Why do you people insist on presenting these false comparisons? We have images graven into stones from Egyptian tombs showing beer making. We have a million pieces of history showing mankind's long experience with the fermenting and brewing of Alcohol. We even have DNA evidence of gene changes allowing us to process the chemical, and you come up with one paltry example of somebody in the Gobi desert getting high 2,700 years ago?
Where are the historical records of this stuff utterly suffusing the culture as is the case with alcohol? Where is the long written history of massive cultural usage?
What you are doing is right on the edge of LYING. The comparison is so absurd that only a delusional or intellectually dishonest person would make it.
About half the people in the U.S. have tried marijuana at some point or another. The overwhelming majority have done so with zero negative effects.
Half the people currently in the US? I thought you were trying to prove some sort of cultural acceptance? To put it into context, you need to demonstrate that a large quantity of people have been using it since at least 1776, and if you look at those percentages, i'm pretty sure you'll discover the current crop of pot-heads represent a very small and insignificant portion of the total.
Again, Libertarians can't seem to get over the fact that the world is bigger than just their lifetime.
How about this? -- we let adults decide what to put into their bodies instead of crying for Big Government to protect us from the demon weed? (I do realize such a concept is alien to those who do not favor small government).
And here we have the bad logic mixed with the ad hominem argument. Let me educate you.
There is a parasite that infects ants and makes them climb to the top of grass stalks and remain there until eaten by a herbivore. Now people like you will argue that the Ant has a right to climb that stalk and get eaten because that's his decision.
Rational people will note that the ant is not in it's right mind because it has been influenced by the infection of a mind altering substance.
They rightly note that when you alter the brain chemisty, you no longer have the ability to exercise free will, and so your argument to "let adults decide what to put into their bodies..." just falls apart.
They can't. It is impossible for most people under the influence of a narcotic to make such decisions. When they have become infected, it is the drug doing the talking at that point.
A glass of wine, or a one-hitter bowl, eradicates free will? Says who?
It was but one example. I never said marijuana use, historically, was as widespread as alcohol. But marijuana is not without its own users, across multiple countries & cultures, for centuries. Despite your lies/claims.
Perhaps another drug - opium - that enjoyed widespread use centuries ago would be more to your liking as an example?
Half the people currently in the US? I thought you were trying to prove some sort of cultural acceptance?
Not that I care, but what sort of completely arbitrary number would be acceptable to you if not half a population?
To put it into context, you need to demonstrate that a large quantity of people have been using it since at least 1776
Only in your world do I need to do that. Nobody else really cares what a Big Government advocate on a conservative message board thinks.
And here we have the bad logic mixed with the ad hominem argument. Let me educate you.
Please do. I am in awe of your powers of persuasion & debate tactics.
They rightly note that when you alter the brain chemisty, you no longer have the ability to exercise free will, and so your argument to "let adults decide what to put into their bodies..." just falls apart.
They can't. It is impossible for most people under the influence of a narcotic to make such decisions. When they have become infected, it is the drug doing the talking at that point.
And ridiculous claims like this are exactly why people continue to tune out drug warriors.
Have you ever tried marijuana? Did you suffer from the "inability to exercise free will"? Neither have the 100 million+ Americans who have tried it.
And that's why people refuse to listen people who have no idea what they're talking about.