Asking the Right Questions about Pot

The American Thinker ^ | 1-12-14 | Sally Zelikovsky

[afraidfortherepublic]

He was in high school and quite brilliant. The kind of kid who didn't pick up a book all year and aced all of his honors and AP tests -- in complex subjects like Physics. He was also musically gifted. But he couldn't stop smoking weed. The school and his parents did all they could; he even took up sports so he wouldn't go home after school and smoke.

The more he smoked, the more he slacked off, the less frequently he attended class, did his work, and participated in class. They finally expelled him.

He was last seen walking on 101 in the wee hours of the morning on meth, punching and flailing at the police who pulled over to see if he was okay. ----- I typed his papers in college -- mostly for his philosophy and intellectual history classes. It's how I earned extra cash. He'd call me up -- completely wasted -- at the last minute and ask me to type his works of art, works of brilliance. He'd really nailed it this time. He was admittedly bright, but years of smoking dope left his brain all a jumble and his papers unintelligible -- a collection of disparate fragments scribbled on several sheets of paper. I'd try to edit the papers so they'd make sense but it was futile to get inside his muddled thoughts. In his mind, though, he was onto something big, his thoughts coherent and his papers exceptional. ----- My German professor wanted to help me clean up my senior thesis but had to toke up before he could sit down for a few hours and help. He needed a spliff to work on anything academic. But... he wasn't addicted. ------

[bubbacluck]

If someone wants to get strung out on something, then that's fine with me -- as long as they show up for work on Monday morning and don't make themselves a burden on anyone else.

That, to me, is where the rubber meets the road. When drug users become non or low functioning I now have to take care of them because of their poor decision, either indirectly via taxes and social programs, or directly if it be a family member .

As a citizen I could not just let them die in the gutter and I think that most here could also not do this.

[ClearCase_guy]

Let’s stop pretending that there was never any pot in Colorado before it was legalized.

I was hardly trying to say such a thing.

Pot is everywhere, and everyone knows that. In most states, it is frowned upon, people are encouraged to give it up, and in polls people are quite likely to answer "Golly gee willickers, I never smoke that stuff!" when if fact, they do.

Colorado will be a perfectly good experiment where pot can "come out of the closet" and people will have a better chance to see the pluses and minuses without a lot of people trying to hide the truth (good or bad). Other states will follow on this path, and they will also join the experiment.

Eventually, we will see.

[struggle]

I teach repeater (failed a year) English in high school and it is FULL of stoners telling me that pot is perfectly harmless. And they’re failing the class again.

[Fuzz]

“I haven’t seen any alcoholics where their habit has destroyed their lives nor I have I seen the utter destruction of a person’s life like pot.”

Remarkable.

[Vince Ferrer]

I've finally just decided that I don't really care one way or another. If someone wants to get strung out on something, then that's fine with me -- as long as they show up for work on Monday morning and don't make themselves a burden on anyone else.

I understand the reasoning and for the most part agree, but we are no longer in a country where we can live and let live. We are socialists now. Any increased medical expenses, or inability of others to pay their medical expenses by not being able to work, does have a direct affect on me now. What someone else does with their own bodies is now of critical importance to me.

[FrdmLvr]

I have to admit I smoked dope in the later part of high school and in college. I don't think it had too much of a lasting effect on me at that time (but who knows, really?) For a stretch of most of my 20's after graduating at 21, I never smoked. Along about the age of 29 - 30, I started smoking again intermittently. I most definitely DID notice a change in my brain power, in my memory and the ability to think clearly after I took it up again. It took a long time to work through that, and to not feel like I had stunted my ability to think. I can remember wishing I had never gotten involved with it again.

Now that I'm going to be 60 this year, I almost am glad I did use it again, as an adult, because I saw clearly for myself how my thinking was affected. I might not have realized just how harmful it is if I hadn't seen it for myself.

[angry elephant]

“OK, I guess I’ll have to play devil’s advocate -

some people can use weed occasionally and still function, hold steady jobs, pay taxes, etc.

And some can’t. Just like alcohol. Another form of intoxication.”

I agree with that. I have several friends in different professions who smoke it maybe twice a week and have for at least 30 years. They are all quite successful in their work, and one not only owns a large small business which he runs but also studied the stock market and made a lot of money there.

It really is like alcohol. The sad stories we hear would likely happen about the same way if they took to heavy drinking when they were young and continued it throughout life

[OrangeHoof]

The most insidious thing about pot is how it convinces users how completely harmless it is. Only Satan is as effective in doing that.

