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Asking the Right Questions about Pot
The American Thinker ^ | 1-12-14 | Sally Zelikovsky

Posted on 01/12/2014 9:26:07 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic

He was in high school and quite brilliant. The kind of kid who didn't pick up a book all year and aced all of his honors and AP tests -- in complex subjects like Physics. He was also musically gifted. But he couldn't stop smoking weed. The school and his parents did all they could; he even took up sports so he wouldn't go home after school and smoke.

The more he smoked, the more he slacked off, the less frequently he attended class, did his work, and participated in class. They finally expelled him.

He was last seen walking on 101 in the wee hours of the morning on meth, punching and flailing at the police who pulled over to see if he was okay. ----- I typed his papers in college -- mostly for his philosophy and intellectual history classes. It's how I earned extra cash. He'd call me up -- completely wasted -- at the last minute and ask me to type his works of art, works of brilliance. He'd really nailed it this time. He was admittedly bright, but years of smoking dope left his brain all a jumble and his papers unintelligible -- a collection of disparate fragments scribbled on several sheets of paper. I'd try to edit the papers so they'd make sense but it was futile to get inside his muddled thoughts. In his mind, though, he was onto something big, his thoughts coherent and his papers exceptional. ----- My German professor wanted to help me clean up my senior thesis but had to toke up before he could sit down for a few hours and help. He needed a spliff to work on anything academic. But... he wasn't addicted. ------

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: addiction; brainpower; creativity; society
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To: afraidfortherepublic
I don't think the article answers the question posed in the title very well.

What are the "right" questions?

The article establishes that pot is potentially harmful and that abusing it can have severe negative consequences, but I think the first "right" question is "Who's responsibility is it to make sure you don't do it?". Is that your responsibility, or is that something the government should be doing for you? If the answer is "government", then the next "right" question is "which government, and under what enumerated power of that government?".

IMHO, these are "right" questions that should be getting asked that articles like this appear to try to side-step.

61 posted on 01/12/2014 11:14:12 AM PST by tacticalogic
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To: canuck_conservative

True.

But I draw the line at consumption in close or semi-close quarters.

When smokers consume in close or semi-close quarters they cause the non-smoker to be affected by the hallucinogenic properties of the smoke, and if the non-smoker has a job that prohibits drug use, that person is at risk of losing their job merely by being in the same room/area.

Smoke privately where you do not affect others.

And only use the drug when you are sure a) only grown from approved state suppliers, and b) do not support the cartels by either using their product or patronizing their “mob-owned” stores.

If you support the cartels you are supporting those that enter the US illegally and those that kill/injure Border Patrol Agents on the line.


62 posted on 01/12/2014 11:22:06 AM PST by Hulka
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To: canuck_conservative

My thoughts exactly.


63 posted on 01/12/2014 11:31:05 AM PST by autumnraine
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To: greene66

How did they die from pot?


64 posted on 01/12/2014 11:34:01 AM PST by autumnraine
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To: Fuzz
Yup. And true.

The dopers in my High School of many years ago are probably still stuck in limbo or worse dead. Last time I checked, which was 15 years later, they were still stuck in neutral.

The worst of it all, they could be very productive happy people with families and enjoying life and all that if offers.

Tragic.

65 posted on 01/12/2014 11:34:11 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: digger48
And so your justification is to add another addictive intoxicant to the menu of drugs that can drive a person to self destruction. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Worse yet, you indirectly advocate making it more available to children because we all know that if it is available to adults, more kids will use too. That is an undeniable fact.

To use your the alcohol example: many kids have raided their parents alcohol cabinets. Plus, like alcohol, since it has lost the stigma and is a lot more available, parents will give it to their kids. And those kids will give it to their friends.

The only saving grace is that it is extremely expensive wrt the street pot with the tax of course.

66 posted on 01/12/2014 11:43:19 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: dhs12345

“happy people with families and enjoying life and all that if offers.”

Except marijuana apparently.

Yours is a great example though of why public policy shouldn’t be shaped on a statistical sampling of people one guy knows.


67 posted on 01/12/2014 11:45:14 AM PST by Fuzz
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To: autumnraine

One got knifed in the gut from a drug deal, and the other graduated to more potent dope an offed himself via overdose. The two surviving examples, brain-addled and all, are now devoted Obama voters. All four LOVE(D) marijuana, and that became the fixture in their life.

