pot vs. cigs/alc

[dairygirl4u2c]

okay. we need a straight answer here. a person smokes three cigarettes once week and drinks to the point of hilarity as aquanis put it once a week at the same time. some one else has not even one joint once a month and gets a slight buzz or what have you from that, once a month only in places where it's legal.

cigs are bad for your lungs and have a ton of chemical in them. three times a week for a month is twelve cigarettes. half a joint is like the equivelant of three cigs in a month. alcohol is bad for your liver and impairs you just as much as pot in moderation would. so cigs and alc together is bad for you lungs and in this case worse *and* in this case also bad for your liver, and you are just as impaired as with pot, but even still you are impaired four times instead of once a month.

no one who thinks drinking and cigs are okay but pot is not ever has given a straight answer as to why. or maybe the only ones who are dissindent are one who are against both? i am asking this only for those who think pot is never okay but cigs/alc is sometimes. what's the difference?
others feel free to say if you think pot is okay in the circumstances described if that is you.


the gateway drug argument. once a month isn't gonna cause a gateway? it's possible, perhaps. and perhaps it's possible that once a month would turn into more. but these gateway affects are just as possible with alcohol.

people who ruin their lives. once a month isn't going to ruin lives. if it turns gateway, perhaps. but alcohol ruins lives just as much, and gateways just as much. lives being ruined is usually just because of the person themselves had issues, and happened to smoke pot.

it's illegal so probably if pot ever does tend to seem to go with worse people, it's bc "nicer" people stick to alcohol.

besides these speculations, alc/cigs seem much worse...

Edited February 13, 2006 by dairygirl4u2c

[smeagol]

the worst part about smoking pot is the stigma attached to it.

anyway,
this isn't a moral or religious issue;
it's a health and social issue.

[Nathan]

As an alcoholic (25 months sober) and former marijuana smoker, I would say without a doubt that booze is far more dangerous and damaging than pot. No question, and on several levels.

The problem I have with marijuana is the number of 12-16 year-olds using it. It is out of control these days -- I've witnessed children as young as 10 or 11 smoking pot in my suburban neighborhood. (I remember when I was 11, I thought that marijuana and crack were the same thing.) I believe that the drug is very damaging to people this young -- it makes them lazy, lethargic, and slow. Their brains haven't fully developed yet, and they are significantly hindering that process by abusing marijuana. And people this young and irresponsible almost always abuse it.

I'm not against legalizing marijuana. But I think it really needs to be restricted to people 21 and over, like alcohol, and enforced properly, not with a "kids will be kids" attitude.

[Didacus]

I think the awnser is not to legalized a vice (pot) but to illegalise the damaging one (alcohol).

If you use the arguemnt alcohol is more damaging than pot to support your arguments then my reply is 'alcohol should be illegal as well then'.

And that's from one alcoholic to another.

cheers!

[sidemunch88]

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[Socrates]

[quote name='Nathan' date='Feb 13 2006, 08:07 AM']As an alcoholic (25 months sober) and former marijuana smoker, I would say without a doubt that booze is far more dangerous and damaging than pot. No question, and on several levels.

The problem I have with marijuana is the number of 12-16 year-olds using it. It is out of control these days -- I've witnessed children as young as 10 or 11 smoking pot in my suburban neighborhood. (I remember when I was 11, I thought that marijuana and crack were the same thing.) I believe that the drug is very damaging to people this young -- it makes them lazy, lethargic, and slow. Their brains haven't fully developed yet, and they are significantly hindering that process by abusing marijuana. And people this young and irresponsible almost always abuse it.

I'm not against legalizing marijuana. But I think it really needs to be restricted to people 21 and over, like alcohol, and enforced properly, not with a "kids will be kids" attitude.
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I would disagree that booze is intrinsically more damaging and dangerous than pot.
Alchohol becomes more dangerous or damaging only when abused - not when drank in moderation.
The reason alcohol is so damaging in society is the binge drinking and other excessive practices.
People smoking pot in similar quantities would be just as much or more damaging.

Study after study has shown various health benefits from moderate drinking (a drink or two a day). Moderate drinking is actually healthier than being a teetotaler!

As far as I know, there are no such benefits to pot (or to tobacco for that matter).

