When I was in elementary school, during the “Just Say No” days, I remember hearing about drugs and being utterly confounded by the message. If drugs are so bad, I thought, why the heck (I didn’t say hell - it was a bad word) did so many people risk their lives just to get high? Something didn’t make sense.
In sixth grade, I was confronted with marijuana for the first time when a friend of mine tried it. Still believing the propaganda, I was very concerned and nearly turned him in “for his own good.” After all, he couldn’t be thinking straight… could he? Well, yes, he could. Contrary to my expectations, my friend was perfectly happy, did well in school, and did not start hanging out with the wrong crowd. Something didn’t make sense.
In high school, things started to get heavier. People I knew were not just smoking pot; they were snorting coke, dropping acid, and more. Being the straight kid, I even acted as a trip sitter on a few occasions.
Finally, I saw some of the negative impacts drugs could have. Of course, the reality of the negative impacts were nothing compared to what anti-drug propaganda would have had me expect. Upon smoking pot, eating shrooms, rolling on X, or whatever - none of my friends went crazy, had their life destroyed, or any such nonsense. The vast majority of the time, all they got was a good time.
Things started to make sense. Kids do drugs because they realize that adults have lied to them about it. If they are to discover the truth, they have only one course of action: Do drugs.
Yesterday I heard a story on NPR in which children were asked what they thought about drugs. Each child parroted back, with conviction, all the same false information I believed at their age. They said things like “you’ll die” and “you’ll lose all your friends.”
What will these kids do when they find out it’s not true? Drugs. When it is discovered first-hand that drugs aren’t so bad what, then, will these kids do? More drugs.
Duh.
Don’t get me wrong. I did see a few who “crossed the line” and actually abused drugs. However these kids had a lot of problems, drugs being only one of them. Unfortunately for them, the stigma of drug use would prevent them from seeking help even after they realized they had a problem. Making matters worse, “help” would often put the focus of treatment in the wrong place; they were treated for drug use when the focus should have been more holistic. Even if they got sober, they still tended to be depressed and self-abusive - just without drugs.
So what is the War on Drugs really accomplishing? Or, rather, is it being waged effectively?
My best friend in high school, Joe, was a 4.0 student who never needed to study. He started using pot in his senior year. Long story short- Joe did not graduate from high school.
In California, a 41 year old man and his 8 year old son were shot to death when they stumbled upon criminals growing pot on their property.
Yeah, pot doesn’t hurt anyone.
Does telling yourself that make you feel better?
Drugs are good, everything in moderation… I got that same bullshit too. Thank you Nancy Regan you made us all want to smoke pot.
Oh yeah that could also be considered trespassing, and how many people get shot because of that in the US. And youre best friend couldnt handle drugs, bet you he had bigger problems than drugs. Not everyone that does drugs fails in life, unlike your loser friend. Book smarts doesnt mean that you have common sense, obviously something your friend was lacking.
In California, a 41 year old man and his 8 year old son were shot to death when they stumbled upon criminals growing pot on their property. Had pot been legal, no armed guards would have been present just as there are no armed tomato field guards.
SumDumGuy : comment put on a blog to incite debate, mostly likely by the author of the post.
Pointing out extreme circumstances is just as retarded as making vast generalizations. There are always outliers. But to stoop to your level; do you still drive your car to work even though you saw that someone died in a car accident on the news?
Also, a friend of mine, and probably the biggest pot head I know, was not only the top cross country runner in the state but also ended up going to Yale.
>My best friend in high school, Joe, was a 4.0 student who never needed to study. He started
>using pot in his senior year. Long story short- Joe did not graduate from high school.
Yes I know people like this too, final year of school you generally need to study and work hard. I bet you friends ‘never needed to study’ attitude was more to blame than the pot.
>In California, a 41 year old man and his 8 year old son were shot to death when they stumbled
>upon criminals growing pot on their property.
If these criminals hadn’t been able to make money in a fairly harmless way up until this stage they probably would have shot someone in a bank robbery to make their money. Criminals find a way to break the law no matter what, you cant blame pot for this.
>Yeah, pot doesn’t hurt anyone.
Correct
>Does telling yourself that make you feel better?
I think it is obvious from the article the poster is living in torment and that the only reason he has made posted this is so that he can ‘feel better’ and that deep down inside he really does share your own narrow minded opinions.
Come back when you have something decent to say
Not going to argue with anyone, due to the fact that much anyone reading this article knows that it’s all a moot point.
However, I would like to state that this is an EXCELLENTLY written piece, and I enjoyed it immensely. I intend to share this with many! Thanks!
@SumDumGuy
1) Evidence is not the plural of anecdote. Real research shows that Cannabis is much less harmful than alcohol and legal drugs.
2) Perhaps if growing a harmless substance like Cannabis was not illegal there would be no violent psychopaths growing it and thus the Californian father and son might not have been shot. Explanation: People who have high anxiety/stress thresholds find it easier to do dangerous things like break the law. Very often those same people are violent as well. The stricter the laws against something like Cannabis the more prevalent these hardened anxiety-resistent, violent types will be; everyone else is too scared to do it.
So, carry on being a sheep in the flock that believes the government lies.
I agree that kids are lied to about drugs, but I disagree with your thesis. You wrote that:
“Kids do drugs because they realize that adults have lied to them about it. If they are to discover the truth, they have only one course of action: Do drugs.”
I grew up in a town full of pot smoking ex-hippies, so it was always around. At school of course we were taught that drugs were bad - but all of our parents smoked pot. Don’t get me wrong - most of them were very discrete about it; it wasn’t until about the 5th grade that I started noticing that they sometimes acted weird. But when you are a young kid you just accept what is going on around you - because you don’t have anything to judge it against. As you get older and start really noticing the world around you - you begin to build a model of the world and start to judge what is around you based on that model. Rebellion can stem from these expectations (which may or may not be true).
TV and other major media have become a huge influence on these expectations. A good example are ads - they are all about shaping your expectations. The whole purpose of an ad is to get you to want something - in essence it changes how you look at the world by changing your expectations. You are no longer good enough, healthy enough, or beautiful enough unless you buy X, Y, or Z. If you get X, Y, or Z you will be happy.