The two dead ones were decent guys before they became dopeheads. After the dope, they became pathetic worthless trash, and the world became a better place without their presence.


68 posted on 01/12/2014 11:47:16 AM PST by greene66
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To: dhs12345

What are you even talking about? Was there some kind of code written into my post that made you create all of those strawmen?

Were there words written between the lines of my post.

I did not defend pot in any way. Merely pointed out that I know lives destroyed by aclohol.

I guess you are fortunate to have never seen such a thing.


69 posted on 01/12/2014 11:51:15 AM PST by digger48
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To: steve86
steve86 said: "I am definitely not an addictive personality ..."

Why buy a lottery ticket for a lottery you don't want to win?

70 posted on 01/12/2014 11:54:39 AM PST by William Tell
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

Decades ago, we all knew it was the gateway drug. Then there was the fried eggs commercial. Still, people refused to admit what was staring them in their faces and now it’s legal. Choom gang president and choom gang country. It’s legalization is just one more step in America’s destruction.


71 posted on 01/12/2014 11:59:20 AM PST by bgill
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To: bgill

That’s the sure truth... a “choom gang country.” As if the embrace of homo marriage wasn’t enough to demonstrate that America has become a thoroughly deviant sewer, the widespread acceptance of dope adds a further nail in the coffin. Obama’s dopehead America.

America is ready for the ash heap.


72 posted on 01/12/2014 12:11:00 PM PST by greene66
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Something unique to pot, is what perfectly straight, law abiding people will do to routinely use it as a permanent part of their life, while all the time saying it doesn’t mean anything to them and is just something they like as harmless, while they risk their careers and jail to do it.

My guess is that just about all of us here know people who never stray from between the lines, never take legal risks, nor want to, yet for years and decades have dealt with drug dealers, even in strange cities, and have faced public embarrassment, or loss of their jobs, arrest etc. to buy, transport, carry, smoke, possess, the weed that “means nothing to them”, there is something hidden in there.


73 posted on 01/12/2014 12:14:12 PM PST by ansel12 (Ben Bradlee, Wash Post-JFK told me that "he was all for people's solving their problems by abortion")
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To: greene66

The same group want all drugs legal, for all ages, and no border.

How would this work?

It won’t, civilization would crumble. They are having sweaty Utopian dreams and it can’t work.


74 posted on 01/12/2014 12:15:30 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: Fuzz

Ask anyone from my school and they’d agree. So it isn’t just one person’s opinion.

Any intoxicant given to under age kids is wrong. And please provide stats that parents who use doesn’t at all increase the chances of the children in their lives using too.

I am betting that you can provide one. Because it would defy common sense and reality.


75 posted on 01/12/2014 12:21:37 PM PST by dhs12345
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To: dhs12345

“And please provide stats that parents who use doesn’t at all increase the chances of the children in their lives using too.”

Why are you asking me to provide evidence for a position I’ve never forwarded? Because that would defy common sense and reality.


76 posted on 01/12/2014 12:24:35 PM PST by Fuzz
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Much of the time the article is maybe correct. But I saw a special on the creation of computers once. It seems Bill Gates and Steve Jobs used to smoke Pot together.


77 posted on 01/12/2014 12:31:15 PM PST by Revel
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To: digger48
I have seen it. With pot. More times than I like. And to a point where it isn't just a random occurance.

And no, I have not seen it with alcohol. Thankfully.

My point is to justify the use of something bad by pointing to something that is bad, is a bit silly.

And my apologies if I missed your point. I am a bit of a zealot because I have seen the bad. I imagine I would be just as much of a zealot if I had experienced the same thing with alcohol.

I am also very motivated. I am concerned for my son and his friends. So, yes I have a horse in this race.

78 posted on 01/12/2014 12:32:17 PM PST by dhs12345
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Pot should be legal and who cares about global warming .... Darwin, the g*d of left, will take care of everything eventually.


79 posted on 01/12/2014 12:32:25 PM PST by Usagi_yo
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To: Revel

So, that makes it OK for YOUR kid?

Maybe Gates and Jobs would have inveted a more reliable computer if they’d been stone, cold sober! ;^)


80 posted on 01/12/2014 12:37:02 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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