Marijuana: A Gift of the Left to America’s Youth: CO and WA already having bad consequences

National Review ^ | 03/12/2013 | Dennis Prager

[SeekAndFind]

Denver television station CBS4 reports that Colorado has seen a sharp spike in marijuana use among teenagers since voters passed Amendment 64 last November, legalizing recreational use of the drug. As described in The Economist, along with a Washington State measure also legalizing marijuana, Amendment 64 is “an electoral first not only for America but for the world.”

That means two American states are to the left of the Scandinavian countries, Holland, and every other liberal country regarding marijuana.

CBS4 quotes a number of local high-school students:

“I’ve seen a lot more people just walking down the street smoking (joints),” high-school student Irie Johnson said.

“In high school it has kind of gotten out of hand,” student Alaina Tanenbaum said.

According to the CBS4 report, based in part on data from a local drug-testing lab: “Experts say the test results show that children are getting higher than ever with alarming levels of THC, marijuana’s active ingredient, in their bodies.”

The massive increase in both the number of users and the amount of marijuana used by young people is precisely what I and many others predicted.

It was easy to foresee.

When something desirable is made easier to obtain, more people will obtain it. It is difficult to imagine an exception to this commonsense observation.

So legalizing marijuana is foolish because it leads to far more use of the drug and the availability of ever more potent forms. But the foolishness doesn’t end there. Equally foolish is that as a society we have made peace with marijuana while making war on tobacco. This has been a classic example of upside-down thinking; and we are reaping exactly what we have sown. We have produced a generation of young Americans who would never put a cigarette or cigar near their lips, but who increasingly get high on pot.

Yes, tobacco — specifically cigarettes — kills and marijuana doesn’t. But, if you’ll forgive the ultimate political incorrectness, young people would do much better in life if they smoked tobacco rather than weed.

First, tobacco doesn’t kill young people. When it kills, it generally kills much older adult people. Moreover, according to a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, if you stop smoking cigarettes by age 44, you will lose only one more year of life than a person who has never smoked.

Second, regular pot smokers increasingly tune out of life, becoming what are known as potheads, or, to put it bluntly, losers.

Third, as noted in the CBS4 report, “new studies that have been published say the risk of a car accident increases two-fold after someone consumes pot.” In other words, innocent human beings — sometimes whole families — are more likely to be maimed, paralyzed, and killed by pot smokers than by cigarette smokers.

For myriad reasons, then, I would far prefer my teenager indulge in cigarettes — not to mention cigars — than pot. Anyone who thinks that pot is less harmful to a teenager than tobacco is fooling himself — and his teenager.

If this is not obvious, ponder these questions: Would you rather your airplane pilot smoke pot or tobacco while flying? How would Britain have fared in World War II if Winston Churchill had smoked pot instead of cigars?

In terms of the effects of tobacco and pot on the smoker while smoking, there is simply no comparison between pot and tobacco.

What the Left has done to America’s youth in the last 40 or so years is so damaging as to be unforgiveable. They have ruined public-school education; left them with so much debt that they will likely be the first American generation to live in a fashion materially inferior to that of their parents; and robbed their innocence with sex-education classes, now beginning in kindergarten in Chicago and elsewhere. Now they are making marijuana available to more kids and in greater potency than ever before.

But they have left them with higher self-esteem.

— Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist.

[bramps]

Knock me over with a spoon. Hey, it’s good to have allies:
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/snoops-high-hopes-for-wjc-obama-88742.html

[JustSayNoToNannies]

You’re living proof of pot smoking changing one’s brain chemistry.

Based on the available evidence, I'd rather have his brain chemistry than yours any day of the week.

Knock me over with a spoon.

It's more fun to knock you over with simple logic. (I haven't smoked pot in about 20 years, BTW.)

[bramps]

Why mention that you haven’t smoked pot in 20 years?

[count-your-change]

“56% Favor Legalizing, Regulating Marijuana”

So what?

About 73% of the 18 to 29 year old age group favor legal gay marriage, an age group where most of the support for legalization of marijuana is found whereas only about half of the population does.

The rot is well established.

[JustSayNoToNannies]

You seemed to have thought otherwise.

[JustSayNoToNannies]

the legalize drugs crowd is wrong for thinking they can equate drug use and the harm it does with personal freedom.

Personal freedom encompasses using alcohol or any other mind-altering drug and inflicting on oneself the consequent harm. "Personal freedom" to do only what the government deems nonharmful is no freedom at all.

The question has never been “personal freedom”

Then why did you bring it up, artless dodger?

but rather the overthrow of the moral codes of society at large

56% Favor Legalizing, Regulating Marijuana

So what?

How else would one determine "the moral codes of society at large"?

If Woody sits in his living room alone when he inhales, how is he affecting any body other than his?

So there may be some Woody willing to sit in his living room but they won’t stay there.

If he leaves, how will he affect any body other than his?

[count-your-change]

When the simplest of logic is too complicated there’s always the petty insult:

“Then why did you bring it up, artless dodger?”

[Hot Tabasco]

but the evidence is that legalization for adults works better.

What's the difference between your statement and mine where I used a 21 year old "adult" as an example?