Rebellion stems from a conflict between what is and what could be. Psychologists call this cognitive dissonance. You want something, but reality is different than what you want. I think this is why most people do drugs - because from about the age of 2 we are bombarded with the message that reality is never here - aka “The Grass is Greener on the Other Side Syndrome”. I know that is why I have done drugs - because at that time I perceived life to be rather mundane in comparison to what I wanted it to be. Drugs cause neurological changes that fill in the gap. They give you that instant gratification that TV and movies only offer.
I was not introduced to pot by someone who was rebelling against being lied to. In fact it was the exact opposite - his mom smoked dope around him so he knew that there was nothing inherently wrong with it. Today he doesn’t smoke at all - so go figure; in fact he is one of the most anti drug people I know. I also think it is more curiosity than being lied to that leads to the initial desire to do drugs. That is why I first tried most drugs (esp. hallucinogens).
So I think your post is on the right track, but maybe not the best track. In a funny side note - one of my favorite high school memories was when the drug dogs showed up and found a joint in a friends car. They pulled him out in the parking lot, and while they searched his car, he was sitting on the hood wearing a DARE t-shirt…One of the only times I wish I had a camera.
Count me as being a sheep in the flock that believes that the government lies.
I run track and xc for a little ivy. This pothead runs a 4:20 mile and got a 1440 on the SATs.
My friend smokes weed. He is a 4.0 student, works two jobs, and hangs out with all the right people. Moderation.
Thats the exact reason why I’ve tried drugs. It’s also the exact reason why I drive considerably faster than the speed limit. I’ve been told all these things are awful and terrible, and when I try them for myself I find out they are not…so then I push the limits on all things just to find out what else I was lied to about.
Granted, if pot was legal and regulated like alcohol, trafficking wouldn’t be a problem, but it’s not legal and unless you grow it/make it yourself, people are probably dying to get it to you. I’d refuse to consume unless I knew where it came from.
I don’t believe the whole gateway-drug thing in general, I do think marijuana is in a different class, and studies have shown it to not be all that bad. I grew up with D.A.R.E., but pot never scared me; but meth & crack do scare me.
I do think there’s better things to do with my time than drugs, but plenty of people are wasting their lives in front of the TV or computer screen, so who am I to say that pot-smoking is a waste of time?
The real reasons kids do drugs is they’re curious & think they’re indestructible. The real reason the government has a “war on drugs” is cuz they don’t get a cut. The real reason parents support the “war on drugs” is because they don’t want to do any parenting themselves; school & the government should be doing that for them.
I personally believe that drug abuse stems from personal problems more than the use of the drug itself. The drug becomes an escape from the problem that torments the individual. Since these particular cases are particularly dramatic, they are over emphasized and distort the problem.
Furthermore, not all drug users are depressed, depraved, psychopaths, which is what they are portrayed as.
I personally believe that a person who is, for the most part, satisfied with his life and has control over his actions can use drugs in a non-harmful way. It is the same story with alcohol consumption. One can indulge from time to time, but it MUST be done responsibly. Would you let yourself get extremely drunk before an important meeting? Of course not! If you have trouble governing yourself, then you should probably stay away from potentially hazardous substances.
On the other hand, I do believe that some of the “hardcore” drugs are genuinely dangerous. However, I think the perception that marijuana, in particular, is evil is completely ridiculous. I would much rather see people stoned and laughing at something mundane than drunk and fighting with each other over something equally mundane.
If these drugs are so harmless….
Why would someone need a “trip-sitter”?
Also…
Altered states can be fun, but not being able to control your functionality can lead to disaster. This is why DWI is problematic.
Drugs are only harmless if:
1. The person using the drugs is kept under surveillance or isolation.
2. The person using the drugs does not become addicted.
3. The person using the drugs does not suffer any side-affects from the drugs.
4. No one has been harmed in the production, trafficking, and/or sale of said drugs.
I am not going to debate the legal vs illegal aspect of drugs, but do not tell me that drugs are completely harmless. Convince me that all four criteria have been met and I will gladly agree with you.
If 300,000 people died a year from marijuana I wouldn’t consider stopping. I started smoking marijuana sophmore year of high school and my grades weren’t affected. On the other hand my buddies started taking prescription drugs xanex and pain pills(loratab, oxy, etc.) and they are crazy and very uninteresting. Marijuana is a substance that has increased the quality of my life. If hasn’t done so for you, well too bad don’t try to ruin for the rest of us. Oh ya alcohol should be illegal if marijuana is.
I’m always amazed by the petty but resilient little arguments advanced by this country’s drug warriors.
Some of my favorites have already appeared in this thread.
-Drugs make people go crazy and ruin their lives. All the people I know who have become drug addicts (a very small percentage of drug users I have met) were already pretty messed up to begin with. I agree that there is no going back once you smoke the dope or eat the shrooms, but then again every experience you have changes who you are and how you view the world. I think that drugs, particularly hallucinogens have been on balance a positive force in my life.
-Drug dealers are bad so drugs must be bad. So, when was the last time your local bartender or 7-11 clerk kicked the crap out of you? The drug game is a product of the drug war which is a product of asshole puritans criminalizing any behavior they deem improper. If drugs were legal, their sale and distribution would not be controlled by insane gangsters but by business men. In fact, many many people currently involved in drug trafficking and production are just that, and yet our government destroys their livelihoods, locks them up and worse.
The failure of prohibition is evidenced by the fact that I, a non-user, could have a bag of meth in my hand with 2 phone calls and 20 minutes in the car. I don’t because I don’t want to, not because its illegal. When are people going to get that through their heads?
Hi SumDumGuy,
I’m sorry to hear about your friend who didn’t graduate. As “Tricks are 4 Kids” said - moderation is key. I agree with you that drugs are bad. Pot and many other drugs - legal and illegal - can be bad. The problem I wish to point out is that the method employed to prevent drug use is having the opposite effect.
As for the father and son that were shot to death. I wouldn’t place the blame on pot. I would place the blame on the person that did the shooting. I would also look at the catalyst that created the situation in the first place: laws which drive irrepressible markets underground.
-JSwan
In answer to SDG’s second anecdote:
Take away the guns from the story and what are yuou left with? Nothing. The pot is harmless.
To paraphase a common refrain: “It’s the guns, stupid!”
Dude you’re so right.
The scare tactics suck.
My dad was a HEAVY drug tester. Man he had tried everything he’d been shooting up heroin, doing LSD, making his own opium. If it was about getting high he knew about it.
