<p>in another forum</p>
<p>Do a search in both the Parent Cafe and the College Confidential Cafe. You’ll find some threads that have some discussion on this topic.</p>
<p>Bad lobbyists?</p>
<p>Hard to regulate and control as a substance. Anybody can grow it.</p>
<p>Because it is a gateway drug, and it REALLY is addictive. Therefore, it ruins people’s lives. And to anyone who posts after me and disagrees: YOU"RE WRONG. Statistics are on my side.</p>
<p>spideygirl- you are correct- now explain cigarettes and alcohol</p>
<p>Alcohol and cigarettes are allowed to remain legal because the government makes money from them. </p>
<p>things didn’t go so well when the government tried to make alcohol illegal. People still drank but the government was out of the financial loop.</p>
<p>I live in the (only?) state, PA, where liquor and wine are ONLY sold at state run stores. I like it that way. I’m in the overwhelming minority.</p>
<p>In “Botany of Desire”, Michael Pollan says the War on Drugs in the US has pushed marijuana cultivation inside and led to the development of much more potent, faster-growing plants. It’s also filled our prisons with non-violent offenders. Marijuana could be really helpful to people on chemo–it eases nausea and increases appetite.</p>
<p>Medicinal marijuana is legal in many places.</p>
<p>With my vast experience on the subject (LOL), here’s what I observed in my younger days (I am currently in my 40’s and do not know ANYONE who smokes weed anymore):</p>
<p>Marijuana has a tendency to make people withdraw from social contact. It seems to make them apathetic, inactive, reclusive. Stoned people just don’t talk much, or seem to want to do anything (except sit around). Smoking pot doesn’t seem to be the sort of “social activity” that drinking is. People who get stoned tend to want to be left alone; they’re not raring to go out and hit the town. Trying to communicate with a stoned person is a challenge.</p>
<p>Except for hard core alcoholics, people who use alcohol, even regularly, tend to stick with certain times of the day (“happy hours”) or situations (going out on a Friday or Saturday night). Marijuana seems to be used at just about any time of day- pot users will get up in the morning and get stoned. They’ll get stoned throughout the day. </p>
<p>Back in the heyday of “being around it”, I always felt like stoned people acted almost zombie-like, extremely introverted, even when I knew them to not actually be like that. The guy who has a couple beers over lunch (which I definitely do NOT advocate), might still have a chance to be productive in his job that afternoon (hopefully he’s a desk jockey and not a pilot or surgeon!). The guy who smokes weed at lunch comes back to his desk and just sits there looking at paper clips for the rest of the day. At the risk of sounding like I’m saying “alcohol is relatively better for you than pot”, doesn’t it seem like pot has a much more adverse affect on people’s behavior? Honestly, I’ve never been around a stoned person who could carry on a conversation.</p>
<p>Am I wrong? Does anyone know of situations where pot-smokers carry out an industrious lifestyle? I’ve never seen a gregarious or highly motivated person who was stoned.</p>
<p>Sue, I think I like it that way too (here in PA). It makes it like its a chore to go and buy alcohol - haha. When I’ve been on vacation in other states we picked up some stuff while doing our grocery shopping like it was nothing, whereas here you have to specifically go out of your way to get it. I barely ever make a trip to a liquor store here. I don’t know if it helps to control drinking or not, but I would think so. They also have on the doors nobody allowed in under age 21 however they don’t card you until you buy something so I don’t think that’s regulated too well.</p>
<p>I bought a bottle of alcohol as a gift for a friend the other week and you had to sign a release when leaving the store with it… probably holding them not liable if you give it to minors or if something happens or something like that. I’ve been to a few resteraunts around here that you had to sign a release on too.</p>
<p>marijuana is illegal because it is easy to grow enough for your own personal use and therefore is difficult to control and tax</p>
<p>^^^ That sounds like the releases we have to sign around here when we buy fireworks. Something about them being used to scare birds away from crops… 
Yeah right, I’m in the store on July 3rd buying $200 worth of Blooming Flowers, Burst of Joys, and Shooting Tanks… and I’m going to use them to get rid of crows!</p>
<p>emeraldkity, I’ve heard that reasoning used before, but it doesn’t make sense. If so many people are going to just grow their own, then why are spice companies still in existence, or produce companies in general? People aren’t all that self-motivated to grow everything on their own.</p>
<p>XD that’s great.</p>
<p>I don’t get why everyone wants to know WHY it’s illegal. The fact remains that it’s illegal. That’s like asking, “Why is murder illegal?” It seems kinda self-explanatory to me.</p>
