If you had a scientific study that showed this, it would be worth mentioning, but since this appears to be an absolutely baseless claim, I will assume you are just trolling.
I do not "promote" the use of mar1juana any more than I would promote the use of alcohol or tobacco. However, it is absolutely insane that we spend billions upon billions of dollars per year prohibiting the manufacture and sale of a naturally occurring plant. It is execrable that we arrest over 700,000 people per year, over 80% of whom are merely in possession of said plant. As such, I will continue to make points and bring to light research that shows that mar1juana is not the great satan that the prohibitionists make it out to be.
I would not be a proponent of this, not because of the unproven claims of some (I will deal with those later), but because mar1juana's effects have not been studied with regards to bipolar and other disorders. He may believe that the prescription drugs "kill his personality," but it would be a good idea for someone to talk him into taking them as they are the only drugs that we know of that actually help bipolar patients.
I can vouch for this study; in my younger day, the only time I was ever depressed was when I couldn't find pot.
There are certainly plenty of mar1juana users who act like the "r****ds" you decry, but the current estimates are that around 10% of the population uses mar1juana at least yearly and nearly 5% use at least monthly. That means that one out of twenty people you know smokes pot on a somewhat regular basis. Unless you are hanging out with a LOT of the "r****ds" you describe, you are in contact with a great many people who are professionals and yet smoke pot regularly. The thing is, you are basing your opinion on people who you KNOW smoke pot regularly, namely the people who don't try to hide it at all. The professionals who smoke regularly are extremely discreet because they are aware of the repercussions they face if they "come out of the closet" with regards to their smoking habits. There are millions upon millions of pot smokers in this country and only a select few act like the "potheads" you are envisioning.
Hear, hear. For the most part, I would prefer to be in a room filled with potheads than drunks. At least the potheads are good for some entertainment. The drunks are only good for senseless displays of testosterone and alcohol fueled violence.
You ought to read some real statistics. By far the VAST majority of mar1juana users are employed, taxpaying, responsible members of society. Don't let your prejudices color the facts.
I won't name any names or affilliations here, but I know this group of doctors who are heads of their department who gather weekly to play poker and smoke a little green.
While your anecdotal evidence certainly affects your view of the situation, to my knowledge there has been no proven linkage between mental disorders, mar1juana, and psychotic episodes. There was a study regarding marijauna and schitzophrenia, but the methodology was screwy. They started with the conclusion and worked backwards towards it. They searched for all the people they could find who had experienced breaks, asked them if they had EVER (not immediately prior to the break) used mar1juana, and concluded that the mar1juana was a factor. Unfortunately, a disproportianately high percentage of those who are mentally ill at one point or another try street drugs to try and mitigate their illness, most of them before they are diagnosed. Thus, the study was skewed from the start. Not surprising considering it was the Partnership for a Drug Free America (PDFA) who commissioned the study. Totally agreed. How about those of us who want it regulated to take it out of the black market and thus reduce availability to kids? How about those of us who believe it is less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco and as such is not worth prohibiting? How about those of us who believe that we could better spend the billions upon billions of dollars we currently wash down the drain? How about those of us who think that arresting over a half million people per year for simply possessing marijauna is insane? Personally, I want a system that ACTUALLY reduces access to young people. We have seen reductions in alcohol and tobacco useage by kids since the "we card" programs started in the early '90s. That is because in a regulated market, only legitimate businesses control the supply and as such, regulation can be brought to bear to affect the behavior of said businesses. The system we have pays lip service to reducing our young people's access to drugs, but does not ACTUALLY accomplish said goal at all. Since the 1970s, half of our young people have used illegal drugs before they leave high school in every single year they have conducted the survey. The truly dangerous part is that the only place for these kids to acquire mar1juana (the most used illegal drug) is from drug dealers who would rather that the kids were using cocaine, heroin, or other high profit drugs. The system we have is fundamentally flawed and needs to be changed.
Nice snide remark. Unfortuantely, it is as inaccurate as most other things prohibitionists say with regards to drugs. I personally know the owner of a computer consulting firm, the managing partner of a law firm, a medical doctor, an OB/GYN, and a CEO who smoke pot. Most of them have been smoking since their college years and none plan to give it up. Your comment is based on prejudice, nothing more.
This is why it's so hard to dispell the misperception that "potheads" are unmotivated losers that are a drain on society. Those who are productive members of society and have families and well-paying jobs recognize that they have a lot to lose and, as such, most people will have no idea that they smoke weed.
Sorry if my sarcasm (or satire) detector is broken or malfunctioning. To make it easier in the future, use the rolleyes smilie or something else to indicate it. It is very difficult sometimes to translate sarcasm in this medium.
Study from 1997... mar1juana Users Report Few Health, Social, Or Legal Problems, Study Shows December 11, 1997, Paris, France: The overwhelming majority of mar1juana users lead healthy and responsible lives, according to the results of a nationwide French survey. The findings appeared on Friday in the French daily Le Monde. Users of mar1juana "demand little health care, are [seldom] stigmatized, and have few encounters with the police," concluded the study by the Paris-based Institute for Research into the Epidemiology of Pharmacodependence. Researchers also reported that users carefully manage their consumption of mar1juana. "The subjects generally do not smoke anywhere [or at] anytime, and ... seem to know their limit and adjust their consumption if necessary," researchers concluded. It was also noted that most mar1juana smokers avoid driving if they have recently consumed mar1juana. The full study will be released later this month.