Which part of MY comment did you not understand????? Sheesh!

[Hot Tabasco]

Kids have to find a middle man to buy booze for them. Dope dealers don’t ask for ID to buy pot.

Neither does your booze buyer.

Dope dealers are harder to find than a "buyer" and a local party store..........

Give me the name of one dope dealer you deal with and I can give you the addresses of 20 party stores within a mile radius of my house....and if I was a teenager, I would likely know at least a dozen 21 year old "adults" willing to buy.......

Your argument fails.......

[Hot Tabasco]

Tell you what Nanny, since we already have alcohol and it's documented effects on the destruction of lives via vehicle homicides, spouse abuse, child abuse, murders, rapes, etc.......

Why do you find it necessary to add additional mind altering drugs to the mix and make them legal?

[bramps]

Could you ask your pastor if he would consider smoking a joint to be sinful and get back to me? If he says no then light up outside of church after a service and watch all of those ignorant legalists react. Then you can stand on your soapbox and lecture them too. I always say that Christians talk the talk and walk the walk. I wonder if you do.

[Ken H]

Speaking of legal matters, you didn't answer my questions.

Was there prohibition against sale/manufacture/possession of alcohol or drugs in biblical times... YES or NO?

Are there any recommendations in the Bible that there should be such laws... YES or NO?

[WVKayaker]

...Then you can stand on your soapbox and lecture them too.

It seems you are the one with a soapbox. You are consistently making it clear that you do not approve of the use of marijuana. But, you give no reason other than what you think about God's will. Show me a Scripture, which the Holy Spirit has given you to illuminate me with your brilliance. So far, all I hear is an opinion from you and from other legalists herein.

I said I wasn't going to reply again, but I must post this to clear up ignorance from another.

As for my pastor, he is aware that I have used pot. In none of my communications with you have I stated that I was now using the stuff. I am an ordained associate pastor, AG. I try not to make people stumble by doing things they are not comfortable with. I think I read that in my Bible, and His Holy Spirit made it clear. BUT, if I wanted to smoke a joint or a bowl with a friend, God would allow it. I have been a witness for Him before in that environment, and have brought quite a few to the saving knowledge of Christ.

I always say that Christians talk the talk and walk the walk.

I'm not sure you even understand what it means to be a Christian, FRiend. You sound much closer to a Pharisee...

Do you partake of any alcohol?

[bramps]

I feel like I'm arguing with a defiant 12 year old. Finish this sentence:
People smoke pot to -— ——. Would ‘get high’ work? Would getting high be better compared to being drunk, which Jesus warned about, or being sober, which he advocated?

Hazard a guess, what percentage of Christians would you say agree with you that smoking even a little pot is cool with God? You spoke with your pastor, does he think it's hunky dory? How about fellow church members? Would you invite fellow Christians to smoke a joint at a bible study?

[bramps]

No laws against hijacking airplanes either. Are you an advocate for that also?

[WVKayaker]

Would getting high be better compared to being drunk, which Jesus warned about, or being sober, which he advocated?

No. Not in my life, FRiend. Getting "high" allows me to function better. You have nothing but derision,and none of the Spirit. Do you think you are God's instrument of conviction? If so, you are just another wannabe god. You would likely be a Mormon or RC, as both are strict legalists.

While under the influences of YOUR so-called "demon weed", I have SUCCESSFULLY:

1. Been educated and tested for advanced degrees and hold licenses in 4 different Professional fields.

2. Argued as a pro se complantant in US Federal Courts in WV and NC in front of Judges and Attorneys Generals.

3. Designed and built more than 500 homes and other structures, as a general contractor, only using an engineer to verify and stamp my architectural plans.

4. Started and SUCCESSFULLY operated SEVEN business entities, and am currently President/CEO of TWO Non-profits provided help to the poor and needy (my Christian principals at work here, FRiend).

5. driven more than 500 miles without wrecking my car, my 40' motor home, or other vehicles numerous times.

Your mileage may vary, but God doesn't seem to be condemning me, It is just you and your legalist ilk!

Do you drink alcohol? (SECOND TIME ASKED!) I'd bet you've tied one on once or twice, or too many times to count. Most of the drunks I've known do not like pot smokers. Your tone is just like them.

You still haven't used the Word of God, given to you by His Holy Spirit, with which you could convict me of doing wrong. Do you even know Him? Have you been blinded and made aware of YOUR needs? Or, you just feel like you should be the judge and jury?

[Ken H]

Intoxicants and their abuse was well known in biblical times. Abuse was enough of a problem that there are biblical admonitions against it, and I'm told that public drunkenness was against the law. Yet there was no legal prohibition, nor are there suggestions that there should be.

There is no biblical justification to support a government policy of prohibition. If you disagree, then cite Chapter and Verse that says otherwise.

[Ken H]

Intoxicants and their abuse was well known in biblical times. Abuse was enough of a problem that there are biblical admonitions against it, and I'm told that public drunkenness was against the law. Yet there was no legal prohibition, nor are there suggestions that there should be.

There is no biblical justification to support a government policy of prohibition. If you disagree, then cite Chapter and Verse that says otherwise.