“Marijuana caused 2.8 years of brain damage in contrast to alcohol which caused .6 years of brain damage.”
Anyone who has been close to an alcoholic questions this assertion.
True.
If this article makes so stupid a mistake as to the effects of alcohol, then how can we take seriously their claims of marijuana?
I spent 25 years responding to alcoholics and marijuana users. I have close friends and family who have and continue to abuse both substances. Both can be very damaging to abuser's lives and relationships. The difference is that many alcoholics are able to recognize that they have a problems and get their lives back together. Very few marijuana users will ever recognize or admit that they have a problem which is the first step in recovery.
I predict that the responses to this thread by marijuana advocates will once again be proof of this. It has been shown over and over and over again in study after study that marijuana is harmful especially to the brain but causes other circulatory problems as well, yet many advocates continue to insist that it causes no harm at all. And they do it right here on a conservative forum time after time. It is incredible.
Long term marijuana use has a strong association with mental illness. Family members Any health-care provider who has worked with marijuana users from first responders as I was to nurses as my wife was, to social workers and doctors can tell you this from their own observations.
Complicating the situation from a clinical standpoint is that marijuana users typically abuse other substances such as prescription medications, alcohol and other recreational drugs. So it is difficult to isolate the consequences in most cases. Curiously once a problem has been identified most abusers say that they are willing to give up anything and everything but marijuana. Yet advocates continue to insist that marijuana is not habit forming.
Spot on.
I have lived (at separate times) with an alcoholic and a pot smoker. I would choose the pot smoker, despite the fact that the alcoholic was a very close family member.
The alcoholic could be unpredictable and violent while the pot smoker was mellow, relaxed and safe.