<p>Well that’s a good point, ek, and doubleplay, it certainly does turn the attention inward for some people. I surely wouldn’t want my surgeon or pilot or air traffic controller being under the influence of any drug but caffeine and I can’t see how anyone can drive safely while stoned. I just wish more people who need it medically could get access and I think the current criminal penalties are over the top. They are a deterrent for some people probably, but for others, it just drives the activity underground.</p>
<p>HGFM</p>
<p>Because there is no victim, for one thing. I doubt it’s any more addicting than alcohol, though I’m not sure anyone really knows. And it is better than any other drug I know of for certain medical purposes.</p>
<p>I certainly don’t advocate anyone being under the influence of anything, either. Just that pot seems to make people TOTALLY useless. I agree that the penalties are over the top. A person who smokes weed is not a criminal.</p>
<p>Bethievt, people DO know that pot is more addictive than alcohol. You can look up studies, or you can open up the phone book and call a drug treatment center. They will tell you about all the people who are trying to get off of pot. I believe it IS a different drug than a generation ago - perhaps that is why it is so addictive today. Pot does make people withdraw from their previous lives, and it makes them very apathetic. Using pot dramatically increases a person’s chances of getting into more serious narcotics.</p>
<p>Tom1944: “spideygirl- you are correct- now explain cigarettes and alcohol”</p>
<p>Both cigarettes and alcohol are extremely addictive. I do not believe they are gateway substances to more serious abuse. That is a very big difference.</p>
<p>The reality about alcohol, of course, is that much of the awful stuff that goes on in society happens when people are on it. If alcohol were to disappear tomorrow, the instance of almost every single crime would decrease dramatically. Don’t get me wrong, I love a glass of wine with dinner. It is a fact, however, that alcohol use dramatically increases the chance that someone will break the law.</p>
<p>doubleplay: “A person who smokes weed is not a criminal.”</p>
<p>In my heart I agree with you, but my head tells me that yes, they are. When you live in a society, you need to follow its laws.</p>
<p>HisGraceFillsMe, it used to be illegal for people of different races to marry. Asking why things are illegal is a reasonable question, generally. I have a pretty good handle on why murder is illegal. Pot? Not so clear. I agree that excessive consumption of marijuana is a bad idea - but lots of things that are bad ideas (at least in excess) aren’t illegal, or are not illegal in some circumstances. Alcohol. Tobacco (any sort). Gambling. Adultery. Bad personal hygiene. Video games. TV. Eating fast food. Drinking sugary sodas.</p>
<p>Making things illegal means that we, as a society, are prepared to level some serious punishments on anyone who breaks that particular rule. I think “it’s a bad idea to do it” isn’t really enough to take that step.</p>
<p>Spideygirl, I’m not convinced of the “Gateway drug” theory. Remember, correlation does not prove causation. Stated succinctly:
</a> The obvious fact that it would be highly unusual to find a person who used cocaine who hadn’t already tried marijuana simply means that drug-seeking individuals will use the easiest ones to get ahold of - and pot is pretty easy to find. It doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t have tried cocaine if pot was unavailable.</p>
<p>^While I agree with you that they wouldn’t necessarily have tried cocaine if pot was unavailable, I think that those who are willing to try drugs such as pot in the first place are more susceptible to be willing to try the harder drugs.</p>
<p>I’ve never tried drugs, nor will I ever. It doesn’t appeal to me, and honestly, I can have a good time without it. I guess a lot of my issue is that I don’t get why my peers (or anyone else, for that matter) feel the need to make it legal. There’s other ways to have a good time, and I think even the medicinal argument is pretty weak, as there’s a ton of other medicine out there.</p>
<p>Also, I think before long, the addicts would start making up excuses to get it. Just like other medicine, there are going to be people who abuse it. And there will be people who are harmed by it.</p>
<p>For example. When I was 7 years old, my mom was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. She was seeing a Rheumatologist (doctor who specializes in RA), and he put her on several medicines that didn’t work. Then he put her on Oxycontin, and hallelujah, it worked wonders for her!</p>
<p>Then, one day, she called in to get a refill (you have to get a special prescription for it), only to be told that the doctor was on vacation and hadn’t left anyone to fill in for him. She would be put on a waiting list. She was number THIRTY.</p>
<p>Now my mother had been taking this medication for about 3 years. So needless to say she couldn’t just stop taking the stuff cold turkey. But when she tried to explain this to the people in the office, they were unsympathetic and uncaring.</p>
<p>So my mother went through narcotic withdrawal that summer, and let me tell you, it was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. I thought my mother was going to die.</p>
<p>I’ve seen the effects that drugs have on someone’s body. There’s a reason drugs are illegal.</p>