[fr_freak]

I saw smart or average kids who were heavy users literally turn into spaced out losers who watched Scooby Doo all day. And it wasn’t funny or cute.

Marijuana is a psycho-active drug, and therefore has harmful effects by definition. I'm sure we can all agree on that. But so does alcohol. Using the example of how marijuana has negative effects on teenagers is not an honest appraisal of its risk relative to something like alcohol, unless you compare its effects on teenagers to the effects of alcohol on teenagers. The reality is that teenagers are in a crucial state of development, both physical and mental, and ANY drug, legal or illegal, or chemical exposure, etc. will have a negative effect on the teenagers development. In other words, if all your buddies were drinking daily when they were teens, you would have seen destructive effects there, as well.

And NONE of this has anything to do with the potential decriminalization or legalization question, since that question refers to legal adults using the drugs. Nobody is arguing that it should be legal for minors.

[livius]

Yes, but alcohol has fairly short-term effects. It takes a seriously long time of heavy use to become addicted.

And if alcohol, a legal intoxicant with a long cultural history, is bad, why add another intoxicant - a drug with proven permanent bad side effects and no cultural history outside of the ME and certain parts of Asia, where it has been credited with their lethargy - to the list?

People in the US think that anything that is legal is good. Marijuana is not good, and furthermore, it’s been tacitly legalized with far fewer controls than alcohol or any other intoxicant.