I drink in moderation quite regularly (about a beer a day) and suffer no adverse effects, nor do I feel compelled to binge drink.

Drinking may indeed be more dangerous to the alcoholic, who has trouble controlling his intake - but this is a specific condition.

[dairygirl4u2c]

[quote]Drinking may indeed be more dangerous to the alcoholic, who has trouble controlling his intake - but this is a specific condition.[/quote]

I would add that smoking pot may indeed be more dangerous to the pothead, who has trouble controlling his intake - but this is a specific condition.

Anyways, good point about the in moderation drinking can be good. But in my scenario, the person drinks and smokes. So liver effects aside, it's still got the buzz and smoke effects that pot does... without the liver effects, it then becomes equal to pot...


I did read somewhere that the pope wanted to ban smoking cigs, but that was from someone bad mouthing the pope, so I wouldn't trust what they said. If the pope didn't say this though, the reasoning for pot being bad and cigs/alc together not is still left to be said.

[misereremi]

[quote name='Nathan' date='Feb 13 2006, 02:07 PM']The problem I have with marijuana is the number of 12-16 year-olds using it. It is out of control these days -- I've witnessed children as young as 10 or 11 smoking pot in my suburban neighborhood. (I remember when I was 11, I thought that marijuana and crack were the same thing.) I believe that the drug is very damaging to people this young -- it makes them lazy, lethargic, and slow. Their brains haven't fully developed yet, and they are significantly hindering that process by abusing marijuana. And people this young and irresponsible almost always abuse it.

I'm not against legalizing marijuana. But I think it really needs to be restricted to people 21 and over, like alcohol, and enforced properly, not with a "kids will be kids" attitude.
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I agree. Marijuana abuse is very damaging to young kids- we deal with many problems on our estates with young children smoking marijuana which is mixed with tobacco- so opposite effects are at work, and they are addicted to the nicotine. For many kids this is the main activity of the day, they drop out of school to just doss about (bum around). They aren't likely to be violent when high (unlike binge drinkers), but they do rob people to get money to buy weed. It's great to see kids turn around and get spiritually high instead.

[misereremi]

[quote name='Socrates' date='Feb 14 2006, 01:03 AM']
As far as I know, there are no such benefits to pot (or to tobacco for that matter).

[/quote]

I know elderly who smoke marijuana to relieve their arthritis and curb panic attacks.

[Didacus]

[quote name='dairygirl4u2c' date='Feb 13 2006, 08:49 PM']I would add that smoking pot may indeed be more dangerous to the pothead, who has trouble controlling his intake - but this is a specific condition.

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I've worked with people who smoke pot 6-7 times per day on a regular basis. Pot does have its adverse, permanent affects; including incredible, undiscriveable stupidity.

An Alcoholic can, in most cases eventually recover. Permanent damage to the pot smoker settles in much faster than with drinking. Physical damage when drinking takes many many years, including heart probems and liver damage. But pot smoking, especially to the lungs, induces physical damage almost on the onset.

Another thing, it has been debated, and I am almost convinced, that one of the most addicting drugs is nicotine in cigarette form; I bet pot is similar.

[jezic]

don't smoke at all.

[toledo_jesus]

marijuana makes you stupid and takes away your reason. that's why it is a sin.

[Aloysius]

[quote name='jezic' date='Feb 15 2006, 11:36 AM']don't smoke at all.
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except tobacco pipes.

[PadreSantiago]

[quote name='toledo_jesus' date='Feb 19 2006, 10:32 PM']marijuana makes you stupid and takes away your reason.  that's why it is a sin.
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Wait so it's a sin to be stupid and not have reason?

[Paphnutius]

[quote name='PadreSantiago' date='Feb 21 2006, 01:34 PM']Wait so it's a sin to be stupid and not have reason?
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What was meant is that smoking marajuana, as is the case with drinking to drunkeness, removes your use of reason. To deprive onself without a justifiable reason (thus excluding anisthetics (sp?)) of the use of one's own reason is considered a sin. The gift of reason is one of the greatest gifts given to man (after the Christ, and free well, etc..) and aids man in loving and following God. To deprive oneself of the use of reason is to essentially deprive oneself of the most defining human characteristics. While other animals may appear to posses the gift of reason, they do not have it coupled with the freedom of will as angels and man does.