Posted on 04/18/2013 2:53:36 PM PDT by Renfield
Typical of this site
“Small government” in name only. You are another big gov’t socialist
That doesn't follow - the issue is not whether using any mind altering substance makes sense, but whether government attempting to stop adults using any mind altering substance makes sense.
My eight year old grandson, told me a couple of days ago, “why do we have laws anyway, people are either good or bad. Good people don’t need laws and bad people don’t care”.
Not bad for eight, I think he gets it better than many adults.
See post 43
Sharp kid! I'd add only two things to his analysis:
Don’t matter. You can’t force me to think as you do.
I’m clean and am for legalization. I have friends and family I don’t want harmed by these ridiculous laws.
I’m also against the asset forfeiture laws that creates a profit motive to law enforcement. I don’t like to see my tax money going to a for and enormous for profit prison system that is exceedingly harsh to working, nonviolent people. I am disturbed that the our 4th amendment rights are being eroded by the drug war. Mostly I see an enormous waste of money.
Speak for yourself - I don't need the rule of law to prevent me from having gay sex ... or, to get back to the actual topic, from smoking marijuana.
Don’t matter. You can’t force me to think as you do.
Fixed it for you.
Well, it looks like you passed on some smart genes to your grandson! Good on ya! And good on the grandson for such good common sense.
There’s nothing conservative about wanting to legalize drugs that mess with your brain. Call them what they are—foolhardy progressives.
Like the drug alcohol?
There is plenty of ways the drug war is compromising the constitution. Can you please explain what part of the constitution the drug war is “conserving”.
I agree for kids they are sharp.
(((sigh))) My one granddaughter, is so very sweet wants everything to be fair, so no one feels bad.
I love her anyway. ;=)
Alcohol IS indeed a powerful mind-altering drug, much moreso, in my extensive experience being around folks using and abusing (two different things) both drugs. Alcohol is by FAR the worse in terms of mind-altering, regularly and predictably changing a peaceful, cheery, happy-go-lucky person into a violent, aggressive monster with zero conscience. "Of course, anyone who has been around pot-users serious alcoholics for any length of time can verify this study simple truth anecdotally."
You have it exactly backward, and you FORGET to mention that the problem isn't with either drug, it's with the abuse of either drug. Somebody who drinks four beers a day = zero problem; somebody who drinks 40 beers a day, BIG problem. Somebody who smokes a little weed a few times a week = zero problem (and yes, such people exist in spades, I've known many such well for 40-odd years). Somebody who smokes weed every day all day long, BIG problem.
"Alcohol is not a mind-altering drug like weed is" -- Antoninus, you have apparently extremely limited experience in terms of being around folks who indulge in one or both drugs. EXTREMELY limited -- and all the studies in the world that tell you what you want to hear, are so much bullcrap. Alcohol is a POWERFUL mind-altering drug, particularly in those of us genetically alergeic to it, whether you want it to be or not.
In my lifetime as a coastal Californian growing up around both heavy and casual pot smokers -- and I'm in my mid 50s now -- there is ZERO comparison. Too much weed makes people lazy, lost, silly, and paranoid. Too much booze makes people DANGEROUS and DEAD.
I want that too - but I don't delude myself that government can make it happen (except by imposing equality in misery).
As someone who used to regularly and seriously alter my mind with alcohol and keep company with others who also did so, I can testify that what you say above is nonsense.
And yes, smoking pot can damage your brain
"researchers confirmed previous findings that alcoholism is associated with thinking problems and lower IQ" - http://www.ur.umich.edu/0506/Oct17_05/15.shtml
"heavy drinking may have extensive and far–reaching effects on the brain, ranging from simple “slips” in memory to permanent and debilitating conditions that require lifetime custodial care." - http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa63/aa63.htm
One life-long friend, since I was 4 years old, is a bad alcoholic, so bad that he actually killed a person driving drunk. When we were kids throughout childhood to adulthood, he was brother-close. He was very bright, very intelligent, witty, delightful -- a native intelligence that was higher than average. Today, more than 50 years later, talking to him is like talking to someone who has suffered slight brain damage.
I think I was headed down the same path, as I have the same rare "allergy" to alcohol, as him, but through God's grace, found the path to simply quit drinking alcohol along the same lines that any sensible person would quit eating strawberries if he was so alergic he broke out in a rash every time he ate them. Me, and so many genetic alcoholics (my grandfather was EXACTLY the same way) "break out in handcuffs," as a good-humored reformed alki once said. Pretty simple -- stop drinking, the symptoms disappear. A textbook example of Reagan's observation that conservatives have simple answers to complex problems -- not easy answers, but very simple.
The jury's still out, in my mind, for pot. Lifelong abusers I know moved on to other truly evil drugs like meth and crank, which I would vote for laws to outlaw in my state in a heartbeat, whereas confirmed alkies tend to stick with booze. One thing I do know for sure: potheads are generally mellow pacificsts. You never hear of the guy who gets loaded on pot and beats his wife.
Like booze, pot is a dirt-simple organic substance that's been around for thousands of years, whereas meth and crank and LSD and all the other horrible psychotic drugs, are contrived and built in labs. Sensible laws against drugs would consider the differences.
No surprise there - stick to alcohol and you'll never get arrested for simply possessing your drug of choice, whereas once you've taken that risk for marijuana, there's one less reason to not try other illegal drugs. If marijuana is a gateway it's because the law has made it one.
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