<p>1of42: “As for your “you have a problem” - that’s according to you. Who the hell gave you the right or privilege to judge anyone else on how they like to have fun? What if I said that listening to music is disgusting and if you like it you need help? Would you agree with me? I don’t think so. Would I have the right to make that pronunciation? No. And neither do you, regarding drugs. It’s your opinion, and you’re welcome to it, but it’s baseless and indicative of nothing but either fear of the unknown or condescending arrogance. Take your pick…But hey, I guess by your standards many of the world’s great minds and the majority of current students and adults don’t have healthy minds. Isn’t it great being wantonly judgmental?”</p>
<p>Using substances to escape reality is a mentally unhealthy thing to do, no matter who you are. This is not a judgement - it is a fact.</p>
<p>By the way, using pot can really mess up your writing ability as well.</p>
<p>citygirlsmom - read my previous few posts - I explained that. I think alcohol with meals, as a beverage you enjoy for its taste, is fine. Using alcohol to get buzzed is not OK. Anytime you need to use a substance to escape reality, to have fun or relax, you are doing something which is unhealthy.</p>
<p>Spidey, you are right that self medicating is not healthy and using substances to escape reality is not so healthy, but that is not the standard for making things illegal, and if you follow that logic, then many, many other things should be illegal. Since those things are not, why is marijuana singled out?</p>
<p>I have no dog in this fight. I don’t use marijuana and don’t want my D to use it, but if the recreational drug fairy comes to me in the night and says I have to choose a vice for her, I will pick marijuana over alcohol. There are certain people who will become addicted to something - if not marijuana, then alcohol, overeating, gambling, sex. Any of these can have tragic consequences, but making the activity or substance illegal has not worked and only works as a subterfuge to the real problem. We have limited resources and spending them on prosecution and incarceration just isn’t helping.</p>
<p>Oh? It’s a fact, is it? According to who? You, spideyirl? I guess I missed the part where you became the almighty being who gets to decide the morality of all of our actions.</p>
<p>In fact, if one used utilitarianism, it could easily be argued that a number of rather innocuous drugs are very moral - especially if one is using preference utilitarianism to judge morality.</p>
<p>As for the writing comment, I’ll presume you were writing informatively, and in good faith, rather than making a snippy comment about my writing. I’ll do this because I’d like to avoid a protracted series of condescending, subtle insults, which will inevitably end in you getting really angry at me. Just be forewarned - I don’t find comments like that particularly amusing, and would appreciate your not making any more of them.</p>
<p>Now, a quick thought experiment. What do we define drugs as? Must they be physical compounds that are ingested and affect the mind? Why? Is music a drug? It definitely affects your mind, and can easily be addictive (though society doesn’t really recognize it as a dangerous addiction). So why isn’t it a drug? What if a device were invented that could cause psychoactive changes via some kind of radiation? Would that be a drug?</p>
<p>spideygirl, you haven’t come even close to proving in any way that drugs are automatically immoral. So far, you’ve just made moral pronouncements of your own, and insulted most of the people on this thread. I’m going to avoid doing something analogous to you, because, again, it wouldn’t serve a useful purpose for the debate. </p>
<p>Here’s a couple of quick thoughts to end with:</p>
<p>1) If you’ve never used any drug for its effects (including caffeine, alcohol, taurine, any other herbal stimulants etc.), then you’re inhuman, or spending way too much time watching for such things. If you have used any, then you’re a hypocrite. Take your pick.</p>
<p>2) Without exception, all of the “drug-free” people I know are very judgmental, arrogant people who are generally unpleasant to be around. I’m not saying I prefer the company of stoners, but the people who refuse on principle to use any drugs are just generally very, very unpleasant. They’re also by and large less successful in life than the ones who keep an open mind.</p>
<p>Well. At the risk of being yelled at – since everyone else is – let me jump in here with another perspective.</p>
<p>Birth control was illegal in Connecticut until something like 1964. (Someone check my facts here, but I know I’m substantially correct.) Then the Supreme Court case called Griswald vs. State of CT said No, No, birth control is a privacy issue, and of course people can use birth control.</p>
<p>There are a lot of things people are saying here about marijuana that could have been said about birth control forty years ago.</p>
<p>I suspect that at some point in the next 20 years the illegality of marijuana will go the way of the illegality of birth control.</p>
<p>Spideygirl: ((Using substances to escape reality is a mentally unhealthy thing to do, no matter who you are. This is not a judgement - it is a fact.))</p>