He used to tell me of taking LSD and driving at night he said it was totally wild experience.
I spent hours questionning him about every single drug and what they did and how they worked and the upside and downside etc. I found it interesting and informative.
He never said do this one or don’t do this one or nothing like that. He was just factual.
But I understood and I knew what to do - i.e. I could decide if I wanted to take the dive or not. I tried pot, didn’t really like it. It ended there.
My dad’s dead - but he helped me stay out of the mess.
FACTS is what helps not opinions not scare tactics. Check out the link below, it’s just FACTS not the scare stuff.
http://www.drugfreeworld.org/factsaboutdrugs/ecstasy.html
[;-]
Hey SumDumGuy, if growing pot were legal, father and son would still be alive! I don’t hear many stories about a father and son being shot to death while stumbling upon a tobacco or hopps farm. Both of which are used in the production of more deadly drugs then marijuana, which I might add are both legal to consume by any American.
I am sick and tired of people in this country telling me what I should or shouldn’t do with myself. Who the hell cares if I go from being a 4.0 student to a failure in 1 year, IT’S MY LIFE TO DO SO WITH AS I CHOOSE! As long as I’m not hurting anyone else in the process why should anything be a crime? And don’t give me any of your, “It supports terrorism and organized crime” bull crap. If it were legal, the only people it would support were legitimate farmers trying to make a honest living.
People in the US are so mixed up by the mass media and propaganda that they don’t know what to think. Sometimes I even believe they don’t want to think. Put a commercial on during American Idol which claims peanuts are the evil new drug and the peanut farmer would be extinct. Look at what happened in the 1980’s with the oats surplus problem. Put it on TV and tell people it’s good for them, no more problem.
Drugs are not illegal because of their effects on people, they’re illegal because of the greed of the rich and ignorance of the mob.
“The decision of the U.S. Congress [1937] was based in part on testimony derived from articles in the newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst, who was heavily interested in DuPont Inc. Some analysts theorize DuPont wanted to boost declining post-war textile sales, and wished to eliminate hemp fiber as competition. … Furthermore, hemp would have been an easy target due to its intoxicating effect, while no rational justification could have been made for outlawing cotton, wool, or linen.”
Read it here: http://www.legalize.org/history-of-cannabis-prohibition
Science is starting to find that most soft drugs (those which have been used by our ancestors for millennia; marijuana, peyote, mushrooms, sage) are quite safe in moderation. Studies are even showing that ecstasy (MDMA) is quite safe. Most deaths attributed to it are usually from over or under hydration of the body during usage.
>> The real reason parents support the “war on drugs” is because they don’t want to do any
>> parenting themselves; school & the government should be doing that for them.
The most intelligent thing said so far.
started smoking when she was 14 and was accepted to Columbia when she was 16, where most of the people she met smoked more pot (and had better GPAs!) than she did.
the drugs will always be there. they’re never going away. any rehab patient or drug counselor will tell you that the only person who could ever help an addict is themselves. drug addiction is ALWAYS a symptom of deeper issues. for this reason, it is a tragedy that drug abuse is such a taboo topic that people are reluctant to search for and often have difficulty obtaining help. it’s not the government’s job to punish people for taking a more difficult path in life. people with drug problems are not criminals!
“Things started to make sense. Kids do drugs because they realize that adults have lied to them about it. If they are to discover the truth, they have only one course of action: Do drugs.”
Hmmm, I don’t really know about your logic there. Adults also tell me that it’s a bad idea to drop out of school. I’ve seen some kids drop out of school and be very happy. The only way I can discover the truth is to drop out of school…
Why not read the multitude of unbiased published research on the effects of drugs? That seems like a much more effective way to ‘discover the truth’. Be a critical thinker.
@Spaz
My poorly constructed sentence implied the land was the criminal’s land. In fact it was the father’s land. So it was not Trespassing.
Anyway, I read that in an article about how land in our National Parks are being used by pot growers.
@DumSumGuy
“Pointing out extreme circumstances is just as retarded as making vast generalizations.”…”Also, a friend of mine, and probably the biggest pot head I know, was not only the top cross country runner in the state but also ended up going to Yale.”
So, are you saying you are Retarded?
@X and everyone else who wants to legalize drugs:
So, you would be fine with your police officers, pilots, train conductors, day care employees, and doctors smoking pot as long as they weren’t doing it “on the job”?
This is the dumbest thing I’ve read in a long time. Next time you decide to write, please refer to the following website before embarrassing yourself again:
http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/skeptic/arguments.html#generalize
@ JSwan and RJW
There are no official tally, but it is thought that each day Mexico six people are killed because of criminals competing for the lucrative smuggling routes into America.
Do you know what is being smuggled from Mexico? Mostly coke and pot.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/14/MNGL3MC3I91.DTL
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6113878
So, please, by all means, keep puffing away because “it’s not as bad as cigarettes” and “no one is getting hurt”.
>> So, you would be fine with your police officers, pilots, train conductors, day care
>> employees, and doctors smoking pot as long as they weren’t doing it “on the job”?
Why not? We’re ok with them downing a couple of pitchers of beer and a bunch of shots as long as they’re not doing it “on the job”.
@SumDimGuy
I think your anecdote about the murders actually illustrates the author’s point quite poignantly: One of the predominant effects of the “War on Drugs” has been to increase the violence and crime surrounding the drug trade. By attacking the supply side of an industry with very strong and inelastic demand, the crusade against drugs has dramatically driven up prices. In doing so, it has made supplying drugs so lucrative that even in the face of extreme risks from law enforcement, many people are willing to engage in the trade.
Unfortunately, this skews the population of dealers towards profit-driven less scrupulous people and raises the stakes of their occupation such that they are very willing to use violence. Similarly, on the demand side, the rising prices of drugs and the inelastic demand lead to the crime we associate with-drug ridden areas: petty theft to finance drug use. Both are direct consequences of a campaign against drugs taken beyond extremes.
The saddest part of the whole affair is that such extremes are not justified. In the name of sheltering our population from the bogey-man of bad trips and ruined lives, we’ve criminalized a large portion of our otherwise law-abiding citizenry while simultaneously increasing violent crime in our communities. This is all totally ignoring the effects of turning many people towards consumption of totally unregulated products which may be adulterated or counterfeit.
