The recreational use of marijuana has been glamorized over the years by such on-screen duos as Cheech & Chong and Harold & Kumar, but is the drug everything that Hollywood makes it out to be? Then again, are we being hypocritical by allowing alcohol consumption but not cannabis usage? With passionate believers on both sides of the argument, it will be interesting to see what happens when the smoke clears.
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I love sunshine, a dip in the pool ever day weather permitting, a good hot bath every day, I cannot go without a shave does this mean I am addicted no I enjoy it stupid!!
- Cherokee Fred hussein August 17, 2008 10:51PM
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while cigarette smoking and drinking alcohol can cause health problems and death. Smoking Marijuana has killed 0 people, it's not hurting anybody. It's the fun drug that isn't bad for you. It's not addicting. I can go long periods of time without smoking it and i'm fine, unlike that of cigarette and alcohol users.
- getlifted
February 23, 2009 10:51AM
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Marijuana Use Can Be Addictive, While Also Damaging the Lungs
- From Dr Kevin Sabet
By Dr. Kevin Sabet - Special Advisor for Policy, ONDCP
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Risk of addiction overstated
I smoked marijuana almost daily for ten years and upon forming a relationship with someone that did not approve with marijuana use I dropped it like, well, a bad habit! No withdrawals, no cravings, nothing. You can not do that with alcohol or nicotine.
Granted abstaining from marijuana for twenty-eight years has benefited me greatly and any significant introduction of any kind of smoke to the lungs can not be healthy. But, the illegality of the substance is far more harmful than the substance itself.
This raises a moral question of the government taking my tax dollars and prosecuting people involved with any aspect of marijuana use or distribution. You are just putting my tax dollars into a program that is systematically siphoning our economy into the coffers of criminals.
- JohnInOhio
August 5, 2008 11:12AM
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Marijuana Use Can Be Addictive, While Also Damaging the Lungs
Marijuana use can be psychologically addictive so can any positive stimulus coffee, chocolate, love, sex, progress, etc . As far as it being physiologically addictive I will tell you this I know countless people who have altogether quit marijuana or go on breaks to bring down their tolerance. In the context of marijuana the government sees no distinction between use and abuse. They also see very little distinction between use and addiction. In my eyes a real addict will do things out of there character to posses their substance, and absolutely can't feel normal with out their substance. I highly doubt this is a case for over 90% percent of marijuana users.
- rchot August 10, 2008 11:08AM
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Another BS reason
If people are concerned about our well being they would quit stealing our property and putting us in jail!
I watched liquor kill my father and grandfather both were addicted to this legal drug believe me it is addictive the side affects are dt's and death. They also smoked cig another addictive drug that will kill you yet legal, regulated, taxed and sold everywhere and the producers are not arrested and jailed..
MJ is not addictive unless you consider a hot bath addictive I enjoy a hot bath every day so am I addicted no stupid I just enjoy it.
- Cherokee Fred hussein August 18, 2008 7:25AM
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Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol or nicotine
As a retired nurse, I can say that every drug addict I ever knew started out on cigarettes, went to alcohol and then graduated to hard drugs. If you're going to use the arguement that it's unhealthy then we should also ban tobacco and alcohol. Tobacco has been proven to be equal in addiction to cocaine but marijuana does not. Some people are predisposed to addiction. Are we going to nanny state everyone? You can't say ban one recreational drug while ignoring two others that are legal. Alcohol causes permanent damage to the fetal brain. Cigarette smoking causes low birth weight babies. I use to work in an NICU. I saw full term newborns who's mother's were three pack a day smokers. These babies frequently came to our unit for observation for fetal distress and meconium staining. These babies all looked like they just came out of some concentration camp. They were scrawny and edgy. Well, they hadn't had their fix. We had one mother who while still on the delivery table asked if she could have a cigarette. Tobacco smoking also increases spontaneous abortion.
I smoked pot for over forty years without problems. Then one day I just quit. I'll put a pot smoker up against an addicted tobacco smoker anyday and see who tolerates withdrawl. You may miss smoking pot put you sure won't go and put a bullet into someone for asking you to not smoke around them and yes, there are documented cases of that happening.
