Sorry but O’Reilly is absolutely right on this issue. You have absolutelt no real perspective on the real harm marijuana has done to hundreds of thousands “casual” users. It has been well documented to be a gateway drug, has been clearly associated with schizophrenia and a host of personality disorders that have ruined or diminished lives. No reputable rehabilitation specialist or addiction professional condones its use. It is especially dangerous when used by adolesents. The US has declined markedly since marijuana use has become widespread. The argument that its use is a matter of “personal freedom” is not the sort of rot one should find on FR.
The gateway claim is nonsense - research shows that the correlation between earlier marijuana use and later use of other drugs can be explained by a "common-factor" model, that is, a third factor that causes both results, such as individuals' opportunities and unique propensities to use drugs, or more broadly a social or psychological predisposition towards anti-social behavior. (http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB6010/index1.html, http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hors253.pdf)
Also note that the same sort of correlation between earlier marijuana and later harder drugs also exists between earlier alcohol and tobacco and later illegal drugs - so if marijuana is a "gateway" so are alcohol and tobacco.
has been clearly associated with schizophrenia and a host of personality disorders that have ruined or diminished lives.
Association is not causation - it's equally plausible that the mentally ill turn to marijuana in a misguided attempt to self-medicate.
No reputable rehabilitation specialist or addiction professional condones its use.
Nor the use of tobacco - shall we ban that too?
It is especially dangerous when used by adolesents.
Nobody advocates making marijuana legal for minors.
The US has declined markedly since marijuana use has become widespread.
The US has declined markedly since flat-screen TVs have become widespread.
Your post is absolute BS so long as alchohol remains legal. It’s BS for other reasons, too, but especially this one, considering how much worse of a blight on our civilization is booze compared to weed.
Nice script. Who wrote it for you, Jack Webb?
“The US has declined markedly since marijuana use has become widespread.”
Post hoc ergo propter hoc. This was also a period of time during which people were shielded from the consequences of their actions like never before. Plus a million different things, none of which have anything in particular to do with weed. I don’t know how you know weed caused the decline in importance of family, church, community, etc., instead of the other way around.
Even if weed is to blame, it is unjust to pretend growing, dealing, and smoking it are crimes. Whoever told you freedom didn’t have a price? A marked decline is worth it, considering how much worse is prohibition.
The argument that its use is a matter of “personal freedom” is not the sort of rot one should find on FR.
Sorry, allendale, but this is Free Republic, not Leftist Extremist Republic. So long as I'm not harming others, my life is mine to do with as I please.
I smoked pot as a college kid in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I never did learn to like the taste or smell of it, and abandoned it in 1972. I can't imagine I'd ever want to smoke it again, but if I ever do, that's my inherent right.
What's so hard to understand about rights?
How much freedom does a drug addict who is a slave to drugs enjoy?
How much freedom do people who can't walk their streets because of high levels of crime connected to drugs enjoy?
I suppose we should ban cigarettes, junk food, alcohol, aspirin, etc., since those have all caused huge problems in society.
Where do you draw the line?