Spendo, how about tax?

What's the annual tax revenue generated from grog and fags? When this issue was raised recently people who are good at numbers argued that drinkers and smokers easily cover the cost of their use of the health system through tax.

I forget exactly what it was now, but something like more than 50% of the cost of grog and fags is tax. How the hell could they hope to raise that much from pot, which anyone can grow, dry, chop and smoke without the industrial processes involved in manufacturing grog and fags?

Why would they need to gain that much tax from pot (I assume your referring to the hypothetical of marijuana being legalised)?

Firstly, legalisation doesn't mean proliferation. That's been well and truly established. So even if there's a slight increase in usage, there wouldn't be any extra burden on the health service that didn't already exist. Secondly, if it offsets alcohol related problems, you'd probably end up with a net gain - and this is still with zero tax on pot.

Still, if you wanted to tax it, you still could - make it only legal when purchased via blah blah whatever. This wouldn't stop people illegally growing it at home as well, but hey, nothing's stopping them right now either (my plant is starting to bud! It's a girl! Woooo!). Did you know it's illegal to grow tobacco in your backyard too? Which means it's only legal when purchased in its most addictive form. Weird...

But anyway, while I do support legalisation, I hadn't intended to be the purpose of this topic. My question was why are children intentionally being deceived by misinformation, scare tactics, and lies? What does it accomplish?

Spendo, I've worked in the substance abuse field for a while. When I get the opportunity to, I remove the "and" from "Drugs and Alcohol" and replace it with "e.g.". Most people get the point, but it's probably going to take a while.

Spendocrat there are well established links between illicit drug usage and mental illness-both onset and worsening of existing conditions such as depression and schizophrenia.Anyway you just need to get out to see the damage done.
I agree with you that alcohol is a potentially angerous drug too-theres no shortage of victims, and binge drinking among teenagers is appalling.
But alcohol is treated differently for obvious reasons-like history and social acceptability. So not being familiar with your hobby horse here I'm not quite sure what your point is.

"there are well established links between illicit drug usage and mental illness-both onset and worsening of existing conditions"

Sorry palimpsest this statement is misleading, there is zero evidence that marijuana has any link to the onset of mental illness.

What many studies have shown is that people with a mental illness tend to use drugs more heavily, possibly to change their difficult reality, but no, none, zero, studies have shown that marijuana causes mental illness.

Repeat a lie often enough it becomes a fact.