LOL

Sometimes I wonder what people who advocate a "war on drug" have been smoking.

Marijuana is not a harmless drug. There is adequate evidence that it fries your brain cells and people who take it probably didn't have many to spare in the first place.

But tobacco and alcohol are also harmful. So is over-eating. So is a sedentary lifestyle.

Sometimes we do things that harm us. Sometimes we're stupid.

But we should not be criminalising stupidity.

On so many levels the "war on drugs" simply makes a bad situation much worse.

Very much worse.

...Normalising the use of “mind-bending” drugs by lifting prohibitions on them is not socially acceptable under current social standards.

...A classic example of the failure of drug control by lifting prohibitions, is to look no further than the negative impact of “Alcohol” on our society. Less of it, not more of it is the obvious answer to the damage drugs cause to both the individual and society generally.

...To maintain as this article does, that the effects of marijuana are benign is quite simply a lie. Lazing around in drug dens engulfing sensibilities and motivations in a drugged fantasy, is anti-social not social, and is correctly discouraged by existing law.

...Avoiding the drug culture as an alternative, and dedicating life to normality and sensibility, is a positive contribution to society...Wake-up!

There is little or no link between critical thinking and Government policy.

Sitting down and watching TV is as dangerous to your health as smoking tobacco and yet many in society get their knickers in a twist over smoking. Smoking reduces medical costs as typically users die earlier and don't linger in an aged home for years. Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/05/healthscience/obese.php

Using medical costs as an argument for control is asinine, ludicrous or lunacy, choose your pejorative.

Having someone smoke next to me is repugnant, denying them their right to smoke is even more repugnant. I don't smoke but support that others should be able to. I don't use any drugs aside from caffeine, the odd prescription from a Dr. and the occasional anti inflammatory when my back acts up but support others ability to choose.

Removing the ability to choose is the darkest of stains upon the goal of moving towards a free-er society. One persons stupidity is another entertainment, part of being an Adult is you should have the freedom to be as stupid as you want. How else do you explain the choices voters make ?

Great article, but one important omission:

<<harass many peaceful people for their lifestyle choices>>

As well as many peaceful others who have made no such lifestyle choices, only been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As much as I hate drugs, it's been a devastatingly humiliating experience when I was thoroughly searched for drugs in an Australian airport. I also know of an elderly couple that had their home searched by police because the infra-red pattern of lighting in their house resembled, as observed from a police helicopter, that of hydroponic marijuana-growing equipment.

Just imagine the horror of being falsely arrested, perhaps because a neighbour, an "ex" or simply a passer-by threw the stuff over your fence or hid it under your car-seat.

Dear Diver Dan,

One group with the least alcohol abuse, are traditional Jews.
As Jewish children grow in the routine of making a blessing over and drinking a mandatory glass of wine on Friday evenings over the family table, then 4 glasses on Passover night, they come to perceive alcohol not as fun or a sign of rebellion, but as a tiresome religious duty.

If this author, & his thinking is an example of what our higher education system is producing, it is a pretty good argument for closing it down.

The use of any drug by any able bodied person is an indictment of the personality of the person using them. There is so much in this world to give you a real high, & all the excitement you could possibly use, with out having to resort to mind modifying chemicals to get it.

I always fine it strange that it is often that those who put these chemicals into their own body, are the same people who complain of chemical use in industry & agriculture.

I really dont care at all what some fools want to do to them selves, provided they keep off our roads when high, & don't expect treatment at public facilities when they get it wrong. This includes those who use alcohol as their drug of choice.