Posted on 08/21/2014 2:13:56 PM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON -- Turning once again to what the sociologists call "coping mechanisms": There is marijuana and then there is alcohol. They are increasingly the civilized options.
Consider alcohol. Consider a suave scotch and soda. One does not sit down to a scotch and soda to get blitzed, unless one is a veritable drunk. One sits down and sips a scotch and soda while conversing with friends. Perhaps one reads a book. One enjoys the scotch for the taste. With scotch there are scores of different tastes. One drinks a single malt. One drinks a blend. The same is true with bourbon and all manner of alcoholic drinks. One imbibes for the taste, then for the refreshment, finally for the relaxed feeling it imparts. Very, very finally, some drinkers drink a scotch and soda to get blitzed and drop out. Maybe the pathetico drinks to pass out or to throw up. A true alcoholic is a sad spectacle. A drunk is a person who has ruined many a good drink.
Consider the increasingly civilized option, marijuana. One smokes a joint to get stoned and steadily to dropout. Is that really civilized? I have never heard of a connoisseur savoring a joint for the taste. One smokes it for the effect. One takes it in a brownie or cookie for an even more immediate effect -- sometimes a deadly effect. Colorado, which has legalized recreational marijuana, has already reported at least two casualties and many more hospitalizations. Possibly the marijuana smoker becomes more convivial at first, but mainly one becomes steadily more isolated, more alone. Is this really civilized? A pot party, as opposed to a cocktail party, can be a pretty gray affair. With contemporary marijuana, the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) rate, that is to say the psychoactive ingredient in the drug, is about 15 percent higher than it was in the 1960s or 1970s. The increased level of THC makes the drug at least five times more powerful and brings with it increased medical problems. This little known fact hints at how widespread our ignorance of marijuana really is during the current debate about marijuana, or I should say the current non-debate?
Recent polls indicate increased tolerance for a drug that until recently was considered malum prohibitum across the nation. In January, a CNN/ORC International study found 55 percent of Americans favoring legalization of marijuana. Most consider it harmless. I would not be surprised if they adjudged it less harmful than scotch and soda. Yet, in a very instructive piece in the Wall Street Journal, former drug czar William J. Bennett and attorney Robert A. White wrote that "while almost all the science and research is going on one direction -- pointing out the dangers of marijuana use -- public opinion seems to be going in favor of broad legalization." In sum, the studies show that in teenagers and young adults regular use of marijuana -- which means about once a week -- leads to cognitive decline, poor attention and memory, and a decline in IQ of about six points -- and our young people's IQ rates are low enough already. This mental impairment seems to last for years. One study found that teenagers who smoked marijuana daily developed abnormal brain structure. Moreover, there are psychiatrists who for years have argued that extended use of marijuana was linked to psychosis and to permanent brain damage.
Possibly these findings might bear on Michael Brown's erratic behavior in Ferguson, Missouri before his tragic death. We know that the 6' 4," 292-pound teenager was at least on marijuana. We know that 10 minutes before he was shot, he robbed a liquor store of cheap cigars. And, at least some of us know, that those Swisher Sweet cigars are used as a conduit for ingesting a mixture of PCP and marijuana. My guess is that Brown's senseless death was brought on by what the psychiatrists mentioned in the above paragraph have referred to as psychosis and permanent brain injury.
Yet, marijuana, despite these findings is increasingly considered the civilized alternative to moderate use of alcohol. How can this be? How can a country that has recently driven out tobacco -- whose problems most people were well aware of -- suddenly legalize a drug found to be so dangerous by modern science? Lung disease is terrible, but mental health disorders are arguably worse and they occur across a wide range of human behavior.
My answer is weariness. We have been fighting marijuana and other drug use for years, and it seems to me the country is fatigued with throwing up the same arguments. They are valid arguments, but many fellow citizens, especially the young, are tired of them. Another way of saying it is that Americans have become bored by the subject. So, as Colorado goes so goes America, and recent events in Ferguson, Missouri may just be just a harbinger.
Actually both make you smarter. Just [as] a predator increases the average speed of the herd by taking the slower and weaker members, alcohol and weed make you smarter by taking the slower and weaker brain cells.
The author of this ‘article’ clearly never used weed. But he’s probably drank his share of the hard stuff.
Another silly talking point. People generally smoke or drink until they reach the desired level of intoxication. Just because you drink a couple of pints of beer after work, doesn't mean you drink a couple pints of scotch. Likewise, back in the day people used to smoke a whole joint to get high, now they only need a few tokes. Probably better for you since it's a lot less smoke going into your lungs.
“Let me clarify that by saying, in the company of others. If you do it while alone, you REALLY have a drinking problem.”
I will occasionally have several drinks, enough to catch a buzz, my myself. I don’t have a drinking problem. I often go weeks, months even, without a drink. I can take it or leave it. But sometimes I like to take it.
A drinking problem is not classified by how one drinks, or how much one drinks, but why one drinks.
If you're drinking as a means to escape life, then you've got a drinking problem.
Only a Englishman or some other silly sh@t. I know what they say about a slash of branch water but I have never seen no branch water. I like it neat no water or soda just the Highlands and me.
