I've recently seen two young people diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and Schizoaffective Disorder, directly linked to chronic marijuana use.
IMO, it's time we stopped the denial about the harm caused by marijuana. I think that the modern weed makes people go crazy. It alters the ventricles in the brain. One doctor I heard said that he's seen brain scans of people who chronically smoked marijuana and their brains showed the same sort of damage as heroin addicts.
America has to stop its habit through eduction. Colleges have to stop turning a blind eye to students who smoke weed. They have to deny scholarships, close the Medical Marijuana clinics within walking distance from their campuses, stop college psychologists from talking up the harmless effects of pot.
I hate to break it to you, but your opinion is downright laughable. I live in a state where weed is decriminalized, and I lived in Amsterdam for awhile. The idea that you think weed makes you go crazy is...that's just insane. Do you know what weed does? It makes cookies taste better, music sound cooler, and it makes things seem funnier than they actually are.
As someone who has smoked weed and drank alcohol...there is simply no comparison. The effects of alcohol are immeasurably stronger than those on weed. Even in Amsterdam, smoking the most I ever have, and we're talking of the strongest weed available, I have never been anywhere near as incapacitated as I have been when I have gotten even mildly drunk.
Having lived in areas where weed is decriminalized, I have known more people who smoke weed than who do not. I have never in my life known anyone who did anything on weed that would be considered "acting crazy" as you would call it. Do you know who is a huge user of weed? Health care workers. I have worked in several of the top hospitals in the world (again, in a state where it is decriminalized) and people talk openly about smoking weed, and this is including some of the top doctors in the world who work there. Most hospitals don't even have an anti drug policy with their workers, aside from (obviously) you cannot be high at work. This is because, as health care workers, we're more aware even than most people of the fact that the kind of crap you're talking about is nothing but paranoid propaganda that is unsupported by medical evidence.
Yes, you're right, laughing harder than I normally would have at an episode of Seinfeld truly makes me a danger to society.
Now certainly, people who ALREADY HAVE PSYCHIATRIC CONDITIONS, or who are already predisposed to such conditions, depending on what the condition is, may indeed find that condition exacerbated by pot, just as they would by alcohol. Also, it is possible to have a bad reaction to pot even without underlying psychiatric problems. I've seen people smoke pot and have a bad reaction, varying from paranoia to nausea to feeling depressed; and as a result, they simply don't smoke pot again. But by the same token, I tend to react really badly to getting even mildly drunk...I get extremely sick, vomiting, etc, for hours, even after only drinking enough to get me really buzzed, not even drunk, thus I no longer have more than one or two drinks.
And if you are a chronic, heavy pot user, they yes, it could have signficant adverse affects on your health and mental cognition. I would never argue that smoking pot all day every day is a good thing. Do you also want to illegalize caffeine, asprin, alcohol, any food that isn't a fruit or vegetable, etc, considering all these things when done to excess are also bad for you, and in fact, all these things are far more dangerous than pot when done in excess.
Seriously, get yourself to Amsterdam and go to a coffeeshop. Do you know what you'll see there? People playing chess. People reading books, people talking quietly over a cup of coffee. It is nothing like the often riotous atmospheres of a crowded bar. The fact that you think pot smokers are these out of control crazy people is just....it's stupid. There's no other way to put it. It's a completely stupid opinion based on ignorance. Do you know how Harvard medical school describes pot? I'll quote you: "appears to be a relatively mild intoxicant, with minor, real, shortlived effects."
And people like you really should be ashamed of yourselves. You have this false view of what pot smokers are like based on you being an EXTREMELY sheltered individual and a slave to propaganda. You want to deny kids scholarships because they puffed a joint that has no where near the effect of alcohol? People like you are the reason draconian drug laws are kept in placed that ruin peoples lives. I want to repeat that: PEOPLE LIKE YOU RUIN LIVES. FOR NO GOOD REASON.
If pot is so dangerous, why are ALL the pot smokers I know, even people I know who are REGULAR pot smokers, successful indididuals (several of them doctors, lawyers, and PhD holders) who have never once done anything crazy while high? Are there unproductive loser potheads? Of course. And there are plenty of losers who have never smoked pot in their lives.
Why is it that when I went to the Boston Hemp Fest last weekend, which is attended by tens of thousands of people (most of them there smoking), why did the crowd consist of people sitting or milling around quietly and calmly? If pot makes people go crazy, as you said, then why was I surrounded for hours by tens of thousands of pot smokers and not one single person did one single thing crazy thing?