As to your high school friend, I wish you would elaborate on the “long story short.” Pot, as with many other distractions, can drive people to “drop out” of life, but I can’t believe that such instances are common. Often, negative life consequences of minor drug use come about not because of any deleterious effects of the substances themselves but rather from the legal and social stigmas associated with them. Perhaps your friend was caught with the drugs and expelled for what would have probably been (though I of course have no knowledge of specifics) a triflingly minor infraction? Perhaps, as “Spaz” rather insensitively suggested, your friend was dealing with other issues and things came to a head concurrent with his drug use? People fall in to bad situations for any number of reasons, and I would be interested to hear what led you to link pot use in particular with your friend’s downward spiral.
When I was in high school, my friend Joe Kelly was the most intelligent person I had yet met. Homework that took me hours would take Joe a couple of minutes on the bus or before class started. Joe never got anything but 100% on homework and tests. It was very humbling.
But it wasn’t just a good memory or book smarts. Joe was really a genius. Teachers loved discussing and debating subjects with Joe and there was a lot of talk about how he was probably going to go to MIT.
The problem for Joe was that pot made reality more interesting. I mean, I didn’t understand it at the time, but high school must have been very boring for Joe because it took no effort. Pot was not an escape for Joe, it was a doorway into a richer and more interesting world. Unfortunately, Joe chose this doorway daily and the result was he dropped out of school and pretty much lost interest in everything but pot.
I suppose my point is pot has different effects on different people. As such, it should be and is rightfully considered an illegal controlled substance.
Sorry, but I have to disagree. Yes, there were drugs in high school. No, not one of the semi-serious users back then have a decent career now. In university, I came across far fewer obvious users. Those that did, managed to do alright at school, but I wouldn’t call them well-rounded, stable people.
But then I went to a technical college. At least 30-50% of these people did pot and other drugs. I knew two specifically that were heavy users. They were idiots; bad short term memory problems, anxious all the time. It was really quite sad. And no, neither of them managed to achieve anything, certainly not jobs in the industry they were training for.
You really have to ask yourself what’s wrong with you, or your life that you need drugs to fill the void. Add alcohol in there, too, aside from wine tasting, etc. My guess is you’re simply not finding your authentic self, or living up to your potential. Something is missing. And for that reason alone, any drug is a bad answer.
This debate has gone astray.
Abuse of any substance ruins lives, but that does not guarantee you’ll die because of it.
There are examples on both sides of the case, the problem is, drug education always uses the worst .
@SumDumGuy
Can I ask what your friend Joe Kelly is up to these days? Still smoking pot? Getting by? Most importantly is he happy with the state of his life?
I can’t condone dropping out of high school, but if someone is smart or clever enough, lacking a formal education won’t hold them back from succeeding. Success isn’t measured by your “status” in society (what is a social status any way?) or how much money you have or how fast your car is or how big your house is, life is so much more than any of these things.
Holding a steady job with a nice income or what have you may satisfy some people’s happiness and would thus make them successful if their life goal was to achieve these things. But not everyone is the same. Some people might find happiness in the life of a drifter or even some homeless people could be quite happy (though I’ll admit most likely aren’t). It’s about your attitude and how you look at the world around you which measures your success and equates your happiness.
Honestly what’s wrong with reality being more interesting? It seems to me to be of far greater value to be interested in reality - what is REAL - than in some textbook or institution’s perceptions of what is important.
You are right though, pot does have different effects - negative and positive - on different people. But it is also true that negatives and positives can be found in anything in life if you look hard enough. I do not agree however that it is considered an illegal controlled substance, there are far better things tax payers money could be spent on than busting some kid for selling a bit of pot.
I’d also like to add that in some fields, pot can greatly enhance your performance. I’ll just reiterate that moderation is key. Control your use, don’t let it control you.
Meh, y’know what’s fucked up though?
I don’t want to use any drugs, personally. I mean, the only one I feel comfortable using is caffeine and even that I don’t like having to use because it just means I’m not getting enough sleep.
Since I started working, there’s a social expectation that I drink, at least somewhat. That I didn’t drink while I was in high school or college ended up cutting me off from a lot of socialization because I always felt uncomfortable around other people imbibing.
It’s not that I have any moral inhibition towards it, I just don’t like the way I feel even when slightly inebriated.
Expectations towards your behavior are the real problem of drugs, legal or otherwise. I bet if there weren’t an impetus for people to share their drugs in social settings, people would be less concerned with them in general.
Drugs affect people different ways. Just because one person can’t handle them, does’nt mean the next can’t either.
There is alot more things in peoples lives that affect behaviour, such as diet and upbringing, so everybody,, quit trying to preach a goodygoody two-shoes to the world, and start minding your own business.
You don’t need a sitter for pot.
Your best friend was lazy.
And your california story has no validity. What is your source? You tell what sounds like every other urban legend. “This guy and his son in this place were doing exactly what I need them to do to get my point across.”
And, lets say it DID happen. If pot were legal like it SHOULD be, there would be no wrongdoing growing it on your own property, and there would be no need for GUNS. THE REAL thing whose SOLE PURPOSE IS TO HURT PEOPLE.
sumdumguy…youre really just an idiot, clearly. im not even going to begin offering a counter point to any of your arguments cause other people already have. but seriously, you are so brainwashed on pot being evil and it clearly has such a stigma in your head. why dont you go out and read the other side of the story that states it does not lead to long term cognitive deficiences even when heavily used? please, just educate yourself…also the reason people die due to drug smuggling is because making a drug illegal creates a black market without curbing appetite for the drug. legalize and there is no more black market, no more violent drug crime…fact
Amusing question. People who are pro-marijuana always use the argument “well alcohol is legal, and its worse than pot, so pot should be legal too”… Of course, this seems to be going in the opposite direction. If you are so convinced alcohol is bad, then why not campaign to criminalize it.. Or tobacco, or the numerous substances that are in fact worse than pot.
Pot isn’t harmless. Lung damage if you smoke it, and long term effect may cause memory loss and other memory problems(no study has proved conclusively either way, but more evidence exists pointing towards yes).
In my experience, most drugs are bad. Coke, Heroin, LSD, E, all have pretty big impacts, and can kill people. Legalizing those will not change that.
Pot is different. its not lethal, and choosing to be a boxer will probably cause more problems mentally and long term than smoking it regularly.
