enlisting government to be the busybody on their behalf. That's basically what it boils down to:
"I don't like you hurting yourself that way, so I'm gonna sic the Nanny State on you."
