I am proof that it is not true. I have smoked pot most of my adult life and never voted for a democrat. My dad (USAF pilot)was an alcoholic and got sober when he was 47. I never drank. He and I had a little talk one day. He asked to try some weed. He could not feel the effects because they were so mild compared to alcohol...and it was very strong stuff. I asked him why he drank. He said because it was fun and he liked to get high. I said "that's it exactly. Same here, different drug." He got sober because he realized it had taken over his life and destroyed his family and his career. He was not religious but accepted that AA and the 12 step program was the only way he could do it. He became active in AA and founded 2 chapters. He was sober 28 years until he died at age 75. We share the determination for sobriety late in life. I am sober now and have been for some time, and there have been other occaisions when I have been sober for years. I think it is foolish to think that smoking pot is not bad for your health. It is irrelevant to try to decide if it is as bad or not as bad as cigarettes. I also believe that things that you do and the reasons that you do them change as you age. Alcohol and cigaretts are legal, and they are both demonstrated to be addictive and detrimental to your health. They are also mulit-billion dollar industies with entrenched constutencies that resist prohibition and promote prohibition of competing choices. People like to get high and have fun. Drug laws are in need of serious, sober review without hysterical sloganeering. There is a gangster subculture associated with drugs that is reminiscent of the gangster culture of the alcohol prohibition years. Pot should be legalized, regulated and taxed. Cocaine and heroin and pcp and LSD and estacy (sic?) should be illegal and the dealers vigorously prosecuted, while the users should be remanded to treatment programs.
Nice post ... I'm happy for you and your Dad.
If they could figure out a way to tax it, pot WOULD be legal. It's just too easy to grow plants -- as opposed to erecting a still for moonshine -- and the State only approves those drugs which it can tax and/or regulate as "controlled substances."
For all the talk of the addictive and "desperate" behaviors of pot smokers, I've yet to see anyone smoke themselves into a rage and beat the crap out of anyone after verbally abusing anyone who happens to be handy.
Nor have I noted "withdrawal" symptoms -- other than a spike, perhaps, in mental acuity -- to be terribly violent for pot smokers.
With those contrasts to alcohol and the fact that drunk drivers like Janklow (who got a whopping 100 days in jail for his drunken KILLING of motorcyclist ... compare that to your average Sentencing Guideline for pot, will you?) are responsible for an inordinate amount of carnage and LITTER on the byways of this land.
I for one am particularly sick of the hypocrisy. No one who is "anti-pot" has any business supporting the continued legal status of alcohol which is -- by far -- the more dangerous substance.