I have to say, Justin has a knack for convincing me to write about unplanned subjects. Carrie Prejean is not an elected representative of any party, attacking her is vicious and uncalled for. CNN is such a pitiful joke, attacking her integrity and then “ironically” having a caller ask her about gay marriage, is just pathetic. Wow, The Daily Show has uncovered another editing gaffe at Fox News, now they should go after the rest of the news networks. This whole amalgamation of events has led me to think the world is smoking up, which is the subject of this post.
Marijuana users are professional cherry pickers (like The Daily Show). This is a fact. My deduction is a result of using Google to look up information regarding the side effects of the magic leaf. If you happen to see an article supporting the cause to legalize pot (there are millions), some are not sourced, while many gleefully cite a scientific journal. The problem is, nobody actually reads the journal article, and they just accept a truncated fragment— and assume it accurately summarizes a piece of writing. Not the case.
Here is the good news for all you junkies; there is little evidence for physical dependence, which has been stressed Ad nauseam. Of course, the bad news is, there is a substantial link to psychological dependence. For example, if one stops using alcohol after extended use, the body will react in different ways. With marijuana, the brain reacts when not stimulated by the drug. One of the default pothead arguments is to argue how bad alcohol is. The logic is tantamount to justifying a murder with not being a mass murder. If stoners wanted to have a consistent argument, they would argue that alcohol is great for society, not the opposite. I saw a few websites that listed a Harvard study that found a large percentage of aggravated rapes to be caused by alcohol use among college students. Girls are always so unwilling for anything while high, right?
It has been suggested by comedians, that perhaps marijuana should be legalized, if only to silence the intolerable proponents of legalization. Yes, it is a comical suggestion, yet a war against science is prevailing. Psychiatry and Neurobiology has proven unequivocally that there is a link to cannabis and madness (which includes numerous psychological disorders). If you would like to do some reading, you can brush up on psychosis vulnerability and drug use.
Drugs do not make a person more creative or smarter. Substances can ease stubbornness, but that would mean the user is an asshole. It is fine to use drugs for a specific function. In my personal life, I have known cocaine users that took advantage of certain properties. They used as needed, and didn’t need it to fill a personal or intellectual void. This is self governance, the ability to handle life, sans the intrusion of a governmental deity.
Ultimately, it is within one's right to subvert the rules of the land, while also being subject to the punishments of the law. It is so funny how much of a Christian nation we are. Even those not part of the church, are afraid of doing something wrong. So the guilty rush to their metaphorical penance, which is the legitimization of marijuana, making it as common as apple pie.
The alcohol argument isn't meant to explicitly justify smoking weed, but rather to argue for consistency in societal moral standards, the summary of the argument being, "If we're going to have legal alcohol consumption, there's no reason not to have legal marijuana consumption."
ReplyDeleteAll that aside, the prevailing argument to legalize weed isn't so much about health standards as much as it is about the caveats of prohibition. Pot itself hasn't ever killed anyone, however the cartels and drug lords associated with it's illegal distribution have killed tens of thousands. Contrarily, the alcohol producers have yet to be accused of killing anyone. With substances like alcohol and weed, prohibition does far more harm than it does good, because consumption is inevitable.
The question isn't so much "is it good for a person" as it is "is it good for everyone," and considering the lives lost in the drug wars (not to mention the ensuing governmental instability that results in places like Mexico) I believe it's undeniable that prohibition is not only pointless, but harmful to us as a whole. On the flip side, legalization gives us higher tax revenue, potentially higher cancer rates, perhaps a loss in productivity (if you want to examine extreme cases), and a few more late-night trips to Ben and Jerry's for a pint of Half-Baked. The trade-off is a no-brainer, in my opinion.