Drunk driving causes millions of dollars in healthcare costs, property damage, death, and disability every year. Almost half of the domestic violence cases that come through ER's are related to alcohol abuse. Gee, and you try to sell us on the idea that pot is so bad for us. If you get high on pot all one has to do is eat food or have a sugary drink and you're good to go. Try that after three or four beers!
If we're going to ban one soft drug than we should ban both of the others. Of course it won't work. We tried it with alcohol and then had to overturn that bad law. Let's stop treating marijuana like it's a hard drug because it isn't. It may be psychologically addicting for a small percentage of people but not like alcohol or nicotine is. People who treat addictions state that nicotine addiction is more difficult to break than any other drug.
Marijuana smokers are prosecuted because of their lifestyle not because they are causing crime.
- Thedes
September 5, 2008 1:46AM
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Comparison to legal drugs?
Your argument that marijuana is addictive and harmful fails to consider that the two most common legal drugs, cigarettes and alcohol, are ALSO addictive and harmful. Unless you can show that marijuana is worse than those, this argument is completely irrelevant.
- BobApril
November 5, 2008 5:15PM
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Nicotine Use Can Be Addictive, While Also Damaging the Lungs
Whats new? Cigarettes are legal and the harm they do has been proven countless times. Should we ban tobacco because its 'bad for you'? Nicotine is very addicting also, just ask the millions who try to quit on a practically regular basis. When the government can tell people what to do because of its affects on their health its a sad day. With the case of cigarettes and alcohol we can inform people of their bad effects and give them a way out but we would never think of placing a blanket ban (again) on everyone.
- EAnthes
December 9, 2008 3:40PM
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The Role of Government
This debate should be taken to its foundations, i.e. the role of government in its citizens lives. Although it may seem viable today that the government deem something illegal at a whim, this type of legislation is immoral and unconstitutional. As human beings, we have certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, property. It can therefore be derived that we may do with our own life, freedom, and property whatsoever we want in the pursuit of happiness. It is not the government's role to protect an individual from himself. The argument "Marijuana will lead to X and A problems and antisocial behavior etc." is not a valid argument since "Happiness" and "Health" are not rights guaranteed, only the pursuit of happiness and health are guaranteed. For this same reason governments interfere in the rights of the individual when seat belt laws are made, and helmet laws are made. Sure, one who decides not to wear a seat belt when driving a motorcycle is being stubborn and stupid, but it is his decision and he will face the consequences of it, if any. In this same way are the users of marijuana acting of their own free will.
- nickodonnell
March 4, 2009 2:45PM
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oh really
Marijuana is not addictive in the least bit. I smoked muliple time almost every day for a year. Then one day i got bored with it and just dropped it for more than six months. In all those months i had no thought of smoking, no desire to smoke, and i didn't miss it at all. Then one day i was with my friend who happened to be smoking and i thought eh its been forever since i smoked so ill do it for old times. I had such a fun time with my friend just hanging out and smoking that i decided to start smoking again. and that was when i was 15 so saying that teen's are more likely to become addicted is merely biased thoughts.
- ShiverYaTimbers
April 1, 2009 12:53PM
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Pot over booze anyday
I worked in bars for years, we had a lot of what we called hippies coming in drinking water and going outside smoking their pot. The drinkers were causing trouble, loud, sometimes fighting their good friends, the smokers were always happy go lucky. The pot smokers were sticking to there joints, while alot of the hard drinkers were sneaking off to the the bathroom snorting there hard drugs to stay a wake and keep partying. I neither drink nor smoke, but give me a pot smoker anyday over a drunk. From Humboldt I've never seen pot be a gateway drug, yet I've seen alcohol a gateway drug a whole lot. The ones that are so against pot being legal have either never been around pot enough to realize how harmless it is, or someone who makes so much money off it they want it to stay illegal .
As far as health wise, I'm sure the smoking of anything is not good for your lungs. We cannot protect peoples health from smoke, coffee, to much fat, or whatever. I've known some that refuse to smoke it and bake or make soups out of it. A whole lot better for you then sleeping pills, pain pills, or just for a relaxing high than a shot of alcohol.
- humboldt
October 18, 2009 4:03PM
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