However, like alcohol, drugs are used by unstable people to escape, forget, cope etc… This leads to behavior that is harmful to oneself, as well as others.
Anything in moderation, when used or done with some intelligence and knowledge isn’t bad. Its excessiveness or reliance thats the problem with drugs.
MY best lou was a 4.0 student and he smoked pot one time and turned into a heroin addict and killed his mother father and sister with speedqueen washing machine it was in all the papers
see, pot does hurt people, so there smarty pants.
I think that presumptions about my stance in some of the comments are interesting.
For the record: I have never used an illegal substance. I do not condone the use of illegal substances, however I do not mind that others use. I do drink on occasion; about two or three times a month I will have some beer or wine (less often I will have liquor).
well…i’ve seen it go both ways. me and my friends did tons of drugs growing up. we all grew up pretty poor and now im 25 and i’d say at least 70% of us make over 50k/year and still smoke pot after work. if i wanna blow a line or eat some shrooms on the weekend…i will. just so long as it doesn’t stop me from getting my work done. worst case scenario, i feel like shit saterday morning. i’ve never missed a day of work because to drugs. i’ve never beat my girlfriend because to drugs. i work 45 hrs/wk and buy all the drugs i want on friday…if i wanna.
Just to give two sides of the drugs users story, I’ll tell you mine:
I have used weed, alcohol, mushrooms, MDMA, speed, benzos, opium tea, and many synthetic psychedelics in the last year alone. I smoke weed more than once a weak.
I am an aerospace engineering student at a top university in Europe. Me grades are good and study progress is ok. I finished 2.5 years of my study while smoking weed multiple times a weak. My friend is fulltime stoned and is doing college without any problems. Another friend also smokes weed daily and is doing good at an university. We use all kinds of drugs in different combinations and they have never causes use any problems(except for alcohol when we were young).
Drugs can do good and bad things for people. The good and bad are very subjective anyway, but everyone should have the choice to do with his body what he/she wants, as long as you don’t hurt others. I can use drugs without hurting others so I think I should be allowed to use drugs. This is my body! People who do hurt others should be punished for that, don’t blame the drug.
Humans adapt very well. We don’t typically notice gradual changes in temperature, pressure, light, or other inputs. THC doesn’t stop you from working; it doesn’t addle your brain; it doesn’t seem to have many long term effects besides, well, maybe stoned sperm (http://www.womens-health.co.uk/infertility5.asp) and birth defects (http://sulcus.berkeley.edu/mcb/165_001/papers/manuscripts/_895.html). What THC seems to do very well is to limit motivation; in short, if you care to improve your life, skip it. If you don’t believe this, experiment with staying clean for several months, and journal how you feel about your general motivation in your work, play, and social life. You might be surprised.
i’m the same as skatetokil above - with just one phone call, i could have as much cocaine as my wallet will allow. and yet, i’ve never touched cocaine and i have no desire to try it.
it would make no difference to me if my local pharmacy was selling the stuff - i just think that its not a good idea to be addicted to a drug. drug laws arent working - and the money that is made from the illegal trade is instead funding people like Hezbollah, the Taliban and North Korea.
we’re in a crazy situation, and legality is only the way forward.
Just because something is illegal, doesn’t make it immoral or necessarily wrong. Just because something has the potential to be bad doesn’t mean we can go ahead and deny certain people a seemingly universally agreed opon inalienable right to their own pleasure or preference. TV is bad for you in excess, cars kill way more people than drugs; shall we criminalize the use of HDTV, or should be force people to walk everywhere? More Americans have died from drowning in their own bath-tubs than by ‘terrorists’ - you don’t see us bombing Kohler headquarters?
It’s not enough to state, “legalization” will have more people getting high! Duh, what’s the problem with that? This is what needs to be addressed. The underlying subtext of the article is ‘why do WE do drugs’? Is it because we feel lied to, betrayed by government, special interests, and even our own parents?
My story:
1. Smoked pot, became dumb, barely graduated high school
2. Became drug addict for a few years (albeit a working, relatively clean, and nerdy one).
3. Decided to get smart again. Stopped doing hard drugs.
4. 4.0 GPA, Law school, personal-use pot grower - I smoke everyday.
you removed my post. what a baby.
but to refresh your memory (and future reference, of course), please refer to this before you ever post something on this blog again:
http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/skeptic/arguments.html#sequitur
Embarrassed: Your comment was not removed.
I do not think the argument presented is a non sequitur. Feel free to show that I am wrong; that, in fact, the argument is non sequitur. I’d enjoy it!
A lot of these kids will also probably say, and with good reason:
“I don’t do drugs because they are illegal.”
That’s a pretty shrewd kid right there.
Another thing is that most high school kids are not smart enough to understand the physical risks of doing drugs, just like they are stupid enough to drive while they’re hammered. If you aren’t smart, you don’t understand moderation. Drug use can be a lot like depression — it’s okay to be sad once in a while, but if you are depressed, you end up dragging yourself down and it becomes a vicious cycle. Same way with drugs. Kids end up “perma-stoned” and waste any potential they had. Kids end up ODing because their inhibitions wear away to the point where they don’t have any kind of caution.
Recently about 5 or 6 kids who were part of the “stoner” social clique in my high school days (about 8 years ago) were just arrested for selling huge amounts of heroin. When you’re around drugs a lot, you lose your inhibitions about them. You think, hey, I could sell this! This is easy! Why am I not doing this? And then when you get shot, arrested, or OD, you have your answer.
Beenthere:
You point is well taken, In American we are we beyond rational discourse, or scientific fact the nature of our struggle is deep and intractable and will probably be resolved only by civil war.
I did bong rips with my girlfriend while she was studying for college finals…………..she graduated with a 4.0. She did bong rips with me during my finals I got a 3.8…..I’ve smoked with proffessors, 4th grade teachers, highschool history teachers, architects, programmers……….the list goes on. The people who let the drugs they use effect thier life because they want them to. It’s real easy to tell if your abusing drugs………..if you should doing anything else of importance and instead your doing drugs….you have a drug problem.
I am not sure what to say… but the fact is that there will always be stupid people doing stupid things and no matter what laws we make it will not protect us from that. The problem is that these laws also punish the smart people who are responsible and morally sound.
~I have known Phd’s that have smoked marijuana their whole lives.