[FrdmLvr]

ROTF!!!

[CodeToad]

I knew a kid in the 7th grade that smoked pot. He continued to earn straight A’s all the way through college.

[digger48]

I haven’t seen any alcoholics where their habit has destroyed their lives

I've seen several. One was an ex gf who was making $50k in the early 90s in insurance and would be making well over $100k today.

. Went through every 3 day and 30 day intervention known and still ended up as a non-functional alcoholic. Now on SSDI and awaiting surgery to remove a destroyed kidney.

Her sister chose to destroy her life with prescription drugs. She is every bit as non-functional.

Their entire family is actually part of an IU professors Case Study in Alcoholism.

None of them ever touched pot

[Gritty]

I saw this degeneration with my wife’s younger brother. He completely changed for the worse in intellect, reasoning, personal stability, and physical and mental health. He’s dead now.

[FrdmLvr]

I can see a huge incentive for an unscrupulous government to promote legalization of drugs, especially pot. It makes the electorate compliant.

[avenir]

Reality always pales in comparison to cheap thrills, at least in the short term. For those that go down the rabbit hole and emerge to eventually find sobriety, there comes a quiet realization one day that being alive and awake and unmuddied mentally is a really wonderful thing.

[informavoracious]

People high on pot won’t revolt against tyranny.

[Finny]

When drug users become non or low functioning I now have to take care of them because of their poor decision, either indirectly via taxes and social programs, or directly if it be a family member . As a citizen I could not just let them die in the gutter and I think that most here could also not do this.

So how is it the government's job to do what Christ instructs, to be charitable? If government was out of the way, you wouldn't have to pay for the folks who wantonly destroy themselves. With the concept of nationally required health insurance, you are forced to "take care of them," ultimately creating a breeding ground for immorality.

Even the Founders didn't write law banning our outlawing gambling, prostitution, drunkeness, and certainly nothing regarding charity. The Founders were wise -- they knew that the Christian bible provided the best municipal and moral code, as one of the Founders said (I forget which). Charity is the church's job, it is morality's job. The Government has zero to do with it, so you have zero to do with potheads or alchoholics who become society's burdens.

Anyone who wants to make sure potheads and alcoholics don't become a burden to them, should be clamoring for limited government, where people have the freedom to live morally.

[Alberta's Child]

I understand your sentiment, but there's a huge difference between acting charitably for someone in distress through no fault of their own, and doing it for someone whose problems are self-inflicted.

I've learned over time that there's no "fixing" someone who isn't going to take charge of their own repairs.

[Finny]

We are socialists now. Any increased medical expenses, or inability of others to pay their medical expenses by not being able to work, does have a direct affect on me now. What someone else does with their own bodies is now of critical importance to me.

Then you are a socialist. Instead of concerning yourself with what someone else does with their own body, why don't you concern yourself with THROWING OFF the mechanism of socialism???????

[Alberta's Child]

That's exactly why many socialist countries where the socialism is constructed through a homogenous social order treat drug dealers so harshly under the law.

According an article I found online (I can't find the link right now, and I'm running out the door), the ten countries in the world with the harshest drug laws are:

1. Singapore (drug traffickers are hanged, even if they are foreigners
2. Malaysia (mandatory death sentence for anyone caught with seven ounces of marijuana, or half an ounce of heroin)
3. Iran
4. Indonesia (they using firing squads for executing drug dealers, and the penalty for simple drug possession is 10-15 years in prison)
5. Saudi Arabia
6. China
7. United Arab Emirates
8. Vietnam
9. Sweden
10. Japan

There is a disproportionate number of Asian countries here, but what they all have in common is that their populations are very homogenized -- which means they don't take sh!t from anyone and don't feel a need to apologize to unassimilated minorities who can't live up to the expectations of the majority of the population.

One of the things that shocked the heck out of me some years ago was that many terms and phrases commonly used in a drug-addled culture like ours -- such as "crack baby," for example -- can't even be translated into many Asian languages because they have no meaning there.

[steve86]

I am still undecided about whether to try pot here in Washington State (no retail stores will open until at least June). I am definitely not an addictive personality and average 1-2 beers a year, I suppose, and have thrown out “old” beer many times. I’m guessing that might be the frequency with pot if it holds any appeal. Does the baked-in-cookies form have the same effect? (the smoking in itself really doesn’t appeal to me).