: You legalize pot, then what's gonna be next? Coke? The Big H (Epidemic in 2 Texas communities, Plano and Denton)??!!!Oh good grief...no doubt legalizing pot will result in mass orgies and Communism as well, not to mention blasphemy and homosexuality...
FYI, pot is a different "scene" to both heroin and coke. The coke scene tends to be filled with overpaid wankers with City jobs (as they're the only ones a) rich enough to buy it and b) stupid enough to take it). The heroin scene is a really screwed-up mess filled with broken people.
Yet most of the heroin addicts came to H not through cannabis, but through alcohol. It's alcohol that is the most common "gateway" drug. The dope scene has a different buzz to it - it inspires original thought far more, and the "harder" drugs of preference are likely to be LSD, mescaline, MDMA (Ecstasy) and psilocybin ('magic') mushrooms. None of the psychedelics are physically harmful in the same way that coke and smack are (although MDMA may be harmful, the jury is still out).
Any changes the psychedelics inspire in people are likely to be more due to the relaxation of internal inhibitions rather than something entirely 'other'. A typical example is the resentment against authority that blossomed in the 1960's with the public boom in psychedelics - the 60s trip encouraged people to say "bugger off" to the authorities they had resented but never challenged.
Oh, and as for 'epidemic', around 200 people die from heroin abuse in the UK every year. Compare that to 10,000 fatalities on the road per year. Puts it in perspective.
: As for pot being "harmless", I've heard of a previously-gifted person who is now like a 2-year-old due to that stuff.
You've 'heard'? Would you care to cite your sources?
: A high-school acquaintance who I quess at the time was an occasional user told me of a joint he once smoked. He told me that he thought it was a dud because it did nothing...at first...but a few days later just out of the blue it "kicked in"....he called his dad a "motherfucker", all of a sudden. Still think pot is harmless?!!!
Mike, here on Planet Reality, we have a thing called "proof". First off, the effects of cannabis last 24 hours at the most. Even the most wasted people will usually straighten up in about 12.
Secondly, you are reporting anecdotes second-hand from one of the people involved. What's to say he wasn't having an argument with his old man at the time regardless of what he told you? Or that he hadn't been harbouring a grudge that suddenly came out?
Your heart-rending story is utterly unsubstantiated, unprovable and scaremongering of the worst order. When you consider that people will kill each other for no other reason than patriotism, calling someone a motherfucker is not a serious crime...
: I admit I used to dip snuff and chew tobacco, and then I went to Marlboro and Winston, as well as the occasional Viceroy...cigars too! I've also been plastered-drunk on a few occasions. I don't use tobacco today, and I only occasionally have at most 3 beers.
As I said elsewhere, tobacco is linked to cancer, not merely due to smoke, but also due to chewing and snuff. While smoking pot may also be linked to cancer (smoke is not good for you), you can cook with pot and avoid the smoke risk.
Again, as I said elsewhere, comparing the "lethal doses", alcohol is 2500 times more deadly than dope. You can't smoke yourself to death in one sitting. You can drink yourself to death in one night.
: But no child of mine will use tobacco or alcohol until he/she is 18, and he/she won't be using the illegal stuff under my roof...ever!!! I wouldn't be the kind of parent who snoops around in the kid(s) room(s) at random. When I was a teenager in Ft. Worth (late 70's-early 80's), I had a friend whose mother did just that on a random basis...behind his back when he was out!!! Supposedly because it was "messy"...but my room was much worse!!! He was a good kid, btw...I never knew him to use tobacco, booze, or anything illegal. Getting back on track, I wouldn't do that to my kids...unless they did something to violate my trust, such as the above vices.
Oh, come _on_. Your kids, if you have them, will get drunk and smoke before they're 18. Is your memory so bad that you don't remember the thrill of an illicit beer at the age of 17? Unless you stay by them at all times, they will do these things, as the mass media tell them to from early adolescence.
: To close, you really do need to think about what you posted! Would you really let your children do that shit?!!!
Mine did. They gave me the facts and trusted me to decide for myself. I haven't screwed up yet, and I'm far more aware of my limits than most of the 'normals'. I'm glad that my parents didn't patronize me.
Gideon.