Having done drugs myself and quit for many years now, i do now believe that they are bad.
That society should strive to not depend on them is probably a good thing.
The religious right in this country, however, has gone too far; with the united states having more drug related convictions that all european countries for all criminal offenses combined (and yes europe’s population is higher!).
Drugs like crack and meth are inherently evil and should be fought against at all cost, but outlawing all drugs makes no sense. In the late 1800’s tea was outlawed in england which created a revolt and a huge illegal tea market, in the 1920’s the united states went against alcohol with similar success. A fair compromise must be found. Many people have deep underlying psychological reasons why they do drugs and laws won’t stop them; throwing them into jail and turning them into felons only deepens those issues.
The high cost of drugs is the major reason why addicts turn to crime. i believe if these were people had access to vast amount of it at a low price, they would it vanish with them or quickly realize their mistake and make neccessary changes.
I don’t really have an answer. I just hope that the united states government starts realizing one day that drug addict doesn’t mean criminal; and to stop giving so much power into the hands of ruthless criminals who profiteer from other people’s misery.
I happen to be one of the only people I know who has the pleasure of smoking weed with their dad. I have to say, it’s such a great experience, we always have a great time together and he always ends up telling me all sorts of great stories. It’s nothing like getting drunk. I personally smoke very rarely but when I do it’s usually with my brother and father when we’re visiting over the holidays. The distorted view on pot always amazes me. The fact is that when we’re smoking together we share a great affection and wonder, I’ll go for a magical hike with my brother where we’ll start talking about all sorts of interesting ideas like the nature of time and the evolution of interspecies relationships and intelligence caused by the domestication of wild animals (my dad has horses, goats, a cat and a dog that all live as if all are horses in the same herd)… My father will ecstatically show us his most recent addition to his armory of horse riding equipment and beam with delight and pride. So all and all we’re the most jovial bunch. Personally, I think that beats watching TV or hanging at a bar. I think given the right context you can share a great deal of emotional richness that can truly bring you closer…good times…
What is relevant is the who and why (those in control) don’t want to decriminalize or legalize marijuana - in spite of what Nobel Prize winning economist such as Milton Friedman and 500 other economists might have to say on the subject, or Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or criminal justice experts, or doctors and scientists. Read what those on the front lines have to say at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition: http://leap.cc
Here is the problem in a nutshell. Unlike alcohol, tobacco or even coffee, there is little money in legal marijuana. Why? Because marijuana for personal use would be easy to grow in your own home or backyard if it were legal.
By comparison, making your own alcohol, coffee or cigarettes would be much more difficult.
Even worse, marijuana is effective as a pain killer. That’s partly why 12 states have legalized some form of marijuana. That would have a negative impact on the pharmaceutical industry.
Just look at how the pharmaceutical industry is fighting to have a Chinese supplement that’s been in use for hundreds of years made illegal. I’m speaking of Red Yeast Rice, a natural cholesterol-lowering agent, because it threatens the sales of Lovastatin (Mevacor®, a drug produced by Merck & Co., Inc).
The record here? Family man w/MBA from top university, employed full-time at a Fortune 10 company, $1M+ net worth and no debts other than a small mortgage.
The only thing that makes marijuana devastating is the fact that it’s illegal. If it weren’t, people’s lives wouldn’t be destroyed. This is no different than alcohol prohibition except the fact that legal alcohol is more dangerous than illegal pot (just imagine how much safer it could be if it was regulated)
http://leap.cc
Society Article: 10 Things Every Parent, Teenager Or Teacher Should Know About Marijuana
U.S.A. Land of the Free?
The problem with drugs is the fear factor that comes with it. I really dont think anyone in america or anywhere else actually care if their neighbors do coke or pot or whatever, it’s when the ‘other’ part uses their initiative to do you, the ‘innocent bystander’ harm in some way or make you feel threatened. I personally dont care if one snort coke till their noses bleed but once i have to deal with their troubled personalities in some way then the line is crossed. There also lies the problem, i cant do anything about it. Not me, not an american even if they got the gun in hand. The crack-head always got the initiative and the aftermath is messy in any country.
I live in finland and here one cannot carry any kind of weapons for protection so if someone decides to go berserk while on coke then they can quite safely do that and a man cannot really defend himself without being put to pay his guts for it later in court. That is plain wrong.
So i see it as a initiative question. People who dont do drugs are always expecting a sudden attack from drug users. I got friends who did/do use drugs and they have been quite harmless, but i have also known people who have been users and quite f:d up. The kind of people you like to pull a gun on when they go nuts again. But you cant. Get the point what im trying to tell?
The problem of drugs is addiction and health side effect problems. Not everybody reacts in the same way to drugs. Some do get crazy by just a single take. One guy I know went crazy by just trying LSD. But most don’t. So there is no lie there. There is a risk. Some people don’t get as fast addicted as other or they can manage to stop whenever they feel so because they have a strong will. But no one can tell in advance how he (his body and mind) will react to drug.
The other point is that the problems may not show up immediately, so it’s not because you see people taking drugs without seeing any problems or side effets that adults have lied about the potential risks.
Last advice, don’t play russian roulette with an uzi.
does the author of this article really believe his own anecdotal evidence?
he probably does drugs himself, and this is his not too subtle way of saying: ya, street drugs are cool, everybody should smoke the weed, just like me….
stay away from the coolaid, JSWAN!!
but alas, dont listen to me…im just a 42 year adult liar, with four young boys.
I would like to say “NO” to DRUGS … whether it be GOOD or BAD
and would like to recommend the ppl having DRUGS to QUIT it soon.
@Mikeyyy
For a 42 year old you really need to grow up. Your (horribly punctuated) comment holds no value. If you spent some time reading, the author, JSwan, clearly states that he has “never used an illegal substance” and does “not condone the use of illegal substances”. Thanks for nothing.
I personally think the post is spot on.
In America there is a long history of individuals making their own alcohol for personal consumption. Since many immigrant groups are from Europe where alcohol is part of the culture, Italian-Americans used to ferment their own wine in their basements even during Prohibition and German-Americans brewed beer, farmers grew apple orchards to distill brandy. Asian-Americans grew their opium plants and sealed business deals with the opium pipe like European-Americans toasted contracts with alcohol.
