Marijuana industry battling stoner stereotypes

Associated Press ^ | Sep 17, 2014 4:03 AM EDT | Kristen Wyatt

[SoothingDave]

drinking beer and whiskey never made me or anyone in my family slow, lazy, and incapable of fulfilling basic daily responsibilities — Weed, weed on the other hand has never made anyone a winner.

Are you kidding me? That is your argument "alcohol never ruined any lives"? LOL

[areukiddingme1]

If that is your take away...you definitely missed my point. Oh well, never mind, just encourage the freaks to let their freak flag fly...

[elcid1970]

What’s the difference between a drunk driver & a stoned driver?

A drunk driver will blow right past a stop sign.

A stoned driver will sit & wait for it to turn green.

;^)

[Resolute Conservative]

It is delusional to think otherwise.

[SoothingDave]

No, I get your point. It’s just naive.

There are functional stoners, just like there are functional alcoholics. If I compare skid row bums to the college kids who smoke pot, then alcohol looks really bad while pot gets you into higher education!

[palmer]

But I would say marijuana is superior to other drugs compared to what drugs do to people.

Not for kids. There is enough mind numbing going on (media, gaming) that we don't need to encourage more. Kids could also get drunk, but there are more consequences to that. Vomiting is the turnoff. Smokers might get a headache the next day but not much more than that. It's just too easy to be stoned all day and I don't want to make it easier.

[palmer]

Pot is hallucinogenic, alcohol is not, it is a depressant.

When it comes to violence and crime I would much rather have to fight off a drunk than deal with an angry pothead. Of course there are worse drugs in that regard than those two. But the average angry drunk is much easier to control.

[palmer]

From what I've read, MJ is a far better choice for things like pain relief, nausea, etc., than opiod narcotics like Vicodin, Oxycontin and Percocet

Chronic pain maybe. Surgery or injuries, no way. The way the opioids become harmful (in some cases) is continuous use.

[mmichaels1970]

I would much rather have to fight off a drunk than deal with an angry pothead.

Honestly, I have never seen an angry "under the influence" pothead (at least to the point of physical altercations). Not trying to feed into the stereotype. I've just never seen it. I've been around a lot of smoking in my life and I have never once seen a session of bong-hitting devolve into a fist-fight. Admittedly this was many years ago and the drug may have changed over that time.

I'm not saying you haven't witnessed these sorts of things. I'm just surprised that you are basically saying that potheads have a higher propensity for violence. Or are tougher to ward off when under the influence. I've never heard that claim before.

I suppose a drunk guy might be easier to take down with a good square punch or two. While a pothead may have a bit more balance and orientation to withstand and retaliate for said punch(es). But for me, the stereotype is rooted at least a bit in reality. In my experience, pot removes the anger, at least temporarily.

I'm not commenting on whether it should be legal or not. I'm a Federalist.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Hold muh joint. LOL!

[StoneWall Brigade]

LOL!

[palmer]

Potheads are less likely to get angry, but I am talking about unpredictability. It’s hard to even tell if they are angry and about to take a swing. Also they will laugh even when they are angry. I do not like unpredictability and stoned brains can get that way.

[FreedomStar3028]

Okay. Some people have psychotic episodes on marijuana. I don’t smoke it, but I have when I was younger. I never had a psychotic episode on marijuana. But I did on alcohol.

Point is, marijuana is much less harmful to society than alcohol. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and worn the shoes myself. Not everyone can handle it, that’s true. I don’t know any fully functional drinkers, I know tons of fully functional marijuana users. The medical benefits from cannabis are numerous. If you say it’s just an excuse, then you’ve never met a stage 3 chemo patient that uses it so they can eat, without vomitting. Or someone with chronic back pain, someone that cannot sleep at night.

If recreational alcohol is okay, then why isn’t marijuana? Alcohol leads to all those drugs. AND MARIJUANA. If I had never drank in high school, I most likely would not have smoked marijuana.

[ConservingFreedom]

Modern cannabis is anything but a soft drug. Genetic improvements have made the stuff up their with LSD as a powerful hallucinogen.

Not if the user knows he needs only a puff or two for a high - which is the sort of information one gets from a legal regulated market but not an unregulated black market.

[ConservingFreedom]

drinking beer and whiskey never made me or anyone in my family slow, lazy, and incapable of fulfilling basic daily responsibilities

You're lucky - alcohol destroyed at least one member of my family. For more examples, drop by any Al-anon meeting.

[Vaquero]

Peas lead to marijuana. 99% of all people who have smoked marijuana have at one time eaten peas previous to that.

I am a child of the 60s. If you don’t remember much of the 60s, you were there. I was there. I have drank in HS and after HS I went to college where a whole manner of new experience awaited. I am a graduate of Woodstock in 1969 just weeks after Neil and Buzz stepped on the moon.

Suffice it to say that in my experience of the counter culture and also my 3 years as an attendant at a state psychiatric hospital (I night job I worked to pay my way through college)..I see more psychosis precipitating from psychotropic drugs such as pot and LSD, than from booze.

I admit that this is not a scientific thesis but it would take quite a demonstration to convince me otherwise

[FreedomStar3028]

You worked at a psychiatric institute. Of course a lot of the people coming through suffer from psychosis from drug use. Not a very fair group to base this opinion on. I have seen both sides.

It would take me much to convince me that marijuana is as harmful or more harmful than alcohol.

[MasterGunner01]

What “marijuana industry”? I see a lot of 1960s “everyone’s got to be stoned” types and their offspring clamoring for their favorite recreational drug of choice. But “industry”? I don't think so. I see a bunch of eternal adolescents unwilling to grow up and instead hide from reality by embracing a chemical solution by staying perpetually stoned.

[longtermmemmory]

stoners are the users. It is reality. It is not a “stereotype” it is part are parcel of every user.

[Olog-hai]

Having witnessed that for myself in many examples of acquaintance, I know that to be true.