<p>I use books, movies, video games, sporting events, and long talks with my friends to escape reality. Does this make me mentally unhealthy? Life has often been a burden to me and I have taken anti-depressants (you know, actual drugs) on occasion which was actually the mentally healthy thing to do. Which one will you condemn me for?</p>
<p>Furthermore, I have a dear friend who has been smoking pot for as long as I’ve known him…years upon years. He’s a sweetheart who’d do anything in the world for you and who has the strength of will to accomplish whatever he wants. He uses it to take the edge off a racing mind and find some calmness in a crazy life, a 24/7/365 life. It balances him without the nasty side effect of a Big Pharm product. He talks about retirement but every time he’s tried it, he winds up taking on some new big challenge. Maybe if he didn’t smoke he’d be Emperor of the World by now but he’s done just fine just as he is. </p>
<p>I’m very much in favor of decriminalizing, regulating and taxing m.j. With all the people quitting heavily taxed ciggies, the government may find they need the revenue!</p>
<p>The other thing is that big pharm companies love it that 50% of Americans take a happy pill every day.</p>
<p>Some have a black box warning, or should have one.</p>
<p>Some of these medications are more dangerous than a little marijuana, and are used to escape problems. But people consider big pharm meds safe and legitimate, and frown at marijuana, even though it may be technically safer in the long run.</p>
<p>“One more thing…People with really healthy minds do not have to escape reality. Ever. Recreational drug use is never good. If you need to escape from reality in order to have a good time, you have a problem and need to fix it. If you like the taste of an alcoholic drink with your meals, then fine. If you need to get buzzed to have fun, that is a problem. There is no need to legalize marijuana except for medical use.”</p>
<p>Can you not read? I said that is NOT the case for me, or anyone I know. And I like the act of smoking marijuana itself.</p>
<p>You say weed is addictive, I know I’m not addicted to it, and I know that none of my friends are, other…all anectodal evidence, sure, but it supports the scientific consensus…so why should I trust you, again?</p>
<p>I don’t use drugs to escape reality (I hate drugs that make me lose my sense of reality, which is why I don’t smoke salvia - a LEGAL! drug - or take a few other hallucinogens). I’m a big fan of always being in touch with the world and what’s going on…and I’m extremely clear headed on weed. How exactly could that be an escape from reality?</p>
<p>I do, however, occasionally enjoy enhancing reality! It’s fun.</p>
<p>"One more thing…People with really healthy minds do not have to escape reality.</p>
<p>judgemental much?</p>
<p>Ever hear of a vacation?
if that isn’t escaping reality I don’t know what is.
We celebrate heroes who also could at times be called adrenaline junkies.</p>
<p>We are wired to be pleasure seeking- that is how mammals are made.
Some of us, need more stimulus to get the same chemical response.</p>
<p>For instance I have one daughter who plays rugby, who snow boards- surfs- rock climbs and is interested in sky diving.
She is high threshold for stimulus.
Her sister doesn’t like team sports that involve balls and while she rides her bike everyday and swims, even as a toddler she made sure that the surface was stable before she stepped onto it.</p>
<p>Anything can be addictive if given the right subject and situation- but not all things that are addictive are dangerous.
Exercise for example- releases endorphins that feel pleasurable, that can be addictive, but if not done to extremes is beneficial, not harmful.</p>
<p>Now I don’t smoke pot- but I think it should be legalized & taxed just like many other of our indulgences</p>
<p>1of42: "So far, you’ve just made moral pronouncements of your own, and insulted most of the people on this thread. </p>
<p>I’m going to avoid doing something analogous to you, </p>
<p>because, again, it wouldn’t serve a useful purpose for the debate…Here’s a couple of quick thoughts to end with:
If you’ve never used any drug for its effects (including caffeine, alcohol, taurine, any other herbal stimulants etc.), then you’re inhuman, or spending way too much time watching for such things. If you have used any, then you’re a hypocrite. Take your pick.
Without exception, all of the “drug-free” people I know are very judgmental, arrogant people who are generally unpleasant to be around. I’m not saying I prefer the company of stoners, but the people who refuse on principle to use any drugs are just generally very, very unpleasant. They’re also by and large less successful in life than the ones who keep an open mind." (post 89)</p>
<p>1of42: “Unsurprisingly our judgmental friend hasn’t been back yet… it’s tough to return after having made oneself look like such a flagrant dolt.” (post 96)</p>
<p>Smoking weed can damage short term memory.</p>
<p>Supposedly, weed does make a person more peaceful and chilled. Or does it?</p>
<p>Novelisto: “Spideygirl: ((Using substances to escape reality is a mentally unhealthy thing to do, no matter who you are. This is not a judgement - it is a fact.))
I use books, movies, video games, sporting events, and long talks with my friends to escape reality. Does this make me mentally unhealthy?” (92)</p>
<p>No - because what you quoted me as saying is what I meant. Using SUBSTANCES to escape reality is a mentally unhealthy thing to do.</p>