Although there is a revival of sorts of this type of personal wine making and beer brewing developing again in America it is still not as popular as it once was, factory made alcohol is cheaper, and easier to obtain. I don’t anticipate the commercialization of cannabis in my life time. If and when it happens America will be a very different country than it is at present.
you have a ridiculous view of this situation. seriously. but whatever. its your opinion. go do your drugs and waste your money.
first of all, let me remind you that having an opinion on the matter does not equal having an -informed- opinion. i do not claim to be an expert on this subject, but i am at least qualified to express a valid opinion based on years of experience and own research.
as an outsider on this american dominated debate i would like to express my utter amazement to how deeply rooted the propagandha seems to be in some posters’ beliefs, who refuse to see the governmental lies.
now, let me point out that almost every single issue on discussion here has stemmed from the act of prohibition on drugs. your government is largely responsible for worldwide drug prohibition. something you might not know if you live in america is that the rest of the nations on our planet did not necessarily have a drug policy before the states pushed forward their own agenda through the united nations. based on manufactured reasons that do not come from real life, but from the brains of some burreaucrat, we now have a worldwide ban on substances that have been occuring naturally on this planet forever and which humans have been using for millenia. essentially, god’s creations (if you are a believer) have been demonised and deemed “illegal” by the ultimate judge of our times: corrupt politicians.
what changed after the prohibition? demand and supply have either stayed stable or augmented. you can thank your very own government/military for invading the world leader in opium production and “failing” to control its production. please note that i used brackets there. this is because “failing” isn’t appropriate, at all. opium production in afghanistan has been steadily increasing after the us invasion. this is just one example of how governments actually dont want drugs to dissapear. after all, drugs are the ONLY trully free trade in the world and estimates routinely place it second only to petroleum as this earth’s biggest trade (monetary value). so yes, it seems governments do in fact want to participate in the huge profits being made there, just like they want to participate in the oil trade. nevermind who produces it, it will become theirs sooner rather than later
by now you may think i’m using drugs as i type to come up with these conspiracy theories. thank god for google. if you doubt anything i just said, look it up.
which brings me to my next point. did governments REALLY try to solve the “drug problem”? (with very few exceptions) the only social programs offering help to drug “addicts” are operating based on the propagandha principal “drugs are bad” (mmmkay?). this is failure number one. for example, there are many teenagers loaded with personal problems whose parents believe “pot did this” and that there is a cure-all in the face of a drug rehabilitation program, so they dont address any of the underlying issues.. well… if you think mel gibson honestly loves jews and it was just the alcohol talking, there’s nothing more i can say to you. please stop reading and return to watching your favourite news channel.
to end my post, i urge you to consider how SANE (or not) it is for us humans to impose a ban on other lifeforms such as marijuana, mushrooms, etc. furthermore i urge to to consider how it is possible for an honest “god fearing” government to exploit god or jesus to convince its mass murder in far away places is correct action, while it enforces laws that deem certain of god’s creation illegal. is this not hypocritical? is it not possible after all that the government IS lying..? about several issues of grave importance?
if you are an anti-drug person and still reading, i thank you. honestly.
john.
Crack and meth are inanimate objects. Inanimate objects cannot be inherently evil.
I know a guy who graduated from the University of Texas in Austin, one of the top 50 schools in the country with a degree in Math. totallly did every drug in the book. if u can have fun and get ur shit done at the same time, more power to you.
Drugs including pot should be illegal as misdemeanors. Never felonies.
Reason: If you completely illegalise pot then big business gets in on the action. Advertising campaigns supported by millions of dollars and some of the best minds in psychology will be coming into living rooms to unnaturally inflate the rate of usage. It could get added to atmospheres and corporate foods.
To better the fortunes of consumers and local producers alike it is better to keep it as a low level “fines and community service” sort of crime.
Forrest: Uh… what was that?
Hey Forest - what if it were just regulated like alcohol, cigs, and OTC meds?
What’s your point?
I use to think drug or everything in moderation was OK. That it was cool here and there and in some cases this is true … but now that I am older and I am reflecting on the people that I knew when we were young and how their lives are now.. Drugs are not good even in Moderation .
My father avide pot smoker, mushroom eater, crack addicted , ran out on me filed welfair and smoked up the check the goverment gave to him to suport me. ( nice )
My sister followed in his footsteps , she started with pot , then moved up to coke , then started to get into Herion , became a hooker, god only knows what she death social virus she gave away to others , she robbed people , she robbed me , she died 2 years ago her heart gave out.
Who here is left hurt how about all of you , the taxes you pay so someone else can support a child is smoking it up or shooting it up with goverment dollars , stolen things that you work hard for so someone can steal them , social virus maybe a person of person of a person the sexual chain you know went to see a hooker like my sister turned out to be .and you choose to sleep with a person who by chain of sexual parteners caught something from a street person .
Everyone is effected by drugs
Drugs are for people with weak minds
You don’t think that welfare and prostitution cross the “moderation” line?
Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! aukuyddsgl
Drugs ruin your life? The only thing that almost ruined me was alcohol. Not only that, but alcohol is worse for you, and more addictive than most of the drugs that are currently illegal. There have been 0 deaths from marijuana. Deaths from ecstasy are 1 out of a million; which is less than the number of deaths from eating peanuts.
It should be the right of people to decide whether or not to use drugs. It’s not up to the government to tell me what I can and cannot put into my body. It’s my body, and I should be the one to choose what I put into it.
Re-legalization of drugs isn’t an issue of whether or not drugs are bad. Of course they’re bad for you. Of course they can sometimes ruin lives. But it’s a question of whether or not our current course of action on the war on drugs works. It doesn’t. All it does is fund drug cartels, foreign countries, and the black market. If drugs were legal, they could be taxed. The tax money could be used to fund rehabilitation programs. Drugs would be safer because users could know what they’re buying, and how much they’re taking. It would end gang turf wars because there will be no more drug-turf. It would almost entirely eradicate organized crime.
Alcohol is a drug; and it’s more inebriating than a majority of the currently illegal drugs are. Alcohol is far more dangerous than most of the illegal drugs are. (0 deaths from marijuana. 1/1,000,000 users die from ecstasy; peanuts are more dangerous than ecstasy is.) Alcohol is even more addictive than a majority of the currently illegal drugs are. Drugs can ruin lives, but so can alcohol.
