So I take it that you have never smoked marijuana? How can you make a judgment if you've never done it before whether or not it's stronger than beer or cigarettes? I'd much rather deal with a bunch of pot smokers than a bunch of drunks. I've never seen people smoking pot try to start fights but I have seen plenty of drunks try to.

I have smoked it on several occasions in the past, so I may sound like a hypocrite when I say that I don't like it. I do not use it anymore, however. So, I do know it's powerful stuff and I know it's completely mind altering. The thing with marijuana, I've never seen anyone advance their lives while addicted to marijuana. I'm not saying that nobody ever does, I'm just saying that I have never. They all turn out to be hippie bums begging for another hit. Also, every person I've ever known that has used marijuana on a daily basis has also tried a much stronger drug because they couldn't get high anymore. Cocaine is the more common upgrade from pot.

I would say the thing the difference between alcohol and pot would be that, alcohol can be used responsibly. While yes, you can completely kill a case of beer and get completely hammered, which is moronic, you can also have A single beer with a meal. I certainly know that a draft Samuel Adams Boston lager makes my NY strip taste 10x better. There are several craft beers that I know of that I and others drink one at a time, usually during or after a meal. I've even been known to have a glass of scotch or cognac before a meal. Try complementing your meal with a joint. Was it worth it? *yuck*

I'm sure that there is just as many alcoholics waste their lives drinking. How can you tell an alcoholic to drink responsibly? You probably wouldn't believe how many people smoke marijuana that are successful. I think anything that you do in moderation is okay but excesses lead to problems.

You wouldn't believe how many pot smokers waste their lives smoking weed.

I've seen more people hold a decent job and drink in moderation than I have people with weed.

Thinking of the Army, those guys pissed up 3 night s a week at least, but were still extremly professional.

I dont know, I agree with Belyvis. I know many people who live successful lives and smoke weed. Its all about moderation. Its easy to say you know more people who are successful and drink. Drinking is more common. I know many people who smoke weed regularly and are doing just fine. Plus marijuana has some medical benefits. And hangovers from alcohol suck, you dont get those with weed.

Not where I'm from.

No it doesn't.

You never heard about medical cannabis?

You probably would never know who the successful pot smokers are since they have to hide it as it is illegal. You can always see the screw ups since, well, they are screw ups.
As with anything pleasurable there is a risk of addiction. Getting "pissed" 3 times a week is an alcoholic, professional yes but still as much an alcoholic as a Skid Row bum.

I know several successful pot smokers -- including business owners, legal counselors, journalists, and musicians...

"Research into the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of cannabis continued to bolster the case for the medicinal use of marijuana, making the 'patient pot laws' that have passed in 11 states seem less like a social movement than a legitimate medical trend."


TIME magazine wrote in a Dec. 5, 2005 article "The Year in Medicine":

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"It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine -- and US drug policy -- that we still need 'proof' of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years. [...]

Marijuana is effective at relieving nausea and vomiting, spasticity, appetite loss, certain types of pain, and other debilitating symptoms. And it is extraordinarily safe -- safer than most medicines prescribed every day. If marijuana were a new discovery rather than a well-known substance carrying cultural and political baggage, it would be hailed as a wonder drug."

Lester Grinspoon, MD, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School


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"I believe that a federal policy that prohibits physicians from alleviating suffering by prescribing marijuana for seriously ill patients is misguided, heavy-handed, and inhumane.

It is also hypocritical to forbid physicians to prescribe marijuana while permitting them to use morphine and meperidine to relieve extreme dyspnea and pain. With both these drugs the difference between the dose that relieves symptoms and the dose that hastens death is very narrow; by contrast, there is no risk of death from smoking marijuana. To demand evidence of therapeutic efficacy is equally hypocritical. The noxious sensations that patients experience are extremely difficult to quantify in controlled experiments.

Jerome Kassirer, MD, Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine
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Cannabis was the first, second, and third most prescribed drug in the world up to its prohibition.

^^^

Very well put good sir. Actually, that was almost perfect. I dont think I can add anymore that you didnt already say. Well done.