As for marijuana you have not smoked tell you try the Matsue Valley Alaskan Thunder F##k.
Very sophisticated!
Absolutely a travesty. Ice is worse, especially when talking about a fine single malt (Islay preferred) - just a wee bit of water to cut the burn.
I have not scrolled through the posts yet, but I am encouraged by the outpouring of sentiment.
A decent single malt is nice with a little cracked ice allowed to melt, same thing you’re saying essentially but the flavor is somehow different. The whole “neat” thing arose two decades or so ago with new-found single malt snobbery coming from people who had never drank it before, and doing ridiculous things like dipping their Cohibas in it.
LOL.
lol! :-)
I’m not sure I like Islay whiskey, but I know I want to like them. Had some Ardbeg 10 at the Whiskey Museum in Edinburgh a few weeks ago, and it was solid, but not my favorite. Picked up some Johnnie Walker Double Black, and that stuff had some all around goodness. Smooth, deep, a little smoke, a little sea. Nice. Too many good whiskies out there.
And I’d rather drink them alone, or with one friend at a time, than “loosening up” at a party. Sit quietly, with a book, or a lake, or fireflies, or a fire, and spend an hour sipping good scotch or Knob Creek bourbon.
I drink more than some, but I don’t need it anymore than I need a cheeseburger. Just another vice. No problem in its time and place.
I have one 2 oz. drink occasionally near bedtime, my Dr. advised me not to drink it straight so I now add 2 ice cubes. Lately I’ve been drinking 15 yo Glenfiddich.
And just to throw some gas on the fire, there is this!
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/250050.php
“Regular marijuana usage has been linked to a higher risk of testicular cancer, researchers from the University of California have revealed.”
...A previous study in February 2009, carried out by scientists from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, also suggested a link between regular marijuana usage and testicular cancer...
..Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer found in men aged 15 to 45 years....”
To be fair, I researched Scotch as well and found;
http://whiskyguyrob.com/press-releases/
“Drink Whiskey While Supporting Testicular Cancer Research!”
Posted by Rob / July 11, 2014
“OriginalBOS, a Southern California company manufacturing drink coolers with a cause has launched its most recent whiskey chiller, named Balls of Steel. The Balls of Steel are designed to spread awareness and raise funding for testicular cancer. Balls of Steel…Continue Reading ›”
Humm. not quite what I was looking for. I did find this! (Direct comparison!)
“A review concluded that “There is no firm evidence of a causal relation between behavior risks [tobacco, alcohol and diet] and testicular cancer.”[135]”
Good news Scotch drinkers; But warning!
Alcohol and Hormones - Alcohol Alert ...
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa26.htm
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism No. 26 PH 352 ... Alcohol is directly toxic to the testes, causing reduced testosterone levels in men. In a study...”
BTW, I don't smoke pot, and my alcohol consumption is so low that a perfectly good bottle of liquor actually went bad on my kitchen shelf because it took me over 5 years to get through it. I don't have a dog in this fight.
But I hate stupid articles written by asses. What a colossal waste of bandwidth. Kinda wish I hadn't clicked on it, now I'm cranky. :)
Good stuff. Mr. GG2 rolls with BowMar. I’m a Dewar’s girl or I like my Irish whiskey. Black Bush or Middleton.
Blasphemy, blasphemy, I tell you. I usually transition from beer to Scotch or two on the rocks about 9:00 pm.
Re: “I fail to see how anyone can smoke that stinking weed.”
I think the response to different kinds of drugs are uniquely individual.
I drank as a young man, but only because my friends drank.
I found the taste and smell to be slightly nauseating, the buzz was harsh, and the hangovers were ridiculous.
I haven’t had a drink in 30 years, and I have never missed it.
Quite the opposite for marijuana.
One hit of premium bud, and every of trace of physical tension disappeared from my body.
I would often read, or listen to classical music, or watch educational programs or PBS costume dramas.
For me, it was also a wonderful sleep aid, and I would wake in the morning feeling completely rested and calm.
And, most interesting, most rewarding, it was an awesome aphrodisiac.
I quit 25 years ago, at age 40, because I’m a life long runner, and it’s obvious that smoking anything is bad for you.
I still miss those good times, though.
I can actually buy it legally just a few minutes away in Seattle, but, so far, I have not been tempted, although I have thought about it.
Based on my experience I agree with you, that there is no "danger" in eating a cookie." However, lately there have been reports of fatal consquences from eating pot laced cookies and candy.
I don't know enough about these particular cases to pass judgment on whether marijuana is the cause of these unfortunate outcomes, or whether these people had severe mental problems to start with. Certainly, such events must be very rare, in any case.
My only point is that the fastest way to experience the effects of pot is to smoke it. The effects take much longer to manifest if you're eating it in cookies, buttered toast or candy. So I can understand how people who ingest it end up taking in more than they can handle, especially if they've never tried it before.
When I was in the navy in the early 70s, you could really tell the drinkers from the pot smokers. We had to take liberty boats to/from the shore. Officers had their own boats, Chiefs and 1st classes were segregated from the rest of the enlisted. Almost exclusively, the ones that were on their hands and knees puking were the officers and senior enlisted. The ones that were laughing and eating were the E-4s and below.
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