I’m not for the decriminalization of drugs, I believe in the relegalization of all drugs (for adults).
yea my brother is a 4.0 student who graduated and hes been doing it for quite some time
so this dude under me is a retard
you all need to shut the fuck up.
anti or pro pot.
this is a never ending debate.
Look the only thing i find wrong about youth doin pot is that because majority of the time it leads people to do more heavy drugs, because when you smoke pot it gets you high but doing it say for a couple of months, it eventually takes alot of smoking pot to feel stoned, which may lead people to take something more heavy like a shot, a pill, Yeah i agree pot may be harmless, but anything can be harmless it just depends on the situation your in and how you chose to use the drug, i believe drugs can cause alot of harm to people and their lives. I believe drugs are harmfull to yourself because your pretty much killing you self. it hurts people around you who care about you and eventually you lose everything if you keep going. But all im saying is i’ve grown up around people doing drugs such as meth, cocaine, pot what ever ok and it’s not fair when your own mother gives you up just so she can be high….. so i think yeah drugs can be harmless but who cares it’s your life right you make your own choices, if you all wanna be pot heads and drug addicts, then it’s your choice as long as your happy, then go for it. it’s really stupid and adults only try to look out for the youth because they are more older and wiser they know better about things then youth. so of course they’re goin to say yeah drugs are bad. but you know what just because you’ve seen your friends make it out ok when they do drugs doesn’t mean that they’re not bad. ok it just means your friends are lucky ok. one of my mates in highschool was just experimenting at a party and took one ecky and she died. but u know she was probly just unlucky, but thats the other thing right, how do u know what your really takeing, you don’t always know and know one is a pro when it comes to drugs yer it might be fun to be off your head on them but they are very addictive and once ur in it’s hard to get out.
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title ids Do Drugs at FraudWasteAbuse. Thanks for informative article
Pot causes cancer, it is in the smoke dummies
I was surfing the internet Monday afternoon during my break, and found your blog by searching MSN for cannabis weed. This is a topic I have great interest in, and follow it closely. I liked your insight on ids Do Drugs at FraudWasteAbuse very much, and it made for good reading. Keep up the good work…
As I read most of these comments the same arguments appear over and over again. I have never done drugs in my life, and this subject on whole is very confusing. My reason for not doing them is my one, grandfather smoked cigarettes all the time and I saw the damage it did him, so breathing in smoke of any kind probably doesn’t help your lungs. (don’t argue about the cross county runners because they’re insane anyway) Two, the other reason I don’t is it seemed that all the assholes in my school did pot and I didn’t want to be like them. (And no I wasn’t some picked on nerd. I’m 5′8″ 200lbs., can bench press my own weight, dead lift 350lbs. and probably kick your ass.) I was an unoffensive wallflower kind of guy and I guess they wouldn’t have it. Also there was only so many times I would let them run there mouths without repercussions. All I wanted was to be left alone! But I digress.
I believe that kids do drugs because their parents don’t teach them how to deal with life’s ups and downs by themselves. Emotional and mind altering drugs are all wrong. Legal and illegal. Only you and your mind can make yourself truly happy. No chemical you take can compare to the pure spiritual and intellectual “high” I get just by looking out over a lake in an early morning sunrise. And we all know the mind is capable of so much more than what we have done with it so far. If we just focus on it, who knows what we might find.
Only you can make yourself happy.
” It’s all in your head man. “
thanx to everyone for writing all this- you have made my english research class very interesting today.
Everyone who has commented has debated with such passion for his/her belief. I am glad that I stumbled upon this site and had a chance to read everyone’s views.
and i don’t know, how to make it bette. Corrina Eudora.
Well this is true. I am the kid who is doing fine but my friends are getting heavy into drugs and i cant see why they even want to do some of those things
Even though many people think its bad to smoke pot i dont because its help me be more calm when situations have gotten out of hand. Pot isnt nearly as harmful as alcohol can be on people. I know that when i’ve been high it would help me to better understand the things around me. So when i knew i had a test for some class i would get high and since i did i wouldnt have to study and i would make an A on it so many people that do drugs dont always become the scum of the earth but become an over achiever. So many people should think twice about whether or not pot can be good or bad. It’s if you control the drug or you let the drug control you.
pot is the shiz nits
pot is the shiz nits
People need to stop doing drugs
dont they realize they are hurting themselves & those who care about them
sure when u get high it feels good
but sooner or later ull feel the same way yuo felt before u got high
Drugs are stupid shit people need to learn that it does fuck up ypur life
u can get lung infections & anything else a person that smokes tabacco gets
so do you still wanna keep getting high
I believe this is true. As a teenager who unfortuniatly did do drugs, I didnt die, Im not saying that you wont die from it but they dont make you lose friends and they arnt all that bad. You just have to not be stupid with them. Don’t smoke a ounce of pot, or drink a whole 30 pack, you have to be completly stupid to think that much of drugs wont have any effect on you. But like I said, I agree with you.
drugs r really bad 4 u because i also did them and now i am very sick!!!!!
@SumDumGuy
All of your arguments are birthed in stupidity, so don’t even bother to post them. I am a proud pot smoker, and my grades don’t suffer for it. I have a 3.8 GPA right now, and I’ve been smoking pot for 4 or 5 years now.
“I suppose my point is pot has different effects on different people. As such, it should be and is rightfully considered an illegal controlled substance.”
OK… Doesn’t alcohol affect different people differently too? It’s safer to get high than to get piss fucking drunk.
“There are no official tally, but it is thought that each day Mexico six people are killed because of criminals competing for the lucrative smuggling routes into America.”
What if it were guns or bombs? The same things would happen, except more people would die. Criminals will be criminals; it isn’t just the pot. Most of the “drug-trafficking” deaths don’t even relate to pot. It’s coke, meth, fucking heroin, things like that.
Your points are based on factual inconsistencies and errors, sweeping generalizations, and anecdotes told from personal experience. So lay down and die along with your arguments.
ok crack is bad and makes you look like shit in the long run needles hurt snorting burns and can cause a nose bleed but what about morijuana? is it at all that bad? it doesnt take any stabbing or mutalising and will not kill you unlike crystal meth cocaine ect can and will take your life away if you let it! marijuana is good for the heart start and is the good start it smells of such an aromatic freshness and when it expands in your lungs oooooo-weeeee i love it any one love it too but hate crack?